As some players already noticed, there's been some smaller scale test runs for this periodically popping up in different fields during the last two patches, and now after those test fields have received multiple adjustments based on feedback, it seems to be a good time to expand them across different regions and open this up to wider community feedback. Before we get into the details, please note:
This is still planned to receive more adjustments based on feedback, so expect changes (droprates, sellpoints, sellprices, etc).
This is intended partly as a bridge between normal trading to proper ore hauling for newer players who might not be able to afford larger transports yet, and partly as a side-activity for various factions, not their main focus, and the entire system is balanced around that.
The commodities included in this rework are not intended to be as profitable as actual Ores (hence the name). The prices are tuned as more of a midpoint between ores and regular trading, and the main hope is to have these as an alternative that provide a change of pace to regular mining, with faster drops, shorter travel times, and a profit range that still respects the players' time investment but reflects the lower risk factor.
With that out of the way, here's the details of the recent rework:
All regular Scrap Metal, Toxic Waste and Alien Organism mining zones and sellpoints have received a complete overhaul with 4.95.4, and each region's been given at least 2 primary fields depending on which commodity was more fitting to lore of the factions of each region. These fields (and their respective ID bonuses) are all equalized to the same drop rate, which are roughly ~3 times faster than standard ores. The ID bonuses for low-tier mining commodities are Not eligible for faction perks.
Sellpoints are generally set up at a much closer travel time than regular ores, with a mid-range option also available where appropriate. The midrange sellpoints are a separate test run on their own, and depending on community feedback will either be extended to all low-tier zones, or will have some other mining commodities currently set up as regular ores detached from ore economy and set up as separate mid-tier fields instead.
Players who were around during older iterations of mining system will notice the new set up is pretty similar to the older version of these commodities before they got cycled out in favor of their more profitable ore variants.
For detailed list of eligible ships and specific bonuses refer to the Mining Guide.
Regions
Bretonia
Scrap Metal
Mining zone in New London, Belvedere capital ship graveyard
Sellpoint on Trafalgar Base, New London Toxic Waste
Mining zone in Leeds smog clouds
Sellpoint on Belvedere Refinery, New London
Liberty
Scrap Metal
Mining zone in Pittsburgh scrap yard, New York
Sellpoints on Rochester Base, and Planet Pittsburgh (and its atmospheric entry point) Toxic Waste
Mining zone in Colorado, accident scene on east lane
Sellpoints on Rochester Base, New York and Toronto Station, Ontario
Rheinland
Scrap Metal
Mining zone in Frankfurt, Mainz to Mannheim tradelane obstruction
Sellpoint on Kreuzberg Depot, New Berlin Toxic Waste
Mining zone in New Berlin, Dortmund Wreck
Sellpoints on Krezuberg Depot and New Augsburg Outpost, Munich
Mining zone in Cologne, Karlsruhe Wreck
Sellpoint on Wuppertal Refinery, Cologne
Kusari
Toxic Waste
Mining zone in Honshu, Osaka Wreck
Sellpoints on Wichter Station, Sigma-15 and Newport Station, Sigma-13
Gallia
Scrap Metal
Mining zones in Burgundy (lawful) and Lorraine (unlawful)
Sellpoints on Bourg-en-Bresse Space Port, Burgundy (lawful) and Pelussin Base, Lorraine (unlawful) Toxic Waste
Mining zone in Cologne, Karlsruhe Wreck
Sellpoint on Bourg-en-Bresse Space Port, Burgundy
Sigmas
Alien Organisms
Mining zone in Donryu Cloud, Sigma-19
Sellpoint on Atka Research Station, Sigma-17
Taus
Alien Organisms
Mining zones in Baffin, the Organism Farms
Sellpoints on Tsushima Depot, Kyushu and Cold Bay Depot, Hudson
Omicrons
Alien Organisms
Mining Zones in Omicron Zeta clouds
Sellpoints on Freeport 11, Omicron Delta and Corinth Research Annex, Omicron Kappa
For specific sell prices refer to the Mining Guide. Expect changes to listed prices in following weeks.
Note that these are not the only fields present ingame for these commodities and you might find other fields dropping them around the map as well (just like there are water/oxygen/etc fields as ambient props in different systems), but for the purposes of this test run, only the specific fields listed above are tuned to the intended rates and you'd generally get lower drops in other fields.
Feel free to go out and give these a test, and if you feel any particular route is over or undertuned, drop a mention here (preferably also include your loadout and stats from multiple runs) and it'll get a review. We're also lookin at adding a few more fields and factions to the mix in future passes.
Hey, wanted to test these out and found a few issues. It might be my own problems with how complex the mining system is. Tested both of the liberty locations in a Junker ID salvager with the 4 heavy mining turrets in the correct spots.
Scrap Metal mined what appears to be properly, but doesn't sell at any sort of reasonable price on Pitsburg. You need to go to Rochester. Sells decently there.
Went to Colorado and found the crash site (Neat by the way!) and ran into a few issues. With the same loadout, I got pitiful drops, giving up after about fifteen minutes and only getting 700 toxic waste. Bringing it to Rochester to sell what I had and was welcomed with a sell price of ten credits per unit.
Overall I like the system as it brings back the feeling of old mining and is more simplistic however.
Oh, seems a sneaky typo was messing up liberty's toxic waste. Should be fixed with today's daily restart.
As for the scrap side, the main sellpoint for that one is intended to be Rochester, and Pittsburgh is a bit more "experimental" right now. It's tuned more along the lines of the old 4.85 newbie scrap (or the more recent non-ore newbie helium). Since it involves almost no travel time it's mostly meant for smaller ships that can't make the trip to Rochester worthwhile (or people who absolutely hate hauling and wouldn't mind taking a little hit to their profit/hour if that'd mean they wont have to worry about hauling at all), tho it probably needs a bit more fine-tuning before it actually feels right. It's one of the trickier ones that'll probably end up needing a couple more passes than rest of the sellpoints.
