I'd prefer to see the mini game altered. with the result of failing and succeeding changed to be more interactive and reflective in the game instead of behaving like a self contained mini game.
success causes a chunk and the roid outgasses leading to the chance for a new rng subsurface vein to be detected. if you succeed enough, based on the size of the roid and speed you redrill, you can cause the roid to become unstable and shatter it into smaller chunks that fly out and could damage your ship if you don't hide behind other roids or position yourself along one of the fissures that appear.
what remains is chunks of the type the last drilling had.
failure causes outgassing that obscures the area temporarily. too many causes your prospector limpet to fail. but it also produces chunks every time you drill. the chunks are just randomised from the ores available in the system you are in. failures can randomly lose any other veins that were available on the roid. too many failures can cause the roid to become unstable and explode but the chunks left will be random from the system options. there is less warning here as well to avoid danger.
additionally,
mining lasers should not stop producing chunks at a large roid when that roid has a subsurface vein. if you drill in and successfully hit the very last good spot the roids will expel a layer of material over the whole surface. resetting the laser mining. this can be repeated until the roid becomes unstable. missing, results in not being able reset the surface any more.
deep core mining will still be the only way to get deep core ores. however this too should have some additional game play outside of the mini game. where deep core mining produces short lived unstable mini roids that can be laser mined for the same ore produced in the deep core. these too eventually break apart. you will have to dodge or avoid these secondary hazards to not be damaged.
roid fields should be full of these hazards of unstable, exploding roids when actively mined. they should be muddled in dust and fog that hinders sensors (which is why we are so dependent on limpets to be our sensors). night vision should be hindered by the dust and fog too.
right now the res sites improve mining to balance the presence of npcs that interfere with mining... these npcs should be improved so the piracy mechanic is functionally more than a split decision to either wait them out or just destroy them. this can be accomplished by pirates that use ships capable of holding enough cargo to make what they steal make sense. then, they can steal the chunks you mine directly in addition to taking it from you.
more importantly though, most piracy would be between npcs and the effects to the player would be secondary. allowing the player to scavenge, take part in helping the pirate or opposing them. with ups and downs to those choices. and if the previous ideas were to be implemented, the pros and cons could impact the environmental hazard level of a res site.
so the whole point is that the player doesn't feel the need to speed up the game loop to make it less painful or to get more reward for their time. the balance is made but the player is active and engaged and not robotically repeated the same actions. and there are more difficult options that can get them higher reward in less absolute time if they want to attempt it because the balance is in added hazards and risk vs added time.
success causes a chunk and the roid outgasses leading to the chance for a new rng subsurface vein to be detected. if you succeed enough, based on the size of the roid and speed you redrill, you can cause the roid to become unstable and shatter it into smaller chunks that fly out and could damage your ship if you don't hide behind other roids or position yourself along one of the fissures that appear.
what remains is chunks of the type the last drilling had.
failure causes outgassing that obscures the area temporarily. too many causes your prospector limpet to fail. but it also produces chunks every time you drill. the chunks are just randomised from the ores available in the system you are in. failures can randomly lose any other veins that were available on the roid. too many failures can cause the roid to become unstable and explode but the chunks left will be random from the system options. there is less warning here as well to avoid danger.
additionally,
mining lasers should not stop producing chunks at a large roid when that roid has a subsurface vein. if you drill in and successfully hit the very last good spot the roids will expel a layer of material over the whole surface. resetting the laser mining. this can be repeated until the roid becomes unstable. missing, results in not being able reset the surface any more.
deep core mining will still be the only way to get deep core ores. however this too should have some additional game play outside of the mini game. where deep core mining produces short lived unstable mini roids that can be laser mined for the same ore produced in the deep core. these too eventually break apart. you will have to dodge or avoid these secondary hazards to not be damaged.
roid fields should be full of these hazards of unstable, exploding roids when actively mined. they should be muddled in dust and fog that hinders sensors (which is why we are so dependent on limpets to be our sensors). night vision should be hindered by the dust and fog too.
right now the res sites improve mining to balance the presence of npcs that interfere with mining... these npcs should be improved so the piracy mechanic is functionally more than a split decision to either wait them out or just destroy them. this can be accomplished by pirates that use ships capable of holding enough cargo to make what they steal make sense. then, they can steal the chunks you mine directly in addition to taking it from you.
more importantly though, most piracy would be between npcs and the effects to the player would be secondary. allowing the player to scavenge, take part in helping the pirate or opposing them. with ups and downs to those choices. and if the previous ideas were to be implemented, the pros and cons could impact the environmental hazard level of a res site.
so the whole point is that the player doesn't feel the need to speed up the game loop to make it less painful or to get more reward for their time. the balance is made but the player is active and engaged and not robotically repeated the same actions. and there are more difficult options that can get them higher reward in less absolute time if they want to attempt it because the balance is in added hazards and risk vs added time.
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