Nice ideas there. Having your rig stolen was never really a problem before, but in multiplayer it introduces some interesting problems. I like your proposed solutions.
The Mining discussion thread.
Nice ideas there. Having your rig stolen was never really a problem before, but in multiplayer it introduces some interesting problems. I like your proposed solutions.
Makes sense. The rigs may have a limited space, so a pirate could track down and decode the signal then lie in wait.
If this style of mining were to be supported, then it would only be fair to allow other players to steal your valuable ore
If you were intending to go mining, then you would need to find a remote location without being followed and then place your mining rig. You could set it up so that if anyone attempted to steal the minerals then you would be informed via FTL message and you could return to defend your claim.
I was going suggest the same about being able to hijack other players auto-miners and placing bounties or hunting down the would be thief's ect
I did not play FE2 so I will take your word for it
I am unsure how I feel about automated systems to be honest.
How would you control these mining rigs ? You have to be close by or can these be done remotely from a different star system ?
If we're allowing mining operations to be automated (as in FE2) then why not as well automated cargo runs between worlds ? (And in effect when we're not around they become a player-owned NPC)
Why not have automated wing-men ?
Heck, do we allow then custom scripting ? (aka Toebs's crusade)
I am not adverse to the idea but I would be interested in hearing more to convince me
Have the rigs only able to be "robbed" by having a real-time timer on some kind of hacking mod. That way an ore-pirate would have to sit there defenseless while waiting. If it also increased the spawn percentage of random NPC pirate attacks it would add to the danger of robbing someone else's ore. Or have beacon transmitting wide band warnings that could also attract player pilots...
You could also have the game text you in real life to warn you that you've got 30 minutes (arbitrary choice) to get online and defend your rig
You could also have the game text you in real life to warn you that you've got 30 minutes (arbitrary choice) to get online and defend your rig
I get the feeling it's one of those thing that worked really well in single player (mining could be so dull!!) but it would just paint a big target on your back for ED.
20 pirates hiding in nearby 'roids, just waiting for you to come and collect their payday for them.
...Mind you the fire fight if the pirates were all independents would be hillarious!
20 pirates hiding in nearby 'roids, just waiting for you to come and collect their payday for them.
...Mind you the fire fight if the pirates were all independents would be hillarious!
I'd want them automatic in the sense that they keep mining while you're gone. But I should still have to manually get there and pick up the ore and bring them back for sale. I don't want any automatic money machine that effortless just keeps upping your credits while you are exploring the other side of the galaxy.
Different sizes and classifications, for greatly varying revenue. Getting the biggest and baddest shouldn't automatically grant you the biggest revenue by pure definition. Needs to be more to it than that.
Different sizes and classifications, for greatly varying revenue. Getting the biggest and baddest shouldn't automatically grant you the biggest revenue by pure definition. Needs to be more to it than that.
How about the mining rig can only hold so much ... so once it's full it stops mining and sends you an alert. Until you remove the ore it will not get you any more ? (Limited income, forces you to return frequently, more chance of an encounter)
It actually balances pretty well out of the box I think. They are 'automated' mining rigs - your function is to find somewhere to put them, and put them there. They then mine, at a predetermined rate, and fill up their storage capacity with whatever minerals are abundant on the planet you placed them on (basically, the further you go away from the core systems, the more valuable the returns in FE2). When they are full, they stop mining.
The only 'control' you have over them is dropping them, picking them up, and emptying them when full. All of this requires you to be landed within the vicinity of them.
In a multiplayer environment, it could work well quite simply. These things do not broadcast their presence (the owner logs the coordinates in his ships computer, no need for a beacon). You could scan for them at a limited range however, giving thieves a reason to be cruising over planet surfaces on the 'off chance' of getting a signal from one.
I would simply have it that a rig is coded to the owning ships ID; if another ship tries to empty it - nothing prevents that, but the rig does send a message to its owner. If you made it so that it took a minute to load a tonne of goods from one (if you were not the owner), that gives the owner 20 minutes (on a 20t rig) to chase across the galaxy to respond to a potential thief (who may or may not have left the area by the time the person arrives).
If the owner is offline; their rigs should not be visible to anyone and not generate any resources for the owner - to prevent going on holiday and coming back to find someone destroyed your mining empire.
Opportunities abound for different rigs to mine at different rates, but faster ones would be bigger and detectable at greater distances.
Emergent gameplay would involve thieves who just try to find multiple rigs, taking 2 or 3t on material from each one so that they could escape before the owner can return, right through to pirates who will deliberately set off the 'alarm' and then go and hide, waiting for the owner to come back to check on their equipment.
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Thanks Kipper .. nice summary and it sounds reasonable and exciting.
Being a pirate you have now given me a reason to visit the asteroids
Being a pirate you have now given me a reason to visit the asteroids
+1 to that wholeheartedly agree, nice summary.
Disagree with this bit - not very "realistic" if your rigs miraculously turn invisible when you are offline. What if you've spent ages hunting down someone's rigs to rob only for them to suddenly disappear? How do you explain that IC?
Or worse .. you get a message it's being attacked so you log off.
I am liking the idea for this portion to be automated as the are definite pros and cons - work with a team and you could strip mine an asteroid field, but at the risk it could be attacked or stolen. Log off and it remains so once you deploy you should go retrieve. Seems fair to counter the automation part.
I really like this idea. Especially if you'd had to add defensive turrets and refuel the mining base every now and then. In an unfueled mining base all the modules would go offline and both npc and player pirates could come in and steall your fresh ore.
I suspect the best way to handle this mechanic and keep it fair, is if the miner machine has been loaded into another players memory (by virtue of them being in the sector it's within), then it stays present for an hour after the owner logs off. If the owner logs off and no-one is near the miner machine, then it disappears immediately.