Mining in Omicron Gamma

[Dusty Lens]

But if you want to be smarmy--look at the history of mining--its individual panners and prospectors going out with the hope of the big score that make it work--and a large number of them never "teamed" with other miners--in fact they often killed one another.

And most of them ended up flat broke and ruined for their efforts. If you want we can try and code that in as well.

Furthermore, I love being smarmy. I do not take food nor drink. I sustain myself on the hypertension and flailing verbage of frantic internet forum posters.

If you mean big corporations do better at mass mining, sure but did you know most big corporate mines are discovered by local miners (aside from predicable ore deposits).

That's cool and stuff. Not sure how it ties in with balancing mining in an internet spaceship game. Good to know that corporations pull in larger hauls than some betrousered fellow with a bit of straw in his gum riddled maw panning for silver on up Badger Creek though. Ayuh.

Artifacts are not ore and I imagine the "get rich quick" temptation is strong for impoverished Corsairs looking for a way up and not "connected" to wealthy families. Finding artifacts would be a very suitable pastime for a lone miner--just like treasure ship hunters don't usually pass out their search areas to other hunters.

Cool. More power to them.

Again--not asking to "be made rich"--am saying its silly to have Corsair mining be so slow and unproductive. If I can make ten trips buying and selling artifacts in the same time it takes to mine one full load there isn't much incentive. Miners are also not traders. Their aim isn't to mine then haul it across the void to a far land. They work their field, sell and get right back. I didn't create a miner to run a trade route and its a bit silly to make more in bounty hunter and nomad npc drops from your kills defending yourself than you do in actual mined commodities.

See, check this out. Miners get paid the square root of jack for hauling goods back to the base that's sitting near the source. Gold harvested from the lush rivers of the Sacramento didn't pull for as much back in San Fran as it did in New York. You can mine artifacts all day in Gamma and ship them back to Crete for a marginal profit, or you can expand your commercial horizons and have someone ship your largess to a more viable market whilst you continue to bust rocks.

As mentioned, feel free to read replies again if you're confused on this score, artifact mining in gamma is on the hitlist of locals to be improved upon. Mining is still undergoing tweaking. It's in line with a host ton of other commodities which are in need of love.

Last, if you go back and read the old posts on mining, a great number of those who wanted mining improvements planned on it being a solitary job.

The balance of trade, commodities and the ability to accrue credits takes priority over individual vision.

So saying, "mining is better in a group--too bad if you don't" is like saying, "Well unless you develop relationships here and play on a schedule when others are on and willing to play with you then you are out of luck" isn't really helpful or sporting.

If you could get NPCs to move the goods to stronger market's that'd be great. But until we figure out a way to pull that off, well, yeah.

The artifacts sell low compared to Junker or IMG prime spots (as well as some others). And the NPC spawns existed as is back in the heavier transport shield days. There was no thought given to the impact of a Corsair miner's rp with the weaker shields and buffed npcs and I just mentioned it.

The tongue clicking finger wagging posts contribute nothing.

The best Junker mining spot gives about 500 units per bit collected, and those fields are strong need of tweaking. More on the hitlist. Likewise for the IMG fields. And yes I know which ones you are referring to.

If you want to really be critical, talk about how Corsairs in the system should jealously protect Corsair miners there as its their lifeblood. It should be a priority and even a partial justification of the Corsair fleet there. There should be a gaggle of Corsair miners just as their are IMG ones. Gee--I wonder why there isn't? I guess as an alternative I could mine in a gunboat.

To wrap this up you may have detected a slight absence of sympathy in my tone. There are a fair number of people putting a fair amount of work into attempting to force a series of corrections into a system which wasn't designed to accommodate mass mining. The mining system was introduced in full force shortly before the beta launch and many far more serious issues have taken huge priority over refining it.

So if you wish to be critical, keep to the far more appreciable posts such as the one which you originally made, skylining the issues which you perceive to be holding back an aspect of this system. It's far more useful than a series of complaints concerning how you feel that your preferred method of gameplay has been left in the dust.

So, to return to my original point: *GRUMBLES*.

Furthermore, good day sir.