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Thursday, October 4, 2012

Why The Hate For Asteroid Belts?

Sometimes I click on links that lead to threads in the Eve Online forums and my opinion about those forums is confirmed.  But when I read the ones about low security space, I keep reading the idea that removing asteroid belts would make the area more popular.  Really?

I guess the idea is that mining in gravimetric sites is safer than mining in asteroid belts and so putting all ore in gravimetric sites will make mining in low sec safer.  I don't like that idea.  Asteroid belts and the ores they contain give a system some character and identity.  I personally want to live in .1 and .2 security systems because they contain better quality ores.  Without that difference, what makes a .1 system different from a .3 system?

The thought that really boggles my mind is having to scan down a signature to mine some veldspar.  How is that a good idea?  Currently low sec is like grocery shopping.  If I want something nice at a cheap price, then I have to shop around.  But if I run out of ice cream in the middle of the night, I can just walk over to the corner 7-11 and pick up a pint.  The same principle applies to low sec.  Currently if I need a small amount of low-end minerals I just hop in my Procurer and mine for 15 minutes.  If I want the nicer ore like crokite and spodumain and don't want to travel to null sec and deal with bubbles, then I need to scan down sites.

Of course, I'm not a big miner.  For those people who require hours and hours of uninterrupted mining, they can make more in high sec or null sec.  But taking away the asteroid belts in an attempt to lure miners to low sec?  Is this just madness or am I missing something?

7 comments:

  1. I don't want belts to be removed, rather, the bulk of the mine-able ore in the system to be in grav sites. In 0.0 I'd make a non marked non de-spawning site that allows the sov holding alliance to turn the "local warp in beacons" on or off.

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  2. the concept is based on the flawed idea that people will put up with the infinite complexity and uncertainty of pvp for the chance to mine something that is worth about 50isk more per m3. you're right. it's stupid.

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  3. Mining is so mind numbingly boring and easy that no amount of actual player skill is necessary. Maximizing your profits largely doesn't depend on ore types --- see Jester's post on them this last week.

    As far as gaming trade-offs are concerned you basically have only one to make --- more AFK time or marginally more yield? If you prefer AFK you will not under any circumstance go to low sec since the combination of belt mining and constant scanning of local eliminates AFK. Moving to grav sites does allow more time since it introduces scanning time/probes on dscan warning but not by much to make a real difference.

    The reason this is a bogus idea is that is does nothing to actually change mining in LS. Your small basic needs are about the only reason to mine there in the first place. For anyone doing mining as a profession/primary source of income, LS is so far down the list of options nothing will entice people to mine there. Mining as a profitable profession just can't operate on in any real scale in LS.

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  4. I live in a wormhole. All our mining sites are gravimetric. They are NOT safer. Anyone who thinks they are, needs to live in a wormhole for a month because they really don't know what they are saying.

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    1. I also live in a WH, and if belts were placed in WH's there would be no way in hell I would mine in one, would you?

      That grav site gives you a minimum of 10 seconds during which probes are visible on dscan before the cloaky tengu hits your mining op. Belts give you absolute zero warning by comparison. If the hostile is in your WH prior to you logging on and has your sites there isn't a difference but to a roaming hunter there is that small one.

      WH's are in general outliers to a lot of eve trends. Only in WH's do you consistently face cloaked T3/scanning ships as the default hostile. In LS against your standard roaming pirates grav sites would be providing more than that 10 seconds you get in a WH. It still doesn't make a difference to wanting to mine in LS but it IS safer.

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  5. No belts also mean ratting would become an even greater pain. something I know some approve of.

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  6. to me, mining is a relaxing way to profit in eve. unlike missions where it's lethal to suddenly go afk at a random moment.
    So if i'm in low sec and mining while NOT being afk that would have to mean i'm making alot more profit than lvl4 missions, right?
    I mean...why mine in low sec if scordite is king? If i'm mining at all it's for the afk-ness.

    I wish it wasn't so. I wish mining in low sec was profitable enough over high sec that i'd see alot of value in playing the non-afk game of being on the lookout for pvp - versus lvl4 missioning (which is also non-afk)
    Unfortunately, the time lost to both gravimetric scanning AND hiding from pvp roamers will never add up to low sec being attractive for mining.

    So...basically, ccp have reduced my options to either (a) fun non-afk lvl4 missioning (b) fun afk ice mining. I'm sure there's other means of revenue (like incursions and FW farming) but i'm a simple guy with simple pleasures. A casual gamer i suppose.

    I'm hoping the planned ring mining makes mining FINALLY worth playing as a game and not just a screensaver with a built in chat function.

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