Mining Laser Speeds

[Stealthie]

I first ran my otherwise unarmed T-9 miner with three mining lasers, but took one off (and added an extra limpet controller) when I realised that the rate at which I mined was determined by the rate at which the limpets picked up fragments, not the rate at which I chipped them off. All the extra laser did was drain the distributor faster, meaning I had to stop and start lasing more often.

I have 3 x C2 mining lasers on my T9, with a G3 weapon-focused PDist and it works well, for me, because it means I can deplete a rock to 50% quickly, take a moment to manage my cargo, mat's and refinery then finish off the rock, take another look at my cargo, mat's and refinery and launch another Prospector to find my next target while the Collectors are sweeping up.

Let's face it, a T9 with one C2 combat weapon still isn't going to be terrific at fighting so I figure it's probably best to just fit 3 x C2 mining lasers and minimise the time spent depleting a 'roid in order to create a "reference" for what your Collectors need to deal with.

I mean, a T9 fitted with a single C2 mining laser and a single C7 Collector is probably going to be "balanced" so you're always shooting and always collecting but it's still going to be sloooow.

*EDIT*

Looking forward to bunging another C7 Collector into my mining T9 after the update.
That should make things a bit less relaxed - and justify that 3rd laser.

 

[Stealthie]

Unfortunately / fortunately, I don't have any of those. I am interested to know how they compare to a regular small mining laser, though. It's easy to check. Just take one standard small and one lance to a belt, and compare their fragments / second rate. I depleted 1 rock from full to empty with each setup, and videoed the whole thing. Looked at the time difference between each first and last fragment, and counted how many fragments came out.

Might actually give this a go later, just to add to your stat's.

I've got an AspX mission-miner nearby to play with so I'll transfer one of the Mining Lances across and have a play. [up]

 

[Eidolon]

Thanks for this thread Frenotx. And the other contributors.
I am looking at getting into mining very soon and would never of thought of testing for mining power like this!

Welldone. Does anybody have news on the mining lance yet? Should I be unlocking it?

 

[YinYin]

Looking forward to bunging another C7 Collector into my mining T9 after the update.
That should make things a bit less relaxed - and justify that 3rd laser.

I recommend just using multiple smaller controllers. You are wasting 128 tons of capacity just for one more active collector you could put in a smaller slot instead.

Welldone. Does anybody have news on the mining lance yet? Should I be unlocking it?

It's perfect for smaller ships that cannot wast prospectors. Not so important on bigger ships.

 

[Sequence7]

So going up to three 2D mining lasers you're going to need a 7A or 8A power distributer.
Any stats on how many collector limpets you need to pick up 35 fragments in the same time? 28s & 22s

I spent a few hours yesterday in my T10 with 3 mining lasers. With the charge enhanced distributor I've got 1 of the three lasers shuts off about 5 seconds before the asteroid is depleted. I had 10 collector limpets out, and I was spending about as much time waiting for the collectors to finish as I did breaking up the asteroid. So I'd say as a rough guess that you'll need about 20 collectors to keep up with 3 mining lasers.

 

[Stealthie]

I recommend just using multiple smaller controllers. You are wasting 128 tons of capacity just for one more active collector you could put in a smaller slot instead.

At the moment I don't really care.

I have my T9 set up with 1 x C8 cargo rack, for 256t capacity, and that's plenty without turning a mining trip into a chore.
I currently have 12 (IIRC) Collectors operating and that makes things go "briskly" but with 3 lasers blasting rock I still have time to manage things comfortably.

If the update allows me to find some other configuration which means I can gather more than 256t of stuff just as quickly I'll certainly think about adding another cargo rack but I haven't really looked at it yet.
Maybe doing something like adding a C7 Collector in the new C8 slot and then removing a C5 Collector and replacing it with a cargo rack would be the way to go?

*EDIT*

Course, the other thing to consider is that the update will allow us to filter what fragments we collect.
I suspect that might be the real game-changer for mining, allowing us to replace a C4 refinery with a C3, or even a C2, unit which will, again, free up larger slots for Collectors and/or cargo and mean we don't need as many collectors to handle the quantities of fragments we will be collecting.

 

[YinYin]

I wasn't really thinking about using the capacity to turn this into a chore trying to fill it up, but having more prospectors to spend - allowing you to be much more picky. The point is you've got enough small slots to fill with all kinds of stuff. A C7 wastes so much potential.

Yes, the filter is the important change. As long as you set and forget it (it's a chore to change/reset on the go - much worse than the bins now).

A 2A refinery is already more efficient as it carries more bins than an equivalent cargo rack and you only have to match 3 of them to your current asteroid to not touch it more than once per asteroid.

 

[CMDR KRITIKOSK8]

I wasn't really thinking about using the capacity to turn this into a chore trying to fill it up, but having more prospectors to spend - allowing you to be much more picky. The point is you've got enough small slots to fill with all kinds of stuff. A C7 wastes so much potential.

Yes, the filter is the important change. As long as you set and forget it (it's a chore to change/reset on the go - much worse than the bins now).

A 2A refinery is already more efficient as it carries more bins than an equivalent cargo rack and you only have to match 3 of them to your current asteroid to not touch it more than once per asteroid.

true indeed

 

[Frenotx]

I wasn't really thinking about using the capacity to turn this into a chore trying to fill it up, but having more prospectors to spend - allowing you to be much more picky. The point is you've got enough small slots to fill with all kinds of stuff. A C7 wastes so much potential.

Yes, the filter is the important change. As long as you set and forget it (it's a chore to change/reset on the go - much worse than the bins now).

A 2A refinery is already more efficient as it carries more bins than an equivalent cargo rack and you only have to match 3 of them to your current asteroid to not touch it more than once per asteroid.

Good point on the smaller refinery. Think I'll update my build with that in mind.

 

[Tobasco da Gama]

Thanks for this! I've been missing that old Reddit thread since it got deleted for whatever reason. Do your tests assume infinite WEP?

 

[Frenotx]

Thanks for this! I've been missing that old Reddit thread since it got deleted for whatever reason. Do your tests assume infinite WEP?

Yes. I'm just comparing the laser performance, just like you'd measure the DPS of a weapon. Figuring out what's best for a given ship is just an exercise of comparing the distributor stats (available in game), the distributor draw stats of the mining laser (also available in game iirc), and the values I've provided here.

 

[Eidolon]

It's perfect for smaller ships that cannot wast prospectors. Not so important on bigger ships.

Ahh good to know. Does it come in Class 1 and 2 size?
Or can anybody link me to a PP specific listing of weapons and modules?

 

[Frenotx]

Ahh good to know. Does it come in Class 1 and 2 size?
Or can anybody link me to a PP specific listing of weapons and modules?

Mining lance only comes in small. All of the powerplay weapons come in just one size.

 

[Tobasco da Gama]

IIRC from the deleted Reddit post, the Mining Lance is exactly identical to 1F Mining Lasers in terms of fragment rate.

 

[Stealthie]

Might actually give this a go later, just to add to your stat's.

I've got an AspX mission-miner nearby to play with so I'll transfer one of the Mining Lances across and have a play. [up]

I gave this a go.
In the end, I used my T9 miner 'cos it has a G3 weapon-focused PDist and a meaty PP to ensure that power to the lasers wasn't a limiting factor.

I targeted a bunch of rocks with a Prospector (to establish the type of rock) and then fired at them with each laser for 60 seconds.
Fortunately, this depletes a rock by less than 50% so I could test both lasers on the same rock, each time, to ensure consistent results.
I repeated this process on 20 rocks.

And the results are..... the Mining Lance chips off fragments at exactly the same rate as a C1 Mining Laser. 10 fragments per minute for each, or 0.166 fragments per second.


I was trying to find a way to quantify the benefits that the Mining Lance does provide and this is what I came up with...

In "mining configuration" (scoop deployed and 4 pips to weapons) my T9 does a whopping 44m/sec.
The Mining lance has a range of 2km, compared with 500m for a regular mining laser.
At 44m/s, theoretically I can start mining 35s sooner and, thus, generate 6 fragments with a Mining Lance before a regular laser gets into range.
In practice (accounting for the fact you need to decelerate to avoid crashing into the 'roid) I found that I could generate 7 fragments with the Mining Lance before I got into range of the regular laser.

So, what does that mean?

I'd suggest that if you're mining in a fairly slow ship, using C1 mining lasers, then it might be worth swapping to a Mining Lance in order to extend the time you spend mining and reduce the time you spend manoeuvring.
The faster your ship, the less this will matter.
And, of course, you'll need a ship with sufficient power and heat-management to operate the Mining lance effectively.

*EDIT*

Also, Mining Lance has funky purple beam.

 

[YinYin]

With small slots to spare it's always worth having a lance

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

i think something went wrong with the balance

for all weapons (except "launched"), they scale by a factor of roughly 1.5 from a smaller to a higher class.
only the mining lasers do not. a single medium one does not only mine more then twice as fast, its also more heat/energy efficient at doing so.

then there are the mining lances. they could have made at least an exception for this "weapon" and added the multicrew turret variant to it, like for all other mining lasers.

im currently pledged to torval, just to get my hands on the lance, hoping that FDEV does ANYTHING good with them in the Q4 update.

 

[YinYin]

I don't expect the lance to come in different versions, but long range/damage output mods for mining lasers.

The thing with small mining lasers is that being any better wouldn't actually benefit the small ships that have to use them right now.
So the balance for now is just right (except for the weight perhaps ...).
Collectors would need to become better as well.

 

[Vardaugas]

I'm currently pledged to Torval to get some mining lances, planning to put them on a Dolphin for ice mining. Fast and spacious, ideal for combing the ice fields for those precious mono/brom/ltd deposits and with the 2km lance, I have an easier time probing an ice block for a fragment to check what it is, saving prospectors. And with the filter coming, I won't have to bother venting all the other worthless fluff you find in ice belts and the limpets are ignoring those, to boot. If nothing else, it will be fun to try out.