History:
1) Drone regions were generally considered a bad idea as mineral prices tanked.
2) Reprocessing of meta loot had to be nerfed hard as mineral income streams were out of balance.

It could also have Rubicon's deployable mini-structure's drawback of being lootable by anyone.

Yes, yes. Let's ***** and complain and doom and gloom about a module that we have yet to receive any specifics about.

Good job, OP. You win the EVE Handwringing Award of the day.

This means I'll ditch my tractor beams on my Noctis and replace them with Salvagers....Life just got easier!

Future:
4) Automatic looting device in L4 rooms and nullsec anoms is looking to print minerals through reprocessing, possibly at a very high amount.

... applauds your knee-jerk reaction and laughs because you'll likely be first in line to fill your pockets with the looting.

And I'll be right behind you.

GǪassuming the autolooter has the same 96km range rather than just, say, 20km.

Speculation:
CCP wouldn't want to obsolete the Noctis and/or step on Marauders, so Rubicon's Tractor of Loot Leavings (Tr.O.L.L.) will not be as efficient as using a Noctis and/or Marauder. Meaning, the device could be really, really, really slow to work. It could also have Rubicon's deployable mini-structure's drawback of being lootable by anyone.

They dont want to make the noctis useless, but to be fair the Marauder was made useless when the noctis was released. They need to replace that bonus on the marauder that can not benefit it.

Auto Looter will reduce mineral prices. Frankly I could care less what happens to mineral prices. What does concern me however is a further reduction in the division of labor.

Why specialize in mining when so many minerals come from rat loot? The incentive to mine is reduced.

Why specialize in manufacturing when there are so many additional meta 1-4s? The incentive is reduced.

Why specialize in salvage when it's now even more so a by-product of some other activity? The incentive is reduced.

The auto looter is not a problem, the fact that rats drop instantly useable loot, that can be immediately fit to a ship, or reprocessed is the problem. The Auto Looter simply exacerbates an issue that already exists.

Speculation:
CCP wouldn't want to obsolete the Noctis and/or step on Marauders, so Rubicon's Tractor of Loot Leavings (Tr.O.L.L.) will not be as efficient as using a Noctis and/or Marauder. Meaning, the device could be really, really, really slow to work. It could also have Rubicon's deployable mini-structure's drawback of being lootable by anyone.

I know this goes against everything that GD stands for but for once I'd like to see the stats before people engaged headless chicken mode and started aimlessly running in circles.

That would render it pretty useless.

History:
1) Drone regions were generally considered a bad idea as mineral prices tanked.
2) Reprocessing of meta loot had to be nerfed hard as mineral income streams were out of balance.

Today:
3) STATISTICS ARE NEEDED AND SHOULD BE EXAMINED on how big a % of loot is ever looted (I would guess a third of modules are ever looted, at tops). This would cue towards the relevance of next point.

Future:
4) Automatic looting device in L4 rooms and nullsec anoms is looking to print minerals through reprocessing, possibly at a very high amount.

I don't know all the limits on this new toy that'll be coming out but one funny question does come up - will it work for player wrecks?

That could prove rather entertaining and interesting at big-battle sites as some run in and toss these down to try and get player fittings and the like.

I don't think this is very likely for multiple reasons:

1. While we know it will be deployable, we don't know what it will be deployable by. I.e. is it small enough to be launched from the cargo hold of a battleship or battlecruiser? If not, then this module probably won't be as useful as a Noctis to the solo player.

2. How "big" does it get? How much loot does it hold? Likely you'll have to pick it up with either an industrial or some other high capacity ship.. which then means another time and isk wasting trip.

3. From the sounds of it, the module does not salvage (I could be wrong), so while it will drag loot closer and make it easier, you'll still need to have a ship with a salvage module.

All in all, I think it will be a nice addition to group mission runners as well as the more novice Level 3/Level 4 mission runner, or possibily even belt ratters, but outside of that I don't see where it will effect the minerals market in any significant way.