Hello, I’m really into mining and industry, the only problem is that I need an Omega Account to fly a mining barge. I would like to see an Alpha mining barge added to the game since there aren’t any competitive Alpha mining ships that don’t require a 2nd player of a fleet. To balance this new ship, I would suggest making it worse than the Omega ones, so decreasing ore yield, but keeping ore hold space relatively the same as an Omega Mining Barge. I don’t see ISK Inflation in the short term with mining as such a big deal, because CCP is rewarding ISK just for logging in at the moment. At least, to get ISK in a mining barge, you at least have to do something, whether that would be selling the ore directly, or further processing it.
If you have any suggestions or opinions, please do share them. Keep in mind that if CCP would want to implement something like this, it would be subject to further balancing, or changes.
NB4 you get bombarded. Alphas don’t really contribute anything to the game that lines CCP’s pockets. There is a reason why you are limited to the Venture.
to keep alpha’s from making a negative impact to the economy, they were restricted to Ventures.
So… you want developers to spend time developing an Alpha mining barge… you understand that developer time costs CCP money, right? How is CCP going to get a return on that investment? Oh… you want something for nothing. Sorry, that’s not how game development works. This is why you get ads in mobile games; because those ads pay for the game you are playing for free.
Okay, I’ll admit that CCP is throwing a fair amount of ISK into the economy right now that will cause some inflation; however, it wouldn’t take long for all of the alpha accounts to produce more ISK than what was put into the system with the log-in rewards… a log-in reward that’s going to people who are paying for the game, I might add. Don’t equate things being given to Omegas as meaning something should be given to Alphas… its a false equivalency.
Spend the $15 a month or whatever it is in your area if you want access to mining barges.
So… more development time… which means more money spent on something that CCP isn’t going to see a return on the investment for doing. I’d rather have them spend time on fixing Faction Warfare, improving the New Player Experience, or improving the corporation/recruitment User Interface… you know… things that would actually benefit those of us who actually pay for the game…
Alphas have quite a bit of access to the game already… quit asking for more. There is a simple way to get more: pay for a subscription.
The main thing about the alpha account is that they have intentionally made it quite a bit harder to earn passive income, which mining in a mining barge nearly is. The main form of mining for Alphas is in a Venture, but this does open you up to gas mining, which a venture is quite good at.
If you are predisposed to Mineral mining though, there is a very old method of surpassing the Venture, and that is to use Battlecruisers or Battleships as your mining platform and jet-can mine. Since these ships can fit so many normal mining lasers, they can actually mine a bit more than the venture.
here is an example:
[Talos, Alpha Miner]
Co-Processor II X 2
Expanded Cargohold II
Mining Laser Upgrade II X 2
Particle Bore Compact Mining Laser X 8
Medium Processor Overclocking Unit I X 2
On its own this will mine around 9 m3 per second while the venture will only do a bit better than 6 m3 with alpha skills.
Or:
[Apocalypse mining fit]
Co-Processor II X 3
Mining Laser Upgrade I
Mining Laser Upgrade II X 4
Miner II X 8
Large Processor Overclocking Unit I X 2
Zainou ‘Gypsy’ CPU Management EE-602
To get you 13 m3 /s of ore, which is comparable to a barge without great skills.
One of the leaders in my alliance for moon mining pulled in over a billion ISK last month with a Venture. Granted, he’s not Alpha, but he’s using mostly Alpha tech.
As others have stated, it costs CCP to develop new resources for players. They don’t have an incentive to make mining easier on someone who isn’t paying for the game. Most players who enjoy mining to the degree you do will pay for an Omega account to access the full game, rather than leave because CCP won’t give them greater free access.
If you’re an Alpha, you’re in “demo” mode. Once you’ve reached the limits of your capabilities, you can either leave or pay a minimal fee to access the full game. Given the latitude Alphas already have, CCP is more charitable than many gaming companies would be in allowing what they do.
I hope you’ll stick around, and as someone who loves mining, I can say the access to barges, exhumers, and “the big 'uns” like the Orca and the Rorqual are worth $12 to $15 a month. I paid for a year subscription, so I saved a little bit, and it’s been great not having to worry about that little yellow Omega symbol.
Alpha clones do contribute to the economy, if they stay alpha they provide what people call “content” in the form of everything from ore to loot drops.
They also contribute, if they are successful, by buying ingame plex to turn omega.
That Plex is from real world money that pays CCP directly.
On top of all that someone who has been an alpha clone for a while has gotten past the learning curve and as someone who is by nature of their account itself, the underdog, have increased player retention and are more likely (at least from my perspective having done exactly this) to buy a subscription or five.
I see no issue with them having access to mining barges, even the gankers should love that.
Imagine you’re a person who’s written software to bot mining. Now imagine you have a choice between a mining barge that costs you PLEX or real money to fly, and one that is completely free.
Doing a cost/benefit analysis, your paid for barge is going to have to make you 500 PLEX worth of extra income just to break even. That’s a fairly wide gap, and why alpha account mining must be at a very substantial disadvantage not to appeal to people who would bot.
Anything that botters cam abuse, will be abused. They don’t care about the EULA or ToS. They already use setups that allow them to log in multiple Alphas, when an Omega is not needed for ship access associated with their intended botting style. Mining is one of the areas that is presently not profitable to bot as Alpha because of the shop limitations - so you see mining bots in fleets of barges and exhumers. If it becomes profitable at that scale to bot mining as an alpha, they will.
All of that aside, it actually isn’t the bots that I care about. It’s the Alpha players getting yet more freebies when there is a game that needs to be paid for. Getting enough money to PLEX the account the first time with Alpha-only access is entirely doable. There is no justification given by anyone for changing this other than ‘I want more without paying for it’ and that is not a good business basis for making the change.
