Player Features and Ideas Discussion

So I looked up the old mining game threads and they are all in the old forums according to the sticky...so here's a new forum thread using existing measures since Odyssey release. As the title hints at, the problem I seek to solve is how to make mining both more interesting but also ward off botting/macroing a little (or a lot with some dev love and wisdom).

CONCEPT: Mini-Game during module activation for Mining.

How it Works:
-Activation of Asteroid Scanner shows all available asteroids, their composition, and yield ranges.
-Asteroid is chosen from scanner for targeting.
-Mini-Game begins when laser is activated on the asteroid. The scanner is not required to activate the game, it simply displays the potential ranges of asteroids. Larger asteroids will have greater ranges and complexity than smaller ones. Large asteroids will inherently be more 'risky' by having such large ranges, but also more rewarding, whereas small asteroids will have less potential gain but more stable yields over time.

The Game:
The game will be on a board layout similar to the existing hacking mechanics. The goal is to reach the center of the board as opposed to some randomly chosen spot like in hacking. IT IS IMPORTANT TO NOTE THIS - the 'game' is not about finishing it. Throughout the board the nodes are randomly five types of mechanics...
1) Rock - Does Nothing (Blank Spot in Hacking)
2) Ore Vein - Increases yield modifier for laser
3) Slag - Decreases yield modifier for laser
4) Crystal - Damages Scan with chance to fail game (similar to how your virus loses HP in hacking). Lore: crystal formations refract the tractor and scan lasers, causing the mining laser to destabilize. This doesn't lead to failure to mine, simply a reduced efficiency in yield...the lowest possible.
5) Core - Huge increase to modifier and end of mini-game.

As the player moves on the board, the mining yield modifier affects where the range of ore collected will be for the mining laser. If done poorly, the game will fail and the lowest amount will be harvested from the asteroid which leads to more cycles required to harvest...less efficient...etc.

If done well, the asteroid yield on the cycle can be very high or at the maximum range. Note: the core doesn't mean the range is maxed: this means a player can 'explore' the board to try and unlock more ore deposits to increase the modifier, or just aim for the core and leave it at that. Speed Mining vs. Quality Mining. Maximum yield will require most, if not all, ore deposits to be found on the board...risking hitting crystal deposits in the process.

This mechanic would be required for mining to make macro mining more difficult to program, but should only add at most about 10 seconds to a minute of game time per asteroid laser fired with 1 minute being 'exploring' the asteroid for more bonuses before harvesting. Each laser on a ship must perform the game...so Procurers, being the least efficient, also only do the game once whereas the larger vessels each do this more, up to however many turrets they have.

This should not be seen as a bad thing - while only one laser is activated at a time, by the time the final lasers are activated on the highest turret count ships (designed for mining), the first laser will be ready to start the game anew...keeping the player engaged in mining and thus not staring at the screen. A battleship with 8 mining turrets will be forced to take inefficient yields just to keep turrets running. The size/type of the laser turret determines partially the game board size. The asteroid itself also affects the game board size.

The Mining Skills would remain unchanged.
Ships would not have bonuses to scanner HP as scan ships do.
New Module or Lasers themselves could determine HP strength potentially.


WHY?

First - the asteroid's size matters and makes for an immediate, visual impact on mining. BIG asteroids = BIG (potential) loads. You'll see miners compete more often over specific roids in a belt, which could lead to unfortunate events...

Second - The game adds a new level of complexity to mining, but doesn't make it tedious. Players rushing to mine will simply play the game quickly to reach the core...or not at all...and take a lower range and less efficient yield for the sake of time. Players aiming for quality will take time to 'explore' the board of the game in the hopes of increasing yield further. Investing twice as much time could potentially lead to as much as 4 times more yield...though there is risk in failure too.

Third - If programmed well (mouse clicks required with shifting board designs), a macro could potentially be immensely difficult to build for this, cutting this out a little more. We can all agree that's a good thing and I feel CCP's new hacking game could really help simplify this problem.

Fourth - This is just an idea with little built in, but more advanced ores could have more complex boards that result in those ores being more difficult to obtain high yields of, therefore increasing their value. The more valuable low and null ores become, the more likely those Venture ships will wander off into lawless space looking for a chance to hit big on an ABC and smuggle it back to Jita. NPE just got a small injection for mining AND an introduction to low and null mechanics.


What are your thoughts? Please read the article thoroughly...though, if you know the hacking mechanics, you have an idea of how it works. Rather than just pass/fail though as with hacking, this is instead less/more yield mechanics. Miners who actively engage in their career can stand to be very successful whereas bots won't be.

i dont even mine and i dont like this idea...

Mining does not actually bore me or...well, I wouldn't do it! I propose this idea simply because, as I was mining and thinking about the new player I just introduced to the game, I was thinking about the exploration tutorial and the hacking game.

I just know this to be a topic miners are generally interested in. PI / Trading are both great ways to kill time while mining and many players do so. Obviously, outside of the game has many, err, resources* available for attention.

The goal of the mechanic is not to be annoying - hence the ability to 'rush' through it if desired. The goal is to provide more actual gameplay to mining beyond ctrl+click, F1, F2, F3, wait until full. Miners who are interested in their career would gain more in the way of actual...you know, gaming. It also helps boost "active" miners over bots or afk miners by rewarding that activity.

Out of curiosity, please post whether or not you're a miner when commenting. I value both opinions as many players familiar with the hacking mechanic are likely not miners. I personally think the hacking mechanic is brilliant, though simple. It at least adds more gameplay to what was a very boring (and similar) target/activate/wait mechanic.

Reminds me of Galaxy on Fire 2 mining(which was fun).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnriwUErSwU

Object is to keep the drill in the center. Better drills mean less shaking. The deeper you mine the faster you get ore units. At the center is a core that is much more valuable than a single unit of ore.

pretty much what this guy said above.

no mining minigames. at least with exploration u do a few and then head off. even if ur heading straight to the next one u have a break, maybe do some shooting, and its broken up. and yet ppl still call it tedious (it could be at least be more puzzle orientated)

now imagine doing this mining mini-game for five and a half hours straight, in a ship with three lasers. tedious doesn't even begin to describe what this would be like. and then appreciate that five and a half hours is apparently a small amount of time to mine in a day.

no mining mini games.

While the idea is pretty cool, I'm afraid we would soon hate it. The reason is because, in contrast to exploration, mining is based on time spent-amount mined. It's made as an industrial activity. Adding a minigame would slow that down, breaking the numbers. Yes, it would be funny, but only for a brief time until corps realize they would be having much more difficulties on their mining ops. Hacking is about finding rare stuff in 'small' amounts, so it works well with a minigame, but mining is about taking huge amounts of materials in the shortest time possible. Sorry mate, nice idea, but it wouldn't be welcome.

I'm not sure how this could be implemented in game, but I like it!