I did suggest that earlier in the thread
but:
What do you think, sir? Wouldn’t that be cutting into miners’ profits in favor of NPCs, which we do already have clearing asteroid belts without the possibility of players taking action against them?
I would suggest that there only so many and that we have mechanics that either increase their fee based on demand or spread it over a longer period of time. It is just another mechanism so people don’t have to directly mine if they don’t want to.
You can shoot those NPC miners and I would suggest that this would be the same for this, except the player has to guard them so if anyone starts shooting them he then goes suspect.
The first part of your post I agree with.
As for the second part, one can shoot those mining NPCs now but CONCORD will swoop in and it’d be the end of that. Don’t know if that happens in 0.4 and under though, haven’t tried it yet.
Well that would defeat the the purpose of hiring them, wouldn’t it? If I have to watch over my NPC miners then I might as well mine myself.
You did notice I said suspect, other players can also do it for you. It creates PvP content.
It also creates a dependence on other players for that purpose and I don’t much like that idea. There are solo players in EVE too, they have to be included in the equation, don’t you think?
It is just adding another combat driver, and one where you do not end up being sat there like a turkey to be shot at, but you can do PvP if you want to. I would also continue mining as it is. In fact I think the existing NPC miners should be changed into this system.
I did not answer your question directly except that the existing system should also continue.
I agree with your post. Nothing should be taken away but what we’re discussing be added. More options, not less.
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And turn the existing NPC miners into something better.
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Practically no one shoots suspects. The only way you can get shot as a suspect is if you hover around the Jita/Amarr undock and one of the local wardec groups dogpiles on you. Otherwise you can freely travel around high-sec and no one will do a damn thing aside from a very rare event in which someone doesn’t know any better (like a 3-day-old newb). Certainly a miner wouldn’t, even if they’re “defending” an NPC mining op instead of mining themselves.
It is another content driver. But the suspect baiting thing is rather amusing in that people do not normally shoot them at least the gate to gate ones. I have a couple of times, but only when other people shot them and I decided to help them because they had miscalculated.
I will counter your comment with another, I used to mission in Osmon, with twin Paladins, people were baiting by shooting MTU’s. I set up my Amarr combat toon in a Pilgrim and continued to do missions. Not a single person came in with their assault frigate or faction frigate, because they knew I was too great a risk for them. It works both ways you know, suspect baiters who chicken out at a little bit of risk.
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In theory, yes, but not in practice.
This works (somewhat) more often likely due to the psychological effect of players feeling as if they are being attacked directly, as opposed to something like can theft, where the assets are “detached” in a way.
It’s not really chickening out if you’re flying a direct counter to what they’re flying. Can’t call someone a coward if they view the encounter as essentially a 100% chance of loss. Also, suspects can be dogpiled by an infinite amount of players, but those who engage them only have to worry about a limited engagement with one person. The system is already massively stacked against the baiter (and arguably rightly so), so it’s entirely rational that they would be highly selective in their engagements.
If you want to trap a baiter, it’s a much better strategy to fly something that they think they can take at a glance, and then use a clever setup to counter them, as opposed to using a “don’t touch me” ship to begin with.
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But you have now answered the part why no one shoots them, that Orca lurking nearby perhaps…, or that Bowhead. The one near Amarr was pretty good at it, I used to watch him.
This is a common issue coming on up with these outspoken forum regulars. Does mining need interaction? Maybe .
to ask why anyone would want to play a miner is a troll if you ask me. Why would anyone want to do anything in eve?
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I thought they fixed that a while ago?
Anyway, that’s not the reason. Most targets of this nature aren’t even aware of possible tricks like that. The only reason they don’t engage is fear of PvP. I’ve literally hovered in a Venture while suspect-flagged around groups of miners in barges with drones out, and half the time they warped to station, docked, and sometimes logged, while the other half they simply ignored me. Go try it if you don’t believe me.
Having to “defend” NPCs that mine for you isn’t going to change this mentality of the majority of players. Don’t get me wrong, I’m in favor of the idea of having NPCs mine for you, but I don’t expect it to result in any more “conflict” than what we have today.
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People don’t like taking risks with Eve’s mechanics, do you blame them.
I would think that it is often an issue with target selection.
I am glad you think that this is a reasonable idea with the NPC mining.
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Nope, I don’t.
Which is why when I bait people (like carebears during extortion wars), I go out of my way to make the engagement seem as palatable as possible for them. I will pretend to try to escape from them, play docking games and allow them to damage me quickly by faking a weak tank, wait until enough of them show up to significantly outnumber me, use a ship that seems weaker than the best ships they have, etc. etc. And then after I’ve conditioned them to feel as safe and arrogant as they possibly can, and local chat is a never-ending stream of smack-talk from their side, I pop the boosters and engage.
I can never get anywhere close to the same results just by being hyper-aggressive and being in hunt mode all the time to the extent that they’re afraid to even log in.
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How about, passive activities be done in stations, and anything in space should be more active activities.
To me that makes sense since you’re undocking in space to be active, and in the station to be passive.
I am not against mining, I am against mining in its current form of lack of real activity such as exploration is an active activity.
In some ways, I go to effort in space others do not. I PvE and industry/research, but 1) I do that in stations and 2) I am active when I am in space.
Well there are some players who are very good at this, I merely being competent tend to avoid them. 
Still it is fun.
But what changes would you propose to show how it can be made active and engaging and something people will want to do?
It’s easy to be against passive play in space, but it’s a completely different thing to actually make all parts of the game, especially the grind parts of it, interesting and engaging.
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Make them have to find the rocks to mine rather than from a known spot that’s in every system.
It’s practically handed to them on a silver platter.