Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I have read through several different threats containing suggestions for how to make mining more interesting or to combat AFK miners and while they all purpose interesting and viable solutions, I think that the system as a whole needs to be re-imagined. Mining is a core activity in EVE, it was the first thing most of us did to get us some initial capital for our later ventures, but it remains one of the most uninteresting aspects of EVE. I think it can be made far more interesting and interactive without becoming too much of a grind.


Where Asteroids are Located

The first change I would like to see is in where and how asteroids are located in space. In their current iteration asteroids form these small arcs of small rocks no more than 100km across and are in fixed positions. This is just plan uninteresting, makes gathering large quantities of minerals far too easy, requires little to no effort and just does not fit with the information contained in the chronicles or in how we know then to exist in the real world. Why can’t we move asteroids in EVE, to be similar to the 3 types of formations we know then to exist in the real world? (Rings/Fields, Clouds, and Eccentric Rogues and Clusters)

Rings and Fields

This type of formation most closely matches the current asteroid belts we have in EVE currently. The change would be that these belts would become true rings, either around planets, moons or the sun. They could be from 10s to 1000s of kilometers across and 10s of kilometers in height. The spacing of individual asteroids would be from 5km – 20km or more. The Ore content in these belts would be similar to what it is today. For game purposes I would imagine that each belt would need several markers from which to start ones hunt for valuable asteroids or we could use the directional scanner to isolate an asteroid for a starting point.

Clouds

This type of formation would be new and resemble a shell around the entire system, out beyond the current orbits of planets or Jump Gates. This is where one would find the different types of Ice Asteroids with their distribution of ice similar to its current distribution in EVE. The spacing here would need to be even greater than that found in belts. As with belts these could be located either by placing several markers or requiring pilots to use the direction scanner to pick a starting point.

Eccentric Rogues and Clusters

This type of formation would represent individual or clusters of asteroids which have for some reason been knocked out of their normal belts or clouds. They can be either made up of Ice or Ore asteroids. Since these are not in their right location they can contain any type of Ice or Ore. These would be random and have to be scanned down like other anomalies currently are.


An Asteroid is an Asteroid

Currently every type of asteroid is different and easily identifiable by shape and color. This removes most of the challenge to finding a good asteroid. Let’s bring back some challenge and increased interaction. We could change the names on asteroids to mask their contents. We could take this even further and have them contain more than one type of ore or ice. They already contain a semi random quantity so this is not outside the realm of possibility.

Size not Type

A good start here would be to create several different sizes of asteroids, 4 might be enough. (Small, Medium, Large & Huge) Each size would contain a semi-random total quantity of ore or ice, much like asteroids today contain different amounts. Each size of asteroid would contain a variable amount of Ore or Ice with each size class overlapping that of the adjacent size to allow for varying densities. For example:
Small 10k-40k units, Medium 30k-60k units, Large 50k-80k units and Huge 70k-100k units
To add some variety to the look of asteroids we could have several different models and skins for each model, which could be randomly selected. In this way when you approach an asteroid in might be called Small Ice Asteroid or Large Rocky Asteroid and its contents would be unknown.

Complex Asteroids

Our understanding of real asteroids is that most are not made of a single type of material. Why can’t asteroids in EVE contain more than one type of Ore or Ice? Some of the asteroids currently in EVE contain Morphite in addition to their base Ore. It might be interesting to allow these new asteroids to contain one or more Ore or Ice types with their total a percent of the total resource value of the asteroid and their distribution to be random, with the total system volume equal to current system Ore or Ice balance. The types of ore or ice in the system would still follow current distribution balance as it does today, but the total units may need to be tweaked as it there would be far more total asteroids but reaching them all should also be unlikely in a single day.

+1 for your idea, I've even suggested some of them myself in other threads, so I know from bitter experience that the haters will be along soon,

I vote yes.

This is indeed an interesting idea. Also hiding exact types of ores from asteroid name would give more use to the Ore Scanner (aka survey scanner). Though the scanner might need to be reworked from AoE scanner to a targeted one (like cargohold scanner). Or broken up into two different mods (or one mod with a script): first would be an AoE scanner like it is today and give a brief overview of ores (asteroid A has large amounts of veldspar and some scordite, asteroid B has large mediocre amount of pyerite, etc., no concrete numbers) in the vicinity of your ship and other module/mode would give you detailed information on your targeted roid composition (2345 units of veld, 9872 units of scordite, etc).

CCP did state that current mining system is overdue for an overhaul.

Though major overhaul like this need to be done carefully, as it undoubtedly will upset the current market balance

I'm a miner and I'd actually like to see something like this. The completely passive nature of mining itself is only half of the problem. The other half is that resources just don't take any effort to find. Sure, if you really want to, you can go out at find a sig with some decent rocks, but just warping to a belt and turning on the strip miners won't hurt you that much. The effort vs reward spectrum is completely screwed.

No resources without scanning! Or buying a bookmark from an explorer.

As for the mining itself, even using a model sort of like PI where you scan the roid, locate the richest areas, optimize your mining program, and have to modify it every so often as the rich spots run out would go a long way into destroying the passive nature of mining. As a bonus, it would **** off the botters.

Simple solution to afk macro mining fleets is to make the belt rats hit harder. So that in roughly ten to fifteen minutes they do serious if not fatal damage to your ship. This would force you to not be afk as you would have to actively defend your ship/s.

People AFK because it's boring...fix the problem not the symptoms

That only works in situations where belt rats can do damage worth a damn. Until then botters flying procurers will occasionally glance over at their monitor and giggle at the two rats that have shot at 5 different ships in the last 10 minutes and gotten each one down maybe 250 HP before moving on to the next.

Edit: Also, I kinda like the current mining arrangement simply because it lets me catch up on my movies, anime, and reading. Three ships out mining, four monitors, occasionally switch to a client on the fourth monitor to move ore around, and even more occasionally spend 5-8 minutes unloading the orca holding the aforementioned ore.

Active mining is a terrible idea. Mining is what I do when I'm too sick to do any of the fun combat stuff that also happens to make tons more isk. Mining is DOWNTIME. It's ship spinning except instead of spinning your ship in a hangar you spin lasers at rocks.

You want to "fix" mining? Make it worth 80 mil an hour per hulk in hisec, not 14 mil max if you get nothing but the best ores and have perfect refine and yield skills. Then you can talk about making it active and I'll watch a movie while NOT logged in to Eve. Otherwise it's simply not worth it.

1/10
This post gave me cancer.

+1 for this idea, mining should be more active and interesting. If you want to go afk and make isk, trade. Otherwise, don't play the game.