The AFK Orca Debate

A recent debate on the EVE forums about the possibility of Orca and Rorqual changes inspired this post. Unlike my Future Visions: Mining post, this article will take a deeper look at the Orca, which is currently having a bit of an identity crisis. Is it a solo mining platform, or a fleet support ship? How do we encourage active gameplay while balancing it's mining capabilities and avoid rendering it just another ship that you relegate to alts? These are not easy problems to solve and will probably require a complete mining overhaul.

Before the moon changes last year, AFK Orca mining was prevalent in HiSec space. In the part of Domain I call home there were half a dozen moons available to mine each day, and at all hours of the day there were dozens upon dozens of AFK Orcas lazily orbiting gigantic Spodumain rocks with 'Augmented' mining drones. I knew they were AFK because I would bump them out of drone control range. Over time, the Orcas would lumber back to the rock they had been orbiting, but their drones would not begin mining again for long periods of time - often over an hour.

With the changes to moon mining and what the player base has been calling 'Scarcity', AFK Orcas are somewhat less prevalent, but still ubiquitous. Despite reduction in asteroid size AFK Orca mining is just as effective and doable as it was before. Here's some proof:

These are the results of a test that Scipio Artelius ran, comparing the AFK-ability of the Orca vs a solo Skiff. As you can see, the Orca required 4x less attention than a mining barge. Scipio did not need to attend to his client for a whopping 20 minutes until he reset drones. But the Orca can go AFK even longer - all a player has to do is find 5 rocks of Veldspar with 100k units in them. This will allow for 45 minutes of AFK time. And these rocks are not rare for those willing to put in a small amount of effort to scout at range from the trade hubs.

Interestingly, what Scipio also found was that an AFK-ish Orca had approximately the same yield as the solo Skiff. So the next time you see an AFK Orca in the belt, each drone assigned to a different rock, remember that the player - who isn't even there - is making the same amount of ISK/hr as a solo exhumer and with 350k EHP.

Players are naturally upset at CCP Rattati's commentary about how CCP wants to rework the way Rorquals and Orcas function. Some comments made by players include the following:

• AFK Orca mining is a myth. AFK Orca mining never happens.
• If you leave your Orca AFK for longer than 5 minutes, you come back to idle drones.
• Orca's require more APM than barges.
• The Orca is an aspirational ship for solo miners.
• The yield is so low it's not worth it.
• The cargo fills up too fast to AFK.

Let's pay no mind to the fact that many of these statements are contradictory. Here are some actual facts about AFK Orca mining:

• The Orca's drones deposit ore straight into the massive ore bay of the ship: 187,500m3 at max skills. Mining with T2 drones and max skills yields 1,021m3 per cycle. 187,500m3 divided by 1,021m3 = 183 mining cycles to fill the ore hold. At 60 seconds per cycle (not including travel time), that's 3 hours before the hold is full. 
• The APM of Orca mining depends on the size of the rocks. With the largest rocks available in HiSec an Orca can go AFK for 45 minutes.
• AFK Orca mining does happen. Check out southern Domain. You'll find AFK Orcas in the belts and at moons. They are conspicuous. 

The Orca: A Future Vision

From the perspective of a HiSec player, Orcas are fairly oppressive. Even a modestly skilled character can boast 300k+ EHP in an Orca - and the EHP only goes up from there as tanking skills improve. The Orca also has a massive 187,000m3 ore hold, a modest fleet hangar, and a ship maintenance bay that can hold 2 barges. It's one of only two capital ships allowed in HiSec, can put out 500 DPS with drones, gets a bonus to remote shield reps, and can mine as effectively as a solo exhumer while being mostly AFK.

While it makes sense for the Orca to be a badass - after all, it is an Industrial Command Ship - the current iteration of the Orca promotes AFK, low-attention, low-engagement, and low-risk gameplay. I instead propose the following vision for the Orca. The purpose here is to provide meaningful choices to players and to make the Orca an actual fleet command ship that needs to be actively flown. As I said before, this is spitballed based on the Future Visions post I made earlier regarding mining. Without further adieu: 

• Basic Changes
• Ship Maintenance Bay increased to 1.2 million.
• Add a clone bay.
• Industrial Command Ships bonuses (per skill level):
• 15% bonus to ore hold capacity.
• 3% bonus to Mining Foreman Burst effect and duration.
• 3% bonus to Shield Command Burst effect and duration.
• 10% bonus to Drone hitpoints and damage.
• Role Bonus:
• Can fit 1 Operational Mode module.
• Can fit 3 Command Burst modules.
• Operational Modes
• Prospect Mode - Reduces all resistances by 80%. Per ICS level:
• 1% bonus to Mining Foreman Burst effect.
• 40% bonus to Drone mining yield.
• Emergency Mode - Renders Orca stationary. Per ICS level:
• 1% bonus to Shield Command Burst effect.
• 15% reduction in Remote Capacitor Transmitter activation cost
• 15% reduction in Remote Shield Booster activation cost

The Orca will remain a badass - but there will be tradeoffs for the badassery. First of all, the Orca can function much as it does now - it can still be used in "Standard Mode" to provide the same mining buffs to fleet mates (and even sports increased shield buffs) and use it's drones to mine (though not as effectively as it does now, since that's 90% of the problem with the ship). 

Really wanna mine with an Orca? Introducing Prospect Mode - making you an effective miner and mining booster, BUT it also renders you vulnerable to attack, reducing your EHP to that of a Porpoise. And you won't be very effective in assisting fleet mates should a combat situation emerge. You can AFK mine with drones, but you're gonna have a bad time.

Fleet under attack? With Emergency Mode, the Orca becomes an effective shield command and logistics platform, and if you have multiple Orcas they can cap chain off each other. With their low scan resolution, their low speed and long align times, rendering Orcas stationary in this configuration would preclude them from competing with logistics cruisers and Nestors.

If the mechanics of mining itself became adaptively dangerous as I envisioned in my earlier post and fleets were required to form up and harvest these hard anoms, then Orcas would play crucial roles not only as ore drop off points and boosting ships, but as logistics platforms that serve to keep the fleet alive. It would also make Orcas a ship that was actively flown, with something for the pilots to actually do, and solve the problem of AFK Orca drone mining.