So, the upcoming Mining reveal? What are you hoping for?

[NeilF]

So over the next week or so FD will start discussions on the mining improvements coming in Q4. I'm going to set out my stall - I expect the Q4 Mining improvements (& its associated Exploration improvements & the associated Q4 DLC) to move the game forwards in a signicant bar raising fashion...

So, this is the nature of what I'm expecting on the mining front to give me a nice fuzzy warm feeling inside (otherwise called hope)...

On a Micro Level
I'm hoping mining individual asteroids is made more interesting:-

• A procedural generation of the distribution of materials across an asteroid is shown via some sort of thermal map. Thus a CMDR can choose more carefully where to mine to obtain more of the desired materials.
• A physics engine is employed to allow asteroids to be broken (cut/exploded) apart to invoke to more interesting gameplay (eg: reaching more valuable resources inside).
• A heat map type mechanic for asteroids can give CMDRs an idea of the best locations to mine on it.
• Fighters can be used to help mine.
• If the Q4 DLC is atmosperic landings (as I hope) then some consideration has been made to create surface based mining mechanics, ideally with SRVs etc playing a role. Maybe a procedurally generated thermal heat map to show locations/distrubuition of materials.

On a Macro Level
I hoping for some broad stroke here ideally combining mechanics/occupations/features:-

• Rare stateful hot spots of valuable materials (eg: Palladium) can be found in rings. When mining in these locations the dice are heavily skewed in favour of finding the valuable material. The location can be mined down from 100% to 0% when it's then gone forever! This feature alone would bring much needed worth to exploration and mining, as well as opening up a mechanic that can be used in a myriad of ways. eg: For a CG FD sprinkle some of these stateful hot spots across a region to create a Gold Rush. And if this was done in OPEN only sometimes?
• Fleet Carriers are incorporated into mining. For example such that they can make a claim on a "hot spot" to prevent other CMDRs mining it. Such that they can store mined materials. And potentially even allow the materials to be sold directly from the, such that at least NPCs can periodically come along a buy the material from the Fleet Carrier in effect acting as a Trading Post.
• If the Q4 DLC is atmosperic landings (as I hope) then ideally "stateful hot spots" could be incorporated into these (so rare stateful valuable mining locations could be found). And likewise Fleet Carriers could be incorporated again with them locked into a geostationary position over the surface location being mined and them lowering a space lift down to allow mined materials to be loaded onboard, and the Squadron's SRVs to be directly deployed on the surface.

In short some challenging involved joined up mechanics across mining, exploration and the DLC, which of course are all due out Q4.

Anyone have other gameplay/game mechanic expectations of what they like to see FD be introducing with Q4's mining etc?


Links:-
Distributions Maps and Stateful Resource Hot Spots - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...eful-resource-hot-spots?p=6054187#post6054187
Squadron based gameplay including mining gameplay - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ron-quot-Role-quot-and-more-involved-gameplay

 

[Blackcompany]

Field scanners to reveal multiple roids at once.

Tractor beam mining lasers, or landing and securing ship on asteroids and auto collecting.

Auto.filtering of mats. Because the current system.is utter Tedium.

I EXPECT however that we will get quicker limpet scan, longer collector life...and not much else.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

Salt added to the drop list.

 

[NeilF]

Tractor beam mining lasers, or landing and securing ship on asteroids and auto collecting.

I guess that could marry up with the physics engine suggestion? eg: You can break up a larger asteroid and then use a tractor beam, or harpoon/cable to pull it and mine it?

 

[Cocalarix]

In case you missed this:

Hello everyone,

Just wanted to quickly update you on the upcoming Focused Feedback threads.

Unfortunately, we have to delay the Mining Focused Feedback thread that was intended for May 28th. We don't have a current date for when the thread will be posted but we will update the main thread with a new date as soon as we can.

In the meantime, we are still collecting feedback on Squadrons and Powerplay proposals and look forward to hearing any additional thoughts on those topics!

 

[NeilF]

In case you missed this:

Yeh I saw that. Hence me carefully saying, "next week or so"...

Suspect it will be in the next couple of weeks...

 

[William J Smith]

My hope:

Surface mining using the mighty MB4 mining machine...... plus a new larger SRV (and large hanger) to haul it from your ship to a decent position

Because we're going to need it in Colonia after the bugs have trashed the bubble....

Bill

 

[babelfisch]

I want a ship launched mining ship that can transform into a SRV, land on asteroids and drill holes in it. Limpets would transfer the ore back to the mothership.

 

[nosleepdemon]

So over the next week or so FD will start discussions on the mining improvements coming in Q4. I'm going to set out my stall - I expect the Q4 Mining improvements (& its associated Exploration improvements & the associated Q4 DLC) to move the game forwards in a signicant bar raising fashion...

So, this is the nature of what I'm expecting on the mining front to give me a nice fuzzy warm feeling inside (otherwise called hope)...

On a Micro Level
I'm hoping mining individual asteroids is made more interesting:-

• A procedural generation of the distribution of materials across an asteroid is shown via some sort of thermal map. Thus a CMDR can choose more carefully where to mine to obtain more of the desired materials.
• A physics engine is employed to allow asteroids to be broken (cut/exploded) apart to invoke to more interesting gameplay (eg: reaching more valuable resources inside).
• A heat map type mechanic for asteroids can give CMDRs an idea of the best locations to mine on it.
• Fighters can be used to help mine.
• If the Q4 DLC is atmosperic landings (as I hope) then some consideration has been made to create surface based mining mechanics, ideally with SRVs etc playing a role. Maybe a procedurally generated thermal heat map to show locations/distrubuition of materials.

​

On a Macro Level
I hoping for some broad stroke here ideally combining mechanics/occupations/features:-

• Rare stateful hot spots of valuable materials (eg: Palladium) can be found in rings. When mining in these locations the dice are heavily skewed in favour of finding the valuable material. The location can be mined down from 100% to 0% when it's then gone forever! This feature alone would bring much needed worth to exploration and mining, as well as opening up a mechanic that can be used in a myriad of ways. eg: For a CG FD sprinkle some of these stateful hot spots across a region to create a Gold Rush. And if this was done in OPEN only sometimes?
• Fleet Carriers are incorporated into mining. For example such that they can make a claim on a "hot spot" to prevent other CMDRs mining it. Such that they can store mined materials. And potentially even allow the materials to be sold directly from the, such that at least NPCs can periodically come along a buy the material from the Fleet Carrier in effect acting as a Trading Post.
• If the Q4 DLC is atmosperic landings (as I hope) then ideally "stateful hot spots" could be incorporated into these (so rare stateful valuable mining locations could be found). And likewise Fleet Carriers could be incorporated again with them locked into a geostationary position over the surface location being mined and them lowering a space lift down to allow mined materials to be loaded onboard, and the Squadron's SRVs to be directly deployed on the surface.

​

In short some challenging involved joined up mechanics across mining, exploration and the DLC, which of course are all due out Q4.

Anyone have other gameplay/game mechanic expectations of what they like to see FD be introducing with Q4's mining etc?


Links:-
Distributions Maps and Stateful Resource Hot Spots - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...eful-resource-hot-spots?p=6054187#post6054187
Squadron based gameplay including mining gameplay - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ron-quot-Role-quot-and-more-involved-gameplay

You poor, innocent soul. How naive you are to think that the new features would bare the slightest resemblence to the clever ideas you set out. No, the mining update won't reinvigorate the game for those players who enjoyed such things, it will only make you sad. Here's a more realistic guess:

The Great Big Mining Update:

* Mining missions now work properly for wings.
* Tractor beam mining lasers, smart limpets and refinery blueprints have been added.
* Mining Tech broker added.
* Added 96 new materials, these materials are gathered through mining and used to purchase mining related tools and engineering modifications.
* Added Crusty Judy the mining specialist engineer. Crusty Judy's permit is purchased via Harry the Hermit's mining missions.
* Added a new ship - the T7 Turbo. The turbo means it has spoilers.
* Mining missions for wings have been premptively disabled until the next patch, in anticipation of our scripters needing a whole other patch cycle to get the ing things right.

 

[Maro-Val]

landing and securing ship on asteroids and auto collecting.

Amazing idea.

Also it would be good to add more variety in the kind of rocks and their sizes and rocks with like cages and holes so we can hide or speed run through. Oh and for christ sake, make it worthy to mine in ice rings since there you can find amazing views.
And really for christ sake, introduce new minerals (of alien kind maybe) that can be mined only far away from population and selling them creates like a small fortune like 150 mil for a full T9 cargo.

Oh and how about cargo bulk carries with tremendous cargo capacity that only can be called somewhere. I go far from the bubble and i call my bulk carrier and it takes like 2-4 days for it to arrive while i explore and mine around, but then i can use it for days or weeks or months to transfer and store cargo on it while i mine the surrounding systems and then i call it back on bubble to sell the stuff.

Yea i know.. not in this game.

 

[Vardaugas]

Nothing. I expect nothing. Learned that a long time ago. Expectations only lead to disappointment.

 

[Flimley]

After new additional (not more prospect drones, but instead a specialist scanner) detection equipment reveals that some rocks contain extra precious materials only in their core. I would like a new mining cannon with explosive shells to blow that baby apart. Allowing me to scoop the delicious precious materials inside !

Flimley

 

[Ian Skippy]

Field scanners to reveal multiple roids at once.

Tractor beam mining lasers, or landing and securing ship on asteroids and auto collecting.

Auto.filtering of mats. Because the current system.is utter Tedium.

I EXPECT however that we will get quicker limpet scan, longer collector life...and not much else.

I never understood how 'we need more deep gameplay' matches with 'we need more automated stuff'.

 

[NeilF]

After new additional (not more prospect drones, but instead a specialist scanner) detection equipment reveals that some rocks contain extra precious materials only in their core. I would like a new mining cannon with explosive shells to blow that baby apart. Allowing me to scoop the delicious precious materials inside !

Flimley

Well, I'll swear there was a concept art from FD showing an asteroid being blown apart. Hence my suggestion of physics based gameplay along these lines...

 

[NeilF]

I never understood how 'we need more deep gameplay' matches with 'we need more automated stuff'.

Well, as a comparison of a new mechanic, offering more gameplay, by doing something automatically?:-

• You're exploring some systems. You arrive in a new one.
• You open your orrey map to see where the objects in the system are.
• You decide to deploy your two exploration drones to automatically scan a number of objects by giving them a series of objects each to explore along efficient paths.
• This leaves you free to personally explore a couple of more interesting looking objects.
• You get a notification one of your drones is in orbit/scanning a planet so you duck into view a live video feed from it. And check its scan results for anything interesting before it moves off to the next object on its list.
• Once you've finished scanning your objects you return to the orrery map and see where a nice central location is for you to meet up with your two drone, and you give them that location to SC to.
• Once they've docked, you jump off to the next system.

So here drones are automatically doing exploration/scan based stuff instead of you, but the outcome is you get to manage these assets to hopefully give a more involved and, if you do it wisely, more profitable outcome.

So I'd say "automated stuff" can IMHO give a more interesting/involved/reward income if implemented properly...

 

[Vasious]

These look like they could be deployed out of a cargo hatch and could be the successor to the MB4

Spoiler

Though will people want to deploy fields of them?

Id assume they would be a Cmdr who deployed them only PoI

Well, I'll swear there was a concept art from FD showing an asteroid being blown apart. Hence my suggestion of physics based gameplay along these lines...

 

[NeilF]

That's the one, or something like that.

If it makes sense to break up an asteroid using a physics engine - maybe not in quite such an extreme way - and then mine the individual parts. That could be nice.

And indeed if there's logical tractor beam/harpoon/line mechanics that can bring in some physics engine elelments, that could work nicely too?

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Deep Space Mining :

- ability to scan, discover and store Mineral Hotspots in Asteroid Rings
- Engineer Blueprints for Mining Lasers
- new Engineer Blueprints for Prospector/Collector Limpet Controllers (longer lifetime, additional controllable Limpets, faster Limpets)
- new Mining Equipment (different Mining Laser types but other alternative Equipment)
- Ship Computer stores already prospected or depleted Asteroids, allowing for a more systematic and controlled approach to Prospecting and moving through a Ring
- Ship Computer allows for basic Laser Range-finder (point & aim to see distance - aka "How far is this Asteroid away?"
- Night-time Mining additions, i.e. Thermal, NVG or other augmented Synthetic Vision enhancements (same can serve for Combat in Night-time locations i.e. dark RES in the shadow of its Planet/Gas Giant)

- new Mining Approach and Options other than directly firing Lasers onto Asteroids
-> place charges and blow the Asteroid
-> apply Bioreducing Lichen to optimize yield
-> "Mining Limpets", Limpets that attach to the Asteroid, mine it and return when full
-> "Seeker Prospectors".. Prospector Limpets that scan (Limpet lifetime) for specific Ores and quickly move from Asteroid to Asteroid until the Target ore is found and the Limpet attaches & signals its find
-> NPC Crews become useful Mining assistants (i.e. 1 NPC protects with the SLF but 2 others work at the same time for the Team with regard to Prospecting/Mining)
-> "Smart Limpets", 2nd restock Option as an alternative to existing "dumb" Limpets; will have Collision avoidance and don't suicide into Asteroids anymore. 500Cr a piece instead of 100Cr.

- Mining Turrets become useful outside of MultiCrew... With Prospector locked and triggered, will auto-fire Asteroid's Center Mass until Asteroid is depleted (so you don't have to squeeze your poor Trigger all the time, nice small convenience)

- Icy Mining : all yields doubled as to bring it in sync with other types (current icy yields are 50% too low, ~30% being your rare "mother lode" right now, making it a chore getting any Tonnage for Missions)
-> Low Temperature Diamonds buffed in occurrence, currently fairly near 'Unobtainium"

- Mining Missions : they shall Target more different ores, not just a few select ones

- valuable Deep Space "7 Cities of Gold" locations in remote locations that encourage Exploring, Prospecting and Mining in distant locations (Gold Rush, Unique and extremely valuable ores)
- the return of Gemstones (Grams instead of Tons)

- a revamp of the Ignore function, allowing to at anytime set every existing Ore/Element/Material incl. a geneal setting (Illicit Cargo) to Ignore ON/OFF without having to rely on some ore or Canister to actually fly around via the Contacts Panel

- addition of rare "Unknown Alloys/Compounds/Elements and Artifacts", unique things coming off the oddball Asteroid that can be hauled to Scientific Installations for Analysis or sold for extreme profits

- massive Visual overhaul, procedurally crafted Asteroids instead of relying on ~8 different Asteroid Models

- Asteroid Color to somewhat give away its composition or possibly containing rare stuff (a bit analog to the Surface Shader overhaul for the V3.0 Planet types)

Planetary Mining !

Different approaches to commercial Mining on Planets...

- Ship + SRV (deploy small Mining Rigs, manual surface drilling with SRV to prospect on-site)
- Ship + new dedicated Mining- or Multipurpose Surface Vehicles (more Options, more Internals, more Cargo)
- Ship + temporary Construction Kits (prospect a good spot and have the kit construct a Mining Installation with limited lifetime)
- Prospecting "Surface Limpets", robotic spider-like Drones that get the job done and signal a good spot

Basically multi-scale Mining from manual Prospecting and setting up minimal Equipment - all the way upto full-scale and large-Volume surface Mining using some type of support Installation as a temp. FOB.

PS.
Oh, and some bugfixes...
- no more flashing Proximity Warning Lights due to Limpets (we had that fixed at some point)
- no more Prospectors flying straight through Asteroids
- no more waiting Collector Limpets "Warping" forward every ~30sec when flying around

 

[SP_Predicador]

The PVE features like mining, are my main focus of interest, both macro and micro. But for my past experience with Frontier, I prefer to hope nothing, so everything I'll receive, will be positive. In essence I don't think that a minimum part of the players desiderata about mining, will arrive ever. I use to try to avoid that people have too many expectations, so that they suffer less. So salt is your friend and hype your enemy.

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

Moving asteroids, which would change trajectory and fragment a bit if crashed into thus creating dynamic asteroid fields / ring systems. I also think that asteroids would be made of the same material all the way through, so they should get smaller as we take fragments off them and only really be depleted when they are totally gone, that is to say if you can see it, and shoot it with a mining laser you should get mining fragments from it and make it get smaller, until there is nothing left.

Those two changes would allow us to bulldose the asteroid fields, strip-mine them, and remove the chances of finding yourself prospecting an asteroid you've already depleted.

Before I'd dropped into an asteroid ring, or into a planets surface, I'd want some complicated mechanics to allow me to chart the mineral distribution and location of any interesting POI on the surface or in the asteroid ring. I'm thinking do a slow supercruise lap around the planet / rings system, while a scanner does its job gathering data, then a new black screen interface somewhat similar to system map --> planet map with various filters and sliders and adjustments to be made to manipulate the data, and thus decide where we want to go based on what is there.

And the final but must have, user definable waypoints! These would be input either by typing in coordinates, or by clicking the location on the surface map screen
and they could be bookmarked. Bookmarking would allow the player to do a detailed scan of a planets rings, find a sweetspot that pays well / generates the minerals needed for a CG /is rich in the materials they want to get, and go back to it, without having to reacan and manipulate all that data every time they leave the scene ie selling minerals mined, rolling upgrades with materials gathered etc...