Originally posted by Teala

Originally posted by Kiljaedenas

Originally posted by BigHatLogan

You can already see how much more is left in a roid in realtime, just click your survey scanner.  Miners have received a lot of new ships since I started playing EVE.  They originally had the 3 barges, then they got tech 2 exhumers, and even capital ships like the ORCA and Rorqual.  Problem is mining is boring and always will be.  You could add some minigame stuff to it but odds are it would just make mining more stressful and less relaxing.  Miners typically like to chat or whatever during ops.  Mining ships are easy targets because no one bothers to try and make them hard targets.  Not much you can do with the tech 1 barges, but the exhumers can be fit with a strong tank.  Also, you can mine in ships other than just ore ships quite successfully.  A lot of battleships double as mining ships and can outmine tech 1 barges.  They also are not going to get suicide ganked. 

In the most recent inferno patch, CCP got rid of drone minerals.  This is the single hugest buff that miners could have hoped for.  A huge amount of minerals in the economy were coming from nullsec drone loot and now mining will once again be the profession providing life blood to the universe. 

I agree with everything said here, and that part in red is very, very true. It also isn't all of the story; I don't know if it was during the patch or another time recently, but CCP also went on a campaign to block the accounts of miners that were using macros to run the program for them (another name for them were mining botters), as that was one of the (very few) things in Eve that was officially considered illegal. There were apparently a LOT of them. So with the high-producing mining bots gone, and the Drone alloys gone, mineral supply took a nose-dive off a cliff. The economy is already showing the results of this...I think mineral prices doubled inside of a week, which significantly bumped the price of everything else. So for those true miners that do actually sit there watching their ship shoot rocks, their income is skyrocketing and they are partying all the harder for it.

If you don't call that a boost to the mining profession, I seriously don't know what you would consider a boost.

That has nothing to do with anything I said.  I just learned that CCP killedthe drone minerals which is cool, but that doesn't change the fact that mining is still one of the most non-engaging activities of the game(which is what my post was basically all about - and nothing to do with how much money people make from mining).   Is what I suggested really that to much for your average miner in the game?   I would think many people that actively mine would appreciate it mining more if it was more of a mini-game rather than a activity that requires very little thought by the person performing it.  

What do you consider a boost to a profession? I consider it as anything that makes that activity more enjoyable, no matter what the form that boost may take. That could include some kind of modification to the core process of mining to make it more complex or "engaging" as you put it, but people can have more fun from it if the amount of income they gain from the current action is drastically increased. That is why I consider what I said a boost to the profession, despite what you say.

However, as per what you seem to want, i.e. a more complex or engaging process akin to a minigame...what more do you want? Real world mining isn't exciting either. What do real world miners do? Push a powered drill or smack a pickaxe into a wall and send the chunks they break off down a conveyor or trolley system to a holding station. Oooh, fun. True, the planning and setup stages of a mining operation can be rather complex, and Eve's comparison to this is a corp/alliance leader planning out the belts and ore types they need in a hurry and getting together a good group of miners and haulers to do the extraction...but in both Eve and real life the actual actions taken by each individual miner takes very little thought, the real world one being mainly semi-mindless physical labour. I am NOT saying that real world miners are inherently stupid, far from it, I'm just saying that if they are the ones smacking/drilling the rocks they don't need to use their brains very much.

So in other words, the actions needed to mine rocks in Eve are of a similar mental difficulty as the actions taken by real world miners. Anything else that would get put in there would seem like excessive fakery for the sake of fun.

There's also one other thing you may want to consider: a significant chunk of the stuff you can do in Eve can be very intense and stressful, and sometimes players may want to do something that can benefit their overall wealth but don't want to do anything that requires extreme concentration and effort. Mining suits this very well. If going solo (but not afk) they can just go to a belt, start their lasers and then sit back with a book, or shrink the Eve game window a bit and start browsing on the internet, etc. If they mine with a group, they can all chat together on anything they want, perhaps play some kind of minigame together on some other site, whatever. The lack of required thought in Eve's mining can be very refreshing to some.

Originally posted by Teala

One thing that always annoyed me about CCP is that one of the biggest aspects of the game, mining, is one of the least worked on or have content added for that aspect of the game.   Mining, despite what some people may say, could be a very cool aspect and less boring if CCP actually spent a little time, and effort, to make it more engaging.  

Things they could do to make it better are added different colored lasers for what ore you are mining.    This would allow miners to know what ore was being mined by another miner in the same belt by using color coding of the laser mining pulse.  This is completely unnecessary. Just look at what rock they are shooting. Adding aspects that have no tangible benefit is a waste of time and money.

They could add a better ore gathering system that allowed the miner to see how much ore was left in an asteroid as they mined it in real time.  As it is now it is total guestimation on how much ore is left while you mine the asteroid.   Real time info would make it easier to know when to turn off your mining module for that asteroid and start mining a new one. If you're talking about when the rock is still relatively full, just re-activate your survey scanner. If you're talking about when it's nearly empty to the point that you wouldn't need a full cycle to finish it off...isn't that requirement to do a bit of math and guessing in your head a nice little bit of complexity to make it more interesting? The live quantity tracking that you suggest would make mining take even less thought than it does now. Not an improvement.

How about allowing us to go further in the mining skill system and allow us to increase our ability to mine more ore and to specialize in finding (rather irrelevant), gathering and refining said ores (those last two already exist through the ore-specific refining skills; aside from the obvious benefit to refining they also unlock the ability to use the ore-specific mining crystals, the use of which allows you to mine those specific ores better)- and in doing so requires micro management of power input and output of the mining vessels power supplies and such.  Capacitor usage?

Also, why can't mining vessels have more defensive capabilites?  You'd think that if these people in this universe were so advanced that they would have ways of better defending themselves from induviduals whose only purpose it to blow up a mining vessel - yet as we all know that is not the case and mining barges are one of the easiest targets to suicide gank.   Come on CCP we can only suspend disbelief for so long before it becomes stupid silly.  You want a non-combat ship to be good at combat? Combat ships are tough because they are specifically designed for combat, and all of the systems needed to make them good at that take up a lot of room on the ship. Can a milk truck dish out or take more punishment than a tank? No, it isn't designed to. But it can carry a crapload more milk than a tank could. Each has their specific role, and they excel at that role. Do you think that real-world generals would send a vital supply transport/extraction vehicle into a warzone completely unprotected, telling their enemies "This is just a mining truck, it can't fight, don't gank it"? Of course they wouldn't; they would have a detachment of soldiers and combat equipment guarding that resource. The gank-a-bility of the mining barges perfectly suites their role.

Also, how come this games star systems have no orbits?  The planets, moons and asteroid belts are all static.   They never move.   Wouldn't it be a bit more challenging and engaging if it required miners to scan down asteroid belts because their locations changed - or does Newtonian physics not exist in EVE?  For a game that is suppose to be ahrdcore sci-fi you completely miss the boat on many levels.  Do you have any idea how difficult that would be to code and maintain in the 7500+ star systems that Eve has? Having set locations for everything reduces the load on the servers IMMENSLY. One of the reasons Eve is such a great MMO is that it is relatively bug-free and only lags in very large fleet fights. Adding the load of having every player that goes into any system get a revised uplink of the locations of the belts and planets would be a significantly crippling addition to the server lag. No friggin thank you.

How come miners get no new mining ships? With possibly the one single exception of a dedicated gas harvesting ship, what more could you possibly want? You have 6 dedicated mining ships from ORE, two supporting capital ships, various cruisers and frigates with a mining bonus throughout the races, and over 20 industrial haulers for helping move the ore. How much more would be enough for you?

Speaking of ships, why are the only ships getting updgraded and new ships being built combat ships? Because combat, both PvP and PvE is what over 90% of the game content revolves around. When will CCP add say, a mid-ranged freighter?  You have a choice between small and huge.   Do not bring up the Orca either.  The Orca is a specialized mining freighter and requires mining related skills.   How come CCP hasn't put into game a freighter that is around the 350k/m3 to 450k/m3 range? Very unnecessary. The only three product shipment methods you need are small but ultra fast (any frigate will do, similar to a small delivery van, delivering with your car directly or perhaps air-freighting something), mid-speed and decent capacity (the subcapital industrial ships, similar to an 18-wheeler truck) and the heavy bulk haulers (freighters, or in the real world a train for over land and an ocean freighter for over sea). You don't need more, and the Eve freighters don't need much more in skill training once you get the racial Industrial skill up to level 5.

New mining barges would be good as well.  This is a redundant question. You already covered this with your "How come miners get no new mining ships?" above, and the answer to it is still the same as I posted above.

So I ask the question - when is CCP going to start working on the one aspect of the game that has been neglected for so long?

 

I decided to go a bit more direct on your statements, see the colored text above.

Originally posted by dave6660

Originally posted by Kiljaedenas

Originally posted by BigHatLogan

You can already see how much more is left in a roid in realtime, just click your survey scanner.  Miners have received a lot of new ships since I started playing EVE.  They originally had the 3 barges, then they got tech 2 exhumers, and even capital ships like the ORCA and Rorqual.  Problem is mining is boring and always will be.  You could add some minigame stuff to it but odds are it would just make mining more stressful and less relaxing.  Miners typically like to chat or whatever during ops.  Mining ships are easy targets because no one bothers to try and make them hard targets.  Not much you can do with the tech 1 barges, but the exhumers can be fit with a strong tank.  Also, you can mine in ships other than just ore ships quite successfully.  A lot of battleships double as mining ships and can outmine tech 1 barges.  They also are not going to get suicide ganked. 

In the most recent inferno patch, CCP got rid of drone minerals.  This is the single hugest buff that miners could have hoped for.  A huge amount of minerals in the economy were coming from nullsec drone loot and now mining will once again be the profession providing life blood to the universe. 

I agree with everything said here, and that part in red is very, very true. It also isn't all of the story; I don't know if it was during the patch or another time recently, but CCP also went on a campaign to block the accounts of miners that were using macros to run the program for them (another name for them were mining botters), as that was one of the (very few) things in Eve that was officially considered illegal. There were apparently a LOT of them. So with the high-producing mining bots gone, and the Drone alloys gone, mineral supply took a nose-dive off a cliff. The economy is already showing the results of this...I think mineral prices doubled inside of a week, which significantly bumped the price of everything else. So for those true miners that do actually sit there watching their ship shoot rocks, their income is skyrocketing and they are partying all the harder for it.

If you don't call that a boost to the mining profession, I seriously don't know what you would consider a boost.

Wow!  I haven't been keeping on the Eve patches since I left but that sounds great.  Even though I'm sure the botters will find work arounds very soon it's nice to keep them on their toes.  So what do the rats in drone regions drop now?  The russians must be a tad upset (if they still control that area).

Funny you should ask this, my corp is currently part of an alliance in the Drone regions. From what I've seen so far, the drones have no loot at all. There's still the standard salvaging materials if you use a salvager. The bounties seem slightly higher than average though to compensate for that. And as for the Russians, their control over the region has definitely weakened from what I know.

Originally posted by Banquetto
Would be nice if mining took a leaf from planetary interaction. Maybe scanning asteroids to find the richest spot to zap, and then having to move your target point around the roid as it depleted.

That's actually not a bad idea and it could be made to be fairly bot-proof too.

Originally posted by Teala

Also, why can't mining vessels have more defensive capabilites?  You'd think that if these people in this universe were so advanced that they would have ways of better defending themselves from induviduals whose only purpose it to blow up a mining vessel - yet as we all know that is not the case and mining barges are one of the easiest targets to suicide gank.   Come on CCP we can only suspend disbelief for so long before it becomes stupid silly.  

Apperently these people are not advanced enough to keep track of planets/belts in orbit -.-

You want a minig ship to be on par with a combat ship?

Also, how come this games star systems have no orbits?  The planets, moons and asteroid belts are all static.   They never move.   Wouldn't it be a bit more challenging and engaging if it required miners to scan down asteroid belts because their locations changed - or does Newtonian physics not exist in EVE?  For a game that is suppose to be ahrdcore sci-fi you completely miss the boat on many levels.  

Why would you need to scan for asteroid belts even if they where in orbit? Why assume that when they have space ships they do not have a system to keep the planets orbit data?

That is just as selective about physics, and logic, similar to what you try to say CCP are. Like if it would be hard for someone having a hobby-telescope to relocate planets in our solar system.

Besides that you already have mining belts that you have to scan down, with ore that you don't find in the regular belts.

 

How come miners get no new mining ships?

Speaking of ships, why are the only ships getting updgraded and new ships being built combat ships?  When will CCP add say, a mid-ranged freighter?  You have a choice between small and huge.   Do not bring up the Orca either.  The Orca is a specialized mining freighter and requires mining related skills.   How come CCP hasn't put into game a freighter that is around the 350k/m3 to 450k/m3 range?

New mining barges would be good as well.  

So I ask the question - when is CCP going to start working on the one aspect of the game that has been neglected for so long?

Ask CCP instead, they have a forum for ideas. It is also possible to send an evemail to CSM. Ask them, they are the only one that can actually answer. If you have ideas bring them to them.

I'm most certain you will argue for you cause here... why not to CCP directly?

 

Seriously?

I have but one suggestion that would make my life as a miner in EVE easier: Right click a stack and have the option to split it into X number of smaller stacks with equal amount in each one. Other than that  I'm fine really, but hey, I wouldn't mind lasers in pretty colors if thats what the girls want.

I've been a miner since I started EVE, I personally find nothing wrong with it. Yes pretty lasers would be coool but in the real world, Whats the point? 

I mean seriously! I don't know about you but i can sit in my Hulk/Orca and clean a Asteriod belt without paying much attention.

As other people have metioned the price of minerals as skyrocketted. for example, a cargohold of raw ore is valued at 500m is around 680m of minerals. Its just amazing how much more you can make nowadays

ccp has been going on for years about how they "thinking" and "thinking" and "thinking" and "thinking" about introducing scannable comets you can mine.  this "thinking" has been going on for many years and nothing has come about it. its just the old carrot on a stick story.

ccp COULD do something really nice for mining, remove all the static belts and make them all dynamic, where you would have to scan them down to mine them. of course that would require ccp do actually do work.

look at the expansion before inferno, crucible. so many new badass T2 moduals got introduced. miners got crap. orca pilots got some new T2 moduals that are no where near the improvement of their new combat related T2 moduals.

they even gave destroyers a huge boost, making them alot more better for ganking a 300 mil ship. a few 1mil ships can down a 300 mil ship very fast. even with a tank.

truth be told, ccp simply doesnt like miners. miners tend to be more passive and dont do much protesting like the pvpers so nothing will ever get done. if you look at the eve forums, you'll see a new topic about how horrible miners are for the game. even though most of the real problem comes from the botting ratter or botting mission runner who introduces massive amounts of isk into the game on a daily basis.

if you are a real miner, i recommend you do what i did. i cancelled all four of my accounts until theres more done for miners. the pvpers cried, cried, and shed even more tears. they started cancelling their accounts, that didnt look to good for the investors now... ccp gave them shiny new toys to gank more people with.

Originally posted by Caldicot

I have but one suggestion that would make my life as a miner in EVE easier: Right click a stack and have the option to split it into X number of smaller stacks with equal amount in each one. Other than that  I'm fine really, but hey, I wouldn't mind lasers in pretty colors if thats what the girls want.

Erm...what would that actually accomplish, being able to split stacks in that particular manner? I don't see any benefit above the current splitting system that we have now, and personally I prefer to combine everything I have of a particular item/ore into one stack so that I can easily see the exact total quantity that I have.

---

Originally posted by Teala
That has nothing to do with anything I said.  I just learned that CCP killedthe drone minerals which is cool, but that doesn't change the fact that mining is still one of the most non-engaging activities of the game(which is what my post was basically all about - and nothing to do with how much money people make from mining).   Is what I suggested really that to much for your average miner in the game?   I would think many people that actively mine would appreciate it mining more if it was more of a mini-game rather than a activity that requires very little thought by the person performing it.  

---

If mining would require people to actually do something, other then to fly into the belt and turn on their harvesters, nobody in EvE would actually do it.

You are a rare exception, when it comes to this issue, and nothing will ever change this fact, no matter how many threads you start about mining.

CCP did away with the alloys from the drones and reduced loot-drops from missions, so that even more people need to grind asteroid-belts and to increase the value of the mining-profession. That doesn't change the fact tho, that there's so much materials required in the EvE economy, that noone wants that to be an activity that requires players to actively do something.

To make the economy of EvE running, mining needs to be an AFK-activity.

Originally posted by Yalexy

 

---

Originally posted by Teala
That has nothing to do with anything I said.  I just learned that CCP killedthe drone minerals which is cool, but that doesn't change the fact that mining is still one of the most non-engaging activities of the game(which is what my post was basically all about - and nothing to do with how much money people make from mining).   Is what I suggested really that to much for your average miner in the game?   I would think many people that actively mine would appreciate it mining more if it was more of a mini-game rather than a activity that requires very little thought by the person performing it.  

---

 

If mining would require people to actually do something, other then to fly into the belt and turn on their harvesters, nobody in EvE would actually do it.

You are a rare exception, when it comes to this issue, and nothing will ever change this fact, no matter how many threads you start about mining.

CCP did away with the alloys from the drones and reduced loot-drops from missions, so that even more people need to grind asteroid-belts and to increase the value of the mining-profession. That doesn't change the fact tho, that there's so much materials required in the EvE economy, that noone wants that to be an activity that requires players to actively do something.

To make the economy of EvE running, mining needs to be an AFK-activity.

And then the AFKers and Botters get ganked by suicide gankers. Such is the cycle of EvE :)

Originally posted by Salio69

if you are a real miner, i recommend you do what i did. i cancelled all four of my accounts until theres more done for miners. the pvpers cried, cried, and shed even more tears. they started cancelling their accounts, that didnt look to good for the investors now... ccp gave them shiny new toys to gank more people with.

 

You know I was actually thinking about doing that myself. What would happent to the eve economy if suddenly miners stopped bringing in ore and refining it to minerals? Would the economy crash or what?

Just saying, It'd be very interesting to see what would actually happen consisdering now that Drones don't give nearly as much minerals as they did pre-patch

 

 

Originally posted by Kiljaedenas

Originally posted by Caldicot

I have but one suggestion that would make my life as a miner in EVE easier: Right click a stack and have the option to split it into X number of smaller stacks with equal amount in each one. Other than that  I'm fine really, but hey, I wouldn't mind lasers in pretty colors if thats what the girls want.

Erm...what would that actually accomplish, being able to split stacks in that particular manner? I don't see any benefit above the current splitting system that we have now, and personally I prefer to combine everything I have of a particular item/ore into one stack so that I can easily see the exact total quantity that I have.

Obviously to simplify splitting the ore equally between a group of miners after an op.

Originally posted by Caldicot

Originally posted by Kiljaedenas

Originally posted by Caldicot

I have but one suggestion that would make my life as a miner in EVE easier: Right click a stack and have the option to split it into X number of smaller stacks with equal amount in each one. Other than that  I'm fine really, but hey, I wouldn't mind lasers in pretty colors if thats what the girls want.

Erm...what would that actually accomplish, being able to split stacks in that particular manner? I don't see any benefit above the current splitting system that we have now, and personally I prefer to combine everything I have of a particular item/ore into one stack so that I can easily see the exact total quantity that I have.

Obviously to simplify splitting the ore equally between a group of miners after an op.

I've been in mining groups/ops where the minerals were split, where the profits were split and where people were paid based on contribution, but I can't say I've ever seen or even heard of people dividing up the ore afterwards, let alone completely equally with none going to the main corp or the 'house' as it would be. While it's obvious from your post that some people do it, it seems like that's the exception not the norm.

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by Caldicot

Originally posted by Kiljaedenas

Originally posted by Caldicot

I have but one suggestion that would make my life as a miner in EVE easier: Right click a stack and have the option to split it into X number of smaller stacks with equal amount in each one. Other than that  I'm fine really, but hey, I wouldn't mind lasers in pretty colors if thats what the girls want.

Erm...what would that actually accomplish, being able to split stacks in that particular manner? I don't see any benefit above the current splitting system that we have now, and personally I prefer to combine everything I have of a particular item/ore into one stack so that I can easily see the exact total quantity that I have.

Obviously to simplify splitting the ore equally between a group of miners after an op.

I've been in mining groups/ops where the minerals were split, where the profits were split and where people were paid based on contribution, but I can't say I've ever seen or even heard of people dividing up the ore afterwards, let alone completely equally with none going to the main corp or the 'house' as it would be. While it's obvious from your post that some people do it, it seems like that's the exception not the norm.

Ore, minerals, Exotic dancers, whatever, what are you trying to say? It's a simple feature that would make things a bit easier.

Originally posted by Caldicot

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by Caldicot

Originally posted by Kiljaedenas

Originally posted by Caldicot

I have but one suggestion that would make my life as a miner in EVE easier: Right click a stack and have the option to split it into X number of smaller stacks with equal amount in each one. Other than that  I'm fine really, but hey, I wouldn't mind lasers in pretty colors if thats what the girls want.

Erm...what would that actually accomplish, being able to split stacks in that particular manner? I don't see any benefit above the current splitting system that we have now, and personally I prefer to combine everything I have of a particular item/ore into one stack so that I can easily see the exact total quantity that I have.

Obviously to simplify splitting the ore equally between a group of miners after an op.

I've been in mining groups/ops where the minerals were split, where the profits were split and where people were paid based on contribution, but I can't say I've ever seen or even heard of people dividing up the ore afterwards, let alone completely equally with none going to the main corp or the 'house' as it would be. While it's obvious from your post that some people do it, it seems like that's the exception not the norm.

Ore, minerals, Exotic dancers, whatever, what are you trying to say? It's a simple feature that would make things a bit easier.

Touborg (Soundwave) likes these "Little Things" - quality of life type stuff. Might be worth it to pitch this on the EVE O forums.

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by Caldicot

Originally posted by Kiljaedenas

Originally posted by Caldicot

I have but one suggestion that would make my life as a miner in EVE easier: Right click a stack and have the option to split it into X number of smaller stacks with equal amount in each one. Other than that  I'm fine really, but hey, I wouldn't mind lasers in pretty colors if thats what the girls want.

Erm...what would that actually accomplish, being able to split stacks in that particular manner? I don't see any benefit above the current splitting system that we have now, and personally I prefer to combine everything I have of a particular item/ore into one stack so that I can easily see the exact total quantity that I have.

Obviously to simplify splitting the ore equally between a group of miners after an op.

I've been in mining groups/ops where the minerals were split, where the profits were split and where people were paid based on contribution, but I can't say I've ever seen or even heard of people dividing up the ore afterwards, let alone completely equally with none going to the main corp or the 'house' as it would be. While it's obvious from your post that some people do it, it seems like that's the exception not the norm.

the first mining corp i joined operated like this. there were hulk pilots sitting along the side of retriver pilots. as long as everyone worked, everyone got the same equal share of ores. believe me, it was a big boost for the retriver pilots and the hulk pilots didnt care because they werent so selfish. it was better then isk because you could go produce items if you wanted or sell it for isk.

i think the only exception to this was if someone were to come in really late into the mining operation, then they would get a small share.

Originally posted by Salio69

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by Caldicot

Originally posted by Kiljaedenas

Originally posted by Caldicot

I have but one suggestion that would make my life as a miner in EVE easier: Right click a stack and have the option to split it into X number of smaller stacks with equal amount in each one. Other than that  I'm fine really, but hey, I wouldn't mind lasers in pretty colors if thats what the girls want.

Erm...what would that actually accomplish, being able to split stacks in that particular manner? I don't see any benefit above the current splitting system that we have now, and personally I prefer to combine everything I have of a particular item/ore into one stack so that I can easily see the exact total quantity that I have.

Obviously to simplify splitting the ore equally between a group of miners after an op.

I've been in mining groups/ops where the minerals were split, where the profits were split and where people were paid based on contribution, but I can't say I've ever seen or even heard of people dividing up the ore afterwards, let alone completely equally with none going to the main corp or the 'house' as it would be. While it's obvious from your post that some people do it, it seems like that's the exception not the norm.

the first mining corp i joined operated like this. there were hulk pilots sitting along the side of retriver pilots. as long as everyone worked, everyone got the same equal share of ores. believe me, it was a big boost for the retriver pilots and the hulk pilots didnt care because they werent so selfish. it was better then isk because you could go produce items if you wanted or sell it for isk.

i think the only exception to this was if someone were to come in really late into the mining operation, then they would get a small share.

Oh well, whatever floats your boat, as long as they don't have to dedicate an inordinate amount of resources towards putting that in place.

Originally posted by Christooo

Originally posted by Salio69

if you are a real miner, i recommend you do what i did. i cancelled all four of my accounts until theres more done for miners. the pvpers cried, cried, and shed even more tears. they started cancelling their accounts, that didnt look to good for the investors now... ccp gave them shiny new toys to gank more people with.

 

You know I was actually thinking about doing that myself. What would happent to the eve economy if suddenly miners stopped bringing in ore and refining it to minerals? Would the economy crash or what?

Just saying, It'd be very interesting to see what would actually happen consisdering now that Drones don't give nearly as much minerals as they did pre-patch

 

 

I can definitely tell you what "would" happen, because it's already happening.

Last Friday I met up with a rather senior Goon* in London and had a chat with him. He told me that he's been running 4 or 5 hulks plus a Rorqual in a dead end system in Deklein, cherry-picking the ABC ores from mining anomalies and Grav plexes, and making about 4-500M/hr doing it.

I believe the words he used were along the lines of "mining is still pretty boring, but making nearly half a bill an hour does take the sting out of it". His major complaint was losing all his mining drones every time he had to safe up. But then mining drones are super cheap so...

Anyway: He's far from the only one.

So there's your answer: once the reward gets high enough, "PvP" players will overcome their inherent distaste for mining and do it anyway because the money is too good to ignore. And because these are people who are used to being situationally aware, have already set up intel channels, routinely work with others, and live in 0.0 to start with, then all the complaints that hi-sec miners make are irrelevent to them. Your complaints are laughable to them. They're literally laughing at you, because in quitting you've given them a new hi-income profession as well as your inane tears for them to enjoy.

They're adapting and thriving, you're quitting and crying.

*Very pleasant fellow. Good company.