Remove Hegemon

[Politus]

just a general question - cause it was written quite often..

why exactly is solo mining a bad thing? - it surely has nothing to do with roleplay...

for once - a mining ship is a flying factory, so - like most other capital ships... its a whole crew that is RPed...

other than that - roleplay is a state of interaction between players, sometimes of the same or similar faction, sometimes between indifferent factions and groups - and sometimes between enemies. - yet - none of those characteristics of roleplay behaviour describes a state of being grouped or solo.

as a matter of fact a solo miner CAN RP as good as a group of miners - and for that matter... a group of miners can be abysmal at RPing with others.

so why exactly is it that solo mining is meant to be discouraged? - vanilla mining ships are usually single entities - they hang around mining spots and process the raw materials - and no, you cannot dock with them, nor can you pick up their goods. ( well, thats game mechanics for you )
but really - is it ... again .... an idealistic picture of how roleplay "ought" to be - imagined by a few players? or is there a really valid reason why ppl say solo miners are "bad".

surely - its not worse than a fleet admiral flying with his liberator through liberty, a zoner capital ship flying lonely from freeport to freeport, a transport making a run from A to B - or for that matter .... the classical solo bomber pirate that still manages to rob pretty much whatever he likes.
edit: and before you say "yes, they can RP like a group - but they don t" - ... thats only pure guesswork, even if its empirical - its usually a very selective view unless you run objective statistics - ( and i daresay, not a single player here is able to do that in that game )
again - you should really THINK before you ask for a nerf
assuming we d really nerf down the hegemons cargo capacity to 800 units ..... how long will it take until the next 20 pages thread pops up comlaining how "making money for the honest RPers is sooo impossible"
the hegemon is one of the easiest targets for even a single bomber. - F1ing makes the console pop a message - leaving you plenty of time to do your dirty deeds. when its not about F1 - even a newbie bomberpilot is able to shoot down a hegemon blindfolded and with one hand tied to his back.
edit2:

on a sidenote - if the hegemon is removed or rendered usless - i see no reason to introduce the kishiro mining ship - or other factionized mining ships.

I think I feel like arguing the other side today.

I think the issue with solo mining, that many have, is that most if not all cases of "omg noob miners always f1!!!!" are solo miners, who don't RP, who don't talk, who don't play fair, who are just doing it to get their lolcap juggy or dread.

Another case against it is that solo mining is just too gorram easy to set up and, as long as you're clever with regards to pirates, easy to run, relatively. Almost all of the lolwut miners we hear about are hegemons. If group mining were made more lucrative than solo mining, sure the group won't RP well at first, but if a few veterans help out within the group, that's a whole group that could learn to RP well and become valuable members of the community.

And those are the two reasons I came up with off the top of my head, but it's really early and I have to go to school so sorry if they're not the greatest.

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"Things will not calm down, Daniel Jackson. They will, in fact, calm up."