the idea is basically putting blast mining in the game. you explode rocks, that shoot out chunks that you would have to collect. the yield would still be your raw ore that you would normally mine just collected in a different way.
Where the “Blast Miners” would fall in the ship tree:
it would fall under a new class of mining ship, adjacent to barges. (you could choose to skill into barges OR there is now a second option of blast miners that would output similarly to barges but just played differently)
How to implement:
instead of a laser/strip miner, you would fit a launcher, that would shoot “charges” at each asteroid. the number of asteroids that you can blast would be determined based off skill and would control the tier of launcher you can use.
the “charges” could be broken down kind of like crystals, you could have charges that are shaped to allow for more precise explosions, (this would decrease the range that the “chunks” would blow off from the explosion)/tightly packed charges(more explosives equal greater yield from the asteroid with higher residue chance)/etc
implement a tractor beam specifically for ore that you could fit as a turret hardpoint and use the launcher hardpoint as the main fitting. it would take the place of the survey scanner since you wont need to know the M3 left of the asteroid you are blowing up.
Add drones that would bore holes into the asteroids which would reduce the number of “chunks” released/drones that would collect the fragments while you blast away more rocks
how to implement as a fleet:
the Noctis would take the place as the “porpoise” of the blast miners. fitting the role as a collecting ship perfectly.
give the Noctis a small industry core/boosters. limit the compression to just regular ore, maybe even up to a certain tier of rock? the boosts would be to targeting strength/speeds?, and reload speeds?
the Noctis could launch “webs” that would gather the “chunks” together, and then be able to suck the “web” into its hold/closer to fleet.
the blast miners would prepare the belt as capable (boreing the rocks/attaching charges/etc), blow the entire belt up, start collecting!
Ship Designs:
the T1 blast miners would be designed for maneuverability to cover for the need to collect the rocks. and have a cargo hold similar to the covetor? maybe between the 7-10k range.
T2 blast miners would be bigger, but still faster than the barges. more designed for fleet capabilites but a comparable solo experience to like drone mining in a porp/orca? larger hold 11-15k? maybe be able to fit a web charge alongside explosive charges to be able to collect easier since the size of the hull isn’t suited for flying as fast.
Stats for Rocks/Chunks:
Make a percentage of the M3 of the asteroid be a “chunk” so say if the rock was 10k M3, each 1k M3 would be blasted out for 10 “chunks”