I would suggest a different approach to mining. If it takes a specific time for mining fields to regenerate, they will just never regenerate as people will simply keep mining them, even while the field is low. I suppose this is determined by the willingness to mine for long periods of time. However, there is always someone willing to do it.
My suggestion would be to either have the fields regenerate at specific intervals throughout a day or perhaps even have them at random intervals. That should be fun. Therefore if a field starts with say 100000 or so ore. When it gets mined out, it remains at the low drop rate for three to four hours and then it is back up to the original 100000, no matter who continued to mine it. Thus always allowing for someone to determine when they would like to mine. It would also be interesting to even divide the fields up themselves. Starting from the center and moving outwards. Say 5 kms, then 10 kms and so on. Forcing miners to move away from stations the more they mine. It also allows players to spread out and increases the chances of piracy.
For the smaller mining ships I would suggest a more long-term approach. Make them freighters instead, with a 500 cargo capacity and with the ability to either drop the cargo at a press of a button or alternatively, if there is a hegemon or transport handy, a means to beaming the cargo there instead of to the freighter.
My last suggestion would be to increase the number of fields, make mining interesting by allowing miners to move all over Sirius. Also, increase the number of selling points, have one in each house. Determine the price via the length of time it takes to get there from the mining fields. Thus miners can also choose whether they want more profit and more risk or less profit and more time to mine.
So far I like what I see, there may be kinks that need to be ironed out, like having nothing to mine yesterday. However, the outcome should be incredibly exciting with a major impact to how RP is done. Thank you for trying to solve this mess. It is appreciated.
' Wrote:I will like to suggest when a field is depleted that it will take at least 30-45 minutes to fully recharge.
I'd say:
> Field drops fully for some time
> then middle drops for a long time
> then low drops (5-10) for some time until it is spent
> no lower drops (like 1-4 in Dublin now) because this is oorply frustrating AND does not make players migrate to unspent fields because there is ore left!
> Zero drop for 12-24 hours (randomized, so that there is no say when it is back up)
> Then full capacity => new cycle
Advantage: Migration is necessary. And this has positive effects on roleplay because points of focus shift between places and commodities, this trading routes and selling places shift and the whole action becomes dynamic (even in a fixed price system).
Setting local chat as the default is a great move. Really glad to see that.
I noticed someone above mentioning having freighters as mining vehicles. This is something I'd really like to see. Freighters are great ships that are sadly underused.
from my understanding the drop rate system was intended to get folks out of fields and into new ones. BMM-, which currently has real access to 2 fields (cambrdige, dublin) is having a serious problem. We can shoot BMM indies or any lawfuls for that matter. it would make sense when we are in omega or the taus and are competing against other factions for droprates, but in dublin, thats not the case. we can't compete against the IMG because our ID forbids us. we cant compete against BMM indies because our ID forbids us (and thats OORP and being an arse) was it inteded so we start fighting?
i suggest the following: Make the three mining fields in Dublin inversely proportional regarding mining yield. meaning when h4 and g3 are over-mined, d7 will become the ideal spot for mining. this will encourage MMC to become targets of jealousy (thus making them targets and no longer safe at all in their own field) and encourages BMM miners to bite the bullet and invade the field
adding the inverse proportion to the cambrdige field with the dublin field wouldn't be a bad idea though :3
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in regards to defualt local, please please PLEASE make a new caego commodity that explains all the server commands a newbie needs to know also indicate what the local default means.