Test Server Feedback

I mine all the time in WHs. I live in a C1, where it's less practical than anywhere else to close holes, yet somehow I manage (two alt accounts help).

If it's not safe to close the hole, it's not safe to be mining.

The list of sigs updates automatically, unless you probed and then switched ships at an SMA. In that case, just relog.

Yeah, I'd like to see an answer too.

If it's not automatically updating, that sounds like a bug. If it's intentional, then WH mining has indeed been killed.

I agree with pretty much everything you said except this last comment.

In wormhole space the safety added by the grav sites is minimal, no argument there, In W-space everyone has a probe launcher, and knows how to use it well. But even then, once someone gets into your whole they still had to scan down the site. There is far less chance of a W-space roamer having grav sites in your hole BM'ed unless they are already inside, which renders your idea invalid as well.

Yes, the primary way to protect yourself in W-space has not changed, control you entrances, and know when someone new comes in, even if you do not see them, you will see the new sig from the incoming hole.

But what do you do when others in your hole are using the static to farm sites in another hole? Your method of hole control will only work in small holes with a small corp. keeping your static closed won't work if there are others in your hole wanting to use it.

While I can agree that this has had minimal impact on mining in W-space, Not really adding much threat level, but it has in no way made it "safer". No matter how you look at it, having to scan down grav sites adds a layer of security to those mining inside the grav site. How important that layer is depends on where you are. Deep inside sov space it has no impact at all. In W-space the impact is minimal, in high sec it only means more competition for the ores on those sites as they will no longer only be found by experienced players. However, in LOW sec, NPC null, and even SOv null sec belonging to small alliances it is game breaking.

I get what you are saying about the number of freelance miners being insignificant. But does that mean I should be locked out of this content unless I join a large sov holding alliance? How does this make the game more accessible? How is this not showing preference to those players in control of these large alliances who just happen to be friends with CCP developers?

If I was best friends with CCP Fozzie in thev real world, and he made a game change that would specifically aid my personal play style, how would that be fair to other players with different play styles that were hurt by the same change.

There is zero positive impact from changing Grav sites to anomalies, it does not even help SOV alliances as it has near zero affect on them. What it does is allow them near exclusive access to this content, with everyone else who enjoyed the grav site mechanics looking at a significant risk increase to continue enjoying that content.

I agree that controlling your entrances and exits is the best way of keeping your hole safe.

But I do not see how the changes in Odyssey made W-space mining safer. No matter how you look at it the need to scan down either the ship or the site it is in was an extra step they had to take before finding you. You would see their probes on D-scan as every W-space dweller worth their weight spams D-scan every few seconds. Whether you need this safety net or not it was an added level of safety. Removing it at best has no impact on your game, but it in no way makes it safer.

Not that anyone expects mining in hostile space be it low sec, null sec , or W-space, to be safe. Mining in these areas before Odyseey was far from safe. When we say safe what we mean is the risk was manageable, and could be mitigated with some effort. With that layer of protection grav sites provided removed we lose one of our tools for mitigating that risk. While it is true that in W-space it may not have been an important tool, in most other areas it was very important.

In many areas of space warping off every time a neutral jumps into the system is not an option. If you do you will spend 80% of your time sitting in a POS shield rather than mining. There is no point in mining in such a system. If you can make 60M isk/hr mining null sec ores, but only spend 20% of your time actually mining, your income drops to 12M isk/hr certainly not worth the risk. This is why nobody mined in low sec or NPC Null before Odyssey, Even when the low sec ores were the most valuable. The risk was just to high for the limited income. Now all SOV space not protected by a large alliance will be as dangerous as low sec. W-space and deep blue SOV space will be the only place where solo mining will still be viable, and even there the risk will be a little higher than it was.

I do not appreciate having content that was previously available to me being locked out as no longer viable. Odyssey was not a buff to Solo or new players, it was a buff to the large SOV alliances. they are the only ones that will significantly benefit from the ore composition changes as 95% of that ore will be mined in their space. This change has broken freelance mining, how significant a role freelance miners have is irrelevant, it is still broken content.