Mining in EvE Online has been a subject of much discussion for quite some time. It’s a dull but needed profession that’s heavily dominated by botting and afk miners. It’s also probably the single thing in EvE that has never gotten much attention since Eve Online’s release in 2003. Every other game I’ve played, singleplayer or MMO, it has never been the acquisition of building materials that took large chunks of time, but rather the search for those raw materials.
What does mining do for EvE Online?
Mining provides a large portion of the minerals needed to build every single ship and module in EvE. Without mining we would all be flying around in noobships fitted with civilian weapons. Mining also provides invaluable resources for POS fuel, jumpfuel, cynofuel, etc via ice-mining. However, I believe the current system is both out of date and not in the spirit of EvE. So here are some ideas I would like to see implemented in EvE Online.
I want mining to be automated. Fully automated. Just how this works I will explain later. I want to get rid of static belts everywhere.
It all needs to start with the belts. Get rid of the static asteroid belts. They serve no purpose besides being a point in space where you warp to for free ISK.
Instead of this model, I would like to see mining tied together with exploration exclusively. Asteroids have to be scanned down, warped to and analyzed. Not belts, but single asteroids. The thing here is that the name of the asteroid should not give you any clue to as to it’s contents. That’s where the survey scanner comes in. You scan the rock and get the results.. not in total amount of x mineral but instead a single rock containing multiple mineral types. E.g. 68 % veldspar, 29 % scordite and 3 % kernite… You get the idea. The amounts of minerals in rocks should be totally variable, this gives the chance for a miner to find “motherloads” of pure rocks. E.g. 100 % bistot ‘roids.
These results can then be saved to an in-game “note” and either be used by the pilot himself, or sold on contracts/market. That way, suddenly we have a new profession in EvE. The Prospector.
This also opens up emergent and interactive game play connected with mining. Also it gives you a choice.. Spend ISK to buy the location of the perfect, for your needs, asteroid. Or spend time and manpower searching for it yourself or with corpmates. Perhaps just cut your losses and accept a mediocre rock and get to work right away.
Asteroid spawn would of course be available in all systems at all times. But I would like to see Eve Online’s famous RNG to distribute them. Say 2 “static” spawns in all systems and from there it’s completely random. In sov-space the ore prospecting array would of course ensure an increasing number of denser and more valuable rocks.
So now that you have found the rock you want to mine. So how do you do it?
Currently you jump into a ship fitted with some kind of harvesters and then sit and look at some spinning rocks with yellow or blue beams connected to them.
This is the part I want to automate with static mining bases. A mining base is a structure you fit, puts into your cargo hold and then anchors around the asteroid. It will then, after activation, start to mine for you. All these bases will have a substantial ore hold.
Mining bases will be what hulks, mackinaws and skiffs are right now. The Hulk will be the top tier base. Pulling in large amounts of ore at the expense of hit points and defense. The mackinaw is the mid-tier base capable of harvesting a good amount of ore but with better defensive capabilities. The Skiff is the low tier base, harvesting small amounts of ore but with extensive defensive capabilities.
These bases are fit like ships. They have a number of hi, mid and low slots and a number of mining module slots.
The normal slots are for fitting normal modules for combat/defense and the auxiliary modules for fitting strip miners/ice miners.
Why the fitting options? Well I would like to see these bases attack-able at all times.. even in Hi-Sec without Wardecs. And why? First off, it’ll allow you to remove competitors who’s mining your hard-found rock. It’ll allow corporations and individuals to hurt the industrial backbone of competitors and it will allow the general griefing that we all crave. And also I want to put an end to at least one of the no risk, free isk printing machines in Hi-Sec. If you want to make money you have to put some effort into it and accept a certain level of risk.
However these bases would have nowhere near the cost of the current Exhumer class mining barges. A lot of these bases will be destroyed on a regular basis and it would make no sense to pay hundreds of millions for a structure that could be destroyed 2 minutes later. I’m thinking in the range of 500.000 -> 1.000.000 isk + any fittings you might throw onto it.
Now the base is fitted and ready to be set up. You launch it, anchor it and press online. A message pops up: Upkeep needed.
Upkeep? Yes. You have to pay the poor workers inside your magnificent mining base.
Based on tier you have to pay an amount of isk to keep the structure running. Say 10.000 isk per hour or something like that. This is foremost because CCP and everyone else love isk-sinks. Secondly it’ll maybe finally rid us all of the stupid notion: Minerals I mine are free.
Then you configure the base, what should it mine? A quick dropdown menu allows you choose what type of ore is to be mined.
You hit online and the base starts mining. You can now leave the area and only need to return to either defend your base, empty the cargo hold of the base or to unanchor and relocate your base.
This is basically the idea behind a new mining system. There are a lot of points still to be considered but I’ll list a few here.
Venture mining frigate : Keep it as it is now. A specialized gas harvesting vessel and a low-entry manual mining vessel.
Orca : Since mining boosts makes no sense now I would like to see the Orca transformed into either a mini-freighter or a specialized ore hauling vessel.
Rorqual: Kind of hard. It’ll need to retain the ability to compress ore but since boosts are no longer needed maybe some kind of bonuses to the promised ring-mining?
Still can’t make my mind up regarding how many bases a single character should be able to deploy. I’m leaning towards 3-5 but maybe just 1?
Ice ore could either be part of the new asteroids or maybe stay as it is now, a single rock you scan down and mine the same way as ore.
Should more than 1 player be allowed to mine a single asteroid? If only 1 player is allowed to “claim” a rock a lot more fighting could occur. If there’s no limit to the numbers around a rock it would make sense to either spend time to remove other bases or search for another rock.
I realize many players will never fire a shot at other players bases simply because they don’t want PvP. Some might even unsubscribe. But in the long run I think it’ll be better for EvE.
What do you think?
- Dunkle Lars
Leave mining as is and increase policing of botting. Mining is for the casual, the one that likes to just relax, talk in chat, and make some isk on the side. Again somebody complaining because there is something in the game they require but isn't their cup of tea.
You say mining is for the casual player but that's because it is the easiest thing to do in the game, if missions were as easy as mining is and mining became a bit more taxing like missions you would then do missions?
I like the idea of non static roids that need to be scanned, and reducing the static roids. miners can then still "AFK" mine but if your sat at the computer chatting, probing a new roid down every so often isnt too bad at all. botters would still be around but not make as much profit from the smaller static roids? players who are casually chatting just have to do a little probing and i think that would be enjoyable. (Ive just started probing and i am finding it quite fun, so im all up for more probes! lol)
missions are as easy as mining with the right skill set's… but less reward and less excitement
The proposed idea assumes a few things: Time is not free therefore the time to spend mining static belts is not free isk – it is a time sink that leads to isk and, on occasion, loss of ISK from suicide ganking. You seem to be replacing one form of illegal automation: botting with legal automation: mining bases: "I want mining to be automated. Fully automated" You claim CCP has not looked at mining – it has, while not overly revamped, it has had changes (for example changes to Ice mining making ice roids last forever, or the Barge and Exhumer buff this last summer).
So instead of sitting in a ship afk mining… the afk miner can set up a base and let it mine while he goes AFK or missions. Flip side is suicide ganking is still viable. Hmm….
Current static belt count would be converted to scanable static belt count – 2 per system is asking for more trouble than is reasonable (especially if only one base can mine a site at a time – multiple bases can be set up on a site, but only one can be online at the same time perhaps). This keeps things consistent with the current system while the prospect of additional mining sites expands. The sites, once depleted, will have to respawn an hour later to avoid one time zone dominating the industry.
The roids would not be defined as Veldspar, Scordite, etc but simplified into mineral composition instead (50% Tri, 10%Py, 5% Iso etc and while composition overall would still be effected by regional and sec status differences, it can allow more blending of minerals).
Being a miner myself, the idea has an overall attraction. It will certainly change how mining works and the reasoning has a basis: moon mining is automated… why not asteroid mining to a lesser degree? By not tying it to a POS, you provide more mobility to the miner.
As for CCP profitability: if one character can operate one mining base at a time, then multiple accounts would still be usable and desirable. The pure miner would also give way to the hybrid miner unless more accounts are set up to manage the defense and the base operable only while the character who deployed the mining base is online.
You can't repair mining because activity itself is borring. You can only AFK, semiAFK or bot this. Does any reasonable person think that all that eve minerals are mined by guys sitting in front of theirs PC? no kidding.
Best solution. Remove mining alomost entirely. All standard minerals should be obtainable through planetary interaction and only high end minerals, which will be available only in small deposits, should be minable.
Or give anyone legal bot
Get rid of Static moongoo then we'll talk about High-sec mining.
If you don't like mining, don't do it.
If you want to propose changes to the mechanics, spend more than five minutes thinking about your idea before you commit it to publication.
Here is another way to adjust mining that takes into consideration current play styles: http://mararinn.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/mining-is…
This is the REAL Face of the Eve Online Community! This Comments are disgusting…
Leave mining to those who understand it. This ideal is so beyond stupid it had to have come from a pvp pilot. You take out mining, your going to lose a shit ton of players, which means CCP will lose money. Don't try to change what you obviously dont understand. And yes there are botters out there, there will always be botters, but no the majority are hard working industrialists trying to build a better eve. I am so tired of this "free isk" shit about mining. Theirs nothing free about it you ass hats.
i've always supported the idea of smal, inexpensive player bases for the purpose of gathering resources, promoting exploration and pvp, especially in the mining arena.
i'm not saying i agree with all the details, but +100 for the promoting the idea.
Best idea for mining revamp EVER! I would totally go for this!
realy. realy bad idea…………
agree bad bad idea…
would like to see highsec mining looked at as its more risk less reward at the moment.. and not worth while been a miner in highsec… null sec is over 300% safer then highsec for mining right now..
Предлагаю заглянуть вот сюда :
http://forum.eve-ru.com/index.php?showtopic=10525…
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