Not sure I'm doing mining right...

[Stealthie]

It can also be an extremely frustrating occupation, too. Purely by chance last night, happened on a planet with some VO hot spots in the rings. 50 mins later on the verge of slamming the keyboard... having watched all the YT videos - bright yellow with a hint of black is good, everything else is dud - failed to acquire one asteroid with a core. Even those that looked like they have fissures once hit with a prospector limpet also turned out to be dud. Really had to wonder whether that counts as entertainment - flying around a bunch of rocks at 75% power, mashing the joystick trigger to continuously scan only to come up empty. In the same time, I could probably have driven from St Petersburg to Turin in ETS2 and enjoyed some nice scenery along the way!

That is the nature of DC mining, I'm afraid.

I find the "best" way to do it is to avoid mucking around, searching for suitable roids.
Just drop into the ring about 1000km from the POI, point your ship at the POI and head toward it at full speed, pinging your PWA as you go and using headlook to look around.
Sure, you might miss a DC roid somewhere off to the side but you'll find another one somewhere in front of you sooner or later.

My Python does 380m/sec and I find, on average, 6 DC roids an hour, which means they're (again, on average) at least 150km apart.
Course, that IS just an average.
Sometimes you find them close together, sometimes you don't find one for 20 minutes.
Point is, due to the fact that they're scattered pretty evenly around the hotspot, there's no point in obsessing over finding them all.
Just keep on truckin' and you'll stumble on them eventually.


Alternatively, just build yourself a Mining T9 and go Painite Mining (in a double hotspot) instead.
Just did that with my alt-account, last night, and earned Cr400m in a couple of hours.

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

At the moment, the only engineering my T9's got is a G2 weapon-focused PDist.
Eventually I'll upgrade it (much) more but it gets the job done.
You just have to stop mining for a few seconds when the PDist runs out of juice or the lasers start to overheat.

+EDIT+
Tool to help you pick a double Painite hotspot: http://edtools.ddns.net/miner

 

[znôrt]

Is there a more elegant way to mine?

that part is actually the most brain engaging part of core mining, mopping up. you don't really need to get between the rocks unless you're manually scooping, which i'm guessing you don't? limpets will find a way if you get used to how they operate and position yourself correctly. practice makes perfect.

that said, python has a quite limited cockpit view which i guess doesn't really help and, let's face it, it's still a cow. you could try a krait phantom which is a bit more nimble and has a gorgeous view, or even something smaller, and see if you like it better.

add: oh, and as a workaround the external cam can help with situational awareness.

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

I find the "best" way to do it is to avoid mucking around, searching for suitable roids.
Just drop into the ring about 1000km from the POI, point your ship at the POI and head toward it at full speed, pinging your PWA as you go and using headlook to look around.
Sure, you might miss a DC roid somewhere off to the side but you'll find another one somewhere in front of you sooner or later.

Ah now I understand the scale better. I was dropping on top of the centre or maybe 20 - 30km out. Off to put Plan "B" into effect!

 

[WinterKing2112]

Ah now I understand the scale better. I was dropping on top of the centre or maybe 20 - 30km out. Off to put Plan "B" into effect!

I drop in very close to the centre of the hotspot (around 10km or so), then lock onto the planet and fly towards the planet, away from the hotspot centre. I sweep about 180 degrees ahead of me with the pulse scanner then head towards the core 'roids as I find 'em. Rinse and repeat 'til I have 144 tons (plus 10 in the refinery), then head home and make a lot of creds

 

[Masta Squidge]

Today I have solved this issue by ignoring LTDs and cores entirely.

Painite is putting down significantly over 300 million per hour for me on a repeatable basis with my cutter. Just today I had 522 painite in 70 minutes dock to dock then another 417 in 61 minutes. 344 and 316 million per hour total trip time respectively.

Mind you this is entirely solo without using a map.

 

[Balin]

Nope.
Distance between the cores can be quite big, 30-50km even more
So you use a fast ship, you boost and Pulse wave. Slow down only if you spot the right core

But how do you spot the right core, though, just using the Pulse Wave? I mean I have made many trips now doing core mining, I agree that the decent core 'roids are far apart (on average), and I can recognise (and have nicknames for!) some of the asteroid types that are not core asteroids. But they seem to have been designed to be easy to mistake one for another, shall we say. How then do you recognise a 'right core'? I even have photos of the asteroids I have mined for their cores, but I still find them hard to recognise. How does everyone else do it?

 

[Masta Squidge]

But how do you spot the right core, though, just using the Pulse Wave? I mean I have made many trips now doing core mining, I agree that the decent core 'roids are far apart (on average), and I can recognise (and have nicknames for!) some of the asteroid types that are not core asteroids. But they seem to have been designed to be easy to mistake one for another, shall we say. How then do you recognise a 'right core'? I even have photos of the asteroids I have mined for their cores, but I still find them hard to recognise. How does everyone else do it?

shaped like popcorn, small, very bright yellow.

 

[colprice2002]

I use the following for core mining:-
cobra IV, Krait 2, Type 10...
Once you've started the core explosion, back off to >1 I'm, then send in the collector limpets. Once they've collected the fragments, move in closer use the abrasion blaster.
Make sure the limpets have a clear path to the carUgo hatch...
I use a SLF to reduce any interdictions:-
The Krait 2 is fast and manoeuvrable to escape, the type 10 has enough armament + SLF, the Cobra IV is fast & agile enough, but I prefer the Type 10, even though it's not quite so agile...

CMDR ColP

 

[Balin]

I use a SLF to reduce any interdictions:-

SLF?

 

[C64Fan]

SLF?

Ship-Launched Fighter.

 

[Northpin]

Painite is putting down significantly over 300 million per hour for me on a repeatable basis with my cutter

Yep, all it takes is a Cutter, 12 collectors and 3-4 medium mining lasers.

 

[Stealthie]

I drop in very close to the centre of the hotspot (around 10km or so), then lock onto the planet and fly towards the planet, away from the hotspot centre. I sweep about 180 degrees ahead of me with the pulse scanner then head towards the core 'roids as I find 'em. Rinse and repeat 'til I have 144 tons (plus 10 in the refinery), then head home and make a lot of creds

Yeah, that'll work too.

Point is, really, just to pick a target and keep heading roughly toward it.
That way you don't end up just randomly searching the same area over and over.

Not sure if it makes any difference, statistically, but I prefer to start a long way from the POI simply 'cos I figure there's less chance of my ending up in a place that somebody else has already been.

 

[Masta Squidge]

Yep, all it takes is a Cutter, 12 collectors and 3-4 medium mining lasers.

9 collectors, 4 lasers, ram the rocks.

 

[Balin]

Ship-Launched Fighter.

Ah of course, yes. Thank you

 

[War Eagle]

But how do you spot the right core, though, just using the Pulse Wave? I mean I have made many trips now doing core mining, I agree that the decent core 'roids are far apart (on average), and I can recognise (and have nicknames for!) some of the asteroid types that are not core asteroids. But they seem to have been designed to be easy to mistake one for another, shall we say. How then do you recognise a 'right core'? I even have photos of the asteroids I have mined for their cores, but I still find them hard to recognise. How does everyone else do it?

One of the most asked question, I have found that it can depend on the type of field you are in. Not all VO roids look like the popcorn ones some are longer with what seems to be a hard glassy looking end that has like 4 layers sticking out of that end and also looks sort of like it was melted a bit. But for sure the colour/color is bright yellow - on the first hit of the wave and will remain yellow on the after wave, others will have the same yellow but also have a black grid layover on them.


I find it easier to go mining in the dark sides of rings- the yellow stands out much better.
*While in an Ice ring don't ignore the bright red ones
**When your prospector has sent you the information make a note of the materials in the contact list- it tells you whats in it.

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

Not quite on the level of some of the results above, but it all gelled yesterday evening and I made 20mil+ credits off an Alexandrite and then Serendipity rock in quick succession. I had to eject limpets to make space for the refined rocks! Painite or VO's would be nice, but I/c/w the selling link posted a few page back, other deepcore stuff is nearly as valuable.

As regards spotting the 'roids, generally they are the brighter ones but not exclusively so. The main thing is to get up close and look for fissures before dropping a prospector drone - sometimes hard to spot or distinguish from a surface deposit. According to one YT clip I watched, it is somewhat harder to distinguish the rocks if you're playing on a UHD monitor at 4K resolution, as I am.

 

[Cmdr Eratosthenes]

wait, are you mining inside your underpants, or mining wearing nought but underpants.....this is so confusing!

A little from column A, a little from column B

 

[ChipStar65]

I had to eject limpets to make space for the refined rocks!

This isn't at all uncommon. I often dump not just limpets but also canisters of lesser-value minerals when finishing off a VO session, to make room for the more valuable cargo.

 

[moonsword]

Best ship for mining is a T10.
Best cockpit view to all directions, ship‘s structure is like a discus, has not a long back or front like the other big ones, therefore better for navigation between asteroids, cannot be stoped from hypering by anything else than another T10, put A7 shields inside and pimp them and you may run away from everyone, about 320 cargo space left for mining. In addition put a guardian fsd booster inside if you like.

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

I was thinking about trading up from the Asp, basically something where I can fit some weapons with enough teeth to see off the pirates so I can camp out in the field and avoid the tedious RTB after each session. Only return when full (or out of limpets/mats to make more). T10 would be good but out of my price range, was thinking maybe a Python once I scrape together the moolah.