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EVE Evolved: Anatomy of a mining op
When EVE Online was first released in 2003, it was designed as a massive universe of competition and conflict between space-faring megacorporations in the distant future. Players bought into the premise completely and soon set about building their own empires and waging wars with neighbours. Corporations ran regular mining operations for resources to build frigates and cruisers for their members, and some of the larger corps co-operatively mined to build the first ever battleships in the game. The mining op has been a staple activity in the game ever since, providing a way for groups to work together on large manufacturing projects or just make some ISK during their down-time. Mining gets a lot of flak for being one of the most boring and least profitable professions in the game, but that's not exactly true. Solo mining can be a great way to spend your downtime while doing other activities, and it ensures that you're online when something exciting happens like a live event, your wormhole system being invaded, or a titan being tackled by your alliance. Co-operative mining ops also offer the social value of bonding with your corpmates when there's nothing else going on. Some players even run dozens of accounts at the same time to turn this ordinarily placid activity into an intensive profit-making activity focused on efficiency and organisation skills. With mining due to make a resurgence in the summer expansion, this edition of EVE Evolved is dedicated to the humble mining operation. I'll take a look at the various options for mining ships, the different haulers available, and the four different areas you can mine in.
EVE Evolved: Get ready for Odyssey
With just two days to go until EVE Online's exploration-focused Odyssey expansion goes live, players have been scouring the test server for information that can give them an edge. Some have been practicing moon surveying techniques for the upcoming redistribution of tech 2 minerals, and others are hoping to get rich quick by speculating on battleship price changes. Explorers are kitting out new exploration ships, theorycrafters are working on new setups for rebalanced ships, and pirates are setting up base in lowsec areas that are about to become fertile hunting grounds. Odyssey isn't quite the Apocrypha-level expansion I've been hoping for, but it certainly seems set to shake things up. Changes to moon minerals will throw nullsec into chaos and hopefully ignite some big territorial wars, and battleship buffs may change EVE's popular fleet compositions. The Discovery Scanner Overlay will make exploration much easier for new players to get into, but will also give pirates another tool with which to hunt down explorers. A new co-operative hacking minigame will also make exploration more of a team sport. But how can you make the most of the expansion from day one, and what can you do today to prepare for it? In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at the new exploration system and other changes you can expect when you log in on Tuesday, and what you can do now to make the most of them.
EVE Online reveals ship revamp details, shows off new mining ship
Back in march, EVE Online developer CCP Games announced its ambitious plan to revamp EVE Online's entire range of ships. Dozens of new ships have been added over the game's nine year history, and now developers are reorganising them into specific ship lines that fulfill most distinct roles. A big part of the system is the removal of ship tiers for tech 1 ships, a change that will see all of the currently underused low-tier ships boosted and given new roles. In a new devblog today, CCP released the first concrete details on how that will take place. Miners will be happy to know that all barges will be given a hitpoint increase to make them harder to suicide kill, and that all three mining barges will be specialised to support a particular style of mining. The Covetor and Hulk will have the biggest mining yield but their small cargo holds and poor defenses will limit them to mining ops with haulers on hand. The Retriever and Mackinaw will have smaller yields but huge specialised ore bays, making them better ships for AFK mining and ninja mining. The Procurer and Skiff will have the lowest mining yields but their battleship-sized tank will make it difficult to suicide gank. Finally, a new entry level ORE mining frigate will be released for new players.
