Mining Turrets and prospector limpets.

John Streutker

J
I'm very new to the game, have only been playing for about two weeks but logged 200 hours so far. At almost all times I have youtube video tutorials or any research material I can find on ED up on my big screen (two monitors) and my goal is to be a career miner so that's the bulk of my research.

I've come to the conclusion that prospectors are just useless beyond saving a little time. No way am I dedicating an internal slot that could be used for cargo space but I do see potential as a tie-in for my idea of mining turrets. These should have a greater range (and greater power-draw/price tag).

You fire the prospector at a rock and it becomes an automatic beacon for mining turrets. As long as the rock is in your turret coverage arc it will continue to fire until the rock is depleted, this allows you to maneuver your ship to lauch more prospectors at nearby rocks looking for your next target. This way having higher-class prospectors with multiple limpet control is actually an advantage. It will also allow limited self-defence if attacked while mining. You target the enemy and your combat weapons will lock on as usual, but mining turrets will follow the prospector at all times. As long as you stay close enough they will continue mining while you take care of the interloper.


I'm not a great public speaker so my presentation probably sucks but I really think the idea could be useful while not break any of the game experiance.

Maybe the mining turret could be a faction reward like the mining lance. Or even an expansion on the lance to be used as a light-damage weapon. I use strictly turrets so the lance none of the offensive faction rewards are of an use to me and I assume I'm not alone in that.

Thoughts? Suggestions?
 

Deleted member 38366

D
Prospectors give you the composition of the Asteroid - and increase the amount of fragments you can mine from them dramatically.
They still have a number of issues, but they're quite useful.

I actually like the idea of Mining Laser turrets :)
(I'd prefer that to having to hold down the Trigger for such a long time and having to point at the Asteroid - after all, Collector Limpets work much faster with the bottom of the Ship pointing to the Fragment cloud)
 
Last edited by a moderator:

John Streutker

J
The constant trigger hold is actually the minor annoyance that got me started on this idea. I used a wireless mouse and keyboard so I was thinking how much faster the batteries would die if I am mining for hours daily. The idea of using limpets to "paint the target" kind of grew around that.

I experimented with the prospectors for about an hour in a pristine system, didn't really notice an increase in quantity mined. And as for composition... I just pop off 2-3 chunks and target them. It's not exact but it's pretty accurate and doesn't use up those valuable internal slots that there never seem to be enough of.
 

bamber

B
a few things
.
Prospectors tell you what you are mining and just about double the available fragments

if you fired a prospector and then the turret went into overdrive you would end up with fragments you don't want

Surely if you went into self defence mode and started defending yourself then you would change your fire selection which would stop your mining lasers?

I go into self defence mode already - big shields and big guns see me let my collector pick up all the fragments and shoot merry hell out of the offender - when the battle is finished I just lock back on to my prospector and carry on where I left off - big shield big gunes means I don't have to go chasing the other ship I let it come to me
 

CMDR Corlas

CMDR Corlas
I mined without prospecters for a while too, under your same logic, but as has been said, they really make a huge difference.

The key is to get an A class controller for the prospecter. They increase mining output more and more as you get more expensive ones, so if you tested with an E or D class, you probably didn't notice much.

I always use a C1 though, can find much of a use for multiple prospecters myself.
 

tiger61378

tiger61378
The best Prospector is a class 1 Prospector...because you really only need one out there at a time (and multi-limpet rigs have a habit of doing stupid things like popping the wrong limpet when you're firing off multiples). Plus, a class 1 will only take up a class 1 or 2 internal, so at most you're losing 4 tons of cargo capacity...which isn't worth worrying about considering the massive increase in material you'll gain from it.

My Clipper rig (yes, I mine in style) uses a 1A prospector, a 1A and 2 3A collectors (for 5 active limpets at a time...I was running 3 3As but got tired of the micromanaging of my refinery), a 4A refinery for 10 bins, a set of class 4 biweaves, and 192 tons of cargo space. I normally bring around 90-100 limpets with me, and come home with a full (or nearly full depending on how bad my luck is) cargo hold...and when I get very low on limpets I'll start mining without the prospector. That will drop my yields from 20-50 fragments to about 10. Fortunately, I only do that until my collectors die or my hold is finished filling, then I head home :p
 

CMDR Ellegon

CMDR Ellegon
tiger61378 said:
The best Prospector is a class 1 Prospector...because you really only need one out there at a time (and multi-limpet rigs have a habit of doing stupid things like popping the wrong limpet when you're firing off multiples). Plus, a class 1 will only take up a class 1 or 2 internal, so at most you're losing 4 tons of cargo capacity...which isn't worth worrying about considering the massive increase in material you'll gain from it.

My Clipper rig (yes, I mine in style) uses a 1A prospector, a 1A and 2 3A collectors (for 5 active limpets at a time...I was running 3 3As but got tired of the micromanaging of my refinery), a 4A refinery for 10 bins, a set of class 4 biweaves, and 192 tons of cargo space. I normally bring around 90-100 limpets with me, and come home with a full (or nearly full depending on how bad my luck is) cargo hold...and when I get very low on limpets I'll start mining without the prospector. That will drop my yields from 20-50 fragments to about 10. Fortunately, I only do that until my collectors die or my hold is finished filling, then I head home :p
Click to expand...

There is no need for micro-managing, with a simple trick to dispose of unwanted cargo:

1. Let the refinery do its thing (your cargo hold will fill with junk)
2. When your cargo hold gets full, retract cargo scoop
3. Eject everything you don't want while not moving your ship
4. Use your maneuvering thrusters for down thrust (and hold there)
5. You will hear a lot of loud bangs as your ejected cargo canisters explode against your shields
6. Your unwanted stuff is now destroyed. Collectors survive this, btw, but lose some life time

The above also works well against that pesky ton of "stolen limpets" that your collectors might have dragged in.
 

Colonel Kenney

Colonel Kenney
While in theory the prospectors are nice but they do take waaay too long to reach their target and return useful information. They expire out of order and are quite buggy. The amount of time you save with prospectors compared to checking yourself is minimal. Its useful but it could be much better.

Bottom line is don't expect any changes to mining this year. They've reluctantly did anything to it from the beginning.
 
Last edited:

John Streutker

J
I guess I'm going to need to do more experimenting with prospectors... As yet I'm still a noob with limited cargo capacity (40t with my current Keelback loadout) I usually end up dumping excess limpets to free up space for collected ore.

But to answer a couple questions that I saw in here, your turret will lock on to the nearest limpet in it's firing arc. So if the rock is filled with crap just fly away from it. This will cause some useless fragments to be picked up, but not many and you can vent them.

I had a thought when I started typing that maybe instead of increased power draw, it should be reduced and the yield would be slower for that reason. Think of it as a smaller than class1 laser but autofiring. Ultimately higher cost, lower draw and yield, longer range, more convenience. The current lasers would still be more effective for quickly emptying a rock.

I'm working on that class4 refinery but I can't seem to collect the money for it. Apparently my real-life tendency to nickel-and-dime all my money away translates into the game. I've had over 60mil pass through my hands but my current assets are about 5mil.
 

Limoncello Lizard

Limoncello Lizard
Mining without prospectors is no where near as efficient.
.
I've tried strip mining asteroids, regardless of content, both with and without prospectors. It's far quicker to fill your hold using the extra yield of a prospector. And this is without using the prospector's greatest benefit of being selective of what is being mined.
 

CMDR Ellegon

CMDR Ellegon
Colonel Kenney said:
While in theory the prospectors are nice but they do take waaay too long to reach their target and return useful information. They expire out of order and are quite buggy. The amount of time you save with prospectors compared to checking yourself is minimal. Its useful but it could be much better.

Bottom line is don't expect any changes to mining this year. They've reluctantly did anything to it from the beginning.
Click to expand...

3 to 4 times the fragments with Prospectors. Mining without them is foolish
 

Hatchepsut

Hatchepsut
LvL 1 Prospectors are AWESOME. Takes no room whatsoever and lets you MINE only the asteroids you actually WANT.
I only mine Platinum....Osmium...Gold....Painite....Palladium.....etc basically only what is worth top credits.
Shoot......land....Indite?? poop....next rock.....shoot....land...Painite ?? awesome....mine double the amount than without the prospector......next rock
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom