[TexMurphy]

Id like to see a change to mining.

Mining is the activity that is closest to afk gameplay in Jumpgate. Sure you can orbit mine and it goes faster but you can point lasers on roid and go have dinner.

Mining is a very passive activity in many games, look at EvE for example brrrrrr...

So what Id like to do is to make mining more involving for the player. One idea would be to move from mining lasers to mining mines + scoopes.

1. Place mine(s) on roid by navigating very very close and releasing them.
2. Launch a small triggering dumb fire rocket from a rocket pod on ship to trigger the mines.
3. Mines blow up and the explosion rips ore of the roid
4. Collect the ore that floats in space with a "scoope gun".

This way mining becomes very much a active activity and one where a team can work together. You can have one guy dropping mines on roids, one guy setting them off and two guys collecting the ore.

Imho player skill based activity that can be made as a team activity is right down the alley what Jumpgate is about.

Tex

[Ikeprof]

Wasn't Elite something like that?...man it's been so long.

Something like you fired at the roid which shattered it into little pieces and then ..gah, I don't remember.

[Ikeprof]

Taken from a Wiki type site dedicated to Elite...I knew my memory only partially sucked

ASTEROID MINING LASERS

Asteroid mining involves the fitting of fuel scoops and special mining lasers to your ship. Ships which always carry them are known as "Belters". They search for asteroids and, on finding one, use the laser to fragment it into pieces sufficiently small to be taken into the cargo bay. Mining Lasers Specification: Kruger Model ARM64 Sp. Mining laser is highly recommended as both a trade and combat addition. Uses variable frequency laser rods of 200mm length, fired in wide beam, 100 channels/beam. Automatic debris-pattern lock ensures no fragments of large size of target asteroid impinge on ship space. can be fitted with a fuel and matter scoop.

[Harvester]

The idea you propose is the same way you mine in X3, you break up large roids with either a mining 'gun' or missles, and you collect the small fragments by beaming them into the hold or running them over. It's a cool concept, but I found in X3 that the larger your ship, the higher the chance that you dammage it (since you had to lower shields to collect the fragments, the dammage you had done was to your armor).

Another topic is, how do you respawn those roids to repopulate the field without ending up suddenly on a collision course? Not to mention transmitting the info about where all these asteroid fragments are going to all pilots that are in the sector.

The great part about this way of mining is you won't be chasing after roids that have already been mined out for the next 8 hours, and you don't have to sit on a roid for 5 minutes to extract the last 2 units of ore that would have taken you 10 seconds to extract had the rock been cold.

[Wild_Bill]

Intersting concep Tex. I didn't remember that about Elite Ike, so thanks for providing it. All in all, I really don't know where I stand on this one. It would be good for team mining, but it would take away the ability to alt-tab and do other things while mining.

[TexMurphy]

Originally Posted by Wild_Bill

Intersting concep Tex. I didn't remember that about Elite Ike, so thanks for providing it. All in all, I really don't know where I stand on this one. It would be good for team mining, but it would take away the ability to alt-tab and do other things while mining.

Exactly my point. When playing a game one should be playing the game and not beeing alt tabbed... imho afk activities in mmpogs are design flaws..

tex

[alphabet]

I would rather release a bunch of mining bots over a field, have them do the work and as I pass by, pick them up with the ore.

If I leave the sector, they continue to work, but they are destroyable by other PCs or NPCs. So it pays to protect your bots.

I want to be in charge of the mining, not part of the chain-gang gathering rocks.

[Dragonar]

I find it hard to think about this going into a radically new direction. I kinda liked the way you mine in Jumpgate Classic, and I have done it quite a lot, too. Mining badges and medals were a mark of respect, because it showed that you had patience, dedication and skill. So I wouldn't like anything that automated the process in any way.

What does bother me is that the asteroids are completely stationary and don't move an inch after they've been plopped by our revered GMs. The way mining was done in EVE was poo, but what I did like about it was that the asteroid belts were at least to an extent mobile and changed consistency often. So, in my opinion, before you actually start mining them, finding them (or the particular ones you need/want) should be the first challenge, using mineral scanners or radars or whatever, with the biggest and the best being mountable only on the biggest and the best mining ships.

Something some people already suggested was veins of ore running through the asteroid that you have to point your mining laser at, increasing the amount of things you have to do whilst mining.

Another thing mentioned in this thread now is to fire certain types of missiles at asteroids to break them up into smaller pieces.

Imagine if TRI suddenly finds a new type of 'massive' asteroid floating through space (or perhaps found in the new sectors opened up later on), and since they contain a significant amount of ore and TRI and the various companies wouldn't like to miss out on that kind of profit, they begin development of special missiles, based on the nuke concept perhaps (the names 'Crusher' or 'Grinder' come to mind ). A mining squad finds one (or perhaps even triggers a spawn of one by accepting a mining mission issued by TRI), issues a few of them to squad members flying Bombers, and then goes roid hunting. They blast the asteroid to bits (with an impressive and awe-inspiring animation), and the other members of the squad pick up the pieces, carrying them home, or perhaps also just mining them in the conventional way.

I quite like that idea. It's requires a fair amount of cooperation between combat and non-combat units (perhaps stick a few dormant conflux inside the massive roids or something, like a kinder egg), the suspense of perhaps finding very precious stuff inside the roid would be exciting to players (like arty hunting), and you could also make a lot of cash.

[vorlon31]

I like.

I like the idea of comet mining too. Firstly you need moving comets, comets that are available in sector x, coming into view at time y on day z. Another day, another location. Then chasing along behind the huge ice chunk, mining it whilst scooping the gases from its tail too could be a tag team event. - just don't get in front of it

[Radi]

Originally Posted by Dragonar

Something some people already suggested was veins of ore running through the asteroid that you have to point your mining laser at, increasing the amount of things you have to do whilst mining.

Another thing mentioned in this thread now is to fire certain types of missiles at asteroids to break them up into smaller pieces.

Imagine if TRI suddenly finds a new type of 'massive' asteroid floating through space (or perhaps found in the new sectors opened up later on), and since they contain a significant amount of ore and TRI and the various companies wouldn't like to miss out on that kind of profit, they begin development of special missiles, based on the nuke concept perhaps (the names 'Crusher' or 'Grinder' come to mind ). A mining squad finds one (or perhaps even triggers a spawn of one by accepting a mining mission issued by TRI), issues a few of them to squad members flying Bombers, and then goes roid hunting. They blast the asteroid to bits (with an impressive and awe-inspiring animation), and the other members of the squad pick up the pieces, carrying them home, or perhaps also just mining them in the conventional way.

I quite like that idea. It's requires a fair amount of cooperation between combat and non-combat units (perhaps stick a few dormant conflux inside the massive roids or something, like a kinder egg), the suspense of perhaps finding very precious stuff inside the roid would be exciting to players (like arty hunting), and you could also make a lot of cash.

That would be awesome. There is a reason to fight.

[Tim]

lol.. i'm in the minority again. There's a shock.

I like alt-tabbing. For me, Jumpgate is just a thing i do when i get home from work.. it's not my religion. I'm cool with different folks doing different things... I don't much care for staring at a gate for 20 minutes waiting for somebody to come through it, but i understand that there are folks who love that stuff. Groovy for them.

I don't feel much need at all to dictate how other folks play the game. Sure, i'm not a big fan of the gank-fest style pvp, but i wouldn't vote for a game mechanic change.

For me, the bottom line is that everybody has a different level of involvement in any game.. changing a game mechanic so that somebody else can't alt-tab seems a little harsh to me.

Some folks live and die by Jumpgate. I just play it because i can't find anything on TV, and it's an amusing diversion. *shrug* what do i know?

[Chemdog]

Tim - if you find it an amusing diversion to play Jumpgate when nothing is on TV, then why would you alt+tab while logged in? Alt-tabbed from game means you are no longer actively playing. For all you know you could still be mining, be getting pirated and not responding, already got a pod ride home, etc. You could actually be interacting with players, chatting them up, whatever else it is that people do when they mine. What's the point of playing if you aren't actually playing?

[Tim]

Someday, Chemdog, i'm sure you will come to a point in your world when you want to do something totally mindless, that requires little more action than drooling on oneself (drool can be a pain to clean up, which is why i look for something that requires a little more effort).

I certainly am not trying to give the impression that all i do is drool.. i'm not Pres. Bush, after all. But from time to time, it's pleasant to just relax.

other times, i'm a fairly verbal individual. There are a few out there who have had the misfortune t