Suggestion: New Mining System

EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
1

Ok, Been working on the idea’s on how to fix mining for a while, and i think i got something of note.

Here go’s.

@ccp_Developers
@CCP_Masterplan
Mining scanners now open a GUI element (a window). Upon opening you have a asteroid preview in the window. Im assuming that the current asteroids are drawing from prefab models. You can set up a call funtion for the asteroid model in the window.

From here an overlay gui element pops up a serious of buttons (lets say 5).
Periodically one of these 5 buttons overlayed on the asteroid will light up signaling the mining barge in orbit of the asteroid that area is ready for some laser drilling. You will click the button and it will activate the beam on that area for a target time. the faster you are, the longer you drain the ore from that location.

Each location will have ore like 500m3/500m3 per a site (or what ever the value is). As you exhaust each site the game gets easier to play, increasing efficiency as you progress through the game.

some key notes

  • mining inaccurate locations will provide lower income rates (75% penalty)
  • Beam rates may need to be increased. It would feel better if you could mine faster, but not at superior or inferior rates to now. (so if you mine 10,000 over 1 hour, you may still mine that rate, but it will be faster at shorter intervals, but the same value over time (the balance being in the pauses between clicks of the game).
  • the buttons should work in a way that they keep the players attention. Likely, changing every 10-15 seconds
  • the asteroid in gui should pop up with scanner module, and the scanner module should be required for mining in a way that probes are required for exploration (to start the event)
  • the scan modules should be reworked so that only mining ships can use them.
  • mining in other ships should retain its current rate and design

every 5 cycles of button clicking if you mine more then a set amount of the time a site is lit up, you should gain a bonus mine rate for the next cycle based on the scanners bonus rate given. (20-30% reduction time). this buff should be maintained until you fail to mine over 70% of your mining cycle time on a site.

In other words, if you mine for 5 out of the 10 seconds, you should get credit for 1/5 of your sites being mined quickly, and once you are at 5/5 you obtain a mining bonus.

this is a rough idea. let me know what you think

2

the sites will swap randomly every 10 seconds.
your job will be to pay attention to click it.
each site will have a random amount of ore of the asteroid assigned to it.
300m3 here, 500m3 there 2000m3 there.
Mining 7/10 seconds of the light up phase on a site 5 times in a row will provide a buff (based on the scanners bonus value) as long as you keep mining at 7/10 seconds you will keep the bonus going.

3

this is designed so that if you exhaust a site, then it becomes easier to predict where you are going to mine. this will in return allow you to speed up how fast you mine (through predicting what site will need a mining beam next).

4

Do a mock up of this game in Java. Now play it for 100 hours. Then think about how terrible it is for EVE mining.

1 Like
5

It does not need to be done in java, in fact in unity it’s probably be faster to do since most of it is gui work.

the concept is solid. it provides reward and punishment. it is random, maybe there an be a difficulty scale of some kind to lower the cycle times of the “deployed mining sites” to make clicking faster.

Playing with these settings could make this really fun. or a slight modification to how you interact with the sites could change things also. the idea of using people and mining sites on the asteroid itself is a unique approach to the problem that provides

  • a constant need to pay attention (defeating multiboxing completely)
  • a reward system for those looking to min/max mining
  • a punishment system for afking (reduced mining rates)
  • it could be possible to set it up so that if you mine the wrong location at the wrong time you will cause an explosion causing you to take damage.
  • constant need for paying attention removes the need for rats to be in the belt, which in return makes nullsec etc a safer and easier place to branch into.
  • it could be fun if it is set up with the right cycle times.
6

The problem is that you have utterly forgotten that mining doesn’t take place in a vacuum.
You already have to pay attention because of other players and NPC’s.
Removing rats from belts is a terrible idea as it also impacts significantly on other peoples play style, since some people do hunt the rats.

What your system does is it creates a crushing minigame that will infuriate miners because it will not be fun to play for hours at a time.

1 Like
7

Please go back and read what i posted.

I mentioned the removal of rats with this system implementation. That means you will only have to worry about players. If you have an issue with that part of the game, you are playing the wrong game.

8

E for effort,

NO, this idea will not work basically on the premise of what Nevyn has said.
You forget in nullsec many use Rorqs and thus mining drones.
Many use Orca,s now in highsec and porpoise in anoms…

And the idea would not infuriate but piss off a lot of miners that still use barges, exhumers, and mining frigates whether they multibox or not.

2 Likes
9

you will need to provide evidence for that. and we are talking about an entirely new way of mining. that means things like mining drones go out the door (unless redesigned)

im talking about an entirely new way of doing mining, fast short bursts of a larger, nicer looking beam that targets the location/oil rig like construction on the asteroid. the beam drills for the teams, and the teams collect the ore and bring it back.

if drones are going to exist in this type of system, they will need to be role shifted.

and multiboxing needs to go out of eve. End of story, 110% Gone. not partially, but completely.

10

one last thing…

you guys replying to this thread seem to not even bother reading the suggestion. At least read it, or get lost.

11

As much as I agree with your point of view, I don’t like your tone.

People are wrong but they make the effort to make their point clear.
What they tell you is that your explanation should contain those informations first.
Just add “I made a new design for acquisition of ore in Eve. This design would replace existing mechanisms , and would reward players based on their activities, thus reducing the interest of multi boxing.” at the very beginning. nobody cares about your little story.

OK Now I have a question : what about bots ?

2 Likes
12

here we go again, lets make mining a MINIGAME!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!

no I don’t need something else I have to pay attention to when local has to be watched.

4 Likes
13

So ancillery mining lazors or bajeebus lazors? We don’t need any of those. They were are terrible idea then and they are still a terrible idea.

Noted, no more purple mods for anyone.

2 Likes
14

Let me explain how this works, you don’t get to come up with a bunch of bad ideas and then trumpet how, ‘solid’, the idea you proposed is and thus the argument is over. Rather, the idea must; in fact, actually be, ‘solid’, to use your term, which it isnt at any point, it is; in fact, complete and utter rubbish that should be tossed onto the ever growing heap of trash ideas about improving mining.

Let me be perfectly clear, in years of reading, ‘my ideas for improving mining’, only one I have read was notable and it was nothing more than a quality of life improvement and not an actually fundamental change to mining.

The reason that fundamental changes always fail is that there isn’t anything fundamentally wrong with mining and hence no substantial change is ever needed.

3 Likes
15

Evidence…

I see it with my own eyes everyday,
Rorqs are King of the hill in Nullsec

Orca’s are used quite a bit in highsec because they are a natural high brick EHP miner with those drones.

Porpoise, though not a brick, are 1/10th the cost of an Orca and almost as good, able to get into gated mission sites and can be fitted to warp much faster than an Orca.

But if you want documented evidence go look at the MER’s for Goon space.

Lastly, yeah i multibox once in awhile myself, you know what your idea does, basically shutsdown many accounts.
And even when i mine with just 1 account, this type of idea would actually piss me off after a day or two, and I am sure it would piss others off as well…this is not Elite Dangerous, if i wanted mine like this i would go play that game.

So, lastly…

Piss of dude, you go get lost.

2 Likes
16

But… I LIKE the rats when I’m mining.

It’s an extra source of income, parts, and salvage.

–Flycatcher Gadget

1 Like
17

I guess the questions i have to ask you is

Do you think multiboxing should be allowed?
Do you think that afk mining should be allowed?
How do you think that people should obtain danger factor from mining?

If you support multiboxing and afk mining, you would never consider the above idea good. The concept was designs specifically to do this, In addition to potentially allowing a skill cap application.

18
  • Yes - within the rules.
  • Sure - at the player’s risk.
  • Other Players.

Also, not too hot on your idea.

-1

–Rock Smiter Gadget

2 Likes
19

If anything, I’d like to see MORE rats in the belts. The 2 or 3 that occasionally come along in high sec belts are simply not sufficient. An AFK Skiff can wipe them out in 5 seconds. Yes, I know I could go to low or null, but still, I’d rather see more in high. Cruisers, BC’s, the occasional BS. Make me have a reason to have my Skiff tanked for the end of the world…

2 Likes
20

of course you do not want it, because you benefit from it.
Its like asking someone if they could roll 10 alts in real life and give all the money to the one person.
Who wouldent want it?

What you want, and what we designers do to the health of the game are not always in line, but that does not make this a “bad idea” or “Bad for the game” by default.

Removing multi boxing for mining completely brings about a huge benefit to eve, one that many people would be happy about. That is the release of mining skills to alpha state clones.

I am certain that one of the major reasons why mining barges are not part of the alpha clones is due to this specific reason. That is just part of it. If the alpha clones are allowed to do this, and similar sorts of effects on the removal of multiboxing, another even more greater effect happens. Increasing the population of eve, which provides huge amounts of content for everyone.

Additionally,

Mining is long overdue to being fully reworked in some way. Just like Moon mining was reworked. How many super powers do you think did not want that passive isk benefit removed? And was that better for the over all health of the game?

The truth is, many changes done to eve have been long resisted. So really the appeal here is not to you as players, quiet the opposite. What really matters is the effect that it will have on eve. Will it growth potential for the population? And Will it provide removal of Multiboxing? if the answers are yes to these questions, they are huge benefits to the game in many ways, not just the above.

So, In the end it matters what ccp wants and what is better for this game. You whining on forums because you want to break the “median income rates” with unintended mechanics like account spam, has not value or place in discussions like this.

And as a player in eve, I think ccp should totally ignore your opinions, because they are biest and unfounded. Then again, Im sure ccp knows this. I know they want to rework this system, they have internally been looking at options for it. We just need to come up with something to help out