We need ways to earn credits that brings pilots into conflict with one another.

I suggest that players could own and control collector bots. These bots could be assigned to mine 24/7 without the owner logged on. They would fill their hold, and deliver to the nearest station. The PDA interface for controlling mining bots would be limited to say 5 bots. Extra bots could be stored at a station.

Orun Collectors would be available for purchase from stations at the equivalent cost of 24 hours of ishik ore mining. More capable mining bots must be captured.

Capture Proceedure:

Bots with less than 5% armor are vulnerable to a new S port "EMP Hack" gun. Firing the gun on the weak bot for a few seconds transfers it's control to your PDA.

With a universe redux that redestributes the valuable ore to gray space, rich ore bodies will become strategic ground for conquest. Groups of players may work together to protect their "claim." Privateers may find a market for captured advanced mining bots. Even pirates may support their trade with the mining bots.

This PDA Bot interface could be expanded to include escort bots, transport bots, and refining bots which concentrate ore into a dense valuable metal.

These would get raped in a way that I cannot begin to describe.

It's like Pokemon!

I actually kind of like this idea... if all the ore more valuable than ishik will be located in specific areas in grey, then we could easily screw up all of your operations. Only I'd make it so that there would be destroyable player-owned "storage bots" that you could put in any empty sector you want. The collectors would bring their cargo there such as how they do with Hive Queens and the players themselves would have to collect the cargo from the stores and sell it at a station. And, of course, we could destroy your stores and split the booty. But anyways, that would get rid of the possibility of players collecting money while logged off.

Yes, Lecter & Shank, this is exactly the idea. Weak bots do the manual labor, and the player's role is advanced to manager and escort. A pilot exploiting valuable gray ore bodies will have to be shrewd and strategic to conserve his collector bots. A pilot in nation space would reap thin rewards. In any case, the bots should garage themselves after a few days of successful unattended operation for service.

Shank:

The "storage bots" you suggest could be refining bots. A collector delivers 25 cu helos ore to the refining bot. The bot refines 1 cu pure helos metal, worth about 30 times the value of the helos ore, and weighing about the same as 1 cu helos ore. The refining bot holds say 120 cu.

Question: Should the refining bot be capable of delivering the load to a station, (vulnerable but automatic) or should a pilot be required to deliver the load?

If you're suggesting some form of concentration (effectively packing 30 cus of helio into 1 cu of space in a 120-200cu refinery... all the more reason it's not automatic.

I actually like this. I'd suggest that the bots require a player escort or after 24-48 hours of mining they return on their own. The escort is safer and if the player can't be bothered to escort them then they risk losing them to other players or the hive.

Also, assuming that the players could see who attacked/killed their mining bots... this could do a great deal for alliances between players and guilds/guilds and guilds/nations... etc... etc...

It wouldn't force player interaction, but it would certainly make guilds and individual players more competitive over resources.

I would devote most if not all of my play time to destroying these--Hell, I'd give up sleep and log on more. It'd be like junking oruns, except I know some asshole's play time, in the form of credits, is tied up in their survival.

See? It encourages player interaction! Also, insomnia.

Yes Ryan, I'm thinking along the same lines. If a player has only mining bots, they would mine in their assigned sector on their assigned roid(s) until they are full. I imagine the capacity of an Orun is about 25 cu. Then they would transit to their assigned station, drop their load, and return for another run. While mining they would be relatively safe especially with fully implemented roid occlusion, but coming and going from a station they would be Lector bait.

If there were a refining bot present, then the mining bots could deliver in sector to it. When it is full of refined Helos Metal, there is a valuable cargo to be delivered. (1500 cr x 30 concentration x 120 cu = 5.4 million). Lector can disable and steal the refining bot, kill the bot and steal the cargo, kill the owner when he transports it to a station, or obtain a "security fee" from the owner.

I've been asking for one of these for quite some time... although all I've really wanted was a invincible mining bot whose only purpose was to follow me around and fake-mine with me... you know... to keep you company...

But this will do :)

I'm not sure about the refinining bot... I would just want a storage bot, like how some sectors have the single transport in them. It would just have a large storage (somewhat larger than a moth?) be somewhat slow and your bots would dock+unload with it, rather than this refining business. After the storage bot is full, either the bots will stay behind and continue mining until they're full (at which point they wait for the storage bot to return) or the mining bots will follow the storage/refining bot as it heads back to the station to unload ore.

If there is a a bot cap put in place, say 5, then basic collectors might take up 1 space, whereas the storage/refining bot takes up 2, and other more advanced mining bots take up 2+ of the limit.

I don't know how long it took to get the LAR (or whatever) mission bots to work right (they are quite buggy as it stands even) though.

In the interest of preventing exploits (like sitting around making free money all night and then packing up your bots when a pirate logs on) the player should not have very fine-grained control over the bots. You pick a sector and deploy them, they mine for exactly 24 hours, and then return to a station and dock. The storage/refinery/whatever bot sits in the sector the entire time, collecting ore from the mining bots over the 24 hour period, and then flies back to the nearest station and hangs out until the owner comes to pick up the proceeds.

The bots should equip one beam with the same stats as the basic small port mining beam. A hard limit must be imposed on the number that can be active at a given time - probably 4 + transport.

I like the basic idea - as long as the bots are restricted to low grade ore and limited in the amount of ore they can mine in 24 hours.

I like this idea.

Players shouldn't have there own bots because even if it is just for 24 hours, it is basically free money if no one destroys it. You don't have to do any work. Instead of players being able to use it, make capital ships and space stations have these. They could give missions to prevent them from being destroyed. When player controlled capital ships and space stations come out. As a reward for making one, you can have bots that mine for you, however the capital ship has to be logged in to use the bots and can not log out while there is a not blown up bot that hasn't returned yet. I image there will be a command to blow up all bots outside of the ship so you can speed up logging out.

PaKettle: In my view, a primary purpose of the Mining Bots is to bring players who would not normally mine themselves into competition for valuable ores, especially in Gray Space.

landron: I'm not concerned about the bots as a credit exploit. Currently VO lives on Escorts, which are free money. These bots will be expensive (about 2.5 million), so players using them will be exposed to substantial risk. In Gray space they will pay for themselves in 24 hrs of mining, but much longer in nation space (after the universe redux). Since the bots can be captured and sold, or their cargo scavenged, pilots will take a risk to work them unattended. I think that fine control over the bots will be OK, given how efficiently a pirate can wreck and entire Voy. He should have some chance of shepherding his flock of Oruns to the station.

There really is no reason or need to restrict them to lesser ores.

Players shouldn't have there own bots because even if it is just for 24 hours, it is basically free money if no one destroys it.

As opposed to escorts, which are free money, period.

I'm not concerned about the bots as a credit exploit.

That's rather naive of you, missingcreek2.

landron? laundron? laundromatic?

I kid.

I'm not sure this would make sense, at least not in a credit-bloated universe such as ours. Maybe later, when everyone's poor?

I really like the idea that player owned Capships or stations can have a flock of mining/transport bots!

Instead of a auto-miner (dont like auto-*), maybe a mining convergence point, like a mining heavy capship parked at gray, paying best prices in universe for who delivers freshly mined ore? check http://www.vendetta-online.com/x/msgboard/3/22398.

Some turrets and guards deployed to make a larger NFZ around this ship, while different stations offers missions to (mine|escort|convoy|predate) related to this "hot spot". Missions are not related to each other except for convergence on location.

And NOT, this does NOT replaces SedB8. Its an entirely different stuff.