Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Or a mobile depot with the capacity of a freighter.

Currently, the best method I've found for mining is enormous freight containers in the belt. Use them as giant jetcans that don't pop, and then once the entire belt is in them, scoop them into my freighter.

Only problem is - they have 10hp, so some punk can come and smartbomb all my hours worth of ore. They're not secure, though I'm not really concerned about can flipping unless a passing freighter nabs them, but I could just bump him to stop him escaping.

So, what I'd like is an enormous secure freight container, like a giant secure container - 500,000 HP, anchorable (though not that bothered about this honestly), and that members of my fleet can use - currently only the owner of a jettisoned freight container can put anything into it, yet anyone can take stuff out!

Or even more ideally, and a bit more sophisticated than a freight can, would be a mobile depot that's got a huge capacity. Currently I drop 3 enormous cans, enough for a hi-sec belt, fill them up and scoop them. So a mobile depot with 1,000,000m³ capacity would be great.

TL;DR: Give miners a freight can with 500,000 HP, or a mobile depot with a volume of 1,000,000 m³

Thoughts?

I half support this. People have requested larger secure containers forever and the requests have never been fulfilled and I think the reason is they don't want to make solo mining easier and more efficient than it is. With a large container like you propose the risks of jetcan mining decrease significantly and the related rewards of mining in a fleet shrink in comparison. Fleets would still be better of course, but many of the favorable features would no longer be unique to the fleet mining experience.

What I would support is a large anchorable container, preferably one that could be corp and/or fleet accessible, that had an anchoring restriction keeping it several AU from all celestial objects including things like asteroid belts. For me this would support mining ops (fleet or solo) but would still require the ore be hauled to the can. The can in this case would not be a station or pos. In systems without a station or pos it would allow miners (again solo or in a fleet) to operate as if they were in a system with a station or a pos. There may even be an advantage in that you wouldn't need to dock to dump your ore which could make it faster than having to dock while hauling.

I see no reason to support a large can in the belt. I also see no reason to not support one which is a significant distance from the belt.

Actually, having a hauler is having someone who is securing your earnings.

Because if all that guy's ore is also in a can when someone pops it, guess what?

He didn't earn ****. Just like you didn't earn ****.

Meanwhile, if he'd been pulling all your cans back to station, the bulk of your ore would have been secured; you lose a can or two, not the whole night of killing rocks.

I know it's difficult, because in this case '1 less miner who isn't earning' more likely equals 'one ISBoxer instance who isn't doing the same thing as the others, requiring my full attention,' but that's life when you want to go it alone.

I posted something like this numerous times (once for gas mining, and once for minerals) as soon as the deployable depot was released.

People will cry ''secure containers'' and ''use jetcans'' and ''orca support, noob''.

I'm currently using the mobile tractor unit as a make-do alternative, but only being able to deposit inside of it by jetcanning is a pain.

+1

CCP changed their policy and ISBoxer is now illegal? Is there a link to this somewhere? I absolutely am drooling over the prospect of reading this tasty morsel.

More to the point of the topic, it's a question of balance. When you fit out a mining barge, you choose how you want to balance between ISK/hr and gank-resistance. When you form up a mining fleet, you have to make the same choice. Do you want the maximum number of active mining lasers but few (or no) haulers to take that ore back to station or do you want a more balanced approach that leaves less ore lying about in space but also slightly reduces the rate at which you're mining that ore?

Choices. Compromises. Consequences. This is EVE.

I guess, it just seems unrealistic just for "balance" purposes. If this wasn't a game, and some mining operation (even terrestrial) found the best way of doing something is something that doesn't exist, they'd make one. Some bad guys would hear about it, and come steal it/blow it up whatever.

Basically, I think we should have more options available.

and to satisfy you. Basically it comes down to macro violation, from 1 key affecting many clients, even though it's only activating one command on each client. This is how I understand it anyway, I don't know how ISBoxer works.

I remember mining before barges (yes, this is an alt ), getting a thorax for 5 mining lasers, then a Brutix for 7, and mining fleets were made of battleships, and barges were around a long time before exhumers and a rorqual, and even longer than an orca.

My point of that nostalgia is mining evolves to meet player needs. Barges/exhumers (originally for 0.0 mining with BS belt rats)/rorqual for deep space mining, in a time before every other null sec system had an outpost, and orca as a hi-sec scaled down version of the rorqual to provide mining boosts etc.

The only problem with having an orca in the belt, apart from the target it presents, is the loss of boosts when it warps/docks/warps back, which can be a while given it's size.

Which then poses the original predicament of losing 1 barge yield to haul.

Come to think of it, if the mining boosts remained active though warp and dock, then the orca could be the hauler. Perhaps that is the answer...

I agree with you about the lack of ISBoxer banning.

I generally run an Orca/barge/hauler, but if the Orca can haul without hindering it's boosting role, then that dedicated hauler can become a 2nd miner.

As for max yield, I'm not like other miners - yes I want efficiency, but not at any cost. I use t1 barges, since the yield difference is relatively small, and can pay for themselves within 90 mins of mining, where a t2 barge takes significantly longer - all the time of which it is open to gank, and is a much juicier target because of the increased value, perpetual risk. In money terms and hi-sec ores, hulk gets 40,000 isk more per minute than a covetor, figure out how long that difference takes to pay off the 180m isk difference!