Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I have seen quite a few posts on the forums regarding mining in general. From what I gather, the general consensus is that mining is dull and most people who do it, do so completely or semi-afk, unless multiboxing, in which case it requires constant attention though from my experience its still not necessarily fun, per se. I have also noticed that a suprising amount of people who mine are ok with this somewhat hands-off approach. It allows them to kinda relax and get other things done while generating some steady, relatively safe income. Even so sitting at the keyboard and actively checking with your probe scanner and adjusting cycles can net more efficiency but its still not very interesting, and mining in other less safe areas of New Eden isnt much more fun. Its basically the same thing but have to glance over your shoulder more often.

I dont think the answer is the change mining as a whole. I think the main issue with mining is the lack of diverse, challenging environments in which to mine. Asteroid belts in EvE are not dynamic or dangerous in any way, save for the potential of PvP. All asteroid belts shouldnt be a warp into immenint destruction but I think that if you want to actively make isk mining instead of just running the lasers while you do your homework or some other chores, than there should be more dynamic belts that reward players who want to mine and be immersed in the universe of EvE, and take risks for greater profit but arent interested in direct player to player combat.

A great start for this I think would be a complete overhaul to mining anomalies. I think they should be structured as a moving comet or asteroid that shows up during a certain phase of its journey toward the inner part of a solar system where its speeding up and breaking apart, but isnt too fast just yet. these anomalies could last for days but they constantly change during their existence:

-From the start they are constantly in motion. it could start off at say..80 m/s, allowing larger mining vessels to keep up
-The comet itself isnt mineable but rather the source of spawns of asteroids that break off of it.
-Various environmental hazards and conditions will be in effect here, some positive, most negative, and all increase as the anomaly ages.
-Ore that break off from this comet will vary according to the type of comet but will always start of as lower end, but top tier (ex, Golden Omber, Fiery Kernite, Pristine Jaspet, etc)
-All here will break up soon after spawning and the best stuff will break up the fastest, so you want to try to stay closer to the comet
-The closer you get to the comet, the more random damage your ship takes from debris, but do to the heated nature of the ore, mining laser yield increases as proximity to the comet decreases
-Excessive debris pounds on turrets, vibrating thier mounts, creating an effect similar to tracking disruption. Debris also destroys missiles in flight, drastically reducing their flight time. As you get closer, the dust also scatters energy beams, reducing overall range of mining lasers and energy turrets

-Day two, the comet speeds up as it spirals in toward the star. its traveling nearly 200 m/s now. Orcas, mobile tractors, and bigger, slower barges are out now. this is procurer/skiff/ territory. The ore is better now, if you can keep up. Pristine Jaspet, and various qualities of hemorphite and hedbergite are showing up in the now longer tail. I hope you tanked. debris is beating hard against the shields as you dodge through the asteroids tumbling aft at various speeds. dont want to get bounced, or you may get left and have to warp out and warp back, wasting valuable time. most weapons are virtually useless in this environment, might make a good temporary escape from a wartarget...

-Day three, she's hauling along at 500 m/s, being chased by ventures, prospects, and perhaps even a few logi frigates. lasers have half the range youre used to but they are slicing through the hot, porous ore with 5 times the normal efficiency. Dark Ochre, Gneiss, even some hints of arkonor and bistot show up, your shields are taking a beating but holding, unlike some of the other ill prepared ships in pursuit of riches.

-Day four, this is where the professional miners run. Prospects shoot after the comet microwardrives burning bright as it violently tumbles ever closer to the star at over 1200 m/s ventures melt under the onlslaught of debris spewing rearward, but you stay the course as the most valuable ores and minerals blast from the tail of the comet, your lasers practically inhale them if you get close enough but your shields arent holding, too much debris, you have to drop back fast as you cant warp within 50km of this thing. you pull it off and make it out in low armor, but youve earned your keep as a comet chaser

Of course this is primarily an idea more so than a hard concrete plan. There could be comets of different types, some that are larger and slower that drop bigger chunks of valuable ores that skiffs and procurers can grab, but with even heavier debris that simply crushes frigates and other more papery mining vessels, to small, light, gassy comets that slough off all different types of gases. As an elite miner you will need mining ships of every type and size and the best of harvesting and flying skills to take full advantage of these advanced opportunities. Elite combat PvE'ers have incursions, so why can't miners have elite, challenging content that puts the millions of skillpoints invested in trade to work and provide something FUN to do. It is a game, after all.

And the best part is, if you simply want sit back in your retriever/mackinaw and watch netlfix or something, there is always the normal 'plain Jane' asteroid belts you can park in and do your thing. I know CCP is working on a lot of PvE content but miners in that regard just dont semm to get love in this regard,

Sorry I don't think i specified that the various asteroids will move at different speeds, meaning that simply keeping at range and tabbing out is likely to result in you being bumped by another rock, not to mention the accelerated laser efficiency, reduced laser range, and generally small asteroids. Even if you could keep range reliably without trying, you would deplete rocks at a rapid rate, resulting in your ship stopping because the rock you set it to stay near is gone.

People who can successfully multibox will always have an advantage pretty much in every arena of EVE, this is something CCP has already accepted and allowed and as far as i can tell there is no way to negate that advantage. Just like having an alt salvage level 4 missions as you do them, if you have the multitasking power in your head to run a noctis and fly a battleship or what have you against hordes of enemies, perhaps you deserve the extra isk. If you can keep your logi in range of your miner, and keep your miner in range of rocks, and not loose cycles and time to nearly depleted asteroids, allowing you to tank more damage and get closer to the comet and access the richer rocks then more power to you. Or you could try that same plan with a fleet of other players and share the workload and the riches, kinda like everywhere else in EvE.

Loot 'spew' as implemented in hacking is nearly completely different in this instance, and just because a certain concept didnt work as previously implemented doesn't mean that it can't be tweaked and redone elsewhere to become a neat game mechanic. There is a massive difference between what happened in the hacking spew and what i propose. this is constant and much slower, not just you trying to catch all the **** you just blew into space in a matter of seconds

Also, I don't recall saying or implying that being semi-afk while mining is necessarily a bad thing. With mining currently being as time consuming and dull as it is, i don't blame anyone for not wanting to sit there and stare at the strip miner cycle. All I propose is some options for people who actually want to PLAY EvE but still want to mine. It doesnt HAVE to be this particular idea, but I challenge CCP to think up some neat content for miners

This idea is merely a proposal in the interim for ways miners could have more fun with what's already available.I just dont get the impression that CCP will be having a serious look at harvesting mechanics any time soon given New Eden's current storyline

The idea is great though. I like it :). Also, while less apparent at a glance, multiboxers will still have way more efficiency with your system than the solo miner. Because they will still have all three elements when i single ship is plugging along trying to handle it all. Multiboxer fleet comp will change but the advantage wont. Definitely will require more effort to pull off though. Sounds like it may overall slow down the harvesting rate of ore in new eden and drive the prices up, but being that the individual is mining less, they still wont be doing much better, if at all. I'm afraid there is no way to really negate multiboxing and its effect in EVE.I really do like the system you described though. Its certainly more involved and maybe even fun, though maybe not be for an individual in a fleet since they are still doing only one thing, Whether its cutting asteroids, processing or grappling, it seems that the individual's job may still still simply be activating a module and waiting for results...unless I've misunderstood you concept somewhere

I suppose they could add 'minigames' to each one, where in order to cut a roid properly you have to scan with something that produces a screen similar in nature to the Planet Management screen where you have to scan for good areas to cut into to produce better ore asteroids and something else for reprocessing or whatever. This would undoubtedly make multiboxing pretty much impossible too. Also it will make player skill important too. Just like being able to fly the biggest, baddest most advanced combat ships in doesnt gaurantee you success in PvP or even PvE, being able to fly exumers shouldnt assure that you wont suck at actually mining. But you know how capsuleers just love minigames...

As far as remote assistance goes in my hypothetical anomaly, I want it as an option make it possible for groups of players to work together in order to push in further and grab the more valuable ores, otherwise cooperation wont be encouraged or rewarded, and i feel like ANY new content in EVE should do that, lest it be useless. I want it to be possible for groups of brave newer players to be able to hop in cheap, small, low sp ships and potentially make more than they would out in the belts, or at least have more fun, but wherever there is cooperation in EVE there is the potential for multiboxing. Perhaps there should be range and effectiveness penalties applied to make keeping the ship in position more difficult, and force logi into the more dangerous areas of the field, where they take more damage and have to dodge more rocks. that way a two ship multibox wont really work because if the mining ship cant tank it without logi, then its highly likely the logi wont be able to tank without its own rep, or a second logi ship, which could deter some multiboxers, but not all. Like i said, i dont see a way to allow group mechanics without also potentially empowering multiboxers. The dynamic environment that requires you to keep moving and dodge moving debri while dealing with reduced ranges is meant to make piloting more hands on, and doing with multiple ships simultaneously a pain in the ass, hopefully enough to make people not want to even do it. just bouncing off a rock at the wrong time or not being able to recover quickly enough can result in loosing out due to going out of range or in case of this happening to logi, losing ships. In all likelyhood though, multiboxing will find its way into this anomaly i cant imagine them being as efficient as 2 or 3 people sharing the mental load and flying thier own ships.

Also as the anomaly gets faster perhaps it should limit the size of the ships that can enter, so people cant have prospects way up in the front being getting all the good stuff easily while getting reps from a cap stable microwarping scimitar with small reps alt or some junk like that.

Also as a side note, disrupting multiboxing by say...bumping the logi out of repping range could result in the quick destruction of the multiboxer's mining ship, resulting in absolutely fruitless efforts for them. Wont be easy but its something to think about

There is plenty wrong with it. It cheapens actual interaction with other people and the gameplay of everyone who doesn't do it. This includes virtually every newb, 50% of whom are leaving the game within a month, if I remember correctly. As a result, I will lobby for things that make it more difficult to multi-box by increasing the complexity of those tasks.