Best Of
Re: Pathfinder for Nexus
Another update:
- The Mapper now knows about the Zeta Deck PTP updates. If you're Scatterhome the PTP should pathfind using key ptp. If you're not Scatterhome, it should pathfind with TAKEOFF.
- Note that there is one bug currently where you can't travel from Whittler's to Zeta via PTP. I assume this is a bug with Starmourn so I've just left it unresolved in the Pathfinder. In the interim, if the pathfinder gets screwed up by this, just KEY PTP to another spot manually and the pathfinding should carry on.
- If for some reason the mapper does not correctly determine that you are Scatterhome, type 'mapperforcescatterhome'.
- While pathfinding you will now station transfer immediately upon leaving combat, in case you've been refused admittance to a transfer craft because you are in combat.
- Pathfinder will try to open doors now.
- Pathfinder will try to LAND now if you're trying to move from outdoors to indoors.
For some reason I can't edit the OP so here's the link:
Re: Mining spec
Well, anyway. Let's turn this into something constructive. Sorry, this is going to be a long one.
I, like Poet, don't really care much for participating in the economy, because, fundamentally, I just don't like spaceflight. That is, I hate going from A to B, sitting there and watching the space map go by for stretches of time, all the time. I really don't get anyone who says they enjoy something akin to watching paint dry. Seriously, help me understand, because I want to sip the kool-aid. There are cool aspects to Starmourn space, but that doesn't do it for me.
Despite my gripe, I invested a lot of my own marks, time, and effort into learning/min-maxing the economy system, setting up my manufacturing network, and then going through the mining-production routines, all with the hopes of producing and selling ship supplies on the market. Really, I did this because I'm interested in PK, and it was suggested that ship supply availability (i.e., a working economy) would facilitate that. Of course the economy will only survive if we have people willing to participate, do the legwork, and introduce supply and competition into the market. Telling people "tough luck, don't participate if you don't like it" is the wrong approach, hey. In fact, increased participation will solve a lot of the perceived problems, so I'd like to use this medium to offer critiques and suggestions to that end.
@Ilyos not sure if you're still following this thread, but here's my feedback on the economy system.
@Ilyos not sure if you're still following this thread, but here's my feedback on the economy system.
1. The economy is exclusive for the space crowd, and not everyone enjoys space, especially long-distance flights.
So the general premise in adding things like Wilderness and Pirate Refineries was pretty cool; alternatives to traditional mining are great. But even with Wilderness, spaceflight is a hard requirement to economy participation. In all iterations of resource generation, at a minimum you have to pick up the resource, deliver it, and then ferry intermediary and finished products around stations to manufacture and sell. I'll say it again; I hate the mindless asteroid/gas searching and the ferrying. It is the most time-consuming part of the process, and it is the least fun, and you just can't escape it. But overall, we should aim for equal opportunity to participate in the economy among both ground and space oriented players. - Add some way to mine or gain resources strictly via the ground. The easiest implementation would be to tweak the Wilderness mechanic to cater to this.
- Add a station service like STATION TRANSPORT 50 DIAMENE TO DANICA, wherein resources/products can be auto-ferried to other stations for a fee. I'd gladly reduce my profit margin for time/effort saved. [Plus how cool would it be if NPC/player transports could be raided midflight? Maybe you could hack a station to find a shipment schedule, and then fly around blapping any escort ships and commandeering the transport. You know, real space pirate shiz... but maybe that's for a rainy day...]
- Reduce flying time from A to B. I would not be participating in the economy if I did not have a voidgate permit. Voidgates cut so much of the tedium in travel, but the cost can add up. I think it would be really great for the masses if you could buy temporary voidgate passes - e.g., for a flat fee of 2500 marks your corvette has free voidgate use for the next IG month. You can base the cost on the ship type, so it's equivalent to, idk, maybe 5 voidgate fees? Another idea would be to introduce additional means of increasing your maximum ship speed, or having some kind of channeled ship warp mechanic where you can leap multiple zones at once.
- Reduce the time searching for needed commodities by making the hyperscanner artifact more affordable, and/or maybe introducing something like a tavern or hub on stations where you can buy tips from NPC spacefarers for resource locations nearby. (e.g., OFFER 100 FOR IRIIL TIP -> "Yeah buddy, I passed an iriil cloud out in RA-4443.")
- Make flying more fun...?? Add more random things in space that you can discover while flying, much like pirate refineries - maybe something like shipmod crafting parts (eventually) or stranded spacefarers needing rescue or sumsum, something that you can happen upon along the way. It could also be cool to introduce activities that you can do while in your ship - some kind of minigame or in-flight entertainment.
2. There is not a whole lot of apparent incentive to participate in the economy, especially for those who want to do so casually.
Somewhat reiterating points already made by others, but in the current system, the profits are mostly realized at the back end of the manufacturing process - i.e., selling finished products. And to get to the end, it requires a fair amount of upfront investment in refining and production costs. So for someone who wants to pick up an asteroid here or there, it can be difficult to see the return on investment for your time, unless there are player-enforced systems to organize production. The folks in CA are proud to tout some sort of centralized economy, and they should. But achieving that also requires an investment of time and effort to maintain, and this will only manifest and work if you can really incentivize people to create and participate in these systems. Money is not compelling alone when you can gain marks through other means that are much less involved. So, in addition to improving the actual manufacturing process to better enable participation as I suggested in the previous section, also:
- Increase the value of raw commodities by introducing meaningful outlets. The Admin are probably already working towards this, but I'll say it anyway. Mechanics like guard costs, faction missions, and mod shipments are along the right track, but in their current iteration, these are all mostly ignored. So in addition to improving those related systems, maybe you can add to the Blackmarket, so players can trade resources for unique things - gear, collectibles, chips, mods, etc. Whatever the implementation may be, an increased demand/use for raw commodities should put pressure on the player market to offer fair marks value for resources, beyond prices baselined to refinery costs, and this will help to compensate miners too.
3. There should be parity in personal market orders.
You can probably make a few marks from mining PMOs, but at least to me it's not remotely worthwhile. Your profits from selling finished goods like ship supplies are higher and require less tedium. On the other hand, any no-brain autofactory specialist can go and buy products available on the market (especially sensors and arrays) and turn those around through PMOs for serious $$$, Every. Single. Day. Other than potentially having factories that establish the manufacturing infrastructure, those individuals actively contribute nothing to the market and are incentivized to remove economic supply for personal profit with minimal effort. Nothing against those people, just saying that right now it's too good and is not a positive for the economy.
You can probably make a few marks from mining PMOs, but at least to me it's not remotely worthwhile. Your profits from selling finished goods like ship supplies are higher and require less tedium. On the other hand, any no-brain autofactory specialist can go and buy products available on the market (especially sensors and arrays) and turn those around through PMOs for serious $$$, Every. Single. Day. Other than potentially having factories that establish the manufacturing infrastructure, those individuals actively contribute nothing to the market and are incentivized to remove economic supply for personal profit with minimal effort. Nothing against those people, just saying that right now it's too good and is not a positive for the economy.
- PMOs should not be refreshed every day. Change the frequency to every week or something.
- Significantly increase the quantities in mining PMOs (I'm talking triple digits), so you're more likely to fill a good deal especially if you have an excess of that resource.
- Maybe have PMOs only reflect your recently produced goods. E.g., if your array factory is used, you get a chance to have a PMO for arrays. In this, if you contribute/produce nothing, you get nothing.
Azlyn
4
Re: Mining spec
A few things from my perspective:
1. Song, at least, does offer loan programs and buy up resources from its members (in effect, this is a subsidization program).
This is because other IRE factions/organizations/cities have gotten into the horrid mindset of accumulating a Veritable Shitload of currency (marks, gold) that just...sits there. We should not be the same; our faction wealth should be used to improve the QoL of our players. And even with all the spending that Song does, we still have 3 million marks in our faction account because, with all the assists we do, players tend to give back.
Granted, we don't spend upkeep for guards (which are literally a waste of marks, anyway). But, the point is: use your faction's resources to benefit your faction's players.
2. With that said, I agree that mining, in addition to incursioning, should be entry-level activities for space. So, add in tethers/scoops/probes as freebies along with the current haul.
Furthermore, I agree that the way mining and refining interact has issues. First, refining-spec has nothing to do except buy up refineries. We can set up market orders (like I have been), but there's nothing stopping mining-spec people to simply sell to autofactory-spec people directly, and thus effectively cut us out of the process entirely.
The idea that miners bring raw resources to refineries and then the owners get the refined goods is good. This means that refinery-spec will be the ones to handle business with autofactory-spec folks. In essence, the cost to refine will be shouldered by refinery-spec people, plus they will pay miners for the stuff they bring in. It will be the duty of refinery-spec to sell stuff at a price high enough for them to make a reasonable profit in the face of these expenses.
3. /I forgot to add, but it is possible for mining-spec to be profitable.
It currently is, actually. I have running market orders for refined resources that are way above the cost of refining them (although, some are obviously more profitable than others). Just don't expect to make hundreds of thousands of marks in a real-life week; the economy game is (rightfully) a slow burn rather than a get-rich-quick scheme.
1. Song, at least, does offer loan programs and buy up resources from its members (in effect, this is a subsidization program).
This is because other IRE factions/organizations/cities have gotten into the horrid mindset of accumulating a Veritable Shitload of currency (marks, gold) that just...sits there. We should not be the same; our faction wealth should be used to improve the QoL of our players. And even with all the spending that Song does, we still have 3 million marks in our faction account because, with all the assists we do, players tend to give back.
Granted, we don't spend upkeep for guards (which are literally a waste of marks, anyway). But, the point is: use your faction's resources to benefit your faction's players.
2. With that said, I agree that mining, in addition to incursioning, should be entry-level activities for space. So, add in tethers/scoops/probes as freebies along with the current haul.
Furthermore, I agree that the way mining and refining interact has issues. First, refining-spec has nothing to do except buy up refineries. We can set up market orders (like I have been), but there's nothing stopping mining-spec people to simply sell to autofactory-spec people directly, and thus effectively cut us out of the process entirely.
The idea that miners bring raw resources to refineries and then the owners get the refined goods is good. This means that refinery-spec will be the ones to handle business with autofactory-spec folks. In essence, the cost to refine will be shouldered by refinery-spec people, plus they will pay miners for the stuff they bring in. It will be the duty of refinery-spec to sell stuff at a price high enough for them to make a reasonable profit in the face of these expenses.
3. /I forgot to add, but it is possible for mining-spec to be profitable.
It currently is, actually. I have running market orders for refined resources that are way above the cost of refining them (although, some are obviously more profitable than others). Just don't expect to make hundreds of thousands of marks in a real-life week; the economy game is (rightfully) a slow burn rather than a get-rich-quick scheme.
Matlkael
1
Re: Yet another MODS thread
Reviving this thread with a small upgrade suggested to mods.
Most mods in the game are close to useless since they add very little unless you are willing to invest significantly into them.
For example:
Augmenter series mods add +2 to +3 damage which is close to nothing. As a result there is no point in researching, mastering and developing these mods.
One of the ideas that came up to make them more appealing as an item to spur demand and make the skill more integral to the game is the following.
In addition to raw damage - perhaps mods can add other modifiers in the game
Perhaps adding these small incremental modifiers will make them more appealing in the context of the game.
Most mods in the game are close to useless since they add very little unless you are willing to invest significantly into them.
For example:
Augmenter series mods add +2 to +3 damage which is close to nothing. As a result there is no point in researching, mastering and developing these mods.
One of the ideas that came up to make them more appealing as an item to spur demand and make the skill more integral to the game is the following.
In addition to raw damage - perhaps mods can add other modifiers in the game
| Warzax - raw damage output |
| Nascent - raw damage output |
| Xyca - raw damage output |
| Tazi - small chance to generate 20% extra junk. |
| Surger - small chance to trigger victoryrush by +3 seconds |
| Booster - small chance to pacify/ freeze a mob |
| Driver - small chance to cause a critical hit |
| Augmenter - small chance to insta-kill a mob of a lower level |
Perhaps adding these small incremental modifiers will make them more appealing in the context of the game.
Kirin
3
Re: Yet another MODS thread
Similar can be said for the Armormodding skillset really. Mods providing more then their +X defense/offense is something that would definitely breath some life into the trade.
After removal of level-locking and removal of redundancies, mods with additional properties or mods simply doing something else other then providing damage/reduction would be nifty.
For example, a mod that can be installed to the feet of the armor providing some kind of dash ability. Call it Lightning MK I. Losing charge each time used and it regains charge back over time. Or something that can be added to the torso which will provide very minor extra regeneration of resources or health. Maybe some mod that will reflect a portion of the damage back. You know, interesting things that will make people reach out to you to buy those stuff. Or simply just a flavor mod that will project a disco ball for all to see from your torso or leave a visage of yourself as you move for a limited amount of seconds. After all there are lots of slots on those armor pieces!
Also another idea would be that armor mods can work against PvE targets three-four times better then PvP targets. Such as if you get 3% resistance against a particular melee PvP attack it could provide 9-12% against a PvE attack.
Research mechanics and shipments were definitely a decent step towards making mods possible to create in a good way that also supports the economy. Now we are on the step to make things interesting so people will come to us.
After removal of level-locking and removal of redundancies, mods with additional properties or mods simply doing something else other then providing damage/reduction would be nifty.
For example, a mod that can be installed to the feet of the armor providing some kind of dash ability. Call it Lightning MK I. Losing charge each time used and it regains charge back over time. Or something that can be added to the torso which will provide very minor extra regeneration of resources or health. Maybe some mod that will reflect a portion of the damage back. You know, interesting things that will make people reach out to you to buy those stuff. Or simply just a flavor mod that will project a disco ball for all to see from your torso or leave a visage of yourself as you move for a limited amount of seconds. After all there are lots of slots on those armor pieces!
Also another idea would be that armor mods can work against PvE targets three-four times better then PvP targets. Such as if you get 3% resistance against a particular melee PvP attack it could provide 9-12% against a PvE attack.
Research mechanics and shipments were definitely a decent step towards making mods possible to create in a good way that also supports the economy. Now we are on the step to make things interesting so people will come to us.
Zhulkarn
3
Re: Announcements post #79: Rogue refineries and autofactories.
We've done several more refineries/autofactories since my last post.
Small batteries autofactory - 27 em (hacked) (NPC discovered)
Small batteries autofactory - 36 gravitic (hacked) (NPC discovered)
Small batteries autofactory - 21 em (blew up) (NPC discovered)
Medium repair autofactory - 25 repairkits (hacked) (NPC discovered)
Large? repair autofactory - 50 repairkits (blew up) (pirated, which is why I'm not sure what size or if it was NPC discovered)
Some impressions:
Small batteries autofactory - 27 em (hacked) (NPC discovered)
Small batteries autofactory - 36 gravitic (hacked) (NPC discovered)
Small batteries autofactory - 21 em (blew up) (NPC discovered)
Medium repair autofactory - 25 repairkits (hacked) (NPC discovered)
Large? repair autofactory - 50 repairkits (blew up) (pirated, which is why I'm not sure what size or if it was NPC discovered)
Some impressions:
- There doesn't seem to be a remarkable, if any difference, between the reward for autofactories/refineries that were NPC discovered and ones that were stumbled upon. We'd need a lot more data points to confirm it, but I'm not seeing one.
- There doesn't seem to be a remarkable difference between the rewards for blowing up an autofactory/refinery versus hacking it. Again, we'd need more data points.
- Pirate autofactories seem far more rewarding than pirate refineries right now, since the value of the manufactured things you get is generally much higher, though the quantity is around the same. I'm not going to make suggestions on which needs to be adjusted and in what direction, just pointing out that there's definite disparity, to the point where I won't generally bother with refineries unless they're something rarer.
- You can most certainly take the time to solo larger autofactories/refineries, but you're taking a pretty big risk that you'll be discovered and pirated, especially considering the amount of repairkits and batteries you're burning through. For reference, it cost me around 2921 marks after factoring in voidgates (8460, which is three uses in a typhoon battleship) and the junk I recovered from the platforms (5539), not factoring in the 50 repairkits I gained and the dozen or so shots I fired off to chase away the discoverer, so in general these are pretty worthwhile competing for as an aggressor. The losses can be pretty big as the discoverer if you come unprepared, which seems fair. Don't go unprepared to an open PK zone.
Rhindara
1
Re: Mining spec
You keep saying that you 'need to support miners at the start' which is conceptually a great idea. Except, there is no 'turning point' in your scenario. You will be continually using marks, I assume from donations from bashers, or credit sales, to make mining WORK. You can say all you want, that is not a HEALTHY economy.
A working one? Sure. It works. That doesn't mean shit really, you can bandage and duct tape and baling wire all kinda shit to make it "work". Doesn't mean you should leave it at that and never get around to fixing it. A HEALTHY mining economy has a very easy to follow set of requirements.
1) People do the leg work, the back-breaking time in the tunnels(space).
2) THEY MAKE A PROFIT (Selling raw resources)
3) People take the mined resources, and they go refine it
4) THEY MAKE A PROFIT (Selling to manufacturers)
5) People take refined resources and make finished goods.
6) PROFIT.
If at any stage during this you have to subsidize to prop up a stage of this chain, it is not healthy. Maybe it works, sure. But the gameplay loop is unhealthy. To suggest otherwise is just being weirdly loyal to a draft of a system. It's stubbornly saying, "we managed to make this work, so you're just stupid" when someone is trying to say, hey in the game this system isn't fun, nor profitable. Which means it is unhealthy.
A working one? Sure. It works. That doesn't mean shit really, you can bandage and duct tape and baling wire all kinda shit to make it "work". Doesn't mean you should leave it at that and never get around to fixing it. A HEALTHY mining economy has a very easy to follow set of requirements.
1) People do the leg work, the back-breaking time in the tunnels(space).
2) THEY MAKE A PROFIT (Selling raw resources)
3) People take the mined resources, and they go refine it
4) THEY MAKE A PROFIT (Selling to manufacturers)
5) People take refined resources and make finished goods.
6) PROFIT.
If at any stage during this you have to subsidize to prop up a stage of this chain, it is not healthy. Maybe it works, sure. But the gameplay loop is unhealthy. To suggest otherwise is just being weirdly loyal to a draft of a system. It's stubbornly saying, "we managed to make this work, so you're just stupid" when someone is trying to say, hey in the game this system isn't fun, nor profitable. Which means it is unhealthy.
Rylek
5
Re: Quality of Life Wishlist
- Add means to display inventory items/worn gear that are nearing decay with the use life left
- STATION NEAREST <zone|ME>, similar to VOIDGATE NEAREST (which could also use a ME option instead of manually inputting your zone)
- Have VOIDGATE/STATION NEAREST also display the zone and coordinates of the feature of interest
- This might be a little involved for a QoL, but the crux is, make vehicles practical to use. The indoor dismount requirement is very annoying, and given the inherent nature of Starmourn travel and the small scale of most areas, the eq cost and inconvenience outweigh any movement benefit. I'd suggest dropping all of the manual management involved with the current VEHICLE commands. Instead allow players to move seamlessly, but change their movement speed accordingly if indoors/outdoors and just add flavor messages about getting in/out of the vehicle, if you want. This could be a CONFIG AUTOVEHICLE option. I was going to alternatively suggest maybe having different vehicles give movement buffs in accordance with the environment type, like speed boat vs dune buggy etc. (translation: $$$), but I guess this is the future where everything hovers.
Azlyn
2
Re: Announcements post #79: Rogue refineries and autofactories.
Okay, we've done more.
Huge resources autofactory - 4 platforms, not quite level 7? but definitely higher level than the mediums; reward: 30 tethers
Medium processors autofactory - 3 platforms, same as the other mediums; reward: 52 arrays
Small helium-11 refinery - 2 platforms, slightly lower level than the mediums; reward: 30 helium
The junk was in the same range for every platform, across the levels, 1k-2k per generator.
From this, we've learned that small refineries/autofactories can definitely be soloed by a battleship, which isn't a surprise. It also looks like it would be manageable with smaller ships, since it's just the two platforms right next to each other. It would be dicey if you don't have enough dps/tank, but it's a lot less intimidating than the mediums and huges.
I don't have any other information to add right now. I'm still unsure how I feel about the system, but the barrier for participation is at least marginally lower than I'd guessed it would be.
Two of the three pirate things we found above were listed on STATION PIRATE REFINERIES, so if you're at a station and you're interested in checking these out, use that periodically. I'm assuming they get listed there x hours after spawning in, so we should start seeing more listed.
Edit: We definitely triggered some sort of bug where incursion ending messages run globally after destroying a refinery/autofactory. It seems to stack, so right now there are three lines showing each time. The staff is already aware of this but I figured I should let everyone know why it's happening in the meantime.
Huge resources autofactory - 4 platforms, not quite level 7? but definitely higher level than the mediums; reward: 30 tethers
Medium processors autofactory - 3 platforms, same as the other mediums; reward: 52 arrays
Small helium-11 refinery - 2 platforms, slightly lower level than the mediums; reward: 30 helium
The junk was in the same range for every platform, across the levels, 1k-2k per generator.
From this, we've learned that small refineries/autofactories can definitely be soloed by a battleship, which isn't a surprise. It also looks like it would be manageable with smaller ships, since it's just the two platforms right next to each other. It would be dicey if you don't have enough dps/tank, but it's a lot less intimidating than the mediums and huges.
I don't have any other information to add right now. I'm still unsure how I feel about the system, but the barrier for participation is at least marginally lower than I'd guessed it would be.
Two of the three pirate things we found above were listed on STATION PIRATE REFINERIES, so if you're at a station and you're interested in checking these out, use that periodically. I'm assuming they get listed there x hours after spawning in, so we should start seeing more listed.
Edit: We definitely triggered some sort of bug where incursion ending messages run globally after destroying a refinery/autofactory. It seems to stack, so right now there are three lines showing each time. The staff is already aware of this but I figured I should let everyone know why it's happening in the meantime.
Rhindara
1
Re: Announcements post #79: Rogue refineries and autofactories.
We found one, and I shared the results/first impressions on the SM discord yesterday. I wanted to reserve judgment until we were able to find some other samples, but I have a fair idea of what the two types we didn't do would look like, so I'll just go ahead here.
We found a medium tritium refinery. When we attacked it, it spawned 3 generators (they're not called that, but that's what they are) that seemed to be maybe level 4 or 5. Since we had to restart at one point, we know that they probably spawn exactly the same way every time: in a line, all clustered together. This means that in order to do optimal damage to just the outer one, you'll be forced to tank all three or bring other tanks to share the burden. We chose the latter option and blew them up. We didn't have anyone else show up because at the time, it wasn't properly displaying the zone on the conflict channel. I think that's since been fixed.
Each generator drops a sizable portion of junk (ours was worth 1k-2k for each one), so that was fine. After docking and hacking to overload the refinery, it dropped 32 refined tritium. I can't really comment on whether that's a worthwhile reward, because the economy isn't my thing.
If I had to speculate, I'd say that the 'small' refineries/autofactories spawn 3 level 1ish generators, and the 'large' ones spawn 3 level 7ish generators, in the same formation. Again, this is just speculation and it could be different. But based on our experience with the medium refinery...
I don't know that I find this system particularly accessible to people who don't have larger ships. Like yes, you're going to have an advantage if you bring a big ship to any space thing, in theory, but it's an expensive requirement in order to participate in systems like this, and like Cosmpiercers puts pressure on the people who do own those things to carry their team.
What I'd rather see, and what I sort of thought was going to happen for some reason, is some version of an incursion spawning in the area, with ships of varying classes (not just interceptors, which are used in hard incursions), and possibly more spawned at once than in standard incursions in order to encourage teamwork but not require one massive ship.
The reason we haven't gotten to test beyond that first refinery is that they're sort of just a thing that you stumble upon or wait for NPCs to discover (I haven't seen any NPC-discovered ones yet in the 24+ hours since release, so still not sure how reliable those are). It's fine that they're hard to find, but it makes poking and prodding at the system thoroughly a little more difficult. If/when we find more, we'll see if the system is more robust/accessible than I'm giving it credit for.
We found a medium tritium refinery. When we attacked it, it spawned 3 generators (they're not called that, but that's what they are) that seemed to be maybe level 4 or 5. Since we had to restart at one point, we know that they probably spawn exactly the same way every time: in a line, all clustered together. This means that in order to do optimal damage to just the outer one, you'll be forced to tank all three or bring other tanks to share the burden. We chose the latter option and blew them up. We didn't have anyone else show up because at the time, it wasn't properly displaying the zone on the conflict channel. I think that's since been fixed.
Each generator drops a sizable portion of junk (ours was worth 1k-2k for each one), so that was fine. After docking and hacking to overload the refinery, it dropped 32 refined tritium. I can't really comment on whether that's a worthwhile reward, because the economy isn't my thing.
If I had to speculate, I'd say that the 'small' refineries/autofactories spawn 3 level 1ish generators, and the 'large' ones spawn 3 level 7ish generators, in the same formation. Again, this is just speculation and it could be different. But based on our experience with the medium refinery...
I don't know that I find this system particularly accessible to people who don't have larger ships. Like yes, you're going to have an advantage if you bring a big ship to any space thing, in theory, but it's an expensive requirement in order to participate in systems like this, and like Cosmpiercers puts pressure on the people who do own those things to carry their team.
What I'd rather see, and what I sort of thought was going to happen for some reason, is some version of an incursion spawning in the area, with ships of varying classes (not just interceptors, which are used in hard incursions), and possibly more spawned at once than in standard incursions in order to encourage teamwork but not require one massive ship.
The reason we haven't gotten to test beyond that first refinery is that they're sort of just a thing that you stumble upon or wait for NPCs to discover (I haven't seen any NPC-discovered ones yet in the 24+ hours since release, so still not sure how reliable those are). It's fine that they're hard to find, but it makes poking and prodding at the system thoroughly a little more difficult. If/when we find more, we'll see if the system is more robust/accessible than I'm giving it credit for.
Rhindara
1