Please help me better understand how hotspots work

[Deleted member 182079]

Previously, I assumed hotspots provide a) higher surface mining yields and b) higher likelihood of a given commodity, i.e. the one that's referred to in the hotspot name.

However, having mined a fair bit in different systems and types of rings, I'm slowly coming to the following conclusions/assumptions:

1) Name of commodity in hotspot is the most likely commodity one can find in terms of cores (eg. 51% and above the highest percentage would be Bromellite in a Bromellite hotspot, the rest would be other commodities of the same ring type)
2) Higher chance of increased yield % for all commodities (so in a Painite hotspot you come across high yield Osmium, Coltan, etc., doesn't guarantee any Painite surface reserves)

Caveat for overlaps would be that this somehow increases the probability of not only cores but high yield surface reserves of the same commodity (explaining Painite & LTD surface mining being so profitable), possibly unintentionally so.

The above seems to explain why I can't find any XYZ in a regular XYZ hotspot, but plenty of other commodities. If that was the situation I could at least manage my expectations and not keep getting frustrated by the seeming lack of hotspot stuffz.

EDIT:

After another hour or so of trying the same hotspots (1 Platinum, 1 Painite), I've experienced the following:

Platinum

• The hotspot really only seems to concern core asteroids, i.e. the ones you blow up, not SSDs or surface deposits.
• Found cores relatively easily, and 4 out of 4 core roids were Platinum indeed.
• Didn't find a single non-core fragment anywhere but the core rocks. Weird because I used to come across Platinum before in surface reserves.

Painite

• was more more of a PITA (hence the name I guess) to find core rocks
• Again, no surface reserves, nor SSD/surface deposits at all
• Searched for 30 minutes, found 2 cores, the first was Monazite, the second eventually Painite
• I'm relieved I found at least one Painite rock, suggesting it's not (completely) broken, but I'm wondering if there's some rarity rating involved here (see above example with Bromellite, maybe there's a pecking order in terms of how likely you'll find a hotspot commodity within the hotspot or rather something different).

I do wonder if either something changed recently in terms of surface reserves or whether Painite is a bit broken - we don't have this issue with Tritium but then that isn't a core commodity.

 

[Bottom Hat]

I'm curious too. Not that I mine really, but I like to know how things work, and plenty of people have a 'lady dog' about mining being inverse to hotspots in the game recently - and I genuinely don't mean you @ObiW - I just see a lot of impatient moaning here, whereas your proper question is interesting mate.

 

[Krash]

This is a mystery to me as well. I'll be following this thread, waiting for the mining nerds to make clarifying statements, etc.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I'm curious too. Not that I mine really, but I like to know how things work, and plenty of people have a 'lady dog' about mining being inverse to hotspots in the game recently - and I genuinely don't mean you @ObiW - I just see a lot of impatient moaning here, whereas your proper question is interesting mate.

Not taken the wrong way at all (but I know what you mean).

I'm currently mining in a metallic ring (HIP 21991 where the double Painite used to be), and I figured let's give a single Painite spot another go (after trying a Platinum one, without success). Been in a few instances now and not a single fragment of Painite - BUT I'm currently only mining in my surface mining T-10. Will switch to a core miner shortly to see if the OP holds up or not.

I'm getting a lot of high yield reserves, 35-55% - it's anything but Painite/Platinum or whatever hotspot I'm in. I'll take it, because I'm mining literally everything now, as I'm stocking up on all commodities I come across in case I can use them for missions in the future. It's odd though that the hotspots work in a somewhat counterintuitive way - unless you're in an overlap.

 

[Florenus]

1) Name of commodity in hotspot is the most likely commodity one can find in terms of cores (eg. 51% and above the highest percentage would be Bromellite in a Bromellite hotspot, the rest would be other commodities of the same ring type)

My mining experience is pretty much limited to core mining and as far as I can tell this is the case.

I always assumed (and that's what I pretty much remember from Fdev explanations when core mining was introduced) that hotspots are for core mining and represent higher concentration of core asteroids (of certain type).
Whether they influence anything else... I don't know.

 

[Darth Ender]

My take:

Obviously hot spots effect laser mining or borann wouldn't have been a thing. They impact percentage of roids containing the commodity of the hotspot and also the potency.

Single hotspot regions or no hotspot regions aren't worth wasting your time in.

Double overlap tritium/painite laser mining is decent. Double overlap ltd isn't. Triple overlap is ideal for all, but true triples are rare so unless you're looking to just grind, double overlaps are where you want to be. I dont drop in to a region unless it's a double overlap. I do a lot of exploring though, so finding double overlaps of various commodities is common. Double overlaps of the few I have my eyes on (non-core only) are still rare though (painite, platinum, tritium, ltd). I dont use third party logging tools so I keep my mining stakes secret. Lots of good rings out in the black. Much more garbage.. but there are some really crazy ones out there ... especially if you're a deposit only miner (alexanderite, grandiderite type crap in particular).

Metallic rings allow laser mining minerals ... In metal rich rings, those minerals are cores/deposits only. Metallic rings are the rarest rings in the game. And they rarely have good hotspot overlaps.

I tend to stick away from core-only stuff mostly because it gets super boring hunting for roids and just doing core mining. I prefer to be able to laser in between happening upon cores / subsurface. It may not be exploitable as much as subsurface / deposit type commodities are, but it's less boring.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I just edited the OP with my findings from mining in my core mining ship for a little bit. It's not sufficient to come to absolute conclusions but it's in line with my experience for a while now. Mining in overlaps seems to change the picture quite dramatically - I remember the double Painite hotspot was very, very lucrative, and I didn't even bother with core mining gear as strip mining was much more efficient (50%+ being quite common).

 

[Dragsham]

This is my take on it.
Recently fdev announced a falloff as regards the hotspot. The centre yielding more and falling off as you get to the edge. Can't give numbers but it makes a difference.
Now a triple has a small intersect whereby all 3 multiply the yield and percentage.. at least one of these perhaps both I'm not sure.
The small area(s) where the 3 hotspots all the same namely LTDS or Void Opals etc will increase the chances of finding a 30% plus low medium or high roid.
That's it pretty much.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I forgot to mention, I dropped very close to the centre of the hotspot (within a few hundred km's), and also this is single hotspot testing, no overlaps.

 

[Dragsham]

Then as close to the centre as possible seems likely