The Goal Post

[Redbeard]

Charisma is indeed useless for mining, but wont be useless for other things to be trained (social skills etc). It is still of course the least worthwhile stat, but does have its limited uses.

Yes Jwoz that is correct. 1 orca and 4 hulks in each belt is comfortable enough where the miners have minimal overlap, the rocks dont pop too quickly, seems to be optimal so far. Still tweaking things.

Boosting isnt down too often, but it does affect things a bit.

I just found out how much the mining foreman link costs these days... considering, if you can still boost from anywhere in the system and dont have to be in the same belt, just parking the orca somewhere, forming a single gang but still splitting into 2 groups and going to different belts, and then pulling a dedicated hauler.

Honestly I dont know if a) a dedicated hauler could keep up with 8 pimped hulks and b) if that is a better setup than 2 orcas, each hauling for their subgroup and temporarily losing out on bonuses.

Still tweaking, opinions are welcome.

Goal Update:
After a mining op earlier today, have enough funds to purchase 2 of the 3 hulks I need. Short term goal: purchase last hulk (for now).

[moog]

Charisma is indeed useless for mining

Except for the leadership skills on your orca/rorq/booster that help passively boost your fleet:

• siege warfare for shields
• armored warfare for armor
• skirmish warfare for agility, so you align and warp out faster
• information warfare for targeting range (very useful if you're using Drones to zap the rats)
• leadership/wing command for fleet structure

I'd also point you at Mackinaws over Hulks if you're mining in a system with a station or POS.
Mack has 35,000m3 Ore Bay, you just wait the ~15m for it to fill, then dock/POS up and drop it off.
No need for a dedicated hauler, so you have an extra miner.
Much less stress, too, as you're not continually flying the hauler around collecting cans.
No cans for griefers to flip/shoot.
In null, a big advantage is not leaving cans in the field when you POS up on neuts, so they can't tell where you were mining (as long as you destroy the rat wrecks, too).