Friday, August 3, 2012

CSM minutes - mining

CCP Xhagen asked it the meeting should discuss mining.
Two step asked if this was where the CSM trolls the player base and says that no one actually mines.
Seleene said mining is where you literally should be able to search for “unicorn dust” and “space whale oil” to build magical widgets.
Some CSM members jokingly said something about mining still being boring and it isn't supposed to be fun.
CCP Soundwave showed some statistics about mining since the drone regions changed and Hulkageddon. Mining in high sec is slightly up, low sec is way up and null sec is way, way up based on volume of ore.
Two step suggested that it would be cool if the character sheet showed you the volume you've mined in your lifetime.
CCP Arrow stated that the task to mine could stay the same but the visual elements could change to make the tasks more fun. For example when selecting an asteroid you could scan it to see more details about what was in it in terms of different types of ores in a single asteroid. The asteroid may even be displayed in a 3D manner showing the ore distribution.
Seleene asked if this would mean there were composite rocks with different ores and CCP Soundwave said that they would really want that.
CCP Soundwave indicated that ship of different sizes could be used but larger ships might be faster
or better.
Seleene asked for a proper capital mining vessel for ring mining.
CCP Soundwave also mentioned League of Legends, where there was a mechanic that allowed you to hide in bushes and that maybe you could use the asteroid interference to shield you from being scanned and maybe even being hidden from local.
Seleene pointed out that real asteroid belts have very low density (completely different from the famous Star Wars scene where the Millennium Falcon hid in the asteroid belt) while Trebor pointed out Ice Rings are more dense.
CCP Soundwave said they would be going with the Star Wars more dense field.
Two step asked if there would be rings in all security spaces and CCP Soundwave said they haven't decided but he'd prefer low sec and null sec only
Hans added “Put the best rings in low sec :) It needs a boost.”
Trebor added that you need to take damage if you are moving too fast and that his favorite Sci-Fi scene was from Wrath of Khan when the two starships appear out of the gas clouds and all hell breaks loose. If ring mining could provide that kind of experience, it would be great.
CCP Xhagen asked when we could expect ring mining. CCP Soundwave said after the POS work because it would most likely use the same team - best case scenario would be winter expansion 2013.
Seleene made the comment that there seemed to be some CCP resources not being used due to how the current production pipeline is being used.
CCP Soundwave indicated that these belts are going to long enough to fly in for hours. He also suggested the POSs may be used to scan the belts to indicate where the best ores might be.
my thoughts?
The "hiding from local" is pie in the sky concept that won't be coded. exploit? can you say "trial account cheap cloak"? i knew you could.
There apparently was no comment about the capital mining vessel from CCP. good. moron nullseccers.
I do like the idea of "composite" roids. But, it's a case of "if it ain't broke don't fix it"...this whole concept of 'ACTIVE' vs 'PASSIVE' is a bit silly since this game is literally a screensaver with a built in chat function. I'm not complaining though, since i used to play a game called 'JumpGate' and i was credited with discovering (and posting about) being able to increase mining output by orbiting the roid at high velocity.
the best quote is the second to last sentence. wow...it really will be ring mining. that's cool.

what i think should have been brought up:  the shitty benefit to the risk of low sec (nocxium prices)