I think the guards were put in the game for a reason... and so skipping the guards has been a problem every since the game came out in beta. There has never been a big enough penalty for doing this. Hitting the mines only has become an even bigger problem in the game. Some idiot flying all over simply killing the mines and flying on makes it harder to do the daily bounty ...wrecks the races and is just generally a royal pain in the back side. This should stop. All that needs done is for the reward for hitting a mine only be ZERO ...no crystals, no gems, no cores ....zero ....if a % of the guards are not killed .. you should never get anything for playing the game wrong . 

Simply put ....no reward should be given for hitting the mine only.

Thanks

@1armBandit I seem to recall in the past that one's ship took on a lot of damage if you just took out the mine without getting the guardians.  Back then, getting enough crystals to barely survive was the standard so having to pay for the damage just wasn't worth the payout from just taking out the mines.

I often get daily bounty tasks that encourage this. For example, today I have:

* kill 89 mines or shipwrecks
* kill 174 guardians of any type
* kill 70 spark guardians

If I play the game the regular way I end up with the second two completed and probably 50 to go on the first, and that's already the better part of an hour in. So I finish it off by just blowing up everything in sight without even caring what falls out, because at that point I kinda want to get on with other things.

@Torop All what you say is true. A week ago, I created another account to be a newbie again and see what has changed (Developers did a good job - beginning of game makes you continue). I can’t directly kill a mine without taking a lot of damage. In the case of 8-9 mines, my little ship will be destroyed. The problem is 1arm met a player from the top 20 (Ship strength +40K).

@1armBandit I tried to talk to our "hero" to understand his motive, but silence was his answer. it's impossible to solve a problem without understanding what it is

Does he do it consciously?
Does he just need count of killed mines?
He doing some kind of experiment?
Maybe it's trolling?

Recently, RoyalSerf talked about a "hero" who boasted of his "power", directly killing mines in front of other players ...

I figured I'd track my progress on today's daily.

Playing normally (killing every guardian) it took 26 minutes to finish the third objective, and another two minutes to finish the second. (That's actual active time, before that there's also time looking at the forums and fiddling with parts and drones.) At that point I had only killed 33 of the 89 mines for the first objective.

At this rate it would have been another ~50 minutes to finish the first objective. But the weather is nice out, and I have laundry and dishes to do. Just blowing up the remaining mines directly took under 7 minutes.

@Lisimba I have never seen you directly kill mines that someone is already working on 

I also kill mines directly if there are no players nearby and if one of the following reasons:

- there is a small one near 8-9g mines (a potential problem)
- there are 1-3g mines in the world and there are no big ones (need to make places for respawn large mines)
- need to finish the task and not enough time to play

mine was 125 mines ,,,,250 guards ....100 spark .. i have guards done and 80/100 spark and 65/125 mines...

I will go get rest of the spark then i will do SMALL mine groups and shipwrecks ...so as not to hurt anyone else's chances to get their bounty as easily as possible. I will NOT fly up to a mine and hit the mine only ... it's rude to other players and not how the game was designed to be played. 

there  MUST be a severe penalty of some sort for this kind of action. Its been needed since the start of beta. Have all parts on ship go down 10% each its done ....or take 10x damage or even 20x damage ... if they fly up and hit the mine while you are working on the guards ... we should be allowed to turn our drones lose on their ship.

i understand you are going to get rude ignorant people anywhere and everywhere you go... but that dont make it ok to have to endure it 

perhaps and easier way and would solve everything ... make the mine invulnerable until all guards are dead ... this would be the simplest fix 

lol "for playing the game wrong"...

there's very rarely only one way to play a game... just because it's not how you do it doesn't make it "wrong"...

There is penalization for killing mines without killing the guards already too:
- you can potentially take a LOT more damage, meaning that the cost to repair negates what you earn anyways
- collecting rewards is much harder since you aggro the guards you didn't kill
- you do actually already earn less. Although it's not documented anywhere that I know of, you get more reward from killing mines after killing the guards. For example, you never get a mega/big etc if you don't kill the guards
- leveling up your drones is based on how long they attack for. So doing this means your drones level up much slower

Honestly I don't think there's anything "wrong" with the above strategy. It's a risky form of play but players can play a game however it is designed!

lol ..so i guess the designers just put the guards in for decoration? to me it looks like they guard the mines ... so playing the game "right" means you kill the guards to get the reward of whats in the mine. bypassing the guards is a chickens*** way of playing., and therefore should be punished more so then it is now. anyone can fly around and kill the mines... what fun can that possibly be and what would be the objective? its stupid and should be penalized big time.

In my case those players who steal mines are very rare. They are annoying but no big problem.

If I have to destroy only mines for daylies I kill the mines without killing guards. 

Imho it s always  a random amount of red gems when attacking mines.
I realized the only thing that matters to get the random amount is that ur drone(s) is attacking the mine while it s destroyed.
So u still can get ur red gems if u send just one drone to the mine. Just the amount of crystals will be less.

@1armBandit

bottom line is dude that's literally just your perspecitve on this topic, you're not looking beyond your own perspective. When there is more than one way to do things, there often isn't a right or wrong... what you are basically saying is people that don't do it your way are chicken shit... which isn't correct at all.
Ultimately, it's hard to even take a second to consider what you say when you are clearly providing a one-sided argument. As described above, playing the way that you say is "wrong" does have downsides. There may well be room for balance tweaks but definitely not in the way that you've suggested...

sorry ...anyone who uses "dude" ... i cant take seriously .... so didnt bother reading any further

ooops sorry ...had no idea i was talking to someone that had not even been here long enough to know whats going on ... maybe you should play for awhile before trying to tell me how to play :)

Just wanted to add my perspective here as a developer and player.

I agree with @Donnypwnz that any way a player wants to enjoy the game is a valid way to play, so long as they are not intentionally doing something to make the game worse for other players.

But if the game is set up in such a way as to incentivize some players to make the game worse for others, I think that's on us as designers and developers of the game to make it better. So to @1armBandit's point, if players are incentivized to bypass the enemies and just attack the mines, and that, for instance, makes races less fun or more difficult, that's a problem we need to address.

We do have some changes in the works that we think will improve the situation for everybody. Please bear with us as we polish and test these changes for everybody.

Also, try to be nice to each other. I use the word "dude". Let's not be petty about language. And let's also not laugh at the points folks are trying to make. Try to respect one another and fairly evaluate others' perspectives.

perhaps dude is fine to you ....to me its an insult ...perhaps its the age difference or area of the country ..i cant imagine walking up to my dad and saying hey dude . .. nor would i call anyone that if i cared what they thought of me .... long and short of it ..i wont now nor will i ever respond nicely to dude 

@okaybenji So I started this game just to get out of the RPG Global drama for awhile and veg...I don't know what all the strategy's are and don't care..I just want to play and get gems, stars and build on my ship..I had no idea I was hurting anybody..I try to stay away from the peeps that are playing so I wouldn't bother anybody..Now here we go with who's right and who's wrong..    1arm if you would like to show me the right way to play someday then I be grateful...It just that there are no rules per-say..we are suppose to figure it out...Well, I haven't and doubt I will figure it out...If I become a burden or I start getting penalized for playing the way I have been then I guess I can just leave..Really didn't want to be a burden on somebody.   I don't take anybody's crystals either..I do my own my own way...  GL and HAGD

@momze never mention u at all ... nor have i heard anyone else mention you ... have seen you playing and have never seen u doing anything out of the way .. nothing fancy in playing right ... wouldnt worry about it 

I just want to reiterate, any way a player enjoys playing the game is fine, short of harassing other players. If someone has a problem with the way someone else is playing, that's on us as game designers, not on the other player.

So if you have a complaint about how folks are playing, tell us in the feedback forum what the behavior is and why it bothers you -- not who the players are, because that's irrelevant. We'll evaluate what we can do to fix the problem with the game design that encouraged the behavior or led to its negative impact.

And if someone is harassing you for the way you like to play the game, submit a support ticket and let us know. Harassment is never okay and we will deal with the player.

@1armBandit It's ok..I was taking it kinda personal..Some day when I get to retire maybe I can get better at it...But right now it is just a gettaway for me.....:P

@okaybenji 

I understand that going for the mines is a way to play the game and can even be considered a team race strategy that some employ to prevent the other team from getting a good score.

For the folks that destroy the mines because they do not need crystals - just red gems -- a better strategy for that is to go for shipwrecks where you get red gems from but you do not have to sustain much damage at all. But can you please leave the big mines - clusters of 5 or more guardians to the team racers who race for their squads or for bounty bonuses.

For either of these three above I do not see a problem with folks going for mines - but I do have a problem with people who come onto the game and just kill mines that someone is actively working one. Especially the ones that sit back watching to see when they can get to the mine without sustaining any damage then come in and destroy the mines and get a substantial award for this. This is more irritating when people are trying to win or get a good team race score for their squad.  These folks know who they are and they are not satisfied with doing this once - they then follow you on the game board or proceed you and destroy all the large mines. When these folks are playing - i usually abandon the location I am at - and if they follow me  -  I now just leave the game.

James asked why I hated team races - this is one of the reasons.  For those who I have asked to please not do this while I am racing and afforded me the courtesy of moving along - Thank you .  For those who do not realize that someone was working the mine  (maybe the other had a cloak of invisibility on)  or just did not see the other side of the cluster - this is not meant for you either. 

But for those that friend people - then follow them from cluster to cluster without asking if they can join you in game play - that behavior is unnecessary and irritating.  For those that do this then laugh at you -.because their intention is to frustrate you -  yes for those folks it would be nice if something could be done. 

@RoyalSerf you say it much more diplomatically then me, but pretty much the same thing  ..and don't worry won"t call you "dude"  :)

@RoyalSerf I appreciate your feedback on this. We're going to think about what we can do about it. If you have any suggestions, feel free to add them here.

@1armBandit Thanks Bandit :-) Hugs