Drilling on surfaces

Insomnia

Insomnia
I've been writing about how much I want drilling to be a feature in Horizons.

First, let me just add a small anxiety for me as an explorer.
As I understand it there aren't any solid reason for an explorer to actually jump down to a planet's surface to look for new, exciting stuff. Explorers rarely (read never) have any cargo space at all which makes crashed ships only a cosmetic experience that has no actual value.
But with Drilling, new doors could be opened and explorers could be seen as scientists.


Assuming the SRV has exchangeable modules, like our ships, we could add a Drilling module with bins like we have in Mining. I'm getting back to bins shortly...

The Drilling module on the SRV is used together with a Drilling laser (or if it comes in a complete package).
We drill the surface for:
  • water
  • water-ice
  • ice
  • minerals
  • seismic activities
  • core temperatures
  • radiation
  • and last but not least LIFE

The collected data from the drill will be sent to your ship, which adds more information on the planet and in turn earns you more credits.
But if you find something on a surface that you think needs a deeper analysis (like life or water-ice), you can store samples in one of the Drilling module bins I talked about. Basic bin size could start at 4 and end with perhaps 32.
These samples could then be sold for great profits at stations.

Combine Drilling with surface Mining and you have the ultimate mobile research station. :)

Just a suggestion. :D

Hopefully my english is somewhat understandable.
 

nexxo

N
You're not the first one to propose this (I did, for exploration and mining), and I'm full of Yes for this one. :D
 

popuptoaster

P
More practical to fire a mining laser from the ship and analyse the dust and debris that gets kicked up, would give a good idea if a planet is worth sending a proper survey team in to look at for mining possibilities.

For explorers taking the time to roam the surface and sink boreholes isn't going to be economical unless the rewards for finding something are astronomic, it would take so long you could have charted multiple systems in the same time and gained the payout for that.

There is no point trying to appeal to those explorers who are out collecting data for profit, the planetary stuff is going to appeal to a smaller subset who don't mind putting in the time to see what's there, it could take weeks and weeks of real time to cover even a small part of a planet.
 

nexxo

N
The way it would work is:

- Drop into a system. Exploration scanner honks and lists objects found.
- Go to system map, pick a promising planet. Something metal-rich, perhaps, with reasonable surface temperature and pressure.
- Cruise to planet, and go into orbit while doing a planetary scan. You see scan progress on the left-side hole which shows locked target.
- Go to resulting planetary surface map, which shows geological distribution of metals. You see a nice ore-dense spot and select it for landing.
- Upon landing, deploy in the SRV. Use the on-board scanner to find the densest patch of ore in the landing zone.
- Deploy the core sample drill and run sample through analyser. Bingo! You find gold, platinum, some small diamonds.
- You deploy an automated ore mining drone programmed for gold, platinum, perhaps another automated mineral mining drone for diamond, and leave. Later you will return, guided by their encrypted homing beacon (they roam about as they mine, after all), to collect the ore and diamonds.

Nice bit of exploring, and mining to boot. Players can deploy mining drones all over the galaxy --as many as they can visit regularly for maintenance and emptying the hopper.
 
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popuptoaster

P
nexxo said:
The way it would work is:

- Drop into a system. Exploration scanner honks and lists objects found.
- Go to system map, pick a promising planet. Something metal-rich, perhaps, with reasonable surface temperature and pressure.
- Cruise to planet, and go into orbit while doing a planetary scan. You see scan progress on the left-side hole which shows locked target.
- Go to resulting planetary surface map, which shows geological distribution of metals. You see a nice ore-dense spot and select it for landing.
- Upon landing, deploy in the SRV. Use the on-board scanner to find the densest patch of ore in the landing zone.
- Deploy the core sample drill and run sample through analyser. Bingo! You find gold, platinum, some small diamonds.
- You deploy an automated ore mining drone programmed for gold, platinum, perhaps another automated mineral mining drone for diamond, and leave. Later you will return, guided by their encrypted homing beacon (they roam about as they mine, after all), to collect the ore and diamonds.

Nice bit of exploring, and mining to boot. Players can deploy mining drones all over the galaxy --as many as they can visit regularly for maintenance and emptying the hopper.
Click to expand...

That's not exploring, that's prospecting and mining, if you are an explorer and can tell from orbit there are ore deposits then you log them and move on, that information is then sold on and the miners come in afterwards.

if you are an explorer landing, drilling and then setting up a mining operation will cost you money in lost time, you don't want to carry extra weight to shorten your jump range and you would never go back the same way to collect your ore anyway.

You are confusing two different professions, if you are exploring you need to find stuff, move on and sell the data, if you are mining you buy that data and then go and survey for the richest spots on that planet.
 
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