Invert the mining waste vs Tech / Meta level.
Currently a civilian mining laser is 0% waste, while T2 Strip miners are 34% before factoring in crystals and skills.
when you start out in the game this should be the point where you would have the most difficulty with mining, as your skills progress you can get better equipment which lowers the Waste factor and increases your yield, throw in crystals for lower waste % higher yield, specialised equipment should be considered less destructive and wasteful.
some of you might be asking “what about crystals which waste resources” because that’s what the T2 stuff is currently good for with the right crystal set up.
In my humble Opinion I think this can be approached another way.
The Community has some demand for wanting space mines back in the game, however these take up too much calculation and strain on the server,
so I have a thought for a “Mobile Spatial Resource Disruptor”
This is a deployable which has a system wide effect and wastes a fix rate of all resources within said system
instead of mining fleets flying into enemy territory and wasting resources, a squadron of pilots can fly into enemy anomalies and asteroid belts and now hit their resources, this is more than a friendly poke the sleeping alliance.
for funsies you could give the deployable an over shield and more than hearty level of HP.
you give the deployable 3 Bursts (which happen at 10 minute intervals)
first burst is 10% resources wasted
second is 30% resources wasted (now for a total of 40% resources gone)
and the final burst if 40% resources wasted (for a whopping total of 80%)
from a server stand point I’m not sure if it would be this simple but if charge timer is meet reduce assets in belt by x% this way the animation is just for show, you could always have a simpler animation too or
perhaps you could give some kind of indication that the weapon is “charging” between bursts, this could lead to some hefty battles.
Don’t make it Disposable like Mobile Observatories, make it specifically a re-useable thing this way getting in, setting it up, defending it and getting it back out will be part of the operation.
a fun twist would be “even though it only effects the resources in one system, it effects the ADM’s for a whole constellation”
this way to hit a whole region a group will have to fly through your space, constellation by constellation and hitting a system, this should see an increase in defence fleets, their durations and the usages of titans bridging people around a region.
Disallowed in high sec & lowsec
allowed everywhere else.
only one per system.
if dropped from ship destruction the item is destroyed (meaning you can’t loot it)
and for extra fun if this became a thing in the game, allow war barges to connect to it if the defending team wins, instead of blowing it up, they hack it and restore the lost resources.
you could say from a lore perspective its specially designed not to be hacked by capsuleers this would give a middle ground for warclones in big alliances a substantial purpose, you don’t want to have a rinse and repeat system for content, where you bounce between systems hitting ADMs one at a time you want to be able to hit people HARD making it a much more substantial weapon, hitting an enemy alliance with a few hours of resource reduction content will see a good number number of battles, if you follow it up by a invasion skirmish, maybe a structure bash, you can get some very good content going.
this way it works like an artillery piece crossed with a microwave, you put it down and it just devastates everything in an area, no one is really going to care if one asteroid belt’s going to get sucked up by this thing, maybe if a colossal anomaly is, however this is still small time… but when a whole system’s resources and constellations ADM’s start sinking like the titanic, I think you have a half decent reason to get out of your mining ship and join a kitchen sink fleet.
just some thoughts