Many people think that hotspots are affected by all players’ extractors, as did I, and there is competition for minerals as over-mined hotpots would deplete faster than they can regen, so they would move somewhere else on the planet.
But this came up in discussion recently and opinion seems to be divided on this one, and I can’t find an official response to this.
While I’m typing this, I do feel like it’s a silly question as I feel more and more convinced that we should be affecting each other, as CCP wouldn’t instance a planets’ resources, but please can we/I get an official answer, or direct me to a post where this is addressed.
What I have certainly read is that the length of the period has an influence on the resources. However, even with 6 days of extraction, they became less over time, or appear in other places. I can well imagine that the startup calculation looks to see if there are any others, but I’m not sure if this is the case and if it has an influence if someone runs more extractors at the same place in the meantime.
A reliable source of accurate information would be nice.
PS: Putting the PI on several charts is painful enough, I don’t necessarily want to test it myself and set the same position on two alts.
It’s unlikely that CCP will disclose the algorithm. I have multiple characters with colonies on the same planets and can tell you that they see, and frequently harvest, the same hotspots. It’s impossible to tell if other players are also harvesting those deposits since we can only see their command center.
While competition would make sense it would also make estimates worthless. I’ve never bothered to see how close my actual harvest agrees with the estimate but I’m sure others have.
Mmm when you click on their command centre, it shows their structures (but just not the extractor heads themselves).
I’m not after the algorithm itself, and am more after a Yes/no as to whether multiple people extracting the same hotspot would deplete it faster than only yourself on the hotspot (as I operate on the assumption it does, and that causes me to setup on planets that I think others would be extracting different p0’s to the ones I am extracting).
False. If you click their command center, you can see their whole setup. You might not see the individual extraction heads, but you’ll see the extraction processor.
I didn’t realize you could see other player colonies (other than the command center) and I’ve been doing PI for close to 6 years! Still learning.
I establish colonies close to my base and make P2/P3 that I use in T2 manufacturing. There are times when there are amazing hotspots and times when the brightest spots are yellow but my subjective impression is that the overall harvest is remarkably consistent.
Yeah, I know I read somewhere that sucking on a hotspot depletes it for everyone, so you should try to spread out from other people’s colonies. Unfortunately, I don’t know if that was verified or rumor mill. Regardless, you should be able to check using alts (sorry, don’t feel like testing it myself).
Oh, and I do agree with you. Our actions should impact yield for everyone.
It’s true, I’ve depleted my own low-yield planets with multiples of my own colonies on the same hotspots.
Which is saying something since hotspots are variable given the skills of your character.
You can more precisely zero in on the ACTUAL hotspot by paying attention to actual yields and adjusting the EH’s but that’s too much work for most people to care about. It also certainly won’t increase your profits much.
It was quantifiable.
Meaning I could sustain a standard P1->P2 set up with 2 colonies, but not with 3 sort of thing.
IIRC (no source, take it with a grain of salt), the game generates “hotspot” that are actually spots where the density is high. The hotspot then starts to increase in size, thus reducing the density ( d = quantity / size, so q/r² if a circle of radius r homogeneously distributed).
If you mine a hotspot with extractors, you reduce the quantity, therefore the density .
Once the hostpot has a low enough density, another one is generated (so once you mined enough resources, more resources are added to the planet - but also this is a natural phenomena)
According to this, again non sourced, model, having more toons extracting on the planet indeed makes the hotspot reduced.
Now the real test can be done, by going to a planet without extractor, and then checking how fast a hostspot decays by looking at the extraction speed of ONE head simulated (but not started) for 30min, every day. Then doing it for several hotspots on the same planet. Then doing it, with an extractor.
IIRC the density of an area being extracted is in 1/t , so I guess the decay is lower that than.
You don’t have to actually extract anything to deplete a hot spot. You can start and stop the extract (short cooldown, 1 min iirc) and rapidly “damage” a spot.
Anyway, as I recall (though it’s been some years), the answer is “Yes”.
This is good way to start a test. There have been numerous times i misplaced an extractor head (or duration) and quickly stopped/restarted once the cool-down timer allowed me. There tends to be a noticeable reduction in extraction rate as a result, despite my extractor only having run for < 5 minutes.
there are some more variables to account for but you can eliminate most of them by picking planets nobody else is using for extraction. (edit: use the “show other players network” option for this)
I do a lot of pi and other players extraction is definitely noticable. You can see holes in resources where someone keeps extracting the same thing over and over. Look at their colony and it corresponds to the hole. Even on your own extraction if you have alts extracting in the same spot it will deplete faster so I try to avoid extracting on top of myself or others.
That the others influence each other is true, but…
how does it behave if I have PI open on several clients at the same time and then activate them all at the same time?
Is the extracted amount reduced, or is it always calculated after the extraction process is finished?
Can the calculated amount differ from the actual amount if someone has extracted something in the meantime or is still extracting?
I suppose it is generally computed at the end of the process and it doesn’t matter how many are extracting at the same time. Only when operations are completed, the resource will be greatly reduced, but all will get the calculated quantity.
I think the calculated quantity is just an estimate based on the situation right then. The actual pulled per ecu cycle is calculated each cycle and so you can pull less than the initial calculated for the program if in the middle someone starts extracting on top of you.
My system got certain material bottlenecking the whole production. I try to get those material in the rarest planet by all of my toons. Spread them around on its hemisphere.
And yes, the hot spot gone faster the more extractor heads on it. Its also happens on just one toon. If your 10 extractor cuddles up, you dig that place really quickly. Thats why I always divide my heads into two “teams” and placing my extractor to reach two best hot spots, so I dont have to relocate the extractors too often.