Thursday, September 22, 2016

Eve Online Mining: Future of the Rorqual not improving

Glad I sold the Rorquals a few months ago. In addition to requiring them to be on grid with the mining vessels in order to deliver boosts [Dev blog: Command Bursts and the New World of Fleet Boosting], CCP has announced that allowing them to dock in the Astrahus Citadel is a bug that will be fixed, probably in the November, 2016, expansion [
[Future] Rorqual Astrahus citadel docking fix]. This has not been received well.

Serious miners: Suggest you post on the threads and contact anyone you know on the CSM. What CCP proposes to do with the Rorqual and Orca will not be a benefit to miners or mining. It will benefit PvP gangs by providing more soft targets. Mining assets are already very much at risk. POS boosting was the main thing that made that risk worthwhile.

On a brighter note, collected all 58 of the Purity of the Throne event SKINs.

http://imgur.com/a/FPLSD
Will probably put the set up on contract. Have many extras for my Amarr pilots.

Tuesday, September 13, 2016

Eve Online Mining: Remembering the Hulk

It's early morning September 13, 2016. In about six hours the Eve Online Exhumer known as the Hulk will change. New artwork, new specs and the loss of one of its three Strip Miner high slots. Apparently, a Dev back in 2012 made a note that the next time the non-frigate sized mining vessels are updated they should all have the same number of Strip Miners - two - and CCP felt this was reason enough to drop one from the Hulk. Forget the fact that three Strips make for better mining.

Shots of the new Hulk look can be seen here: Eve Online Mining: Mining Barges and Exhumers will change in September, 2016.

Frankly, the new artwork is sweet, especially with the new SKINs, but many of us miners will lobby for the return of three high slot Strip Miner hard points.

Below are screenshots taken today to celebrate the passing of the three-Strip Hulk.  

http://imgur.com/i6KOC1y
http://imgur.com/LZo9DB7
http://imgur.com/LZo9DB7
http://imgur.com/xQ1axh9
http://imgur.com/RdQkwLe
http://imgur.com/7cxBQdY

Thursday, September 1, 2016

Eve Online Mining: End of an era?

“It were not best that we should all think alike; it is difference of opinion that makes horse-races.” [Samuel Clemens, The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson (1894)]

That sums up what follows about the upcoming changes to Eve Online that will affect mining. Consider me a union rep for multi-boxing miners.

CCP has decided, and we knew it was coming well in advance, that all boosting should be done on grid. Turns out, not only on grid but within relatively close proximity to the boosted ships. With the new extended grid sizes there was some hope we could park the Rorquals at the edge of the grid, fit a cloak, and hunker down if neuts appeared. Not going to happen.

In highsec, this means the end of the around the clock POS-parked AFK Orca booster. The Rorqual in null or low and the Orca in high sec will need to be huddled up with the mining vessels in a belt or anom.

Reaction has been interesting and predictable. 

The risk versus reward analysis has been slanted. Yes, the mining boosters in a POS were not at risk, but those of us fielding those safe boats usually had very expensive assets very much at risk with little defensive capabilities. Also a fair amount of talk about how Orcas and Rorquals aren't engaging to pilot, so the new system will force the owner to interact with the ship as it's boosting. Nice, but the level of interaction is ridiculously low - it's basically token interaction amounting to busy work.

Why treat mining as if it was PvP? Trading is risk free with respect to ship loss (no, transporting is hauling, not the act of trading) as is industry. Those two activities should be moved to destructible vessels or structures if we're going to be consistent.

But there's a deeper thing going on with respect to mining: a long standing prejudice against the profession and that prejudice, originally from the PvP community, is bundled with assumptions about mining that are sometimes inaccurate, if not downright false.

Here's a quote from a recent entry by an Eve blogger that manages to contain the three main weak assumptions:
If CCP were to apply the dual ideas of penalizing passive mechanics and rewarding active player engagement to resource harvesting in EVE Online, I suspect many who have made fortunes with the current AFK-friendly mechanics would vigorously oppose such changes.
Imagine if mining under the current simple mechanics generated only half of their present yields (or perhaps even less) - and that higher levels of production required more frequent player interactions during the mining process. These interactions could be in the form of some type of optimizing mini-game (an idea that Lockefox dislikes), or other type of "fine tuning" that requires ongoing player input. In other words, miners would have to actually pay attention and issue commands throughout their mining routines, in order to maximize yields and potential income.

Many who mine only as a means to other ends - that is, as a way to generate ISK to pay for PvP ships, ammo and modules, for example - will likely rebel and protest loudly against such changes. Most of these players are not interested in becoming mining experts. They are only concerned about finding the easiest ways to generate sufficient ISK to pursue their desired aims. But the trend is clear - CCP wants players who are actively playing the game, who earn rewards commensurate with the degree of their in-game engagement and interaction, even if this results in a lower number of concurrently logged-in accounts. [Neville Smit, The Passivity Purge]
 Multi-box miners actually do pay attention. Multi-box miners actually do interact with the mining process - a great deal in fact. Use six Hulks in a high sec belt and see for yourself the amount of interaction required to keep those lasers running. AFK mining? Sometimes I wish. It's a pain to warp the crew to a POS to take a bio or deal with kids.

Is mining a satisfying solo activity? Who can say? Matter of opinion. I certainly see a large number of solo miners in highsec, and some of them spend quality time at it day after day. If they're not enjoying it, it's a sad waste of their discretionary leisure time.

Imagine if we diehard miners were tasked with revamping PvP.

Forcing the mining boosting ships on to the field probably will improve the game play of some, just not the miners. In high sec having the Orca in the belt isn't a big deal as most of us do that already. But in low and null the Rorqual will really have only one main job - bait.

Another problem for both high and null sec miners is that this will spell the end of standing mining fleets which the more casual miner can join and receive the same boosts as the serious multi-boxer. It will also work to the detriment of large corps and alliances who spread out in a system to mine multiple belts or anomalies.

Of course miners complain about these changes. PvPers would complain about proposed changes that they felt negatively impacted their area, same with traders and industrialists.

The question that CCP hasn't answered satisfactorily is how do these changes really improve game play from the point of view of those who spend most of their time affected by them?

The Hulk is losing one of its laser hardpoints but hey, it can theoretically be fit for added yield and the cycle time is being reduced. Miners don't pay attention? Miners don't interact with the mining process enough? Wrong.

But what's amazing about the Hulk change is the reason for it given by CCP: In 2012, CCP Tallest "... asked the art team to make a note that next time the Barges and Exhumers were up for a regularly scheduled visual refresh they should be unified at the same number of strip miner hardpoints. [link]"

Unfortunately for all, he forgot to include in his note the reason why.

Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Eve Online Mining: Mining Barges and Exhumers will change in September, 2016

CCP Fozzie calls the upcoming changes to barges and exhumers "tweaks" in the title of the related Dev Blog: [September] Mining Barge and Exhumer tweaks. The Dev Blog has the proposed stat changes as they currently stand, and the changes are live on the Singularity server.

Deciding what needs tweaking and in what way a thing should be tweaked is a tweaking mystery. Frankly, given the disconnected nature of many CCP tweaks, I get the feeling that tweaking has more to do with maintaining job security than with serving the player base that will be most affected.

Seems everybody who lives in New Eden knows all about mining and has an opinion about how it could and should be improved. Unfortunately, a close read of posted comments shows most of these people maybe sat in a Venture a few years ago or play around in a single barge from time to time.

Mining in Eve makes sense only in one circumstance: multi-boxing. It scales incredibly well. Running six Hulks with max boosts I make very good ISK. I mean, very good. But, I don't do it for the ISK alone. If my goal was pure ISK generation I'd trade.

Mining results in a good amount of ISK and I enjoy being in space with my mini-fleet.

About the upcoming exhumer changes: I only care about the Hulk, though I do use Skiffs and Mackinaws sometimes. The changes to the Hulk will be fine for nullsec where the asteroids are much larger, but will be a pain in highsec where the asteroids are so much smaller, meaning more micromanagement of the strip miners.

All the mining vessels will have two strip miner hardpoints and the visuals have been re-worked. You can tell the new ships apart by the number of circular things in the center - 3 for Hulk, 2 for Mackinaw and 1 for Skiff, along with the numbering scheme - Hulk is 09, Mack is 07 and Skiff is 05.

One thing that is great that I hope comes with the September barge/exhumer revamp is new SKINS.

Feast your eyes on these:

Hulk: Morphite Shine SKIN
http://imgur.com/jGRW6xH

Hulk: Digmaster Blazon SKIN
http://imgur.com/KFTo15E

Hulk with ORE Development SKIN
http://imgur.com/c8NMCcY

Hulk with Paydirt Prospector SKIN
http://imgur.com/5K0KmE6

Upcoming Hulk with no SKIN
http://imgur.com/KPBWxec

Mackinaw with Morphite Shine SKIN
http://imgur.com/WCDstzh

Skiff with Morphite Shine SKIN
http://imgur.com/8RgooAi

Monday, August 15, 2016

Eve Online Mining: Upcoming Rorqual Changes

Lot of banter about how long it's taken CCP to make changes to the Rorqual and here and there some opinions about what those changes should be. Since this year's Fanfest CCP's been dropping hints as to the changes they have in mind and the timetable (November, 2016).





One thing is clear, whoever is coming up with the hinted at changes to the Rorqual has not spent quality time mining in nullsec. Probably, hasn't spent quality time mining.

Why so?

Because the hinted at Rorqual changes are idiotic and do not reflect the reality of nullsec mining.

Seems the cool kids these days are all for on-grid boosting. Think taking warfare links out of the POS did nothing for the defense of null systems by small corps/alliances, but that's for another day.

Most nullsec Rorqual boosters are run by multi-boxing miners. I'm tempted to say all, but okay, that would be hyperbole. The Rorq could use attention - the fleet hangar is ridiculously small, smaller than that of the Orca, and its ability to compress is a need of the past, for the most part. The Heavy Water requirement is a pain in the neck, but if it seems necessary that the machine requires upkeep, so be it. We multi-boxers can figure out a way to get our miners to an ice belt when needed.

What we neither need nor want is to have the Rorqual on-grid at the anom or belt. That's where the idiocy floods in and nothing CCP has suggested by way of other changes makes it less idiotic, maybe only more so.

Rorqual mining drones - not needed. We're able to harvest just fine with our boosted Hulks and Skiffs.

Rorqual tank - gee, yeah, let's sit there and suffer a bit longer.

Rorqual offensive capability - let's see, I'm here to harvest but maybe I can risk the Rorqual to get some roaming interceptors on my killboard. Or maybe I'll get really lucky and kill enough of their tackle to warp out - which is wishful thinking. None of which is why I've dedicated so much time and ISK to develop mining toons.

Rorqual - the bait ship. The Rorqual will be able to cast a limited invulnerability spell on itself and the ships in its fleet and on grid for a limited amount of time (5 minutes have been mentioned). Invulnerability comes with immobility and inability to target or damage the enemy, so you get to sit and watch your opponents position themselves as they want while waiting down the timer.

Sure, fit a cyno and wait. But this brings up what's at the root of the problem with having the Rorqual on grid: We may or may not have PvP support ready willing and able to come to our aid at some unknowable point. This means, our mining ops are now dependent on the availability of sufficient PvP pilots that will be on call in case they're needed. You know, go rat or something until we need you. And even if you are on call, will you really be able to respond in time if a wormhole spawns in our mining system and spews pilots with bad intentions?

Most miners are individualistic, independent souls. We multi-box miners welcome corpmates and blues into our mining fleets, but we don't want to have to rely on the availability of other players to mine in nullsec with Rorqual boosts, or Rorqual-level boosts.

And forget the small group or solo miner - who in the world is going to put their Rorq on grid for a single Skiff? Leaving the Rorqual in a POS AFK boosting with a fleet up allows any number of casual solo miners to spend some time alone in an anom and receive the same boosting benefits afforded to mining op fleets.

CCP, before you make more ridiculous moves in this direction, give this some real thought. Not imagination, but what real miners in the field want and need.

Wednesday, August 3, 2016

Eve Online Mining: Nullsec Mining, Part Two

A few more general points before we dig in...

Things to keep in mind when looking for a sov nullsec mining home were discussed in Part One. Another thing to consider when shopping for a home is the availability of ice anomalies, at least if you plan to bring, build or buy your own Rorqual and train your own booster pilot as the Rorq eats up Heavy Water when running the Industrial Core, which you'll want to do as it needs to be running to activate max mining boosts. With Industrial Reconfiguration trained to 5, you'll use this amount of Heavy Water:

Units per minute: 112.6
Units per 5 minutes: 563
Units per hour: 6,756
Units per day: 162,144

Multiply those numbers by the market price per unit of Heavy Water and you'll see that securing a steady supply of Heavy Water is important. It could turn out that the corp you join or the alliance already has an around-the-clock perfect Rorq booster sitting in a POS at your disposal. However, it's also a good possibility that if you have a perfect Rorq booster you'll end up being the player with a character boosting in that POS. While it seems there are quite a few Rorq pilots out there, not that many are "perfect" boosters. By "perfect" you could mean all the related mining leadership skills, Rorq ship skills and Mining Foreman Mindlink, but having all the leadership skills to 5 brings further benefits (+10%) with respect to agility, targeting range, targeting speed, shield amount and armor amount - all nice bonuses.

When you work a nullsec ice anomaly, focus on Glare Crust as it will yield the highest amount of Heavy Water. Ice anomalies have no connection to sov or sov upgrades - like highsec, a system either offers an ice anom or two, or it doesn't. Nullsec ice anoms spawn with the same frequency as those in highsec.

Go HERE for a quick snapshot of what's happening with ice variations and ice products.

The bonuses you will receive from a perfect Rorq plus the value of upgraded sov ore and the yield of a Hulk work together to make nullsec mining much, much more profitable than highsec.

Almost Time to get your fleet on grid

The discussion is about multi-box mining only. Not a fan of solo mining anywhere, but that's especially true in null. If you must remain solo, give some thought to developing a ratting pilot. Mining makes great ISK if you use multiple miners as it scales well - easy to add more miners without much added effort. Solo mining will prove to be a pain in the neck to you and probably those around you.

The roles: miner, hauler, booster and one more not previously mentioned anywhere on this blog - prober. As having a probing toon isn't discussed often when it comes to mining, let's look at why.

Why you want probing skills and gear

My setup includes 4-6 Hulks (or Skiffs depending) on grid at the anom for extended periods of time. That's a lot of ISK and fairly slow aligning ships. Intel is key. Local isn't the main point, I want to know way in advance if non-blues are in the neighborhood. If I haven't started warping before they enter local, it might be too late. Intel is usually provided by alliance or coalition channels, maybe corp channels. The quality of such intel varies greatly from group to group and even moment to moment, depending on how many people are online, where they are located, and how much attention they're paying to their own local. Prime is to have the system in which you're actively mining "boxed," which means you have eyes, or at least eyes you can really count on, in every adjoining system so no one can get into your active system without being seen by scouts first.

Boxing a system is great. Intel is great. But there's one thing that can ruin all of this - wormholes (WHs). Cosmic Signatures that you have to probe down to identify and locate. They might be data, relic, or combat sites - or they could be WHs. WHs are a very popular way for PvP groups to quickly roam about with very little advance warning - and almost no warning if a wormhole they can jump through spawns in your system.

Thus, your probing alt. Whenever a previously unidentified Cosmic Signature appears in your active system, you want to know if it's a WH or a non-threatening PVE site and, if it's a WH, to where it leads, size, and likely lifespan. When there is a WH in your active system your fleet is at risk to a sudden hostile group jumping in without prior warning.

If you keep good track of the WH sigs in your active system, you might make the logistics folks in your corp happy as often a WH chain will lead to a good high or low sec system not far from a market hub. Your PvP folks might appreciate the heads-up also as they can use them for a roam.

What to do when a WH sig appears? Responses by miners vary, maybe due to risk management, complacency, greed, or some mix. Some do nothing different. Some completely stand down. Personally, I usually switch to Skiffs for a faster alignment time.

Also note, WHs make intel channels questionable because WHs can pop up anywhere. You might have a lot of systems covered in your intel channels, but what if a WH pops up next door or close by and there are no reliable eyes between you and that system? Box your active system if at all possible - I'll often sacrifice a miner to do scout duty, or rotate scout duty among corpmates who are also mining, etc. It's easy to get complacent and lazy. It's also expensive.

Finally on grid...

This is anti-climatic: What I have on grid at all times during the mining session are 4-6 Hulks. The booster is in a Rorqual sitting in a POS. The hauler warps in, scoops what's available and warps to the POS where he either dumps it in a compression array or in the fleet hangar of the Rorq, which can also compress ore. I prefer a compression array as it can hold 20 million m3 or ore, but either way works.

Note: I prefer to work out of a POS as opposed to being tethered to a Citadel. Don't want the Rorq bumped off the Citadel and don't want to have to dock to offload the ore (storage space on the Rorq, which is maxed out for cargo, is for Heavy Water and the ore hold is just too small). A small POS can give me a compression array and corporate hangar where I keep mining gear. Make sure it's stronted, and just take it down if attacked.

The questions are, if I'm using Hulks with their small ore holds and keep nothing on grid with them, like an Orca, to put their ore in, how does that work?

Enter the star of our show, the Enormous Freight Container.


http://imgur.com/a/vic7P

That's right, I'm jet can mining in nullsec. But this a very fine jet can - each Enormous Freight Container (EFC) can hold 250,000 m3 of ore! They're a weird thing. Packaged, they're only 2,500 m3 so you can deploy them with a T1 Industrial, but when launched, they blossom to the 250K m3 capacity.

When I'm about to start a mining session, I send my lead miner to an ore anom with the Rorq running boosts in the POS and the rest of my miners waiting there, do a survey, and pick a good spot that will put me in laser range of the Bistot, Arkonor and Mercoxit, at least the bulk of it, then warp the hauler in, launch the EFC, bookmark it and warp back to the POS. Until I've depleted the sweet ore within range of the launched EFC, I'll warp the hauler in to clear it out as need be.

Note: Your miners and hauler will want to set their HUD safety to red so they can all access the EFC.

Note: I make a bookmark off-grid to the ore anom (which is now a pain due to the grid size) and warp my mining crew there from the POS before going directly to the EFC bookmark at the anom. The reason is, it's often many AU between POS and EFC bookmark and it's a horrible feeling to see local fill up while you're in a 30 AU warp with a fleet of Hulks.

What ship I use to haul with varies, but usually either an Orca maxed for cargo or a Miasmos. The Orca is the easiest as it can hold 190K m3 of ore among its three holds if maxed out for cargo, but it's also slower to align. The Miasmos is cheap and aligns quickly, but holds less than 60K m3 of ore. If intel's been a little dicey I'll probably use the Miasmos, but prefer the Orca. Some folks will use a freighter. I don't.

Note: If you want to pick up your EFC at the end of a session, you will have to use a freighter because it's now 250K m3 in size and will remain that size even if empty until it's repackaged. I don't bother. I leave them at the anom, rename them to something like "Feel free to use" and not worry about it. They disappear after downtime but are very cheap and easy to build (suggest you have a BPO, they're also relatively cheap).

Final thoughts

If you're a serious multi-boxer, and by serious I simply mean really enjoy it and are willing to make a bit of effort to situate yourself, you should be in sov nullsec. Yes, sov null right now due to fozziesov is a bit unstable, but while no one can guarantee eternal stability if you do your homework it's possible to find a home in null that will take your game to a much higher level of enjoyment (and ISK generation).

Tuesday, August 2, 2016

Eve Online Mining: Nullsec Mining, Part One

It is now the summer of 2016. Spent most of the last 12 months mining in nullsec, the topic of today's post.

But first: one monitor to rule them all

Am currently back mining in highsec. Have expanded the operation to eight characters working together at the belt - six miners, a hauler and a booster. This setup is used only in low-traffic .9 or 1.0 systems. Still using only one monitor but it works fine (22" widescreen). The hauler (Charon) and booster (Orca) windows are minimized until needed.

http://imgur.com/a/zj1Fr
This setup is designed to focus on the +10% variants of the three main ores offered in that system with two miners assigned to each type. Each miner sorts the survey scan results by quantity - one from large to small, the other, from small to large and targets their assigned 'roids accordingly. If they finish their assigned 'roid type before another pair, they switch to the type with the most 'roids remaining.

Used a similar setup and the same technique in null, though without the hauler and booster on grid with the miners, as will be discussed in Part 2 of this series.

Nullsec Mining Part One: Preparation is key

1. General

Life in null is much different from highsec. Concord isn't around and there's a major difference in mechanics - warp disruption bubbles. Bubbles look a bit like POSes. When inside of a bubble you can't warp unless you're flying a ship immune to this effect. This makes navigating challenging as putting bubbles around gates and stations is a popular pastime in null (the bubble mechanic doesn't work in high or low security space). Also, ships known as interdictors can quickly place bubbles so your multi-box fleet is at much greater risk than it would be in highsec.

There are a number of techniques that can increase your odds of survival, but here's a really vital tip: If you're new to nullsec put an alt in Open University of Celestial Hardship and learn nullsec navigation from pros. It's truly open, no API checks, they teach you everything you need to know about nullsec through well run in-game classes and it's free. More information about 0UCH can be had from this CCP Community Spotlight.

2. Skills

Null will present two significant challenges: upgraded sov ore and upgraded NPC rats. With respect to ore, you will want to train for a Hulk/Skiff and the use of T2 mining laser crystals for Arkonor, Bistot, Crokite, Dark Ochre, Gneiss, Spodumain and Mercoxit. (Note: Mining Mercoxit requires training Deep Core Mining to at least L2 and Mercoxit Processing to L4, which will then allow you to use the Modulated Deep Core Strip Miner II with T2 Mercoxit crystals.)

Dealing with null anom/belt rats requires good shield tanking skills, a decent shield tank and excellent drone skills. You need to tank those rats long enough for your drones to clear them. This makes solo mining in null difficult without being that miner who whines for rat help (sure, your nice corp/alliance mates will come to your rescue, but that gets old for everyone). This is another reason mining scales well - the more drones you have to throw at the rats, the faster you can clear the anom of them. Use T2 mediums and consider assigning them to guard the pilot that's being primaried by the rats. The mediums main damage type should be matched with the rats' main resist weakness.

With excellent skills in both tanking and drones and a pricey fit, it is possible for a solo Skiff or Hulk (yes, a Hulk) to solo mine unless Faction battleships spawn, in which case you'll probably need to either warp out or call for help - but this won't happen often and ratting pilots are usually happy to come kill Faction battleships on the chance they get a good loot drop.

3. Finding a nullsec corp

This is the most important thing you'll do in preparation for becoming a nullsec miner. You want to mine prime nullsec ores in fully ore-upgraded sov systems with a security rating low enough that the spawned anoms will produce the +10% variations of those prime ores. Nullsec systems owned by player alliances can be upgraded to produce ore anomalies that contain prime ores. There are five levels of potential upgrades, 1-5, and each level results in a larger spawn - from small to colossal. Read this dev blog for more information about sov null ore anoms. (Note: Even with the ore upgrades installed, a certain amount of ore must be mined each day to maintain the spawn levels, and, the ore upgrades do not determine the variants of prime ore (+5% or +10%) that spawn - that is determined by the system's security rating.)

The above describes a prime scenario, but this is simply one factor to consider. Prime is nice, but in general nullsec ores will produce more money from your mining efforts than highsec, by about a factor of 2. If you want an idea of the difference, install Eve Isk per Hour and compare various scenarios. Other factors will weigh heavily in choosing where you want to set up your null mining operation.

There are resources available that will help your search for a nullsec corp/alliance:

Doltan Maps: Link will take you to the Universe page from which you can click to look at Regions and get detailed information, including Sovereignty, Security Status, Belts/Ice, etc. Find out who owns the various Regions of nullsec and which Regions might appeal to you.

Alliance/Corp Recruitment - Eve-O Forums: Use the forum to find corps that might interest you, read their ads, then do your due diligence (check their killboard, Google them, join their in-game recruitment chat channel, talk to recruiters, talk to current/former members identified by Eve Who).

zkillboard: Check the corporate and alliance killboard to see where they're active, how they're doing, what they fly, how often they lose mining vessels, etc.

You'll be looking for several things from a nullsec corp:

Buyback Program: Most corps that will fit your needs will offer an ore/ice/loot buyback program. You mine and they buy what you mine usually via contract with the raw ore in the station where you mined it. Very easy way to convert ore to ISK. However, you have to look at their program carefully as most buyback programs price your ore somewhere below Jita market so that buying your ore isn't a money-losing proposition for the corp or alliance. You must decide if the discount they offer is worth it to you. One easy way to do this is to compare their buyback price with the estimated value for that ore as indicated by Evepraisal.com. Be neither too greedy nor too generous. Be what you consider fair.

Bear in mind: Folks went through a lot of time, effort and ISK to establish and maintain the piece of nullsec sov they're willing to make available to you and it's only right they expect you to bring something to the table. Yes, thanks to fozziesov it's nice having miners around to help with the Activity Defense Multiplier Industry Index, but maintaining an alliance can be an expensive proposition, especially if they have an excellent ship replacement program (SRP).

Ship Replacement Program: Diplomacy is a wonderful thing, until it isn't. Groups have to be ready, willing and able to seize and defend space in nullsec. Ships are lost. All nullsec alliances worth a grain of salt offer their pilots a SRP to ease the burden of losing ships in combat. You may not think of yourself as a combat pilot, but you might want to re-think that and have at least one in-corp alt with combat skills so that you can participate in home defense fleets, mandatory deployments, or other CTAs (call to arms). Many nullsec corps will require that you have at least one combat toon that participates in ops. While you may love to mine hour after hour, day after day, there's a very good chance you'll come to welcome the diversion of a well (or even poorly) run combat fleet.

What is replaced and how quickly it is replaced varies widely, so you'll need to ask for details. Their attitude toward SRP can tell you something about how well they treat or think of their line members.

Logistics: You won't want to fly 10 Hulks directly to your nullsec home and you will need other supplies during your stay. Most nullsec corps/alliances are very keen on logistics and will be able to help you with Jump Freighter services. But this has to come with a caveat - it's an old scam to accept a pilot into a corp, tell him you'll JF all his gear to the nullsec HQ, then steal it all after he contracts it over. Really do your homework on the corp/alliance, make sure you contract only to vouched for alt toons or corps, etc. Ideally, if you commit to living in nullsec as a serious multi-boxer you will want to develop your own JF alts and have your own jump freighters. Having the help of others is great, but it's always good to know you can get mobile on your own if need be.

Intel: You want to find yourself in a nullsec situation where around the clock intel chat channels are buzzing with sightings of non-blue pilots. The importance of reliable intel cannot be overstated. You are a squishy target and if a non-blue slips into local odds are he's in warp to you.

In Part Two (link) about mining in nullsec will take a look at how to do it efficiently. Meanwhile, the fits below provide some idea what to expect regarding skills and cost.

Hulk Fits:

Group Fit (3 or more Hulks together):

[Hulk, Gurista Null Tank]
Mining Laser Upgrade II
Mining Laser Upgrade II

Survey Scanner II
Gistii A-Type Small Shield Booster
Gist C-Type Kinetic Deflection Field
Gist C-Type Thermal Dissipation Field

Modulated Strip Miner II
Modulated Strip Miner II
Modulated Strip Miner II

Medium Core Defense Field Extender I
Medium Ice Harvester Accelerator I or Medium Mercoxit Mining Crystal Optimization I  (depending on the pilot's skills or have one Hulk for Mercoxit and one for ice)

Vespa II x5

Variety of T2 mining crystals in cargo hold.

Solo Fit:

[Hulk, Gurista Solo]
Mining Laser Upgrade II
Mining Laser Upgrade II

Gistii A-Type Small Shield Booster
Caldari Navy Small Shield Extender
Gist X-Type Kinetic Deflection Field
Survey Scanner II

Modulated Strip Miner II
Modulated Strip Miner II
Modulated Strip Miner II

Medium Anti-Kinetic Screen Reinforcer II
Medium Anti-Thermal Screen Reinforcer II


Vespa II x5