CCP, get a handle on the NPC miners already

Industry Gameplay Center Mining & Extraction
61

Kill the Forward Operating Base (FOB) that is in the system and they will disappear.

They aren’t the miner NPCs that have defence fleets, these are more like raiding parties of pirates that have a small base they operate out of.

There is apparently not much gain from killing the FOB, other than the peace of mind that they are gone.

I think this is a general direction CCP are taking to encourage group play in highsec and emergent collaboration between players that otherwise have little reason to even communicate, let alone cooperate.

By putting in these new rats and structures, the players most willing to reach out to others in local, form a fleet and kill the structure, are best placed to continue as normal.

62

Yet another game mechanic that promote the creation of an alt, and possibly the use of more than 1 client at a time.

1 Like
63

We just need to extend this to ice fields next. That should give those high-sec bot ice mining fleets something to contend with. These could also be extended to low-sec as well… (it’s not like there is any intensive mining going on anyway).

64

So I just need to check the agency to make sure there isn’t one of those in system ?

65

Yes, checking the Agency is the easiest way at present.

66

If the bases only spawn at downtime that would be reasonably safe.

67

I’ve been missioning and mining in systems with a FOB and have yet to be harassed. Aside from them poking their head out to attack one of my Citadels, I’m unsure what the criteria is for them to regularly harass you elsewhere.

68

I don’t think they ever go to mission sites or anomalies they just hang around belts.

69

And Citadels.

70

They attack citadels ? that’s quite strange, I must admit they are kind of interesting, just a bit random.

71

“Attack” is probably too generous a term. They hit it four times in 6 hours causing a whopping zero damage. I suspect they may have taken a poke at me for loitering about so I didn’t stick around.

72

They are dangerous to miners, not sure how well a procurer or skiff would survive but I think any of the other barges would be going home in a pod. They tanked my set of faction drones then after a bit they decided to kill them. I only had one set so my escape was due to ECM drones disabling their tacklers. Still they did probably more than 100k of damage to me before I got out

73

Were those just the frigates or did they call in reinforcements?

74

A well tanked Skiff and T2 drones work just fine. I’ve popped their tackler on several occasions with no problem.

75

I always (and I mean always) see one of the NPC haulers hanging around my Citadels. If it looks like bait, smells like bait… it’s probably bait.

1 Like
76

It doesn’t though. I mean you can always shoot them with your main and take the standing hit like a man.

1 Like
77

You only lose standings if you kill them, if I recall.

3 Likes
78

Correct, no standing loss for just shooting them and running them off. Use a missile boat like a Corax, target up to 7 of them, give them a couple missiles each and warp off as the response fleet arrives…

3 Likes
79

It was just frigates. The forward operating bases are not visible on The Agency over a certain distance, had it set to any distance yet it did not see 2 bases in the same region 4 and 5 jumps away.

80

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