Additional Thought on this subject:
perhaps when the dynamic distribution part of the changes come into play, perhaps, expanding on the idea of Rorqual being some kind of defensive platform, new ore sites which are spawned could spawn a very low paying and very low DPS dealing form of rat, built on the concept of the CRAB beacons which we see in game for people who like to do super ratting now. perhaps these new sites could equally work as a form of escalation also, the idea would be that the rats would keep coming untill all the rocks are cleared, once the rocks are cleared a sort of “boss” spawn will occour, killing it will lead you to the next room in the escalation.
i know some people might actually hate this idea, however giving rorqual pilots and miners especially those in nullsec (which is meant to be a more profitable region of space for people to go to) a slight bridge in the gap between their ISK per hour, especially the rorqual pilots would be the way to go.
if done right it could actually mean combat pilots would have to fly into the escalation and run protection detail for miners and engage a variety of enemies while the rorqual pilot and miners defend against various forms of lesser enemies, the rorqual pilots protecting the miners in this process.
In my humble opinion I think some kind of rorqual / orca only overshield burst module (which only effect mining vessels) allowing a tempoary over shield to add extra protection from aggressing pilots and the above suggested waves of rats, it would also give more credit to the salted earth tactic, making it more likely that a battle rorq (because the community do love their battle rorqs!) heading into enemy territory now (might be bait) but if not its a serious threat to local resources.
i feel this would solve the community problems of
- “there’s nothing to hunt”
- A step towards fixing ISK Per Hour for miners, orca and rorqual pilots.
and bring benefits of:
- the grind now being tedious and drawn out with little reward prospect and no longer being any fun
- encouraging team work and group activities
- new and challenging mining escalation sites (Blood Raiders Moon Extraction 1/10) and you start by mining their mins in their hidden dead space pockets till you find a moon extraction of theirs. or something like that
(perhaps with different ores from the mining missions no one uses with some kind of different mineral rates, I mean you guys have those assets, it would be fun to use them, it would also mean people in high sec doing mining mission and having mining connections could be much more interesting for that section of game play because you can keep the rocks for the mins OR turn them in for the mission reward, it also opens up new markets and new options for industry players)
I mean we have new sites for exploration, combat, lore, there is clearly a trend with this, i think nudging things towards this might genuinely help appease some disgruntled players, i wouldn’t say the fixes need to be massively huge or anything but if you nudge things into a much more towards
“well thats fricking awesome!” mind set which repairs SOME of the isk per hour / mineral loss aspect, then it might be worth a ponder.
just thought it was a pretty sweet idea at least in concept, but if i have a track record for anything on this forum its for having fantastical ideas which are awesome.
based on whats in the game right now, i’d say that this would definately be do-able on some level, maybe not all of it, but theres a few ideas here to ponder over.