Science & Industry

Here is a crazy idea: Have asteroids contain random amounts of different types of ores and let the survey scanner point them out.

So instead of having three asteroids; one with 5000m3 of veldspar, a second with 3000m3 of scordite and a third with 2000m3 of pyroxeres ... you would instead simply have one large 10,000m3 asteroid that contains all three. Each mining cycle on that asteroid would haul in all three as well, each in relation to the total amount there (so in the previous example, a 1,000m3 laser cycle would get 500m3 of velspar, 300m3 of scordite and 200m3 of pyroxeres).

This would allow CCP to either A) decrease the overall number of asteroids in a belt without affecting the actual amount of minerals contained within or B) increase the overall amount of minerals contained therein without increasing the number of asteroids. Take your pick.

The three major changes this would bring would be:

1) Balance out the ore yield of belts, as people would no longer be able to focus on just one type of ore to the exclusion of all others unless they were using mining crystals (see below).

2) Make survey scanning more interesting, because without a scanner you don't really know what you'll be getting until you've already mined a few cycles (actual ore ratios would randomized, so you could indeed find asteroids with more pyroxeres than veldspar, if you look for them.)

3) Gives mining crystals a new purpose in life, namely, focused mining. Mining crystals would allow their users to extract a specific type of ore from an asteroid to the exclusion of all others. That would make them especially appealing when you find a huge 150,000m3 asteroid that is 90% veldspar and 10% arknor. Throw in your arknor crystal and vampire out just the exotic stuff you want, and a full cycle's worth to boot, while leaving the rest behind. For losec and nullsec mining this would make mining crystals even more essential, as you would be getting focused yield instead of blanket yield like T1 miners have to.