Please buff Mining Lances to have equal DPE to C2 mining lasers.

[DemiserofD]

Torval's sorta supposed to be the 'mining' power, but the mining lances can't compare to the C2s, which, given most players run three or four C2s, makes them pretty useless in most circumstances. C2 mining lasers produce about 0.45 fragments per second, for 3MW of distributor draw, or a FPE(Fragments per Energy) of about 0.15. Mining Lances produce about 0.175 fragments per second, for 1.75MW of distro draw, or a FPE of about 0.10. In other words, C2 mining lasers are 50% better, and the only viable choice for mining.

Please buff them to have equal FPE to C2 mining lasers, even if their fragments per second remain lower. This will make them a viable option for actual heavy-duty mining.

You could even give them higher DPE, in fact. Because they are only about 1/3rd as powerful, even a ship fully loaded with six or seven mining lances still wouldn't mine as fast as a ship with three or four c2 mining lasers, so it would make an interesting choice for those who choose to do so.

Edit: While we're at it, why not give C1 mining lasers equal DPE to C2s, as well? Right now, C1 mining lasers are just about as useless as mining lances. Then keep mining lances with 1.25x better DPE than either one, making them an interesting alternative choice for those with the option.

Given that C1 mining lasers take 1.5MW of distributor power, they should be buffed from 0.15 fragments per second to 0.225 fragments per second, and mining lances should be buffed from 0.175 fragments per second to 0.27 fragments per second.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Maybe swap the combat and mining effect (i.e. its a beam laser that can mine, not a mining laser that can be a beam laser). If you did, it would allow engineering to scale the mining effect (I'm guessing) as the beam is upgraded.

 

[Vardaugas]

And while you're rebalancing the Mining Lance, add the effect of an Abrasion Blaster to them, now that you figured out how to avoid multiple fragments from being produced.

 

[Tividar]

Maybe swap the combat and mining effect (i.e. its a beam laser that can mine, not a mining laser that can be a beam laser). If you did, it would allow engineering to scale the mining effect (I'm guessing) as the beam is upgraded.

Just convert the mining effect to an "Experimental Effect" applied by Engineers (available only when you've got sufficient rep with Torval). Scale the chip-rate with Distributor Draw from the underlying Beam Laser (baseline would be 2D Mining Laser).

	Distributor Draw	Thermal Load	Chip Rate
2D Mining Laser	3	2	"n"
2D Beam Laser (Fixed)	3.16	5.11	1.0533... x n
3C Beam Laser (Fixed)	5.10	7.22	1.70 x n
4A Beam Laser (Fixed)	8.19	8.19	2.73 x n

 

[Stabby_Dave]

I have 3 mining lances on my Python and even with 9 collector limpets, the rock gets depleted before all the fragments are picked up. Making them more efficient really wouldn't make any difference to me.

 

[DemiserofD]

I have 3 mining lances on my Python and even with 9 collector limpets, the rock gets depleted before all the fragments are picked up. Making them more efficient really wouldn't make any difference to me.

You should probably try to improve your fragment placement. I run my corvette with 11 collector limpets and seven mining lasers, and I have very little wait time, despite having a mining rate five times faster than yours.

 

[Tividar]

Currently the Mining Lance is useless. I know some people will place them in the rear wing hardpoints on a Cutter, but the 2D Mining Lasers reach just fine considering how close you should be to the 'roid. Given the bottleneck on mining is the collection limpets, changing lasers is more about flexibility in allocating your Hardpoints. I'd like to get back to the point where outfitting my ship for mining didn't take up all my weapon hardpoints.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

seven mining lasers,

You mean mining lasers or mining lances?

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Overall, i'd like to see the mining lance actually be useful for both combat and mining. Its meant to be a special weapon but its rubbish at both.

 

[Tividar]

Just convert the mining effect to an "Experimental Effect" applied by Engineers (available only when you've got sufficient rep with Torval). Scale the chip-rate with Distributor Draw or Thermal Load from the underlying Beam Laser (baseline would be 2D Mining Laser).

	Distributor Draw	Thermal Load	Chip Rate (DD / TL)
2D Mining Laser	3	2	"n"
2D Beam Laser (Fixed)	3.16	5.11	1.0533... x n / 2.55 x n
3C Beam Laser (Fixed)	5.10	7.22	1.70 x n / 3.61 x n
4A Beam Laser (Fixed)	8.19	8.19	2.73 x n / 4.095 x n

 

[DemiserofD]

While that would be a great long-term solution, it would take a lot more effort than a few statistical tweaks, so I think that it's not as realistic, unfortunately.

You mean mining lasers or mining lances?

Mining lasers. Lasers run a bit cooler and let me finish a rock in under 20 seconds, letting me complete the mining process in less than two heat sinks, which is important for stealth hazrez mining.

 

[Kissamies]

I have 3 mining lances on my Python and even with 9 collector limpets, the rock gets depleted before all the fragments are picked up. Making them more efficient really wouldn't make any difference to me.

You must be doing something wrong. I run a T-7 with 3 lances and 6 limpets and it feels just about balanced.

 

[Stabby_Dave]

Or you're doing something wrong, cos you aren't producing as many fragments as me?

 

[DemiserofD]

Or you're doing something wrong, cos you aren't producing as many fragments as me?

Unfortunately, without missing, that's not a possibility. Most likely you're too far away from the asteroid, or are allowing the fragments to get scattered around too much, forcing your limpets to fly around much further than they otherwise would need to.

 

[Stabby_Dave]

you may be right. Either way, I'm not doing it against the clock, so as I said, it doesn't really make any difference to me.