As you may have heard, a major update to mining, industry and production is under way for New Eden. We’ve updated Singularity with an early look of this while it is in development. We’re excited to hear your feedback on testing these changes, while we work on resolving issues and adjusting balancing based on provided feedback.
When the original changes removing prosperity from High Sec (which were a bit generous) gave way to scarcity, I had invested billions in ISK to support that playstyle. I hung out for quite a bit afterwards and kept my 3 accounts active, but only just. Those billions invested were flushed down the toilet and the group that I had so much fun with all but left the game.
Then the blessed day arrives; the end of scarcity is coming! I’ve recently joined a null-sec bloc, got settled, finally bought a Rorqual and started mining in null sec. Woot, finally making some decent isk (since ratting is basically crap with the BRM and all). Might be able to buy an overpriced Super!
Then this update arrives. Billions spent on the Rorgual, fitting it along with excavator drones and now I’m told that a 300 million hulk will outmine my 10 billion dollar Rorgual!?
CCP, you consistently change things that cause trained skills to be wasted, playstyles to be nerfed, and invested ISK to be worth no more than toilet paper flushed away. Did you ever stop to think about the player experience?
I’ve come back to this game a couple of times because I missed it. You’re making the reasons to do so less appealing with every recent change.
I consider the Orca the end game for the solo high sec miner, but now it’s gonna be reverted back to a boosting ship, killing all the investment a player may have put into it.
But the Exhumers aren’t gettting any substantial buffs to compensate for this…alas for the 2009 Hulk that was the king of solo mining.
This will kill my interest in the game and I’m most likely gonna cancel my subscription when renewal time comes along in february.
P.S.: I guess the lesson for the solo player here is “bot or die”. I’d rather die.
making mining more complex with cascasing waste factors and trashing all the time and effort put into rorqual and excavator training does nothing to attract new players or retain existing players. you may have explained much of what you are doing, but the WHY of it is elusive. perhaps tellings us the intent of the changes would make them more palatable. (unelss, of course , the intent is simply to watch mining become more painful)
With the desire to put more emphasis on in-belt compression and less on ferrying of raw ore to the station, some changes need to be made to the porpoise to make it viable.
The Fleet bay is way to small to transfer ore to from a barge, making it a tedious number of clicks between the porpoise and barge pilot - especially if its a retriever.
In addition to this, the compression time is way to long. one compact compression module can support 2 procurers/retrievers, 1.5 mackinaws/covetors/skiffs or a single hulk (doubled for a rorqual). given the high slots were already in high demand for tractor beams and mining boosts, it would help if the compression time were adjusted downwards and more highslots (with additional pg/cpu) were available.
In addition, if you want the rorqual to be used more, it needs a few things. 1) needs to not waste moon ore. the barges won’t, so faction mining drones shouldn’t have 100% waste rate. 2) it needs a chance to survive in the modern environment. rorquals in any small group are doomed if caught right now and in most big groups they still die. defense vs. risk vs isk is way out of whack. the current 100-150 man kiki fleet has no reliable in-time counter to save stuff and is absurdly mobile. big groups can SOMETIMES manage it, everyone else its 100% dead. drifter holes are going to need looked at.
lastly: scarcity had 3 impacts on null that killed capital production: the most severe was the gas/PI which is getting rolled slightly back. The mineral part had already choked production and just got worse with rorquals losing a lot more mining. Tritanium needs to be added back into nullsec anoms. if a mineral is removed from null to foster “trade”, let it be one that isn’t of insane m3 to move. all that does is make null production of big things extremely tedious due to transporting lots of freighter loads from highsec (so not pyerite either) or add in a new mineral that is needed and isnt found in null but is lower m3.
sad to see elite miners and old miners complaining about the new updates.
the are a few things I see issues with in regards to new players, and of those only one related to CCP changes, the rest relate to the mindset of the elite/old miner groups.
1/
the ventor losing gas mining is not a good idea, but will force new players to upgrade to mining bardges.
2/
the mining waste will make elite/old miners stop low level player (low meta fits) grouping fleets or mining in a field they happen to be in, and this is only because the elite/old miners want to get as close to the 200% ore from the update, not taking into account the a new player with low skills will still be pulling the exact same amount out of rock as they were before this update.
remember waste is with minimum skills and modules will be 1-to-1 ratio, so ever unit of ore mined, one will be converted into waste dust.
better skills and modules will gain you more ore than what you could mine from a rock from before update. so you still get the same ore as before, just now with better skills and module you get the benefit of even more ore.
so only reason new players won’t be allowed into mining fleets is due to greedy players, not the mechanics.
this is something those player should think about, you want new players to join you fleets, take a hit on that bonus material you never had access to before update, and accept what extra you do get as a benefit and help new player gain that same benefit.
I really can’t seem to understand this perspective.
Exhumers aren’t being buffed?
Admittedly, the CCP provided spreadsheet is flawed: missing things (compression modules) and has enough clear errors I stopped counting (CCP plz fix). And the lack of Singularity availability clearly isn’t helping.
But to take the Hulk as an example, it’s mining seems to be SIGNIFICANTLY buffed.
The role bonus seems to be going from 25->30%, the mining barge bonus is losing -2% miner/ice duration per level in exchange for +5% miner yield and -4% ice duration per level (not to mention the range bonus going from 5->6% per level too), and the exhumer skill bonus to mining is going from -3% miner/ice duration per level to another +5% miner yield and -4% ice duration per level.
All told, the Hulk will mine 28% MORE of both ice and ore than it did before this change, and have 4% more range.
The Mackinaw is getting +33% mining yield and +16% ice yield.
The Skiff’s mining yield isn’t really changing much (about a 1% buff) and it’s losing a mid and some hp, but it’s still going to be the tankiest by far, and can bite back harder if you’re interested in those things.
Yeah, no buffs, right?
As for the industrial command ships, I don’t see how anyone could’ve believed they were intended to be a solo miner’s dream boat. That was an accident that came about from trying to make it useful again, and taking it a bit too far.
These changes are simply returning the Orca (and others) back to what it was clearly always intended to be: a mining COMMAND ship.
I mean, it’s right there when you trained and bought the ship and skillbook: Industrial Command Ship. Not “Solo Miner God” or “Asteroid Remover 9000”.
Anyone who did not foresee an eventual change to the industrial command ships that resulted in their role once more shifting to support rather than direct mining clearly can’t read or think for themselves.
Before, the Endurance was usable as an ice mining ship, even when the Hulk was accessible. Now, it’s nerfed TO THE GROUND. Now, its last use is to ferry compressed ores around, and the “force me to decide against cloak or probe launcher or one mining laser” Prospect is better at that because it can use a Covert Ops Cloak. I’m sorry for losing a good ship. To a patch. Not to a ganker. This loss means loss of an opportunity for fun to me.
Introducing mining waste is a terrible idea. I don’t mind players destroying roids with T1 mining lasers, but I’m sure all hisec griefers started training Mining V the moment they read the blog. I see fleets of Catalysts armed with MDCM II and Type C mining crystals warping to belts and quickly disintegrate them just for the fun of it. THAT will start a period of scarcity that will make the one that is about to end look like the bountiful golden age of prosperity.
I get the impression that the game designers are so fixed on their precious risk-reward scheme that they forget players may have a different view on fun that doesn’t respect their opinion.
All in all, I’d change the subtext from “The Age of Prosperity” to “The Age of Prosperity ends”.
Testing the Endurance and I’m getting 70% less yield for Ice. Before it was usable, not as good as a barge but within 80% while being mobile. Also, Venture has more yield for ore now.
Question I have is what is the intended use for the hull?
mining barges: like the changes. questions:
1 - A1 crystals (T2 strip) equal to T1 strip miner. what is a purpose for A1 crystals?
2 - C-crystals - what they for?
expedition frigates and venture (mining ore):
bad english words for what has done to expedition frigates. Why? not, WHY?!
endurance mining less than venture. 300m3 endy vs 500m3 venture (miner II). prospect - 600m3/45sec. compare to what we have now - reduction in yield is huge!!! so, WHY?
Type A is the current crystals with no real bonuses or negitives
Type C is an offencive crystal that destroys ore, good for killing hostile moon rock pulls or high value resources in hostile regions to cause resource issues for enemy
