EVE General Discussion

I'm still waiting for any news from CCP about moving all mining to grav sites. This would allow the introduction of comets to replace ice belts, for example.

It would also be nice to have asteroids appear as just "Asteroid" without the "Asteroid (Veldspar)" designation in the overview giving away what kind of ore the rock contains. In ice fields, this could be exploited to hide worthless ice amongst valuable ice (worthless ice could be 10% yield of normal ice, or simply produce useless ore that refines to water or nothing).

I value mining as a semi-AFK activity for non-PvP slosh ops, something for parents with small children to participate in, etc. Moving belts to grav sites means there is some lead-up work, but having a large bulk of ore to mine means it's possible to set up camp and get into the 'semi-AFK' side of the activity quickly.

Moving to grav sites also allows the opportunity to add "artistic" elements such as dust clouds and scenic elements (large teardrop asteroid, snake rock, etc) to provide some visual variety. Being able to generate these environments dynamically (a la Diablo's random dungeons) to all exploration sites would be awesome.

My list of things to change to fix mining.

1. Static belts should no longer respawn after they are depleted forcing miners to have to scan for belts from then on.

2. The size of these new belts should be dramatically smaller requiring that miners have to scan more belts down to keep the ore coming in.

3. Move all Isogen, Mexallon, and Nocxium producing ores into Low Sec space.

4. All the above changes should be implemented without any announcement whatsoever.


More scanning, more risk vs reward, and being required to operate in dangerous space would require mining corps to HTFU.

Everyone who suggests minigames either needs their head examined or must really love the facetubes or something. What is needed to make mining more engaging is more meaningful interaction around the mining. Require more interaction with the environment, not with a boring addition to the UI. And before you say minigames can interact with the environment as well, please note the underlined 'meaningful' earlier.

Hint: It's a multiplayer game. We have a rising requirement for some meaningful interaction in one of it's aspects. Where should we find that?

Just make it when you start mining a rock the game turns into peggle or bejewelled. People would play that **** for hours :p

No. I live in w-space. What I'm describing is not wormholes. It may sound similar. But it is certainly not that. I also don't mine. So, whether or not I like 'it', as you put it, is moot. But, I do see a need for miners to get something out of this game other than being ganked and having to take it.

Now, you can say that they can pvp, protect themselves. Most miners are not the type of people that pvp. Nor can they fit their barges with tank without nerfing their mining abilities to uselessness. And even still there's really only one barge capable of a decent tank.

There's not enough profit in it to have people sitting around all day in pvp ships to protect them. So, really, there's no option for them but to take the abuse they receive currently. So, you know, I think they should have a little bit of space that is really only appealing to them where they're on a little more even footing, where it's hard to get there, hard to get out, but very profitable. And the suggestion also tempers macroing because now the "mining" part becomes a small portion of the process. But, hey, whatever.

Problem: What if I warp into the belt and render all the asteroids useless by doing a quick interruption on them as fast as I can.

Depending on the macro's cpu usage i see no reason why a macro couldn't be more efficient than the average player. Spcifically in the video previously posted of that other spaceship game. Keeping that circle within another circle sould be done extremely efficiently.

Many people seem to think that mining bots and the like are some kind of static timed routine. In most cases they aren't.

I believe we can all agree that a) the act of mining ores is, as it stands, too tedious and not lucrative enough for "average" people, b) much less so for 0.0 dwellers and is hence c) done mostly through bots.

The question now is how one can represent mining, a rather dull activity even in real life, in such a way that it becomes interesting and engaging in the game while being hard to use bots on at the same time.

I'm afraid the answer is that it's simply impossible. Lore-wise, even a new capsuleer has the financial power of a fortune 500 company so why do we even need to go out and mine ores ourselves? Shouldn't we be able to delegate such tasks to random scrubs, like we do with PI?

“Problem”?

Proposal for Revision of Mining in EVE Online:

Step 1. Revision of Asteroid Distribution:

--All Low-Tier (Veldspar, Scordite, ec.) Asteroids are distributed Universally (all space, high-sec, low-sec, 0.0) and in Static, Permanent Asteroid Belts.

These permanent re-spawning belts have a small chance to spawn a rare higher-tier Asteroid or two at each Belt Re-Spawn.

--All Mid-to-Higher-Tier Asteroids are distributed in Exploration Site Locations Only. These must be scanned down as with other exploration sites, and each location will contain only a few asteroids (1-10), and (usually) no Faction rats.

These Exploration Asteroid Clusters only appear in certain locations of space, as determined by CCP. Some Ores in some 0.0, Some Ices in some 0.0, some Ores only in Low-Sec and some Ices only in Low-Sec. This uneven distribution is designed to create trade, scarcity and opportunity. Not all minerals or ices should be in abundance everywhere.

Step 2: The Mining Process (Scan, Mine, Scan, Mine...) :

--Currently, Mining is as simple as “look at overview, get in range, fire zee Miners, rinse and repeat”.

--Under the Revision, All Asteroids on the overview lose their type descriptions. All asteroids must be scanned to determine what ores they contain and in what quantities, and their location on the asteroid. Some asteroids will contain nothing of value. Most will contain a single ore-type. Some will contain multiple ore types.

--Miner will scan the road till they find one they wish to work on. Once that is done, (and the results pop up), they can activate their mining modules/drones on the results.

--Every 10-15 cycles, the asteroid must be re-scanned and the miners re-targeted and re-activated. Failure to re-scan will result in a lower yield, or worthless space rock (random chance of either).

Step 3: The Rare Events Table (Pop-Ups/Action Events):

--Implement a “Rare Events Table” of events that can occur while mining, that require or promote human reaction. For example:

Pressure Pocket Rupture – You’ve ruptured a volatile and unstable gas pocket. You have 60 seconds to withdraw to a safe distance. After 60 second, an AOE Damage Explosion occurs (destroying the asteroid that was being mined) that damages all ships within 20km. In place of the destroyed asteroid is a very small amount of ultra-rare-elements (to be implemented) that serve some industrial/manufacturing purpose.

Hidden Ore Uncovered – While Mining, you’ve uncovered a hidden pocket of improved Ore/Ice your scanner could not detect. Gives the option o re-target the better Ore-type or Ice if acted upon within 60 seconds. Failure to act results in the ore being lost to cave in, crushing or mining unit damage.

Valuable Gas Pocket – You’ve uncovered a pocket of rare and valuable gas (i.e. Wormhole gasses). If you have a Gas Harvester on your Ship, you can Harvest these gasses by re-targeting them. Failure to do so within 60 seconds means the gas escapes and the opportunity is missed.

Asteroid Depletion -- Apparently your scanner was wrong, and the amount of Ore less than thought. The Asteroid is depleted early.

Hidden Cache – You’ve uncovered a hidden cache of supplies buried within the Asteroid. Gives the opportunity to loot the cache for 60 seconds. Failure to do so and the asteroid collapses on the cache, destroying it. Cache can contain any kind of module, salvage or other loot as determined by that systems Security-Level. Lower value in high-sec, higher in 0.0.

Hidden Database – You’ve uncovered a hidden Faction Database. This remote database storage link unit contains the location of an Expedition, or Faction Rat Location (security level appropriate) and provides you a bookmark for its location nearby (1-5 systems away). Failure to react within 60 seconds causes the database unit to be damaged beyond repair by your mining units.

Both the Hidden Cache and the Hidden Database would be the “ultra-rare” rare events, and could contain some special miner-specific stuff. Specifically, Faction Mining Gear (to be implemented, the miners equivalent to Faction Rat Belt Spawns) all the way up to ultra-rare Faction Mining Vessel BPC’s (Frigates, Cruisers, Battleships-equivalent Mining Hulls for Each Faction, lots of opportunity for rareity and cool new hull designs).