Science & Industry

Let me start off by saying that I do hope that this is in the right section. If it's not, I apologize, but these are questions for miners. Now, on to the content of the post.

I am curious to know what incentive miners could have for moving to an area, especially more dangerous areas (e.g., lowsec). Is it the ore? Obviously security is a factor, but what level of security would it take for miners to consider an area to be a good mining area? Will only the protection of CONCORD or your nullsec renter alliance be enough? Would the watchful eye of lowsec mercenaries be enough?

Does the profitability of buy orders in an area, for both ore and minerals, factor into such considerations? Perhaps the availability of replacement ships and modules?

I've lost track of how many threads on this topic I've seen... mostly in GD.

a lot more resources? much of the highly trafficked high sec systems are devoid of any decently-sized stones. not even worth mining.

Also, mining barges like the procurer and skiff make great bating ships ;)

What are you trying to accomplish?

Many new miners have visions of venturing into low-sec -- until they find out that there is almost no financial advantage over high-sec along with an incredible increase in risk.

Ah, I see. I was thinking that since low-sec provides better ores, if one could mitigate the risk it would attract miners. But you say it gives no financial advantage. Why is that, exactly?

CCP will not mitigate the risk - if anything they have been increasing the risk to PvE activities like mining outside of highsec.

Still, it if you want to mine in low-sec it is not the death sentence that people would have you believe and can be done reasonably safely in a mining frigate or with some preparation in an out of the way place. But even if the ore is worth measurably more, the significant overhead of finding a quiet place, providing security/paying attention, the risk of losing a ship, and moving the ore makes the increase in income not worth it. This is largely because AFKing mining in highsec has requires so little effort, that the attention you have to pay in lowsec can't compete.

Make mining overall a more active experience and perhaps this effort gap would close and people would decide that if they have to pay attention anyway, they might as well do that in lowsec for more income.

If you want a more engaging and lucrative mining experience, I suggest you try ninja WH gas mining. There is something that properly rewards miners for taking some extra risk.

A quick Google search, in no particular order:

https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=354875
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=33039
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=32947
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&t=75095
https://forums.eveonline.com/default.aspx?g=posts&m=2971500

I couldn't quickly find the ones I was thinking of; the ones that became huge threadnaughts.

A forum search of GD might be more effective than Google.

The main advantage of highsec mining, is not being AFK..but simply that it allows longer uninterrupted mining and easy transport to market.

Miners might be willing to put up with greater risks and less uninterrupted mining time in exchange for greater value ores, but when you combine that with creating a base/managing a pos in low sec and/or the hassle of safely transporting themselves and ore to market..it just doesn't fly.

Wormholes are actually easier as they address both drawbacks. Uninterrupted mining time is when there is no connecting wormhole to your system. Transport is every week or two when a wormhole to highsec opens.

If ccp wants to make lowsec mining popular, they need to address the transport issue....occasional wormholes directly between random lowsec and highsec systems?

Damn it. Forums just ate my post. Well... trying to do it again quickly:

Forgive my ignorance and inexperience; I'm new to eve (again).


What do people think of when they say "AFK miner"? Imo that means someone who is only clicking on their eve windows once every 5 minutes or so to check lasers/rocks/hold/local. Are there really that many people mining in that manner, or do you guys just think "AFK miner" actually means "that guy just ran to the kitchen to refill his coffee mug, what a dirty AFK miner! someone call code!"?


And would a significant boost to lowsec really be that hard to get right? How in the world do you think a group could make lowsec a more profitable location? You'd need highly skilled characters in expensive ships for logistics, 1 combat pilot per 3 or so miners, a large enough group that you have enough combat pilots to deal with more than a solo PVPer warping into the belt, this all happening at scheduled times of the day and/or being in a big enough corp/alliance that this is going on 23/7, etc. And don't forget that being an active group that will defend itself isn't going to deter attacks in lowsec! Every lowsec pirate in the game will be beelining to that system as soon as they know about it. Seems like the only way that would be feasible would be if lowsec mining received such a huge boost that a BIG number of highsec miners turned to lowsec so that the lowsec inhabitants can't keep track of (or hit) all of the mining ops in lowsec. And we both know that no amount of lowsec boost is going to make it that appealing to that many miners.

Imo a significant boost to lowsec mining would make it a place that adventurous solo miners (and small groups of those folk) could find appealing, but that's it.

If Steve Ronuken gets voted into the CSM and manages to bring pressure to get the changes to mining he has devised then mining in low-sec MIGHT be more feasible.

I won't fully go into all Steve s mining ideas but it starts with keeping the current basic principle of mining but removing the static asteroid belts. You then go to mining agents at NPC stations and take on mining missions. These would not be the current type of mining mission but sites where you mine the usual types of rock. These sites would belong to you or your mining fleet and if anyone else probed you down and mined those rocks they would get 'suspect' status.

This new way of mining is better as it gives miners a bit more safety as if you see combat probes on Dscan you can just GTFO. It would possibly make miners in nullsec a little happier/safer as well. In addition it means you won't get large AFK/Bot mining fleets landing and clearing out whole belts because they won't be there anymore. Steve mining 'iteration' is more complicated than just this though so I suggest you look it up and if there is still time give him your vote/s.