Mining bonuses!

[Derkylos]

Well. Having been mining since well before the introduction of 4.85 (those long stretches of nothing but shooting rocks in the Taus were a blast, I can tell you:P), I am most pleased with the current state concerning the plug-in. No longer does it take me several days to fill up my miner to make approximately 1.5 million, now I can make 2 or 3 runs before I get bored (more is possible if I am in a group...hehe), and sell for nearly 2 mill a shot. Profit/time-wise, it may be below trading, but you are certainly not more vulnerable than traders, due to the proximity of a friendly base (assuming you are mining in the correct areas, that is...).

One of the key bonuses to mining, and part of the reason that I did it when it was nowhere near profitable, is the fact that you have plenty of time to chat to people. As a trader, time=money, and, in order to maximise profits, you need to get to the next system ASAP. Miners do not fall under this constraint. You can sit in the same place, interacting with the people around you and still making money.

As for your "independent" miner (eww, we have a guild for them, you know >.>), I must ask where you are mining. Most mining corps, in a similar fashion to any other corporation, are highly protective of "their" market niche, and anyone intruding on their "property" is liable to be given short shrift. Considering the immobility of your ship, one wonders why you cannot simply equip the ID relevant to the field you are in, acquire the matching IFF (a simple matter of a bribe+1 or 2 missions), and then mine at the vastly higher yield this provides...the likelihood of you being able to re-locate that huge lump of junk to anyone else's field is rather low.

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