Let me start by saying that I like mining in ED. I find it somewhat relaxing and a decent source of income within the game (at the moment).
However, I do think that there are certain elements in mining that are a bit tedious.
The top issue (for me) would be the fact that so much maintenance has to be done when using the refinery. Every time you pick up a new mineral, you have to tell the refinery what to do with it. Process or Eject. If you tell it to process, it will do so until the mineral gets to 100%, which at that point it is dumped into the cargo hold as 1T worth of that mineral. At that point you have to tell the refinery to continue processing the same mineral. At the same time, the unwanted minerals that are collected have to be continually purged or processed as well (which takes up valuable cargo space), or even processed then dumped to make room for more of the valuable minerals.
My suggestion would be to allow (for every mineral type) the option to Auto-Process or Auto-Purge. This would reduce a lot of the micromanagement that needs to be done by an enormous margin.
Some people may think that because mining can be considered a boring enough profession, that this extra micromanagement would be needed to keep themselves mentally active. That's why I'd argue to make it an option. For those who don't want this feature, simply don't use it. However for those who do want it, it would make life so much easier...
Thank you, and fly safe.
-Tsunamicom
However, I do think that there are certain elements in mining that are a bit tedious.
The top issue (for me) would be the fact that so much maintenance has to be done when using the refinery. Every time you pick up a new mineral, you have to tell the refinery what to do with it. Process or Eject. If you tell it to process, it will do so until the mineral gets to 100%, which at that point it is dumped into the cargo hold as 1T worth of that mineral. At that point you have to tell the refinery to continue processing the same mineral. At the same time, the unwanted minerals that are collected have to be continually purged or processed as well (which takes up valuable cargo space), or even processed then dumped to make room for more of the valuable minerals.
My suggestion would be to allow (for every mineral type) the option to Auto-Process or Auto-Purge. This would reduce a lot of the micromanagement that needs to be done by an enormous margin.
Some people may think that because mining can be considered a boring enough profession, that this extra micromanagement would be needed to keep themselves mentally active. That's why I'd argue to make it an option. For those who don't want this feature, simply don't use it. However for those who do want it, it would make life so much easier...
Thank you, and fly safe.
-Tsunamicom
