Mining

[Panzer]

basically and in theory both FL 1.0 and Discovery offer the theoretical possibility of asteroid mining. Small pieces of asteroids blow up when hit and in some cases drop various sorts of goods from water through valuable minerals to priceless alien artifacts. Even despite that, mining in the form presently availible is not worth the time, needed to acheive a sizeable profit. There is even a mining ship availible for purchasing. Some time ago, I've discussed the matter with the players ingame and here's what it brought
The mining ship is perfect for the task of asteroid mining, it's big enough to sanction the generous cargo hold and not too big to move relatively smoothly in asteroid fields.
The most serious matter is the efficiency with which the asteroids are being blown up and the amount of goods inside each one of them. Both these factors should be augmented in my (and lots of other people's) op(s)
This can be aceived by creating a special type of weapon, which would have a near-zero firepower (barely any is needed to crack an asteroid open) and a large area efect in order to blow up many asteroids at the same time.
Another piece of equipment would be a long-range tractor beam. Its range would b the same as the weapon,mentioned before (500-700m would be logical, since this is the maximum distance at which asteroids appear, maybe less).
Both these pieces of equipment would be buyable with the ship only, similarly as the spyglass scanner or marsflyer equipment.
Last, but not least, there are only a few goods, worth trading with, most minerals unforunately (including artifacts) are not amongst them. Increasing their prices, where possible would not only make mining more profitable, but attract people to new trade routes, not only the two, which quite simply became boring long before I even starded playing FL. So many commodities on disco, with which noone wants to trade...reinland military vehicles, kusari optronics, luxury food, drugs...Making them more expensive in certain places surely wouldn't hurt. I bet there would be more smugglers IF smuggling was more profitable than legal trade (as it is in reality);)





(I wonder, how ridiculous these ideas will be considered)

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