If mining common elements is a high risk venture, then how did any of it get built? Everything, everything in the game gets built because of mining. That being said, if you want to have even the illusion of a functioning economy, Mining has to be commonplace. Mining in say, EVE, was intensely boring and largely not worth the skill investment. I agree fully that mining needs to be made skill based and with risks to go with it. In addition, there are plenty of other complications that could easily be added, such as ore that interferes with scanner accuracy when nearby (Making it easier to get ambushed/caught unprepared), and so forth. The built in risks of mining that they've planned for already include: There needs to be a balance and an array of options. When I first get a Prospector and go out mining, I don't relish the thought that I'm going to have to replace the ship a dozen times before I get the hang of things. I think they need to make it run the gamut, to be honest. Make it so that cloaking devices need them off, but don't pile all of the negatives on one of the most basic grinds and the source of materials. Make it so that exploration scans need too much power to keep shields up. You want to have fun risky moments with shields down, tie it to activities higher on the ladder. Don't punish the little guys grinding for basic cash. I'm all for having there be reasons to turn off shields, but aiming the ideas at miners seems to me to be a poor area to implement it and would make one of the root professions, the one that gathers materials needed for almost ANYTHING else in the big picture, one that would become mathematically not worth the risk or time investment. You might as well make the ships out of balsa wood at that point. You're suggesting that the most vulnerable targets likely to be out there shouldn't even be allowed to have their shields up. My argument isn't that shield raising doesn't add engagement, it's that the idea of having them need to lower shields will raise the risk of mining to such a point that it's no longer likely to be worth the reward. If they have to sit out there with their shields down as well, it's an instant win for any sort of pirate attack, or NPC attacker respawning. What we've seen of mining ships shows that they're going to either be poorly armed, or unarmed, for ship-to-ship combat. True enough that things are subject to change. Why would you want to squeeze them any harder, and make a basic task less worth engaging in? There's enough risk of financial loss and vulnerability to mining already, at this point piling on more risk is only going to drive people away from the profession/activity. Miners are already doing a job that many people find less than engaging, and are often going out in ponderously slow and unarmed ships that are usually completely vulnerable to pirates or other attackers as it is. Mining is one of the basic income earners in a game like this, it's one of the lower-level grinds in most cases. I'm not trying to suggest that miners are going to be simply sitting there allowing their shields to take the hit, I'm saying that it's going to be dangerous work even WITH shields up, and without shields it would be almost instant ship destruction. If you'd researched the mining plans, you'd know that they're planning to have a variety of jobs related to these tasks, from proper scanning to know the hazards are there, to mining with the right tools with the proper skill not to set them off. (Certain types of distress beacon must be pinpointed with special equipment that requires shields to be down as an example, allowing "dumby" distress beacons to be setup). Which then allows for these sneak attacks, setting up a scenario for another ship to have a plausible need to drop their shields, and then initiating an ambush. Have some kind of need or necessity to dropping shields. Certain forms of scanning/communication have trouble penetrating the shield, so shields have to be down to send certain communications. Maybe being unable to launch "attached" units (Scrambling smaller fighters currently docked within a larger ship), deploy certain turrets, special scanning equipment etc cant penetrate the shield.Ī quick example, mining equipment cant work through a shield, so when mining you may want to have an escort. Maybe like you mentioned, have a special component or function be unable to operate while shields are currently > 0%. Taking a cue from Star Trek, I believe the transporter cant work with shields up.
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