Looting too Easy / too Profitable?

[Sydney]

The last upgrade bought with it the ability to loot MIF's and ATH's to get at the resources that they are collecting rather than destroying them for the resources they contain.

So now the pirates are no longer just restricted to brass, zinc, aluminium etc they can gather any resources currently being mined

Infact the only advantage to putting down your own MIF's over raiding someone elses is that you dont have to wait for the attack timer to collect the mined resources... although you do carry both the initial purcahse cost, and the risk that a greifer will destroy the module out of pure spite.

I think the planet surface looting is currently too powerful.

If you loot a module then you should not get access to all of its contents. Rather i would suggest something like randomly getting 25-50% of its contents. The rest is spilled back onto the planets surface due to the haste of the 'transfer' (ie only the actual looted amount is deducted from the deposits amount)

This raises the question then of wether a pirate will first loot the module then destroy it for further resources. To which my response is that now that we have looting of modules contents to obtain 'free' resources is it really necessary that destroying modules also provides resources. If a destroy / capture attack did just that, either completly destroyed a module, or captured it then i suspect that most pirates would not bother to 'capture' lower level modules since the space they take up could be better filled with more valuable 'looted' resources.

I also Feel that the chance to capture a module intact should be bassed on what weapons were used during the attack. if i pound a settlement from space with railguns and lasers it shouldnt surprise me that all that remains is a pile of smoldering ruins. (see resource note below), if i want to have a chance at capturing it i should have to send in the ground forces, ie marines. The chance to capture the modules could be bassed on how much damage was performed by each weapon type. If railgun damage gave 5%, Laser !0% Vipers 20% and Marines or Civs 50% that would make much more sense. It would also encourage players to be a lot mor tactical about how they set up their ships.

When it comes to a looting attack against a station, It seems silly that they get access to 100% of the contents of the Cargo hold. The attack has burnt through all the armour and killed a large portion of whatever military were onboard, but the cargo is perfectly ok? Once again the loot should be say perhapes 40-60% of the resources in the cargo hold. The rest could be 'lost to the ether' or perhapes better for the base owner some of it could be recoverable. (not all or the pirate will simply double up looting attacks).

Something Needs to happen to make looting less profitable than mining the moduels yourself.

Resource Note: It would be potentially very interesting if say 80% of the non gas resources from destroyed modules turned up as a set of surface level resource deposits on the planet. That way the pirate could decide to stick around and try and salvage the resources at the risk of reprisals, or more likely the miner can return and recoup a bit of their loss...

[SirEmi]

I'm currently gathering feedback on attacks and how things are balanced.

It's likely there will be a waste factor introduced, that when you loot a module, a certain percent gets spilled over in the rush to loot station cargo / mining modules.

Nevertheless, I expect non-defended mining modules to become more rare and bases to become more defended as they get farmed / looted, and so the difficulty for the pirate farmer will increase.

[JamJulLison]

I do think some waste factor would be good. However in cases where people barely have anything mined, mostly do to either already scooped it up recently or someone else raiding, a waste factor shouldn't be calculated. I think if there is under a certain amount of resources, then waste shouldn't be applied.  Also with space stations. The waste factor should be less on their cargo holds then on mines and harvesters. Why? It can be argued that the enemy ship simply targeted another part of the space station. So less resources would be likely to be destroyed.

Also on the subject of waste. The wasted resources should be considered destroyed in the attack. Meaning that amount of waste is lost to the defender as well as the attacker. That right there is just realism and realism seems important in this game.  Something else I think that might help defenders, would be to raise the limit of the number of ships on free players. Also not sure if there is a limit on space stations or not. If there is I would say remove that one all together. I understand the limit on ships. By allowing them to subscribe it helps to support the game. If I could afford to donate myself I would. With some extra of these things, it can help players to protect their mines and harvesters better. Though some of these newbies really need to learn to collect their resources from the mines and harvesters more. If they did, then it would be less profitable for us pirates to come after them.

[norill]

there are 2 advantages of having own mines: you know where they are and you can defend them. but right now defending is risky as you might lose a lot more than the potential attacker. thats why there are that many unguarded mines. i think that attackers should get 10 m3 less loot. that is when the mine or harvester is full they get ~70 m3, 10 m3 is left in the mine and the rest is wasted. and if theres less than 10 then the attacker gets nothing. this means people unloading their mines every 10h or so would be safe from looting.

[JamJulLison]

there are 2 advantages of having own mines: you know where they are and you can defend them. but right now defending is risky as you might lose a lot more than the potential attacker. thats why there are that many unguarded mines. i think that attackers should get 10 m3 less loot. that is when the mine or harvester is full they get ~70 m3, 10 m3 is left in the mine and the rest is wasted. and if theres less than 10 then the attacker gets nothing. this means people unloading their mines every 10h or so would be safe from looting.

You really should read the last update.

- Combat balancing: when looting mining modules / station cargo bay resources, 20%-30% of the resources gets wasted in the looting attempt.

[norill]

there are 2 advantages of having own mines: you know where they are and you can defend them. but right now defending is risky as you might lose a lot more than the potential attacker. thats why there are that many unguarded mines. i think that attackers should get 10 m3 less loot. that is when the mine or harvester is full they get ~70 m3, 10 m3 is left in the mine and the rest is wasted. and if theres less than 10 then the attacker gets nothing. this means people unloading their mines every 10h or so would be safe from looting.

You really should read the last update.

- Combat balancing: when looting mining modules / station cargo bay resources, 20%-30% of the resources gets wasted in the looting attempt.

what makes you think i didn't read it? ive suggested something more than wasting resources

[JamJulLison]

Sorry.  I am sleepy.  Worn out from watching my nieces all day. I misread. lol