Player Features and Ideas Discussion

did exhumers ever get their production costs rebalanced as part of their round of teiricide?

Yes they did, but it takes a long time for the market to fully catch up. Years, yes, years. That initial change you may see on the graphs is a result of speculation by the ones who hold large amounts of market shares, giving the impression that it will even out quickly when in reality they are simply looking ahead to take advantage of the changes.

It's more balanced now that the other barge yields were nerfed, but I still think Covetor and Hulk yields need a buff to make them more significant. It's almost there. Just change those 3% yield bonuses to 5% and you're golden.

I'd like to see pilots be able to shunt the ore automatically into a jettison canister. You wouldn't have to click every three minutes, but you'd still need some support for getting the ore back home, and you're also electing to put it in danger if there isn't someone nearby to collect it for you. Now you could run and get an industrial once it fills up, and the time spent in the industrial will significantly reduce the profit margin over the Mackinaw/Retriever without eliminating it.

im good with the yields of the hulk,.I just want a better tank.

You said earlier that you're getting similar yields on a Skiff, if I'm understanding you correctly. I assume you mean if you fit the Skiff for max yield and the Hulk for max tank, then they have about the same yield but Skiff gets a bigger hold and much MUCH better tank. This is my problem. People are willing to accept small marginal improvements but it doesn't mean it's fair. Given the way the tradeoff works in terms of tank vs. yield, the Hulk and Covetor should have a larger margin in yield even if their tank were improved.

But I'm with Nevyn in thinking the base HP is fine on the barges (and should be nerfed on the Procurer/Skiff), and that they should be given more slots and powergrid/CPU so the player can either fit tank modules or other modules as they choose.




I'm thinking a nice setup would be 5 high slots (much like a combat cruiser), with innate ability to fit one strip miner, and 2 launcher hardpoints. 4 mid slots and 4 low slots, with a lowish amount of powergrid, like 300mw. Two popular setups maybe:
1.) 1 strip miner, 2 RLMLs, probe launcher, cloaking device
2.) 2 strip miners, 2 RLMLs, probe launcher, command processor in mid slot

It would have much higher base shield HP than armor. This combined with the low powergrid (and CPU not very high) would manage a few balance points:
1.) low powergrid makes HP-increasing modules less available, skewing the balance in favor of shield tanking
1.a) since shield tanking is easier to fit, command processors are more likely to cost defense whereas MLUs are mostly going to cost cargo space or evasiveness
2.) RLMLs preferrable to save powergrid which reduces sustained combat viability while improving its ability to defend itself in the occasional gank
3.) more than one command processor will not be particularly viable as it will cost too much in tank and use up a lot of powergrid and most of the CPU

I already think there should be a special type of ore pockets you have to scan down which would contain small asteroids of richer ore, spread apart enough to make normal barges useless in there. This would be useful to Ventures and Prospects. But some of these could perhaps have asteroids a bit larger and a bit closer together in exchange for some rats you must fight off. These pockets would be more ideal for Procurers and Skiffs, but still useful for the more daring Venture or Prospect pilots. The richer ores will improve the value of a single haul--if the abundant asteroids in highsec are sufficiently marginalized into limited mineral yields, and if the richer ore types (+5% and +10% yield) are improved to make a larger margin, then it could become viable to spent a significant amount of time hunting for a small ore haul. This would help bridge the gap between mining and exploration, and expand the versatility of the mining profession.

Oh I know, but remember that after you put guns on your cruiser, most of the powergrid is already gone.

If it was given 400mw powergrid, it could easily fit 2 launchers, a MWD, and a command processor. The strip miners only take 1mw. Now it would struggle to fit on a 1600mm armor plate but so do other cruisers, without gimping their weapons anyway. At 300mw, it needs to be a bit more cautious with powergrid expenditure. It can fit a 200mm armor plate, but a large shield extender is a lot more forgiving. I'm not suggesting putting its fitting anywhere near as limited as the Procurer or Skiff are currently, with 45mw/50mw of powergrid. 300mw is very much within the cruiser range, just on the low end. We'll chalk that up to it being an industrial ship, probably has its hull more focused on carrying capacity than power routing capacity.

please let this thread die, and for good.

I don't want to see weapons on any barge nor exhumer, but a drone damage and hitpoints (maybe drone yield) bonus would be far better for defensive capabilities of mackinaw and hulk (ORE is a "pirate" Gallente faction after all, trying to put missiles in the picture seems silly).

And being able to put large shield extender without fitting module on hulk or mackinaw (and skiff too !) is something I don't like, a damage control and active/passive shield resistance is all these ships need IMO.

About roles of the three sizes, I would really like way more emphasis on the player brain to "make" his/her own mining ship, with modules or subsystem for ore hold, cpu/pg or number of strip miners, with each bigger ship size having a larger customization space.

Yet Vexors & Ishtars don't suddenly have half the PG of other ships despite the fact they don't have to fit guns as drone ships. If you give them real PG they get real fitting options. You might also give Strip Miners some PG costs along side I suppose, but it also allows for a greater variety of 'surprise, a full rack of neut' fits. Rather than continuing to artifically restrict them.