What happened to mining?

I just thought that I give mining a try. I have type 6 outfitted for mining. 2x mining lasers and class 4 refinery. All is fine until I start blasting with my mining lasers. My burst last half second and lasers say they are overheated. They won't cool down by waiting. I have one heat sink and lauch one. I can have another half second burst and they are overheated. Is this mining nowadays that you have to shoot heat sink so you can have half second laser burst? Why won't mining laser coold down like other lasers do?
 
Since 1.1 all lasers now overheat the ship and it requires more power management skills than before so you'll need to balance pips a lot more. I've not tried mining since the update purely because it was a waste of time before and it's been shown no love by the Devs. It's the worst gameplay element in the game as a profession. If it's now worse then it's almost like FD can't be bothered improving it which is a shame because it could be a very good alternative to trading but the reward vs effort involved isn't there.
 
I've got an A-spec Asp that I use as a miner with twin mining lasers and I have had no heating issues whatsoever. Could be a pip management/module issue?
 
I've only ever used class 1 lasers, but I've never ever had a problem. I can hold the trigger down indefinitely -- but only when I put 4 pips to weapons.

The laser firing is not the bottleneck in mining (scooping is), so I wouldn't bother with class 2 guns.
 
Since 1.1 all lasers now overheat the ship and it requires more power management skills than before so you'll need to balance pips a lot more. I've not tried mining since the update purely because it was a waste of time before and it's been shown no love by the Devs. It's the worst gameplay element in the game as a profession. If it's now worse then it's almost like FD can't be bothered improving it which is a shame because it could be a very good alternative to trading but the reward vs effort involved isn't there.

Mining is fine *IF* you actually do your research and put an effort into it. I'm making between 280,000-340,000cr per 50-55mins. its not a fortune but its enough for me as I find it relaxing to do.
 
Mining is fine *IF* you actually do your research and put an effort into it. I'm making between 280,000-340,000cr per 50-55mins. its not a fortune but its enough for me as I find it relaxing to do.

At least initially. It's a viable way to earn enough credits to buy, outfit and stock a type 6 if trading is your thing. It's also the fastest way to a cobra from a sidewinder IMHO (but that's debatable...)
 

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Mining needs a tractor beam, as well as pirating does. And I wouldn't use a freighter for mining. Actually it's the only profession I'd use a Dropship for. Sturdy, enough space and plenty of hardpoints to deal with pirates. Something like this but with a class 2 or 3 tractor beam added: http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=304,0mI0mI0mI01QH9WH9W4zi7u67u6,2-9Y9Y7_7_9Y6Q6k,0AA08c7Sk0bg05U05U03w

For the five billionth time no.. We do not need tractor beams. That would make mining INSTANTLY boring and pointless. If all you do is fly to an asteroid field and 'hit X to collect ore' then sorry but I'll never mine again.

The only thing us miners really need is a way of marking mined-out asteroids or maybe a mineral scanner too. but no tractor beams, it would ruin it.
 
Just the one Class 2 mining laser on my Cobra. A bit of extra power into the weapons and it will strip a rock in one blast. Then it's just scoop and scoot.
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As mentioned above, some way of marking the rocks we've mined would be nice as it can get confusing, and a laser ranger would be nice so those spinning rocks don't slap us on the backside from time to time.
 
The only thing us miners really need is a way of marking mined-out asteroids or maybe a mineral scanner too. but no tractor beams, it would ruin it.

You don't have to equip the tractor beam if you don't want to. It should be an upgrade for more expensive ships. Don't hog the fun to yourself.
 
For the five billionth time no.. We do not need tractor beams. That would make mining INSTANTLY boring and pointless. If all you do is fly to an asteroid field and 'hit X to collect ore' then sorry but I'll never mine again.

The only thing us miners really need is a way of marking mined-out asteroids or maybe a mineral scanner too. but no tractor beams, it would ruin it.

this is either or, mineral scanners just let you quickly find PT only, tractors let you pick anything up quickly so you don't always have to go for PT. pretending one is extremely imbalanced and the other isn't is just false, they are almost the same. Realistically they'd have to add both for mining to be comparable in income to anything else but one would be a great help.
 
Mining needs a tractor beam, as well as pirating does. And I wouldn't use a freighter for mining. Actually it's the only profession I'd use a Dropship for. Sturdy, enough space and plenty of hardpoints to deal with pirates. Something like this but with a class 2 or 3 tractor beam added: http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=304,0mI0mI0mI01QH9WH9W4zi7u67u6,2-9Y9Y7_7_9Y6Q6k,0AA08c7Sk0bg05U05U03w
You mine properly, you won't ever see pirates.

Fed Drop has very little cargo space if you put a large refinery in one of the few internals as well. 124t with a shield generator and a class 3 refinery.


BTW, in the Design discussion archives you can see we were promised drones to do the scooping for us. Sacrifice some cargo space so you don't have to scoop? That's what I want

I also want fixed assigning of refinery slots

and bigger mining lasers

and the benefit of bigger mining lasers should be larger chunks, not faster chunks.
 
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Mining is fine *IF* you actually do your research and put an effort into it. I'm making between 280,000-340,000cr per 50-55mins. its not a fortune but its enough for me as I find it relaxing to do.

It was actually pips thingie. I have been bounty hunter so long that rocks didn't trigger my pip finger. I guess there's much to learn about mining. I did spend some time in good asteroid belt. I collected dozens and dozens fragments and got two minerals :) That made about 2k profit, wohoo. So I guess there's a lot of research to make.
 
It was actually pips thingie. I have been bounty hunter so long that rocks didn't trigger my pip finger. I guess there's much to learn about mining. I did spend some time in good asteroid belt. I collected dozens and dozens fragments and got two minerals :) That made about 2k profit, wohoo. So I guess there's a lot of research to make.

The main points:

- mine only pristine metallic rings / belts
- concentrate only on the big 4: platinum, palladium, gold, silver
- don't bother with an asteroid unless its fragments are worth 1k or more (20% silver, or 10% gold etc.)
- don't scoop after each blast. send a 4 or 5 fragments off at once in the same direction then scoop
- if mining rings, head towards the planet

last 2 points help with the whole re-scanning / marking problem noted above
 
Since 1.1 all lasers now overheat the ship and it requires more power management skills than before so you'll need to balance pips a lot more. I've not tried mining since the update purely because it was a waste of time before and it's been shown no love by the Devs. It's the worst gameplay element in the game as a profession. If it's now worse then it's almost like FD can't be bothered improving it which is a shame because it could be a very good alternative to trading but the reward vs effort involved isn't there.
I'm with you there. I tried mining for about an hour and got so bored I wanted to self destruct just for fun. At the end of it, I made a fantastic 33k credits, about 1/6 of what I could make on a trade run in 10 minutes tops.

The devs have given absolutely no thought to mining at all, even giving us a tractor beam to suck in those chunks would help as it would allow us to gain a slightly better income from it. In addition, you mine a small amount from the asteroid and it's dried up so you have to move on to another. It gets real boring real fast. The refinery bin idea was good but the concept of mining for a profession got lost somewhere along the way. Now, with lasers getting the nerf treatment which directly affected mining lasers, mining is all but done for.
 
I'm with you there. I tried mining for about an hour and got so bored I wanted to self destruct just for fun. At the end of it, I made a fantastic 33k credits, about 1/6 of what I could make on a trade run in 10 minutes tops.

The devs have given absolutely no thought to mining at all, even giving us a tractor beam to suck in those chunks would help as it would allow us to gain a slightly better income from it. In addition, you mine a small amount from the asteroid and it's dried up so you have to move on to another. It gets real boring real fast. The refinery bin idea was good but the concept of mining for a profession got lost somewhere along the way. Now, with lasers getting the nerf treatment which directly affected mining lasers, mining is all but done for.

If done as outlined above, you can get 33k from one good platinum or palladium asteroid. But still, it's peanuts compared to trading in a type 6. That's why I think it's only viable at the very start of the game.

As for tractor beam, it will never happen. Not defending this choice, just stating it. Tractor beams, like artificial gravity were declared too science fictiony. I bet we'll have drones though. They already show up in stores when viewed in the iOS app.
 
Mining is fine *IF* you actually do your research and put an effort into it. I'm making between 280,000-340,000cr per 50-55mins. its not a fortune but its enough for me as I find it relaxing to do.


Dont say "mining is fine" like that. It obviously isnt! For at least 90% of the players. Or maybe they wanted to make certain gameplay elements extremely suited for the especially interested. "Mining is fine..." give me gorram break. Its like saying a car is "fine" but you have to push it order to make it move... idk. What i do know is that mining ISNT fine. Most of us know that by now. You have just accepted it beeing utterly, sadening, boring, dull... didnt i mention sadening?
 
For the five billionth time no.. We do not need tractor beams. That would make mining INSTANTLY boring and pointless. If all you do is fly to an asteroid field and 'hit X to collect ore' then sorry but I'll never mine again.

The only thing us miners really need is a way of marking mined-out asteroids or maybe a mineral scanner too. but no tractor beams, it would ruin it.

That depends entirely on how it is being implemented. I agree that just pressing a button and the cargo is scooped up would be both boring and too easy. I'd like to have it so that you still have to line up with the cargo and get fairly close and slow. Only then the scoop kicks in. So still some maneuvering required but not the total tedium it is currently.
 
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