Non-rock Mining

[Friday]

STAGE 1: COMPLETE
STAGE 2: IN PROGRESS
STAGE 3: IN PROGRESS
STAGE 4: IN PROGRESS

Stage 1 is to have lootable ice chunks around a Gas Miner.
The field is small - only about 300 long. It straddles across a Gas Miner such that one ship can fit inside the field either side.
There are no big asteroids, no particles other than the lootable rocks - so it doesnt detract from the visuals or ship flight paths.
I have the default drop rate set the same as the Silverton Field in Colorado.

Stage 2 is to sort out the in-system dynamics.
Specifically I want to address the issue of travel distance to a docking point. it is not fair on pirates if the Gas Miners are too close to safe harbour.
To this end i shall explore the idea of moving the miners further away - as well as repositioning some miners +- 2K from the plane - so the overall cluster of miners is more distant from safe harbour.

Stage 3 is to sort out the drop rates. Looking at the FLHook code - it wont be too difficult to assign drop rates for the appropriate factions.
I would also be looking at lowering the dynamic asteroid count in Sigma-13 - as it is supposed to be running low on sufficiently dense H-Fuel reserves. With less rocks being spawned it should take longer to mine a load - and thus counter the closer distance of this system to any sell points.

Stage 4 is sorting out the economy. It may well mean deleting the local buy points for H-Fuel - and having the nearest points out further, like Mainz, Aomori or Osaka, and perhaps Shinjuku or Narita for the Samura traders.
And of course it will mean looking at the furthest sell points, and giving them a suitable price.

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