Dumb miners are better, miners should be almost entirely player responsibility, and are not difficult to manage once the basics are explained. Easily predictable miners are better for new players, because it makes them easier for new players to find and shoot.
On another note, I haven't been able to build and run a test server locally in a really long time, which has probably contributed to the delayed fixes. I've definitely had time to look into server-side stuff that I haven't been able to test. Specifically, autopilot bugs that make ships miss targets for certain combinations of mass/thrust.
@Backtrack: if we're only looking at months, not years, for some rudimentary full bot AI, then I'd wait on the coin drop for that. I have the video mostly done, but then I got hit with a week/weekend of unavailability due to IRL stuff, then I accidentally fried my i7-3770 that was acting as a server, so I moved my desktop to server duty and the replacement won't arrive until the 6th, so I'll get the video done next weekend. That and I'm waiting for Raveen to fix a narration error, but its minor.
Fun story: I had a 650W power supply from a Dell Poweredge that I was getting rid of, and wanted more power on the i7-3770, so I figured "why not?" - well, it turns out that despite using standard ATX power connectors, the wiring is nonstandard, so it promptly blew up some part of the 3770's motherboard.
Intel's 8-series is still meltdown susceptible, so I went and bought a 2600x. Not money I really wanted to spend right now, but it'll be a nice unexpected upgrade.
