Sub-surface mining... behaving unexpectedly (or just plain broken?)

Neilski

Neilski
I'm not a regular sub-surface miner but decided to do some out in unpopulated space around 3.5 kly from Sol.
I've been using a ring with a single tritium hotspot and on the most recent visit I dropped fairly close to the centre (less than 10% of the hotspot diameter away, or around 600 km).
I've seen somewhat variable results from choosing the 1/2/3 "pixel" wide blue zones during the mining, so on the last occasion I really paid attention to how many chunks I was getting on each, and it just makes no damn sense.
On the 3-blue zones I was typically getting 2 chunks, with 1 on a few occasions but I got 3 a few times as well.
On the 2-blue zones I got 3 chunks more often than not, and 2 the rest of the time.
On the ("best") single-blue zones, I also mostly got 3 chunks, with 4 on just one occasion but 2 chunks quite a bit as well (twice in a row at one point! :-S)...

So... I'm now wondering what on earth is going on. I've searched for info and it seems that FD have been mucking about with sub-surface mining on many occasions, so it's really hard to know which videos or posts are still relevant. However, two things stand out for me:
  1. the yields I'm getting seem really poor* overall
  2. the "improved" yield from targetting the harder zones appears to be so tiny as to be not worth bothering with
Is sub-surface mining freshly broken or behaving as I should have expected?

Edit: [* I'm gradually getting better at it, and on on this trip I achieved about 150 tons/hour on the round trip starting from my carrier (128t in 52 minutes) so maybe I shouldn't say "really poor"]
 
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Neilski

Neilski
GroG79 said:
Did you check the rock for the % of tritium?
Click to expand...
Well I was mainly tackling the sub-surface deposits, but I did laser-mine a few rocks (typically only the ones which had 10%+). My belief was that the percentage of tritium was only relevant if you laser-mine but that may of course be wrong.
 

Neilski

Neilski
GroG79 said:
You should be able to see the % on the big chunks too
Click to expand...
Ah right I know what you mean now. On the occasions when I checked, the chunks were typically 60-90%. Are you hinting that the narrower blue zones produce higher percentage chunks?
 

DemiserofD

D
Neilski said:
I'm not a regular sub-surface miner but decided to do some out in unpopulated space around 3.5 kly from Sol.
I've been using a ring with a single tritium hotspot and on the most recent visit I dropped fairly close to the centre (less than 10% of the hotspot diameter away, or around 600 km).
I've seen somewhat variable results from choosing the 1/2/3 "pixel" wide blue zones during the mining, so on the last occasion I really paid attention to how many chunks I was getting on each, and it just makes no damn sense.
On the 3-blue zones I was typically getting 2 chunks, with 1 on a few occasions but I got 3 a few times as well.
On the 2-blue zones I got 3 chunks more often than not, and 2 the rest of the time.
On the ("best") single-blue zones, I also mostly got 3 chunks, with 4 on just one occasion but 2 chunks quite a bit as well (twice in a row at one point! :-S)...

So... I'm now wondering what on earth is going on. I've searched for info and it seems that FD have been mucking about with sub-surface mining on many occasions, so it's really hard to know which videos or posts are still relevant. However, two things stand out for me:
  1. the yields I'm getting seem really poor* overall
  2. the "improved" yield from targetting the harder zones appears to be so tiny as to be not worth bothering with
Is sub-surface mining freshly broken or behaving as I should have expected?

Edit: [* I'm gradually getting better at it, and on on this trip I achieved about 150 tons/hour on the round trip starting from my carrier (128t in 52 minutes) so maybe I shouldn't say "really poor"]
Click to expand...
Bear in mind that the tonnage per fragment can vary, too, so the number of chunks you get isn't always an accurate measure of how much you're really getting from it.

IMO subsurface is good but mostly to compliment laser mining. I actually bind them both to the same key. That way, you can get the best of both worlds.
 

Dragsham

Dragsham
Back in the day (Borann) we mined laser almost exclusively lol. Silly times.! Fortunes were made....
Course once that all went nipples up we all focused on other stuff.
Whilst out in the black for a few mths I discovered Core mining. I'd equipped a conda with mining for all kinds so whilst exploring I'd scan rings and mine if anything chimed.
Learnt to mine all 4 disciplines at once.
Fire a A rated prospector at a Rock, scratch all the surface and subsurface off. Laser mine it, then blow it up.
Dunno if that's still the way to do things. I didn't ever measure by per hour I just had fun doing it all at once. Becomes routine.
Your hold ends up with all kinds in it.
Bear in mind I've a 25000 ton carrier nearby I wasn't fussy about storing what other miners block.
Turns out those byproducts are sought after now hehe.

o7
 

Phill P

Phill P
Neilski said:
Ah right I know what you mean now. On the occasions when I checked, the chunks were typically 60-90%. Are you hinting that the narrower blue zones produce higher percentage chunks?
Click to expand...
I haven't fully tested this but see the image below
1649663901234.png


When matching quality with density I seem to get a better yield, also more chunks out of a rock before the SSD disappears. As I say, not tested fully but worth trying to see if you get the same results.
 

Brrokk

Brrokk
AFAIK the width of the blue stripe doesn't affect the number of chunks you can get. It just varies the difficulty of extracting.

Subsurface deposits have been buffed: they give more chunks than they used to.
 

Phill P

Phill P
Brrokk said:
AFAIK the width of the blue stripe doesn't affect the number of chunks you can get. It just varies the difficulty of extracting.

Subsurface deposits have been buffed: they give more chunks than they used to.
Click to expand...
Interesting. So a 1 bar is no different from a 3 bar in that respect. Good to know.
 
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Bottom Hat

Bottom Hat
Brrokk said:
I've never seen it specifically stated, but I've done a fair amount of mining recently and not been able to see any difference.
Click to expand...

When I get back into subsurface and core mining, I might have to pick your brains over the subject! If you don't mind?

It won't be soon, but I have only ever done it like a very old man trying to use a smartphone, and for the fun of just blowing things up!
 

sinisalo

sinisalo
In a statistically questionable sample of one, I recently went out for some tritium mining in order to top off the squadron's carrier, using subsurface along with an abrasion blaster to skim the stuff off the surface. On average I was getting just as many tonnes out of an asteroid as I would from core mining, around 18t per asteroid. The abrasion blaster accounted for roughly 15-20% of the yield.

I don't do much laser mining, not my bag really. But I enjoy the core, subsurface and abrasion blastering. And I get about the same yield from either core or subsurface/surface combo from each asteroid on average.
 

Brrokk

Brrokk
Bottom Hat said:
When I get back into subsurface and core mining, I might have to pick your brains over the subject! If you don't mind?

It won't be soon, but I have only ever done it like a very old man trying to use a smartphone, and for the fun of just blowing things up!
Click to expand...
OK, but I'm not an expert and I do it for fun too. I'm not someone who maximises credits-per-second; I do all ring types now and then just for variety.
 

Bottom Hat

Bottom Hat
Brrokk said:
OK, but I'm not an expert and I do it for fun too. I'm not someone who maximises credits-per-second; I do all ring types now and then just for variety.
Click to expand...

That's cool mate - I just literally have no idea what I'm doing! Plus, I don't want you to feel obligated lol - you can just point me somewhere else - I kinda picked on you as I've known you a long time and you seemed knowledgeable.

I'm not in it for the min-max style, but if you know of a good resource online, then please feel free to point me at that. I won't be offended, and I don't want to make you feel awkward either, which I feel I might have done?!

Cheers for not simply telling me to sod off though! ;)
 

Erei

Erei
You have the usual CMDR Exigeous tutorial on it :
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5esd-dvVeFk

The text version if you don't want a video, with also a pictures of what the roids you want look like (they all look the same) :
https://www.edtutorials.com/mining/smokes-guide-to-core-mining/

I used this quick reference guide myself, which is in the Exigeous video.
x52uuskewnk51.jpg






Also, I'm not sure, but it seems changing your UI color thanks to EDHM UI makes the core asteroid glow a different color with the pulse wave ? Which make it super strong if so.
 

Bottom Hat

Bottom Hat
Erei said:
You have the usual CMDR Exigeous tutorial on it :
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5esd-dvVeFk

The text version if you don't want a video, with also a pictures of what the roids you want look like (they all look the same) :
https://www.edtutorials.com/mining/smokes-guide-to-core-mining/

I used this quick reference guide myself, which is in the Exigeous video.
x52uuskewnk51.jpg






Also, I'm not sure, but it seems changing your UI color thanks to EDHM UI makes the core asteroid glow a different color with the pulse wave ? Which make it super strong if so.
Click to expand...

Thanks mate, that'll be handy. Cheers.
 

Neilski

Neilski
Surprisingly little definitive-feeling info on the width of the blue "quality" patches making a difference.
D2EA does say it explicitly here though:
Source: https://youtu.be/f4z9m3Zfk3k?t=473


My own casual observations (OP) do imply a noticeable though pretty modest effect, but tbh the downside of hitting the 3s was so small (and the difficulty of hitting the 1s reliably is rather high) that I might adjust my approach. I must try a few 4s next time in fact! :)
 
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