Drone Feature for Miners (or how to give them more protection)

EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
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Feature: A cooperative area of effect between miners that boosts combat drone abilities.
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As more miners are working the same asteroid field the combat ability of their drones would get better. Stats such as travel Speed, Damage, Durability could get a bonus. And the Drone Control Range of each ship would increase.

The Reason For This Feature?

Miners are the ‘go to’ when it comes to easy targets. We all know about Highsec Ganking of miners, they are also hunted in Low and Null. They are the primary target for most combat roams. Their best - and mostly only - defense is to just run and hide if Hostiles get near. And what happens if the hostiles are good enough to just sneak up on you? You die… every time.

Nobody is really happy with this situation. However we cant make mining ships into something that might as well be a PvP ship instead. (thought that argument has some legit detractors, but that is another conversation)

This would only be a feature available for miners ( it may be cool for PvP’s too, but I haven’t thought that far yet), and only available in Belts while mining.

Mechanics

  • Have to be in a mining ship with deployed Combat Drones.
  • Available only in Asteroid fields.
  • Only occurs if other mining ships are present,
  • Bonuses scale up the more there are (and possibly what type they are).
  • Being in a fleet is not required. (however being in one - may give even better abilities?)
  • The lower the Security Status of the system the better the boosts? (see discussion below)

I could give dozens of examples of why this is a good idea, (and we all know what they are) but it all boils down to giving Mining Ships an extra and formidable ability to defend themselves while mining - WITHOUT making them into overpowered Pvp Ships that can perform as combat ships just anywhere.

This only happens in Asteroid belts while they are tied up with the activity of mining. And no where else. I see no way this could be abused or exploited. not even a multi-boxer or Bot Lord will get even one extra unit of Ore from this - yet it has the possibility of changing many things about Eve people complain about.

High-Sec Ganking Fleets:

Okay I understand why CCP does not Nerf Ganking out of existence. Risk is part of Living in Eve.

But the fact that they can do it in cheap ships, at little cost is the issue that I have a problem with… It MUST be more ‘risky’ for them. and Miners SHOULD have an ‘active’ way to fight back.

Low and Nullsec Mining

Here people are usually organized, have a relationship with a Corp or Alliance, Intel Channels and usualy easy access to out of game voice chat
(yes CCP I am staring daggers at you for taking out Voice chat in chat windows. Those daggers are even poison tipped…Grrr … But I digress)

  • [takes a deep breath]

But I imagine there are solo miners out there too who could benefit, especially ones who are ninja mining, possibly day tripping from highsec through a wormhole or filiment.

This would be especially useful for those people who - for example - jump through a wormhole to mine some good ore in Low or null, even wormholes. Heck, if 3-4 random players group up to go gas mining, even in ventures, they may even be able to hold off the rats that show up without having to run and hide. This may create situations for people to choose to group up for mutual protection on such quick expeditions.

I think that it requires players to cooperate is a plus. Getting players, even if they don’t know each other, to work together is always a good idea and can lead to them getting to know each other, This alone is a good reason to consider implementing this.

  • There are very few actual opportunities - provided by the game itself - for people to come together in an easily accessible way. New people commonly do mining at the start of their introduction to Eve. Yet have no clear way start to actually get to know people, or to join a group.

  • The problem is communication opportunities and not knowing how to interact their play with others.

  • This could create opportunities for interaction. Especially if there was also a popup chat for asteroid belts like there is for Incursions, maybe with a whisper option as well. but that too is another discussion.

    • Okay I think I made my point that this feature would also go A LONG way in creating player - player interaction and create more of a sense of community.

LORE. Or how to implement in game with options.

While I like the feature as an ‘Area of Cooperation’ effect (similar to boosts in action) alone as an invisible game feature. There are possibly reason to have an object that causes this as well.

Envision that there is a faction that provides a Mining Observation or Sensor Outpost Platform in asteroid belts to allow this feature to work?

This object can be:

  • Placed at only certain belts or all belts (determined by Player Activities or events?). This give game options as to where this works or doesn’t.
  • Players in Nullsec/lowsec or wormholes may have a version they themselves can deploy?
  • These objects would be destructible by players but would incur suspect status and standings hits when applicable and possible not too easy to destroy. Faction versions would re-spawn at downtime (or in 6 hours or not at all - if events are used to determine if they do are not?)

Additional and more complex options can be:

Faction Objects are placed only in belts where mining activity is rare (to entice mining here). Rare may be only one trigger, there can be many inventive reasons to include in why they are placed.

Destroying them gets a faction response of some kind. Response fleet, inability to dock at a certain NPC Corporation’s stations, or just an alteration in their trigger response in deciding when and where to place them. This can get such that players can farm these objects to get the NPCs to do certain things similar to the methods players use to farm battleship belt rats in lowsec.

Having Faction Objects that do this would allow the Game to decide where and when u can do this. And allow counter-play. Now these objects can’t be so easy to destroy that one ship can go through a whole system and destroy everyone in a short time. He could be risk limited by loss of sec status, standings, armed response, etc.

OKAY I am Done

As usual Like and Subscribe and dont forget CCP will look harder at this if u make a comment or give it a thumbs up instead of just reading and moving on. So DO IT. lol.

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Did you forget about mining boosting provided by Rorqual, Orca, Porpoise and other ships? Also some systems have system wide mining bonus I think they’re all EDENCOM sites

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Good point. Thank You for replying … Seriously, ty. Most people just do Drive-by’s - without even the courtesy of rolling down the window and yelling obscenities. What am I? chop Liver?

But none of them can currently do what I was proposing. and secondly

  • the BOOSTS are not the only point of the feature.

The point was to give them only with player cooperation, specifically by people who don’t know each other beforehand. Allowing others who already have friends is coincidental.

In fact if it was possible - I would disallow those people to be able to use this feature.

*I would like to apologize - in advance - to those poor people, who either - like chop liver or are too young to get the reference. Thank You

** I must now apologize for the previous apology as some have taken offense at my term ‘Poor’ and insist on an apology for my apology. this was in no way meant to imply they were destitute, or even as my Mom would say ‘Gutter Trash’. I assure you I meant none of that, but was more of an observation - stating that they were of low moral character and had no taste in refined foods whatsoever.

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I do not like this idea.

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So if I understand correctly, you want to make mining ships more dangerous when there’s more of them together?

But why is that needed? Isn’t it already the case that multiple miners together are more dangerous than a solo miner?

In the current situation:

  • a fleet of 20 mining ships deals 20 times more damage than a solo miner
  • mining boosting ships can improve the combat capabilities and survivability of the mining fleet with shield boosts, remote repairs and even temporary P.A.N.I.C. invulnerability

Also,

  • miners can choose to pick mining ships based on their combat capabilities to improve the damage further (use Procurer and Skiff, instead of alternatives)
  • miners are also allowed to bring combat ships to boost their combat capabilities even more, with logistics, damage

What is it that miners currently cannot do that you think miners require a new feature to improve their combat effectiveness?

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Sorry I may not have been clear, I recognize that null and even low sec may not need this feature, and to be honest if it was to just apply to high-sec? Or even only to players less than 60 days old I would be happy.

All your examples refer to well established players, presumably well skilled. I repeat these are not the players this feature would be aimed at.

  • Gives miners, especially new players finding thier way in the game, a reason to work together, even if it to congregate at the same belts and

  • Make High-sec suicide ganking more risky to the gankers.

It is these two points I ask you consider and to agree of disagree with. The are rest just details.

I have no intention of making, say t2 drones as invincible as geckos, the boost would not be that powerful. And I agree that making well skilled players in large fleets even more powerful would be a bad thing, I clearly did not make a case for this, on the contrary - these boosts would scale up to a set maximum - say maybe the same as max T2 drones, they are NOT infinite boosts, and would require numerous miners to reach this max

A well skilled 20 man venture mining fleet with max skilled Drones would be at the maximum anyway, so this would contribute little to such a fleet, but to the same size fleet of ventures with 2 week old characters? it would be a big plus. Say a 75% of a well skilled fleet.

Remember the target player here are low skilled, relatively new players who enjoy mining. As an example

think of 3 players each 15 days old with T1 drones who now have the defensive capabilities of a single well skilled barge player.

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Gankers are!

The solution for miners is: Group Play & Cooperation.

  • find a system quite far away from trade hubs or trade routes
  • bookmark your mining operation area to be able to instantly warp off by staying aligned as soon as hostiles enter the system, your mining laser range is large enough to mine while being aligned for several minutes in a row. When getting out of range, just turn around and align to another bookmark in the other direction.
  • place a scout on the entrance route to have enough reaction time
  • learn combat skills and place reshipping combat-ships into the Orca, if hostiles come to your system, switch the Exhumers for Anti-Ganking T3s or Basilisks to establish a heavy-RR chain.
  • Use Shield-Links and heavy tank fits on your mining ships to make ganks as costly as possible.

Enjoy almost 100% gank immunity.

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Thanks for answering. And I agree with all you said being an effective way to do mining fleets.

But again, The situations you set up do not apply to the target players this feature is for.

New miners, Newbs, people who do not have the network to get that kind of support, and largely are ignorant of even its existence as an option because they are new to the game. And I think this is something that should only work in High-sec.

So please. When considering this feature can we all Forget about well organized mining fleets and the hard earned lessons on how to avoid losing mining ships with the experience we have gained over the years.? It is not for and won’t effect those players.

New Players will know none of that and few opportunities to be part of it.

This feature is NOT for those situations

Even if those same fleets were to operate in high-sec? the the abilities their drones would gain would be MINIMAL if any at all. As I said this boost scales to maximum which is the same or lower than an equivalent Well Trained mining fleet you talk about.

That said i think even they might like their drones to be more effective with gankers. not that they use them for Pvp Defense against suicide squads. Why? because they are ineffective.

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…can mine in Ventures, that have hardly any value, so if they are lost they can be replaced instantly anywhere and their whole fit (ship+modules) is worth like 3-4 cargoholds full of ore. Its not even an issue that needs to be adressed. Best thing: If they get killed by gankers in Highsec, they had the opportunity to learn an important lessan for a very cheap price: You can be attacked even in Highsec any time. It’s up to them if they use it to learn (analyze how the ganker did it and how they might prevent it the next time) or if they want to stay ignorant, in which case they don’t deserve any help anyway.

In the moment you make mining a real long-term profession and begin to work with Barges, T2 equipment, different crystals, reprocessing, compression etc. you should not be so “new” any more that you couldn’t look around for a professional mining guide (in which everything you need to know about ganking and how to avoid is is explained) or a newbie-friendly mining corp which can help you out with orga and protection.

That being said, I see absolutely no reason to give miners (even new ones) any more protection or shelter than they currently have. They already have a VAST universe to hide in and huge numbers of people willing to help them if they just ask. I see no need for any more ingame mechanics that “auto-protect” them. Not even counted that your suggestion wouldn’t work, because you would have to boost CombatDrones to absurd levels of strength to scare off gankers. And it adds even more new rules, mechanics, exceptions that EVE is already way too full of.

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