Science & Industry

I think it would be great if CCP would revamp mining to be like PI.

Replace asteroid fields with a few dozen very large rocks.

Place mining stations on the rocks and add modules that do the mining.

After so many cycles of mining the ore can be lifted off the rock and picked up by special mining ships.

Could use skills to get bigger ships and have more cargo space, maybe add the ability to either compress or do very limited refining on board mining ship to be able to hold more ore.

Use skill levels to expand mining stations and get more ore per cycle.

Stations are modular and can be attacked by module. Main station could be very tough and the mining modules less so.

Cans that are lifted off the asteroid could be still stolen or flipped so there is still an element of risk.

Still use the same system of ore availability by security level.

Could phase in the system by adding large asteroids and then phase out the current fields over a couple of weeks.

CPP could issue one time use BPC to convert current mining ships to the new type of mining ore industrial.

Looking for positive feedback from the unwashed masses.

not that bad idea... mining is afk activity anyways. just picking it up need a thought over - once picked from rock it could be loaded to a big ship for easy transportation... and if you're not having risk for suicide or NPC attack during mining, then you should be at risk while picking ore up.
Maybe the mining itself as a PI would be good, but picking ore up would be more like tractoring stuff?
You can mine in PI interface, maybe even while away from asteroid. But to pick it up, you should tractor ore from rock, with cycles taking 3 or even more minutes... and obviously not all ore at once.
One "mining" ship could tractor let's say 20k m3 of ore per cycle.
But even then mining ore in PI interface should not be completely afk or even off activity. max mining cycle of 30 mins let's say? same as PI, but cycles 1-30 minutes long, with a decreasing mineable amount... and then to pick ore you should tractor it from asteroid...
Yeah, i think something like that would kill bots...

This wouldn't be a big problem, since they did the exact same when they removed Learning-skills (at least we got those 5 million skillpoints back), but I still think this would remove the point in 16 specific ships (Mining Frigates, Mining Cruisers and ORE Ships, not including the Noctis). They would basically have to give back millions of skillpoints spent in mining and Orca-piloting because the Hulks and Orcas would lose their main purpose.

If they carry this out, they need to be very, very careful with the execution.

Why not just stuff Planetary Management under this tab as well? PI facilities are also colonies. And it would remove one unnecessary category completely.

Because, let's face it. "Industry" is all skills related to the procurement, refining and processing of raw materials (mining, refining and manufacturing). If PI isn't this, I have no clue what it is. It certainly doesn't justify having its own category, when there are only 5 skills, and most people only ever bother with getting 4 of them.

So you're suggesting to remove a ton of ships and skills?


Just make the mining process more interactive. Period. No need to radically revamp it in such a way.

I support this idea wholeheartedly, lets protest in jita for a fix to mining!

I agree with the above statement. If the botting was taken away, the market would be affected to a point that would be in no-one's interest. Accept that they are here to stay (and maybe accept that they are actually doing your wallet a favour) and get on with your game.

Anyways, OP won't happen. The Orca and other ships with mining bonuses have already been mentioned, but don't forget about the Roqual - big expensive and mining-bias ship. Getting rid of that would upset a few manufacturing toons. Also, there are the mining command links as well as mining implants. What about Hulkageddon, etc? And we can't forget the precious High-Sec gankers who will howl like a pack of injured wolves when their easy industrial kills are taken away.

I, too, mentioned a similar system to the OP once, so I'm not saying that this idea is bad. But there are so many Corps and individuals who mine, CCP will not be interested in upsetting so many subscriptions. I believe there is far too much invested in the current system already for a drastic change such as this. Remember that EvE was developed as a PvP game (PI included in the long run) so removing any element of that goes against the principle of EvE. I see what you're saying about being able to shoot the tractor cans, but think about it - gankers can sit there and blast every single can that comes past them without risk. In the method the OP described, you could spend hours mining and actually get nothing if the can-gankers were determined enough.

As with regards to PI - this won't be a passive income for ever. Once DUST514 is up and running, your precious colonies will be valid targets that you will need to defend. So make the most of this great passive income while you can

But rest-assured that re-addressing mining is on CCP's to-do list, but plan for the changes to be a modification of the current system.

That's my view