Mining Lasers vs. Hardpoint Sizes and Cargo Drones

[Galvinar]

With the mining update around the corner I'm looking into fitting my Annie for some good ol' fashion rock blasting.

I've successfully mined 1T of Silver so far in my Elite Career after scooping up six chunks of rock to get that ton I decided I couldn't be bothered to go chasing rocks for that long without a much larger profit. So back to trading I went.
However, with the introduction of the Limpet drones, I'm wanting to give it another go.

So in an attempt to optimize my kit for mining I have a couple of questions that I'm hoping the collective knowledge will know.

1. What benefits there are (if any) of the 2D vs 1D sized mining lasers.
2. Are there any perceivable benefits to slotting the 2D laser into a Class 3 or even 4, Hardpoint?
3. Are there benefits to running several mining lasers? or should I just run 1 mining laser and slot the rest to weapons?
4. How long to the Drones last? (On average, how many Tons of Cargo - tons, not rocks - can a single drone provide?) What I'm looking for here is how many drones do I need to fill a 400t hold.
5. Lastly, Does anyone have suggestions on how to find High Intensity Res sites? Are there any indicators that can be found on the Galaxy/system maps? Population, Economy, etc. (Anyone willing to give up their Pristine Metallic Ring sites? I'll take a PM if you're interested in sharing TIA)

 

[Sparrowgun]

I have been doing a bit of beta mining and it's reasinably fun. Trying it in my python. Has always been fun though in the vulture.

1. C2 laser knocks chunks off faster than a C1. Not heaps faster but enough to make it worth it.
2. None that I have seen, just wastes space for big guns you will want to protect yourself with.
3. The more lasers the faster the chunks come off. 2x C1 will do it a bit faster than 1x C2 but 2x C2 is real fast. All chunks in a neat little line in about 10 seconds. I have used more but there isn't much point. 2x C2 lasers is the way to go.
4. All depends on how close you are to the chunks you shot off and how far between roids, how much you crashed into the drone, how much it flew into your beam while mining. Each controller class has different drone lifespans. I was using an a grade one and it said it would last 720sec or something. Some did, if i didn't fly into them or shoot them. How many T you get per drone is so variable due to the differing % each roid contains. They just follow you around and are pretty fast. They picked up about as fast or a bit faster than i would normally scoop in my mining vulture. If you want to prospect you need 1 prospecter drone per roid, so a couple hundred if you gunna be out for ages. Depends how efficient you are as to how many more you need for collecting. I took about 200 just in case lol. Hold got full so had to dump some.
5. Havent tried the res sites yet, just dove into the densest part of my fav pristine metallic ring. Just google elite dangerous pristine and you will have all the spots you need! The roids deplete now though but heck, there are trillions so i don't think it will be a problem ever.

 

[Galvinar]

Thank you!

I bring up the High Intensity Res Sites as it was mentioned that they are supposed to crank out a higher profit for miners as they're coded to have more osmium/Panite etc.

That's my understanding anyway, if anyone knows better, please correct me!

 

[jmp470]

Thank you!

I bring up the High Intensity Res Sites as it was mentioned that they are supposed to crank out a higher profit for miners as they're coded to have more osmium/Panite etc.

That's my understanding anyway, if anyone knows better, please correct me!

if you want to link up, I'm thinking about doing the same in my Type-9. It is hard to let the view go versus the anaconda.

 

[Galvinar]

Sounds good to me! I don't have Beta Access though and I'm currently just Trading to earn enough money to make sure I have enough to kit correctly and still run insurance.