Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Asteroids are not opponents worth the trouble and effort of direct interaction.
They are just rocks, adrift in space.

GOAL: Tie Risk & Reward firmly together, but without the play killing aspect that results in avoiding interaction.
Method: The player becomes the fighting and managing element, instead of the defenseless miner too often found currently.

Drones that act like cattle take over mining, and continually process ore into raw minerals, needing to be collected and transported to safety.
Drones would be rented, and a deposit for their value held while active under player control. To use them, a player would load a deployable transponder with scripts representing drone codes, calling these fighter sized drones to warp to the player's location. Different quality levels of drones will exist, each requiring a higher rental and deposit amount. Low quality would be for low grade ores, medium would be for ice and mid grade, and high would be for the ABC ores.

The drones will remain in range of the transponder, where the player who anchored it can also dismiss them by setting it to recall mode.
Once the transponder is in recall mode, any drone completing a cycle or standing idle, will immediately warp back to it's ORE rental facility.
The transponder would have an ore bay while deployed, capable of holding 40Km3 capacity.

Players would be cast in more active roles, focused on transport and defense.
The miner would monitor the storage container being filled, so they would know when best to empty it with their industrial.
The drones would be unresponsive to micromanagement while mining, only paying attention when completing a cycle as to whether they stand idle, continue mining, or dock.

Opportunities exist for both theft and vandalism, depending on nature of hostile players.

VERSION 2, DRONE CRUELTY FREE

Not counting meta / faction options, this would require 2 different pricing options.
One for barge equivalent, one for exhumer equivalent.
We don't want to compete with barges and exhumers for pricing, just play style.

Base deployable cost, standalone not relying on drones:
50 million for T1 estimated.
200 million for T2 estimated.

Each strip miner / ice harvester (functional yield equivalent, but specific to this deployable), up to 4 possible.
(can be fitted and removed at station only): 50 million each estimated.
Will require same mining crystals, just like modulated strip miners, for best use.
(Like modules, these fittings would have a chance to be recovered from a wrecked deployable)

With bonuses, to equal the yield expectations of a Hulk on a T2 deployable, 4 would be required.
This puts the cost for it at 400 million, if it is expected to replace a hulk.

Play specific detail:
When directed to start mining, it will enter a siege mode which expires at the end of the cycle.
It cannot be recovered off the field during this period, but can be toggled between automatic repeat and idle, taking effect at the end of the current cycle.

EDIT NOTE: This idea is not necessarily intended as a replacement for current mining, but as an alternative option for those who actually see mining as a play style for their EVE game itself.
I understand some players view mining as a necessary grind, since to them it is the obstacle they must overcome to have the ISK they feel is needed for their actual desired play in other areas. They don't need to change anything, as far as I am concerned, and can continue as they have been.

I'm no miner so I can't really see all the consequences of such a change in terms of mining, but I like the reasoning behind it. More interaction is always better, as long as both sides have similar chances of getting the upper hand !

+1 for the idea, don't know about the details

this sounds simultaneously more afk friendly and more ore thief friendly...

dnt like the automation, but kinda do like the vulnerable resources...

i dnt know! lol

but what about miners that monitor how much they are mining and attempt to switch rocks just at the right moment for maximum efficiency?

will there be anything like that?

if ppl didnt use this for afk mining id be very surprised

i dont like the idea i m a miner a true miner i mine and only mine and all my isk is for mining new ships skills and my plex as well as new accs (i mine with 4 accs my limit what i can manage with 2 Monitors)

avoiding hostile players is the number one rule for miners

avoiding players isnt i like to mine in a fleet of 10-20 players
(not accs) its fun to mine with a fleet talk and laugh

a miner reachs perfection rather quick i chose to manage many accs and try to reach 100%

Mining dosnt need a change
Miners dont need pvp

eve isnt a sole pvp game
and dont decide that the way others play is wrong because you dont like it
or the mainstream miner in empire is afk or a easy target

And there is the real problem.

You have mistaken EVE for a social network, instead of a game where interacting, not just chatting, with other players is the actual premise.


The EVE you described isn't a multiplayer one either, since you point out your version of competing is playing 'keep away' when anything might want to interact with you.

As to whether I like it or not, I never suggested removing your interaction averse style.
I would, however, prefer to not force it as a requirement for players to be miners.

At what point did the defining characteristic of a miner become the inability to effectively fight back?
If you want to play EVE as a miner who wishes nothing more than avoiding hostile contact, I would not interfere with this.

I just want options more suited to a game where space combat is such a primary feature everywhere else.

eve is a PvP game. mining is very PvP orientated...

is the OP suggestion in addition to what we have now? rather than instead of?

aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

interesting...

Perhaps you haven't noticed but it is CCP that ensures that the "defenseless miner" stays defenseless. They rebalanced the ships but this seems only to make the Skiff and Mack more useful across the mining spectrum and less "single purpose" barges. But the high production equipment is still made of tissue paper and spit.

The problem is not that miners aren't friendly enough, it is that jags, slags, and gankers exist. CCP has changed kill rights, has changed the bounty system, has changed ganked wreck ownership, has changed the available tank on some mining hulls... the list goes on and on, however...

A person who is damaged enough to think it's fun and enjoyable to shoot other unarmed ships, unprovoked is still the problem.

Your system doesn't fix that. Your system just invites more thieves and buffoonery. I never said it caused it, just gives more advantage to those who are unethical and untrustworthy.

Your post points the fingers at the miners who want to mine and be left alone, and says there is something "not MMO" with that.

I don't want to "interact" more if your definition of interaction is... fighting, stealing, ganking, damaging, destroying, griefing. I"ve told you, I want no part of that. And I won't support any change to Eve that invites it.

If CCP wanted us to be more interactive, they would let miners arm our mining ships

If CCP wanted us to be more interactive, they would offer Decoy drones that look like hulks, but only get a CCP response and cost me little or nothing.

If CCP wanted us to be more interactive, they would respond to illegal acts in high security space with a near instantaneous response time. I fly in J-space, I've lost less mining steel in worm holes, then to gankers in high sec.

the point is, running away is the ONLY option we miners have.. Avoiding jags, slags, and gankers is the only alternative. It is painfully obvious that CCP wants us to be "less interactive" or they would make changes that don't rely on the good nature and friendly demeanor (or utter lack there of) of ganking slags.

You are confusing PvP with the more specifically limited aspect of space combat.

PvP is also what happens when a player checks local market pricing, and places something on sale for 100 ISK below anyone else, so their item will be on top of the list as the least expensive.
PvP is also what happens when you rush out to a belt, and grab the more valuable asteroids before other pilots show up to start mining them.

Any time a limited opportunity exists, and you do something to improve your chances to gain the desired goal rather than another player, that is PvP.



No, that was not the intent of the OP, nor was it implicit in the wording.

I pointed out that the game incentivizes avoidance as a primary tactic to respond to hostiles.
It does this by process of elimination, in that the preferred mining ships lack other options with probable success potential.

This version reverses that, by giving both reason and capability to respond to hostile force with matching force.

This version would, specifically, give miners the ability to both be interactive, and just as safe as any other pilot can claim.

I want that choice for all miners.