Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Disclaimer: Yes this is probably a bad idea. However, I'm more interested in discussing the practicality of implementing temporary "safety" in null/low that doesn't require a huge organization to lock down space. Because, without some reasonable degree of "safety", mining/industry doesn't happen which in turn keeps people in high-sec.


Goals: to encourage mining ops in null/low by providing limited protection (i.e. safety,) a protection that requires non-trivial isk to implement, and to encourage commerce raiding.

Paradigm: Offer enough "safety" to make null/low-sec mining feasible instead of a duck shoot waiting to happen.

Method: In order to mine "safely", where "safely" means the mining ships have a good chance of escaping (assuming they can't be bothered to check local,) the miners can invest in a deployable that prohibits incoming warps within a 250km radius and which prevents intra-grid warps as well. Anyone warping with the 250km radius instead winds up at the edge of the bubble.

Mechanics:
Friendlies fleet with the bubble and can thus warp the the deployable (instead of being stopped at the 250km edge.) This is a convenience for the mining op.

The 250km warp bubble can be shut down if warp scrambled. It can be destroyed fairly easily.

If everyone in the bubble fleet leaves grid, the bubble self destructs.


Scenarios:
An attacking fleet warps to the miners and and arrives 250km away on the edge of the bubble. The miners can then:
a) leave (if paying attention,) abandoning the field, probably without recouping the cost of the 250km bubble,
b) use mobile depots to switch to a "combat" fit, i.e. drones and defenses, to fight off a small gang,
c) most of the mining fleet can leave and come back in combat ships to fight off the gang (stop laughing?) and save the 250km bubble.

The attacker's options are to:
* use interceptors to close the distance quickly and shut down the 250km bubble and/or scramble any miners who are slow to warp out.
* use sniper fit battleships with MJDs to get within 150km of the mining ships
* engage a war of isk attrition against the miners by increasing the miner's costs
* slow boat a cloaky ship into close range to shut down the 250km bubble


Realistically, this is all pretty moot unless local goes away. Again, the goal is to provide a limited, reliable, means of "safety" for a mining op, otherwise you might as well mine in high-sec or have a heavy investment in intelligence channels (which doesn't help with wormholes.) Also, if more people feel "safe" in low/null, more people will make the move from high to null/low which means more targets.

I get the idea but seems waay OP in the result.

Maybe allow the deployable scan jamming system to hide a regular scan and grey it out so whoever is trying to warp to said location has to probe it first or locate the deployable itself. If that was the case a mining group just needs an interdictor as part of the security force to set up a small sphere near the deployable make it harder for gankers to catch aybody or make it seem like a trap.

With your main idea would said bubble allow micro-jump modules to work?

Another possibility but can take a while depending on the system would be to place interdiction spheres 300+km out from all known jump routes. like i said very time consuming.

encouraging low/null sec mining is a very good thing but that's what makes the rare minerals rare. If this bubble was to be developed it would deflate the value of isk to a large degree making some people STUPID rich in liquid assets and others put into poverty because their ship hangar with an estimated cost of a couple billion in ships would dwindle do to the bigger access to obscure ores that allows manufacturers to produce sought after ships with less expense

I'd put all this on hold until we see how the jump changes pan out but...

You're covering attacking miners. What about competition between miners?

If your idea works, they can setup bogus fleets in many belts to lock out competitors -- small ship/ships as "fleet", deploy bubble - no other miners can warp-to that area... They must warp in at long range and slow boat it... In a mining barge/exhumer/support (roq, etc.)

It has a few holes in it with respect to other things beyond "gank the miner".

"assuming they can't be bothered to check local"


That was when I stopped reading...

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