With my move to low sec, a question I failed to address is what to do with my resource harvesting alt? I actually have three accounts and I alternate the training time between a PI/mining alt and a hauling alt. I just finished a skill plan for my harvesting alt and I'm now concentrating on turning my hauling alt into my favorite type of pilot: cloaky.
The question I now have is what to do with my harvesting alt. It has a nice set of skills for high sec, but probably not so good for low. Looking at the certificates earned (yes, I use certificates) I think I didn't do too badly.
General
Core Competency - Standard
High-Velocity Helmsman - Standard
Science
Research Manager - Standard
Planetary Interaction
Colony Management - Improved
Planetology - Standard
Mining
Resource Harvester - Improved
Ice Specialist - Improved
Amarr Industry - Prospector - Basic
Drone Control - Basic
Combat Drone Control - Standard
Specialist Drone Operator - Basic
Active Shield Tanking - Standard
Passive Shield Tanking - Basic
I included all of the combat related certificates in with mining because those are the skills needed to operate mining barges effectively. And if I had remained I would spend another two months and earn the following certs:
Science
Research Manager - Improved
Planetary Interaction
Planetology - Improved
Mining
Resource Harvester - Elite
Ice Specialist - Elite
Passive Shield Tanking - Standard
Amarr Industry - Prospector - Elite
Armor Tanking -Standard
But with my attention on low sec now, I need a pilot that can fly a cloaky hauler with a larger cargo capacity that a Prowler. Ideally I would like to fly a ship capable of moving packaged cruisers around low sec, like a Viator. My hauling pilot is a lot closer to that goal.
So what do I do with my harvesting alt? I stopped doing planetary interaction in high sec because the time spent maintaining colonies was taking away from my fun time. For mining in low sec I don't want to multi-box and Wandering Rose does a much better job. The best use I've come up with is to find either a Caldari or a Amarr corporation in my area of low sec and raise standings enough to get perfect refining in even more stations. I can run mining missions (?!) while I make bookmarks in new low sec systems.
the problem with "harvesting" type alts is that they require active management, e.g. miner must sit in a belt to get the goodies. If you aren't planning on engaging actively, because you'd rather be doing fun stuff, you'd be better off taking the main harvester into production/trade. Then you can work out a weekly production and daily order check schedule to minimize your time spent on those characters. In low and null (and WH) you can set PI up for weekly checkups much more easily than high sec. Personally, I have 2 miners who mine in hisec (I'm sorta afk, but paying attention to what's going on in system), while I play around on my main. They're both full blown indy alts (t1/2 production, invention, research, mining, PI, hauling) and I have a POS. Saturday mornings is usually industry jobs time for me, with a few hours during the week for cycling jobs and maintaining orders.
ReplyDeleteIs the harvester set up for solo? Or for fleet mining?
ReplyDeleteBecause I know a guy who took an Orca pilot alt, with mining boost skills, and cross-trained into the Loki for offgrid combat boosting...
Now that you will be in low sec it is worthwhile to teach him scouting/scanning skills and to hone his hacking/archeology/salvaging skills. That way you two box anamolies. Essentially you find the anamolies with the alt and sit in them cloaked while your main kills the npc's. If you have to warp out your main because of damage or neut's in system, you can do so without the site despawning. After the npc's are killed, use the alt to get the loot. If more npc's appear, warp out the alt and kill them with your main.
ReplyDeleteOne of my alts is set up to do PI in low sec. It's far from perfect PI (I sometimes let the extractors expire or extract too much of one product and clog my system or don't have the right mix to keep production at 100%, etc. etc.). But it's pretty hands-off isk making and I don't worry about the details. Every couple days (if I think about it) I take 10 minutes to update the extractors and every week or two I use my viator to pick up the robotics that I've produced. I list them in a low sec market and eventually they sell for Jita prices and add several tens of millions to my bankroll.
ReplyDeleteWhile it's not perfect by a long shot - for me it fits the bill of something to keep the alt actively producing some isk to be used for more interesting endeavors...