Hello Everyone, I’d like to propose an interesting change to Mining which I think would help expand on communication between two play types (exploration and mining), while being relevant to both Alpha & Omega. Apologies up front, this is going to be a wall of text, but i think it’s worth a read for anyone interested
Mining and industry has already undergone some serious changes in the last few years, a lot of people grumble about the waste.
So I thought what would be interesting is if the waste that is generated from more aggressive means of mining is justified as smaller micro deposits of other rare or desirable materials.
I am aware that Survey Scanners already exist in game, however they’re intended at covering a large area, usually a whole belt, this could be justified as it is designed to detect large deposits within the rocks composition and thus doesn’t give you a 100% read out on everything within the rock, more of a read out of the large deposits within the rocks themselves.
So back to the plot, we break this down into 2 aspects
Part 1: Prospecting (alpha friendly)
Exploration ships only can fit a module (only 1 per ship) which does a long scan of the targeted asteroid.
Each asteroid would have to then have a low % chance of having Micro Deposits within it. This could be other minerals such as trit, isogen or perhaps something like gas, you’d naturally have to avoid having the same minerals as the base rock being scanned so if you’re scanning veld which contains trit for example, you won’t find a micro deposit of trit because it would already be included within the survey scanners read out
Part 2: Micro Dets (aka the really floofing cool part) (Omega Only)
Exhumers (and only exhumers) can fit a high slot module.
This is an “asteroid breaker” of some kind, which works in 2 parts, but i’ll explain the whole process i envision below.
Your or a buddy have found a micro deposit
- You fly to asteroid and lock on.
- Load ammo into the weapon
- Fire a charge at the asteroid
(the module will then become unusable, perhaps flashing for a short period of time while the weapon flies and hits the rock and digs in, similar to how moon probes work.)
- Once the timer is up, the module will now show an icon of some kind, for you to remotely detonate the asteroid.
- You click it
- Rock goes boom
When rock goes boom, you loose the previous rock entirely and any previous minerals it had.
Justification: the weapon you fire is actually a strategically designed weapon, using intelligent nano shape charges which bore through the rocks which in essence at the point of detonation remove the rest of the rock in an awesome explosion, the forces of which actually then compress these micro deposits together into a minable asteroid.
The explosion should be spectacular and awesome, which if happening in high sec would make people go “wtf is that! That looks so cool!” and then maybe lead to a conversation with the player.
back to mechanics:
Assuming this weapon is a high slot weapon, Exhumers should maybe get an extra slot so they can fit this weapon.
other roles:
In my humble opinion i think Rorquals should be the exception, they should be allowed to fit multiple in their high slots and thus can cause several detonations on grid in essence allowing them if they so choose to change the the composition of the belts
I think this concept in relation to mining right now a bit like this, think of it like a giant rock with pebble sized gold nuggets inside, you as the miner, are unaware of the pebbles inside, but you know the rock contains other materials you want, so you do the only thing you know and hit it with a high power laser beam, unknown to you, it melts the other desirable materials away, but you get the stuff you wanted.
But someone who’s a bit more savvy, could say “hey, there’s even cooler stuff in this rock, sure it’s a small amount, but lets get that good stuff instead!”
It generates content for explo players and gives a substantial use for alpha toons and new bros especially in large groups.
Doesn’t change the way mining works and we can still stick to the old tried and true method
But does add a little bit of spice to the game play.
Would get explo pilots and miners working closely together.
If you’re a multiboxer, you’d have to spent a sizeable amount of time on grid trying to find micro deposits then mine them out and thus would not be good for your ISK Per Hour
However this concept isn’t really about ISK Per Hour, it’s about changing the way we look at specifically mining in the game and using teamwork to achieve that.
If you’re in a team of people, who are scouting, communicating, making bookmarks, sharing info, you could find small micro deposits here and there of valuable resources needed for things I’m by no means suggesting that this stuff be on the levels where it will provide enough resources to support building of capitals self sufficiently or T2 Production, but more on the level of players going “actually these micro deposits have good stuff in them, its worth hunting them down so we can get that stuff” this way you as a miner can choose “do i det this rock or not?” this won’t ever be as full on as setting up a mining operation in another part of the galaxy, but maybe over time, perhaps useful for smaller projects for the smaller industrialist player? This way it doesn’t spit in the face of scarcity, but does create a usefulness and communication amongst the player base.
If Teamwork > Multiboxing
And mining and industry is the critical back bone of the game.
Then I think that this approach creates a strong bridge and way to connect between players about stuff happening in the game.
By doing this in my mind you end up looking out for the little guy. The little guy would always be happy to find a spare $20 on the floor randomly and could buy a pizza and share it with his buddies, larger groups would naturally find ways of cultivating this experience.
However if you make it so that the larger group would lose resources overall without reducing access to the resource itself, in light for supporting smaller industrialists then things will ultimately balance themselves out.
Extra information:
if you target a rock which has no micro deposits and pop it via this method, you simply just waste the rock entirely
With that said:
Instead of the (I think) type C crystal used for wasting, which would then put expensive mining barges at risk, this idea could easily be used in conjunction with resource wasting warfare methods.
Having a battle fit rorqual fly into enemy space and pop rocks which have no extra minerals in them and thus wasting resources, slap together a sub cap support fleet, would be a pretty brutal experience to have. The longer it goes unnoticed and lack of response to this incursion the more serious the resource loss would be, it would create an awesome large, non-tidi battle which also equally would have spectacular background explosions for dramatic effect.
If you create a micro deposit you could just hit it again with the same weapon and waste the resource.
this truly becomes a double edged sword, it’s good for personal use, good for waste warfare, creates social interaction between play style groups, can be used as a weapon against your enemies which can then cause awesome battles, the loss of which creates content for mining groups and would likely see an internal restructuring within established groups to organize both alliance and coalition level operations like the good old days, socially speaking i could see this causing a re-introduction of “Mining Director” for corps and alliances not only finding and gathering resources but equally for running resource wastage fleets.