Bring a proper overhaul to how mining works

[SleepLacker]

I made this post in the resource update thread, but unfortunately it seems it won’t get me any feedbakc there, so hopefully it can get people to read it here.

Just returned to the game a few days ago, so I’m not really up to date much with things like the market and industry yet, but I can definitely say one thing:

This update can be said to be an overhaul to mining, but unfortunately nothing is being actually added or revamped to make mining better for the miners.

Coming back, something I definitely have not missed is how you get nothing out of a depleted asteroid if your lasers are still working on their cycles on the non-existent space rock.

If there’s going to be a resource scarcity, then you bet I WANT THOSE DAMN RESOURCES THAT MY LASER MINED!!!

I’m not even asking for the “asteroid has been depleted message” to be fixed when someone finishes the roid before your lasers do, or something like a “target lost” sound queue to be implemented, even though they would still be welcome.

Anyways, I want the portion I mined to be given to me while the other people mining the same roid also get their portion, that’s all.

In short, if hovering over a mining laser/strip miner, you can see the amount of ore mined per second, so considering how “short pulses” work, and the amount of ore mined during that interval is still given, it would be much nicer for miners to be constantly receiving ore from the tractor beans every few seconds, and if they aren’t mining anything, they will turn off immediately without trying to finish the full cycle.

If CCP really wants to stimulate people to do stuff together, then mining in a fleet definitely shouldn’t be more stressful and irritating than just going about on your own mining ship and stripping away at your own rocks, at your own time, and without having to care about someone else taking away all your resources while your stay behind sucking your thumb and giving them a mean look because you got the short end of the stick.

Doesn’t bother me when it happens one time, not that annoying when it happens 3 times, bit irritating when happens 5 times, and when it happens any more than that I want to queue up and scream in mumble for people to get their ■■■■ together, so hopefully something can be done about it.

This is one simple option, or actually just MAKE MINING MORE INTERESTING!!!

===ASTEROIDS ARE JUST ASTEROIDS===

Asteroids spawn as just asteroids, without specific ore names attached to them, giving them a “hidden DNA”.

Player needs to scan asteroids to see which types of ores they are consistent of.

Someone may be unlucky and scan a rock with 97% scordite and 3% omber, while someone gets a nice hit of 80% plag and 20% veld on their first attempt at scanning after warping in to the belt.

Mining crystals could work more efficiently in harvesting a specific ore from a roid, but be more volatile depending on the asteroid DNA, like plag and scordite are super volatile together or something.

===INDUSTRIAL MINING SHIPS===

Give mining ships a proper overhaul, like having a smaller ore hold, but the ability to compress ore in the ship with an active lower slot module, making mining more interactive so you have to activate your ore compactor every few mins to free up space for more ore to be mined before having to drop it all off at a hub, and making players choose whether they get more raw ore mined or more ore compressed at once due to limited low slots.

As it takes a lot of power to compress ore(similar to an armor repair module), it can’t be done constantly, otherwise you will run out of power quite quickly, so it’s a good idea to turn off your lasers for a bit while the compression work is being done, being aware you probably won’t be able to move, warp off, or do anything while your ore is being compressed, so you should think twice before activating that module.

Of course, you could always put some cap batteries in the middle slots in order to achieve a stable capacitor to have your ore compression going on while mining at the same time, but you’ll certainly be giving up some of your tank for that convenience.

A venture would have small compactor modules, barges and exhumers medium compactors, and orcas and rorquals the way to go for quick ore compression, doing it in huge bulks with a single cycle, making them have to choose either more tank from damage controls and bulkheads or the usefulness of ore compression on site, otherwise these big and slow ships, now with a more limited ore hold, would require a proper hauling chain to deal with all the raw ore to be transported to a structure with ore compression.

My suggestion would be along something like this:

-Ventures modules compress 1k units of ore a cycle, and have a short cycle duration.

-Barges and Exhumers modules compress 10k units a cycle, and have a longer cycle duration.

-Capital modules compress 100k units a cycle, and have the longest duration.

A Venture with a smaller 1000m3 ore hold for example would need the player to actively compress the ore harvested every few mins, which the module would deposit on the 50m3 cargo hold, making it way less AFK friendly for a miner, but if done properly, one could double or even triple the amount of ore harvested before they have to drop it off somewhere.

This could also affect which type of ores someone prefers mining, as something like Veldspar would take a ton of compression cycles to be fully compressed, taking some off-time from the actual mining work without a stable capacitor, but grabbing Omber would make the compression time x6 times faster for example.

On an end note, some new mining rigs, for ore compression time reduction, capacitor usage, and ore hold increase, would all be very welcome, as there’s nothing really rig related for miners besides the ones for mining drones at the moment.

TL;DR

Make mining laser keep track of the mined amount per second and give the ores mined to me, and if they are mining nothing, then shut them down automatically, and if possible, give a proper “Asteroid has been depleted” voice queue as well.

Other option…

Give a proper overhaul to mining in general, and make it more interactive for the player, turning it less AFK friendly, but with actual improvements to make ore harvesting more efficient for an active player.

New mechanics like scanning and analyzing asteroid ore composition, and looking for what you want to mine, in an asteroid belt filled with asteroids, which you don’t know what they are made of.

Mining ships with smaller ore holds, but with the ability to fit a new “ore compressor” low slot module, taking some cap to use every cycle, having to turn off lasers for a bit to free up ore hold space, otherwise giving up some tank to fit cap batteries in mid slots to be as efficient as possible.

To reiterate, I have only been back to the game for a few days, but I really think these points could improve gameplay for miners, while perhaps even making life more difficult for bots.

Thanks for reading everything if you did so.

[Scoots_Choco]

@SleepLacker

This is one simple option, or actually just MAKE MINING MORE INTERESTING!!!

Rule of thumb for the forums, if anyone uses the word “interesting” (or a synonym) to support their idea, the idea is bad. This rule remains true here.

[SleepLacker]

I don’t mind my idea being bad, but just hope mining receives some kind of overhaul.

Ignoring market bots, mining seems to be the way to go for botters to make quick cash, and there’s lots of people who complain about mining being an AFK job that has good income and etc.

If there’s some way to make mining more interactive/engaging to the player, while limiting the possibility of it being exploited by botters, I certainly hope one is implemented.

As for actual feedback, I’d like proper constructive criticism on my post besides being told I’m bad for using a forbidden adjective.

[Shipwreck_Jones]

I think you have some interesting ideas.

Scanning down roids, and having them have different concentrations of stuff has been suggest by others, but yeah, sounds interesting.

On board compression is a new one, and could be interesting. Having it take up a slot and/or prevent the ship from warping would present some meaningful choices to miners.

I don’t know about the keep track of what is already mined thing. I don’t know how easy or hard it would be to do, but I think it makes mining less interesting. When competing against others, I would intentionally try to short cycle in order to get the ore. And when cooperating with a fleet, we would just try to not chew on the same rocks as someone else in order to minimize the fleet’s wasted cycles.

[SleepLacker]

Hey, thanks for the reply.

I actually got one other reply in the resource update thread, but it was mostly a complaint that more interesting doesn’t mean adding more repetitive chores to do, which I do agree and disagree with.

I for one personally enjoy the AFK affordability of mining and doing something else while my cargo fills up, but even if it’s relaxing, it’s a definite stale gameplay, as all you really need to do is check if you are still mining something, and if your cargo is full or not.

If we are actually speaking about mining gameplay, there’s two choices:

-cargo mining

-jetcan mining

Main difference between these is the logistics, as a cargo hold miner needs to drop off their cargo and come back to mine while being as efficient as possible, while a jetcan miner can just leave the logistics to the hauler.

Then, regarding ship fittings, there’s nothing really much to it.

Miners or Strip Miners on up slots, Survey Scanner on mid slot, Mining Laser Upgrades on low slots, and if you want just that tad bit more yield, some mining drones.

There’s a single rig specific to mining, but that’s aimed at mining drones, which unfortunately don’t make any difference for the people who don’t bother with them.

With the current update, many people feel that CCP is taking away without giving anything in exchange, and besides the Tech II mining frigates, I don’t think CCP has given miners anything to play around with for quite a while.

Now, think about the possibility of new rigs and modules specific for mining coming out:

Let’s take a venture for example once again, and let’s say the ship is reworked to have 2000m3 of ore hold.

Low Slot

-if you put on the small ore compressor, it reduces the ship ore hold by 50%, pushing it down to 1000m3, and requiring the player to manage it properly(either use it to compress ore every now and then to save capacitor power, or leave it running if you have a stable capacitor in your fit);

-if you use a mining laser upgrade on low slot, then you will get a better yield, but will either have to make more trips to a station due to your limited ore capacity, or do some jet can mining;

-if you plug in an extended ore hold, you get extra 3000m3 on the ore capacity, and thus get the old venture back, although without access to an empty slot for a mining upgrade there.

Now, what would you do as a miner?

Go for the ore compressor and give up some tank on the mid slots to get a stable capacitor, getting your ore compressed on site, but having to sit in place until your module has finished its cycle?

If you can’t afford to lose your tank, maybe it’s better to just keep track of how much ore you are mining and cycle the compressor a few times every few minutes with the mining lasers off to save on power.

Maybe go for the mining laser upgrade and get that increased yield, as it will pay off for the downtime of the extra trips to the station, but if doing it in a fleet, then even better, and they can deal with your ore for you and you just have to worry about mining and filling that can up.

Or perhaps, you just enjoy being a bit AFK like many others, leaving your venture mining to get a decent sized ore hold filling up while you watch a video or do some work.

Not only these, but new rigs that affect ore hold size, mining lasers or compressors capacitor usage, mining lase range, survey scanner range, and etc.

For mid slots, a mining laser range optimization(maybe requiring scripts to use like an omnidirectional tracking link).

After upgrading from a venture to a barge, with these tools miners would have even more options to mix and match with the more available slots to play with, and instead of the template mining fits without a single change out there, miners can just fit their ships as they want in order to benefit the way they play the game.

Anyways, main point is give and take.

CCP is currently taking away, meddling around with mining, without giving it a proper overhaul, and without giving us anything new to play with, and I would prefer if they could innovate more creatively instead of only meddling with number of minerals.

[SleepLacker]

Now that I think about it, this would fit Mining Barges even more than a venture.

Procurer/Skiff natural tank would make it the best on site ore compressor.

Covetor/Hulk would be the best ore hungry jet can miner.

Retriever/Mackinaw would be natural raw ore hoarders.

[Druthlen]

I would suggest that the compressed ore, once compressed, cant be jet canned. Maybe a smaller Ore bay and then a locked Ore compressed bay. Also the module should be expensive and take 3 min to complete and no warping/cloaking while it is functioning.