Mining

[deeepblue699]

So i tried mining.. and..
in its current state its as boring as watching Paint dry.
I would prefer watching reruns of "buffy the vampire slayer".
This is why:
- Limpets crash and burn without reason.
- shooting an asteroid u get some ore out of. but nothing happens, the asteroid should break apart, some kind of effect please.. !!
- Using the refinery is just mind boggeling numming.. this prosses should be automated, were in the future *Biiip* *¤##¤*...
- After mining all nigth, the proffits are *¤¤¤¤* to put it mildly..
- The asteroid should break up when it is mined out, just makes sens
- using prospector droones just dosent make sens when even at this age we can "scan" a asteroid and know what it is made up off.

all in all i look at mining as the biggest let Down of the game. Even With it getting some love from 1,3.

FD you can do better then this.

 

[Muzz UK]

Yeah it's better but needs tweaking a bit more. You really have to invest a lot of money to be able to make profit from it as quick as trading or bounty hunting or missions.

 

[deeepblue699]

Yeah it's better but needs tweaking a bit more. You really have to invest a lot of money to be able to make profit from it as quick as trading or bounty hunting or missions.

i used a fully kitted python. 2 colector limpets, 2 class 2 mining lazers 228 cargo Space.. but just awfull.. to other comanders i do not recomend this carrere Choice if u whant to make Money

 

[Elgered]

I got myself a 250Mio Anaconda fitted for mining. It makes about 15,000 cr. per hour...

Prospector drones take to much time as they are now. Until it is there and has the data, the asteroid is already depleted. It would be useful to have them "hop" from Asteroid to asteroid and mark them, but using one drone per piece of rock is simply pointless.

The collectors on the other hand are cool. They let you take advantage of the bigger ships.

There need to be bigger (than 4A) refineries with more slots and hoppers.

And last, but not least, there should be more usable ore in the Asteroids. I spent the whole day mining with my totally refit Anaconda in pristine metal-rich "High"-RES for about 60,000 credits.

edit: but yes, it is MUCH MORE FUN now, when you don't need to catch every single piece of ore

 

[Navynuke99]

For the record, the intelligence, wit, and constant progression of the writing and character development of Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been met by very, very few television shows before or since. I've been rewatching that show and Angel on my last couple of exploration runs. Think of it this way- without Buffy, we wouldn't have had Firefly.

 

[JosiahD]

I got myself a 250Mio Anaconda fitted for mining. It makes about 15,000 cr. per hour...

Prospector drones take to much time as they are now. Until it is there and has the data, the asteroid is already depleted. It would be useful to have them "hop" from Asteroid to asteroid and mark them, but using one drone per piece of rock is simply pointless.

The collectors on the other hand are cool. They let you take advantage of the bigger ships.

There need to be bigger (than 4A) refineries with more slots and hoppers.

And last, but not least, there should be more usable ore in the Asteroids. I spent the whole day mining with my totally refit Anaconda in pristine metal-rich "High"-RES for about 60,000 credits.

edit: but yes, it is MUCH MORE FUN now, when you don't need to catch every single piece of ore

You spent a whole DAY mining with an Anaconda and only made 60,000? What rubbish - started a mining run last night before hitting the sack and I had about 300,000+ cr worth in about an hr and a half (pristine metallic field). And that was using the old scooping method. Aiming to finish that run today. If you only make 60,000 cr, if even 600,000 cr, over a WHOLE DAY I'm sorry but it's you that's doing it wrong. Either that or exaggerating on epic proportions. Mining can be highly profitable. You may not make the money as quickly as trading, but for people to say it's unprofitable is simply not accurate. It's not a career path that suits everyone though.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

actually it sucks
1) finding true Pristine metallic *fields* (not rings! rings do not count as pristine) is extremely rare, there are very few such unless you go exploring
So, you get absolutely crappy % of minerals per chunk in nearly every place you try
thus it takes many chunks to make 1 ton when you only get maybe 3% or such

2) The damn Collector module/drones are bugged, if you send out two, they *chase after the exact same item!*
thus using more than 1 drone at a time is a waste...which means the collecting time is slow
and why can't we get modules that send out 4 drones? Sitting there waiting for 'em sucks when you have cash for a Python or better (ie you could make vastly more money trading or fighting)

3) The refinery system simply blows chunks, it's a pain, especially when pirates bounce you and you have all the damn messages about unassigned resources blocking your combat UI!!
Desperately needs an overhaul.

4) Yes as person above says, once an asteroid is mined out it should "blow up" (disappear), so you don't accidentally try mining it again.

5) Prospector drones are currently useless. Waste of time, far more efficient to keep using laser on each asteroid to see if good stuff floats out
So make the prospector drones IDENTIFY, permanently, an asteroid then have it fly on to more asteroids until it runs out, sort of like they fly a search pattern "sniffing" each asteroid. Better modules = more prospectors, more identified faster
identify it's content

 

[Lazerus Artificial]

I made a topic about that myself

And i agree, its still...well...i wouldnt call it boring...but its not rewarding.
Every enhancement they made benefited someone else more.
Mining Missions are better Hauler Missions, since you need refined material and not pure ore.
Collector Drones benefited Pirates even more, now they can demand even more cargo from traders.
but...i dont want to completely repeat myself, its all in that other topic.

Overall i have to say, that it was a good attempt...but it failed.
So lets wait for the next version to see what else gets changed :>

 

[tomalus]

mining isnt that good for anaconda,python,t9, beceause you can make much more trading with those huge holds, or with pythons flexibility in finding 3000cr/t trade routes being able to dock outposts.If you only look at credit per hour then you cant beat a steady trade route 5+ mil.

The advantage of mining is with smaller ships, you can get capital, you dont need to invest much credits to start mining.While to trade you need money to actually buy goods first to sell them with profits. Mining makes capital.You also need to pickup new missions, I picked up 9 missions (painite,palladium,osmium).

If you want best profits drive conda/t9/python and trade. Im around mining with my clipper, beecause I cant stand trading anymore with conda.

 

[Lazerus Artificial]

mining isnt that good for anaconda,python,t9, beceause you can make much more trading with those huge holds, or with pythons flexibility in finding 3000cr/t trade routes being able to dock outposts.If you only look at credit per hour then you cant beat a steady trade route 5+ mil.

The advantage of mining is with smaller ships, you can get capital, you dont need to invest much credits to start mining.While to trade you need money to actually buy goods first to sell them with profits. Mining makes capital.You also need to pickup new missions, I picked up 9 missions (painite,palladium,osmium).

If you want best profits drive conda/t9/python and trade. Im around mining with my clipper, beecause I cant stand trading anymore with conda.

actually you cant anymore.
you need a big refinery since the 3-ore-asteroids basically nerfed the smaller ones, so even the 4 bin refineries are worhtless now.
you have a higher chance to get one of your collected ores out of the 3-ores, but you also have a higher chance to get something else, maybe more valuable.
since there are 24 ressources now, even the 10 bin refineries are a little bit small.

you are better off when you just take a mining mission and buy the needed materials from another station, i usually made 100k profit for 2t of material.

 

[JosiahD]

actually it sucks
1) finding true Pristine metallic *fields* (not rings! rings do not count as pristine) is extremely rare, there are very few such unless you go exploring
So, you get absolutely crappy % of minerals per chunk in nearly every place you try
thus it takes many chunks to make 1 ton when you only get maybe 3% or such

2) The damn Collector module/drones are bugged, if you send out two, they *chase after the exact same item!*
thus using more than 1 drone at a time is a waste...which means the collecting time is slow
and why can't we get modules that send out 4 drones? Sitting there waiting for 'em sucks when you have cash for a Python or better (ie you could make vastly more money trading or fighting)

3) The refinery system simply blows chunks, it's a pain, especially when pirates bounce you and you have all the damn messages about unassigned resources blocking your combat UI!!
Desperately needs an overhaul.

4) Yes as person above says, once an asteroid is mined out it should "blow up" (disappear), so you don't accidentally try mining it again.

5) Prospector drones are currently useless. Waste of time, far more efficient to keep using laser on each asteroid to see if good stuff floats out
So make the prospector drones IDENTIFY, permanently, an asteroid then have it fly on to more asteroids until it runs out, sort of like they fly a search pattern "sniffing" each asteroid. Better modules = more prospectors, more identified faster
identify it's content

Rings don't count as pristine??? Of course they do. Where'd you get that rubbish? I only mine in pristine rings, and well away from the RES for that matter. No NPCS, no player pirates - just mine away in peace. And I regularly get fragments with 30-50% of the primary component, sometimes higher grade.

Can't speak to drones - haven't tried em yet and not sure I will.

Re asteroids blowing up or disappearing? You do realise how big they are? It would be completely wrong for them to just disappear after you've taken a few tons. Now, if you were to say we should be able to extract more from each asteroid I'd be inclined to agree, but it has to stop somewhere or you'd just sit on the one asteroid.

 

[tomalus]

actually you cant anymore.
you need a big refinery since the 3-ore-asteroids basically nerfed the smaller ones, so even the 4 bin refineries are worhtless now.
you have a higher chance to get one of your collected ores out of the 3-ores, but you also have a higher chance to get something else, maybe more valuable.
since there are 24 ressources now, even the 10 bin refineries are a little bit small.



you are better off when you just take a mining mission and buy the needed materials from another station, i usually made 100k profit for 2t of material.

you cant buy paiinite and osmium

 

[Lazerus Artificial]

you cant buy paiinite and osmium

i have seen painite but no osmium.
also most of the missions i had required something else, like paladium, i think there was even a beryllium mission.

 

[Suul Vellumcore]

I could find the current implementation of mining in Elite a pleasant and relaxing pastime when I'm all pew pewed out and not caring so much about fast credit gain, (far more enjoyable than trading for me) and enjoy the added excitement of getting jumped by pirates every now and again, but ONLY if they increase the chunk percentages! I've had enough of this 5% nonesense for the good stuff.

 

[Elgered]

Maybe it was only bad luck, but I found 85-90% of the material (as stated in pristine high metal regions) to be minerals (Lepidolite, Rutile, Bauxite and Uraninite), and Cobalt and in different regions I managed to get one tonne of Silver and two tonnes of Titanium, three tonnes of Uranium and - wow - 5 tonnes of Osmium or what the new cheaper metal is called.

@tomalus: You are right - its a good start, when u have nothing. But as soon as you can afford a ADS and a fuel scoop, exploring, even without DSS, brings more money.

And when you have your two mio. credits, you'll never want to do mining again. Currently I am "sitting" on around 500 Mio credits (Anaconda, Python, Asp, Viper and some "waypoint Sidewinders"). Just hit Tycoon on trading, and wanted to supply lots of metals (I love mining, because I can read and write the forums in between^^). But it looks like I'm either going back on exploration tour or do some rather boring VIPs vs. Palladium again (gains me 6Mio/hour in the Anaconda with only half the loadout/insurance risk).

 

[Flavio]

Not having tried this idea but might have a go next week but since exploration doesn't give you any credits for scanning asteroids, will mining an undiscovered asteroid field in an unpopulated system give you discovery credits as you now know what those asteroids contain and have proof in your hold, especially if the asteroid belt is deemed worthy of becoming an extraction site ?

 

[JosiahD]

Maybe it was only bad luck, but I found 85-90% of the material (as stated in pristine high metal regions) to be minerals (Lepidolite, Rutile, Bauxite and Uraninite), and Cobalt and in different regions I managed to get one tonne of Silver and two tonnes of Titanium, three tonnes of Uranium and - wow - 5 tonnes of Osmium or what the new cheaper metal is called.

@tomalus: You are right - its a good start, when u have nothing. But as soon as you can afford a ADS and a fuel scoop, exploring, even without DSS, brings more money.

And when you have your two mio. credits, you'll never want to do mining again. Currently I am "sitting" on around 500 Mio credits (Anaconda, Python, Asp, Viper and some "waypoint Sidewinders"). Just hit Tycoon on trading, and wanted to supply lots of metals (I love mining, because I can read and write the forums in between^^). But it looks like I'm either going back on exploration tour or do some rather boring VIPs vs. Palladium again (gains me 6Mio/hour in the Anaconda with only half the loadout/insurance risk).

Focus on pristine metallic fields rather than simply high metal. I find them better for the higher value ores.

 

[fluffa]

I tried this in my Python 40 drones class 3 module and 240 cargo space after somewhere between 2-4 hours I got about 700k for just over 100tones of ore.
Trading is around 2-3Million an hours
B- Hunting can be around the same with a good spawn.

Mining just isn't working. some simple fixes would sort this out

1, drop prospect drone waste of time (add a asteroid scanning module)
2, drop collector drone expire time (change the module classes so the higher the class etc = faster drone) (add cost per min for drone use) so you don't need to buy 40 at a time.
3, asteroid content far to low, the amount of asteroids you have to mine for 100tons is just mind numbing.
4, add more mining laser classes / types (EG lowest level laser mines cheapest ore @ 100% efficiency and others at lower %) top class mining lasers mine all ores @ 100% = more ore per asteroid.

FD seem to be missing the very basics of adding more into the game, example the old docking computer AI = could have stayed with the Standard docking computer. the new AI could have been tied to a Advanced lvl docking computer. there just missing very simple options to add more content that works to the game.

and to really start to fix mining of FD need to do two other things,

1, systems need to create only a fix amount of items per day / base on population. this would bring trading to life.
2, Crafting.... is a must then the market will become player made market. (NPC's need to drop loot) which in turn as a change to be analysed to fine its components to beable to craft them from ore.

Example.

NPC drops a shield
Player loots it returns with it
sells it or
analysed shield =if success find what components make up the shield / maybe get some returned
analysed shield =if failed item destroyed
then repeat on components to find how to craft them from ores.

This can be added to every item within the game. and opens up new ways to reach goals on equipment etc

 

[Daffan]

Yeah it's better but needs tweaking a bit more. You really have to invest a lot of money to be able to make profit from it as quick as trading or bounty hunting or missions.

you will never make as much as trading no matter how much you invest

 

[metatheurgist]

For the record, the intelligence, wit, and constant progression of the writing and character development of Buffy the Vampire Slayer has been met by very, very few television shows before or since. I've been rewatching that show and Angel on my last couple of exploration runs. Think of it this way- without Buffy, we wouldn't have had Firefly.

Word. Saying you'd rather watch Buffy than mine is pretty meaningless. Most things are more boring than Buffy.