Development Notice: Mining Update

[eigos]

As a slightly zany suggestion, maybe give Nomads a mining bonus on some new commodity? It could be like what old normal scrap used to be for Junkers, but with better balancing I'd hope. If it was placed in somewhere like Iota, it'd create ambient activity in the Nomad home system and provide incentive for factions like Core and Order to raid (Iota has always been incredibly empty).

Dude, that was my thought as well! Make some RP commodities for nomads and create a practical use for them - like, growing their ships...or food for themselves... or God knows what.

And imagine a human group stumbling onto one of their mining operations... that would be like stepping onto a hornet's nest and they could really become pissed!

Even a nomad POB project, like building their own hives (maybe smaller ones) and humans getting a shot at them... that'd be epic as hell.

[Omi]

I'd argue that Zoners don't really have anything to back up Iridium mining

Nice changes, though. Corsairs getting something sweet for themselves for a change is cool.

---

[Lythrilux]

@eigos
Perhaps some form of heavily purified Cardamine that can be extracted from somewhere in the Nomad Worlds and then ferried back to their Hives?

---

[eigos]

That, or gaseous clouds of something they like sniffing on... or Dom Kvosh artifacts they want to collect... or some sort of bio organism matter that forms their hives... or something of more spiritual value...

---

Special promotion on cloaks. Made In Donesia.

*We claim no responsibility for any kind of damage or sudden explosion that might occur from proper use of this product.

[Moberg]

I think a lot of people have been excited about this for quite some time. Looks very promising.
Some things I'm noticing: Xeno artifacts are balanced at around 690 credits/s (normal ores are around 640).
Iridium is balanced like other ores, with a standard price at Dortmund, 90% at the sair and cast shipyards and 70% at the other unlawful/Junker buyers.
I'm not sure how Azurite is balanced but it's definitely using a longer mining constant time than the standard 480 seconds which makes sense when you consider the mining rate is supposed to be "very slow".

Xeno artifacts are balanced differently because of their unlawful origin. Turning the commodity into profit requires two ships with different IDs, and trading them is essentially smuggling. In a news article dealing with the distribution of Xeno Relics among the blackmarket all governments are advised to put them as contraband. Alternatively, the profit at a houses capital can be tuned down if it's not treated as contraband.

And the mining time takes much longer indeed.
a) Asteroids are more difficult to hit.
b) Constant hazard if you're not limiting yourself to a very small arc in the mining area.
c) Mining area is very cramped and allows only one escape, making mining dangerous. Scanner interferences makes it unable to notice targets until they're sufficiently close to the mining area
d) Asteroids drop commodities half as often, and at 3/5 maximum yield compared to other fields if they do.

One question: Iridium is "Mined by AI, Core, Order and Zoners at 3x bonus" and Azurite is "Mined by Core, Order and IRG at 3x bonus."
Does this mean that IRG get a bonus on Azurite but regular Zoners do not? Do IRG get a bonus on Iridium?
It's unprecedented that an official faction gets an ore indies cannot mine and I hope that's not what's going on here.

Zoners are excluded from Azurite because they generally don't have the sufficient knowledge available to them. In that case, they can use the Order as substitute to gather it for them. IRG however is a rather special case, given that they are an official faction focused on research and roleplay. This makes them special enough to say that they have the knowledge to extract some of the Azurite without a doubt.

Finally, regarding the ships: The Clydesdale and Rhino are already balanced as Quad-turret mining freighters giving Core and Order a big advantage. The X-Shuttle/Voyager is useless for mining as it has only one forward turret.
The Dromedary and Correo only have two parallel turrets so Zoner and Corsairs should consider requesting another freighter (maybe the Sunburst).

Each respective OF is welcome to request up to a total of 3 mining ships, given they have the justification to have the ship in the first place, as pointed out in the update post.

Alright, it was just funny to see all omicron factions getting mining commodities, but Outcasts.

Outcasts are a bit more difficult to put into all of this, as their presence in the deeper and southern Omicrons is rather limited. I have something for them planned in the Taus and Sigmas to create ambient activity and competition with their enemies. (Including Corsairs, of course)

Instead I'd much prefer if Corsairs got a mining bonus on Iridium. Many people are discontent that the Corsairs have been forcefully 'booted out' of Omicron Delta and the southern Omicrons in general.

Corsairs are the most qualified to get a bonus there themselves, but it will require a bit of roleplay before that happens. Corsairs also weren't 'forcefully booted out', the whole development was arranged with the people in charge at the time with the justification given in the infocards: Increased focus on the Omegas, little focus on the deeper Omicrons. If that changes in the future and Corsairs have easier access to Lost (via Order/Zoners, I don't know) then I'll gladly add a bonus.

Quasi-lawful FR5s are extremely problematic for activity when it comes to unlawful factions. Leave it to the actual factions that are based in the Omicrons

I believe you are exaggerating on this. The Core FR5 was a consequence from an action much greater than simple piracy. Actually, in the 5 years here, I don't remember any other faction FR5 by the Zoners apart from the Order one, which was a mistake and rightfully reverted after TAZ got a seperate IFF. Additionally, I believe the Corsair official factions are entirely capable of striking a deal with the Zoners to overlook the occasional 'export tax', if need be.

As a slightly zany suggestion, maybe give Nomads a mining bonus on some new commodity? It could be like what old normal scrap used to be for Junkers, but with better balancing I'd hope. If it was placed in somewhere like Iota, it'd create ambient activity in the Nomad home system and provide incentive for factions like Core and Order to raid (Iota has always been incredibly empty). And Nomads are a race of aliens, not just outright monsters. Creating some sort of, dare I say, 'civilian' life of them could be a possibility, right? A bit of resource gathering for their cause?

Nomads are not going to have a way to earn money efficiently via trading/mining. Allowing human-mined commodites in Omicron Iota is an intriguing idea though. I've looked at creating certain nomad/pirate themed raid systems which are still around on my disk, only accessible from Iota or during an event on weekends, with rewards ranging from expensive commodities to material for weapon manufacturing.
The key point is here, that Iota is inRP very strictly guarded, and chances of escape are close to zero in roleplay.

[Lythrilux]

Corsairs are the most qualified to get a bonus there themselves, but it will require a bit of roleplay before that happens. Corsairs also weren't 'forcefully booted out', the whole development was arranged with the people in charge at the time with the justification given in the infocards: Increased focus on the Omegas, little focus on the deeper Omicrons. If that changes in the future and Corsairs have easier access to Lost (via Order/Zoners, I don't know) then I'll gladly add a bonus.

IMO It'd be silly that they'd need to do RP and ultimately request the bonus when they pretty much touched the commodity before anyone else did.

I believe you are exaggerating on this. The Core FR5 was a consequence from an action much greater than simple piracy. Actually, in the 5 years here, I don't remember any other faction FR5 by the Zoners apart from the Order one, which was a mistake and rightfully reverted after TAZ got a seperate IFF. Additionally, I believe the Corsair official factions are entirely capable of striking a deal with the Zoners to overlook the occasional 'export tax', if need be.

Core FR5 isn't as comparable as Core are firstly lawfuls and secondly they aren't dependent on Zoner, or generally speaking Quasi-lawful, bases to maintain their activity. Unlawful factions, whilst not dependent on them in places such as the Omicrons, rely on Quasi-lawful bases for their activity in systems where there's an overwhelming lawful presence. Deals could be struck, but the Zoner player base is often an extremely volatile one, hence why Zoner drama is often such a thing. I guess it'll just be a matter of watching what happens.

---

Also @ Azurite IRG pretty much thought up and fleshed out the commodity ooRPly afaik so it's fair they'd get a bonus tbh.

On the subject of mining ships, could Core also be able to mine with the Rhino as well? It's ironic because we currently have a fair amount of players in the faction with Rhinos. And also hearing how bad the X-Shuttle is could that be swapped out with Hegemons perhaps?

---

Nomads are not going to have a way to earn money efficiently via trading/mining. Allowing human-mined commodites in Omicron Iota is an intriguing idea though. I've looked at creating certain nomad/pirate themed raid systems which are still around on my disk, only accessible from Iota or during an event on weekends, with rewards ranging from expensive commodities to material for weapon manufacturing.
The key point is here, that Iota is inRP very strictly guarded, and chances of escape are close to zero in roleplay.

You could add 'stronghold raid' esque mechanics in the Omicrons, like with popular MMORPGs. A human mineable commodity that sells highly on local bases could be a good catalyst for that.

Someone should really add Blood Moons to the mod though.

---

[Durandal]

I've been pretty silent about this, but could the Hellfire Legion get the buypoints for Niobium and Helium-3 transferred to Hesperia instead of Ouray? Right now the Xenos and Rogues constitute all of the outlawed factions in Liberty importing mined goods, which I feel is rather unfair to the LH and HF. Perhaps consider switching two commodities from Buffalo over to Cochrane as well to give the LH some love?

Edit: Seems the same holds true for every unlawful buypoint except Bretonia (who only have two unlawful factions to buy goods)

Divvying them up in Kusari for the Hogosha and GC and in Rheinland for the Bundschuh and Unioners so that all the house 'bad guys' have buy points would be cool.

[WesternPeregrine]

West - Hoje 16:03
> can someone ask in this thread please why there are no sell points in gallia?

---

SIGNATURE

Kusari Former Mastermind

========================

| The Kusari Legal Codex |
| Character Profiles | The North Star Bulletin News|

[Lythrilux]

---------------

---

[Moberg]

The only place where Nomad gunboats are set to spawn in Delta are the Nomad base, and that's more than 19k away from the reactor. Your source is wrong.