Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Introduction
Rigs currently increase a wide variety of attributes in all facets of EVE Online ranging from locking range, to sentry drone damage to increased ECM optimal ranges. However, one attribute that rigs do not touch are ore holds. I propose that a rig to increase ore hold size be introduced. This would have a significant number of beneficial effects on miners and other industrialists in EVE Online. Notably, the ore hold size is one of the few attributes that rigs do not aid. I feel that is unfair.

The Proposal
1. A rig that increases the size of a ship's ore hold by a percentage. Ships without ore holds gain no benefit and only receive a drawback.
2. The rig's drawback should be similar to a cargohold optimization rig's drawback - something that reduces durability, possibly. I leave this to CCP.
3. The amount of calibration such a rig requires should be reasonably low, like a cargohold optimization. This will encourage miners to fit more to maximise their ore holds.

Benefits
1. Miners are able to mine more per load - This takes some effort off of miners, who are the productive backbone of EVE Online.
2. Orcas have increased viability in their role - Orcas lost much of their usage since freighters can now retrieve items from jetcans. This rig could revitalise the Orca's original role as an industrial command ship.
3. This rig could fill a void in rigs - Rigs often increase extremely unusual attributes, like sentry drone range or ECM optimal ranges, but something as mundane and vital as a miner's ore bay is ignored.
4. Gameplay freedom - I feel that this rig will not destabilise the roles of mining ships, as Hulks with such rigs would still have ore holds too small to function solo. Instead, I believe it would enhance the Retriever, Mackinaw, Procurer and Skiff's roles by allowing miners to select between mining outputs, defence and other useful attributes to fill their rig slots.

Conclusion
I conclude by saying that I believe that te introduction of such a rig would greatly improve the quality of life for miners, who are the production and industrial backbone of EVE Online. This rig could fill a role void that no module or rig can currently fill. It could be simply balanced like a cargohold optimization: a slight decrease in ship durability, or even other ways, such as maneuverability decreases. I strongly believe that such a rig could only benefit miners by reinforcing the roles of their ships and improving their quality of life.

I thank you for taking the time to consider this suggestion and urge you to leave comments or discussion.

I think this change will add some variety to the game!

it's true that miners are a bit limited, and let's face it, their rigs don't do that much and aren't used. Giving miners rigs that they'll use more often would be great.

No, no, this is an I want a Mack with an Orca hold idea.

This is basically the way it was before the mining barge change....
When the Hulk had an 8000 m3 cargohold, and people would slap on 3 cargohold expanders.

Then they nerfed the cargoholds, and added ore holds, and people were left with covetors and hulks with loltastic cargohold expander rigs...

I don't see that its much of a problem, it should have a hull or shield HP penalty...

The problem with old mining barges was that the hulk had the highest yield, tank, and capacity.

When they changed the mining barges, the macks and retreivers had hold much bigger than the old rigged hulk did.... so further increasing it might be a bit much... but it certainly won't be the old situation.

At this point, AFK mining in high sec is not limited by ore hold size anymore.... the roids generally deplete before your hold fills in macks/retreivers (especially on skiff/procurors, where you only suck from one roid, not so much on Hulks and covetors).
The true AFKing was the ice mining.... where an entire fleet could point their lasers at one roid and suck on it for hours.

That doesn't work anymore.

So if somebody wants to make themselves an easier gank target by sacrificing tank for more capacity, I say let them....
They'll sit in the belt even longer so the gankers have more chance to find them, and can kill them with cheaper fits.
(and if they scoop the drop, they can get a bigger payour from more ore that drops)

i like this idea but i think it should increase cycle time of mining lasers/stip miners or decrease the yeild if you want to be afk for even longer while mining then you should be making less too