Proposal for A Mining Solution

Industry Gameplay Center Mining & Extraction
1

I don’t know about other areas of null, but where I live, people will SOMETIMES
leave behind the mercoxit, after stripping an anomaly of all the other ore types. Unless you bring in a barge/exhumer or three, it can take forever to get all the mercoxit mined, in order to allow the anom to respawn. I think I may have a solution.

Deep Core Mining Excavator Drone

Skill requirements Outside Excavator Drones -
Deep Core Mining IV
Astrogeology V
Science IV

Drone Specifics -
Orbital Distance set to 8-10km from asteroid.
Possibly make bandwidth 125; can only use one at a time.
Yield - Same as current excavator drones. Base of 100m3 per 60 seconds, modified by skills and industrial core use.

Obviously, with a wider orbital range, the drones will be further away than you would normally have excavators (outside really big spod rocks). Management of drones when a threat is near would mean you need to step up your gain, or possibly lose a pricey drone. I see no need to offset this by increasing the flight speed of the drones.

Pros - Opens up a means to clean up mercoxit without either reshipping, or enlisting the aid of those who are going to be reluctant to assist you. Also adds a new revenue stream for manufacturers, and opens an additional income source for booshers. Lastly, it gives responsible miners an additional means to clear an anomaly, to ensure a timely respawn.

Bonus - Could potentially BOOST the Delve Time Unit, by increasing anomaly spawns.

Cons - Somebody isn’t going to like it, 'cuz. Some people that don’t fly a rorqual may see a dip in ISK per hour due to additional competition. However, with a 125 bandwidth useage, the competition may not be as impactful.

I didn’t scour the forums very hard to see if something like this had been proposed in the past. I would love to gauge the thoughts of the mining community on this idea.

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How about we dont give a yet another unnecessary boost to the already overpowered and gamebreaking Rorqs, while also indirectly nerfing Exhumers hard (to the point of them becoming completely pointless, since Rorqs could then do anything a Hulk can, but 5x better), and leave the Merc handicap, thus incentivizing the deployment of mining barges?

4 Likes
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Because I don’t want to fly a barge/exhumer. I wouldn’t call it a boost. This proposed mechanic would work like running an ice mining drone on an orca or porpoise. Bandwidth limits the use of one at a time. No super-fast gobbling up of the mercoxit.

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Too bad then, mercoxit is a specific ore for mining ships, not support ship, orca porpoise and rorqual can mine to have something to do while boosting, even though the rorqual is derped in yield since its rebalance. They never meant to be doing all the job by themselves, and mercoxit is around a lot of other bigger rocks to mine, so while barges mine the Mercoxit the support ships can mine the rest to stay busy.
The rorqual only use one single drone to mine ore and ice with a yield beyond reasonable, only one mercoxit drone at a time would not conterbalance it.

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  1. I didn’t fly a rorqual before the “nerf”, so to me it is not derped.
  2. Unless there are actual people in anything less than a rorqual in my fleet, I am not a “support” ship. Suppoprt is a secondary use.
  3. The rorqual can use FIVE ice excavator drones to mine ice. The Ice Mining Drone (T1 & T2 versions) can be used by it, but you would be severely restricting yourself. They are used by the porpoise and orca though, and can only use one at a time due to bandwidth.
  4. Getting somebody to mine mercoxit is about as hard to do as doing your own dental work.
  5. Before the change to how all boosts were done, and rorquals were pushed onto the field by CCP, no, rorquals were not meant to doing all the jobs by themselves. Times have changed.

Oh and by the way, having gone back to see if I missed any points to cover, the rorqual also uses FIVE excavator drones to mine regular ore. Thus, from your posting, I take away that you don’t mine, you don’t mine in a rorqual, and you are just posting to be contrary.

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Well, first, if it wasn’t derped, people wouldn’t multibox them instead of having just one and multiboxing the barges around them, like people do with orca and skiff/covetor in HS.

I don’t mine a rorqual no, hence my mistakes about the number of drones, still the only one drone would get a huge yield with the hull bonuses.

If someone is willing to put a rorqual on field but noone can be bothered mining the mercoxit, the problem is about organisation and how to sell the mercoxit mined, not because rorqual can’t mine it.

I mine all the time and did it everywhere in the game, and I know how much both active moon mining and rorquals cause issues in null, T2 stuff would not be overpriced so much now that everyone and all placed their refineries and organized their moon OP.

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So by derped, you mean forcing them to be on grid and active. And so your only real complaint is that you probably aren’t trained into one, and probably couldn’t afford one anyways. Oh and since you brought it up, the rorqual didn’t affect moon goo/ore prices. CCP did when they revamped the moon mining system. T2 prices aren’t sky high because rorquals are mining moons now. Prices are sky high because the cost of moon minerals escalated exponentially when the source dried up while we were awaiting the new system to be rolled out. Things haven’t quite rebounded yet. I expect they will, especially since moons mining has been added to both hisec and J-space. It will get more people into wormholes for sure, and as a secondary effect, I expect, more people will be there to mine the gas as well.

I don’t think you understand the fiduciary risks involved in getting just one rorqual undocked. Even with a well-organized security team, you can still be killed, especially if YOU aren’t paying attention or fit properly. Lastly, nobody should have to have a higher up parent organization ensure all the ore gets scooped up. People on grid should be doing that themselves. I am just suggesting adding an additional tool to help clear the anom, which in turn will allow it to respawn and give everybody a chance to mine more. It’s not about not being able to sell it. I don’t know where you got that. What mercoxit I do mine, sells just as well as any other ore I mine. Ochre seems to be the one nobody wants, but it has to get mined, and can still be refined and used.It gets mined, it gets sold.

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it’s actually about 2.5x to 3x better than a Hulk, all things considered.

Nevertheless, I agree: there is no need for Merc Drones, unless you want to nerf the hulk (for no reason).

What you are suggesting is: make clearing belts more convenient, less annoying and buff it’s ISK/HR.

That’s all there is to it. For no reason. Any mining char in a rorq is close to being able to field a covetor with Deep Core Strips for the Merc, you just have to go out of your way just a little.

I mine with 3 rorqs and have a Hulk with good skills mining the merc. Even with 15 Rorqs in said Belt, the merc is done before the regular ore is. Given this experience, there is absolutely 0 reason to give the rorq another buff. It’s absurdely effective (which I think is justified given the price and the inherent risk), it doesn’t need any more.

Btw: most merc roids would not even live a single cycle with Merc drones at the same yield as current excavators. That’s alone should tell you that it’s bollocks. At the same yield, Merc would be mine first all the time because at the same yield than excavators, it would be 2x the value of AGS.

No, that’s just silly. I get why you want it (cause it’s annoying to watch Hulks and their stupidly small orehold even if you can be bothered to switch ships and reduce your isk/hr a tad), but that doesn’t mean it is a good thing to do.

1 Like
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Blockquote Because I don’t want to fly a barge/exhumer.

Well, thats your problem and not anyone else’s.

Seriously, just stop. This is a ridiculously stupid idea.

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Still trying to figure out your angle. Are you opposed just because, like so many other EVE players, just not wanting anything new?

I did the numbers. I was going to earlier, but the login server was down. Using my least skilled rorqual pilot, who happens to be my mercoxit miner when needed, yields are as follows:

In a Skiff (what I have) my unboosted yield for both Modulated Deep Core Strip Miner II with T2 crystals, is 1854m3 per 145.8 seconds. The proposed yield of a specialized excavator would, based on this pilot’s current skills, be 384.93m3 per 60 seconds. So based on that, yeah I would have to agree it’s not feasible. Now, if you made them identical to standard excavators in bandwidth, and were able to field five, their yield per minute would be 1924.65m3. That still exceeds the maximum yield I can get in a hulk (1854m3 per 103.3 secs) which we don’t want to do, because it COULD hurt the guys that don’t fly a rorqual at all, and have taken the time to skill up to T2 mercoxit equipment.

So, based on numbers, which yeah, in retrospect I should have looked at before posting, it wouldn’t be feasible. That’s how you debunk a concept, not by just saying no in a rude fashion. And certainly not by throwing out numbers that are wildly incorrect.

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This is pretty much true elsewhere. In High-sec anons get cherry-picked leaving behind Kernite or Omber.

At least in null, your leadership should be mandating responsibility for clearing the Mercoxit.

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Had you read it, you would know it’s not out of greed, it’s out of not wanting to have to dock, refit to mining boosts on one rorqual just to sit there, while another rorqual reships to an exhumer. It was just a suggestion, end the numbers don’t justify it, no matter how much somebody wants to ■■■■ all over it just because.

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I haven’t noticed any shortage of minerals on the markets so this is a solution looking for a problem. I will argue that the Rorqual is still overpowered - adding to its versatility would not be good for the game.

15

Sorry I couldn’t get past the laughter after I read wanting another boost to the Rorqual.

2 Likes
16

Ya bein’ a lazy bum doesn’t mean things need to be changed.

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