Hauling
(Work in progress by Callin Vandylx, using information gleaned from SteveA435 and Scrapyard Bob, amongst myriad others. Please let me finish a first draft.)
TODO: Link to Uni Obelisk program.
Hauling Craft
This gives a rundown of the strengths and weaknesses of each type of hauling craft.
T1 Industrials
Primary use: Cargo with large volume, but low value.
The Iteron V provides, by far, the best cargo space, and it can fit a pretty decent tank in its 5 mid slots. The Badger II can fit an even better tank in its 6 mid slots, but its cargo space gets cut in half compared to the Iteron. The Bestower offers only slightly better cargo then the Badger II, but fits only a lousy tank in its 4 mid slots. Finally, the Mammoth has a decent tank as well with 5 mid slots, but loses 7k m^3 compared to the Iteron V.
Blockade Runners (T2 Industrial)
Primary use: Relatively small and/or very expensive cargo.
The Gallente Viator and Amarr Prorator are the best in this category. The reason for this is that Blockade Runners can warp cloaked, and as such should never be target locked, so tank doesn't matter (as much), but cargo space does. These two can reach above 10k m^3 space with a full rack of T2 cargo expanders and T1 cargo rigs. With 10k space, you can safely carry a cruiser, so you can move expensive recons, Heavy Assault Cruisers, Logistics ships, HICs (???) and T3 ships around safely. The Caldari Crane can do the same, but it requires T2 rigs to pull it off at about 90m ISK each, and the Minmatar Prowler can't do it at all. The Prowler, on the other hand, does have two high slots which allows a combo of a cloak and a probe launcher or something else you may want, but for hauling, it's not particularly recommended.
Deep Space Transport (T2 Industrial)
Primary use: Large, moderately valued cargo.
There is a split here between the races: The Gallente Occator and the Amarr Impel can pretty much match the Iteron V for cargo space, but with double the effective HP (EHP). The Caldari Bustard and Minmatar Mastodon get about 23k m^3 cargo (with shield extender rigs), but with 60-65k EHP, both with the option to swap 5k cargo for 11k EHP by fitting a damage control in a low slot. Trying to match that cargo with an Occator/Impel only gets you 40k or so EHP, so it's a "cargo vs. tank" thing here.
Steave435's opinion: These are not really that important. If the cargo is valuable enough to need the extra protection of a Deep Space Transport (DST), then it should be in a Blockade Runner.
Freighters and Jump Freighters
Use Freighters for huge cargo through high sec and very short distances into low sec. These require proper support (someone to web, scouts, preferably some EW).
(TODO: Describe the proper support fully)
Use Jump Freighters to carry cargo from the high/low sec border to wherever it is needed in null sec and back again. Caldari freighters are the largest, closely followed by Gallente, then Amarr and lastly Minmatar. The difference is not large.
Orca
TODO
Lastly, for pure anti-gank hi-sec hauling, the Orca probably excels at this. It can't hold anywhere near as much as the Freighters, but the Corp Hangar makes a wonderful place to hide 40k m3 of cargo that you don't want to show up on a cargo scanner.
It requires a completely different skill set, all of these have pretty much the same ones (racial industrial 5 with a few small skills on top of that).
In addition, stuff in the corp hangar/SMA always gets destroyed when the ship pops and does not appear on killmails.
Fast Transports
There are situations where a small fast craft is better then a big lumbering beast (such as moving blueprints or other small volume / high value cargo).
Racial Comparison
Gallente have the best T1 Industrial, and are pretty much tied for first place in every other class of hauler. By comparsion, Minmatar only shine in the Blockade Runner part if you need a second high slot for some reason (not strictly hauling only). Amarr perform very well in the T2 Industrials, but are weak in the T1s and have a smaller freighter. Caldari have the largest Freighter, but need to T2 rig their Blockade Runner to reach above the "magical" 10k m3 limit, and the Iteron far outperforms the Badger.
Callin Vandylx's and Steave435's opinion: All in all, I again have to say that I think Gallente is the best choice due to giving top class performance in everything, even if various other races may give a very very small advantage in some areas.
Hauler Type Comparison
Where you are shouldn't be the only factor, it should be about where you are combined with what the cargo is. Using an occator to move cargos small enough to fit in a viator is retarded. Using a viator to move large amounts of tritanium around in high sec is equally so.
Small cargos of any value = BR Large cargos of low value = T1 industrial or DST Large cargos of medium value = DST Large cargos of high value = BR, even if you may get the job done faster with a DST, getting it there at all is better then not getting it there due to being ganked Huge cargos below ~350k or so = JF, it aligns faster then a freighter Huge cargos larger then that = JF or freighter depending on the enviroment
That's the optimal ships for each task, assuming that the area that you're going to/trough is not a place where it's retarded to bring such a ship type, which I assume people know...as soon as moving trough either 0.0 or low sec is required, I'd pretty much always switch to a viator or JF
Hauling Skills
Ship Flying Skills
Warp Drive Operation - helps with long warps. Spaceship Command - helps with align time. Advanced Spaceship Command Evasive Maneuvering - ship agility & acceleration.
Tanking Skills
Engineering II & Tactical Shield Manipulation IV gets you Invulnerability Field II. Shield Upgrades IV will get you T2 shield extenders.
Shield Management: 5% extra shields per level Shield Operation: 5% reduction in shield recharge time per level; level IV gets you t2 shield boosters Shield Upgrades: 5% reduction in shield upgrade powergrid needs per level; level IV gets you t2 shield extenders and rechargers Shield Compensation: 2% reduction in shield booster capacitor utilization per level <type-specific> Shield Compensation: 3% bonus per level in <type-specific> resistance for active hardeners, 5% bonus per level for passive hardeners
Get Shield Management and Shield Operation at least to IV.
Hull Upgrades IV (and Mechanic I, which you've got) gets you t2 Damage Control, but since that's a low slot, you may have cargo expanders in all of yours.
However some shield tankers prefer Power Diagnostic System's over Damage Controls for the boost in shield recharge rate. You need Energy Grid Upgrades IV, Engineering II, and Science I for t2 PDS's.
Hauler Tanking
TODO: Buffer tanking... Active & passive buffer tanks... Builds...
All of my haulers (Badgers/Ittys) have always been passive tanked beasts (big buffer tanks with good resists). For instance: (1) EMP Shield Amp (1) Thermal Shield Amp (2-3) Medium Shield Extenders
Maybe an Invuln II - but that requires cap to run and has to be turned on after every jump (the DC2 is far better because it uses hardly any cap, but you still have to remember to turn it on).
So for hauling - passive shield tank skills are key. Followed by the ability to use a DC2 and Invuln2. Then you can get into armor tanking, but that takes away cargo space quickly as you burn up low-slots with armor plates / hardeners instead of expanded cargo hold modules.
Visibly active tanking might discourage ganking.
For hauling in null-sec, a MWD is key for getting out of bubbles. Best on a blockade runner that can cloak.
Hauler Roles
TODO
JFs and blockade runners should be the only things hauling stuff in 0.0 (out if the hauler ships).
Mining Assistance
TODO Tractor Beams Salvage Miner (ha)
Other
TODO
