Salvage overhaul to possibly fix mindless planet-eating (won't remove planet-mining)

[philthy mcnasty]

You know, the problem is not the planet eating, but ore distribution on planets.

We do not want to eat the whole planet, we just want the ores. So perhaps alter the algorithm for generation, and have seams of ores in locations.

then have the scanners be able to determine where the ores are, or have a "surveyor block" that will mark ore locations on the map for you.

the planets themselves need some work. they are missing poles, have no oceans, and are relatively bland. also, what purpose do they serve? how useful is a planet to us?

because right now, while planet eating sucks, planets do not do much else besides provide a cheap location to make a home base on.

Though, i have seen pirate ships fly into planets to escape my giant ships wrath, so having AI use them as a means to avoid being shot at would be cool.

I do not mean to derail a mining discussion, but, i think the problem is that the planets are boring at the moment. However, if a system was put in place to give them uses if they were not mined, this would do more to cut back planet eating.

 

[wagfeliz]

My opinion is that salvage should be only for asteroids, on planets people should mine it manually. The mining bonus from faction could be a little bigger on planets to compensate if needed. Also, if the faction have an option to restrict access for everything and just allow employees to sell the mined ore to the faction you could have an nice opportunity for new players and for big factions in the game.