This is a general thought, and critizism about the complete development of the mining system over the last years:
Mistakes, in my opinion, were/are:
Too many ores
Too many places
Too little interaction
Too many non-miners that can mine
I suggest cutting down on ore numbers, radically.
Examples to show my points:
Omicron Activity Center: 1 ore for e.g. OC/Sairs that is exactly between Alpha and Gamma. 1 field. 1 commodity. Exact same distance to next dockable base. Enemies mining the same thing in the same place. => minus one ore => minus one place where activity spreads => plus: an activity hub where players meet
Dublin Activity Center: 1 ore (Gold) in 1 field for e.g. Molly, BMM, IMG in Dublin. Same distance to dockable bases. And... you would have interaction again. Not like 3 fields at maximum distance from each other where everybody mines alone happily and enjoys single-player gaming.
Omega Activity Center: Omega 7 for example. 1 field (instead of a record 7), 1 commodity. IMG, DHC, Kruger base at the same distance. Same mining bonus. Go! Meet. Interact. Plus, if we have to have unlawfuls mine, then add Hessian bonus, too.
You get the idea, hopefully.
Furthermore, we need:
Field Standardization: O3 Comet has around 6 rocks / screen with great contrast, Dublin has 2 with no contrast. You mine 2 minutes with same multiplier in field 1 on ID 1, and 5 minutes on ID 2 with same bonus in a field.
Field Unification: 1 big fields with 1 commodity where everybody can mine, meet, roleplay, interact. Kill all the fields but 1. Stuff like 3 little fields of Niobum in T23 is bad. 7 fields in O7 is bad. 1. It has to be one. A big one. Where everybody is. Furthermore, newbies are screwed over big time. I bet I have told hundreds of newbies which of the 3 little Niobium fields are inactive.
Distance Fairness: Lawful mining parties should have a dockable base at the same distance to the field. I suggest 20-25 k. So that it is a challenge for both unlawful and lawful with no one having no chance at all. For balance, unlawful bases should be ~ 60k away (compare Tau23).
POB rules: No POB should be allowed to be closer than the 20-25k NPC bases. Interaction must be guaranteed, cheap ways out should not be available.
I know that this is radical.
I know this calls for system editing
But Disco needs less spread.
It needs more centralisation.
I needs focus on activity centers.
It's better to have 5 flashpoint systems (Borderworlds between Houses, Omicrons) than 10 options where everybody grinds like a single player game and complains whenever he meets someone.