Mining field depletion

[Leppy]

Is it possible to have the fields dynamically replenish rather than only at server restart?

[Danny-boy]

Is it possible to have field depletion, but also have the fields recharge at a faster rate (let's say maybe 3-4 hours from empty to full?) so that it can encourage corporate warfare, but not screw folks in other time zones completely?

3-4 hours is still enough to ruin things for people, if someone decides to organise a convoy and when they get into the game they discover the hard way that someone else mined out the three fields that existed just an hour ago I doubt everyone is going to wait 2-3 hours for the field to regen. It is far, far, far better just to leave field drain off. Either that or make it recharge within 5-10 mins and also increase the maximum amount that can be mined before the field is drained by 50,000 so that large mining ops can take place without having to deal with terrible drop rates. In other words it would be much better to leave field drain off.

Otherwise, what about making depletion dependent upon field location? Example: primary fields closest to major bases and operations offer high yields but deplete quicker, while having way more distant fields that have a less desirable drop rate (better than empty, but not as good as primary) but don't deplete at all.

This just over complicates things, to be honest the mining mod needs to be made simpler and there needs to be less variables effecting where people can mine and what the drop rate is, not more. Also why should the field next to the base have the higher drop rate? Won't that field have been depleted by the faction first, it is also a lot safer from pirate attacks. It would make no sense to have the field closest to the base (both inrp and oorp) to be the best field. In that same frame of mind wouldn't the fields further out have been mined less and therefore have a higher drop rate? Not to mention the fact that it is harder to escape from pirates and so you would want miners there rather than at the other field.

Would this effect the h-3 fields in the sigmas? I keep hearing those fields are broken.

You know I am not sure they were ever broken so much as just had a really low drop rate (probably made worse by the fact that they can now be drained). Try putting 5 mining lasers on a GMG Anki and testing the fields after a server restart, assuming they are not broken you could expect to see drops of about 5-7 in Sigma 13 (all those fields have a base drop rate of 1) and about 8-11 in Sigma 19 (those fields have a base drop rate of 1.5). Ofc with the Anki in Okinawa (which has slightly better fields) you can get average drops of about 17.

i apologize a thousand times for overreading the word "accidently" - thy for this helpful advivce.

No apology needed, I understand that it can be difficult to take in 13 word posts at times, I am glad I could help.

But looking at the situation now - i think there is quiete a lot of interaction at the Dublin fields - well Kruger / IMG fields in O7 is not that much interaction, but too. There are many fields you can mine all over the Sirius. If you reduce them to a few single fields you may get some more interaction there but rest will be empty.
Forcing all to one field will mean ONLY mining in groups is efficient. Individual mining will die in this case.

Firstly I would like to clarify something about the 'Mega' fields idea (I think you got the idea, but just in case others don't). This wouldn't mean deleting all the fields in Dublin and moving them to O7 or something, people would still be able to mine in all of the systems that they currently can (which is a pretty large number as it is), however fields within that system would be combined into one. So for example instead of having BMM/IMG/Molly/Independent gold fields in Dublin there would be one big gold field in Dublin with high drop rates in which everyone would have to compete for resources.

I also don't think that mining in groups will become any more efficient (definitely a lot more fun due to the increased danger though) and nor do I think it would kill of individual mining (although it would become more dangerous). I'll explain why as I carry on with this post.

Group mining is already supported by better drop for small mining ships, which i think is a good thing.

Not really a relevant point in terms of the discussion that we are having but I do agree here. On this note I would just like to point out how cool it would be if all the mining freighters (which is like every house freighter + the GMG freighter and the Annapurna) could have 4 adjacent mining turrets so that some pre-mining could be done prior to transports arriving in the field, some already do (some also have more than 4 such as the Anki which has 5) but it would be really nice in terms of mining balance if they all had the same number (i.e. 4) as each adjacent mining turret nets a bonus of roughly 20% to your average drop rate.

What kind of interactions you like to see at the fields ? More bashing in the fields ? Or more piraciy ? Or more miners equipped with cau's fleeing from some pirates or competitors ? (by the way fleeing is nearly impossible). I cant imagine getting more (polite) RP by concentrating mining fields.

I imagine all of those things, I fail to understand how all of this stuff is not 'more [...] RP'. Just because things are more dangerous for the miner it does not mean there is less role play, infact the more interactions that you have generally the more RP that you will receive. As well as the things you pointed out I also expect to see more miners (be them indie or otherwise) in the field having to compete with other mining factions, I see people having to hire more escorts (this is something both indies and official factions can do), I also expect to see more miners grouping together to defeat pirates, I see more miners actually paying the pirates and I also imagine more people on their police/navy chars in the fields so that they can rp/pvp with the pirates and everyone else around.

Yes, this makes things harder for the individual miner and therefore favours groups (not official groups as you say but any groups) as the game should, after all this is a multilayer game, not a sit by yourself in the far corners of the system evading any and all interaction game. Ofc this doesn't make it impossible to mine as an indie it just means that there are more challenges (and maybe even more support if you can hire escorts or call police chars for support or band together with the other individual miners in the same field).

At this point it also worth pointing out that even with the way the game currently is there is nothing to stop what you described happening, it just takes the pirate a longer time to search every field in an effort to find the lone miner. Ofc with the larger field there would be a lot more frequent action going on so this sort of thing would probably happen more often, quite possibly with lawfuls also in the field backing up the miners.

e.g. as a Transporter Pilot i waited 4 hours in Omega 7 to find a miner willing to fill me. Then a "non-official" kruger - but kruger iff and id hegemon came to fill me. Individual miners and traders more often interact with other people than most officials, because it is needed to get cargo or customer. Officials do this interaction -which is really good- when enough of them on.

Yes when there is a group of friends whom all know each other it is easier for them to come together and play the game than having to sift through the player list for hours on end hoping that you have found a miner/hauler that wants to play with you. It is a good reason to join a faction. To say that official factions do not interact with other people as much though is not true. Often when we are mining for an IMG convoy indies will bring their transports to be filled up. The only thing that you are really pointing out here is that as an indie it is necessary to sit there for a long time sending a message to everyone on the player list hoping that they will mine for you whereas in a group of people (again be it an official faction or a random group of friends) that is not needed. Again another good reason to join an official faction, but it certainly does not kill off individual mining, it is just a better alternative.

But when they are gone the Indie Players will be slaughtered at the mining field - because pirates now (when mining fields are concentrated) dont have to look at which field they are - there is only one left.

Like I said earlier the pirates would attack anyway when the group leaves the area, it will just take them an extra 5 mins to search the fields, what would the individual miner do in that time normally that is much better and would prevent them from leaving the game? Dock and log off? At least this way they are all together and have a chance of killing the pirates. There is also nothing to stop these individual miners from hiring escorts or calling police players (although again I already said this).

The suggestions above may be good for official groups - but try to think as an Indie, too.

So does this really do anything bad for indies other than meaning that an interaction goes ahead maybe 5 mins before it normally would? No not really, if anything it gives them more of a chance to interact with other people be it in calling for help, working with the other indies in the area or paying the pirate. That is at the end of the day much better than using those 5 mins to dock and log off.

Ofc this favours group efforts (again not just official groups but unofficial ones too), as the game should. It is a Multilayer game after all, but now I really do sound like a broken record.





Oh and sorry for the lengthy post that kind of de-railed this thread.

[Commander Crucible]

Can't we just leave it in the same state before alley changed it.
Why try to fix something thats not broken.

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[Danny-boy]

To make it better? My pc runs well but by sticking a newer graphics card in it the PC will work better than before.

[jammi]

Plus the mining mod was specifically designed to benefit groups of people working together anyway. Solo miners are never going to be the priority, or I dare say, the right way of mining. Indy or faction is irrelevant. The only divide that's important in mining is alone or together.

Mining drain is generally a terrible idea as well. For the people defending it, consider this example. How is corporate warfare encouraged when the people strip mining your field are of the sane faction and affiliation? They're immune to anything you might do and you're getting screwed by bad yields, so you just don't log in. Great net benefit there.

[JohnyWalker]

I disagree with mining field depletion for some reasons:

1. Recently, some players left the server due a bit hard to make money as miners (around 8 players in only 2 weeks!) So... i suspecting this number would rise (already happened in the past)
2. Helium BAR will suffer this a lot hehehehe, but not only the Helium BAR in pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is the first system for starting, and usually plenty of newbies trying to earn their first bucks. Imagine if the field start to be depleted just for 3 or 4 miners working there... the newbies incoming will have no way for earning money.

Instead changing this (i think unuseful), why not change a simple KEY for dropping all cargo?. Simple than changing SUICIDE KEY (nobody use that...) for this feature. This will help A LOT to all miners. Long time ago someone told me "it would be added in the future..." (2 years ago now) "... its a simple FLhook change, but not urgent right now"... Miners we still waiting hehe.

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(Thanks Suis)

[Jack_Henderson]

It was stated that it was an accident. Therefore it seems natural that it will be switched off again.

And veterans will agree that field drain was a stupid feature.
The sigh of relief after the feature's deactivation was everywhere.

For those that are new to Disco and did not know what field drain did:

It made you log, realize "the field is bad", and log off again.
It made official factions war their own indies on proxies because "indies mine field empty!!!"
It screwed over factions with lower bonuses because with a x2 and a mid-depleted field mining was unbearable and "k, log off".
It made checking for bugs in the mining system totally impossible because you could never pin down a reason for weird readings.

Field drain was a really bad addition that is not necessary any more with lower players.
It was a measure that somewhat made sense 3 years ago. Today there is no single advantage that it would bring.

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