Player Features and Ideas Discussion

I've returned from a hiatus from the game and picked up an idea while looking over the changes since I left. What if mining, both moon and normal, were tossed out and we started from scratch? What would be the best way to approach it? Moon mining supports stagnation in null sec and the giant blue circle jerk. Active mining with barges promotes botting because of how unbelievably dull it is. But perhaps there is another way.

I am of the opinion that moon mining should be deleted entirely. I've held this belief for years and I doubt I'm alone in this. It should be replaced with gravimetric sites and mined conventionally with ships. However, this is a maddening exercise in boredom. So boring that many miners risk bans to bot it instead. So let's make the bots official and in game instead.

No, this isn't what you think.

I'm suggesting we make mining barges AI ships under the indirect command of players. Players take the role of fleet commanders and the barges are AI units under their command. The player can tell them which rocks to mine, for how long, when to jettison ore or move it to an orca as well as when to dock/warp to POS. They would behave much like "pets" in other MMO's or AI squad mates in tactical FPS like Arma2. The player would have to be present on grid, and would have to issue orders frequently. This might be more interesting and would allow the player to take this command role from a combat ship, rather than an industrial of some sort. Thus automatically providing the mining fleet with at least one escort ship by default.

A player's mining skills in such a system would work as they do now, except they would be applied to the AI ships under his command. The AI mining/industrial ships would be bought and sold just as they are now. Fittings would be the exact same way. A player could even pilot them himself if he wanted. But he could make them AI units without penalty and fly something else if he wanted instead.

I'll admit this is a pretty big chunk of programming, but I think it's worthwhile. It could be applied to combat ships too of course, but I think mining would be a more conservative place to start. It also raises some balancing concerns and questions such as how many of these "pets" could one player have under his command at any given time. But I those are just details that could be experimented with and worked out later.

Such as alts?

I think the troll just promoted bots............
I am seriously thinking of stopping to visit the forums. This is insanely stupid.

I can has Murloc bot please?

Edit: Actually on this moronic line: I demand, yes demand, a system where I can also have a mission ship do missions for me while I do other stuff.
Oh wait, I will need a ship system that also allows me to do Incursions too.
Oh wait,I now demand a wormhole one too.
Oh wait, I demand one for PvP tooooooooooooo.

Arbitrary demands never make sense and tend to ignore the whole 'choice' in this sandbox. Have a cookie for making bots legal.

I did not know WoW makes you lose your armor and weapons when you die.

I actually have zero interest in mining, I'm more interested in the potential tear extraction factor. Anyways, my idea is a bit different from drones since they would not be launched from your ship. They would be regular player ships, only piloted by AI units instead. Come to think of it, they should mine less than the player but I envision this as the main form of mining rather than players doing it themselves. The way I figure it, if piloting 1 hulk is super boring, maybe piloting 5 at the same time would be slightly less boring. It could be illegally botted either way, but then so can missions, incursions and probably even PvP if you really wanted to. Eve just isn't a very complicated game from a control standpoint.

King Rothgar... I still maintain great respect for you for the ballsy things you did back in FW... but this idea... no. Just walk away. It is beneath you.

I like the idea being able to control another ship in your account,,,same as drones ,,What would it hurt to beable to do this?I saw someone said it would not promote individual playing ,,,well if you have more then one account and played by yourself it would be same as another ship..I also see the universe being crowded,,,space should be more empty then not and i usually see someone in every system most of the time with in an hour..rats in 99% of the systems ,they should have some zero sec systems that do not have rats come as often...some people do not always want to fight..some like to trade, and build,,mine,and explore...where can you go where no man has gone before in eve???let it happen...

This makes no sense at all from an RP/lore perspective.

Gallente scientists did in fact once try to make ships that could do exactly this: the results are better known as 'Rogue Drones', and considered by most of New Eden to have been a really bad idea. CONCORD has more-or-less banned all advanced AI research since then, so there's no explanation for where this development could have come from either. (One of the pirate factions, possibly, but the Blood Raiders don't seem the type to be investing in mining R&D)

That's not to say that you couldn't come up with a justification for it, but as things stand this proposal runs almost exactly counter to the background CCP has established.

I propose only Supercarriers be able to do this.

It seems logical that a carrier that big could field a mining barge or two.

But only them, the Drone bandwith is used for communications with the AI miners.


Supercarriers - EvEs newest Miners

I do think the mining drones should beable to mine more and faster...