Newcomer / Intro Mining and relation to crafting?

[UnknownXV]

Hi,

I'm very new to this game, only learned about it today. I want to understand how mining works in this game (and what you can find in exploration) and how it is valued in the economy. When I sell something I find while exploring or mining, I'm selling it to other players, yes? Why would other players buy these minerals and items if, as far as I can tell, there is no crafting in the game?

Thanks.

 

[TranZdog]

There is no crafting in the game. when mining you sell to stations. All selling and buying is done through the stations.

 

[Istvan Aurelius]

At this time there is no crafting as such. However, mining is the basis of the economy, in that resources come from Extraction-economy systems, are processed at Refinery-economy systems, and the refined metals and other products are needed at Industrial-economy and HighTech-economy systems. Ag systems produce foodstuffs in demand at all the others, and their (usually large) populations demand manufactured goods available from the Industrial and HighTech economies.

If you mine, your acquisitions are 100% profit when you sell, so mining is a lovely alternative to trading as a money-making activity. It is time-consuming, but it requires active piloting gameplay; it's not a sit-and-watch-a-progress-bar process at all.

Exploration is also active piloting gameplay, as you need to make relatively close approaches to major planetary bodies, and it can be lucrative when you sell your data, though it's fairly relaxed gameplay. Your only real cost besides investing in the needed gear is fuel to get out and back (same with mining, really). It's not boring, though, because you need to keep an eye out for possible attackers, and you're almost certainly out in unregulated anarchy systems where you can be downed at no penalty.

 

[UnknownXV]

Thanks for the responses. As I understand it, when you sell any items, it's to an NPC market, not to other humans?

I hope they do add crafting and player trading in the future, that will dramatically increase the social aspects to the game. Still, this is very interesting.

 

[BLACKHOUND]

At this time there is no crafting as such. However, mining is the basis of the economy, in that resources come from Extraction-economy systems, are processed at Refinery-economy systems, and the refined metals and other products are needed at Industrial-economy and HighTech-economy systems. Ag systems produce foodstuffs in demand at all the others, and their (usually large) populations demand manufactured goods available from the Industrial and HighTech economies.

If you mine, your acquisitions are 100% profit when you sell, so mining is a lovely alternative to trading as a money-making activity. It is time-consuming, but it requires active piloting gameplay; it's not a sit-and-watch-a-progress-bar process at all.

Exploration is also active piloting gameplay, as you need to make relatively close approaches to major planetary bodies, and it can be lucrative when you sell your data, though it's fairly relaxed gameplay. Your only real cost besides investing in the needed gear is fuel to get out and back (same with mining, really). It's not boring, though, because you need to keep an eye out for possible attackers, and you're almost certainly out in unregulated anarchy systems where you can be downed at no penalty.

This is all true. This is the best video I've seen on how to mine. It shows the gameplay in details.

[video=youtube;rZAyvBswZp0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZAyvBswZp0[/video]

 

[Istvan Aurelius]

I've seen mention of ship-to-ship player trades being intended as an in-flight feature. No idea right now how reliable that statement I saw was. There are sound gameplay reasons to desire the ability to transfer cargo. Possibly right now one can jettison and another ship scoop, but there's no way I'm aware of to conduct a financial transaction, just cargo bartering.

Frankly, though I've advocated rich and robust crafting gameplay heavily in other games, including those I've participated in developing, I'm not too sure there's a real place for it in Elite, given the sheer scope of the environment and the milieu.

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+1 rep to Blackhound - posting video is more helpful than text descriptions. Good call.

 

[BLACKHOUND]

I've seen mention of ship-to-ship player trades being intended as an in-flight feature. No idea right now how reliable that statement I saw was. There are sound gameplay reasons to desire the ability to transfer cargo. Possibly right now one can jettison and another ship scoop, but there's no way I'm aware of to conduct a financial transaction, just cargo bartering.

Frankly, though I've advocated rich and robust crafting gameplay heavily in other games, including those I've participated in developing, I'm not too sure there's a real place for it in Elite, given the sheer scope of the environment and the milieu.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

+1 rep to Blackhound - posting video is more helpful than text descriptions. Good call.

Thanks my friend,
I think ship to ship exchange is coming soon because there are NPCs traders ships already in the game... i saw a few. More recently there was one in LAVE. They are just sitting there waiting for that feature to be usefull.