Ships Dropship Miner

[Nitrogue]

Looking at making up a mining ship to get access to one of the engineers.

Like the look of the dropship, seems good all round with the second most number of compartments I can currently afford, after the type 7.

Trying to figure out what combination of modules to go for, so any commanders that have tried this feel free to pass on advice.

For referencing, currently looking at 2 tier 2 mining lasers. Also just having the highest level refinery with the rest cargo racks gives 148T of cargo space.

So modules I would like: Cargo rack, collector limpets, prospector limpets, refinery, shields, fuel scoop, discovery scanner and docking computer. However that is 8 modules for 7 slots, as well as the 1 cargo rack at max size gives 64T of cargo space.

Might be able to part with the docking computer and maybe the fuel scoop, but both a really useful.

So a few questions:

How good are the limpets? For the time being this ship will be to get the 500T mined for the engineer as well as getting the painite for the next stage. ship might be used at a later date.

Is it worth going bare bones to maximise cargo space?

fuel scoop and docking computer- nice to have but do you use them much? i.e. long travels, dock frequently?

any other thoughts welcome.

 

[CMDR Corlas]

To mine your first 500 tons (or when mining for profit), it's easiest to mine at a ring that has a station orbiting it. Unless you're intentionally doing more "adventurous" mining, a scoop and a discovery scanner are not needed.

Docking computers are always pointless.

The main thing about mining is you want to balance your collector limpets (your intake) with your mining lasers (the asteroid's output). I find 3 collector limpets per medium laser works out pretty well for me, when I get in close. The balance is important though, as it minimizes the time your lasers or your limpets are waiting on the other to finish.

I know a lot people seem to prefer A-grade collectors, but I always go D. The extra weight, power, and cost isn't worth 2 minutes extra limpet time, imo.

If you are going for mining speed and efficiency, the priority order is - as many medium lasers as your distribution can effectively support, then as many collector limpets as needed to support those lasers, then as much cargo space as needed to carry the limpets to support those collectors. Balance those three aspects as your ship allows, and remember to keep a two slots open for a refinery and a prosector.

 

[Nitrogue]

Thanks for this corlas, some things to think about.

The discovery scanner I was keeping on as systems still appear blank sometimes, even inhabited ones. Didn't want to miss anything. Though this is now not as important as you can scan nav beacons for system details.

I personally like docking computers, usually find I can get in quicker so long as I don't get stuck in a queue

Can you have multiple collector limpet controllers? Or is it better just to have a single mining laser? Wanting to keep some of my hardpoints for actual weapons, hence going for two lasers.

Once a limpet is deployed can it be recalled? to reuse later? Is each limpet 1T or do you get multiple per ton? How quickly do you fill up on materials, typical mining trip? The 64T mentioned earlier, how long roughly would that take to fill?

Is the dropship a good ship for this or would the type 7 be better with the extra cargo space?

 

[Nitrogue]

If you are going for mining speed and efficiency, the priority order is - as many medium lasers as your distribution can effectively support, then as many collector limpets as needed to support those lasers, then as much cargo space as needed to carry the limpets to support those collectors. Balance those three aspects as your ship allows, and remember to keep a two slots open for a refinery and a prosector.

With the "as many lasers as you can manage" is that to ensure continuous fire always, or continuous fire with a small break every now and then.

I ask as the max distributor I can fit as a max weapons distribution recharge of 5.2MW/s and each mining laser requires 3MW/s. So I can have 1 laser running forever or I can have 2 lasers that run for just over a minute, then let it recharge for 10 seconds and repeat. other option is that it gets modded with a higher weapon recharge

 

[Ceekay]

The Dropship makes a solid miner with it's decent internals and I reckon it looks the part too!

My experience has been that each medium mining laser needs at least 4 collector drones to keep pace so fit one laser, 2 x class 3 collectors and a 1A prospector (this will up the fragment yield massively from 12 - 40+) and fill around 60 - 70% of the available cargo space with drones.


https://coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/fed...==.Aw18eQ==..EweloBhBGA2EAsAOEBTAhgcwDapDCQoA

 

[CMDR Corlas]

With the "as many lasers as you can manage" is that to ensure continuous fire always, or continuous fire with a small break every now and then.

I ask as the max distributor I can fit as a max weapons distribution recharge of 5.2MW/s and each mining laser requires 3MW/s. So I can have 1 laser running forever or I can have 2 lasers that run for just over a minute, then let it recharge for 10 seconds and repeat. other option is that it gets modded with a higher weapon recharge

The class 6 distro on your Dropship can keep pace with two C2 mining lasers well enough to drain an asteroid. I would either pair two lasers with two class 5 collector controllers, or a single laser with a single class 5 or two class 3's. Continual fire is quicker of course, if your limpets can keep up. So it depends somewhat on how much you enjoy it all.

You want to release all your collector limpets when you have nothing collectable targeted, then your limpets will just hover around your ship and go grab anything within range. Each limpet weighs one ton, and you normally want to head out with your hold around 75% filled with limpets. As you use them to mine, you'll fill the space with ore.

On paper the T-7 is a great miner, but be warned: Small mining lasers are very slow. They don't have the same performance-to-class ratio as normal weapons. Only T-7 mine if you like the experience of mining, because you'll get a lot of it.

 

[CMDR Stealthy]

I was actually just messing around with this idea today and so I decided to put it to paper (so to say) and I think I worked out a balanced-ish build. http://www.edshipyard.com/#/L=A040,EkiGV4Ap-tCjmYIsPcMxCjHf6GX50yCp8u00aySSeyPciwPcHf6GX50yCp8u00aySSeyPciwPcJrO0JrO0,DCEGV413004mpD8q00CqzSDCEGV413004mpD8q00CqzSCEg0Cjw0,9p30AAKOV30q00AphBEuPkAQGGU56pN38pN0Ej7iGnmfMuPcAdsGp40vCp6rwu8rwuGvcQAtyGV22yPc6vcQB98GZ6GuPcKqAFQo58Uo58Yo58cj7iBLeGV32yPc6w00IrcQBb60,15O02420,0AA008c07T200bg05xsGV22yPc6vcQ5ScGV22yPc6vcQ2Uc0.

So basically the way I worked it out was that you want to take advantage of the dropship's durability and intimidation factor while mining, so I made a sort of miner build that should hold up on it's own should any pirates come sniffing around. Keep in mind I worked this out in theory, I've never gone to mine myself but feel confident in this build for the price.