Eliminate Mining Clear Bonus

[dragonorb13]

The current way the fields work: once the whole field is mined out, the field respawns based on a pattern set after about half an hour. If the field registers no activity in the field for an hour, it respawns the *mined out* asteroids.

The way it used to work: once an asteroid has been cleared, a timer starts and a randomly generated asteroid with in certain parameters matching the rest of the field.

Personally, I liked it better the old way. You could camp a small field, and never have to leave it because the bloody thing wouldn't ever run out while you were of the correct level to get XP out if it. EA only instituted the new way because people were whining like little babies about people 'cherry picking' (cracking the 'roid and taking the good stuff out before moving on), and wanted to entice people to clear roids. The clear bonus has actually hindered miners by forcing us to vacate spots and try to find more of them, and by making us, in bad conditions, either fight other people for a field or return to a station constantly because we're having to unload. Miners have small holds! We can't hold 40 different types of ore!

[xulei]

how about leave the clear bonus but get the old respawn rates - you'll need a group to get full clear bonus before any respawn that way

[dragonorb13]

how about leave the clear bonus but get the old respawn rates - you'll need a group to get full clear bonus before any respawn that way

Too OP... the hunters would whine that they don't get a bonus, and the traders would want a bonus for selling a full hold's worth of goods. trying to maintain the balance a bit lol.

[Tienbau]

The current way the fields work: once the whole field is mined out, the field respawns based on a pattern set after about half an hour. If the field registers no activity in the field for an hour, it respawns the *mined out* asteroids.

The way it used to work: once an asteroid has been cleared, a timer starts and a randomly generated asteroid with in certain parameters matching the rest of the field.

almost correct.

The way they work at the moment is that the default re-spawn time is 30 mins. This is adjustable for every field in the editors but so far no-one's asked enough for these timers to be adjusted so they all stay at 30 mins.

Respawn occurs for a default of 30 minutes (or that field's respawn rate if it's been changed) after any mining activity. So if you mine even one asteroid, then leave the field alone for 30 minutes, the whole lot will respawn.

The old system had individual timers for each asteroid, so you could simply sit in one field and chain mine all day - boring - but great for macro miners I guess.

With the new system it has more of a feel of clearing areas dry and gives great flexibility. It encourages exploration of new areas and the field clearing bonuses are fun. Plus it give resources more of a 'scarceness' feel about them, and makes secret fields more valuable.

[dragonorb13]

almost correct.

The way they work at the moment is that the default re-spawn time is 30 mins. This is adjustable for every field in the editors but so far no-one's asked enough for these timers to be adjusted so they all stay at 30 mins.

Respawn occurs for a default of 30 minutes (or that field's respawn rate if it's been changed) after any mining activity. So if you mine even one asteroid, then leave the field alone for 30 minutes, the whole lot will respawn.

The old system had individual timers for each asteroid, so you could simply sit in one field and chain mine all day - boring - but great for macro miners I guess.

With the new system it has more of a feel of clearing areas dry and gives great flexibility. It encourages exploration of new areas and the field clearing bonuses are fun. Plus it give resources more of a 'scarceness' feel about them, and makes secret fields more valuable.

Meh, well i WAS just going off what info i could acquire by observation glad I wasn't too far off. There's ways around macro miners, though... such as introducing a L66 mob that is neutral, patrols the local fields, is targetable by any means of targeting (wether it be Next in Context, or what ever other method you have), and attacks as soon as you target him. Macros are now shafted. One of the few idea EA had that i LIKED. Give it a fast enough respawn that having a protection party is useless. One at a time, but it's death automatically sends a respawn code to the server and reprocs a new one.

[Terrell [BT]]

Meh, well i WAS just going off what info i could acquire by observation glad I wasn't too far off. There's ways around macro miners, though... such as introducing a L66 mob that is neutral, patrols the local fields, is targetable by any means of targeting (wether it be Next in Context, or what ever other method you have), and attacks as soon as you target him. Macros are now shafted. One of the few idea EA had that i LIKED. Give it a fast enough respawn that having a protection party is useless. One at a time, but it's death automatically sends a respawn code to the server and reprocs a new one.

That would kill miners who aren't macroing as well. Some miners target the nearest prospectable by pressing X and go from there.

[irrelevant]

almost correct.

The way they work at the moment is that the default re-spawn time is 30 mins. This is adjustable for every field in the editors but so far no-one's asked enough for these timers to be adjusted so they all stay at 30 mins.

Respawn occurs for a default of 30 minutes (or that field's respawn rate if it's been changed) after any mining activity. So if you mine even one asteroid, then leave the field alone for 30 minutes, the whole lot will respawn.

The old system had individual timers for each asteroid, so you could simply sit in one field and chain mine all day - boring - but great for macro miners I guess.

With the new system it has more of a feel of clearing areas dry and gives great flexibility. It encourages exploration of new areas and the field clearing bonuses are fun. Plus it give resources more of a 'scarceness' feel about them, and makes secret fields more valuable.

I agree, its a good system, but we need some devs/testers to team up and try to come up with balanced and individualized respawn timers eventually for different fields.

[rdalme]

I thought the "roid poppers" or the higher than thou level mob that pops out a roid when you were mining was the anti-macro EA had. and the level 66 golden Kraken? was it was for the macro chavez killers.

I liked the live way. I remember in the last months hunting Astral ore and we would all race to the roid when it spawned in cygni. was kinda a friendly competition lol

I like the xp bonus nice for sticking with it. altho i have to sometimes destroy the lowest ore types so i would have room to mine the entire field.

I would like a little faster roid respawn rate.

[dragonorb13]

very true, very true. OK, then, make the mob prospectable and it attacks if you try to open the 'loot' window... remember, this is the suggestions post, not somewhere to provide exact specs. trust me, the best things the guys making things come up with are inspired by the suggestions of others. i'm just trying to spawn an idea that will help the devs that way, i can get my chain spawns back... because *I* mine with a mouse lo

[Amethyst]

I like it how it is. But if we ever get more people we need to look at spawn times.

Some fields like Glenn are far too easy. L8-9 should be guarded.

And an old plea for hulks to be resurrected to their former glory.

I'd like a few more fields to be created too. There are enough for the current population but not enough to bother looking for more.

I have noticed a few subtle changes in the way the roids are arranged. The rings are just boring - I like the more random approach.

I havent mined low level for a while - is it still 50 xp for L1-6 then 175/200/225 for 7-8-9. I think this should be incremental 25/50/75--175/200/225.

The Manes are dreadful in some places (Gaaaherns Rock) with very long lasting immobilisation effects. TS can survive with hull rpr but I dont knoe if JE can.

Glad the respawn effect is confirmed. Puts to bed the whining about cherry-picking.

As for macro miners - all id suggest is a failure to respond to a local chat gets you reported as a possible macro-miner, three strikes and a permanent ban.

I'd like to see a narrower selection of ores at each site. Makes it more selective, helps with cargo, and makes knowledge more important.

And PLEASE get rid of the helium placeholder.

[Tienbau]

Meh, well i WAS just going off what info i could acquire by observation glad I wasn't too far off. There's ways around macro miners, though... such as introducing a L66 mob that is neutral, patrols the local fields, is targetable by any means of targeting (wether it be Next in Context, or what ever other method you have), and attacks as soon as you target him. Macros are now shafted. One of the few idea EA had that i LIKED. Give it a fast enough respawn that having a protection party is useless. One at a time, but it's death automatically sends a respawn code to the server and reprocs a new one.

hehe, I like!

[Tienbau]

ok then, well to mix things up a bit how about I randomise the respawn rates for all fields for now, so by exploration alone will the best fields be found? Of course the random time would have to be affected by field level - a level 9 field that respawns every 2 minutes would be a bit silly.

Actually how about if fields left alone could gradually have their respawn rate increase (ie respawn more quickly), and those constantly emptied could have longer and longer respawns. Then the best places to mine would very gradually shift over time in an organic way, which would persist between server runs. Then the fields will actually seem to 'evolve'.

We could give it a try and see what happens ...

[dragonorb13]

What can I say? I'm a total screwball... i think at ninety degrees to everyone else just ask me for ideas, and i'll come up with some crazy ones lol

[rdalme]

That sounds good there Tienbau. I'll give it a go!

[dragonorb13]

ok then, well to mix things up a bit how about I randomise the respawn rates for all fields for now, so by exploration alone will the best fields be found? Of course the random time would have to be affected by field level - a level 9 field that respawns every 2 minutes would be a bit silly.

Actually how about if fields left alone could gradually have their respawn rate increase (ie respawn more quickly), and those constantly emptied could have longer and longer respawns. Then the best places to mine would very gradually shift over time in an organic way, which would persist between server runs. Then the fields will actually seem to 'evolve'.

We could give it a try and see what happens ...

Well, i have to admit... certainly interesting! The only problem is that there really aren't enough high level fields and their spawn time will be horrendous, simply because they are so scarce... if you were going to do that, you'd really need to consider putting in new fields, and with all the login server issues, i'd never dare suggest that simply because you guys are already swamped, i'm sure

[dragonorb13]

another thought on the bonus, is to simply make the 'fields' smaller... make 'em, say 10% of a standard field... have it set up to mark when you've gotten a certain area cleared out and have the respawn timer mark the time to reset that section... might need a bit of work, but hey... it's just an idea

[seekeronos]

I like it how it is. But if we ever get more people we need to look at spawn times.

Some fields like Glenn are far too easy. L8-9 should be guarded.

And an old plea for hulks to be resurrected to their former glory.

I'd like a few more fields to be created too. There are enough for the current population but not enough to bother looking for more.

I have noticed a few subtle changes in the way the roids are arranged. The rings are just boring - I like the more random approach.

I havent mined low level for a while - is it still 50 xp for L1-6 then 175/200/225 for 7-8-9. I think this should be incremental 25/50/75--175/200/225.

The Manes are dreadful in some places (Gaaaherns Rock) with very long lasting immobilisation effects. TS can survive with hull rpr but I dont knoe if JE can.

Glad the respawn effect is confirmed. Puts to bed the whining about cherry-picking.

As for macro miners - all id suggest is a failure to respond to a local chat gets you reported as a possible macro-miner, three strikes and a permanent ban.

I'd like to see a narrower selection of ores at each site. Makes it more selective, helps with cargo, and makes knowledge more important.

And PLEASE get rid of the helium placeholder.

I agree with all of the above EXCEPT:

- Glenn should NOT have any L8 or L9 ores ... it should be the "low hanging fruit" where there is a good chance of leveling for mid-level miners, but fairly competitive in that there are usually 5-10 miners there competing for what is there. Though it might be fitting to have a pair of L20-25 Chavez patrolling the fields closer to their hideout east of Planet Glenn (specifically the two-three fields on the western diagonal between Carpenter Gate and Sirius Gate)... no nasty manes please.

- Local chat monitoring... kind of a bad idea. I've been known to leave my miner drifting near a gate or in dead space (where no mobs have been known to patrol) whilst attending to the RL aggro from wife and kids. I'd hate to be blacklisted just because I happened to go AFK for 30-40 minutes to put the kids in order, and it isn't always convenient to park the toon in a station if I'm out in Niff Cloud or Grissom.

As for narrowing the selection - YES~! GREAT IDEA~♫ Particularly on the higher level ores - have no more than two types, such as radioactives and crystalline, or hydrocarbons and gases, etc.

[dragonorb13]

agreed.. i'm mining right now, and someone's in the field, but he's not moving, not mining, and afk... so... why should he get into trouble just because he's not there and some random person thought he was macroing?

[icqmatt2k]

I always thought it would be fun if fields respawn as if they were "growing". (Kinda like tiberium grows for any C&C fans out there;) A field that is constantly being emptied, would not only respawn slower, but gradual. Instead of 20 roids, it starts with 10, and then every few hours another one was added, then the fields that noone really mines would start gradually getting larger (within reason of course) and more popular, again, shifting mining locations and hopefully promoting more exploring.

Also, going a step further (perhaps too far..haha)..i always thought it would be cool if SOME fields were special, and if they weren't touched in X ammount of time (2 days or something) then some of the roids started growing in level... a lvl 1 roid after 2 days might become a lvl 2, then a few days later a lvl 3. (I'd imagine there would be a level band.. 1 could get as high as 3, etc.

Also going with that thought, if noone mined them in days, they could +1 in qty inside, so it if had 5 titanium ore, and noone mined it in 3 weeks, it could grow to 10-12 titanium, something like that.

All things as a miner that would REALLY make my day! lol

Then again, I also thought it would be fun to throw these thigns into trading and combat as well, I alwasy thought it would be fun if there was ONE random mob that had like 1,000,000 credits on them...could be a level 1, could be a level 50, who knows... but if you kill it..suprise.. kinda like a lottery for killing...

again for trading, if there was a 1 in 1,000 chance that a trade good you sell had something special with it, (who knows, maybe the wrong thing was loaded into your cargo message pops up, and the vendor buys it for 5 times its value and experience.

Ahh the things i dream up. (and yea i know this wasnt how it was at live, these are just ideas i have that i think would make it more fun:)

[Yazuly]

The part I don't understand is why do asteroids have to have such a long respawn time when mobs have almost instant respawn. I think you should make mobs act the same way as roids. Once you clear out mob spawn, no more mobs for 30 minutes. I bet that will go over big.

[fuulishone]

If we're talking about progressive content, maybe something like this would work for an interactive ore field.

Current scenario:

This is a higher level ore field in BBW (one of two that I"m thinking of). It is currently level 7-9, and consists of a mix of gas, crystalline, hydrocarbon, dull and glow roids. It currently has instant-respawn guardians that are aggro (3x CL45-ish Manes, 1x CL63-ish Manes).

This is a VERY hard field to mine and requires a dedicated combat team to constantly keep the spawning Manes engaged and occupied whilst the miner does his/her thing. The current risk vs reward for this field makes it a very unrewarding place to mine. In the same zone I can mine elsewhere for better reward.

Suggestion 1 (assuming limitations in spawn dynamics):

Reduce the field's selection of ores to level 8-9 only (at a 70/30 mix perhaps) and make this field consist only of crystalline and hydrocarbon roids. (There's a sister field a few navs down. That one could have the dull and glow roids. There's another field on the other side of the zone that could have a mix of gas/crystalline/hydrocarbon.) Put the guardians on a 1-2 minute respawn timer with the roids on a comparable 3-5 minute respawn timer. The net effect is that this remains a highly risky field for the solo miner, but becomes a lot more rewarding to those that are willing to mine in a group.

Suggestion 2 (assuming the availability of progressive spawns/fields):

This builds off of Suggestion 1, but starts at a mix of 80% level 8, 20% level 9 roids with base roid respawn at 5 minutes from when the field is first mined. Field guardians start at CL42 on a 5 minute respawn timer.

Once all the guardians are removed, guardian escalation kicks in. During the lull of no guardians, as many roids as possible get mined out. When guardians respawn, they go up to CL44 and any emptied out roid positions immediately respawn at a mix of 60% level 8, 40% level 9. Guardian respawn now gets faster and they respawn at 4 minutes. Again during the lull, as many roids as possible get cleared.

At the next respawn guardians go to CL46 and the roid mix goes to 40%/60% with the respawn timer going to 3 minutes. The next phase would be CL48 and roid mix at 20%/80% and timer at 2 minutes. The final phase would be CL50 and roid mix at 100% level 9 filling in any open roid slots with a guardian timer at 1 minute. Once this phase is complete, everything resets back to the start with a 5 minute timer.

Optionally there could a final "boss" type CL54-ish manes that spawns with some interesting low drop rate item. There's plenty of level 8/9 items that currently aren't in the drop database that could be assigned to this type of "boss" mob. And these items aren't particularly over-powered. They could be things like the L9 Supernova reactor, L7-9 Guardian device, L7-9 Phoenix device, etc. Basically stuff that's interesting, but not game-breaking.

Anyways, just a random thought I had.

[dragonorb13]

I always thought it would be fun if fields respawn as if they were "growing". (Kinda like tiberium grows for any C&C fans out there;) A field that is constantly being emptied, would not only respawn slower, but gradual. Instead of 20 roids, it starts with 10, and then every few hours another one was added, then the fields that noone really mines would start gradually getting larger (within reason of course) and more popular, again, shifting mining locations and hopefully promoting more exploring.

Also, going a step further (perhaps too far..haha)..i always thought it would be cool if SOME fields were special, and if they weren't touched in X ammount of time (2 days or something) then some of the roids started growing in level... a lvl 1 roid after 2 days might become a lvl 2, then a few days later a lvl 3. (I'd imagine there would be a level band.. 1 could get as high as 3, etc.

Also going with that thought, if noone mined them in days, they could +1 in qty inside, so it if had 5 titanium ore, and noone mined it in 3 weeks, it could grow to 10-12 titanium, something like that.

All things as a miner that would REALLY make my day! lol

Then again, I also thought it would be fun to throw these thigns into trading and combat as well, I alwasy thought it would be fun if there was ONE random mob that had like 1,000,000 credits on them...could be a level 1, could be a level 50, who knows... but if you kill it..suprise.. kinda like a lottery for killing...

again for trading, if there was a 1 in 1,000 chance that a trade good you sell had something special with it, (who knows, maybe the wrong thing was loaded into your cargo message pops up, and the vendor buys it for 5 times its value and experience.

Ahh the things i dream up. (and yea i know this wasnt how it was at live, these are just ideas i have that i think would make it more fun:)

[/quote}

mother of god, that is awsome

[cooper]

About mining:

**MINING IS NOT FUN**

Mining was one of the most relaxing "tasks" to do in the game. It bugs me that we are turning mining into a longer, more dangerous, drawn out process. I'm not going to mention any "when i played live" retoric, but my views are as such:

1. Mining should NOT take hours upon hours just to gain a level. especially for the higher lvl explorers, and that is IF we find a field to mine. Mining was made to gain explorer experience. Well, read on.

2. Miners have to deal with Mobs that will "own us" if we are distracted and unprotected. (really, does a high-level defender REALLY WANT to guard us while we mine?) they get pitiful Explorer exp if they DO agree to help, and maybe some CL exp, but that wont keep us from getting spanked if the warrior is not watching our back and we're getting killed. no. We know they want to be in the fishbowl getting REAL CL exp. point is, do we really need a high level MOB in the fields? If we HAVE to have a MOB guarding the field, let the explorers have a shot at defeating them. But make them at a level we can, IE lvl 5 field = lvl 7-9 MOB. (approx) but don't make it Impossible by putting 2 lvl 30 manes in a lvl 6-7 field.

3. About the fields:

Fields should not be made so few, small, and take 30 minutes to re-spawn when you have 6-10 Explorers competeing with each other. It does take the fun out of the game, and that is why we are playing, right? there is nothing more disheartning than seeing empty space where a mining field used to be, and a 5 explorers just waiting for an asteroid or gas cloud to appear. we've all been there, right?

Suggestion: (finally)

How about they tailor the mining around various missions?

Have missions take the player (depending on player lvl of course) and get sent out to get ores/crystal/gases for exp experience? You can make it worth thier while like giving more Explorer experience, and they just might lose interest on sitting in a mining field for hours. This was done in the very beginning level for the Explorers, and actually had a purpose. THAT made mining fun.

Now, i know there will be those that want to sit and farm a field, but WHY can't they? I understand the need for game balance, but just make the mining experience small enough where they will want to go and do the missions instead of sitting all day sucking a field dry.

well, thank you all for listning,

Rwherrmann- Jenquai Explorer