Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Proposal for Revision of Mining in EVE Online:

Step 1. Revision of Asteroid Distribution:

--All Low-Tier (Veldspar, Scordite, ec.) Asteroids are distributed Universally (all space, high-sec, low-sec, 0.0) and in Static, Permanent Asteroid Belts.

These permanent re-spawning belts have a small chance to spawn a rare higher-tier Asteroid or two at each Belt Re-Spawn.

--All Mid-to-Higher-Tier Asteroids are distributed in Exploration Site Locations Only. These must be scanned down as with other exploration sites, and each location will contain only a few asteroids (1-10), and (usually) no Faction rats.

These Exploration Asteroid Clusters only appear in certain locations of space, as determined by CCP. Some Ores in some 0.0, Some Ices in some 0.0, some Ores only in Low-Sec and some Ices only in Low-Sec. This uneven distribution is designed to create trade, scarcity and opportunity. Not all minerals or ices should be in abundance everywhere.

Step 2: The Mining Process:

--Currently, Mining is as simple as “look at overview, get in range, fire zee Miners, rinse and repeat”.

--Under the Revision, All Asteroids on the overview lose their type descriptions. All asteroids must be scanned to determine what ores they contain and in what quantities, and their location on the asteroid. Some asteroids will contain nothing of value. Most will contain a single ore-type. Some will contain multiple ore types.

--Miner will scan the road till they find one they wish to work on. Once that is done, (and the results pop up), they can activate their mining modules/drones on the results.

--Every 10-15 cycles, the asteroid must be re-scanned and the miners re-targeted and re-activated. Failure to re-scan will result in a lower yield, or worthless space rock (random chance of either).

Step 3: The Rare Events Table (Pop-Ups/Action Events):

--Implement a “Rare Events Table” of events that can occur while mining, that require or promote human reaction. For example:

Pressure Pocket Rupture – You’ve ruptured a volatile and unstable gas pocket. You have 60 seconds to withdraw to a safe distance. After 60 second, an AOE Damage Explosion occurs (destroying the asteroid that was being mined) that damages all ships within 20km. In place of the destroyed asteroid is a very small amount of ultra-rare-elements (to be implemented) that serve some industrial/manufacturing purpose.

Hidden Ore Uncovered – While Mining, you’ve uncovered a hidden pocket of improved Ore/Ice your scanner could not detect. Gives the option o re-target the better Ore-type or Ice if acted upon within 60 seconds. Failure to act results in the ore being lost to cave in, crushing or mining unit damage.

Valuable Gas Pocket – You’ve uncovered a pocket of rare and valuable gas (i.e. Wormhole gasses). If you have a Gas Harvester on your Ship, you can Harvest these gasses by re-targeting them. Failure to do so within 60 seconds means the gas escapes and the opportunity is missed.

Asteroid Depletion -- Apparently your scanner was wrong, and the amount of Ore less than thought. The Asteroid is depleted early.

Hidden Cache – You’ve uncovered a hidden cache of supplies buried within the Asteroid. Gives the opportunity to loot the cache for 60 seconds. Failure to do so and the asteroid collapses on the cache, destroying it. Cache can contain any kind of module, salvage or other loot as determined by that systems Security-Level. Lower value in high-sec, higher in 0.0.

Hidden Database – You’ve uncovered a hidden Faction Database. This remote database storage link unit contains the location of an Expedition, or Faction Rat Location (security level appropriate) and provides you a bookmark for its location nearby (1-5 systems away). Failure to react within 60 seconds causes the database unit to be damaged beyond repair by your mining units.

Both the Hidden Cache and the Hidden Database would be the “ultra-rare” rare events, and could contain some special miner-specific stuff. Specifically, Faction Mining Gear (to be implemented, the miners equivalent to Faction Rat Belt Spawns) all the way up to ultra-rare Faction Mining Vessel BPC’s (Frigates, Cruisers, Battleships-equivalent Mining Hulls for Each Faction, lots of opportunity for rareity and cool new hull designs).

Sounds fine with me. Creative even.

I wouldn't mind seeing some PI style heat maps of the rocks. There has long been talk about making mining more interactive. The "story" could be that the lasers will try to use certain points on racks as they rotate. The miner picks the best ones while a readout estimates what it will deliver. This may reduce botting, but I think it just would be more fun.

I actually wouldn't mind this idea minus a few details such as the belt rats but scanning down valuable sites would be more realistic. The implementation would have to be worked out a bit better like %'s. I think bot programmers would have a bit harder time changing their programs an miners would have a bit better time collecting some valuable ORE rightfully.

I'm going to say -1.

Mining does need an overhaul, it does need a level of interactive skill that puts it out of the range of bots. however unique events, can be seen by bots, and so aren't the way to go. I while ago I posted a proposal that a player could challenge a suspected bot resulting in the alleged bot having to type a captcha to avoid cord impounding their ship. It was shot down because even captcha is easy to circumvent.

I do think there is merit in the PI style resource map, but it would take the player having to adjust to subtle patterns that change to defeat bots.

I also would like to see single multi-ore asteroids, rather than belts - roids are not herd animals FFS! A big massive tumbling m*******cker in isolated beauty.

+1 PI style mapping

Very hard for bots to deal with, preserves the ability to afk mine, but with less yield, and actively mine with more yield.

Roid belts are more interesting than single roids, so no go with a single multi-ore roid. Make it so you can select the type of ore you want from a roid, enforce actively scanning, at least upon intial arival, and move higher value roids in 0.0 into scanned sites, but more persistent than the current grav mining sites. Change grav sites to have yet still higher yield.