I know they are a contested topic players long after DT hate them for scooping up entire system belts before they can even log on. Others hate them for hating them and others love them for variation, immersion or the skin farming whatever floats their boat. I am personally in the group that does not mind them and hunts them down when I want a change of pace.
They do seem to cause issues for some to the point of making mining in normal belts impossible now due to the speed they can clear a 8 belt NPC Nullsec system or highsec.
They could use a balance but in light of December’s Economic review I think a balance and boost might be the best combination.
Firstly the mining fleet size should be scaled down a bit by 1-3 mining ships this would slow the mining down. It would also be interesting to see pirate mining fleets more frequently maybe in prospects to be lore friendly. This could be enough that 0600 to DT players actually can find good rocks at least in multi belt systems.
Secondly it would be good to see these fleets also “attack” belt anomalies. First a scanning frigate lands on grid and 1 min later the mining fleet warps in unless the scanner was attacked then the response fleet comes instantly. Sure a frigate response fleet won’t kill dedicated miners in a site but a BS response could hinder or destroy a unwary rorqual or orca or miners not paying attention. If they are ignored depending on standings they will clear the anomalies like any other belt or they attack players. Obviously the fleets should be mainly pirate factions with a small % fringe corporations such as tukker, Ore.
This should not be a high chance to spawn but should scale with the index a little if you want to mine you better prepare for fringe groups to muscle in on your rocks just like the rats are there.
The scanner arriving is a warning for anybody in the site to reship of prepare to fight or loose rocks. Either way it would be a hurdle but the big null blocks should have no trouble clearing the response fleets but it will slow the m^3 per day if ignored or lower the rocks possible to mine.
Now go ahead flak the topic if you wish, however this would effectively curb afk mining in Nullsec and lower rage in highsec and lowsec a little concerning people coming online and finding nothing. Also the mining fleets would endanger highsec afk mining if they add the low % chance of pirate mining fleets.
Better solution. Basically.remove belts. replace with respawning ore anoms.
Belt rats move to these ore anoms, officer spawns do also.
Solves the downtime issue, and the npc miners issue all in one. And also puts more rats on the miners at the same time without changing the normal rat difficulty (highsec belt rats could use a bump to not be a total joke. with matching isk bump also)
The NPC miners need slow down a lot. I personally have seen them mine a whole system with 12 belts in under 6 hours. If CCP want to keep the NPC miners active in the game, they need to quit counting the NPC miners total mined against the daily spawn formula. It is bad enough that the NPC mine all day, every day but then to double dip by counting that amount in the spawning formula , is just pure BS!
I would like to see the NPC miners have a hard limit of 25% of the spawned ore per system ever 6 hours and a hard limit of 50-75% for the day. That way there will be ore left for late day players.
I am somewhat surprised about the positive feedback so far. Removing belts I think is not the ideal thing as they are still hunting and hiding grounds in a plane to the system usually.
I agree pulling them into the formula may be flawed but they do move systems. I have not see them every day in the same systems. Lowering the amount of miners would achieve a similar effect.
It would be easy enough to still hunt & hide between 3 or 4 anoms vs 12 belts. And to some extent, we do want to concentrate players. The more concentrated they are the more interactions happen, regardless on if they are co-operation or competition.
It defeats the point of choosing high belt count systems for belt ratting and mining though to give extra time getting out of a belt at local spike. I know not fun from Pvp side but PVE side it is a conciouss choice.
Mmm, I’d disagree with that on the proviso that I would expect some systems to still have high anom counts compared to others. I.E. I’m talking about something like, every 3 belts turn into 1 respawning anom.
So that choice would still exist, it just wouldn’t be as easy.
But the flip side is that you would have fresh anoms at any time of day potentially, so while your risk goes up, your reward should also go up.
I have a question about the bigger npc mining fighter ships that warp in and attack and scram you if you are ratting in a belt that npc miners are working in. Did I accidentally shoot a npc miner or do they just attack you for ratting near their miners? I barely escaped with my life. LOL! Just curious about this and the mechanics.
It depends on standings the standings do degrade slowly now 0.01 or even 0.001 per kill was really small. Once you hit the standings on the bar where only lvl 1 agents are available they will shoot you on site. Otherwise they ignore you unless you shoot a miner or hauler and just mine rocks. I think they show up red on overview if standings are low enough for shoot on sight but not 100% sure. I farm the skins when they are in system and then run a distribution for the Corp and almost immediately cover 4-5 attacks.
Any other points or issues one sees with this balance suggestion to the NPC. I know most anomaly miners won’t care but response fleets are tougher than belt rats I have seen a carrier pilot who was surprised almost die due to not expecting that strong of a response fleet.