Mining Thoughts

After a lengthy break I decided to get back into mining as a change of pace. I now have a better appreciation (albeit a small glimpse) for what miners have been going through for the past few years…

I can’t get over how much high-sec mining was hit with the nerf bat back in 2020 and how much low-sec was recently nerfed in 2024 with the gas changes in Equinox - especially since ship prices haven’t really come down that much since.

The one thing that I can certainly relate to is how much of a PITA it is switching between these smaller rocks. For what used to be a sem-AFK activity it sure requires a lot more micromanagement.

So, some random thoughts:

• It’s cool that you can semi ‘auto-harvest’ with mining drones similar to salvage drones (it eliminates most of the micromanagement for the Porpoise and Orca) - but this isn’t consistent (only working for one rock).
• Compression is definitely a nice feature.
• Increase the number of locked targets on the Orca from 7 to 8 and on the Porpoise from 5 to 6.
• Add an additional high slot to all mining barges/exhumers and change the auto targeting system(s) so that mining lasers (only) automatically switch/cycle to the next locked asteroid within range when the auto targeting system is active (I think you’ll see less complaints over the smaller asteroids as a result). Especially with waste you really burn through asteroids quickly.
• High-sec mining really needs some love. They should really look at returning some of the ores/moon ores that they nerfed back in 2020.
• Triglavian mining lasers!

I managed to eek out around 50m ISK/hour between 3 characters and it was nearly as much work as mission running (and these were as Omegas). I can’t even imagine how Alpha characters are expected to survive in this game if they opt for a mining career (maybe the answers is they don’t). I’m seriously questioning how you could even manage this as an Omega miner in high-sec.

Then you add the whole wardec thing with structures and I really don’t see how high-sec industrial corporations can be expected to thrive.

I know some players have suggested some “mini games” to making mining more entertaining, but I think if they just figured out a way we could automate a bit more of it (drones, mining lasers) that would be a huge QoL improvement.

1 Like

No offense but I somehow get the feeling you keep opening new topics in the hope the people replying to you in all the other ones will get tired at some point. It’s mostly the same “I want more convenience, more afk-possibilities, more profits, better stats, more more more”.

Sorry. No. To everything.

  • Small Roids are the downside of mining in an almost 100% safe environment. HS should only teach the “basics” of mining, how it works in general, what tools to use, what ships to use. If you want to make a living out of it, join the Ice Competition. There you have static belts, big roids and can pretty much spend a lot of time sucking a single roid without much input required. Well, hopefully they remove/change those Ice Belts from HS somewhere in the future, but today it’s still an option. Or leave HighSec and go where the bigger roids and more valuable ores are at the cost of having to deal with the dangers of these areas.

  • Shipboard Compression is convenient, yes. Especially for multiboxers. But it hurt the social aspect of the game. The Mining Commands ships are now nothing more than simple alt-char vessels with no other purpose but to boost the profits. They don’t really have a job any more, everyone can stay in the belt for a long time, doing his own thing, no communication needed, no cooperation needed. Before it was a real group play, People dropped Jetcans that then would be tractored by the Orca or Rorqual to store/compress it, the players had to trust each other, they had to find a ways to split the ores after the OP, there was room for discussions but also betrayal and conflict. All of that is removed now. It has made EVE more boring.

  • Why would the Porpoise / Orca would need more targets? Sounds just like “gimme more!”, or which actual “problem” would that solve?

  • Automining is cancer. I can’t even find words to explain how bad this idea is.

  • Triglavians are focused on combat, conflict and survival of the best pilots. Haulers or Miners wouldn’t even fit into their lore. It’s again just another idea to “make more ISK!” in the end.

3 Likes

I didn’t think +1 target was an unrealistic suggestion, but it’s not like mining is going to see any kind of significant changes this year aside from token adjustments - so it probably doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

High-sec is an integral part of EVE, but I guess we want to keep forcing players to be a cog in the null wheel instead of trying to invent their own.

1 Like

Yes it is, as starting area to learn the first steps in teh game and fallback area if you got beaten up in the other zones and need some place to rest and grow back a bit of new starting capital.

HS should not be a permanent residence for people who want to fill their wallets safely into all eternitiy. It should always suck compared to the other spaces, because that is the motivation to try out the more dangerous places. It can always provide a base income, but tbh all the extremes (L4 Blitzing, Burners, High-Tier-Abyssals, Icebelts) should be nerfed. HS is currently way too good for making money, especially for Veterans. You can make hundreds of millions in ISK per hour in an almost completely safe environment.
I actually pity most of the Null ratters seeing how little they actually make with their Anomalies and then have even a part of it taxed away by their corp that probably needs to pay some kind of tribute or rent and another part gone into the ESS. While I can grind in HighSec basically tax- and rentfree for more ISK at a much higher safety.

1 Like

They are not.

^ I noticed this too.

Before? The era where this happened is over 10 years ago, only the Rorqual did compression ( as much as it would be hated all ore compression should be an industry job as it once was ) via blueprints and people mined ice in high security space in shifts, handing their ship to the next person to log on due to how expensive the damn things were.

The ice was also infinite, which really was very broken…

It removed tedium and was a feebile attempt to bring some kind of benefit to on grid boosting with ships that were otherwise safely orbiting a POS.

Its integral for logistics, though for supply chain and manfacturing its supposed to be sub optimal, otherwise what is the driver for people to go outside of high sec and do anything if those locations are all subjectively worse ?

Nah, the change from system-wide boost to local-bubble-boost would have been sufficient to force the Mining CommandShips on Grid. I agree that the system-boost was bad and needed to be changed.
I also don’t have anything against compression mechanics in the belt for the commandships. I just dislike the shipboard compression, so that every miner can do it in his own cargohold.

Yes, Porpoise, Orca and Rorqual should be able to compress in the belt. But only in their own special bay, so the fleet would need a concept how to get the ores to the command ships and how to spread the compressed ores among the miners in the end. And yes, I also agree that compression should be a “job”, taking some time and not be instant. Both in the belt and on stations.

This is also where I think CCP made a mistake when they made compression something remote. They gave players too much convenience at the cost of social interaction, at the cost of cooperation.

Compression in the belt is nice. I think it was a great improvement that Orcas and Porpoises too got access to it.

But it didn’t have to be a remote effect. Support ships have shared cargoholds and tractor beam bonuses to make use of it so they could cooperate with the miners to fill the role of compression.

But no, shipboard compression made sure the mining command ships are only there to give buffs but have no active role in the mining fleet at all. Not anymore.

2 Likes

Other than removing shipboard compression, what would you change to address this? Give them more of a combat/protection role?

To remove shipboard compression from the mining ships.

Orcas, Porpoises and Rorquals will still have shipboard compression and a ship maintenance bay where the other miners can store their ore if they want to compress.

An addition to that the mining support pilot can pull in jetcans of ore to their regular hold where they too can compress. The support character therefore takes the ‘compression’ role to help the entire fleet.

Right now the support character turns on their core, boosts and compressor and alt-tabs out to their miners because their job is done.

1 Like

Guessing you’re really not a fan of this feature. I used this for some players mining in a Venture the other day and they really enjoyed it (not that I imagine they were making much mining in a Venture).

Can’t they already do this? (I use a Packrat on my Orca) I run mining drones as well but maybe this isn’t that typical.