I think mining can only be fixed in a fair way if nullsec sov gets an overhaul to make it fairer and easier for “smaller” groups of 50 people to set up and maybe hold sov in 1-2 systems. Sadly Equinox mechanics only solidified bigger groups instead of adding more diversity to nullsec.
If certain ores are gatekept behind large nullsec empires, there cannot be fairness in mining.
While I love to see the changes, and especially the future ideas regarding mining in low- and highsec this leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
removing local almost killed the game before…ok troll
also these changes just reinforce the big groups and make other people want to join to big groups. therefore making Nullsec a bigger blue circle with less people to fight.
Look at moons through all of Great Wildlands. Look at Scalding Pass. Not at SP SOV, but at who owns the Metenox on moons.
Every moon worth anything at all is covered by a very small number of alliances. They don’t even have to own the space. They just need to abuse the residents into giving up the moons.
It is effectively renting space by collecting moon goo without having to actually charge rent. And removing even the residual value of moon mining with rent for all those smaller groups.
Nothing is easy in EvE because we all figure out ways to break things. But serious thought needs to take place about block creep into NPC Null and Low Sec.
PvP alliances now own the output of moons because all they need are a few haulers, no mining required.
And where does that leave anyone who wants to be an independent Indy group?
Blah blah, you didn’t acknowledge the fact that this Equinox patch was an utter disaster.
EVE is supposed to be a sandbox. You chose a place to live and depending on your activity, a system would get better (or worse if activity drops). With the patch, people now are being dictated on how and where to live.
Fact A: Small alliances with one or two systems always had to balance between miners, ratters and pvp’ers, but having them all living on the same system was easy. With Equinox and the lousy power/workforce system, only 1 upgrade can be installed on a sov hub (most of the times), so if this alliance opted to satisfy miners, they would send off ratters elsewhere (and vice versa). As this ruined their small empire, they preferred giving those systems to big alliances.
Fact B: Placing hisec ores into null only managed to make hisec miners lives miserable.
Fact C: Systems near empire space always had the lowest truesec, while systems at the edge of the map had the highest. So, in effect, the same sov upgrade would give a clear edge to remote and far systems. But you failed to take into account that bordering systems have a highest rate of roaming gangs and even permacampers, thus Equinox clearly “punished” and didn’t “reward” or “invigorate” those systems.
As for the increase in metenox consumption, i can clearly understand the joke. I’ve seen lava planets producing 17 gas/minute, so it takes only 8 minutes to cover the hourly metenox requirements. Perharps this is why most of lowsec is filled with metenoxes, to the point most people remove them from the overview in order not to be constantly scrolling.
@CCP_Swift
Here is feedback from a veteran player that knows this game for almost 20 years:
Whatever the nullblocks tell you, it is poison for your game. You are best advised to do the exact opposite of what any nullblock representant wants you to do. They are not drivers of the game. And they never were. Whatever they refer to as “accomplishment” has been accomplished on the bones and skulls of thousands of smaller groups that never could thrive. Big alliances are EVE’s sickness, hindering growth for decades by monopolizing everything, using power projection and effective content denial to skeletize the status quo. And with each change that benefits them, you make it worse.
If you want any changes for good, view at any idea, mechanic or proposal from the viewpoint of small to medium groups (10-50 players). If it is good for them, it is good for the game. If it benefits 1000+ player groups, it’s bad for the game. It is really that simple.
Since it was always encouraged to have a “trading alt”, I’d wager quite a few. But in terms of daily activity - there are a lot of players in high-sec.
Long story short, high sec always gets the shaft. Remember when we could do anomalies and missions against Rogue Drones and they dropped alloys that refined into some of the null sec minerals? Removed. Remember when we had Emerging Conduits in high sec that could be mined for abyssal ores after you killed the Trigs? Removed. Remember when we had omber and kernite in belts in high sec? Removed…
+1 on the awesome write-up (including the TLDR).
-1 for high-sec, low-sec and wormhole space getting shafted yet again.
-2 for null-sec getting a buff (yet again) at the expense of every other region.
Waste Mechanic . Let’s be real, who likes waste right now? This is only a half-mechanic at the moment and we’re missing any form of interesting way to deal with it or mitigate it. We totally have some ideas brewing and want to make sure we close the loop on this system. On the radar and being worked on!
Well, what about this: Instead of waste with bob taxing our yields by making ore magically disappear, crystals have a chance to “fracture” an asteroid.
If you use heavy-drill crystals, you have a high chance to make the asteroid fracture and break into smaller asteroids, which are then again an inconvenience for miners.
This adds risk to being greedy, but being greedy should have a very good reward (like polarized guns but for asteroids).
This shouldn’t require the miner to lock a new target again, however, since it would remove the AFK-able aspect of this activity (ist it even an activity in that case?).
^ It’s an interesting idea, but in all honesty I prefer waste over having to mine-out more rocks. The only time mining is a semi-afk activity is when you have really (really) large rocks that you can continuously mine for minutes on end. I occasionally (read: infrequently) mine HS belts with a small fleet of 3 ships, and I’m constantly micromanaging.
Where exactly is the upside here with being “greedy”? (as you put it) I’d be further ahead just using T1 mining lasers.
