Questions about the 500 mining grind for the engineer

[Sapyx]

Zero, zip, nadda interest in mining, so therefore I will never get that engineer unlocked. Now if I could buy the ore somewhere, that would be different.

In my opinion, this is exactly how Engineers are supposed to work. They're not supposed to be a boring grind to allow you to max-max your ship. If there's some aspect of the game you simply refuse to do, then that Engineer is locked out for you. Those engineers support and work for people who are like-minded to them. Selene Jean offers bonuses to miners (better armour to help fend off pirates), she's not interested in helping mercenaries or traders. Palin offers bonuses to explorers (faster engines to help unarmed explorers run away), non-explorers are supposed to make do with the lesser upgrades from other engineers. For players who actually do like all aspects of the game, from mining to exploring to trading to death-dealing, congratulations - you get to unlock all the Engineers, and have fun doing it, too.

For myself, there's an engineer (I forget her name) who wants me to befriend her Anarchist faction before she'll help me. My character (RP) hates anarchist scum and refuse to befriend them, so I will never unlock that engineer - or any of her friends. She's an entry-level engineer, so that means up to seven Engineers that I will be locked out of, permanently. And that's my choice. I choose my playstyle, I accept the consequences of that playstyle. No complaints from me.

 

[Imgran]

For me it was brain jarringly dull, but I concur with others that it didn't take long, and I did make a lot of money. I'll even tell you exactly where to go. LFT 65, drop into the inner ring of planet 4. Take a Python if you can with 2 5D collectors and 1 3d prospector, all the other slots cargo bays, you'll be doing two runs in a python with 128 cargo, two mining lasers in the medium slots (more does not help, and two 5D colelctor limpets (so 6 active collector limpets) collects at almost the same rate as you can strip the chunks off). Try to mine in a direction that makes the chunks fly away from the direction of rotation of an asteroid or the rotation will kill your limpets.

a 1A prospector is way better tan a 3D prospector. You want your prospector A graded because A graded prospectors create more fragments.

 

[Darkfyre99]

It's only 10 tons of Painite. A single asteroid usually provides that.

The 50 tons are Bromellite for another engineer, which is a bit trickier - but there are ways to easily deal with that as well.

There's another engineer that requires you to frelling mine???

Spoiler

[video=youtube;WWaLxFIVX1s]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWaLxFIVX1s[/video]

 

[wrmiller]

Mining would be tolerable if the fragments were collected without you having to monitor each one. No limpets, just a collector just as fuel is collected (maybe a static generator or something).

Then you could be focused on actual seeking and mining of materials, and you'd see a lot more actual players mining instead of just NPCs. The game is full of material to mine, but it's not profitable vs other activities and far less exciting than pew pew.

I play this game to be a mission runner and bounty hunter. Not a rock hound. And I agree, the process is entirely too complicated/drawn out. Especially in a game with such a arcade flight model and other simplistic mechanics.

I read above where there are some player groups that do trades. But I'm not really into trusting anyone on game network so I'll just do without my G5 shield boosters which is all I was really interested in anyway.

Had I not started running into engineered NPCs I wouldn't even have bothered with any of this RNG nonsense.

 

[Drelthar]

They should have made this 100.

500 is just extreme.

Similar to 5000 (FIVE THOUSAND!!!!) Light years from starting point for Palin. 1000LY would have been enough for people to "see some of what exploration has to offer" which is essentially the point, without making it very tiresome.

Also one of the things they could do to make collecting in general a lot less annoying, would be to make collectors and their cargo immune to collision damage with your own ship.

 

[Stealthie]

This is an ironic thread. Unlocking Selene was one of the engineer unlocks that I actually thought was fun. It only takes a few hours in a good mining ship and it introduced me to a cool part of the game I hadn’t done much. I even got some bonus mats while doing it as well.

That's how I felt about it too.

Mining isn't "exciting" but this is, at least, one of those tasks where you get to play around designing and building a ship, figuring out the most efficient way to do a thing and the game just leaves you alone to get on with it - and you can make decent credits in the process.

 

[Aashenfox]

a 1A prospector is way better tan a 3D prospector. You want your prospector A graded because A graded prospectors create more fragments.

How the hell did I not know that? This game fails so badly at giving you the info that's important. Why is this not mentioned ANYWHERE (except by posters, I found them too)? FD?? WTH??

Anyway, thanks for that mate, make sure you keep enlightening people cos I reckon that's a little known fact.

 

[Aashenfox]

That's how I felt about it too.

Mining isn't "exciting" but this is, at least, one of those tasks where you get to play around designing and building a ship, figuring out the most efficient way to do a thing and the game just leaves you alone to get on with it - and you can make decent credits in the process.

That's one of the worst aspects of it for me, all that time, money and thinking, only to sell it again three hours later. And then rebuild it all over again when you reach Bill. Grrrr.

 

[Crank Larson]

When I came to unlock Selene, I was surprised to find that I'd already mined over 200 tons. Must have been very early in the game (I was probably experimenting when limpets were introduced, I guess). But I did enjoy the two evenings it took me to complete the count. I unlocked Bill Turner last week for the 50 tons of bromelite. That took me a couple of hours, and again I found it a nice change. I am looking forward to see what FD have in mind for mining, and will certainly take it up part-time if it becomes profitable enough to do so.

 

[lecorsobreton]

I'd rather mine than do boring rare trade runs (like bring 50 units of Fujin tea). Even in my asp, that's a 8 jump return flight...

 

[5 Puppis]

I just mined my 10T of painite last night and it turned out less painful than expected.

Filled my cargo hold with 120 limpets, went to a pristine metal ring, and just went rock to rock prospecting. Used 80 of the limpets prospecting and found just 3 rocks containing painite, but the last one was 30% painite and netted 8T!

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Get your mining chops ready, because to fully unlock Selene Jean you need to mine 10 Painite for her after the 500. You can only get the Painite by mining.

Jura system Jura 7 A Ring will make mining painite easy and make mining profitable. I just unloaded a T-9 worth of 3 P's and Gold for about 7 mil. Mining is good for loading up on materials also.

That's not entirely true - I have found free-floating painite around Obsidian Orbital, in Threat 2 or Threat 3 signal sources, usually around with a few canisters of toxic waste. But you can mine it faster than you can fill up with it here.

 

[ALGOMATIC]

In my opinion, this is exactly how Engineers are supposed to work. They're not supposed to be a boring grind to allow you to max-max your ship. If there's some aspect of the game you simply refuse to do, then that Engineer is locked out for you. Those engineers support and work for people who are like-minded to them. Selene Jean offers bonuses to miners (better armour to help fend off pirates), she's not interested in helping mercenaries or traders. Palin offers bonuses to explorers (faster engines to help unarmed explorers run away), non-explorers are supposed to make do with the lesser upgrades from other engineers. For players who actually do like all aspects of the game, from mining to exploring to trading to death-dealing, congratulations - you get to unlock all the Engineers, and have fun doing it, too.

For myself, there's an engineer (I forget her name) who wants me to befriend her Anarchist faction before she'll help me. My character (RP) hates anarchist scum and refuse to befriend them, so I will never unlock that engineer - or any of her friends. She's an entry-level engineer, so that means up to seven Engineers that I will be locked out of, permanently. And that's my choice. I choose my playstyle, I accept the consequences of that playstyle. No complaints from me.

When it comes to PVP, none of this matters, you must unlock all of them regardless of your RP. But I guess you dont care much for it so your point makes sense.

 

[Atrib]

Does the 500 tons mined to unlock the engineer have to be collected and sold or can it just be lasered out and left.....I have no inclination for mining and am looking for an easy out

Done 2 days ago and had same problem, but you can manage it with not expensive ships (mining laser + collector + prospector + cargo) in just 2 or 3 hours, my suggestion is to choose a rich asteroid ring planet. Focus on Painite (you need it for unlock engineer) and take it into the cargo. Eject the other minerals (or if you prefer you can sell them to the near station), taking care engineer progress bar. You can find painite on system frey, planet frey 4, inner ring. I got a 47% painite rock in the same time i was mining 500 T: https://inara.cz/data/gallery/36/36898x3565.jpg

 

[Snarfbuckle]

I just hate the fact that I cannot purchase the minerals at a station and just chuck it through a refinery. It's not like the minerals I find in an asteroid is any different.

 

[Luniticisi]

mining is actually pretty relaxing, Zen even.

 

[StiTch]

Python is an excellent ship for this bit. 7A charge enhanced distributor, 5 mining lasers, a metric crapload of collector limpets and some Opeth blaring out the speakers.

 

[DaggerSnake]

This unlock was pretty fun. Really gave me a good reason to try mining. I played it out in about three weeks. Made a ton of cash and LOTS of materials for premium synthesis and engineering.

The best thing, no grinding. I just played Elite.

 

[Meeklo Braca]

I'm going to attempt this unlock in my Sidewinder, after I unlock Marco. RIP me.

 

[Stealthie]

That's one of the worst aspects of it for me, all that time, money and thinking, only to sell it again three hours later. And then rebuild it all over again when you reach Bill. Grrrr.

What is this "selling" of which you speak? [woah]