I noticed recently that you can mine megacyte containing ores in 0.5 moon mining. I think this could be imbalance issue. Usually you get megacyte just from 0.0 and wormholes and random spawning ore belts.
This sence of EVE justice feeling inside me that I have tells me that high sec moon mining should give same T1 minerals than normal belt mining. In high sec you can get tritanium, pyerite, mexallon and isogen. There could also be high/low/null sec T2 raw moon materials. In null sec you could get all materials naturally. EVE is risk vs reward game and moon mining in null sec is much more dangerous than moon mining in 0.5 sec space.
This is open discussion about possible imbalance issue in moon mining. Is it real or is my sense of EVE justice wrong?
Why is it not balanced to get Megacyte in high sec? High sec is more dangerous than large swaths of null sec, which is why it only makes sense that high sec receives the good ores as well.
If that was the case, what would be the incentive to set up moon mining in the first place ? The cost of an athanor, plus moon drill, plus refining module is minimum 1.2 B. Keeping the refinery running full time then costs a minimum 200 M per month in fuel costs. Why would anyone invest that money to harvest the same T1 minerals they could otherwise get for free in belts ?
The reward for moon mining is therefore getting access to all the ores previously only available in low sec. The risk is you cannot stop anyone else from also mining your ore. Yes, you can bump them (if you are there 24/7), yes you can wardec them (If they are in a corp, and if you think you can win). But, for practical purposes, there is a big risk you cannot harvest enough. Plus, using higher yield mining ships like hulks in 0.5 is always risky.
Or just take their moon. Highsec structures are just a wardec, and someone who cares, away from exploding. Just like any other player build structure, now.
You do realize that null has r64 moon’s right and ton’s of them not only for the biggest alliance’s, if you saw how much those gave in comparison to high sec moon’s you will not be saying high sec has it good xD
Doesn’t this also beg the question of what the incentive is to set up moon mining in nullsec if they can get the same ores for free in belts, anoms, etc? [Not arguing with you - I truly want to know the answer to this]
Moon mining gives two products: mineral ores and moon goo ores. Once you leave hisec, the value of the moon goo comes much more into play. For example, in low sec, I have never seen anyone mining minerals from moons. Minerals which can now be had much easier in 0.5 anyway. However, the common, uncommon, rare and exceptional moon goo are all more valuable than ubiquitous moon goo. And ubiquitous goo is the only type available in 0.5, is only on a par with ABC ores for value, and all of these are outpaced by gneiss anyway for isk/m3 (last time I looked).
As a lot of people claim nullsec is often safer to mine than lowsec, I assume it is the value of rare and exceptional (R32 & R64) moon goo that remains the main incentive. (As an example of value, I was making 120 M / hour mining exceptional goo in a procurer in low sec a few days ago. And this was not even the most valuable goo type that exists.)
Not sure where you guys are pulling your numbers from, but Im dualboxing a procurer and a porpoise and that hauls in 2000m3 per minute only nets 250mil an hour for the most expensive ore, sooo redo your math.
Also to someone else, an athanor only uses about 90 mil in fuel a month, not 200. Even if you’re running reprocessing it’s only 150mil.
You just miss the point why it is there. Might sound ugly at first, but having it available stabilizes the market with constant inflow and prevents market dominance. Its the same reason why there are Alchemy Reactions. They make it available because its important for producing goods and they want to prevent market dominance by 0.0 Alliances. 0.0 and Low Sec get higher material bonuses on rigs for stations so its still cheaper to produce there, but not required to gain materials to start producing. Even if all of 0.0 would suddenly become an all out war zone, the market would still be stabel supplied.
It would be better to make mining in 0.0 as dangerous as it’s supposed to be ie remove Local.
And W-space needs some of the rare moon goo that 0.0 has. At the moment, moon-mining is about 50x more profitable in 0.0 than W-space (assuming 5x safer).
A moon drill uses 120 units of fuel per day. A reprocessing unit uses 192 units.
Current average sell price for fuel blocks @ Jita, across the four different types, is 22 499 isk.
So, 22 499 / fuel block x 312 blocks / day x 30 days = 210.59 M / month.
(Otherwise, yes, mining alone will cost less than half in fuel costs. However, in the context of highsec, most of your output will be compressible minerals. So, if you are mining weekly, you are likely to want reprocessing/compression weekly? With the three day fuel penalty to switch reprocessing on & off, meaning mining + processing will be a minimum 150 M per month total, you have to judge for yourself whether these savings vs extra utility of leaving reprocessing on makes sense. And, if you are worried about 50 M per month, that just strengthens the argument about needing enough financial incentive to make moon mining worth the risk.)
Do you hear that? It’s the worlds tiniest violin…