Hello everyone, and welcome to another 3.12 Patch Watch, providing you with an in-depth update on the balance pass of mineables, mining lasers, and consumables. With the introduction of the new Refinery System in Star Citizen Alpha 3.12, there were some huge implications for the overall impact on Star Citizen's Persistent Universe economy. Our goal is that that refining your materials will result in a net gain of income after any costs associated with the process were taken into account. Please keep in mind that balancing is still ongoing. We'll be monitoring everything closely and continue to iterate until we're in a great place. We have also reworked mineables, mining lasers, and consumables across the board, providing potentially more valuable materials and increasing the likelihood that these materials appear more frequently. The intent of this change is three-fold: To offset the potential loss of income by allowing players to find more valuable rocks more regularly. To encourage players to begin mining right away with the Arbor laser that they receive with their Prospector/Mole, by making lower-end mineables more likely to have something valuable in them AND still be mineable comfortably with the Arbor laser. To provide more mining opportunities for the ARGO Mole or multiple players in Prospectors. We heard your feedback regarding the lack of needing anything other than a Helix and a smile to break practically every rock put in front of you, and we are hoping that this first set of changes will remedy that without being punishing. With that said, let's break it down! Mineable Rocks and Asteroids Mineables across the entire game have been tweaked to provide a higher maximum percentage of all materials held within them. Some mineables now have valuable materials in them where they didn't previously. Some lower-end valued materials now reduce resistance of the mineable, meaning that finding some present in a large, valuable deposit could actually be a benefit rather than a hinderance. Resistance and Instability curve scaling has been eased slightly to prevent huge spikes in difficulty in lower-end mineables. Mining Lasers Mining lasers have been overhauled to bring them in line with the new mineables but also to balance them out and make them all more viable choices. The changes are as follows: Arbor (S1/S2) – Power Output changed to 1850 (was 1400) NEW: ➔ one Consumable Slot Hofstede (S1/S2) - Power Output changed to 1900 (was 2000) Instability changed to -30% (was -50%) 2 Consumable Slots (was 1) NEW EFFECTS: ➔ Resistance -10% ➔ Optimal Charge Window +10% ➔ Shatter Damage +75% ➔ All Charge Rates +20% Klein (S1/S2) – Power Output changed to 1800 (was 2500) Instability changed to +20% (was +50%) Resistance changed to -20% (was -10%) 2 Consumable Slots (was 1) NEW EFFECTS: ➔ Optimal Charge Window +15% ➔ Shatter Damage +75% ➔ Optimal Charge Rate +10% ➔ Overcharge Rate +75% Lancet (S1/S2) - Power Output changed to 1400 (was 1200) Instability changed to -75% (was -30%) Resistance changed to -75% (was -50%) NEW EFFECTS: ➔ Optimal Charge Window +40% ➔ Shatter Damage -50% Impact (S1/S2) Power Output changed to 2200 (was 3000) Instability changed to +10% (was +20%) Resistance changed to -25% (was -10%) Shatter Damage +75% (was +50%) Overcharge Rate +50% (was +100%) 3 Consumable Slots (was 2) NEW EFFECTS: ➔ Optimal Charge Window +30% Helix (S1/S2) Power Output changed to 2300 (was 3500) Instability changed to -30% (was -50%) Resistance changed to -10% (was -20%) Shatter Damage +50% (was +150%) All Charge Rates +20% (was +30%) Optimal Charge Window +15% (was +30%) With the rework of mineables, the intent is to keep the lasers in-line with their current power level and provide higher-end mining experiences with multiple players in mind. Consumables With the rework to both mineables and mining lasers in mind, consumables needed to be revisited as well, in an effort to adjust to the new system. The changes are as follows: All Consumables now have 5 Charges. Brandt Duration changed to 90s (was 30s) Instability -75% (was -50%) All Charge Rates -25% (was -50%) Forel Duration changed to 90s (was 30s) Instability +10% (was +20%) Resistance -20% (was -40%) Lifeline Duration changed to 20s (was 10s) Shatter Damage -90% (was -50%) NEW EFFECT: ➔ All Charge Rates -90% Optimum Duration changed to 20s (was 30s) Optimal Charge Window Size +75% (was +100%) NEW EFFECT: ➔ Instability +10% Stampede Duration changed to 60s (was 30s) Instability +10% (was +50%) All Charge Rates +125% (was 100%) Surge Power Level Change +40% (was +30%) Torpid Duration changed to 90s (was 30s) Resistance -20% (was -40%) All Charge Rates -20% (was -75%) Of course, we'll continue to iterate on these systems based on both data and player fedback, but we're confident this first pass will address some of the issues and concerns that have been long withstanding in mining.