Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I have been thinking about a way to help balance out the ore/mineral prices. It just seems ridiculous that ores mined in high sec can be worth so much more than those mined in null sec. I mean think about it. Scordite is currently the second highest isk/m3 ore in the game, and it is found in 1.0 security space.

The problem is with drone alloys removed and gun mining nerfed(i.e. reprocessing the modules dropped in missions) combined with the massive removal of bots, the remaining high sec miners are just not meeting the demands for low end ores. What can be done about this without causing further imbalance?

The best idea I can come up with to level things out a bit, without turning high sec mining into an easy afk cash cow, is the modification the composition of some of the low end null sec ores to increase the supply of trit and pyrite in Null sec. Now before you get worked up I am thinking of one ore in particular. The mighty SPOD. The yield of this ore is so messed up it is totally not worth mining currently. Yes it yields a small amount of megacyte 0.03 per unit which is fine. but it yields and equally small amount of pyrite and only slightly more trit.

I choose SPOD because one of the recent buffs to null sec grav belts was the addition of massive SPOD rocks, but they are useless due to the yield per m3. I believe this was meant to be the primary source of trit and pyrite in null but someone messed up the math. Maybe I am wrong but lets look at what can and could be done with SPOD.

Acording to Cerlestes.de using Jita prices SPOD is curently worth 88 isk per m3 while Veldspar is worth 218 isk/m3 and Scordite is worth 234 isk/m3. Arkonor is only worth 289 isk /m3 while Omber, the worst high sec ore is 113 isk/m3. If the difference between 218 and 234 can make scrodite the second most valuable ore 88isk/m3 is a very low number. 25isk/m3 (32%) less than the worst high sec ore. This is where the problem lies with supply of low end ores in null sec.

The issue here is the size of the SPOD ore. 16m3 per unit, that is huge. Yet it only yields 0.7 trit and 0.03 pyrite per unit(16m3) WTF. Mining lasers and strip miners extract a specified m3 per cycle regardless of how many units of ore that is. Veldspar is only 0.1 m3 per unit, so for every unit of SPOD 16m3 you could mine 160 units of Veldspar in the same amount of time. Say you are mining in a HULK or even covetor with an average yield of 1500m3 per cycle(total all 3 strip miners), not maxed but a good unboosted yield. That's about 94 units of SPOD per cycle @ 1408 isk/unit = $132,352 isk/cycle or 15,000 units of veldspar @ 21.8 isk/unit = $327,000isk/cycle. Why is SPOD only worth about 40% as much as the most common high sec ore that can be mined in 1.0 space in complete safety. While SPOD makes up a large portion of null sec grav sites.

Spod yields 0.7 trit per unit, Veldspar yeilds about 30 trit per unit. this translates to SPOD giving you 0.04 units of trit per m3 or 25 m3 of SPOD to get 1 unit of trit. battleships need 8-10 million units of trit(250 million m3 of SPOD) to build, some even more. Veldspar is giving 300 units of trit per m3 while 25m3 of Veldspar will yield 7500 units of trit. If the amount of trit received from SPOD was x10 what is is now it would still only be marginally better.

Now comparing SPOD to Scordite.

SPOD yields 0.035 units of pyrite per unit of 16m3 while scordite yields 8.3 units of pyrite per unit 0.15m3. This translates to SPOD giving you 0.002 units of pyrite/m3 or 7314m3 for 1 unit of pyrite (nearly 5 full cycles for a 1500m3/cycle HULK for one unit of pyrite) while scordite gives 55 units of pyrite/m3 or 402,285 units of pyrite for the same volume of 7314m3. Again multiplying this yeild by x10 would only marginally change the value of the ore since the yield is so small to begin with.

Now let us consider what the value of SPOD would be if the amount of trit and pyrite was changed while leaving the megacyte unchanged. First multiplying the amount of both trit and pyrite by x10. This would raise the value of SPOD from 88isk/m3 to 144isk/m3. It would still be third least valuable ore still far below the value of Veldspar at 218isk/m3.

What if we multiplyed the amount of trit and pyrite by x50? Well that is a little to much raising the value of SPOD to 389isk/m3 100isk/m3 more than Arkonor. That would be game breaking.

What about x20? that would give SPOD a value of about 205isk/m3 at current Jita prices. still slightly lower than Veldspar and still 4th lowest value ore according to current Jita mineral prices, but at the same time making it a decent source of low end minerals in null sec.

I think this would be a good point for it to be at. Considering that high sec ores are way higher than they should be right now. come on, Scordite being the second most valuable ore even over Bistot and Crokite? When the mineral prices of lowend ores drop so would the value of SPOD with this change keeping it balanced, as we left the megacyte unchanged.

This would not be game breaking, but would make this massive ore actually worth mining in null. Currently nobody bothers with the masive SPOD rocks in null sec grav sites. This would make them a good source of low end minerals, as an alternative to mineral compression currently used to jump the huge amounts of trit and pyrite out of Jita needed to build capital and super capital ships.

Maybe stop popping every miner you see in hi-sec and the supply will increase and the price will drop.

He does have a point.

Eve is suppose to be Risk vs Reward. Low/Null is suppose to be higher risk then High sec. So why are low/null sec ores not balanced in such a way that its not worth mining.

I do agree the revamped Minning line coming out in winter expansion should take care of some of the supply and demand issues. But people are still going to be idiots and not learn how to tank vs gangking.

as long as the ganking goes on of miners the prices will stay high. Nullsec is the safest place in the game because the defenders can shoot first and ask questions never.


Actually this is where I would improve lowsec mining.

My idea to help improve lowsec is that the defense risks no sec loss for shooting first when in an asteroid belt or anywhere off grid from a station or stargate. in simple terms since Lowsec in theory has no Concord, Than it makes sense for no GCC or standing loss when you are not near an NPC facility. Naturally this would benefit piracy too but that is a worthy risk. Also this would make Lowsec feel more like a transition between High and Null. The space near gates and stations is still under some law enforcement watch(the guns and gaining the GCC) however once off grid of npc facilities you are on your own.

This sounds like a case of supply and demand WORKING AS INTENDED. There is a solution to your problem however!

If you want the low end ores, come back to high sec... or are you worried about the danger?

In theory, nullsec mining is more dangerous. In practise, however, more miners get popped in high than they do in null. Like you said though, lots of bots in high, and tanked hulks work fine (hell, use a battleship, it was good enough when the game started).

Mining is still not profitable, I can get more by running missions, but with the price increases, more people will do it. We don't need to go changing the game because a few people have to pay an extra 4 ISK for a unit of pyerite.

A solution then would be combine my changes with upgrades to the ores of lowsec, making bringing a mining op that includes a proper patrol team worth while. Because I have been to low sec scouting and you are completely right the ores suck and have minimal gains verses the ones in .5 space.