Paddlefoot Aeon
Neogen Industries
Serenity Fallen
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Posted - 2006.11.02 16:26:00 -
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Edited by: Paddlefoot Aeon on 02/11/2006 16:28:47
Actually, the real problem here is macro miners... wait... hear me out.
These large alliances, who whole not constellations, but regions, need to fuel their POSes. These large alliances don't ice mine.. believe me. The vast majority of their fuel for their POSES is bought on the empire market.
"Who fuels the empire ice market?" you ask. Good question... glad you thought of it.
Macro ice miners are doing the same thing to the ice market that is happening to veldspar, pyerite, mex and iso (and to a lesser degree, Nocx). They are making vast quantities of isotopes, liquid ozone and heavy water available at a very low price, relative to the time invested in mining.
Trust me, mining ice solo, even Krystellos (highest concentation of Strontium, the most valuable ice mineral p/u), doesn't even come close to generating the same ISK that mining crokite, bistot or arkanor does.
Cheap ice allows large alliances to erect far more POSes in far more systems that I think CCP originally intended... allowing them to control and claim larger areas of space.
Take away macro ice miners, the price of ICE minerals will go up, and large alliances will have to invest in ice mining operations. Fewer POSes will be set up, as the all take far too much ice to maintain.
Look at this... it takes about 120 blocks of high end ice to generate enough racial isotopes to run a medium tower for a week.
Even mining in a mackinaw (averaging 4 blocks every 6 minutes), you are looking at about 3 man hours to generate enough isotopes for a medium tower for a week. Sure, if you have 6 people mining, it will only take 30 minutes to get the same yeild, but you get the picture.
How many man hours would it take to fuel 50 POSes (assuming they are medium towers, for averaging sake)? That's 150 Man hours (or 6.25 days).
With a crew of 10 people mining, that comes to 15 hours each... 20 people make that 7.5 hours each, and 40 make it 3.25 hours each...
Getting that many people together is can be a logistic nightmare, so fewer POSes would launch... and fewer systems would get claimed.
Therefor, there would be more 0.0 space available, and people would be able to move out from empire and take some of it, instead of saying "that is all 'X' Alliance space... we can't go there unless we join".
So... pop a macro miner whenever you see one. Do all of EVE a favour!
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