If you’re referring to deep core mining then I’d say that’s a step in the right direction, but I’d prefer it if more advanced mining tools like strip miners allowed you to literally slice apart asteroids like doner kebab and pull that delicious ore into your hold one chunk at a time.
Hell, that gives me an idea of what to do with excavator drones! Excavation in the context of mining is basically digging away all the dirt, rock, and other undesirable matter between you and the valuable minerals you’re after, right? What if, instead of being super-mining drones, excavator drones allowed mining frigates/barges/exhumers to pull much larger amounts of ore from an asteroid at once? It would be a mechanical representation of the excavator drones cutting away all the dross and waste material that the mining ships would normally have to work through to get at the valuable ore within.
Just to clarify, this wouldn’t be adding additional ore to the rock the drones are working on, it would be decreasing the amount of time needed to completely strip an asteroid of all its valuable ore. Theoretically speaking, if you didn’t cap the amount of increased yield per cycle the excavators gave, you could have someone with the Exhumers skill at 5 could fill up the entire ore hold of a Hulk with just one cycle from a civilian mining laser.
Logically speaking, there would be a limit on how much of a bonus could be applied to any given asteroid, for the purposes of gameplay integrity and sanity alike.
…what?! That is not at all what I meant! I was saying that I didn’t understand why anyone would do that, not that it’s an invalid style of play!
Seriously, work on your reading comprehension.
The hell? What is your problem? I suggest gradually shifting the gameplay away from something bad for the EvE’s long-term health and you’re acting like I started throwing around racial slurs or something!
…what the ■■■■?