Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Bump for the comet love

bump... come on ccp. otherwise I'll hound you all at fan fest muhahaha

I can't say I really understand how anyone would get close to something moving at 70km/s within the context of today's EVE engine. Considering that objects in EVE don't really move, it wouldn't really be a comet if you could approach it. Mega asteroids though? Sure, I'm game.

However, I do think we should have procedurally generated asteroid belts that spawn continuously no matter how far you fly, meaning if you fly off the grid, you should just get another grid full of asteroids. Put the equivalent of a mobile scan inhibitor in each asteroid, and suddenly you have a game.

It's so tedious to have to go to a safe a few seconds after every neut enters local. Systems are so small and scanners are so big, it's just dumb. I'd like to try mining some day, but it's just a lot of exposure for very little reward. It's safer to go pvp.

i think it's more about the idea and less about what its called

you could call the things a pixi planet if you wanted to

Make it an anom. They come and go just like other mining anoms. Tie it into Deep Core Mining. More deep core crystals to extract the various goos from the comet's core.

edit: My previous post had more to do with Ring mining. This time I want to talk about comets.

If we really want to see something like this implemented, we need to keep it simple and easy to do. CCP has in the past stated that stuff that is easier to implement is more likely to get done. So perhaps we should look at making this easy to implement rather than creating all sorts of new mechanics, modules, and art assets. A comet moving on-grid would be something completely new and different; a major technical hurdle. I would put it into the category of "really cool stuff we'd like to see, but we can live without it."

What we do have already implemented is mining anomalies. Clearly, comet mining fits right into that category. As far as the actual items, we have gas clouds, Ice 'roids, ore-bearing asteroids, moon goo, and appropriate mining ships with modules and crystals. Only the moon goo is the odd man out. But it is still an already existing in-game item.

Lets start with the easy stuff. I see no reason why we can't have a "Cometary" mining anomaly, with an assortment of various possible gas clouds, ice, and ore in the same site. All of these assets already exist. Its just putting them into one spawn table and authoring a new anom. This is about as easy as it gets.

As far as including moon goo, there is the harder part. Clearly the current model of passive POS mining will not work. We would need new assets like moon goo crystals. Personally, I would make these for Deep Core mining only; a new form of mining specialization. This requires that we ask if mining gear even pull moon goo from an asteroid-like object? It totally depends on how the coding has been done.

If its merely cycle module, spawn stuff in cargohold and reduce whats in the 'roid by the same amount, then it can probably be done. But I can't speak for the devs on that. Essentially, we would need moon goo asteroids that would look like and perhaps be labeled as "cometary core", hence the deep core mining requirement.

I somewhat envision the moon goo portion being more of a high-end mining activity.

WISH-LIST

What about having an asteroid-like object that contains more than one type of ore/goo/etc? Can that be done? The object should only despawn once all types of contained ore/goo have been depleted. This would give a new importance on scanners and having the right crystals to efficiently mine it. In the database it would be a different itemType. But I see no reason it can't have the same name unless something else depends on that.

Assuming the above is possible, Is it also possible to have a single asteroid-like object that when scanned, shows multiple content types that must be mined in a specific order? If not, can we do like what is being done in the sleeper caches in that once you hack one thing, something else spawns? If the ordering of mining types cannot be done, then being able to mine multiple types from the same object simultaneously should be feasible. Multiple ships can already mine the same asteroid.

some years back [yes, I'm that old as well], I pointed out that the typical RL comet has much smaller mass than an asteroid, which, from a reality perspective, rather nerfs this whole thing.

What isn't necessarily nerfed is mining the Kuiper Belt -- out beyond any planet -- where "many" smaller rocks and comets would exist all in one area. And perhaps a few dwarf planets as well (since they're plainly real objects in real space).

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Getting out there to find them would, imho, require a change in the probe mechanics and patience [think how long it takes to warp across a 120 au system now and double or triple that time].

The probe mechanics change required would be to permit warping to somewhere closer to the detected signature when the signal strength exceeds some value [perhaps 30% -- so you'd at least know what you're chasing].

While this warp would be guaranteed to NOT arrive at the target, it would move your ship, say, 50% of the way to the center of the estimated sphere of probability for the signature.


Thus, you'd probe, begin to detect, warp to get closer, and probe again [presumably with better results] in a cycle that eventually gets you to the target anomaly -- even if it's 180 au out from the systems' star.


Of course, any number of other features could be added out there -- if you luck into a dwarf planet, a pos could be planted and it would be outside CONCORD's and the local empire's or sov holder's jurisdiction [and not showing in local chat either]. [Shades of wormhole behavior -- ye gawds -- think of the potential gank fleets that could be hiding right in your own system. 8-) ]


--older than dirt. older than EVE, too.

bump

Too low.. need more likes.. come on ccp!!! Bump. (note i'm coming to fan fest be prepared to be asked as often as i can about comet mining and mining improvements in general)

Sorry to not see you on the CSM X voting ballot, would have put one in on you

so any news or are we still being ignored? :)