This isn't about the profit or usage of the Azurite Gas. This is about the extraction process.
Azurite Mining right now is just bells and whistles. Sure, you have this fairly cool looking reactor object inside this huge amalgamation of Tohoku rocks and Nomad ruins objects, but I can't help but feel that Azurite's desire to be so different to every other 'ore' actually negatively hurts its own appeal.
For starters, it's painfully slow to mine. I can't begin to understate how unappealing this is. Secondly, you have to navigate to a fairly obscure entrance into this huge structure that can take a while to circumnavigate. Thirdly, you are forced to fly small miners into a tiny reactor, with turrets, that also saps your speed, and there's very high mildly annoying radiation. Solo-mining with Hegemons is an essential building block for creating an active mining field. I could go through my old JM|- bounty kills and the vast majority of claims would be on IMG Hegemons more so than any other mining ship. It's also discouraging indies from mining themselves and almost exclusively making it a commodity that can only be mined if you band up in a faction. Limiting the field to just small miners is not good for gameplay or activity, imo.
I feel the intent here was to create 'danger', but it honestly comes across as more annoying than being threatening. It feels like a load of ideas that sounded good in the concept being forced into one place with less than stellar execution.
If Azurite wants to be taken seriously as a mining commodity, this needs to change. I recall before the Azurite reactor was added in, the Azurite field was actually a normal, open mining field with a large Nomad power generator type of object in the middle. This would have been a much better alternative to what we have now.
Being inspired by this, I decided to produce a concept of how I think the Azurite field could be considerably improved for interactions and mining:
Present in the image is the following:
The Azurite field is a standard open ore field, allowing for ships of larger sizes access.
The Azurite field itself has been increased to 3k to allow greater numbers of players in it at once.
The original Azurite reactor generator is back, to give the field a better aesthetic over standard ore fields.
A 6k Nomad minefield with a cube density of 350 that can instakill fighters and do considerable damage to a Hegemon if the pilot is not careful. This would also be quite deadly to capitals as well. The 'PvE' risk of mining is now present when leaving and entering the field, however once inside it, it's sort of like "the eye of the storm". Players would still pose a threat.
A slightly lower radiation value, that encourages lengthy mining but still requires a pilot to leave for repairs every now and then.
(Hypothetical, since I have no idea how to do it myself or can't remember) a 50% at least increased mining speed. I've never understood why it's so bloody slow.
i'm not trying to be a dev i just thought my idea would be easier to understand if you could actually see it
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I don't know anything about Azurite since I never mined there, but 1 thing I do know is: don't mine in a Hegemon. Solo mining is not worth it and in groups you want freighters or light fighters because they're simply much faster at mining. Even if you're mining for people who aren't in the field yet, a freighter is enough by dropping increments of 500 units. It might seem annoying at start but because of the mining speed difference it's noticeably better overall.
(07-26-2018, 10:39 PM)Antonio Wrote: I don't know anything about Azurite since I never mined there, but 1 thing I do know is: don't mine in a Hegemon. Solo mining is not worth it and in groups you want freighters or light fighters because they're simply much faster at mining. Even if you're mining for people who aren't in the field yet, a freighter is enough by dropping increments of 500 units. It might seem annoying at start but because of the mining speed difference it's noticeably better overall.
(07-26-2018, 10:35 PM)Lythrilux Wrote: Solo-mining with Hegemons is an essential building block for creating an active mining field. I could go through my old JM|- bounty kills and the vast majority of claims would be on IMG Hegemons more so than any other mining ship. It's also discouraging indies from mining themselves and almost exclusively making it a commodity that can only be mined if you band up in a faction.
(07-26-2018, 10:39 PM)Antonio Wrote: I don't know anything about Azurite since I never mined there, but 1 thing I do know is: don't mine in a Hegemon. Solo mining is not worth it and in groups you want freighters or light fighters because they're simply much faster at mining. Even if you're mining for people who aren't in the field yet, a freighter is enough by dropping increments of 500 units. It might seem annoying at start but because of the mining speed difference it's noticeably better overall.
I don't solo mine myself, but I'm keeping indies and newbies that aren't in large factions in mind here. I request the Hegemon on The Core ID and a selling point on Ennibeck because there are really barely any indie miners in the Omicrons. The mining activity was exclusively done by official factions.
As a person that enjoys mining I can say that Azurite mining is one of the worst things on Disco. Having said that, you really have to hate yourself to mine Azurite in a Hegemon. Even with a freighter the drops are awful, let alone Hegy.
One thing I kinda get, Azurite is rare, there's danger in mining it, it should be slow to mine, but not this slow. If you want to see people hauling/mining Azurite, you have to buff the extraction otherwise ... yeah it will stay dead.
The claim is that it is balanced but this is only because it sell for 7k in rho, the long range routes aren't any better than silver ore. Increase the extraction rate 4 fold and remove its local sell points.
The damage to hull from the radiation is that annoying and is a nice feature. The issue is that you can't repair damage to guns and it simply blows them off.
Other than that I like the aesthetics I like the tiny entrance hole and the guns/model
I don't want to get rid of the generator. It's unique. We keep getting rid of unique things like the Privas Planetary Cluster without sensible motivations.
I'd just remove the turrets.
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(07-27-2018, 08:14 AM)HanCloudstone Wrote: I'm not even sure what is worse: turrets, drag and stronger radiation or high damage mines and weaker radiation.
The current reactor is too closed. My proposal is more open, and whilst it allows larger ships to penetrate the shield its not without risk. In my testing, in a small miner and transport its fairly easy to avoid getting blown up by the mines. Hegemons catch them more easily, so you have to be careful - an unarmoured Hegemon loses about 1/5 of its health if it collides with a mine. However, unlike the current field, it doesn't bar their involvement completely.
(07-27-2018, 08:53 AM)Tænì Wrote: I don't want to get rid of the generator. It's unique. We keep getting rid of unique things like the Privas Planetary Cluster without sensible motivations.
I'd just remove the turrets.
Unique doesn't necessarily translate into good. It's a nice aesthetic, but it's functionally flawed and doesn't facilitate proper mining activity. It's appeal is very niche right now, and not attractive to newbies, indies and individuals.
Counter-proposal: if my suggestion isn't sound, the reactor should be upscale by 10 times.
(07-27-2018, 09:12 AM)Kazinsal Wrote: IMO the drag is fantastic. I didn't even know there was a neural net AI alert for that.
I just find it odd. It covers such a small area, and doesn't really make the area more dangerous.