Mining

[Unseelie]

I suppose I should mention this: the current target profit per player when mining is 15 to 20 million per hour.

That bothers me...as I was under the impression that mining was supposed to be as viable for earning money as trading 30-35 million an hour.. I'd like it to be more so, 40-45 million an hour, at least when mining groups get together.

Bottom line, trading is currently the primary source of income. If we want players to mine/trade to their preference(and I cannot imagine why we wouldn't want that), Mining should be on par. If its not on par, a lot of effort's been put into a system that only the diehard miners are going to do, its an economic enterprise, and people do need/want the money.

I still think it would be a great idea to have a couple mining spots where one miner can make a decent profit on their own, something around 25-30 million an hour, and I'm not at all convinced it unbalances anything else. For instance, Bornholm, seems to work without screwing anything else work. I'm sure we can find other places where such pocket systems can be set up.

On the 'risk' to miners, and the suggestion that its less dangerous than trading...Miners have to sit in one place. Lots of my miners won't get on any more, because the KNF have been known to camp the Stokes field. If there was a base nearby, this means they have the option of running and hiding, but that doesn't at all change the actual effect of enemy ships in the area: you can't mine while that's going on. Whether your dead or running, or hiding at a nearby base, you're mining has been stopped. If its a pirate, you're probably going to have to pay a fee or wait till they shove off, which could take quite a while, even docked safely on a base. And that is the risk of trading, too. You either die, and lose time, or you get pirated and lose money. Now, in the case of Trading, when you die, you lose an investment in money. When you die trading, you lose an investment in time, lots of it if you were nearly full. If time=money, then both risk money(or time)

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