I propose we improve mining drones to work similar to salvage drones
with salvage drones you can just click salvage and they’ll find the closest things to you and start salvaging.
lets do the same thing with mining drones. you could argue they mine the furthest thing from you instead so it takes longer. but i don’t see why not, we have the technology!
1: Drones are supposed to be stupid. In New Eden, smart drones go Rogue, so that’s the lore reason.
2: Wasn’t the interface for mining drones like that of combat drones, where you have them mine a rock you’re targeting? Granted it’s been a while since I used mining drones, preferring to keep extra combat drones in my barges, so I could be wrong, but I remember the key thing you wanted to maximize mining drone output was to be as close to the rock as possible to minimize their travel time. Am I wrong?
simple answer → No !
drone mining is an AFK activity and you want to push it to more afkable ? oO
just dont be afk and command them to mine a new rock ! its not a question of technology ! its a question of economy and if you could fill your orca with an orehold of 120k m³? fully automaticly then you never had to be on screen !
and CCP want to close all AFK mechanics as good as they can to provide an active universe and not an afk universe !
Why does an AFK orca need to be even more AFK?
Salvage drone mechanics for mining drones is something I’ve thought about before, but it would definitely take AFK drone mining way too far. At that point you could go AFK for hours and come back to a depleted belt without ever having touched the keyboard in between. As much as I enjoy some drone mining from time to time, this is just way too far.
What I would like to see is civilian mining drones being made useable by alpha players, so that they actually have some sort of purpose in the game, and it also gives alpha players a taste of what they could use if they go Omega.
Also, a system to do maintenance on your drones every 5 or 10 minutes by pulling them back into your bay and clicking a button would be kinda cool. Doing so would give them a 5 or 10 minute mining yield buff of around… 25% or so? Otherwise you can ignore the maintenance and get standard rates while afk.
My stance was that the OP’s idea for smart mining drones that behave like salvaging drones is indeed bad for the game, so I’m not sure what you mean. If you’re saying my idea of having to interact with your drone interface every 5 to 10 minutes to get maximum mining yield out of them is bad… then I don’t know what to say. It was just a random idea that would encourage more interaction from mining drone users, who are currently 100% AFK, without punishing those who wish to continue playing the way that they currently are.
You see, when you lack some fundamental understanding about the game, what seems a simple idea to you is in reality, nothing but yet another attempt in the 21 year long crusade by miners to increase their income without increasing the amount of risk they partake in.
Why do you need more yield just for not AFK-mining?