Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Making Mining a Minigame would probably be ... bad.
You have to keep the current income of Minerals roughly the same, or the markets will start going up and down, starting at the change of mining-behaviour.

This means, you basically have to keep it as it is: Slow, steady income the longer people do it.
But you could change the way they generate this income.

I'm basically thinking of something that is kind of similar to PI.
Devices that will mine the Ore, but require time for upkeep so not everyone can just drop his Mining Array or whatever and generate some passive income.
For example, shifiting the Players from their current role of a miner to the role of a mining director or foreman. Where they are responsible for prospecting, organizing the extraction, and then manage the transport of the goods.