- Proposal
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I'd like to propose 1 of 2 solutions to improve space mining be adopted:
- Enable a way for the Tractor Beam to work when toggled on a Y-8 like it does on a Starfighter. This wouldn't unbalance things, as the size of the holds would still require someone to spend a couple hours chasing and shooting rocks in space (I did this many times on Live, it's damned tedious and a 50K hold still takes some time to fill up), and still requires them to deal with Asteroid Bandits.
- Increase hold sizes on Starfighter Cargo Holds significantly so less time is spent unloading/travelling.
- Justification
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The Y-8 Mining Ship, introduced by SOE especially for mass asteroid mining, is widely considered to be the poorest choice of ships for mining asteroids. It is extremely inefficient. For Shipwrights, who need these resources for all POB ship parts as well as some addons, harvesting these resouces in a starfighter can be very tedious with repeated landings/unloadings/launching/travelling back to asteroid to build up stocks. The Y-8 was supposed to alleviate this by design, but does not in its current state. A simple change allowing the Tractor Beam to be toggled like a starfighter would fix this as it used to on Live.
- Motivation
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To make the Y-8 an efficient mining ship as was its intended purpose, or to improve the QOL for space mining by at least increasing the harvest in a starfighter.
I'm not looking for anything radical, but the only way to get asteroid materials is by hand mining it from a ship.
This is easy enough in a starfighter, although getting Diamond in Kessel or other space zones with higher tier ships can be challenging as, if Asteroid Bandits spawn then they will be the corresponding Tier (Tier 5 in Kessel as an example). If your ship is outfitted for mining, it can really leave you vulnerable to attack by these higher tier bandits. Also, with a highest hold capacity of about 1750 Units (5000 for a Huge hold but we don't have that yet), you spend a lot of time landing, unloading launching and flying back to the asteroid.
SOE introduced the Y-8 Mining Vessel with Rage of the Wookies. This was supposed to enable some serious mining, with a capacity of up to 50000 units (depending on size of the cargo hold you installed). But this ship was pretty much a failure in its role. Ironically, it is widely considered to be the poorest choice of ships for mining asteroids. Getting people to fill in the turrets to shoot rocks never happened. If you don't use a Tractor Beam, then you only get half the asteroid resources per rock.
Due to a glitch in its design, though, it was possible to solo mine in this ship. You could mount a Tractor Beam in the top weapon slot, and a person could go to that slot, "fire" the beam and then leave the turret and return to the pilot seat. Then toggle the beam on like in a starfighter. From then on, it would work like a starfighter, with the beam automatically drawing in asteroid pieces as the pilot shot them apart. No crew required, which wasn't realistically going to happen anyway and wasn't as efficient.
SOE "fixed" this glitch with the NGE and from then on the Y-8 was relegated to most pilot's dustbins at that point. You couldn't put together a mining crew, it was an ineficient ship to use solo, and due to turret placement and blind spots, it wasn't even a good "gunboat". Since Resto3 is based upon the NGE code, this glitch remains "fixed" and the Y-8 remains a pretty useless overall ship, totally inefficient for its intended purpose.
This is easy enough in a starfighter, although getting Diamond in Kessel or other space zones with higher tier ships can be challenging as, if Asteroid Bandits spawn then they will be the corresponding Tier (Tier 5 in Kessel as an example). If your ship is outfitted for mining, it can really leave you vulnerable to attack by these higher tier bandits. Also, with a highest hold capacity of about 1750 Units (5000 for a Huge hold but we don't have that yet), you spend a lot of time landing, unloading launching and flying back to the asteroid.
SOE introduced the Y-8 Mining Vessel with Rage of the Wookies. This was supposed to enable some serious mining, with a capacity of up to 50000 units (depending on size of the cargo hold you installed). But this ship was pretty much a failure in its role. Ironically, it is widely considered to be the poorest choice of ships for mining asteroids. Getting people to fill in the turrets to shoot rocks never happened. If you don't use a Tractor Beam, then you only get half the asteroid resources per rock.
Due to a glitch in its design, though, it was possible to solo mine in this ship. You could mount a Tractor Beam in the top weapon slot, and a person could go to that slot, "fire" the beam and then leave the turret and return to the pilot seat. Then toggle the beam on like in a starfighter. From then on, it would work like a starfighter, with the beam automatically drawing in asteroid pieces as the pilot shot them apart. No crew required, which wasn't realistically going to happen anyway and wasn't as efficient.
SOE "fixed" this glitch with the NGE and from then on the Y-8 was relegated to most pilot's dustbins at that point. You couldn't put together a mining crew, it was an ineficient ship to use solo, and due to turret placement and blind spots, it wasn't even a good "gunboat". Since Resto3 is based upon the NGE code, this glitch remains "fixed" and the Y-8 remains a pretty useless overall ship, totally inefficient for its intended purpose.
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