Cargo Hauling with the Cloak Trick
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Hauling cargo from one star system to the next is a long and tedious job. Many players use alternative characters with dedicated skill sets to deliver their cargo for them or even as the play their main account. In order to achieve this everyone has to start from scratch meaning that the few skills we need to train the sooner we can get started hauling cargo. If you are hauling an expensive payload you are at high risk of being a target for pirates looking for a slow and weak industrial ship to empty. This is a danger even in high security space. To combat this problem many solutions and strategies have been developed and the most successful method I have used to date is the Cloak Trick. There is a great deal of information on which industrial ship is the best for any particular job so I will not be covering that here; I will be doing a similar breakdown of information which demands that the industrial ships being evaluated can use the cloak trick. This angle changes the tables on the board quite a bit.
Goals
The four points below outline my design goals for the fittings which I will present later. These goals are in order of importance such that the first goal is mandatory and each following goal is a best effort within the context of the previous goal. For example in order to satisfy the first goal most ships need to also fit modules to enhance their power grid which can only be done at the sacrifice of modules which increase cargo capacity. There is a bit of an exception where goal 2 is concerned; In some cases we gain significant improvement in cargo space or warp out time with just a little more training in skills.
- Fittings must use a “10MN Microwarpdrive I” as well as an “Improved Cloaking Device II”.
- Fittings must require as little training as possible to accommodate brand new characters.
- Fittings must aim to accommodate as much cargo as possible.
- Fittings must also attempt to maximize warp out time and warp speed velocity.
With these goals in mind I hope to find the best ship with the best fit for the newest of players with the least number of skill points.
Points of Interest
In order to illustrate some of the motivation behind my choices please review the following points of interest.
Tanking
Most people will notice that I have put no armor or shield tank in any of these fittings. In my experience any kind of traditional tank is an utter waste of time and can be extremely expensive. The reality is that industrial ships are paper thin and defenseless. If you get tackled it’s only a matter of time (normally mere seconds) before you are going to be destroyed as there is no method of retaliation that we can bring to bear upon our attackers. Even if you fit weapons they will not be up to the task of taking out a ship designed for combat. Because of this we use the Cloak Trick. Instead of trying to absorb damage our goal here is to completely dodge it by being unavailable for targeting and warping out of the area almost instantly.
Inherent Problems of the MWD + Cloaking Trick
The two modules which are mandatory for the successful execution of the cloak trick is a “10MN Microwarpdrive I” as well as an “Improved Cloaking Device II”. These modules provide the correct modifies to our ships and anything less will spoil the effort. The details of the trick you can review in the wiki’s already linked. The biggest problem which faces a pilot trying to do use those two modules on a ship at the same time is power grid capacity. While some of the standard industrial ships can manage the industrial ships which have been “optimized” for extra cargo storage have serious problems. In order to combat this problem we need to fit modules and rigs (yes some ships NEED to have rigs while others gain a major benefit from them) which only slot into the same spots as our cargo expanding modules. As such it is literally a trade between cargo space and power grid.
Power Grid Management III
As our biggest problem is power grid it is worth noting that the Power Grid Management skill is of great importance. Although it takes extra time to train getting it to level three does not take very long. At the same time it greatly reduces the need to swap out cargo modules. This is really only necessary if you are going to fly the industrials which have larger default cargo holds though.
Nanofiber Internal Structure II vs Inertial Stabilizers II
There are some ships which have almost no problems with power grid and don’t actually benefit from cargo expanding modules. These ships are specialist ships which can only hold certain types of cargo, like ammunition. Their special cargo holds are massive, far larger than any standard cargo hold on any ship in this size class, while their normal cargo holds are about 500-550 cubic meters. As cargo hold expansion modules operate on a percentage basis the benefit they give these ships is insignificant. We take advantage of this fact to act on the fourth goal in our list of objectives. by fitting Nanofiber Internal Structure II’s and Inertial Stabilizers II we reduce the ships mass and increase its agility. This ultimately means a smaller warp out time which means less time spent in any particular place in space, cloaked or otherwise. While the Inertial Stabilizers have a stronger effect then the Internal Structures they also penalize your ship with a significant signature radius increase. This means if you happen to make a mistake and find yourself spending some time visible in space you will be much easier to target and will take more damage. I spent some time trying to balance the benefits against the penalties but as these two modules require the same skill level you can easily exchange them as you see fit.
Expanded Cargohold II vs Medium Cargohold Optimization I
These two modules are used in the low power slot and the ship rig slots respectively. They each increase your standard cargo hold by a percentage of its default size. They do come with penalties but these are related to armor, hull and speed which are all insignificant to us. The only important aspect is that the Expanded Cargohold II’s are more effective per unit than the Medium Cargohold Opimization I’s and as such we prefer to get our extra power grid from the rigs before using up the low slots.
Use of T2 equipment for new players
Anyone who has taken a look at the tech 2 gear in Eve Online has probably noted how much more time and isk it takes to be able to use and afford. Normally they would not be viable options for new characters trying to fly ships as soon as possible with as few skill points as possible. In the case of some low power slot gear it turns out that instead of requiring a level 5 in the related skill it only needs a level 2. As such it’s extremely affordable and beneficial to get that second level in that skill in order to take advantage of the tech 2 versions of the gear we need. Even more so the T2 modules we are interested in use the same skill.
Industrial Ships by Race
Following is a huge table I created while researching the builds that follow. Normally I would simply make one fitting for each ship with the exception of the industrial ships with the larger cargo holds. Those ships normally require even more power grid so I built a fitting for them assuming the use of the skill Power Grid Management III. Each ships statistics were derived from EFT using a “dummy character” with zero skill levels in any skill. The ships fittings which use power grid management 3 are noted in the title.
Summary Statistics by Race
Caldari Summary
| Ship | Badger | Tayra | Tayra with PHM III |
| Skills | Caldari Industrial I | Caldari Industrial I | Caldari Industrial I |
| Hull Upgrades II | High Speed Maneuvering I | High Speed Maneuvering I | |
| High Speed Maneuvering I | Cloaking III | Cloaking III | |
| Cloaking III | Capacitor Management II | Capacitor Management II | |
| Astronautics Rigging I | Jury Rigging I | Jury Rigging I | |
| Powergrid Management III | |||
| Cargo (m^3) | 15675 | 7300 | 10079 |
| Vel (m/s) | 138 | 149 | 110 |
| Warp out (secs) | 21 | 25 | 25 |
| Warp speed (AU/s) | 4.5 | 3 | 3 |
| Cost (isk) | 12M | 21.4M | 20.8M |
