Science & Industry

Okay, I just gave a monetary reason to protect miners. I still don’t think this enough. Small scale mining operations will still get swatted pretty easily by a skilled PVP pilot and his friends. This is deterrent for smaller corporation wanting to try mining in riskier space, or during wartime (if their main account has focused entirely on being a miner and has no alts). I have a second module type to suggest. Again this module can only be fitted to mining ships, and only be used while mining. I don’t have a great name for it, or lore reason, but we will call it the “Mining Emitted Boost” or MEB for short.

The module takes up a mid slot, and works like the command burst modules. They will require ammo (like the command burst modules), which will be made from minerals found in low sec (and lower). The modules when active will provide boosts to ally non-mining ships in range. The boosts they can provide is based on the ammo used. It can vary from increased damage, bigger shield/armor amount, shield/armor resists, or increased effectiveness of logistics. They can only be activated while mining, and eat up a miners mid slots. So the miners give up their tank for reliance on their allies to keep them alive. Like command bursts, these don’t stack. The benefit of having multiple miners equipping MEBs is redundancy. The miners become a form of support for the fleet. So when pirates attack, they could focus on the miners to rid the fleet of their buffs, or focus on stopping the protecting fleet. This also in turn makes warp scrabbling miners not always the best option, as having them off grid would be more effective. This also would make miners want to stay on grid during the fight to support it’s fellow protectors.

The MEB’s boost should be dependent on two things. The security status of the system and on the average m^3 of ore mined a minute. So the lower the security status, the more fighting force your allies have. Makes sense since the lower the security status the more dangerous NPCs and players you will encounter. The m^3 of ore should also be taken account so ships like the Covetor and Hulk (more expensive mining ships in general) are useful during a mining operation, even in low sec (a Hulk useful during a mining operation and not a liability? Crazy!).

Side note: tanky mining ships like the Procurer and Skiff are useful because they have better tank and can stay on grid longer. Won’t provide the best NPC rats or best boost though.

This also makes bringing command industrial ships like the Porpoise, Orca, and Roqual useful to have on grid too. Since their boosts will boost the miners mining capability, which will boost the guarding fleet defensive capability. This all adds to the honey pot which will be mining. Pirates will have a harder time taking down a mining fleet with defenses, but the reward will grow.

This would also make war declaration in high sec more interesting. Battles won’t be fought by station/gate camping, but at asteroid belts in their Headquarters systems where they have the home team advantage. During war time a miner won’t have to switch to their alt account and wait for CONCORD to invalidate the war. Mining during a war, might actually be encouraged. Would allow the corporation to fund themselves through the war by mining. Attacking a mining operation would actually make sense, since you are preventing them from making ISK that way. An industry corporation could war dec anyone who mines in “their” ice belt in high sec, to monopolize it to an extent, encouraging more content PVP wise.

Although MEB was originally intended for miners, I think it would also be able to work for cargo ships. Instead of having to be mining to use the module, the cargo ship would have to be in auto-pilot (which of course means on grid longer). Escorting an industry ship would an actually be an interesting thing to do, especially in low sec. Of course you wouldn’t be able to rat (make ISK), but would create new PVP activities, and be a counter to gankers. Of course “Mining Enabled Boost” would need a new name, but I think the mechanic would work.

People have been looking at miners all wrong. You need to look as them as cows. Ore is not the cows milk, but the grass they feed on. The NPC rats are the milk for the corp to enjoy. And I guess after the ore is mined, it becomes like fertilizer. The farmers then use the fertilizer to grow ship and equipment. Weird example, yeah, but you get my point.

TL;DR?

He may be longwinded, but I suggest people read this

You should get in touch with some publishers with that book!

Too long, but I did read.

I like the idea of the PRT. Sounds like a good way to merge combat and mining by giving the combat guys something to do while the miners mine. I like the idea that it can only be activated when a mining module is active, and scaling the NPC difficulty in relation to the amount material mined makes sense (pirates would be more interested in engaging rich targets after all, so a stronger response makes sense).

I'd be curious how frequently people would use the PRT in low and null sec though. My guess is it would be used pretty rarely. NPCs with ewar would pose a huge risk to the fleet if a bunch of neutrals enter your system when your people are scrammed and pointed. I could see people avoiding this similar to how low / null sec incursions are typically avoided (to my knowledge).

I'm not exactly sold on the MEB idea. I think I get what you're going for with it, but it seems to random to me (more ore / hour means stronger boosts? - I'm not a fan of this at face value, largely because I can't wrap my head around how this would make sense. It seems too arbitrary). I'd rather just stick to using combat boosts, which as you mentioned are pretty similar.

All in all good ideas though. Lets see if they can take root!

It wasn't long, it was thorough. And I like the thought you've put into this. It would take a huge amount of balance tweaks but it's as good a plan as any.
I've always advocated the need for escort rather than just buffing industrial ships to combat ship stats. The problem is making it viable with the various aggression mechanics we currently have. Escort needs to be able to be pro-active, but currently in high sec that just makes them the criminals. A reworking of aggression mechanics that allows for realistic 'escort' needs to part of it.

Also, the rats need to turn on the attackers. It's too easy to wait for the rats to have someone damaged then just blap the ratter off the field. When committing to the attack, the aggressor needs to be prepared for a three way battle.

When I was a brand newbie in Eve I was the only ratter/mission runner in a newbie corp full of miners. My contribution was occasionally flying by the belt to kill rats their drones could have handled, on my way to the next anom. A system like this would have been exactly the kind of content creator that would have given me something to do while they did what they wanted to do- but still together.
Hopefully it would encourage miners to go to dangerous space, given that escorting them would be a parallel fleet op on the corp calendar.