Max Deveron wrote:Cade, this one is for you since you like to think of the economy as encompassing the entire star cluster......
Getting rid of 'Gun Mining' would make Arkonor and Bistot the only sources for megacyte.
With the number of combat anoms in nullsec, Null would have no reason to use Markets to acquire these components for any meta modules they would wish to use.
However places like Highsec mostly and maybe even losec (WH have access to AB) would be sol without gun mining to supplement their industry needs, especially in the case of new bros trying to cut their teeth on the subject would be hard pressed to get some without using the market.
So, Pros/Cons, balance/counterbalance for this that you might be able to come up with?
Would something have to be buffed for Highsec/Losec to make this palatable in 'every ones' eyes?
Oh hai, so I'd like to correct a couple of assumptions here.
"Gun mining" these days produces a tiny fraction of the mineral demands of the game, and certainly a tiny fraction of the Megacyte used in the game.
This is the reprocessing result for any meta 425mm Railgun, note that it produces a total of *16* Megacyte. In comparison
a single reprocessing of Arkonor produces 320 Megacyte and 22,000 Trit. That's less than half the Trit and roughly 20 times the Megacyte. Also note that that's actually on the high side for a module in terms of Megacyte output, most produce 6 or less.
The average volume of Megacyte traded in The Forge in the last three weeks per day was around 22.9 million, that means it would take 1.4 million module drops to supply the average daily Megacyte needs of Jita. Since that volume is clearly ridiculous, and would supply more than 4 times the daily Trit requirements of Jita, we can easily assume that most Megacyte is already coming from Null ore sources.
That's not to say that such a change wouldn't have any impact on the mineral market, but it would likely be small and largely confined to the minerals high-sec is already rich in, since those are the primary reprocessing product of unwanted meta modules.
Also it's unlikely that people Carrier ratting in Null (where the vast majority of Null NPC kills come from) would bother to pick up the relatively low value components ratting would produce. Similarly you rarely see someone ratting in a Carrier and salvaging their wrecks even on an alt. That's not to say it doesn't happen, but it's much more common in High Sec. It's just not really worth the time required to loot a few million off the field rather than just moving on to the next site.
Given this it seems unlikely that Null as a whole will be completely independent of the rest of the game for Meta module supply, the same way they aren't really now, especially since it seems unlikely the faction flavor of drops is going to go away with a change like this. If you live in Guristas space but you want Meta Beam Lasers you're going to need drops from Sansha or Blood Raider ships, the same as today.
Similarly a newbro looking to get into industry will have to buy components off the market, the same as he does today.
It's not really a concern for someone just starting out though. Lots of simple T1 items don't even require Megacyte or other minerals that are only really available from Null.
Please let me know if I missed something in there or if something seems disjointed or doesn't make sense. I'm a bit under the weather today.
