i'd stopped planet-side to hawk a class 2 location. the natural air pumped into the pub has a relaxing sensation, even if it takes some getting used to. so i'm down here spaming the market along with the other hawkers, recruiters and mercs. i spent some change on quaff and sandwich, while watching the dancers oggle each other.
Scanners had said the portal be around for a cycle or so and we'd spent few ticks hunting sleepers. some board miner had scanned it down, his 1st and had wanted company. i 'd been working for a mining company and needed a break, so a few of us in the system fleeted up and had a look. a tower and a couple of miners who probably didn't know they couldn't see past the veld. it turned into a straight shoot and loot.
the thing about mercs is you can't go putting where your going on the general market, it's like a sniper putting out a sign, "stand here", it is self defeating. they get real picky about certs, ships and standings too, prob been stuck in one too meny jet cans bellowing to concord for a pickup, if their lucky enough to be in hi-sec. but the isk can be good.
i got to thinkin' that the ground crew should be finished loading my ship, when i started a convo with a merc party not going too far. just a short run to the edge of hi-sec, and a couple of jumps beyond. a simple run. they agreed to tag along while i changed ships, a little safer than going up with a cargo launch. the dancers had started doing the pogo, slamming about. spouting off like flipper trash. same sort of crew you'd expect to scoop a planet launch, screaming on local that their stuck in a can, just for the hoot. the mercs contract to a sum, Quaf done i headed off to the pad.
a couple of gates to where my runners setup. a for a quick swap after i drop the cargo. they started in with the usual chatter about cov-opp ships, checkin' on retrieval and fire support. wondered if it's be worth the trouble to hire a scout for a couple of jumps, even if intel was clear. Sometimes i wonder if mercs know more about driving a bus than i do. i cover the chat with the overview, one of the mercs is standing so close to the comms panel, it crackels on and off with their breathing. it seemed like a min or two jump to orbit, typical for an 0.5 system the campers had cans strewn about. guess it was a good thing they'd come for the ride. i pushed the ship to the gate. it's a couple of extra jumps to drop the cargo. i didn't feel like hanging around, they didn't seem to mind.
they asked after a transport and some extra weapons. i had some stacked in the hanger, the immediance of desire always adds value. fortunately they didn't have permits to leave the cargo dock. i really didn't want to shout around the station for my my lost gorillas.
i'm not sure how the current rules of faction status would aply to the planetary mining system, one would assume that the empires had already established sites and could grant limited axcess to low-sec, the same as current moon mining rules. i think the ability to remotly mine and collect more salable materials without having to collect them manually will make eve more like other rts-mmorgs and increase the combat aspect of the game in low/ null sec systems. much like the Apocrypha expansion the influx of new resources will create flux in the markets eventually.
after watching the planetary mining vid Planetary interaction march 2010, i had this bit of wishful thinking on how the plantary mining/industrial sites would become like "cities and towns" similar to what tabula rasa attempted, so the pilots could visit them, this would also enable eve to reintroduce ambulation stations, but wouldn't give complete axcess to all the surface planets and moons. it might make some sense to give the players axcess to the mining sites in hi-sec, creating an explorable expansion for those that don't venture into the red-zone. the cites could be empire faction corp owned ( getting killed by renegades optional )
