Mining: Mineral Distribution

[Lazerus Artificial]

One issue that bothers me with the current mining has nothing to do with the mining process itself - thats fine, its the generation of those mining locations that bothers me.
Currently we have 3 Types, Metallic, Metal Rich, Rocky. Those are again seperated into several states with "Pristine" on top of it.
So Pristine Metallic is by far the best source to mine, while everything else is neglected.
Even the Mission force you to mine in Metallic, since only Platinum, Osmium and Painite are ressources for them.

Then i remembered something from the old DDF:

Detection

• Each resource area will be composed of different sets of elements. These elements make up the composition of the bodies found within the area
  • Each body will have a different composition but it will contain many of the same elements as the rest of the resource area
    • The precise makeup is actually determined by the system itself and its makeup

Wouldnt that be fun?
Instead of having a fixed droptable per asteroid-type, the whole belt would have one "global" list?
So a Metallic Belt could have Pristine Reserves with Gold and Silver, but nothing else. A nearly depleted Metal Rich belt could have pure Painite. Or there could be a belt made out of 7 different materials like it is now.
The "type" would only determine what kind of material is there mostly. Metallic would have metals, while Metal Rich would have Minerals. Both could have other materials from the whole minable table as additional ressources too.

This could also lead to a deeper gameplay.
Imagine an Explorer who finds a Belt not far outside the bubble that is made out of Painite, Platinum and Gold. He could keep it a secret and mine on his own, or he could tell others about it and cause a gold rush.
More Ships in there for a certain period of time means that this system might trigger a community goal to build an outpost or a station there, but more ships with high valuable stuff also attracts pirates, so the whole belt might become one hazardous site where only the biggest and meanest miners can gather ressources. This could then again trigger a goal for bounty hunters to provide the needed protection. If it fails, the system could become too dangerous, miners leaving the place, the station withers and dies, eventually leaving an abandoned wreckage there until someone finds it again and causes another goldrush.

 

[GrumpyMinerSmuggles]

If I wasn't on my phone, I'd +1 this on a "where mining can go from here" concept.

I also know pristine Metallic Belts out in the boonies do seem to have higher percentages sometimes. At least it feels that way for me. I mine in uncivilized systems exclusively now.

Those community goals a couple months back felt similar to this. But for some people, it's almost impossible to even tell them community goals exist.

Sorry about being on my phone. But I guess here's a "+1 bump" for you instead.

 

[Lazerus Artificial]

If I wasn't on my phone, I'd +1 this on a "where mining can go from here" concept.

I also know pristine Metallic Belts out in the boonies do seem to have higher percentages sometimes. At least it feels that way for me. I mine in uncivilized systems exclusively now.

Those community goals a couple months back felt similar to this. But for some people, it's almost impossible to even tell them community goals exist.

Sorry about being on my phone. But I guess here's a "+1 bump" for you instead.

the interesting thing is, that i made this topic before we got Horizons.
The Planetary ressources in Horizons are basically exactly what i had described here, you have 3 Uncommon, 2 Rare and 1 Very Rare ressource per planet (or something like that)
So you dont have all of them like a belt has.

Also this was actually my second suggestion (i think) for a different ressource distribution, the other was a more complex one

also personally i dont have any reason to mine in uncivilized space, the way back to a station takes a while, so i would need to mine the "good stuff" only, that means i have to search for a long time with a large cargo.
currently when i would mine in a cutter or conda, i wouldnt even come close to the income of trading, hunting or so, simply because there is too much "waste" in the belts. the scaling for big ships is just not there. either you go "stripmining" where you fill that cargo fast but make less profit because of all that waste, or you spend days to fill that huge cargo with painite where you then have one big credit boost...but nothing comparable to the other "jobs".

 

[Snicker]

I always thought it was gonna be like that. Hope it will sometime in the future.