Mining question (concern/possible issue)

[Terrell [BT]]

A possible fix for pop-rocks could work something like this:

 

Pop-rocks will each do a specific type of damage, most likely Explosive or EMP.  Other types could be used too, but those two seem to make the most sense.  This means that if an explorer equips items to raise their deflects to these types of damage then the amount of damage done by the explosion is lessened.  The explorer classes already have access to the "animal skin" lines of devices that provide activated damage deflects, and there are existing devices to give equip deflects that are usable by explorers.  This would allow explorers, regardless of race, some defense against the blasts, using equipment that already exists.

 

Explosive would lower your shields, EMP would reduce the power in your reactor.  We could have a starting point of 10% of shield capacity for explosive, 10% of reactor for EMP, multiplied by the level of the asteroid, hulk, hydrocarbon, etc.    From there deflects would figure in.   One can also exempt buffs to shield/reactor capacity from this calculation.   If you want to introduce additional potential damage types, then instead of making them random, make some types more likely in some sectors, so explorers would learn and adapt their choices of deflects accordingly.  (percentage could be subject to adjustment so it's neither too weak, or too powerful.)

 

Optional, one can take into consideration the player's prospect skill, before buffs, relative to the level of the asteroid.   If you're mining over your Prospect level, then the damage would tend a little higher, while mining below your level would tend to lower the damage.  For this purpose one would look at the Prospect skill for mining the way it's looked at for refining. 

 

For the possibility to remove an ore or item from a pop-rock, one can take into account the level of the pop-rock vs. the person's prospect skill, including buffs. 

 

For those mobs that spawn as pop-rocks, there could be some items exclusive to their loot tables.  Nature of items would be relative to the mob's level, and for any equipment dropped, it could skew towards devices.