Salt Ravins
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Posted - 2011.08.22 04:30:00 -
[1]
 Originally by: Echo Mande
Edited by: Echo Mande on 19/08/2011 12:02:05
One possible way to buff ....
Comments?
This is the best idea I've seen so far. I really CCP looks into this, because this might just work. You shouldn't "fly to a belt" and make it rich. Remember, some belts have been "mined" for decades. Hidden sites that require a scan-down should be the primary way of getting "good yield" ore, or ore that yields "rare" minerals.
Mining as it stands right now is mind-numbingly static. You earn X isk per hour, come hell or high-water. There's no "jack-pot!" moments like in other areas of space or other professions. (Of course my friend got 500m worth of true-sansha drops in 1 day while belt mining....)You have officer spawns in null-sec... you have 'meta 4 drops' when ratting.... getting a really nice storyline mission reward while running missions... you still earn X isk per hour while mining. 23/7/365. Make these high-grade ores REQUIRE a certain mining crystal, or you just get "regular" ore back. If a bot rolls up without his T2 mining crystal and certain skills, instead of 250% arkanor, she gets 85%. If you pay attention, you get pay-dirt. If you AFK fukung while mining, you just shot yourself in the foot.
Making hidden sites have "higher yield" ores, or just make new ores with new combinations, effort should be tied to reward as well as risk. Hitting the jack pot (like the above officer-spawn equivalent of a 250% arkanor rock... yum.) would make mining fun. "So last nights mining OP, we planned to haul in ~10B isk worth of stuff. Actually, some smart cookie scanned down some high-quality ore from a comet, so We all made 17B ISK. Gratz corp!"
-Speaking of random mining jack-pot... what if you found "comets" with these high-yield ores by mining escalations? Small chance for every belt (or rock, IDK) you kill you have a chance of finding this comet escallation in the system. Make them a very small window of opprotunity,say 3 hour limit, spawn in the same system as the belt, and have a little bit of the 'super' ores, that also despawn when you leave. (Its a comet... it leaves.) Comets can be a good source for high end minerals in empire without completely removing them. Dedicated miners would be able to mine them. Hell, add 'Cometology' skill with high-end mining requirements that allow you to mine the comets for the high-grade ores....
-Also, add in corporate skills that require pretty hefty refining skills to boost the intensive refinery to 95% at max... or make it take less time when they run it, hold more ore... do both. IDK. Make it on the same level as training a dreadnaught.
-In terms of fixing the MMZ influx from mission runners and such, make it so you need high refining skills to even be able to reprocess those materials... without getting "junk". MMZ isn't a valid product until you have scrap metal processing 3 or something.
TL:DR:
Be creative with the skill system, and you can fix some niche problems and quality of life problems, CCP.
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