Player Features and Ideas Discussion

In EVE, mining is an activity where active player participation doesn't make much of a difference to how much ore you get. To sit at your keyboard and watch the laser cycle over is a waste of time - nothing you can do as a player (outside the fitting window) will really make a difference to how much ore you find in your hold every few minutes. The risk/reward tradeoff for mining in more dangerous space is just plain bad given how vulnerable mining ships are. These two factors lie at the heart of AFK mining and botting, where the miner avoids the terrible gameplay of mining by not actually playing the game while mining.

I think that such a fundamental part of the EVE economy should have deeper and more engaging gameplay than the current mining system offers, and that there should be a worthwhile risk/reward tradeoff for taking a barge into dangerous space.

My proposal is to add a new kind of mining ("Blast mining") to the game that hopefully avoids the failures of the old system while encouraging miners to take more risks, mine more ore, and create a more engaging experience for everyone involved.

Blast mining pretty much exactly what it sounds like - blowing asteroids to smithereens and scooping up the little bits left over. Instead of using mining lasers to vaporize and retrieve ore, the barge equips a specialized explosive charge launcher and drags around one of the new auto-tractor deployables. When the miner targets an asteroid with this launcher, he gets a zoomed-in view of the asteroid (similar to planet view in PI) with an overlay of surface faults and mineral density. The miner selects between one and three areas on the asteroid (one for each launcher, up to three launchers) to be struck, and the minerals within a fixed radius of those points are lost, and the asteroid takes damage depending on what faults were struck. Once the asteroid has zero HP, it cracks into chunks and the auto-tractor pulls in what's left. Careless charge placement will result in poor yield, perfect placement will give you the whole asteroid's ore. Smaller asteroids might fall entirely within the destruction radius of a charge, and produce no ore at all with blast mining, whereas larger asteroids need more charges to break, but more ore survives.

Tech 1 blast miners are very imprecise, with poor mineral conservation. Tech 2 require an exhumer, but load improved charges with greatly improved precision and damage.

Now, the interesting bit: Blast mining produces a powerful smartbomb-like AOE damage around the asteroid, and if anyone is damaged by the blast, CONCORD consider it aggression and destroy the barge. As such, it is very inadvisable to blast-mine in hisec with non-corpmates nearby, but blast mining in lowsec or nullsec allows for unprecedented yields, averaging more than double or triple the ore/hour achievable with strip miners.

Hopefully, this will encourage low/nullsec industry, with cheap ores available for whatever corp/alliance can keep it's miners alive, and miners might make tempting targets for small gangs to attack and defend. The system will discourage AFK mining, because using more active mining techniques will improve your yield. Botters will either switch over to blast mining, meaning that their bots will be super easy to kill (via CONCORD) or be stuck with laser-mining, which is less efficient.

EDIT:

Just for clarity, this new system doesn't replace strip miners/mining lasers entirely, it is intended to coexist with the current system. When I refer to mining lasers, that includes strip miners.

+1 for bots
-1 for active players that enjoy passive mining

Can we keep the tedious minigames out of eve?

Yeah, I agree. Lets keep mining lasers, but make blast mining a more rewarding, more active way to mine.

+1

Needs more scatter mechanics.

Did anyone else see the tech demo of (basically this idea) for EVE? it was a UNITY mockup with an asteroid minigame where you could do AOE attacks and scoop ore, you had to keep an eye on heat buildup in the asteroid etc...

It was similar to this idea, and freaking awesome. But all the great mining ideas seem to be promptly shelved for some reason....

+1 for this as an optional mode just in case

I also like the idea, with some refining it could be a great addition to an otherwise boring profession

Yeah, I don't actually like the hacking scatter-cans either. That's why I suggested that the exploded asteroid chunks be targeted by the auto-tractor deployable, so that the miner doesn't get RSI from manually clicking ten thousand little moving space-rocks.

maybe look at the gas harvesters and their info and how they used to be used for mineing or what not.. and they could be "reconfigured" to have an area of influance to draw the blasted roid peices toward you.

as for the blast its self.. maybe look at the old "Mines" and think "bomb launchers" too like launching a LIMPET style mine which will attach to a roid if you were aligned correctly and would have an aoe and destroy the roids around the blast of like 5km perhaps?

You can keep mining like you are now.

But people that want more and are willing to put in the effort will be suitably rewarded.

+1

There are wh corps that mine almost exactly as you desire it is just sleepers they 'mine' and not ore.

Leave mining as is no additions no subtractions.