Mining is too safe

[Binski]

Its a tough call. I've been mining to fill bases when empty, in a hegemon. I'll sometimes do 4-5 trips before taking a break or calling it quits. Over the last month of doing that a few times a week, I was pirated once. But I was easily exposed for long enough to be successfully pirated many times. Its hardest now for miners and traders to get on at the same time, so miners fill the bases, traders get the ore when they can. I've made a few hundred mil on the short run, but over the course of a month. Short run mining isn't exactly the fastest way to make profit.

But I never understood the big problem with POB's in or close to an ore field. Anytime I pirated like that I'd just CD the base first. I dont think that was ever declared against the rules, and I dont think it requires an attack declaration. Sometimes its about making them sweat even if you dont get paid. I've cornered a few ship trying to dock, even protected by weapons platforms. Heck I remember getting in close, using an asteroid to shield myself, and drawing the weapons fire into the hiding ship! Didnt take him out but almost (especially since he said he'd just play xbox while I kept the shield up).

Any ore field I can think of is in the ZOI of multiple factions with caps. There was a time that, use Dublin for example, if miners built a base right in the ore field, currently the Molly's and especially the GRE could come nip it in the bud. If the miners get away with it, that once meant a siege could be coming! Even Gaians could show up in cruisers to make a go at it while its vulnerable.

So as far As I'm concerned, ruling out building POB's in valuable areas is exactly why the server is kinda boring now. Its already an unwritten rule. So I know it can make it harder but with some imagination, its still doable. If it were me and I was determined to do something about it, I'd just make a capship for an appropriate faction, come back and attack, try to find others.

But really, just come back wkth a cloak, come up from an angle the players won't hear you when you get close, drop cloak and hit the base with a CD first. At the very least the miner is trapped right away and if they want to be left alone, still have the option to pay up!

Now that brings me back to WP's. Imagine if Weapons Platforms required the base having a small amount of munitions in order to respawn after being taken out? Eventually you could take them all out and work past that problem (I cant claim though it can be done but would be interesting). I'd also just increase WP strength to a million HP or so and make the whole thing about knocking out WP's first when sieges come. Sieges would be games of attack the WP's, rather than the bases, at least at first. So if someone builds a core 1 in an ore field, succeeds in building a shield, storage mod and one WP, it could be reasonably neutralized with by one or a few players. Plus, running ammo to besieged POB's to keep them stocked and able to replace WP's would also become a thing!

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The Further Exploits of Captain Antares (August 2015) │ (alt) JonasHudson
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