MINERS - please respond - cherry picking

[bondct]

Hello... My name is Zyrith... And I'm a cherry picker! *sobs*

Hello Zyrith

[ralbortas]

Cherry Picking was terrible in Live. High player population and low amounts of high end ore fields made it tough to get level 9 materials. I remember getting 5 Million for a single raw gas. Kudos to Merlin for solving that issue by making so many fields and splitting the resources so my cargo hold doesn't fill just mining one sub type, ie Hydrocarbons or Crystals.

[Mistoffeles]

In live, when an asteroid first opened, it began a timer, whether or not anything at all was removed from it. If the timer expired before the asteroid was emptied (it was fairly long, not "empty this thing in 30 seconds or BOOM!"), the asteroid poofed as if it had been emptied. I don't recall if this released a pop-rock mob when it happened, because I always cleaned a field out completely when I prospected if I wasn't driven away by a something I couldn't handle at the time.

This would work equally well if not better for hulks (oops, you disturbed the wreckage, setting off a chain reaction that will eventually lead to its complete destruction).

Cheers.

[Stranks99[IS]]

In live, when an asteroid first opened, it began a timer, whether or not anything at all was removed from it. If the timer expired before the asteroid was emptied (it was fairly long, not "empty this thing in 30 seconds or BOOM!"), the asteroid poofed as if it had been emptied. I don't recall if this released a pop-rock mob when it happened, because I always cleaned a field out completely when I prospected if I wasn't driven away by a something I couldn't handle at the time.

This would work equally well if not better for hulks (oops, you disturbed the wreckage, setting off a chain reaction that will eventually lead to its complete destruction).

Cheers.

Taken from the patch notes as described below

Happy Birthday Earth & Beyond (Patch message for 09/23/03)

Decreased asteroid despawn times from 5 minutes to 30 seconds once the asteroid is closed by a prospector. The reduction in asteroid despawn time should minimise mining disruption caused by "Cherry Picking". If the asteroid is re-opened within the 30 seconds, the timer will reset to 5 minutes. Asteroid spawn times have not been changed.

As you can see that how it was in live from the patch message date until sunset. I cannot see any further changes made from available patch-notes

I think a mod will need to move this to the cherry picking thread that already exists.

[Mimir[IS]]

I realize that high level content is a bit scarce at the moment, so high level players are bound to get bored. I on the other hand shelve the 150 toons and start new ones to keep my interest in the game fresh.

Boredom could be the reason I have been seeing “Impossible” to me toons fly into hulk fields snatch a single hulk and warp away. Either boredom or just being nasty cherry picking is getting out of hand.

As a lower level TS the field bonus is a welcome boost to my XP, and I am not saying that I should get every field to myself (although this would be nice).

I was chatting with another player today and an idea was born that may help.

Is it possible to set the field clear bonus to 50-51% if field is cleared(same as combat kill credit?)

This would still make clearing fields worth more and assure the re-spawn, and not leave a single hulk/roid in play to prevent the spawn.

Edited October 16, 2010 by Mimir

[Terrell [BT]]

Is it possible to set the field clear bonus to 50-51% if field is cleared(same as combat kill credit?)

If 2 or more miners are working on a field, and the field is cleared, both miners (if they're there) get a percentage of the field clear bonus based on how much of the field they cleared. If one of them leaves I think the other still gets the same percentage they would otherwise get. (Assuming the Devs haven't changed the way the field clear bonus works since it was implemented)

[Mimir[IS]]

If 2 or more miners are working on a field, and the field is cleared, both miners (if they're there) get a percentage of the field clear bonus based on how much of the field they cleared. If one of them leaves I think the other still gets the same percentage they would otherwise get. (Assuming the Devs haven't changed the way the field clear bonus works since it was implemented)

if it worked this way that would be great, what I have been finding is that if one or two hulks have been looted then by clearing the field, it yeilds no bonus at all.

[Stranks99[IS]]

if it worked this way that would be great, what I have been finding is that if one or two hulks have been looted then by clearing the field, it yeilds no bonus at all.

I have only noticed this happens on fields that have not fully respawned. Sometimes it looks fully respawned but isn't, hence no one will get a clear bonus.

[Terrell [BT]]

In addition to what Stranks said, some orefields (hulk fields) are spread out, may take a while to find and mine everything.

[Mimir[IS]]

In addition to what Stranks said, some orefields (hulk fields) are spread out, may take a while to find and mine everything.

Yup all true, but there are two fields in Freya that I have noticed quite alot that no bonus is issued (and I hit these whenever I pass through Freya) Sometimes I get a bonus, most times not. I will get a count of the hulks at these two fields the next time I see they have re-spawned.

Pretty sure we have a problem with cherry picking on these as well as fields in AP, Xipe (this is a hard field to see all hulks), Grissom and Planet Grissom (impossible for me to clear this one solo). The fields that get "Cherry picked the most are the ones directly off the nav points, so makes it easy picking... stop, pull something, and be on their cherry picking way.

[Terrell [BT]]

I've actually cleared the Hulk part of the Grissom Planet field with my JE a time or two, but I haven't been able to clear out the gas clouds there, at least not playing solo. Had to fly around and find all the hulks to get the clear. Had stacks of space suits, so I traded them to alts to work on factions (thanks again for that upgrade Merlin). I kinda like that some fields are spread out, other's close, makes an explorer have to check carefully.

[Stranks99[IS]]

Grissom and Planet Grissom (impossible for me to clear this one solo).

May be worth mentioning that Grissom Planet is made up of at least 3 different hulks fields, the variation on their respawn rates makes it pretty near impossible to get a clear bonus, although after a crash/reboot seems to be a good time to try for it.

[Noxmire]

Some thoughts:

Firstly, since I generally mine for the explore experience and not so much for the ores, I don't see an issue with cherrypicking. If someone cherrypicks the best stuff out of an orefield I'm working on, I might grumble a bit at the lost experience, but the bonus for emptying the 'roid and that juicy field clear bonus makes up for it, especially since I don't have to work as hard to get it.

Most of the time, I simply refine the ores I get and vendor them; it's easy money and trade experience. Heck, I typically get far more trade experience for refining and vendoring than I do explore experience. I never see people asking for raw ore or refined material on Market, so I never bother to keep anything; there's simply no demand. The only time cherrypicking is an issue is when people are mining in order to produce a specific item, and I'm not going to comment on that further because I have no experience and thus no grounds from which to speak from.

If a cherrypicked 'roid respawns at the same rate or faster than one that is fully emptied, then cherrypicking is absolutely no problem. A cherrypicker can do no more damage to an orefield than someone fully cleaning it out; it will take the same time for the 'roids to respawn in either case. The only difference being that the cherrypicker leaves garbage behind, so you can't quite tell that the field has been worked over at first glance.

The devs can fix this, however. All asteroids have 3 states: full (looks normal), partially emptied (ore will look weakened in some way; crystals get thinner and smaller, gas gets thinner, hydrocarbons have less color, etc.), and depleted ('roid explodes and despawns). If 'roids are set so that it goes from the "full" to the "partially emptied" state as soon as ANY of its contents are removed, no matter which or how few are taken, then this would provide following miners with a first-glance indicator that a cherrypicker's already been through, and he could either move on or wait for respawns.

[bondct]

The devs can fix this, however. All asteroids have 3 states: full (looks normal), partially emptied (ore will look weakened in some way; crystals get thinner and smaller, gas gets thinner, hydrocarbons have less color, etc.), and depleted ('roid explodes and despawns). If 'roids are set so that it goes from the "full" to the "partially emptied" state as soon as ANY of its contents are removed, no matter which or how few are taken, then this would provide following miners with a first-glance indicator that a cherrypicker's already been through, and he could either move on or wait for respawns.

I dont recall ever reading this idea or if its possible... but I really like it

[Noxmire]

The three states are easy to see if you've ever mined ore. If you pull more than half of the total ore out of an asteroid, without emptying it, you'll notice a change in it; the glowing crystals on a radioactive 'roid will shrink, hydrocarbons lose some of their color, gas clouds get thinner, crystalline asteroids become thinner, less spiky, and shrink a bit, and rock asteroids have fewer colored cracks and shrink some. I can get screenshots of some examples, if necessary.

If the devs can alter the threshold at which these graphical changes take place, and set it up so that removing ANY ore from a 'roid without fully emptying it will change it from the "full" to the "partially depleted" state, then we have a kind of physical, obvious indicator of cherrypicking, for those who want to avoid cherrypicked fields until they respawn.

[Tienbau]

The devs can fix this, however. All asteroids have 3 states: full (looks normal), partially emptied (ore will look weakened in some way; crystals get thinner and smaller, gas gets thinner, hydrocarbons have less color, etc.), and depleted ('roid explodes and despawns). If 'roids are set so that it goes from the "full" to the "partially emptied" state as soon as ANY of its contents are removed, no matter which or how few are taken, then this would provide following miners with a first-glance indicator that a cherrypicker's already been through, and he could either move on or wait for respawns.

yeah that seems like a logical thing to do. As soon as the roid is touched it can 'shrink'.

You got it in terms of when the bonus is issued:

let's say a field is on a 30 minute timer.

The bonus timer starts the instant ANY roid or hulk in the field is touched (even if it's not cleared). If you come across a field that has had say 2 choice 'roids cherry picked 20 minutes ago, you'd have 10 minutes in which to clear the field before the bonus goes.

I will add some sound effects to indicate if a field is 'fresh' when the bonus timer starts. If you don't get that effect you know a countdown is already in progress.

[Noxmire]

I've noticed, on the Play server at least, that 'roids respawning en masse after a full field clear isn't quite working. Rather than the entire field respawning at once, I still see a gradual respawn of 'roids, in roughly the order that I cleaned them out. I was curious about this last night, and so I watched a rockfield in Inverness respawn while I cracked rocks around it.

Would a dev mind coming in and explaining the ore respawn/field clear bonus system as it currently stands, so that there's no confusion as to what's supposed to happen?