Development Notice: Mining Update

[Karst]

Xeno artifacts are balanced differently because of their unlawful origin. Turning the commodity into profit requires two ships with different IDs, and trading them is essentially smuggling. In a news article dealing with the distribution of Xeno Relics among the blackmarket all governments are advised to put them as contraband. Alternatively, the profit at a houses capital can be tuned down if it's not treated as contraband.

Yeah I get that, I didn't mean to suggest it was a bug. Just informing other people how it compares.
Edit: If anything the ~8% or so bonus could even be a little higher.

And the mining time takes much longer indeed.
a) Asteroids are more difficult to hit.
b) Constant hazard if you're not limiting yourself to a very small arc in the mining area.
c) Mining area is very cramped and allows only one escape, making mining dangerous. Scanner interferences makes it unable to notice targets until they're sufficiently close to the mining area
d) Asteroids drop commodities half as often, and at 3/5 maximum yield compared to other fields if they do.

That sounds pretty terrible. Half the number of drops at 3/5ths yield would mean a mining time of 1600 seconds relative to the default 480, and that's not even taking the danger and all that into account - or the fact that top-tier bonuses are 3.0 rather than 4.0. Rough estimates suggest an intelligence faction with a 2x bonus could take 20-30 minutes to fill a big transport. I don't think the prices will make up for that.

Zoners are excluded from Azurite because they generally don't have the sufficient knowledge available to them. In that case, they can use the Order as substitute to gather it for them. IRG however is a rather special case, given that they are an official faction focused on research and roleplay. This makes them special enough to say that they have the knowledge to extract some of the Azurite without a doubt.

While I understand the RP justification, that seems extremely unfair to me. Factions like BMM and IMG had to submit faction perk requests to even get +1.0 on ores they already have, and IRG are getting a top bonus just like that? Does this mean that leaders can request ore bonuses for ores that specifically make sense for their official faction - like [ALG] for Iridium Ore, given their long history in the region and importance of Iridium for their smelters?

Or do you have to be an admin leader for that?

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[Moberg]

That sounds pretty terrible. Half the number of drops at 3/5ths yield would mean a mining time of 1600 seconds relative to the default 480, and that's not even taking the danger and all that into account - or the fact that top-tier bonuses are 3.0 rather than 4.0. Rough estimates suggest an intelligence faction with a 2x bonus could take 20-30 minutes to fill a big transport. I don't think the prices will make up for that.

Azurites main purpose is not profit. It serves as roleplay commodity that can be gathered and in the future used as potential material for creating special equipment. It's not meant for profit, but you can turn it into profit if you wish or captured/stole it.

While I understand the RP justification, that seems extremely unfair to me. Factions like BMM and IMG had to submit faction perk requests to even get +1.0 on ores they already have, and IRG are getting a top bonus just like that? Does this mean that leaders can request ore bonuses for ores that specifically make sense for their official faction - like [ALG] for Iridium Ore, given their long history in the region and importance of Iridium for their smelters?

Or do you have to be an admin leader for that?

A faction perk about increasing an existing bonus is definitely not comparable to a faction being one of the factions that receive a bonus for a new commodity. You know just as well as I do that this comparison is flawed beyond doubt.
Give the matter at least a little bit of thought and realize that IRG having a bonus on Azurite is nothing outrageous. The faction and commodity is not designed for major profit like other ores and groups.

And in case you're testing the water: ALG is no faction native to Omicron Delta/Lost, no nearby base of operations, so a bonus for ALG is unlikely at best. Iridium is meant as ambient activity for the relevant factions that have the bonuses. Import it from these factions that mine it or leave it.

[Doria]

I'd argue that Zoners don't really have anything to back up Iridium mining (I've probably triggered several dozen people) but I think there's wider implications beyond that.

Except disco lore, you mean. Iridium was always sold at FP11. Since, like, ever.

And I could argue that Core has nothing to back up their Iridium claims, except some stuff badly wrote, and as a faction its only an excuse to steal a shipline. Do we solve anything by throwing out this kind of arguments? No.

And if you had read once the CoF laws, you would know they only apply on the NFZ 10K radius around a member station, and not systemwide.

By the way, I thought you had left... ?

[Lythrilux]

I thought I had left too, but then Vipex dropped this delightful little update that makes me want to play again!

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[Corile]

The commodities (tested on Xeno Relics) disappear from your cargo hold as soon as you log out of the game.

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Reflections on the Revolution in Gallia
Custodi // High City of Heraklion // The Cult of Archangels
Log Filter // Post Creator // Manhattan

[Pavel]

Really nice changes. Evil DHC plotters look forward to Xeno Relics

[Moberg]

Heyhey! OP updated with lots of information and newest changes. See you in the mining fields!

There's currently an ini put into the wrong file, so expect the changes tomorrow morning or later.

[Xenon]

@"LordVipex" you are awesome!!
OMG Iridium is going to be mined again and Azurite and Xeno Relics !!!
I love it , Thanks for that great work ... Hail the discovery server

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NEBULA INFORMATION BOT ☆ NEBULA DISCORD SERVER
XENON WEAPONS MARKET ☆ NEBULA GRAND PLAZA ☆ NEBULA TECHNOLOGIES
THE DISCOVERY POBCAST ☆ DISCOVERY SERVER RULES

[Durandal]

I've been pretty silent about this, but could the Hellfire Legion get the buypoints for Niobium and Helium-3 transferred to Hesperia instead of Ouray? Right now the Xenos and Rogues constitute all of the outlawed factions in Liberty importing mined goods, which I feel is rather unfair to the LH and HF. Perhaps consider switching two commodities from Buffalo over to Cochrane as well to give the LH some love?

Edit: Seems the same holds true for every unlawful buypoint except Bretonia (who only have two unlawful factions to buy goods)

Divvying them up in Kusari for the Hogosha and GC and in Rheinland for the Bundschuh and Unioners so that all the house 'bad guys' have buy points would be cool.

Bumping this, would still like to see it looked into.

[Ihtyander]

One question. Who mine alied organisms? And in which ship. Is that commodity `mining`commodity at all. I am asking cause only of RP reasons

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No wind is favourable for those ships who dont know their final destination