Logistic & Security challenges of Interstellar Mining

K1NG

Captain
Feb 21, 2015
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K1NG_Brit
We know. What you don't understand is that the Orion has specialized cargo holds for ore, and these holds do not appear to support the new cargo system that was revealed the other day. I'm guessing the Orion will be more like a hopper car:
Now I'm no betting man. But If I was, I'd say the Orion and the hull might be using some kinda of standardized cargo containers.

But that's just me.

*cough*
 

RipVanDan

Space Marshal
Dec 23, 2014
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RipVanDan
https://robertsspaceindustries.com/comm-link/transmission/14681-Hull-A-Q-A

Now that there is some additional information. From what I am seeing a Hull A/b can transport from orbit to planet and that will be the introductory role. So we would be able to have them transferring cargo from an Orion to a E in location. I am thinking if the mechanics will be in place for that it should be an easy thing to transport from an Orion directly to the E.
 

Huegpaynis

Space Marshal
May 28, 2014
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Huegpaynis
On the protection side of things, are we dead set on having an idris run picket duties? While it'd be an ideal solution in many cases, I'm wondering if it won't be cost-prohibitive to run a full-blown warship for the miners. Second, I'm also curious at what point the Idris would be overwhelmed trying to gun down a mass of smaller targets. Yes, it has several fighters, but that can only account for so much coverage. In most cases, 2-3 fighters and the Idris would be sufficient, but what do we do if they get overwhelmed or swarmed? Say someone shows up with 15 shipsto try and take us out?

What I'm getting at is, would it perhaps be a better solution to use squadrons of appropriately-ranged fighters in a standalone deployment, both in terms of coverage and cost? For example, say you have 2 gladius' and an idris, which is 12 pilots and crew. You could split that up into 12 gladius' on a short hop, or for longer hauls, 6 fully manned vanguards, or 12 if the pilots are willing to hire out or slave their turrets.

Summoning cost analysis wizards!

Edit: shoeing my typos the door.
 

Black Sunder

Rock Raiders
Officer
Jun 19, 2014
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Figure I'll pt my 2 cents in because this is the area I'm most interested in and I'm not worried about security at all for several reasons:

I see mining groups forming and disbanding organically every day out of the main mining division/group/drinking club that we'll establish later when people are on and have time to play. So you need a crew for your ship, you get on mumble and ask around but oh this group is already hard at work so you ask if you can join. More people get on and roles assigned, people asked and, small group leaders emerge for the night and when its over it disbands and starts over tomorrow.

As to security, if the TEST brand holds strong, people will want to help the industry group as a whole and get paid for killing things that may come to hurt them if it pays well. I honestly don't know where the idea came that you need to park an Idris next to an Orion to protect it because several fighters of various sizes should be able to take care of a single Orion most likely. If the worst case does happen then they would screen long enough for the Orion to jump out. Hopefully you'd have a Tracker of some kind with long range radar to see this incoming before it happens. And even then I just don't don't see the Orion being the first and last mining ship we'll get.

And something else, manpower guys. Manpower and resources like fuel. Idris is like what 10 people at the bare minimum? Good luck getting someone to park one much less 2 with full crews of players next to you so you can mine. You know how you lose an Idris? You solo it with NPCs and go afk while your friend mines. Saw that in Eve Online with Carriers and the pirate encounter sites. Same principle applies.

CIG would be incredibly stupid to not allow mining to happen on smaller ships. You may need to take an existing ship and upgrade/modify it to do mining but it should be possible. It won't be as efficient and you'll hold far less but you'll learn how its done and can apply those skills to a larger and larger ship as you move up. I don't see fleets of Orions going out every night for ops that require capital protection. I see smaller groups working together and once critical mass is reached then people return to dock and bring out the Orions to play.

For the largest ops called on by the division leader it would be a pre planned op in advance with the whole Squadron getting in on it to maximize the profit and minimize the time spent on the op. This would mean a full capital fleet with masses of scouts/fighters and even some explorers with their unique skills, protecting a large contingent of miners and transport vessels so they can work in peace.

So again I'm not worried about security because it will be an organic thing that will happen as people start getting on to play and coalesce into groups.
 

Kersakov

Rear Admiral
Donor
Apr 1, 2015
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Kersakov
Just a point regarding which Hull you would put with an Orion from the RSI Q&A:

“Which Hull would better compliment the operation of an RSI Orion mining platform?”
A Hull C or larger would be best for dealing with the amount of ore the Orion produces. If you’re mining in a safe area or have a good escort team, the Hull D would be best. If you’re looking to try and escape from scrapes more easily using just the two ships, a Hull C seems preferable.

When it does come to using Orions I would think individual groups of Orion-D pairs would be better than several Orions relying on an E. Reduces the Single Point-of-Failure of the System...
 

Bishop

Space Marshal
Jul 21, 2014
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Macr0
Thanks Kersakov, was just about to re-post the same.
I guess with that it is confirmed that one can reload from an Orion to the Hull series.

Additonally - Ben Lesnick spoke about it at following video at 8:40

Was also interesting to read how Black Sunder experience it in EVE. I myself never played Eve, so I might think that there is a lot of truth in what he says.

The fact though that they wrote:
If you’re mining in a safe area
tells me that there will be some more rewarding mining sites which will require some serious protection for simply reaching it.
If not from players, then from NPC's.
 
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Black Sunder

Rock Raiders
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Thanks Kersakov, was just about to re-post the same.
I guess with that it is confirmed that one can reload from an Orion to the Hull series.

Was also interesting to read how Black Sunder experience it in EVE. I myself never played Eve, so I might think that there is a lot of truth in what he says.

The fact though that they wrote:

tells me that there will be some more rewarding mining sites which will require some serious protection for simply reaching it.
If not from players, then from NPC's.

Played Eve for 2 and a half years before going over to play WoT and never looked back. I was a carebear, I stayed in hi-sec all the time except at the end when I lived in a wormhole and a time when I rented a 0.0 system for myself for a while and used a carrier. I had several ships, and had done everything from mining, research, manufacturing, missions, etc. Even did pvp. I even led fleets and called how to go about doing crap. Saw many things and heard even more things from the people I met. It was my FIRST MMO. Think about that. It has shaped my online playing ever since and I don't regret it one bit.

Just as an aside. In Eve for large mining ops you would get several of the high tier mining ships(Hulks) together along with a ship called an Orca. Or 2 Orcas. One Orca would ferry ore back to the station while one remained on site to provide bonuses to your cycle time and yield. You could strip a belt fairly quickly before moving on.

The one thing that was constant is people losing very valuable crap for no reason because they were careless. I did this too several times but I could always rebuy it all because I never flew what I couldn't afford to lose.

I'm still not too awfully worried about security for mining and other activities for my reasons mentioned before but also because of the instance system and how many or few people can fit in one. I believe 100% that frontier areas that are mined will give a much greater return on investment than mining in high security space.
 

Kersakov

Rear Admiral
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Apr 1, 2015
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Kersakov
tells me that there will be some more rewarding mining sites which will require some serious protection for simply reaching it.
If not from players, then from NPC's.
This.
I'd really love to see areas that require a lot of effort and coordination simply to get to, let alone mine (with the appropriate reward of course). I know a lot of miners are not interested in the fighting elements of the game but for the do-it-alls like myself I'd find this kind of thing really rewarding.
 

Liquor_and_ores

Space Marshal
Jun 22, 2014
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Liquor_and_Ores
I have a feeling if a bunch of Test Orions and hulls are in one spot, the fighting oriented Test members will want to hang around to kill the NPC/player pirates that eventually get baited in trying for easy kills :D
 

OdinsBrother

Vice Admiral
May 2, 2015
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odinsbrother
Hull E would be overkill. Also, the Orion doesn't appear to come equipped with cargo containers for the ore that would allow ship-to-ship cargo transfers.

</plan foiled>

It would be better to just have a standby defense team in-system while the team of Orions do their thing, fill up their hold, make sure the mining sites are bookmarked, head back to the station to offload the ore, then repeat the cycle of mining.

The Orion has an absurdly large cargo hold for ore anyway, it's pretty obvious that CIG intended this so we wouldn't need transport ships to move the ore.

So here's what my personal structure for a large TEST mining op would be:

Defense Team: 1 Idris-P, equipped with a minimum of two Gladius fighters (loaded up with heavy ammunition), one Gladiator, and one Hornet.

Alternative Defense Asset: 2 Hornets, at a minimum, would have to park near the Orions and power off some of their equipment to save fuel while keeping sensors on.

Mining Team: Minimum of 3 Orions.

Combat assets prepared in advance at the station or planetside, so that any nearby TESTies can respond by hurrying to the staged assets, jump in, and take off to defend our Orions.

The Idris-P would watch over the Orions at a safe distance, not too close to scare off the dumber pirates, but far enough to bait the small fry into attacking.

The Orion should be able to continue their work with minimal interruption while letting their automated turrets keep the enemy pirates at bay, as the Defense Team moves to engage with their fighters.

We don't really need a complicated structure for mining ops. Just get to the point where our advance scouts discovered the mineral deposits, get that ore, go to station, sell. Done.

Also, re. profit splits, that'll probably be a per-operation basis, we are unlikely to institute a fixed rate in TEST.
What about Hazzard pay
 

WarrenPeace

Space Marshal
Jul 17, 2014
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Shortspark

Fenrig

Rear Admiral
May 25, 2015
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Fenrig
I guess with that it is confirmed that one can reload from an Orion to the Hull series.
Note the way it's phrased in the video though. It sounds like the containers on the Orion are not removable, but that the HULL series will be able to affix similar style containers on their tree to transfer the ore to.

Regarding your earlier commentary about using a Hull E for 3-4 Orions, it's worth noting that a Hull E will be capable of carrying more than 10 full loads from Orions before needing to dump. That seems a bit excessive since 2x Hull Ds and a Starfarer (which you will probably need to keep the Orions and escorts fueled over a duration mine -- perhaps it is running 1/2 fuel tanks and 1/2 ore containers on the bottom) would be able to keep up with 3x Orions.
 
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