I’d really like to see this idea come from people who actually know how to mine in this game. The only people who come up with these ideas are those who have never mined before.
Mining is way more complex and fast paced than non-miners realize yet most won’t admit it.
Whoops, meant to reply to you.
Oh I agree. I’m just a sucker for minigames when I am not hyper optimizing my mining.
I don’t think a mini game takes away from the experience. It does give something for players who are not fully skilled-up, lack the isk for a blinged fit.
Arguably Im doing Project Discovery while I mine, watch a video or movie or completing some other task or game out of window (Yes I know the risk).
I know very well any pilot can fly a Hulk fitted with modulated miners and crystals for the job with all mining drones, mining drone rigs and boosts from an Orca to clear out a belt. Especially when coordinated.
And I agree, someone with experience with mining should probably be both the council of advice and proposer of such changes.
I rather like this approach, and the thought that has clearly gone into the suggestions. Although I personally rather dislike multiboxing, I think there might be unintended consequences from discouraging it in this way, particularly economic, if single players are unable to compensate for the loss of mining capacity currently performed by multiboxers. But I like the way you think, and applaud the clarity with which you presented it.
This is not a problem.
For one, I doubt CCP will be able to stop multibox mining even with a suggestion like this.
Multiboxing is too much a part of EVE for changes to happen that get rid of it entirely.
And even in the hypothetical and unrealistic scenario EVE does get multibox-free, mining becomes a singlebox activity and the prices of ore go through the roof, CCP can easily rebalance mining: CCP decides all the numbers in this game and could simply boost the mineral production of single-boxing miners to keep the economy stable.
For example CCP can decide refining ore gives double or triple minerals if they wanted and if the game needed it, and single-box mining would not only be far more profitable but also be able to supply the EVE economy of the minerals it needs.
As long as mining is dominated by multiboxers there’s no economic need for CCP to boost mining yield or to give single-boxing miners a good income, but that doesn’t mean CCP could not change that if multibox-mining did not exist. In other words:
Multiboxing is not needed for the EVE economy.
Multiboxing exists, and the EVE economy is balanced with it in mind, but it can easily be rebalanced if necessary.
And with all that said, if multi-boxing ever ended, I’d move down to Null Sec to single-box. But we all know that multiboxing is here to stay. It’s needed for the CCP economy.
Let’s just be honest here.
How about allowing solving sequentially harder hacking puzzles, reward could be a combination of cash and skill points?
agree, but there should be some infinite path to efficiency or productivity gains, but with decreasing marginal improvements
How about making mining more profitable if you’re going to tack on minigames and deminishing returns. Get the ISK flowing again.
im curious…why is a mini game for mining needed in EvE??? this is not elte dangerous where players can not build their own stuff and npc vendors are everywhere.
Non- miners don’t think we click our mouse enough times. It haunts their dreams. They have nightmares about mouses not being clicked enough while playing Eve Online.
Fellow miners too think that clicking a mouse once every two minutes is not a lot of clicking.
A minigame could make mining more interesting and not only that, but also more profitable for small scale-miners. An optional minigame for additional yield that requires enough attention and clicks that multiboxing it isn’t feasible at scale could be an improvement to the game that doesn’t get rid of multibox mining but makes single mining characters also worth using, unlike now.
So you also fly with an Orca and a Hulk combo? Or do you jettison?
Porpoise and Hulk. An Orca is a bit too big, slow and risky to move around in null for my tastes and doesn’t fit in my Rorqual SMB.
It takes a little input, but could definitely benefit from more interaction.
So why do you wait two minutes? The cycles were made 4 times faster. You could be moving that ore over multiple times in that two minutes. You don’t have to wait until your hold gets all the way full before you move it. That’s a choice you’re making.
If such a Mining Minigame would be purely optional, both sides would get what they want. And the design could be pretty easy:
Miner I / Strip Miner I / Miner II / Strip Miner II → no crystals, no minigame, predictable and stable yield. Moderate Residue, Low Crit Chances.
Modulated Deep Core Miner / Modulated Strip Miners → Crystals needed, minigame appears on start of the cycle. Player hast to adjust “Power Output”, “Drilling Depth”, “Beam Focus” and “Beam Location” on the roid’s “Heatmap” on the fly during the mining cycle, and depending how good he is able to do that, he gets a combination of less residue, more crits, higher crit boni, more base yield.
That way, someone who wants to mine chilled or with multiple accounts can just put his little own fleet into the belt and does what he has always done. He loses nothing.
Someone who has only one account and is willing to do Mining as focused and active as other people run missions, abyssals, exploration content can also do that and if he learns to beat the game with high skill, he is rewarded with much higher profits.
Win/Win.
Why would I waste time moving every individual piece of ore when I can move it once my hold is full?
If a mini-game were to be added that would give me even more to do between cycles, then I’d only be okay with it if it made mining more profitable. Increase the profits and I’ll willingly play any mini-game CCP throws at me.
Oh so now clicking the mouse is a waste of time, yet a moment ago, you said you wanted more to do…
I don’t understand. I’m out of this discussion. It’s not making sense.
Did you read? You can just use Strip Miner II and have no minigame at all. You’d still get the yield you get now, stable, reliable, comfortable. You wouldn’t even need crystals any more, just have a predictable same yield for every ore your mine. Plannable, scalabe with accounts, easy to manage. What do you complain about? Let others do the minigame if they want to.