Forums » Suggestions

Mining Suggestion

Jul 20, 2008 Trinexx link
There are specialized ships for light weapons, heavy weapons, and trading. Not mining, though. Why? Because if you made a ship capable of holding, say... 40 mining lasers, you'd also have a ship capable of holding 40 weapons. Solution? Mining ports. Ports capable of holding ONLY mining equipment. Problem solved.

Not to say that mining equipment should be limited to those ports, but that those ports would be limited to mining equipment.

Feedback?
Jul 20, 2008 vardonx link
Make it available to higher level miners to encourage players to mine....
Jul 20, 2008 missioncreek2 link
How about a mining bot that a pilot can purchase and task to a given asteriod. It would refine ore (puriied ore) that is particularly valuable. The owner would periodically pickup the purified ore. It would also be vulnerable to attack.
Jul 21, 2008 Pyroman_Ace link
I was thinking of something similar last night while I was lying in bed (Im a sad person, I don't need you to say it for me).

What if we designated an "M"-sized weapons port?
Variant's of current mining lasers could then be created in the M-size version, and M-sized ships could be produced.

M-ports could also encompass other, non-combat hardware, such as Scanners, Repair Guns, and Radar Upgrades, possibly with other electronic components that are yet-to-be-released as well (stealth tech, cloaking tech, etc.)

-Note: I was thinking of a spider-like mining bot with 6-8 M-Ports that could hold off an asteroid and mine for another pilot (say in a Moth) to come and collect. The problem being as you mentioned, 8-ports = 8 guns, not just 8 Mining Lasers.
(Much as I do currently with my Rag, AutoJett plugin and a friend for those of you that have seen me in game doing it)
Jul 21, 2008 Trinexx link
Aye, maybe a general auxiliary port would be a good idea. Not just for mining lasers and scanners, but for pretty much anything that isn't a weapon.

Support ships, anyone?
Jul 21, 2008 vardonx link
Better yet and maybe more in the realm of current technology....

Be able to produce your own collectors, similar to the Stygian Furies we can produce now.

You can target the collectors to a sector or maybe just a single roid, and when they are full they report back to you wherever you are at the time (just like the AI ones).

If they get zapped you lose them and their cargo.
Jul 21, 2008 theratt10 link
But what would those collectors be labeled so that friendlys or botting players didn't shoot them?

Unaligned probably wouldn't work. And calling them "Serco" or another nation would make them seem not Player owned.
Jul 21, 2008 iry link
What about using the grid system?

Make higher level mining beams have significantly reduced grid usage, that way a ship could have dozens of ports. The ports could only be filled with higher end equipment, such as a 1 grid mining beams. Currently most weapons use 4 grid each so rigging up an autodeath^2 load would not be possible. Making some less than 1 grid mining beams might also be possible
Jul 25, 2008 kreios link
one thing that could be a great help as far as gameplay goes is the scanner... when you select an asteroid that is to far away. your hud first says "to far away to scan" if you get closer it does not change :( you must first deselect it and then select it again... very cumbersome/annoying...
Jul 25, 2008 ryan reign link
EV Nova had a GREAT ship for mining...id love to see something like that...(that doesnt violate copy right laws)...

but anyways, theres alota people that would LOVE to see a "sub capitol" or capital mining ship...miners, traders, pirates...etc...etc...
Jul 25, 2008 missioncreek2 link
I like vardox's collector bot idea. Perhaps there could be a storage bot too, that would accumulate all the ore from the collector bot(s) while the player was busy, or offline. Finding an opponent's storage bot would be a treasure!