demonduo

I wonder how many members will be in the alpha..

I agree on multiple cores, i can imagine going as far to have individual sections of a ship each with a core, whilst being a master core for the ship as a whole, this would also allow subsequent ship and space station sections/upgrades to be manufactured independently perhaps by different organizations and then brought together, so the task doesn't fall on a single organization to construct something truly massive.

this isn't meant for a a single player, the size of a ship required to preform such actions would be by it self an impressive achievement, requiring the input of (purely speculative) say 100 players, and operating it would require as many again, its an idea to solve a problem that wont appear and present it self for a long time, which isn't to say people wont strive for larger-scale operations on their own terms. EVE shows this very well. as for power and efficiency, this wouldn't be simple efficiency in terms of greater output, eventually a level is reached where it becomes the next step, by this i mean, mining with players and ships will reach a point where a bigger ship has capabilities the smaller ships cannot achieve. Another EVE example is the Rorqual. It is rather funny you should mention EVE, im a veteran of 8 years, and organizing a fleet to mine entire belts was my thing, so i can say i wouldn't get tired of devouring a planet i will admit, i strive for complexity and advancement, even crave it, and it being a game is exactly why i would like to see it, i realize my idea is not a short term, rather a long term or far future idea, if it should ever reach such scale at all. Now. as for everything being a potential weapon, it is true, it could be, but as with anything, it is how it is used. Examples of your argument are the likes of nuclear weapons and nuclear power generation, it is entirely up to the user.

Whilst i agree, that modules/ships and equipment should wear over time, your brief summary is too general, and by no means am i an expert on the subject of entropy, but just because something is complex does not mean it will degrade faster then something of lesser complexity. items/things in general can be designed to last. your example of the stone pillar surviving one thousand years and an F-16 only a few dozen hours, whilst possibly true, excludes many factors. ignoring the aspects of the pillar, and examining the F-16,we know it is a military aircraft, as such emphasis is placed on combat ability above all else, components can be designed to withstand stresses, but would detract from combat ability. from the design point, a real world example is combustion engines, in consumer vehicles such as cars an engine may only last a maximum of 800,000 Kilometers, which many would never reach before getting a new vehicle, in commercial vehicles an engine can easily pass 1,000,000 Kilometers, and do so potentially twice over. I would add that modules/ships and equipment wear based on their design and quality, rather then a simple 'higher equals more'

Having thought about how resource collection will play out over time, and the usual demand out-stripping supply, i propose methods of collecting resources on a far greater scale, these methods deal with mined materials. Thinking far larger then mining as a small group, rather entire organizations or very large resource divisions, preforming literal planetary mining. With varying degrees of required technology and feasibility, i envisage techniques such as: Orbital bombardment, rendering portions of a planets surface into rubble/debris, ready to be collected and processed. Orbital Melting, as the name Implies, from orbit areas of a planet are melted resulting in all potential resources and the surrounding rock/surface material liquefying and or burning away. continued heating over time should result in the formation of separate layers of semi-refined material which can be cooled and collected. Tectonic 'plate mining' (planet cracking under a different name) whereby sections of a planet or moon are carved out and pulled into space for immediate processing, this method could also be used on asteroids (whole or otherwise). These are just a few examples and are my thoughts of what could be, mega-scale/high-end mining. Please share thoughts below.