Presenting: the Upwell S.W.A.G.
Stealth
Warhead for
Acquiring
Goo
The Upwell S.W.A.G. can be surreptitiously attached to a moon chunk and after 48 hours detonate. The detonation will fracture off a small part (about 15%) of the chunk, creating a mini-asteroid field with the same composition as the chunk outside of the Athanor’s weapon range. A portion of the ore (5%, leaving 10% to mine) blasted off will be lost, destroyed by the detonation.
The Upwell S.W.A.G. is my response to the obsolescence of the Mobile Siphon Unit. It fits in with the new paradigm of active moon mining, while keeping with the functionality of the old siphons. In fact, it should function even more closely to the original vision, since it would not be detectable until it detonated. Currently, it’s rather difficult to take someone else’s moon ore outside of highsec. The owner controls the chunk detonation time, and the field can be protected with mounted weapons that cannot be disabled by a small fleet. By allowing the attacker to choose the time of detonation and not requiring them to fight under an armed structure, actual conflict can occur.
Is the implication here that people would use this and bring their own fleets of mining ships into hostile space out in Low/Null to offensively mine?.. and then promptly get blobbed and die?
Perhaps there should be no notification of the detonation at all then? That requires you to actually find the hostile fleet in order to stop them from taking the ore.
I agree that this is going to be more risky that just mining your own R64, but you can’t spell risk without ISK!
So… you are proposing that this only apply to chunks which have finished being tractored right?
And which sit around for over 48 hours?
Because the owner can’t detonate a chunk on the way in still.
I get the feeling you don’t actually know how the mechanic really works.
No. I am proposing that the device is planted on the chunk as it is being tractored in.
The owner controls when the chunk detonates because they decide when the extraction completes.
In which case CCP would need to screw it up again and make it totally detectable via the API, just as the syphons could be.
As for the idea, it could add more chaos, so that’s a plus. Kind of on the fence. Seems like it could be ok, but I’m not sure how much it would really be used. My guess is it would be about as popular as mobile scan inhibitors, so not very.
I think it would be easier to make a universal change so 10% of the ore ends up outside the range of the refinery weapons. It would also be harder to police - I suspect we’ll see a lot more moons being mined once we get into the redistribution phase.
I believe CCP’s goal is to make supers and titans a LOT more expensive - partly by reducing the available standard ore and partly because the ores that remain are not compressible. Since the moon ores primarily contain reaction materials, it’s possible that T2 will become less expensive. We live in interesting times.