Player Features and Ideas Discussion

With current PLEX price development we will soon face increasing mineral prices due to tons of unsubscribed mining alts. It is time to let those, who stay, make mining more effective / rewarding through constant interaction. You still can AFK mine, but for less income. If you mine actively interacting with the game - you can get more in less time.

Apart from numerous simple (and stupid, IMHO) suggestions like buff yield of lazers, mining drones, ships or rorquals, I like those completely new approaches. They ensure more effective mining through pilot activity, not through plain "more m3 per hour cause I have bigger ship/laser"

Comet mining: fast movable mineable objects, that need to be scanned down, reqiure manually piloting to stay close and avoid toxic cloud

Mining probes and planet ring mining: probe down the proper place in planet ring, where you can mine, requires manually piloting to avoid collision with random moving piece of rock.

Multi Ore, Multi Methods: asteroids change during the process of mining it, requires manual adjusting of minig beam to ensure reasonable efficiency of mining laser, you can follow veins, etc

New Module -- Mining Laser Optimization Mid slot module, that would increase mining laser range

+1

The best idea is freeing up that AFK activity for something else. Games like Evochron: Mercenary improve yield over the mining beam with a deployable mining probe (that jettisons the cargo in space once it's finished its one mining cycle). It requires being set up inside the asteroid, with misplaces failing, and this prevents that AFK style. What's more, jettisoning the can in space mitigates AFKing because that loot can be taken.

Why?
It frees up those ships for other purposes and playstyles. Maybe it's a subset of more a more active game, from PI through requiring these ships on fleets for something ("Rats are clearing out belts before they are capsuleer'd. Better take these mining ships, featuring modules that increase effectiveness vs. the rat mining fleets or that increase location finding or that increase loot storage."). Maybe deployables are key for more hit-and-run gameplay (sorta like an ESS, for example -- more content through setting up a tactical location that has to be dealt with). Maybe mining ships get the role of setting up stargates.

The problem with "manually piloting" a mining ship is that they're less than agile and such, so it's less than skillful.

Technically, mining should probably just be more profitable with more risk. It's a bit of an odd situation, because them being so subject to gate camps reduces the map flow that could come from more explorative philosophies. What's coming up as a simple idea is a deployable that reduces scan resolution, possibly just around a gate.

Thank you both for input

Well, that was a valid idea how to keep mining more interactive. But probably not everywhere. That mechanic can be used in planet ring mining, for example.

Why miner bumpers hate miners so much? I mean - c'mon, they create content for you... If you failed to kill the ship, that can not fight back, it is because you sucks, not because it is in high sec.

List for me please all of the mining ships in this game that cannot shoot back.

Dont change it.

Ring mining which requires manual piloting to avoid damage sounds like something which can be done with four current mining ships:
Procurer/Skiff (afterburner, power rigs to drive afterburner, maybe agility in case too slow)
Venture/Prospect (naturally agile, because frigates)

The procurer is already the go-to barge because it's catalyst-resistant (hisec) and resilient against bigger rats (null) if fit properly. The other two need to either become a lot faster and pick up a little more power grid/another mid slot to be even looked at in a planetary ring (AB/MWD/survey scanner). The ring would be a Venture's natural habitat, though: two mining turrets, probes, MWD/AB, and just plain fast.

Still, why should barges be able to do everything in hisec? Leave them the static belts with cheap ore. Playing dodgeball with a venture over more expensive ore should have its place-and there's no way someone doing that is ever going to get ganked.

Greatly reducing the amount of belts in highsec would be interesting. Outright removing them is never going to happen though.