Darenthul
SUPERIOR RESOURCES
2
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Posted - 2012.11.20 17:32:00 -
[1] - Quote
Originally posted on Reddit: http://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/13ihs9/concept_asteroid_variation_classes_subclasses_and/
I'm bored at work, slow day (holiday week!) and was plotting/thinking about asteroid mining, and how the various asteroids work, where they're located, etc.
To me, the one thing I feel like EVE misses heavily on asteroid mining is the actual act of prospecting. I feel like there's no real exploration or prospecting involved with mining. Its just "hey I know where the belts are" and bam.
So this is moreso a concept piece, I'm seeking refinement and data, I want to help turn Asteroid Mining into something a little more exciting (queue laugh-track).
Prospecting and You
To begin the suggestion, asteroid fields as you know them would be shifted around. Most systems may have a few belts available with the core, common types of asteroids available and always available to warp to (ala current fields). The rest are randomly generated and exploration-driven and must be found. This means proper prospectors seeking rarer and more valuable types of ores will have to use exploration vessels to find them. However these belts are rather large, and there is potential to find special asteroid compositions only found in them.
Asteroids themselves are now sub-classed, for example:
- T-Class Asteroids (Tritanium Heavy, High-sec consists of these)
- P-Class Asteroids (Specific ores)
- H-Class Asteroids (Mixed Asteroids)
- S-Class Asteroids (Specialty Asteroids, lower-sec)
- X-Class Asteroids (Rare Asteroids, Null-sec)
Each asteroid class is only found in certain areas/security status, which means as the security status gets lower, you find more specific and more rare-types of asteroids. High-Sec remains the Tritanium capital for the most-part, which a large variety of Veldspar-based asteroids there.
When you mine these asteroids, instead of returning a single ore type, you will actually gain an abundance of various ore types depending on the specific type of asteroid. This means that gone are the days of "go to belt, find densest ore of type I want, mine till all are gone/I'm full, leave". Instead you'll more be inclined to mine a larger variety of types and the more skilled prospectors would be more likely to hunt belts with more quality asteroids in them.
For an example list (one that's far FAR from complete) https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0ApPr023YHYR0dG1XczhLMllCX1NfNDRNWGRBeXI4d1E#gid=0
As you can see, T-Class Asteroids (which will litter high-sec fields and common belts in systems) are primarily Veldspar, and will result in mostly veldspar, however you can also find ones that contain mixed bags of veldspar and other ores. If you want specific ores, you have to venture into exploration hubs, lower security areas, and such to find them.
Opinions, ideas, concepts, anything are welcome over this. I feel like Asteroid Mining as a whole is due for an overhaul. This system provides the least "wreckage" to the current system, while changing resource gathering for the vast majority of miners. The entire mining operation (Exploration, Prospecting, Processing, Manufacturing) would then come full circle, as players will travel out into new areas and regions searching for new belts to mine/maintain for their corporations. |