Stegnat Gless
   |
Posted - 2007.03.23 01:33:00 -
[1]
To take the OP in order -
Cycle Time display -
Yes, it would be very useful, particularly now that the cycle times are not simply 1 or 3 minutes. A clock-face style countdown timer as the background to the module icon, instead of the flashing green background.
Asteroid Scanner interface
I don't agree that only locked roids are important. I want to know which roid to target and mine next based on ore amount, and how many lasers to assign to it, or a quick assessment of the total amount of ore within reach.
Rather than the separate window used for the results, add a column to the overview that is populated with the ore amount when a scanner is activated. This allows you to see exactly which roid each value refers to, which you already have locked, and to be selective in the roid types you want to know about.
A "Health bar" could be useful to see the effects of other people mining the same roid, but for consistency it would require a constantly active scan. Maybe that's a secondary passive effect of a scanner for locked roids.
Cargo
I don't want to see cargo holds getting so large as to allow long periods of afk mining (in high-sec at least). Someone doing missions generally needs to pay attention to target new NPCs and activate weapons / repairers (drones may be an anomaly in this respect), so I don't think it's too much to require a miner to have to drag ore from cargo hold to can every few minutes. But, they should have a decent window of time in which to do so without miners shutting down, so a brief bit of lag doesn't throw out the whole cycle.
I suggest that fitting a miner should increase the cargohold space by an amount equal to the normal yield of that module. Ideally the extra space would be restricted to ore mined, but that's probably too complex to manage.
So, whatever ship you use to mine, your cargohold space plus the extra from the modules should give enough to store a whole cycle and more.
Containers
A larger deployable container (presumably assembled in space) that removes the need for lots of Jet cans could be a benefit. I don't think it should be a secure container.
Others
A skill (and rig) to increase miner range is obviously missing. A CPU reduction skill (and rig) is the only other effect that I would see as missing. Yield and cycle time skills and modules already exist in many forms, and PG and Cap usage tend to be low anyway.
|