(because the latest thread I found on the subject was over two years old)Now that we have ores and metals and all sorts of exciting new industries to sell them to... I'd like to suggest the introduction of a basic "asteroid mining" mechanic. Get comfy, this is a multi-part suggestion.
1. "Mineral" Damage TypeAdd a new damage type to the game, I'm calling it "Mineral" because that's what it's for. Mineral damage would be like EMP damage, in that it doesn't add to the rated DPS of the weapon, and in fact has no combat use (unless you wanted to make it better at blowing up asteroids in combat). Mining Lasers and Mining Blasters would obviously have it in spades, there might be a couple other weapons which have a little... otherwise, no change.
2. "Mining Scoop" Preinstalled Hull ModThis would be a hull mod like "Shielded Cargo Holds", in that the player can't install it. What it does, is it doubles (or triples or somesuch) the effectiveness of the ship in the mining calculation (see part 4). It'd just be present on some hulls and some variations. I'm thinking Mining Pods, Shepherd, and Venture are guaranteed; Tarsus is a possibility... maybe the Hegemony puts it on their Buffalo variant?
3. De- and Re-spawning AsteroidsJust a means of despawning the asteroid after the player's mined it, and then respawning it somewhere else randomly in the same belt. I have to ask, does Starsector actually retain asteroids when you leave the star system? Because I think that's a waste of memory.
4. "Mine Asteroid" Conversation EventEssentially, this would take the Customs Inspection conversation and have the player trigger it on an asteroid. I figure it'd go like this:
- Player clicks on asteroid and fleet flies onto it.
- The fleet's mining capability is determined. The thought I had was that each ship would add up the sustained DPS of all its weapons (firing at Armor, so Kinetic and Frag are both penalized), plus bonus Mineral damage, then multiplied by the existence of a Mining Scoop hullmod on that ship. These are added together, then adjusted to make "given X composition and Y capability, get Z resources" easier to calculate.
- Conversation window opens, giving a rough idea as to the asteroid's composition and listing the fleet's mining capability. I assume composition would be determined by the belt - I'd put Ore, Rare Ore, and Volatiles as possible results.
- The player can decline and try finding a new asteroid; the first one despawns and respawns somewhere else.
- Or the player can accept, in which case his fleet lingers around the asteroid while a timer-bar ticks up. Once it finishes, he gets his resources and the asteroid spawns elsewhere.
- Getting attacked aborts the process. Don't try this with hostiles nearby!
...And that's the lot. Thoughts?