Fleet Command in Eve Online
In Eve Online it’s possible to form fleets with other players to get benefits from designated fleet boosters. This is useful for all parts of Eve, from player vs player combat to mining operations while mining ore and harvesting ice. To be able to offer great mining boosts you need more than a mining foreman platform, you also need specific skills to operate the mining foreman burst modules efficiently. This Eve Online fleet mining guide goes over the skills needed, what modules to use and suggests fittings for fleet command ships.
Skills for Fleet Mining Boosts
Fleet Boosting Modules
There are only two modules that are used directly for fleet mining operation boosting, These are Mining Foreman Burst I and the tech 2 version Mining Foreman Burst II. These modules require ammunition called Command Burst Charges which control the effect of the mining burst given. The Mining Foreman Burst II gives a +25% bonus to the effect of the Mining Foreman Burst charges.
The three Mining Foreman Burst Charges are:
Mining Equipment Preservation Charges which reduce the crystal volatility by 15%.
Mining Laser Field Enhancement Charges which increase the range of Mining and Survey modules by 30%.
Mining Laser Optimization Charges which reduce the cycle time and capacitor use of mining modules by 15%.
You only need Leadership I and Mining Foreman I to be able to start using these modules, with the Tech 2 variant needing Leadership V, Mining Foreman V and Mining Director I.
Finally, you need a ship that is able to use the Mining Foreman Burst modules. There are three ships in Eve Online that are dedicated as a mining foreman platform, the Porpoise, Orca and Rorqual.
The Porpoise
The Porpoise is the beginner level mining foreman platform which requires the least investment of ISK to get. The skills needed to fly a porpoise is Industrial Command Ship I, Mining Director I, Ore Industrial III, Spaceship Command V, Mining Foreman V and Leadership I. Below are the traits of the ship.
From these traits, you can see how the Porpoise can truly optimize a mining operation, both in high sec and lower security areas. Also, the special bonus to mining drones allows it to take part in any gathering of minerals or ice while boosting the mining abilities of the fleet.
Fitting a Porpoise
The Porpoise can be fitted in a variety of ways to fulfill several purposes. There is no way to place them all here but below you can find a fitting that is suitable for a fleet mining operation in high sec.
| High | Medium | Low | Rigs | Cargo+Drones |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mining Foreman Burst II x 2 | Drone Navigation Computer II x 3 | Damage Control II | Medium Drone Mining Augmentor II x 2 | Mining Laser Field Enhancement Charges |
| Tractor Beam | Microwarpdrive | Reinforces Bulkheads II | Medium Transverse Bulkhead II | Mining Laser Optimization Charges |
| Hobgoblin II x 5 | ||||
| Mining Drone II x 5 |
The Orca
The Orca was designed to be a high sec variation of the Rorqual and is suitable as such. The Orca shares the skills needed to fly a Porpoise which is Industrial Command Ship I, Mining Director I, Ore Industrial III, Spaceship Command V, Mining Foreman V and Leadership I. Below are the traits of the ship.
From these traits, you can see that the Orca outranks the Porpoise on all accounts and has a greater ore hold than the Porpoise. The only stage where the Porpoise could be better than the Orca is for wormhole operations were ship mass is an important factor.
And like the Porpoise, the Orca can take part in resource gathering by using drones with an even greater bonus than the Porpoise. In fact, at max skills, the ore yield of an Orca with 5 Tech II drones and mining rigs is about the same as a semi-tanked Procurer. If you take a chance with the more expensive mining drones an Orca can outperform a barge.
Fitting an Orca
Below you can see an Orca fitting that is designed for high sec operations.
| High | Medium | Low | Rigs | Cargo + Drones |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mining Foreman Burst II x 3 | Adaptive Invulnerability Field II | Damage Control II | Large Drone Mining Augmentor II x 2 | Mining Laser Field Enhancement Charges |
| Shield Command Burst II x 2 | EM Ward Field II | Reinforced Bulkheads II | Large Transverse Bulkhead II | Mining Laser Optimization Charges |
| Small Tractor Beam | Thermal Dissipation Field II | Hobgoblin II x 5 | ||
| Drone Navigation Computer II x 2 | Mining Drone II x 5 |
The Rorqual
The Rorqual is a capital ship that can only be used in space with 0.3 security or less. operation of a Rorqual is somewhat more complex than a Porpoise and Orca but its ability to boost a mining fleet is surpassed by none. Being a capital ship, it requires far more skills than both the Porpoise and the Orca do and unless you are training to become a capital pilot, the training investment might not be worth it.
Having said that lets look at the traits.
One of the things that separate the Rorqual from the other mining platforms is its ability to compress ore, allowing it to carry way more ore than it’s cargo hold would suggest.
The Rorqual also has a ship maintenance bay to store industrial ships, it can accommodate jump clones and has a jump drive system as well. This means that the Rorqual can be moved to a remote location, a group of miners can clone jump to that location and a fleet mining operation started with the ships in the Rorqual bay.
I would however strongly recommend practicing using the other fleet mining platforms first as the Rorqual takes some time to learn on its own.
Forming a Fleet
To form a fleet, you can either left-click yourself or a potential fleet member and then click “form fleet with …”. This will open up the fleet window shown below. Here you can move fleet members around and assign them as squad members or commanders as needed for the fleet.
If the fleet is already formed you can find it by using the fleet finder in the same window. There you will get a list of all fleets that you are eligible to join. The fleet history tab then collects everything that occurs in the fleet, such as ore mined and transported.
How to Setup a Fleet Mining Operation
Fleet mining is usually performed in the following manner. There is a single booster for the fleet that resides in a ship belonging to one of the following ships classes: Porpoise, Orca or Rorqual.
The miners either all gather around the fleet boosting ship dropping ore directly into the fleet hangar of the boosting ship or they spread around the belt, in which case the fleet booster needs to drag full jettisoned containers to him with a tractor beam and store the mined material in the fleet hangar.
The fleet must also have a dedicated hauler, which swoops back and forth between the fleet booster and a station where he stores everything mined until the end of the mining op. The fleet booster must allow every member of the fleet to access the fleet hangar for this to work. To do so he must press the button shown in the image below.
Finally, if the operation is in null-sec there needs to be someone that can tank the belt rats or kill them if they become a problem. If properly set up the mining operation can proceed smoothly without much interruption until there is nothing left on the mining belt or site.
Now if you liked this fleet mining guide then be sure to share it with your friends and allies and feel free to check out my other Eve Online guides.
Rorquals will outmine any other ship on the field. It is npt only around for compressing.