User:Antei thantonne
Mining Doctrine: Wormhole Mining
Mining vessels are vulnerable to combat ships, and so AMC miners sometimes hesitate to mine in lower-security space. To be sure, mining barges and exhumers are slow to warp, have less capacitor than other ships, have little room for weapons, and spend most of their time at asteroid and ice belts that potential aggressors can directly warp to. But this doesn't mean that it's unsafe to mine! Unistas can mine productively under threat, especially in an boosted Shared-Can op. The purpose of this page is to provide a fleet doctrine that provides maximum safety to AMC miners mining in wormhole ore anomalies and shattered-wormhole ice belts.
The doctrine boils down to a few simple rules:
Unistas should mine in Procurers.
| Procurer | Retriever | Covetor | Skiff | Mackinaw | Hulk | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Relative Ore Mining Efficiency* | 76.4% | 83.3% | 100% | 84.1% | 91.6% | 115.0% |
| Relative Ice Mining Efficiency* | 84.9% | 83.3% | 100% | 93.4% | 91.6% | 115.0% |
| Effective Hit Points** | 60,000 | 14,000 | 11,000 | 67,000 | 30,000 | 23,000 |
| Price (isk)*** | 20,000,000 | 27,500,000 | 32,000,000 | 180,000,000 | 200,000,000 | 230,000,000 |
| Base Time to Align (s) | 13.86 | 18.26 | 19.13 | 13.86 | 18.27 | 19.13 |
∗ Relative to the Covetor (100%) assuming max skills and optimal fittings for mining. Your results may vary.
∗∗ EFT calculation, using Tech I modules and intermediate fitting skills as of Kronos patch. Again, your results may vary.
∗∗∗ Jita/Amarr best price (as of 17 Feb 2015).
As the table above shows, the Procurer has better tank and time-to-warp than other barges, at a lower hull replacement cost. The Procurer's role bonus for the Ice Harvester is different from its bonus to the Strip Miner, and that actually results in it being a slightly better ice miner than an ore miner. But the overall effect is similar--by mining in a Procurer, you are sacrificing 25-40% of the yield that you would get from a Covetor or Exhumer. Nevertheless, for null-sec ores and ice that are worth over double the value of high-sec ore, WH mining can still be more profitable than high-sec mining.
Procurers can fit a Damage Control unit in a low slot, and shield hardeners in mids, and still have enough room for other mid-slot modules and an Ice Harvesting Upgrade or Mining Laser Upgrade to help with mining. For example:
Shattered WH Ice Miner
Ice Harvester I
Medium Shield Extender I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
Stasis Webifier I
Warp Disruptor I
Damage Control I
Ice Harvester Upgrade I
Medium Ice Harvester Accelerator I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Warrior I x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
- I have fit this with T1, meta 0 modules and drones; upgrade to meta 3/4 or T2 wherever possible, except for the rigs.
- EC-300 drones are included to break the target lock on the opponents' initial tackler. If you don't have the skills to fly ECM drones, replace these with salvage and/or light combat drones.
WH Ore Miner
Strip Miner I
Medium Shield Extender I
Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
Stasis Webifier I
Warp Disruptor I
Damage Control I
Mining Laser Upgrade I
Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Anti-EM Screen Reinforcer I
Warrior I x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
- Again, upgrade to meta 3/4 or T2 wherever possible, except for the rigs, and please don't fit meta 1-4 Mining Laser Upgrades (too expensive!). Upgrading to Modulated Strip Miner II will require Arkonor or Bistot Processing III to mine null-sec ore; if you don't have one of those skills, stick with the Strip Miner I.
Some additional notes:
- If the wormhole exit closes, you could end up trapped in the hole. As a result, you will want to carry a Mobile Depot, a Core Probe Launcher I, and 8 Core Scanner Probe I's in your cargo hold, so that you can re-fit in space to scan for a new exit.
- I have left one of the rig slots empty, but this slot should be filled, inside the wormhole, with a Medium Higgs Anchor I rig. The Higgs rig increases the agility of the Procurer, while reducing the ship's velocity. As explained below, this is actually a win-win in terms of mining aligned. However, it does roughly double the ship's mass, which will impact the stability of the entrance wormhole. As a result, I usually recommend that miners use their Mobile Depot to fit the rig after passing through the wormhole, and then to destroy the rig in the fitting window (no Depot required) before they leave.
- This fit has offensive modules (warp disruptor, or "point", and web) in mid slots, for a couple of reasons. The Procurer receives substantial bonuses to drone damage, and that makes the Procurer an effective attacker against frigate and destroyer opponents, as long as you can hold them in place. The fleet booster will be fit with a shield boosting module that will enhance shield resistances; additional resistance mods would be subject to stacking penalties. The FC may ask some miners to replace their points with warp scramblers ("scrams") for tactical flexibility. One or two miners might also fit a Survey Scanner in a mid slot, but having too many of these in the fleet is a waste of offensive potential.
Miners should mine in motion, aligned to pre-made warp-out bookmarks.
If you mine from a stand-still, as you would in high sec, you will be vulnerable to being scrammed and webbed by aggressors before you can warp away. On the other hand, if your ship is aligned towards a warp-out point, and moving at least 75% of its maximum speed, you can warp out immediately at the first sign of trouble. This means that constructing alignment bookmarks is an important part of wormhole mining. For ops that Antei FC's, he will supply you with a container of bookmarks at the beginning of the op, including bookmarks for the wormhole entry and exit, and some that are specific to the ice belt or ore anomaly. The bookmarks have a particular naming format, modeled after Agony Unleashed's format, that looks like this:
Examples:
.Sie WH->C1 ABC
Wormhole, passing from Sierra to a C1 wormhole. In the Probe Scanner window, the signature would have an ID tag that starts with the three-letter code "ABC". A period at the beginning of the bookmark indicates a wormhole that heads away from campus; an asterisk indicates a wormhole that points back to campus.
C1 Ice1
Warp-in point in an ice belt. If there is more than one warp-in point, they will be numbered.
C1 Align1
Off-grid alignment/warp-out point, >1000 km away from the warp-in point. Miners aligned to this point can warp out immediately.
C1 TAC WHexit @500k
Off-axis tactical bookmark, 500 km from the exit wormhole. Miners can warp to this tactical bookmark to check whether the wormhole has been bubbled by an enemy, or to otherwise check the wormhole with D-Scan.
SCOUT P5 @2AU or
DEEP SAFE P5 @18AU
Un-aligned safe spot. Closest celestial is planet V, 2 (or 18) AU away. Deep safes are always greater than 14.3 AU (maximum D-scan range) away from any celestial.
Miners will warp to their assigned warp-in point, and then always "Align To" one of the two opposing warp-out points at at least 75% max velocity. In case of danger, just warp out! In this scheme, miners are only vulnerable while they are reversing direction, switching between the "Align1" and "Align2" alignment bookmark because they have reached the edge of their mining range.
Miners will jet-can ore, just as they do in a high-sec shared-can op, but cans will be immediately tractored by a central Mobile Tractor Unit, where they can be easily scooped by the fleet hauler. Cans are vulnerable to attack in WH space, so they need to be scooped quickly. As a result, don't worry about naming your cans.
Mining boosts should be provided by an ordinary battlecruiser.
Although Orcas are great for boosting AMC mining fleets in high-sec, they are too large to fit into many wormholes without collapsing the hole, and they are too expensive to lose in the risky environment of W-space. Instead, mining boosts can be supplied by an ordinary battecruiser fitted with boosting Link Modules. For example, Antei's alt Paul flies primarily Amarr, and so he boosts with a Prophecy:
Paul's WH Booster
Mining Foreman Link - Laser Optimization II
Mining Foreman Link - Mining Laser Field Enhancement II
Siege Warfare Link - Shield Harmonizing II
Medium 'Vehemence' Shockwave Charge
Core Probe Launcher I, Core Scanner Probe I
Experimental 10MN Afterburner I
Cap Recharger II
Command Processor I
Command Processor I
Damage Control II
1600mm Reinforced Rolled Tungsten Plates I
Drone Damage Amplifier II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Co-Processor II
Co-Processor II
Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
Medium Capacitor Control Circuit I
Warrior II x5
Hornet EC-300 x5
Core Scanner Probe I x1
I've fit this with the two mining links, a shield resistance link, tanking modules, drones (partly just because the Prophecy is bonused for them), and a smartbomb to counter interdictor bubbles (which can be destroyed by smartbombs). But I'm definitely open to suggestions that don't require any more CPU for different things I might do with this.
Even though the booster is fitted for mining and shield ("siege") support, the boosting pilot will also provide agility and other defensive boosts to fleeted miners according to skill in Skirmish Warfare, Armored Warfare and Siege Warfare.
In our WH mining ops, I have been sitting the booster at the wormhole exiting into high-sec. That way, at the first sign of trouble, the booster pilot can immediately leave the wormhole. Battlecruisers are slow, and so they make for an inviting target. But I might try posting the booster at a safe spot instead.
Hauler support should be provided by Miasmos pilots.
Hauling in wormhole ops can't be provided by a freighter, like we use in high-sec shared-cans; a freighter would just make too inviting a target for wormhole residents. So we use the Miasmos instead:
WH Cloak-MWD Hauler
Core Probe Launcher I
Improved Cloaking Device II
Upgraded EM Ward Amplifier I
Upgraded Thermic Dissipation Amplifier I
Limited Adaptive Invulnerability Field I
50MN Cold-Gas Enduring Microwarpdrive
Type-D Restrained Nanofiber Structure
Mark I Compact Power Diagnostic System
'Stoic' Core Equalizer I
'Stoic' Core Equalizer I
Medium Ancillary Current Router I
Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints I
Medium Low Friction Nozzle Joints I
Core Scanner Probe I x8
- The Miasmos has very low HP, and will spend time in space picking up cans. As a result, out of all the ships involved in wormhole mining, the Miasmos is probably most vulnerable. I have fit the ship very cheaply, with the expectation that it might get shot down while harvesting cans. I recommend against using Tech II modules in the Miasmos.
There are a number of ways to fit the Miasmos. In this fit, I've followed three guiding principles:
- The Miasmos should be quick to pilot if aggressed. Shield-tanked ships often have active shield mods in mid- and high-slots. but if you are engaged at a wormhole, you will have a lot to think about very quickly, and activating defensive modules might not be your first priority. So, I've chosen passive shield modules here. (They also conserve capacitor, but you may be dead before you run out of cap anyway.)
- The fit should minimize signature radius as much as possible. Shield-tanked Miasmos fits often include a Medium Shield Extender, but this comes with a sig radius penalty that will make you easier to lock. So I've avoided a shield extender here.
- The Miasmos should be able to cloak at a WH safe spot, and do the MWD-cloak trick in a pinch.
It is our intent to use the AMC Buyback Spreadsheet to process reimbursement for ice mining ops.
Keeping combat ships in Sierra.
There are a variety of reasons why we might engage in combat. If one of our mining vessels is pointed or scrammed by a war target, we might act to save it. I recommend AMC members have a few different ships at their disposal:
ECM: The Griffin
Good introductory reading: "Using your ECM Modules", in the ECM Guide.
Electronic countermeasures (ECM) are the cheapest, most effective method of denying an aggressor a fight. They are also the easiest contribution for under-skilled pilots to make in a war-target encounter. Here's a pretty standard fit:
'Malkuth' Rocket Launcher I
'Malkuth' Rocket Launcher I
Limited 1MN Microwarpdrive I
'Umbra' White Noise ECM
'Umbra' White Noise ECM
'Umbra' White Noise ECM
'Umbra' White Noise ECM
Emergency Damage Control I
'Hypnos' Signal Distortion Amplifier I
Small Particle Dispersion Projector I
Small Particle Dispersion Projector I
Small Particle Dispersion Augmentor I
Mjolnir Rocket x80
- High-slot weapons are for countering drones only; the Griffin is too weak to take on any human attacker. This fit has rocket launchers, but you could also fit light missile launchers instead, or autocannon, or no weapons at all, depending on your powergrid skills.
- If you are targeted by an opponent, warp away to an off-grid safe spot, and then back again. With luck, your opponent will be too busy to re-acquire lock on you when you return.
- With no skill bonuses, your ECM modules will have optimal+falloff ranges of 43+32 km, and the Griffin's lock range is 65 km. Your skilled ranges will probably be better than this.
- This ship is intended to be disposable; the total cost of this fit is under 1 million ISK. If you lose it in combat, just go get another one!
- As a result, you should *not* upgrade any of the modules to costlier Tech 2 versions, or choose to fly a pricier ECM alternative (such as the Kitsune or Blackbird). Any ECM ship we bring will become a priority target for our opponents, and flying the Griffin keeps our losses low.
Griffins are available in the AMC hangars or by contract from Antei. Antei will also include 4 of each "flavored" ECM modules. The UniWiki Griffin page advises a "rainbow" fit of ECM modules, so that pilots can be prepared for any type of target. However, we will know the identity of our aggressors' ships from D-Scan or from being attacked, and so you should *not* use a rainbow fit. Instead, once you dock your mining vessel and switch to the Griffin, either fit all 4 ECM modules to match our opponent's ship type, or, if we have multiple aggressors, split your ECM module types 2/2 to be able to target two opponents at once. And as the number of targets increases, and you aim fewer modules at each, remember that you can increase your modules' effectiveness by Overheating them.
Heavy tackle
Good introductory reading: The UniWiki Tackling 101 Guide.
Many Unistas start their training as tackle pilots by flying small, fast frigates ("fast tackle") that can catch unwilling opponents. Our opponents, by contrast, will be entirely willing; if they are already aggressing a miner, we don't really need to catch them. As a result, in most encounters, we will need "heavy tackle", ships that are intended to tank a lot of damage while they keep an opponent from escaping. Four Tech 1 "Combat Cruisers" are built for heavy tackle duty: the Maller, Vexor, Moa, and Rupture. Once AMC members can fly a cruiser, it's a good idea to have one of these in Sierra. How you fit your heavy tackle cruiser, and what weapons you use, depends entirely on your character skills. There is no doctrine fit that you need to follow. Nevertheless, there are a few modules that are fairly essential for an AMC heavy tackler:
- A Warp Scrambler (and not a Warp Disruptor). You will want to hold our opponents in place, and shutting off their MicroWarpDrive will be important to that goal. Fast tacklers will sometimes use Warp Disruptors because they are quick enough to keep up with an MWD-fitted opponent. You are not.
- A Stasis Webifier. Similar idea. Our opponents will likely be faster than we are, but if two heavy tacklers can land two webs (one each) on the opposing ship, we will likely have them tackled for good.
- A Capacitor Booster, with both small and large charges available in the cargo hold. This is an unusual inclusion in tackle fits, but capacitor warfare is common, and our opponents may try to break your tackle and tank by applying neuts. A Cap Booster counters this strategy. Use small charges to give your ship continuous capacitor support (which eliminates the need for Cap Recharger modules), but switch to large charges if you find you are being neuted out.
Because the goal of heavy tackle is not to lose your ship, you should feel free to use Meta 3/4 or Tech 2 modules wherever you can. For example, here's one of Antei's Mallers:
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II
Focused Medium Pulse Laser II
Medium F-RX Prototype Capacitor Boost
X5 Prototype Engine Enervator
J5b Phased Prototype Warp Scrambler I
Damage Control II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
Energized Adaptive Nano Membrane II
1600mm Reinforced Nanofiber Plates I
Heat Sink II
Heat Sink II
Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I
Medium Anti-Kinetic Pump I
Medium Anti-Explosive Pump I
Hornet EC-300 x3
Cap Booster 50
Cap Booster 800
Imperial Navy Multifrequency M
Scorch M
- Some modules are Tech 1/meta 4 for fitting purposes; I can't fit this entirely Tech 2 with my skills. Likewise, I would replace the Overclocking rig with something else if I could, but I can't.
- If the Maller is fit with pulse lasers, as it is here, it needs to be fit with Tech 2 lasers and have Tech 2 Scorch crystals available; this allows the lasers to project to 30 km range. Otherwise, if fitting with Tech 1 lasers, you'll need to fit it with beam lasers so that you can hit targets at the edge of your opponent's long-point range.
Out of the four Combat Cruisers, I actually think the Maller is worst suited for heavy tackle, because it has only three mid slots. Given our requirements, that leaves no space for a propulsion module, and so my heavy tackle ship is painfully slow. But I fly Amarr, so that's what I get.
If you aren't able to fly a combat cruiser, you can also fit one of the heavier Combat Frigates for heavy tackle duty. The Incursus and Punisher work best, especially when fit with a Small Ancillary Armor Repairer.
Fast tackle
Good introductory reading: Azual Skoll's Newbie Tackling Guide.
Even though we will need heavy tackle all of the time, fast tackle will also fill a number of utility roles: taking out opponents' drones, tackling snipers (if we choose to), and countering enemy support ships. Once again, how you choose to fit your fast tackler depends entirely on your pilot skills, and no doctrine fit is given here. Most importantly, miners are advised to keep their fast tackle fits cheap; the life of a fast tackler is often short.
Other useful ships
There are a few other roles that we'll need flown very infrequently, but that miners might want to try out. These include:
- Damage dealer. Along with the four heavy combat cruisers described earlier, each race also has a Tech 1 light Attack Cruiser: the Omen, Caracal, Thorax and Stabber. These cruisers are bonused for damage rather than tank, and so are useful to add that extra bit of damage necessary to finish off an opponent. We will always need heavy tacklers first, but once we have a few combat cruisers in the fight, I can imagine additional pilots bringing damage dealers ("DD").
- Anti-frigate support. If our opponents are flying fast, kiting frigates, they may be able to evade the turrets on our heavy tacklers. Light missiles are a great counter to frigate swarms. The Caracal or Bellicose are probably the most common counter to frigates, fitted with Rapid Light Missile Launchers; if you choose to bring one of these, make sure to fit a Target Painter, or your kiting opponent will just speed-tank your missiles.
- Combat scanner (either in a Tech 1 exploration frigate, or a Tech 2 Covert Ops frigate). If an aggressor is monitoring us from a safe spot, it might be useful to scan him or her down using Combat Scanning Probes, using a scanning frigate.
- Other EWAR: Sensor dampening in the Maulus, or tracking disruption in the Crucifier. In general, these will be less effective than ECM. Our opponent(s) will have already locked onto a miner, so damps won't save an aggressed miner. And our opponents will easily be able to close range on a slow mining vessel, such that tracking disruption will have little effect. Nevertheless, I really love damps and TD, and I can think of situations where these vessels could be effective.
In any case, an FC would call for these ships only if there were already at least one Griffin and two, maybe three heavy tackle on-grid with our opponent(s).
Ships I recommend against
- Tech 1 Logistics. Each race has a Tech 1 logistics cruiser, and logistics serves as a great force multiplier in fleets. It's easy to imagine how a logistics ship could save a fleetmate (e.g., an aggressed miner) from destruction. However, solo logistics pilots are extremely vulnerable to cap warfare, and logistics cruisers have less tank, and have more expensive fittings, relative to other cruisers. If you are considering flying logistics, I recommend heavy tackle instead.
- Faction or pirate ships. As a group, we in the AMC are relatively inexperienced pilots, and we will lose ships in combat engagements. when we have them. We should lose ships—it's the only way we'll get experience with PvP. I hope we can minimize those losses by flying relatively inexpensive hulls.
Low-sec ops may or may not be as profitable as high-sec mining.
We will be targeting low-sec ores and anomalies that are worth a lot more than high-sec mining can offer. However, we will be interrupted by low-sec pirates, and we will not be using Exhumers (and thus forgoing a lot of potential yield relative to Mining Barges). As a result, you may not make as much ISK as you would mining in high sec, depending on your skills.
Miners should control only one character, and be prepared to do opponent research on the fly.
Pilots in low- and null-sec and in wormhole space need to learn a lot more about other pilots flying in their system than high-sec miners typically do. For example, when we see an unfamiliar character in Local, we nearly always:
- Right-click on their name, "Show info", and check their security status, employment history (which gives their character's age) and bio;
- Search for their name on a public killboard like zKillboard or EVE-Kill, to see whether they have a history of aggression against PvE pilots, to try to determine what kinds of ships they fly, and to see whether they are associated with any other pilots in system; and
- Use D-Scan to try and determine what they're flying now.
Even though your Overview is set to tag pilots with negative security status, it is not safe to assume that pilots with positive security status won't aggress you. Low-sec pirates often repair their security status regularly for exactly this reason—to give you the false impression that they are friendly.
A good introductory assignment: Search a public killboard for the low-sec system that the FC has assigned for the op. What sort of ships have been killed there recently, and by whom? How were the ships fitted? The killboard won't give fits for the victors' ships—but can you find the victors' fits among their past losses?
Antei's Step-by-Step Low-Sec Exploration Guide (Out of date)
Recently, wormhole exploration has become much more profitable than low-sec exploration. As a result, this section no longer really applies.
I really enjoy low-sec exploration. It's engaging, challenging, and not very skill-intensive. It also works well during my usual late-USTZ playtime, when the fewest players are online and low-sec systems are at their emptiest. Although you can use a variety of different ships to do low-sec explo, my favorite is the Heron.
I've cleared so many low-sec systems of data and relic sites that I've developed a sort of method for running them. Here's that method, step-by-step:
- Take the gate into your low-sec system of choice.
- In the PodSaver tab, right click on any planet, and "Warp to 70 km". I recommend
- AS YOU BEGIN ACCELERATING TO WARP, launch your probes at the gate.
- As soon as you land at Planet Whatever, begin cloak.
- D-Scan in the PvP tab, if there are others in system. Do some background work on those characters.
- Switch to Solar System Map and do your anomaly scanning. As you find sites, right click on each and save it as a bookmark. "Ignore" WH's, Gas Sites, & Combat Sites as you find them to remove them from your Anomaly listing.
- Once you've identified/scanned every site, start running them (Data sites first). Data sites can take up as much as 200 m3 of cargo space--make sure you have room. Relics don't take up as much space.
- When you arrive at a site, if you are farther than 10 km from the closest can, Approach it and pulse your MWD once. Once you get within ~9 km, Stop your Ship.
- You can start codebreaking when you are within 5 km, but you must be within 2.5 km to open the can. You might end up Stopping your Ship *while* you are hacking!
- Go to the next one. If there is anyone else in system, I try to keep my Overview set to the PvP tab, and check DScan periodically.
Mining Overview
| |||||||||||
