nope, covetor is 500m3 (perfectly acceptable!) and the hulk is 350m3.

sadly when ccp halved the crystal size they also strangely reduced the hulk's cargo bay. if they'd have left the hulk's cargo bay there wouldn't really be an issue to discuss here.

however due to this inconsistency and one other inconsistency i have a feeling that the hulk will have a 500m3 cargo bay tomorrow and we can all stop arguing about this.

GG*except that no extra work is required if you plan ahead. You still have to warp back to station to deliver the ore. Make use of the time in the belt to plan what you're going after next; make use of the pit-stop to bring what you need. End result: planning GeF no additional work, same reward.

It's not particularly strange. It's a fleet ship GGv the support ships in the fleet are meant to carry the crystals. If you obstinately refuse to use it for its purpose and try to use it as a solo ship, then that's almost entirely your problem.

Wtih canned Exhumers the choices are much less, the need to reload is canned as well.

I am sure the reason they reduced the cargohold of the hulk to below 500m3 is so we will no longer be able to use a hulk to set up new PI bases.

I'm enjoying having hardly any competition.

These changes are going to bring back all of those people who quit mining, those who quit playing all together due to permageddon, and invites new players to feel gankproof in highsec. The mineral market will be flooded, and mining will go from 40mil isk/hour to 20mil again.

So much effort... for that??
I mean, you can setup a new PI base with an expanded frigate, what's so absurd using an expensive ship to do the same?

Some times the hull is a big part of the choice (WTB HPL Drake).

Asking because I genuinely don't know, which frig has a base 500m3 cargo hold?

Expanded and rigged magnate. Used to be the most botted ship for indy missions, not sure if it's still able to go above 1km3.

it is strange; if they didn't want the hulk carrying more crystals why bother making the crystals take less space to begin with? seems odd to change all the numbers to not change anything?

Asking because I genuinely don't know, which frig has a base 500m3 cargo hold?

As of now it's not a choice. The drawbacks plus the micromanagement make it quite stupid to use Hulks over Macks. Even if you both have fleet and defenders.
Unless someone wants to use bots to overcome the micromanagement part that is, but that should not be part of balancing a ship.

Expanded and rigged magnate. Used to be the most botted ship for indy missions, not sure if it's still able to go above 1km3.

The most minor levels of effort are needed and if that really necessitates botting then maybe there is some truth to the reasoning behind the vitrolic miner hate out there.

The use of bots is unnecessary and arguing on that point is a flawed premise. The hulk is designed to have hauler support. Return trips must be made anyways and can be used to get additional crystals. The most minor levels of effort are needed and if that really necessitates botting then maybe there is some truth to the reasoning behind the vitrolic miner hate out there.

See, I am an auditor. I have met every kind of people, from top famous 3rd party collateral holders to RMTers. I learned to decouple judgement and opinions from what actually happens, whether I like it or not.

Botting happens. If something stupid and bottable is introduced then it will be botted, end of. The new "mechanic" is a prime candidate to that.

Those are just excuses to redirect attention away from the fact that violating the EULA is a conscious decision. This does not make mining an unreasonable burden on an actual player if done with multiboxing.

You really believe botters ever care to stop and think they have to do a conscious decision to violate the EULA? They just do it and that's it.

But hey don't take my word for it.

Let's wait say 2 weeks for the bots to adapt past the next patch and then we'll see.

I'm enjoying having hardly any competition.

These changes are going to bring back all of those people who quit mining, those who quit playing all together due to permageddon, and invites new players to feel gankproof in highsec. The mineral market will be flooded, and mining will go from 40mil isk/hour to 20mil again.

You really believe botters ever care to stop and think they have to do a conscious decision to violate the EULA? They just do it and that's it.

But hey don't take my word for it.

Let's wait say 2 weeks for the bots to adapt past the next patch and then we'll see.

I mean, they bot even now, before the menial tasks are introduced, imagine after.

Yay for blue and grey morality.

Doesn't make you correct, however. Using bots is against the EULA.

If you're unable to cope with the highest-yield fleet-oriented exhumer being able to utilize 'only' 5 crystal sets on its own, your planning skills are awful and your capacity for forethought is terribly lacking.

If you honestly manage to believe this is such a drawback as to reduce the effectiveness of the hulk to below that of its peer exhumers, then by all means feel free to use one of them instead.

Mostly I see this as giving miners who aren't morons the opportunity to execute good decisions and differentiate themselves from the incredibly shortsighted ones.

I don't need to be correct, it's not like they will come to ask you or me for permission or will have any moral obligation to you.

If you are in high-sec space, you are only mining maybe 3 or 4 ore types and if you are in a fleet, the same principal applies. Try to compliment each others work. I seriously am floored at the nit-picking and crying going on about these changes. Come on people, suck it up and adapt. You can do this, really with little effort. Bring on the changes.

You don't fix what is not broken. Crystals gymnics was something nobody asked changes for. Maximum configurability of ship's available space was a call to pilot's preference. That's freedom. Freedom does not need to be "fixed", especially in EvE.
If we wanted freedom to be "fixed", we'd play WoW.

Edit:

Other example of freedom.

If I want to configure i.e. an Hurricane I can fit for armor tank, shield tank, buffer tank, instacane, AC fit, artillery fit, WEB + point fit.
I can even fit it to mine gas or (not really needed any more) tractor and salvage wrecks.

If tomorrow some hooligan decides to WoW-ize it so that an Hurricane will only be able to hold 100 ammo and exclusively armor tank and use ACs, then I'll do the same fuss in there as I am doing today in here, despite I could just use a Cyclone instead.

You don't fix what is not broken.

The Hulk is being fixed so it is no longer the ultimate solo mining ship, because that role is now meant for the Mack. This fix includes add in dependencies that make it suboptimal to try to do everything on your own GGv dependencies that are very easily worked around if there are more people available to share the load or to perform logistics tasks.

- Most fragile, requires defense / fleet
- Smallest cargo, requires fleet

Those were plenty drawbacks enough.

Waste 1 more account just to play waiter + dead time due to more cystal breaks => profitability / accounts drops to Mackinaw levels and Mackinaw does not have any drawback to begin with. That's your fantastic balance at work.