Mining is more important due to new mining mechanics and enemies that require mining damage to destroy, and too much of it is gated by access to IMU.
Mining equipment past early game is hard to come by because there are no mining stations past New Beyond. This hurts when I want excavation pods to blow up Marauder bases (which strongly resist everything except excavation pods or powerful mining weapons like plasma torch) without dedicating a weapon slot for the plasma torch. Pods are only common at mining stations, but the only mining stations without Corporate Command are the low level Commonwealth stations found in early New Beyond. Marauder strongholds appear deep in Ungoverned Territories, far from said Commonwealth mining stations.
Player who mines often is stuck at Wildcatter rank until he visits an IMU. The moment he does, if he has strip-mined few systems previously, rank jumps directly to max and gets that juicy +50% yield. On the other hand, if Corporate Command is not enabled, player is forever stuck at Wildcatter.
Plasma torch is the only mining weapon that can mine asteroids with level 8+ ore. There needs to be another mining weapon that can mine primordial asteroids, those that plasma torch is weak against.
What I want are the following:
* Easier access to mining equipment like excavation pods and high-level mining weapons for base-busting past the New Beyond (i.e., St. K's or later).
* Another high-level mining weapon that can mine level 8+ ore and is not weak against primordial asteroids.
* A way to reach maximum rank (Expert Miner, I think).
Move IMU from Corporate Command to base game.
Download and Play in 1.9 beta 1...
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!
Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
Drake Technologies (Alpha): More hardware for combat in parts 1 and 2!
Star Castle Arcade: Play a classic arcade game adventure, with or without more features (like powerups)!
Playership Drones: Buy or restore exotic ships to command!
Other playable mods from 1.8 and 1.7, waiting to be updated...
Godmode v3 (WIP): Dev/cheat tool compatible with D&O parts 1 or 2.
My apologies for the Necro, but I vehemently agree and support this idea. It also makes sense, and beyond the N.B and in the U.T, I estimate at lease 60% of friendly stations are Corprate stations. Mining is such a great way to get money quickly, depending on the system you are in. It would also just make sense, since the U.T is an ideal place for the Corp guys to mine in, with HEAVY/MILITARY firepower at their command (E.G Svarog, Eir, some CW fleet vessels.) Even if their is a threat, they can always SECURITY ALERT: DEPLOY THE ENFORCER! I think they say that when any Corp structure is blown up. Maybe in some systems with a severe threat with anarchists/marauders and similar anti-corp factions, Anton Nasser can offer a mission to destroy the offending base of the ship that has attacked the Corp station.