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Hi.

So I've spoken to a lot of people about Gas Scooping, Asteroid Mining/Tethering, Refining, Autofactories, Captaincy, the in-game economy, and their feelings regarding it.

The general sentiment I'm getting from a lot of people is this: it sucks. And I've heard a lot of reasons which could be broken down bit by bit by someone who's spent a lot more time on this system than I have, from things like the cost (high) vs. reward (none) of maintaining autofactories, to XP/mark gains (negligible) from refining and delivering stuff, etc. But I feel like a lot of these concerns miss the most important point, which is an elephant in the room that desperately needs someone to point it out.

It's boring.

Candidly, and while there are many things I love about this wonderful game, which I log in to play several hours every day, I would rather gouge my eyes out with a rusty spoon than spend one minute scooping gas, queuing in a refinery and then delivering it through market orders. (Which inevitably will take a good deal longer than 1 minute, because this shit takes ages.)

This system doesn't need minor tweaks to be improved. It doesn't need a few price hikes here and there, a numerical adjustment to the quantities of raw materials in a unit, and so on. It needs to be overhauled. Dramatically. There is simply nothing interesting about it at all. People like @BOB (bless your heart, hero of our times) have tried numerous strategies IG to mobilise the playerbase towards doing more with these systems, with very little success. And I really do have a lot of respect for that guy and would love to help him out, but the moment I make any kind of attempt, I can feel my brain starting to dribble out from my orifices and I'm moved to immediately disembark my ship. A soul of lesser constitution, yet perhaps higher sanity, will instead be moved to log out and not come back.

I really have spoken to a lot of people about this and I'm not alone in sharing this sentiment. I normally hate giving this kind of unconstructive criticism and would love to point to an elegant list of ways to give the system a facelift, but the game is in early enough days that I feel comfortable pointing to the whole shebang here and saying, 'This doesn't work. None of this works. It doesn't.'

Please, Starmourn Staff, during the next round of fixes when you're gathered around a digital table looking at the math on scooping/refining/factories etc., and wondering how things can be mildly adjusted to incentivise greater participation in this system, do not look at things with an eye for mathematics and instead look at this with an eye for fun. Absolutely nothing will inspire me to participate in this corner of the game, no rewards or incentives, except an overhaul involving some kind of minigame/activity that requires me to apply some degree of thought/ingenuity. Hacking is a wonderful little puzzle system that I absolutely adore. Even bashing, while grindy, is something I had fun optimising with my system, and I made it a point to explore various areas to make the climb to 75 a bit more interesting. Questing imparts stories and sometimes takes a bit of exploratory strategising. Scooping and refining etc. has none of that. It needs to be a game. That's why people aren't playing it.

Ikchor said:

Extended mags - (not sure about this one)

Increases PIECE ammo count from 8 to 15, go full Rambo on some poor fool!

This feels like it would be a huge nerf for everything other than Unload.

Arsentar said:

What about lets not? That kind of influence system would just reinforce people just joining where everyone already is instead of doing something novel.

This. Not everyone wants to be a part of a big happy family uwu. Let us misanthropes stay out of dynasties and not get punished for doing so.