Mining hotspots - how they works ?

[PavelKCZ]

Hello,
I have one question about those mining hotspots. In various threads, I read that those hotspots will be depleted after some time.
Does it mean that they will be depleted forever ? Or there is something like, for example, reset once per week/day etc. during which the asteroids are re-populated ?

 

[Spike K]

I have also read that. I have also seen no sort of depletion what-so-ever, in the places I've mined since reading it.
Rocks blow up. Rocks come back. Yields are sky high in overlaps, which is a good first-indicator.

Fdev have no comments on the present and future state of mining [or much of anything else], and I would be surprised if they knew exactly what the current state is.
Several patches have come and gone, with the same instancing bugs remaining in-game.
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Spike.K

 

[DragonIV]

Same. I've mined the same dual painite hotspot a few times now and the density of painite hasn't decayed.

 

[d8veh]

If you see the white clouds around rocks, it means that someone else has been mining there and probably got all the best rocks, so move somewhere else. if you don't see those clouds, it means that it's an undisturbed area.

 

[Spike K]

Conversations (ongoing about this) in the Discord of the Intergalactic Mining Union:
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Spike.K

 

[Krash]

They works my precious

 

[DNA-Decay]

I've heard that you will occasionally find dusty clouds and depleted areas if you go straight to the nav point and mine towards the planet (this was standard practice before core mining).
But remember that these hot spots are the size of planets. If you drop in a few Mm out and mine towards the nav point, you're pretty unlikely to be following someone's trail.
I guess overlapping hot spots might be hit by enough CMDRs that you could encounter a depleted spot, but even so - these regions are like the size of South Africa and there's maybe like a thousand folks max who have hit the same overlap if it's famous. Mostly you are one of a very few folks out prospecting these hills, just keep movin' on.

 

[Ipecac]

I'm never sure if my hotspot sucks or not. I dont see any blast clouds, so that's good. I have found like 2 void opal rocks in an hour of looking though- 1Mm off the marker.

It's not overlapping or anything, and it's barely the size of Namibia, so I'm not sure.

 

[NeilF]

I read that those hotspots will be depleted after some time.

The notion of a simple mechanic (depletion) to make hotspots meaningful and worthwhile, squandered (yet again) by half baked bizarre design choices by FD.

ie: If there had been fewer hotspots, which simply depleted as mined - thus reducing yield - which then took weeks to refresh... Done...

But instead with basically a blank canvas to work with, FD delivered clunky almost pointless hotspots (so many of them, with next to no meaningful depletion). To then mine with clunk new mining mechanics which for some reason are so poorly thought through and balanced most people don't even both with aspects of them (eg: subsurface deposits). And then underlined with seemingly void opals thrown in as a "here's lots of CRs to distract you from how half baked all of this design is!"

I'll be frank! The mess that Mining 2.0 demonstrates from a design and balance point of view gives me little hope for what ever we're getting end of next year.

 

[Ipecac]

I have to disagree with you on the mining mechanics. I try to mine in every space game. It's always drill, drill, drill with a laser. Elite let's us scan the field (tweaks would be welcome, sure), prospect, crack rocks and manually mine them for great rewards. No game has let me do this and it's what I always wanted. I want to feel like a miner mining.

If you want simple, just get the mining lasers out.

I think this chapter's mining upgrades are brilliant. Granted they could be adjusted and the wing mining is broken, but this company knows about it and they will address it in a patch I'm sure.

 

[d8veh]

I have to disagree with you on the mining mechanics. I try to mine in every space game. It's always drill, drill, drill with a laser. Elite let's us scan the field (tweaks would be welcome, sure), prospect, crack rocks and manually mine them for great rewards. No game has let me do this and it's what I always wanted. I want to feel like a miner mining.

If you want simple, just get the mining lasers out.

I think this chapter's mining upgrades are brilliant. Granted they could be adjusted and the wing mining is broken, but this company knows about it and they will address it in a patch I'm sure.

I think the mechanics are very good, but they spoiled it by making consistent goldmines, so that people can simply go there and farm 200 mil credits an hour without any skill or excitement. They could make it so that each time you visit the same spot, the incidence of pirate attacks goes up until it's virtually impossible to mine there anymore.

 

[Ipecac]

I am really excited that I can get like 180 million in my Python, but yeah now that I have like 300 million in the bank I feel like something is lost, game-wise. It means if I totally LOSE my T-10, I can just go buy another one and rig it up no prob.

I don't know how people are making 200 an hour. It takes me a long time to get a full hold of like 192T in my python. Maybe more limpets would help, but that's not my point.

I agree, spending 2 hours in a belt should make you a lot of money, but not so much you can get the most expensive ship in the game from one load.

 

[NeilF]

I have to disagree with you on the mining mechanics. I try to mine in every space game. It's always drill, drill, drill with a laser. Elite let's us scan the field (tweaks would be welcome, sure), prospect, crack rocks and manually mine them for great rewards. No game has let me do this and it's what I always wanted. I want to feel like a miner mining.

If you want simple, just get the mining lasers out.

I think this chapter's mining upgrades are brilliant. Granted they could be adjusted and the wing mining is broken, but this company knows about it and they will address it in a patch I'm sure.

Yep, nice ideas on paper, but poorly implemented and designed:-

• The balance for legacy, surface, subsurface and motherlodes are all out of wack. And certainly do not feel like they work togethor very well. eg: Why aren't subsurface deposits a rewarding find?
• The PWA is cockeyed in that its designed to show you "where the new mechanics are" rather than help you find what you're looking for, so it's all but pointless for regular mining (eg: legacy, surface and subsurface). It should be showing a heat map based on the amount of the hotspots material, plus say 2-3 other associated materials too. So a "bright" asteroid is more likely to contain what you're looking for, irrespective of it being in legacy, surface, subsurface or motherlode form.
• There's now equipment overload. The Subsurface missiles and Seismic Charge Launcher should be a single module, which then just appears as two modules on your weapon groups. And of course the abrasion blaster and mining lasers could surely be unified?
• For CR based mining, anything other than Void Opal motherlodes is a waste of time.
• Hotspots are literally everywhere, and do no deplete with any meaningful mechanic, so why go anywhere other than your regular nearby mining locations over and over? Why bother exploring to find other hotspots? This is a real opportunity for some depth to mining and exploration, and it's been needlessly squandered!
• And looking forwards, in true FD style, I doubt any consideration has been put into joining mechanics up for deeper more meaningful gameplay. eg: So Squadron Fleet Carriers can be called into a hotspot to play an active meaningful role in mining.

It's just like FD can't think these designs through from inception to implementation, and see when something clearly is not going to work very well, or what simple changes could truly move some mechanics into better places. And this isn't a new thing; We need only look at other efforts such as Engineering, The Thargoid Invasion, Multicrew to see this issue happen over and over.

As I said before, Mining 2.0 has left me suspecting the "big release" at the end of 2020 is going to be yet another head scratching, "why did you do that?" And, "what could so easily could have been!"

ps: Surface and subsurface deposits are needlessly the same type of gameplay experience. ie: Slow aim and fire. Surface deposits should be a fast and furious type mechanic to allow you to utilitse other skills (eg: like getting your surface mining turrets exposure to as many surface deposits as quicky as possible). You should be choosing methods where by you can improve your income by your surface turrets automatically taking out surface deposits (from the nearby asteroid(s)), while you're then juggling taking out subsurface deposits/fissures.

 

[PaxtonNewt]

Hello,
I have one question about those mining hotspots. In various threads, I read that those hotspots will be depleted after some time.
Does it mean that they will be depleted forever ? Or there is something like, for example, reset once per week/day etc. during which the asteroids are re-populated ?

ive never encountered a depleted hotspot yet.. when you consider the size of an asteroid belt and the billions of rocks it contains.. a hot spot is huge.. immensely huge.. you can fill your cargo hold and sell and go back and fill up again and again and again.. maybe one day ill experience a depleted hotspot but im assured that they do replenish..

 

[Ipecac]

You make really good points. Surface deposits are seemingly what's being extracted by the mining laser. Also the sub-surface deposits are not happening as is.

I like the idea that for more profit you might spend more time on one asteroid, doing a variety of things to max your pull, but the yield is less if you do, not more.

I do think that they could remedy these issues by making some changes, without having to change the existing mechanics. Join the abrasion and mining lasers, beef up the value of surface deposits, encouraging you to make a more vulnerable miner to reap better rewards.

Also, the 30-odd resources that have no value, like rutile or water, should be a competitive yield if pulled in larger quantities. Not everyone on earth prospects for emeralds and rubies. Mining for iron or tin is lucrative if you have a large operation and distribution. Elite should be the same.

I bought a T-10 and rigged it for mining, then parked it because my python is way better by the hour. I should have a T-9 with tons of surface tools pulling so much medium-value ore that it is worth my time.

Good reply dude.

 

[TomLund_2017]

ive never encountered a depleted hotspot yet.. when you consider the size of an asteroid belt and the billions of rocks it contains.. a hot spot is huge.. immensely huge.. you can fill your cargo hold and sell and go back and fill up again and again and again.. maybe one day ill experience a depleted hotspot but im assured that they do replenish..

I just started to mine yesterday. I build a T9 for mining only. and went to a double hotspot for Painitre. (Hyades sector DB-X D1-112) First run i got 350 mil plus and cashed out. I then returned for a 2nd run at same location different spot. ( there are like 4 or 5 different spots for the overlap hotspot) The first astroid i prospected showed plenty of material. However once i hit it with my laser, nothing came off the astroid. I mean NOTHING came off the asteroid. I moved on to the next asteroid same thing. I moved to a completely new planet (HIP 21991) Same thing. I got nothing.
So today I restalled the game and went to the first hotspot. and i got nothing again. I want to be clear. the prospector says 40+% painite medium concentration. and not a single flake or chunk came off the asteroid. Also you can see the percentages of material on the asteroid going down to zero.
Im totally frustrated and have no clue whats going on. And I cant find any explanation anywhere.... what.

 

[PavelKCZ]

Maybe you have Painite blacklisted ? Try to shoot for some time and check your Contacts on the left side panel, if you can see some chips there. If they are blacklisted, they would be visible here, but not bright. Select the piece and enable the material.

 

[Soron Silin]

While we're asking questions, what is the point of turrets? I thought it would be easier to target but they appear to be just the same as fixed.

I posted this in another thread, but people might be interested here. This is real opal mining as a family concern:

 

[ithinkiam]

ive never encountered a depleted hotspot yet.. when you consider the size of an asteroid belt and the billions of rocks it contains.. a hot spot is huge.. immensely huge.. you can fill your cargo hold and sell and go back and fill up again and again and again.. maybe one day ill experience a depleted hotspot but im assured that they do replenish..

I've encountered many hotspots in depleted rings with no, and I mean absolutely none, hotspot material in them.

Apparently, that's the luck of the RNG, but I have my doubts

 

[PavelKCZ]

Turreted mining equipment is only for multi-player stuff.