Lets say you're some Itani guy that comes down to UIT space and parks a moth in front of a xith roid when a message comes up - "Xithricite asteroid field owned by TPG - unauthorized extraction carries a heavy fine." You ignore the broadcast and start cooking the roid anyways.

After some time (ten seconds to a minute), the station messages you "Illegal excavation detected - prepare for cargo bay scan, <playername>." The station sends a couple of police ships out towards you and as they come within 200 or so meters, they scan your ship.

If you have the stolen cargo, or if your ship is anywhere near it (in case you jettisoned it), you are told you have to suffer the consequences (depending on the station/nation, they could tell you to follow them to the station to pay a hefty fine [around 50 - 100k, and if you just ran off, your standing would drop with them and you would have to pay the fine if you ever wanted to land at one of their stations again]). Or, they could just threaten to destroy you if you don't leave the sector immediately. Or something like that.

Anyways, I just thought this would add a lot of depth to mining. Certain factions could even have missions sending you off to steal minerals from another faction's field - if you get caught, you lose the mission. Also, (obviously) if you were doing a mining mission for a certain faction, they would grant you limited access to their asteroid fields... or if you became trusted enough (high enough faction - or you completed a specific mining mission string), they would give you unlimited full access to their fields. Or you could just buy a limited time-license to prospect in their fields.

And this would be in addition to having to compete with a couple random NPC miners running around the sector as well.

Edit: another idea I just had... this would add more to the Itani/Serco war...
Itani/Serco could send you into enemy territory along with some other ships to cause a distraction so some military mining ships could take some certain minerals from the enemy's asteroid field (players could take either the mining part or the combat part - the better job the miners do, the less time the fighters have to distract... the better job the fighters do, the less the miners have to worry about being attacked).

Great idea. I'd like their to be a fee or licence required to mine at stations. NPC miners would be cool as well. Also, there would be regulations in place such as no heating up a roid past 200 (/me glares at Lecter)

I don't think mining enemy roids would do as much harm as blowing up their mining ships ;-)

Well, not necisarrily that you were mining the enemy's asteroids to harm them, but just that they have an abundance of that mineral in their territory where your nation has a shortage.

how about not?

mandatory deprecation aside, I can see some requirements and consequences for mining in 'mining' station sectors, and NPC miners would certianly full under the elusive 'content'.

those 'UIT Mining', etc.. stations shouldn't be so lonely.. set some NPCs to wander around those sectors mining random stuff... of course, they'll heat the roids, but if you're particularily adventurous, and don't mind a KOS, you could fly in and pop them for quick cargoes.

I like Cunjo's Idea, we need some wandering miners around stations and some major riod fields, especially in nation space. Maybe about 10-15 wandering Centaurs per mining station?

10-15 seems a bit excessive outside of capitol systems... maybe 3-4 in your average out-of-the-way mining station, and as many as 10 in the busiest parts of space... there comes a point where more miners only makes productivity go down too...

Erm - I don't see where you disagree Cunjo - that was basically the point.

but I agree - I was thinking somwhere along the lines of 3-4. Many more and those asteroids would be constantly heated.

Quick FYI: Bots don't actually heat roids up right now. Check any mining bot-infested asteroid field.

It would be cool to have both features, i.e. mining bots and "private" asteroids/fields. The NPC miners are incoming, though, so that one's not as much of an issue, though they should heat up the asteroids.

As for the private asteroids, how about being able to buy mining permits for each of them? maybe they could be permanent, or just for a limited time; that way it'd be another credit sink. As an added bonus, if you have the permit and are attacked while you're mining the field, defense bots come to your aid.

Oh, and the defense bots should attack if they detected you were mining without a permit, regardless of whether you have ore in the hold or jettisoned it. Allowing you to leave is not an option, since you could do the following:

1. mine until the bots come
2. Drop the cargo, leave
3. Immediately return and pick up the jettisoned cargo. Since you aren't mining, the defbots don't come back
4. Deposit the cargo in some station, and go back to 1

Having buddies would only add more variety to the ways the above procedure could be carried out.

I think it's a decent idea. Resources are one more area of potential conflict. We actually have a similar aspect in the works, in terms of the Hive vs Locals. But, it's true, bots don't really mine properly yet (or heat up asteroids). We intend to fix that. Random NPC miners is definite.. the intention is for NPCs to do everything that players do (part of why they take missions and stuff now).

Doukutsu:

with the 'restricted roid feild' part... It may be a policy near specific stations' NFZs to not mine without a faction mining license, but there shouldn't be no-mine roid feilds...

Ah, I see what you mean. I should have written a bit clearer.
I was thinking along the lines of the 'restricted' asteroid fields being somewhat sparse - usually just in station sectors and other rich-in-bling-bling-minerals-sectors. I guess "Off-limits" wouldn't be a totally correct term... those asteroid fields would just be "legally" accessible only by those that have been granted access (ie: NPC miners and players that 1) have purchased a license, 2) are taking a mission from that faction involving those asteroid fields, or 3) have completed mission(s) that allow them unrestricted access to that faction's fields. There's lots of other options you could throw in there, but these are the ones that came off the top of my head.

I think it would be a good idea that a large majority of asteroid fields were subject to no faction, and the player would have to compete with other players, npcs, and _especially_ the hive for the good spots.

if there are npc miners, you should be able to help them as well... it would be cool if you entered a sector that was being mined, and if you had good standing with that group of miners, they'd hail you and ask you to help out on thier mission. you could then choose to mine on your own and risk being kicked/chased out, or you could mine with them and share the profits of the group mission...

Ah, okay... so we're pretty much on the same page I guess

Mellow:

sounds good, or perhaps if you hailed a miner (or convoy) you could be paid to defend them from the hive in the sector?