Star Mining

EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
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The Basic Idea

We have a star in every system, lets mine it! My idea is that we use the new Refinery stations along with some new modules/ships/rigs to mine the star itself.

What for? Stargoo of course! What’s Stargoo?

Potentially two things.

First, I am thinking it can be used to set apart current and future Precursor (Triglavian/Drifter?/etc) ship/module/ammo construction by displacing some of the current ‘normal’ materials. Might just be me but I think they need something to set them apart. Picture using Stargoo to manufacture Stargoo crystals/condensate/unobtainium then using said stuff to make ships/modules/ammo.

Second, Stargoo is made up of a soup of different elements and molecules so let’s refine it into a variety of materials that can be used for Reactions/T2 items/PI/Drug manufacture/Fuel Blocks.

Any other ideas?

Onwards to the details!

Starbase Equipment: -

Refinery – Athanor or Tatara (setup at a star mining point).

Standup Star Mining Array I or II (Self-explanatory, only usable in 0.5 sec and below).

Standup Plasma Management Unit I or II (X% bonus to Yield).

Variety of Star Mining Rigs (Yield/Cycle Time/Fuel Use/etc).

Ships/Modules: -

Star Miner class vessel(s) (T1/T2) similar in size to mining barges (I like the name Achernar [it’s a star] for one of them) on offer from ORE (Ship BPOs) and specifically designed for collecting Star Plasma.

Plasma Scoop modules (a variant of gas miner? Module BPOs from ORE?). Only able to be fitted to the Star Miner class vessels.

Plasma Management Unit I or II (X% bonus to Yield/Y% bonus to cycle time [Sciptable?]).

Variety of Plasma Scoop bonus rigs (Yield/Cycle Time/etc).

What do we get from Star Mining?

The asset that gets collected would be Star Plasma.

My thoughts are to break stars down into 5 main categories: -

  • Red (Easiest to mine)
  • Orange
  • Yellow
  • White
  • Blue (Hardest to mine)

Further to this there are 4 (maybe 5) different types of Star Plasma per Star category: -

  • Coronal (Easiest to mine)
  • Convective
  • Radiative
  • Core (Hardest to mine)

So, if you are mining at a red star you will get ‘Red Star Coronal Plasma’ for example.

As mentioned before the Star Plasma can be used for a variety of things. Manufacture of Precursor ships/modules/ammo. Refined into a cocktail of elements/molecules for a variety of purposes (Reactions/T2 items/PI/Drug manufacture/Fuel Blocks). Or maybe someone else has an idea on how it could be used?

How does it work?

A star mining job would be set up in a similar way to how Moon Mining is done now with the added option to alter the depth of the process in the star. Mining at a deeper level would take more fuel and have a longer minimum cycle time but result in more valuable returns.

At the start of the cycle a cloud of Star Plasma would gradually appear, starting with Coronal and developing into whatever has been selected as the target depth for the mining cycle. At the end of the cycle the cloud would gradually dissipate. This cloud has an environmental affect applying variable Thermal and EM damage (dependent on the star and the Plasma type being mined) and any ship within the cloud can’t receive external support (Remote Reps) ‘due to EM interference’. Although perhaps a benefit would be that any ship in the cloud takes longer to lock onto?

Mining Red Star Coronal Plasma would be easy and only require the Star miner to have a minimal tank. Mining Blue Star Core Plasma would be much tougher requiring a Star miner (maybe T2) with a major tank.

Solar Flares

There could be the addition of Solar Flares as Cosmic Anomalies that can be mined by Star Miner ships. I would suggest that these have harsher environmental affects when compared to mining via a refinery setup Star Plasma cloud.

And there you have it, sorry I don’t have a potato…

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First I’d like to say well done for putting more thought into this than other people that wanted star mining.

  • The problem with doing it concept wise is, do you think precursor ammo needs a different source? Or are you looking for an excuse to star mine?

  • Also the way it works, is exactly like moon mining. The lack of new gameplay leads to further questioning, do we really need this?

  • The special barges are going to work just like the existing barges right? Then are they really necessary? Can we not use the existing barges with different modules much like with ice mining? Or, can we think of an entirely new way to mine? (flying through plasma whilst scooping it up immediately comes to mind but that’s spit balling).

  • I do very much like the idea of flares becoming like mining anoms. And having an environment that is ‘hostile’. Affecting ships stats or something completely different like dealing damage that is amplified by a ships sig radius and speed. The bigger and faster you are, the more damage you take.

2 Likes
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I think it’s very dagerous do such things… The whole sun may colapse and ruin the entire system.

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I like the idea generally speaking, as it would make the suns useful as a mining commodity (refinery generates a gas/plasma cloud for gas huffers?).

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Oh well now that is a good counter, maybe a 10% chance, and they could start mining in Jita!!

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Thanks for the feedback!

I will try to address each of your points.

I do think that precursor tech should be different manufacturing wise to give more of a reason behind the hull bonuses/how weapons increase in damage output over time/any future precursor items will no doubt have other odd bonuses.

Maybe not ammo (I added that in to ensure there will be a surefire way of these materials exiting the game). I see these new materials offsetting some/most of the normal materials, not being added to the list as well as the current materials.

I do see what you mean, and it was not my first choice for how this would work. I simply wrote it this way to fit in with the precedent already set in Moon Mining, bit boring but figured it might be accepted easier than my first idea for it.

My first idea was to have this as a ship and mobile deployable based process.

The Deployable – Star Mining Array [SMA].

This is not your normal deployable, it is bigger and has more interaction involved than other deployables. It has a Fuel Bay and a Cargo Bay (Plasma Tank). Finally, the only way to launch it is via a highslot module on the ship (Star Mining Array Control Link [SMACL]).

The Ship – Star Miner class.

The Star Miner class would be similar in size to mining barges or potentially a spin off of the Porpoise. It will have a cargo bay (with enough room for 2-3 SMAs and a reasonable amount of fuel blocks or other fuel source) and a Plasma Bay. These ships are all about the remote control and support of the SMAs.

How this version would work?

This would work by activating the SMACL in orbit around the star, this would open a window to enable placement of the SMA in a similar fashion to how PI placement works.

When the SMA is placed it launches from the ship and travels to the desired location. At the same time the SMA placement window becomes the SMA control window which will have a variety of functions. The SMACL must remain switched on to allow the continued functioning of the SMA, if they are switched off then the SMA stops all operations.

The SMA Control Window

First it will allow the pilot to warp to the location selected to enable fuelling and unloading of Plasma (not necessarily the location of the SMA [more on that in a moment]).

It will also give details on the state of the SMA (shields, armour, structure hp, fuel on board, Plasma on board, etc).

It will have the mining controls to select what depth to mine at (deeper mining needing more fuel and longer minimum cycle times).

Finally, it will also have controls for putting power (in the form of more fuel) into the manoeuvring thrusters and shield regen. The thrusters keep the SMA at the location selected, if they are underpowered then the SMA gets buffeted around and potentially lost if it goes too far. The shield regen is there as this is a hostile environment and the SMA will be taking damage.

This version of the idea of course will lead to a host of various skillbooks/modules/rigs and I think some interesting and potentially frantic game play for potential Star miner bros.

And of course, players will be able to probe down SMAs easily.

As far as tying in minable Solar Flares with this version, we could maintain the idea of Plasma Scoops. This could lead to a Star Miner ship having both SMAs and Plasma Scoops active at the same time.

Knew I had forgotten to describe something. You actually hit it right on the head for the OP version of the idea. Essentially yes, ships would have to fly through the cloud with the Plasma Scoops (this is why I called them Plasma Scoops!) switched on to gather the plasma.

I think this could tie in nicely with your last point where the environmental affects come into play. Fly through the cloud slowly and you don’t get damaged too bad but get a low yield. Fly through the cloud fast and get a higher yield but higher damage is taken.

Could we use the existing mining barges? Maybe, but then the barges will need tweaks in the form of new hull bonuses. They are a bit slow so the idea of them diving through a cloud of stargoo doesn’t seem right. Personally I think the idea warrants a new ship class.

Thanks, I agree with you on your final point. Obviously it would have to be something that is balanced out by the Devs.

1 Like
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Due to its sinister lore and similar construct of the Starforge, the below video could be a useful watch to give some ideas for this proposal and its further development.

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If we go in the direction of scooping, i agree it’d be better with a new ship type. Something with better speed and either a small sig/role bonus to ‘sun damage’.

I don’t know how the server will calculate ‘scooping’ and I wonder if it would create lots of lag.

I feel mining a sun would be a better source for fuel blocks. But that could be pretty bad for ice prices.

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Ice though would presumably be easier to mine though, seeing as belts of ice regularly spawn in alot of systems.

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This is something I did wonder. It could potentially be unfeasible to have it in this form. It may be that it would have to simply be a kind of Gas mining instead which would not be that interesting.

I have to say I do like the idea of it being used for a mixture of things like fuel blocks but also reactions for drugs/T2 stuff.

Do you have any thoughts on my other version of the idea using a mobile deployable?

Thanks! I will look into this tonight.

I would say this is a definite if coupled with my other version of the idea (as described in post 6). Any feedback on that would be much appreciated.

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I found it hard to picture the ui you were describing. But the remote control of several SMA’s sounds complicated and maybe unintuitive. Bear in mind pilots like have other windows open and do other things whilst mining. D-scan, chat channels, maybe industry+pi etc

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I don’t see why it would stop a player from doing other things like you have mentioned. The control window would be similar to a hacking window that you can re-size/minimise as and when needed.

Also there could potentially be the limit of only having 1 SMA in space at any time to reduce the amount of micromanagement (Also the ship itself will have a hard limit on how many it can launch due to the number of high slots it has available for SMACLs). Or the complexity of the control window could be reduced. Taking out the shield and manoeuvring thruster controls is something that springs to mind but then I see these being simple slider controls that can be set and forgotten about.

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