Can you mine rings without extraction sites?

[Jason R. Starkiller]

Does a metallic ring need a designated extraction site? Can you just go to any point? It seems like some rings don't have them. How do you slow down without a target or do you just crash in and hope for the best.

Also, are any of the open space asteroid belts worth while? They seem pretty weak so far.

 

[Jypson]

No RES required, just smack into a ring with the appropriately reduced speed and mine to your hearts content.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

To be honest, i've not seen any real difference between mining at a RES or far from it. Just make sure you are mining in a metallic ring for best results.

Surley Badger went off exploring and mining in remote systems (naturally they had no RES) and got some good results. He has a thread somewhere about his experiences.

 

[Morbad]

Does a metallic ring need a designated extraction site?

No.

Can you just go to any point?

Yes.

It seems like some rings don't have them.

Many don't.

How do you slow down without a target or do you just crash in and hope for the best.

Use your throttle. Any speed less than 1Mm/s (1000km/s) won't do any harm to your ship if you collide in SC.

Also, are any of the open space asteroid belts worth while?

Yes...well, as much as mining can be worthwhile.

 

[aTUNEd]

Also, if you're not mining at a RES remember that the different coloured bands in a ring have different content!

I've found that the black/dark gray bands always seem to be metallic =)

 

[Senex VII]

Does a metallic ring need a designated extraction site? Can you just go to any point? It seems like some rings don't have them. How do you slow down without a target or do you just crash in and hope for the best.

Also, are any of the open space asteroid belts worth while? They seem pretty weak so far.

You can go to any preferably metallic ring and mine to your hearts content. However:

• Don't expect that you won't be bothered by pirates, though, because you still will.
• And don't expect that you'll get the same level of "protection" (ha!) from police vessels, because you won't.

There's no point in going to open space asteroid belts, normally close in to a star. They're devoid of any mining value. Eschew them.

 

[gooddoc]

Don't expect that you won't be bothered by pirates, though, because you still will.

So if i was out exploring 7k LYs from civvy space & start mining, i'm gonna get hassled with pirates??

 

[Morbad]

So if i was out exploring 7k LYs from civvy space & start mining, i'm gonna get hassled with pirates??

No, NPC ships won't go that far out. However, if the system is otherwise close enough to population centers to still see random encounters, stuff will almost always spawn in the instance you create when you drop into a ring.

 

[Senex VII]

No, NPC ships won't go that far out. However, if the system is otherwise close enough to population centers to still see random encounters, stuff will almost always spawn in the instance you create when you drop into a ring.

Oh they will. You can be hundreds of light years away from the inhabited bubble and NPCs will still spawn if you start mining. They shouldn't, but they will. You'll find threads elsewhere on the forum that confirm this implausibility. Yes it's a bug, as far as I'm concerned, but until it's fixed you'd better look forward to dealing with it.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

No, NPC ships won't go that far out. However, if the system is otherwise close enough to population centers to still see random encounters, stuff will almost always spawn in the instance you create when you drop into a ring.

My experience when dropping into a ring away from a RES is that sometimes you get one or two spawn, then it stops. Its a lot safer than hanging around a RES for sure.

 

[System Lord]

My experience when dropping into a ring away from a RES is that sometimes you get one or two spawn, then it stops. Its a lot safer than hanging around a RES for sure.

I confirm. There may be a ship or two when you enter an instance outside human space, but not after that. I usually fly a bit further just to be sure.

Exactly same happens in mined rings outside the extraction sites inside human space. I haven't seen pirates while mining since 1.3 was out.

 

[Brujah]

Oh they will. You can be hundreds of light years away from the inhabited bubble and NPCs will still spawn if you start mining. They shouldn't, but they will. You'll find threads elsewhere on the forum that confirm this implausibility. Yes it's a bug, as far as I'm concerned, but until it's fixed you'd better look forward to dealing with it.

That's not my experience. I've been only a few systems out from core space and mining without a soul in sight for a couple of hours.

That is to say, on a ring without a RES that I've just dropped into manually.

 

[Steve50]

I've done sample mining tests in normal parts of the ring and in the RES and my results showed plainly that the RES delivered far better ore and faster so from then on I always mine in a RES. if you mine in the ring you'll get less quality ore and a lot more cheap junk that's not worth mining.

..I just boost 30-50k away from the nav point to get away from the Pirates.

 

[Morbad]

Oh they will. You can be hundreds of light years away from the inhabited bubble and NPCs will still spawn if you start mining. They shouldn't, but they will. You'll find threads elsewhere on the forum that confirm this implausibility. Yes it's a bug, as far as I'm concerned, but until it's fixed you'd better look forward to dealing with it.

Really?

I've seen NPCs spawn upon entry into rings near inhabited space, but not when I've dropped into rings well beyond inhabited space, though I've never carried mining equipment so far out.

My experience when dropping into a ring away from a RES is that sometimes you get one or two spawn, then it stops. Its a lot safer than hanging around a RES for sure.

This is my experience as well.

I've done sample mining tests in normal parts of the ring and in the RES and my results showed plainly that the RES delivered far better ore and faster so from then on I always mine in a RES. if you mine in the ring you'll get less quality ore and a lot more cheap junk that's not worth mining.

I don't do a lot of mining, but I've seen plenty of quality ore from rings that didn't have RES at all.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I've done sample mining tests in normal parts of the ring and in the RES and my results showed plainly that the RES delivered far better ore and faster so from then on I always mine in a RES. if you mine in the ring you'll get less quality ore and a lot more cheap junk that's not worth mining.

..I just boost 30-50k away from the nav point to get away from the Pirates.

Once got 5 tons of Painite from a single pure Painite rock from a random point in the ring.... there probably is some scaling in terms of quality of rocks in the different parts of the rings (RES vs non-RES), after all FD have said this should be the case, so it should be expected (unless they have screwed up)... but so far its not been my experience.

Having said that, i've only done about 20 hours of mining, so can't claim to be a major expert in the field, but i have tried both RES and non-RES mining.

 

[Berty Dastard]

Been a while since I did mining. But I found asteroid belts to be a much better bet. And the reserve level mattered a lot. Look for Metallic with Pristine Reserves. The benefit of the asteroids was that it was possible to return to the same small area and the same high content rock every time. I was never bugged by npc's Perhaps it's changed.

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Miner

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Been a while since I did mining. But I found asteroid belts to be a much better bet. And the reserve level mattered a lot. Look for Metallic with Pristine Reserves. The benefit of the asteroids was that it was possible to return to the same small area and the same high content rock every time. I was never bugged by npc's Perhaps it's changed.

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Miner

Asteroid belts? Really? Wow... i always avoided them since beta since they seemed to give very little.

 

[Oss133]

Eschew them.

Best use of an obscure English word on the forum today. I felicitate you.