Not just the title of an excellent thread on mining and its future by players, but now the title of this blog to introduce the much whispered and talked about addition to the asteroid fields of New Eden. This blog will finish by touching on many of the other changes coming to complement the arrival of this new industrial behemoth.

ORE Capital Ship

Outer Ring Excavations has been hard at work over the last year to answer the rising need for a logistical mining support platform capable of surviving the rigors of the frontier whilst serving as a central command platform for mining operations. The ship fills this role by having the unique ability to compress ore and ice to a fraction of its original volume for transport and storage using the latest in advanced techniques. Additional abilities include:

• Fitting capital tractor beam modules which can pull cargo containers from two hundred kilometres at a much faster velocity than normal tractors beams can,
• Inherent bonuses to the range of survey and cargo scanners allowing it to survey asteroid belts at a glance from its position and the status of cargo cans for its mining gang and,
• It can equip multiple gang links and provide significant bonuses to the mining foreman gang links.
• Bonus to Capital Shield Transporter range per lvl of ship skill.
• Like other ships in its class, the ORE Capital Ship will also:
  • Include a ship maintenance bay, corp hangar, a generous drone bay and cargohold,
  • Have the ability to fit a clone vat bay, and
  • Be propelled by its own jump drive to move between systems.

How does the ship operate?

The ship requires an Industrial Core module to function. Module activation facilitates the operation of the ship into its deployed mode. When in deployed mode, the ship's assembly lines and special bonuses are active and it can provide remote assistance, but it cannot move, warp or jump. The Industrial Core requires a skill to operate which reduces the fuel use of the module.

How does it compress ore/ice?

The ship has assembly lines which the capsuleer can activate for compression of ore and ice. Blueprints are needed to facilitate the compression process, thus turning normal ore into compressed ore in the same way manufacturing operates.

What will it cost?

The initial investment will be slightly higher to that of a dreadnought to build, at least two new skills will be required (one for the ship and one for the deployment module) in addition to the cost of the deployment module.

Mining Foreman Links Revamp

A number of the Mining Foreman links are being revised, the revisions and reasons are:

• Drone Coordination has been broken since inception due to the nature of the gang bonus system. This module has been changed to provide a bonus to mining laser, ice harvester and gas harvester range.
• The Laser Optimization link will have the ice harvesting and gas cloud harvesting duration bonus added.
• The Ice Harvesting link will be changed to provide a bonus to the capacitor need of mining lasers, ice harvesters and gas cloud harvesters.

Small Update to the Survey Scanner UI

The survey scanner UI has been cleaned up so users will be quickly able to see which asteroids are desired and information can be passed to your gang via gang broadcasts, directing them to the juiciest ‘roids.

In closing

Mining is the oldest profession in New Eden and as the true foundation of EVE from which all other things are made (to one day be destroyed in the great circle of EVE life) deserves more love and attention that it has received. We hope the upcoming and future patches are just the initial scratch on the surface (literally) of what is possible with mining.

As always, we welcome any constructive feedback you have and hope you will continue to press for changes and new features as you have always done in the relevant forums.

Ave - Chronotis

Update: Please see additional information here and here and here