Some interesting opinions so far - I'll offer another.

My vision of comets is as follows:

• They appear in all areas of space, but the higher the security level, the rarer they are. (Undecided yet if their composition, or the ratio of components, should change, though.)


• They appear randomly, not in fixed predictable systems. (sorry, but comets shouldn't travel between systems - they would have to have a warp-speed capability to do that in under 100,000 years)


• Initially, they need to be scanned down, and they start out in the furthest reaches of the solar system (potential "issue" with deep bookmarks being made, but I'm ok with that). Over a period of days, they head further into the system where, at some point, they don't need to be scanned down (but with penalties, mentioned later, but perhaps it should always require scanning down - not too fussed)


• They are BIG - 50-100 KMs across! They should dwarf your ship!


• Within the shroud of the comet, perhaps you could have some sort of effects? Reduced targeting speed and visibility? Perhaps the gases should have a small effect on the shields, but every so often a random chunk of ice falls off the comet body, something big enough to cause a serious amount of damage if it hits you. (It would have to be reasonably visible in advance, to give you an opportunity to avoid it, if you're paying attention. (Stealth nerf AFK mining thread ) Also, the closer to the star it gets, the more dangerous it is - it's melting a lot faster at this point.


• It should be moving across the grid at a reasonable speed, so that you'd have to move with it, and bookmarks should be useless after a while. Should it need an AB on your barge? They have rather limited slots as it is.


• Composition-wise, I was thinking they'd have volatile (and valuable) gases on the surface (which burn off as they approach the sun, meaning you'd have to scan it down while in deep space, if you want them. Under that, there'd be ices, and the core is made of rock and minerals (moon-goo?).
The closer to the sun it gets, the more gases and ices are melted off, so by the time it reaches the point of not needing scanning down, it's reaching the point of being a barren rock.


• I don't think it needs a new ship or mining modules; the existing ones are fine - gas extractor for the gases, ice strip miner for the ice, and ordinary strip miners for the core. "Moon"-goo might cause a problem though - there's no strip miners for those. This would therefore suit a mining gang with a variety of fits available and an Orca/Rorqual/depot available to change rapidly.


• How valuable should it be? If the whole thing is worth billions, it'll attract gankers like flies, but it could also justify hiring an escort, as they know they're probably going to get some action and be paid for it.


• Issue: the shroud of a comet can get rather large, and it's tail can reach millions of KMs in length - somehow, I don't think the game engine could simulate that, so perhaps it doesn't get anywhere near the star, for the graphics to remain manageable? (which would nerf several of my ideas above).


• Issue: possible new mechanics needed. Existing rocks don't move - can the devs just grab a supercarrier, slap a big comet skin on it, and bastardise the bubble mechanic with a hidden snow generator around it? Probably easier to create something new...

this is just one of many features CCP promised and never implemented.

the best example for this, though, is Incarna.

Interesting revival of an old idea. Problems: Comets do not travel between solar systems. Their travel speed also changes over the course of their orbit as well.

Of course, if they add some moveable object into space, they may as well make all orbital bodies truly orbit.

... and add a Homeworld style movement system for warping around a system beyond warping point to fixed point. That would be a revolutionary addition to this game. But now I digress.

You forgot the most important thing:

HighSec:40% chance some NPC-pirates are using the comet as hideout: Sudden attack! 25% chance for some Rogue drones, 34% nothing happens. 1% chance of highly dangerous lifeform attacking: Void Kraken.

LowSec: 50% pirate chance and the pirates are stronger, 40% Rogue drones and stronger ones, 8% nothing happens, the comet is empty. 2% chance for Void Kraken infestation.

Null/W-Space: 25% for a strong pirate/Rogue drone presence, 25% for a small, 20% for a medium and 5% for a massive Void Kraken infestation. A massive infestation can only happen in W-Space and is as hard to combat as the worst sleeper sites.

Stuff harvested from the new lifeform can be used in construction of a new line of T3-ships.

So, has CCP given a reason why they don't want to implement this idea, maybe in past CSM meetings or forum posts?

I love the idea of comet mining, but let's crunch some numbers on the reality of this.

Average system is lets say about 20AU with an unknown amount of distance between systems (to much to warp so you need gates).

20AU = 2991957414 km

Now for the sake of simplicity, let's just deal with the scenario of them 'remaining in system for 24 hours'...

So to travel 20AU in 24 hours, the comet would be travelling at 124664892km/h or about 0.83AU/h. So I think we can rule out mining at this speed.

So, let's see how long a comet would stay in system if it travelled at some speed a bit more achievable, say 5000m/s - that's 18000km/h; it's still really fast, but doable.

2991957414 km / 18000km = 166219.85 hours ,which is just under 19 years. So in the entire time EVE has been around, it would have travelled 1/2 of one system.


That's why, if this is to happen, comets should spawn near orbital bodies and be on a collision path. This will allow them to travel at 'normal' speeds and yet have a short life span.

**** ing great thread! And so good to hear about a feature so before my time here. I would love if some Dev's could weigh in on the thoughts here. Could you create an anomaly that moves at a fast pace? Not expecting the 30379 m/s or anything, but something that moves through the grid/s.

...no, it gives you options for group based play. You can go at it solo in a venture/prospect, or you can get friends to help web it down so that you can mine it in a barge or exhumer. It brings group play back to mining.

And if the lore around how webs work bothers you, we can make up some reason why it works.

"Webbing comets employs micro energy streams that disrupt the gravitational field unique to these cosmic objects"

All lore in the game is made up. Don't put down a decent idea because it doesn't fit the (fake/made up) physics in a video game.

i have an option

comet mining could be very nice idea and is it , but it cant be hat easy player must navigate his mining barge/industrial throught debris fields and approac on comet orbit lets say 10 km. now deploy some sort of structure that need be anchored on surface of comet it could extract ice , water and gases from comet. extraction process could take untill mining platform storage is full also radius of comet should say how much resources has it

radius 550km 20 ice 1000 water 2000 noble gases
radius 700km 50 ice 2200 water 3729 noble gases
radius 900m 72 ice 3000 water 4204 noble gases
radius 1100m 94 ice 5225 water 6224 noble gases
radius 1400m 102 ice 6119 water 7548 noble gases

its just example , resources could be in different amount and type of course along comet radius

we would need a new mining barge type - excavator would be like retriever but capable of mining comets only
the industrial ship could be able to deploy the structure to mine the comet itself but player need fly closer to grab ined materials.
also new venture "prospect" could be capable of mining comet.
what else?

new skillbook :comet extraction
1lvl takes 8 minutes
2lvl takes 24 minutes
3lvl takes 3 hours and 20 minutes
4lvl takes day and 5 hours
5lvl takes 4days and 2 hours

each skill allow you to use one comet mining laser per level and deploy one comet extractor platform per level.

restrictions
1 extractor structure per 1 comet
10 - 50 cmets per solar system but

7 comets in security system 1.0
14 comets in security system 0.9
20 comets in security system 0.8
24 comets in security system 0.7
31 comets in security system 0.6
37 comets in security system 0.5
40 comets in security system 0.4
47 comets in security system 0.3
52 comets in security system 0.2
58 comets in security system 0.1
70comets in security system 0.0
comets from 0.0 to -1.0 could spawn 10 more per system so in -1.0 you will find the most comets

comet spawning area : near sun , near planets.
comets would be needed to be probed down with scanning probes.

Humm yeah want to discourage AFK'ers, ok I stand corrected.
I would want this to be something you needed your corp mates for, something you can't do solo, someone has to do Y while some does X to collect the goodness.

2014 humans landed on a comet
few decades later, all comets mined out
no more comets for us ;)

I like it, too

Potential for a moving target . . . lots of odd minerals/ores/ hell even bring back the drone poo as part of the take

Only thing in OP that bugged me was 'leave one system and appear in the next' Comets come from the oort cloud outside the solar system proper. not travel warp speed to next system over

still . . . a great idea

m

Sorry to not see you on the CSM X voting ballot, would have put one in on you

DaReaper I saw what you did there at Fanfest

source: 2hr 52min in http://www.twitch.tv/ccp/b/638754943

Uhmmmm.. better yet... how about as per the SEC status of a system decreases, the FEWER belts there are that are stationary.

For example:

- 1.0 space, has 95% stationary belts. Of course it also has the fewest belts in existence as well.

- .5 Space, has 55% stationary and 45% scannable belts. It also has MORE belts than 1.0 would have.

- .4 Space, has the reverse of 45% stationary belts and 55% scannable belts. And it has more belts than .5 has.

- Null and WH... 95% scannable 5% stationary and has THE HIGHEST number of belts than any other SEC status system.

- LASTLY - ALL SCANNABLE roid fields would be 50% MORE PROFITABLE than stationary ones.

Would make mining in High sec slightly more challenging, would leave the stationary belts for the newbs and the lazy, and would make BOT MINING less profitable as the player would have to take a much more active role in bot mining as they would have to FIND the roid fields that are more profitable than the ones just sitting pretty.

Came expecting a story about how when Eve was still new, Fed Navy Comets were the premier mining ship with their drones and 2 turrets.

Sorely disappointed.

No, I do not think it is a good idea to ban solo players from mining.

ccp_manifestCCP Games 40 points 13 hours ago
This is a good time to remind everyone what /u/Sagebrysh just did. Good ideas belong on the forums just to make sure they don't scroll past us all into internet infinity or obscurity.

- From reddit


Also free bump!


...and IB4 ISD locks this thread for Necroing

I like this idea.

By the way, this part of the forums does not allow bumping. Please post some actual content if you want to keep the conversation going.

The idea would give access to the various elements of moon mining, PI etc but in a way that requires active piloting and can't be farmed by parking exhumers on it en-mass (hence the general opinion being that these shouldn't be capturable).

The idea is to get pilots in space chasing down a more valuable resource and competing/fighting for it in an already dangerous environment