New Mining Ships

Communications Center General Discussion
21

Mining ships are already combat capable.

People tend to fit them without combat capabilities though.

Mining drones instead of combat drones, chipset for mining efficiency instead of a webifier for combat. Ice mining rig or mercoxit rig instead of additional shield tank. Mining foreman bursts instead of shirld bursts, compressor instead of a neutralizer… and ORE strips too to make it economically an awful idea to stay and fight.

Yet mining ships can have lots of combat capabilities. High tank and drone damage of Procurers, tackle Ventures with cynos that can bridge even more Procurers in, covert Prospects to surprise you and drop a fleet of combat-fit ORE ships on you.

I once had fun killing a Porpoise with a blaster-fit Pioneer as part of a roaming ‘mining’ fleet. I’ve seen people fight off and kill ceptors in null with Porpoise and Barge. A full flight of combat drones of a mining fleet that stands and fights is a scary sight for any solo or small gang without the critical mass to take on the miners.

Long story short, mining ships are combat capable, people just choose not to fit or act like it.

Adding more conbat capabilities won’t help, all it does is raise the critical mass of a fleet needed to take on the miners, but people will kill the miners all the same if they get caught at the wrong time.

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22

Well, generally speaking its that way…but it doesnt have to be.

Join a mining op, use the boosts given, have some good conversation. A reputable corp will pay you for everything or enough to keep the afterburners lit. Its only as boring as you make it for yourself.

Me personally?..i can sit there and stare at lasers for any extended amount of time. I do not afk mine…never have, never will. For some strange reason it doesnt bore or bother me in the least. Yes, im one of the few that many others in this game make fun of because of my strange asteroid fetish. :stuck_out_tongue:

:rose:

However, im never reluctant to try new ways of doing things. If they were to change mining using your idea then id be fine with that. Another idea on these boards was to turn mining into a mini game…scanning for the more enriched areas on the rocks, mining them, then rescanning to keep the pull percentage as high as you can until the rock is depleted.

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23

I remember hearing about when a player named JNB went on a rampage in a Hulk, and was celebrated for it.

Sorry for potato resolution. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndWUlntJ58U

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If he attempted this today, his hulk would’ve failed before he even started (nerfed), and he would’ve had a covert ops cyno drop a dozen Redeemers on him…

25

That was 2008, when Eve was much more hostile than it is now.

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26

No, EVE is far more hostile now. There’s just a lot fewer players around…

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27

EVE isn’t necessarily more hostile now. The second part of your post says there are fewer people, which combined with the first claim of it being “far more hostile” is an interesting contradiction unless we’re defining hostility purely as the efficiency of the people left.

The universe is significantly larger than it was in 2008. We’ve added J-space, Incursions, Pochven and a substantial amount of other content, while peak concurrent users remain broadly in the same neighbourhood as they were back then. They’re not at the highs of the “golden age” before the “Greed is Good” era that people keep invoking, but they are still remarkably healthy for a game approaching a quarter of a century old.

The difference is not that the predators disappeared. The forest got bigger.

Also, “fewer players” is doing a lot of work in that argument considering CCP haven’t released the full population figures for years. At this point, “EVE is dying” has become a community tradition that has outlived entire games.

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28

No, the forest didn’t get bigger - the “predators” farmed the “sheep” to extinction. So the only ones they can prey on now are the ignorant…

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29

I dont know…

Maybe its because im a bit older, that i dont look for as much trouble as i did back in 08, that i much more endear my peaceful life in this game. Being more vigilant, avoiding the dangers that i know exist all come into play…who knows.

But i think this game is much less hostile that it was back in 08…again for the reasons above. I guess as always, it would solely depend where you like to hang out.

I guess if i went back to looking for trouble, perhaps my perspective would change or with interactions of no choice of mine, get changed.

30

You’re welcome to reject reality and adopt a version that better fits your narrative. That doesn’t mean everyone else has to accept it.

The available numbers don’t support the idea that EVE has somehow collapsed due to player predation. Peak concurrent numbers remain broadly comparable to the 2008 era, while the game itself has grown considerably in scope.

The forest did get bigger. That’s not really up for debate. CCP have added entire categories of space and gameplay since 2008. The question is whether the population distribution changed.

“The predators farmed the sheep to extinction” is an interesting theory, yet he sheep keep respawning. It’s a massive over simplification that assumes player retention problems are primarily caused by PvP interactions rather than the usual MMO factors: age, competition, changing player expectations, available time and the natural churn of a game approaching a quarter century.

EVE has always had predators. The “new player apocalypse” has been predicted for almost as long as the game has existed.

Anyway, carry on. Toodles.

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31

Eve Offline would dispute your player growth claims.

32

If that was aimed at me, and I assume it was, what player growth claim?

I didn’t claim player growth. I claimed PCU numbers are still broadly comparable to 2008. Those are not remotely the same thing.

Arguing against a point I didn’t make is a curious tactic, even by EVE forum standards. We call that a strawman, would you like a ragged coat and a tattered Panama hat to decorate it with?

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Based on that image it looks like numbers currently are more like 2007 than like 2008.

But the point stands, EVE has a surprisingly stable playerbase over all those decades.

35

Which is not a claim about player growth, not even close. I was very specifically talking about peak concurrent users; game growth refers to the expansion of the game itself, not the size of the playerbase. “peak concurrent numbers… comparable” is a claim about usage, and “the game itself has grown” is a separate claim about content/scope. There’s a comma and a “while” explicitly contrasting the two things — it was deliberately structured like a textbook compound sentence specifically so nobody could conflate them, apparently I was wrong about that.

The 2008 peak was 43,697. The 2026 peak so far is 38,840. That is a difference of roughly 11% - which is in the same ballpark, not evidence of some catastrophic population collapse.

The fact that the game has expanded significantly since then is a separate point. More space, more systems and more gameplay options do not require a higher PCU to exist.

You’re arguing against a claim I didn’t make.

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36

That ‘poor little miner’ can fly a gaussian laser Venture that is either FREE on a mission or which can be bought for an amount so small that a single trip to the asteroid belts pays it off. There is no such thing as being utterly helpless in EVE.

Anyone who can afford a barge is not ‘poor’. And one then has to ask…what are they mining for ? Just to accumulate millions/billions of ISK sitting there in a pile ? Or towards combat ships ?

If the ore is going towards a corp, then hypocritically the miner is mining so that other people can do the PvP he claims to hate.

37

Not the slightest. The community was never as helpful and supportive as it is today. There were never better opportunities for players to get assistance, aid and really skyrocketing their progress in SP, wealth and experience by just cooperating with others. There have never been more efficient tools and guides to learn and prepare for situations.

EVE isn’t hostile at all. It’s for the most part overwhelmingly supportive for anyone who wants to take a helping hand. And for those who “just want to play on their own” it will always be a hardship, maybe even the wrong game. There are many alternatives that don’t require multiplayer cooperation, nobody is imprisoning a player here.

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38

Exordium has entered the thread…

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Yes, Exordium existing is evidence that the game has added systems and structure since 2008, which was literally my point.

Kind of contradicts your own earlier statements of “No, EVE is far more hostile now.” and “No, the forest didn’t get bigger,” too. :neutral_face:

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40

Not really.

Unlike gankers, Miners always have be on the alert for gankers warping in, calculating align times, mining distances versus drone distance and yield based on thr velocity of drones, etc. In the end, if applied properly, miners become some of the best PVPers in EvE Online.

But make the Miners game elite, one last mining ship is needed.

A cruiser sized mining ship.

The mining ship would have six high slots, three for mining and two for utility. The Defender Launch System is nice for low and null. A quick cloak up isn’t bad either when needing to hide very quickly.

4 mids

4 lows

2 rig slots

25k Mining Hold
150 m3 cargo
200 m3 drone bay with 100 mb sec. bandwidth

Bonus for armor of 5% per resistance per skill level.

5% increase for damage per skill level for small drones.

5% increase in range of ice or ore mining laser range,(one new ship per mining type, no gas variant available)

10% Increase in critical amount mined per skill level. Penalty of align time for each level trainrd though.

+5 Fuzzy Dice and Latino Curtains for your windows + Low Rider song.

Cannot be used to mine Mercoxit.

Causes faster crystal damage as the critical amount mined increases.

10% mining drone optimal range, velocity and hitpoints.

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