Player Features and Ideas Discussion

The issue is does this make mining "fun" or more engaging worthwhile entertainment.

Much of the proposal could be interesting for a day or two but after that, would seem like tedious busywork to those of us who do a great deal of mining with multiple toons. Reminds me of the introduction of the exploration mini-game. Was interesting a couple of times but that's about it.

Increasing the basic activity's complexity, or apparent complexity, doesn't itself make the activity more fun or worthwhile. Beware of busywork.

You know serious miners, falling back on the least efficient technique is probably a way to force them into the alternatives, enjoyable or not. If the style and yield of basic strip mining remains the same as it is now, though less efficient compared to the new alternatives, so that you're adding play on top of and not instead of current mining, I could be all for it.

Rather than making attempts to make mining "more interactive" which will be some trivial minigame at best given CCP resources and the game engine, why not just make it much less interactive?

I.E. make mining a totally AFK activity. Miner drops an (reasonably cheap, more expensive for higher ores) ore extractor deployable near to an asteroid and programs it to mine a particular asteroid. It now works completely unattended for several hours and competes for resource with the other ore extractors focussing on that particular roid.

This extractor must be dropped by a designated mining vessel, and can at a later time can only be emptied into a ship with an Ore Hold, and only after a certain time period, set by the program time has elapsed. Longer program times result in higher yields per minute.

But why?! I hear you exclaim, we need those AFK miners to be in the belt to "generate content" for highsec pvpers! This is the whole point. The miner can now switch to a combat focussed ship and protect his mining operation, from rats and players. The actual mining is now less interactive, but the player is free to roam around, do other things, or sit and watch their valuable ore like a hawk and fight to defend it.

A pirate can simply go suspect and engage the ore extractor itself, or they could still use the oldschool gank tactics on the ore hauler / barge that is coming to pick up the ore. Picking up the ore would be somewhat like interacting with an ESS (it takes some time) to create this window of opportunity. Similarly after the time has elapsed anyone can steal from this ore extractor with a requisite ship and go suspect.

Miners grouping together would now be potentially better placed to fight off saboteurs / gankers while having to compete for the same asteroids (similar to a crowded PI planet) and get lower overall yields compared to the solo miner in a less populated system who isn't competing with anyone. Of course that lone miner is probably at much higher risk from having their mining operation interfered with since they don't get the safety in numbers advantage.

Ofc all ships with ore holds including barges would need to be looked at in order for balance to be maintained (or achieved, depending on your point of view) in this new scheme of miner versus pirate gameplay.

Just my 2 cents on a mining "revamp" concept.

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Fang

Haven't read the full thread, sorry if I repeat ideas or am misunderstanding something that was already explained or anything like that.

I'm not an miner or a big industry person, this seems interesting but the way veins interact with the other methods of mining seems to be adding an unneeded level of complexity. I'd prefer having vein/geode mining was its own thing, so flocks of strip miners or deposit miners don't ruin things for those who have invested more skillpoints into vein/geode mining. I like the idea of prospecting, though. Perhaps people could have to use the Survey Scanners to identify the ore compositions of the larger asteroids at least (smaller ones, for beginner pilots using just a Venture for instance, would be still show their ore type in the overview).

The OP's proposed deposit mining system is interesting, and I like the use of PI-like mechanics, but it sounds like you'd have to be manually aiming which might be annoying for CCP's hardware, particularly if your ship is orbiting the asteroid and if you have 10 people shooting at the same rock in the same area. Maybe the deposits would be on a belt scale instead of a per-asteroid scale. The scan results would overlap the in-space models of the asteroids and show you which rocks have the most Veldspar and which have the most of other ores relative to each other. Individual asteroids would still have all local ore types, but favor one or the other. Then you would select your mining crystal (maybe create versions for Tech 1 mining lasers?), lock your asteroid of choice, and get mining that particular ore.

The OP is a perfect way how to give active players superior hand comparing to multiboxers. It is the entertainment part the game needs so much. Mix of mining and PI can even make multiboxing so hard, that we will see much more rewarding gameplay for beginners. I am very much for this suggestion! Even worth make it sticky as a raw idea of mining game re-design. CCP already redesigned exploration, industry, now soverenity, why not mining?

there is something to be said for this........

but if mining become AFK, then the player can do more exciting things.... I'm not saying I'm right, I'm saying don't dismiss Belinda's idea out of hand

This. And i am sure more interactive mining (even with just retargeting the depleting vein) can give this kind of ppl more content they are looking for. More ppl stay in game, game becomes more interesting.

Does that count if I agree 100% with him ?

I like your thinking on this.

We are flying advanced mining ships in space, we are directing the equipment to do the mining.

We should be comparing ourselves to xenogeological engineers.
( Odd thing, google tells me that term hasn't showed up before, but it does tell me a few have used xenogeology in EVE as the closest seen to it )

Using scans, heat maps, and other researched data, we should be guiding our gear to be more efficient than simply Target / Click / Mining lasers engaged