Ship Mining for raw mats (not SRV) - yields and results

[Lily from anim.o.v.e]

Anaconda - 208 ton cargo, 11 limpet collectors, 4 mining lasers (2M + 2S)

The cargo is completely your choice, as are number of limpets and lasers but for best results if you want to not waste time then at least 4 mining lasers as above and ~9+ limpets are required.

If you don't mind waiting stationary at current asteroid while you collect and then move one, you can do this in a very small ship using only 1-2 mining lasers, 1-3 collectors, and just barely enough cargo room to allow you to take some limpets. The limiting factor isn't cargo room as no refinery and eng mats take no cargo room, but how many limpets you want to take along with you.

what confuses me here is your comparison to SRV material gathering. If you mine purely for material, with all those limpets?

if I were to go mining for engineering material (because SRV gathering is purely dedicated to it) then why not being so dedicated here too? Just put all non materials on the ignore, strip the roids so that collectors only gather the materials and nothing else. In hat mode you surely shouldn't need like 9+ limpets (5 or 6 should be sufficient). as I doubt theres so much material coming out of a single roid in such a short time. Also, you are using prospectors? I never paid attention to it, but prospectors make you get more chips from the roid, so maybe it also wields a higher chance to get more material chips? So are they needed at all? I geuss yes. but.

I wonder if other ships can do that job better, like a faster and more nimble ship as it might lower the time needed between the asteroids and. Sure you will brign less limpets but you also travel elss so the limpets may collect more before running out.
At leats an APS X might sound like possibility. And cheap alternate for those not havign a conda.

 

[jacozilla]

what confuses me here is your comparison to SRV material gathering. If you mine purely for material, with all those limpets?

if I were to go mining for engineering material (because SRV gathering is purely dedicated to it) then why not being so dedicated here too? Just put all non materials on the ignore, strip the roids so that collectors only gather the materials and nothing else. In hat mode you surely shouldn't need like 9+ limpets (5 or 6 should be sufficient). as I doubt theres so much material coming out of a single roid in such a short time. Also, you are using prospectors? I never paid attention to it, but prospectors make you get more chips from the roid, so maybe it also wields a higher chance to get more material chips? So are they needed at all? I geuss yes. but.

I wonder if other ships can do that job better, like a faster and more nimble ship as it might lower the time needed between the asteroids and. Sure you will brign less limpets but you also travel elss so the limpets may collect more before running out.
At leats an APS X might sound like possibility. And cheap alternate for those not havign a conda.

I mentioned why I run 11 collectors in my OP - here’s copy of relevant paragraph explaining why and some additional comments below. Short story is it maximizes my mining + pickup speed with zero to minimal down time waiting. Re: setting non materials to ignore, you don’t need to.

Easy trick is just don’t equip a refinery. With no refinery, all your limpets automatically ignore non-mats and only pickup raw mats.

Setup - pure raw mats config, no refinery

Anaconda: 208 ton w/ 11 collectors (one school of thought says don't need as many for raw mats vs normal mining but to have zero down time and just literally cruise along at speed while blasting away and collecting all at same time, then fire off prospector while turning to new asteroid and still getting all chunks from old asteroid without slowing down, you need ~9-11 collectors)

All this extra collector config sacrifices is how many limpets I can bring with me and therefore how long I can stay out before coming back for resupply. This setup lasts ~90-120 minutes depending on RNG of low vs med/high asteroids (use prospector and mine only the med/high mat yield asteroids for best results and less time waste)

2M + 2S mining lasers - zero drain w/ G5 charge enhanced perma firing

Yes - I always use prospectors. They boost the yield a good bit.

I only mine asteroids with med and high mat yields identified by prospector. Low asteroids are worthless and not worth the time. Not saying exact numbers but usually barely 1-3 mats from low, 4-8 from med, and 8-10+ from high

mined a long time in ED and to keep it interesting and not boring, I constantly try to keep moving not waste time. Fire propector, mine asteroid with laser while thrusting ship at 25% speed to line up for next prospector, while at same time limpets are retrieving chunks.

because high yield asteroids can produce 8-10+ mats, and I want to minimize wait time as close to zero s possible - I take 11 limpets. It means I will always retrieve in 1 pass all the chunks, and in fact most times I already moving at 50% speed towards next asteroid while last few limpets are retrieving and catch up to me.

ive tried with 9 collectors because that saves me a size 3 slot but while it mostly keeps up, on some high yield asteroids when I get lucky and get more than 9-10 chunks, it causes a delay because 1-2 limpets need to make 2 trips instead of just one. This makes me wait to boost to next asteroid so I prefer 11 limpets with little less cargo room.

besides, with 208 ton config it usually lasts 90-120 minutes. I like mining but I really don’t want to mine more than 2 hour in one session ways. So anaconda with 2 hours of limpets cargo is just fine for me.

and yes, faster more nimble ships are very useful - but it is a balance. Faster and more nimble means less time to move between asteroids, but more time to mine and collect because smaller ships like the asp can’t configure for as many limpets nor run 2M and 2S mining lasers on permanent fire

anaconda charge enhanced G5 distributor has zero drain even when per a firing all 4 mining lasers. And while 2M is just fine, again I don’t like to wait and I find 2M + 2S is just perfect to quickly deplete high yield asteroids even while the slowly thrust sideways towards next prospector lineup.

its up to you, no right or wrong. But if you want to maximize speed and hence get more raw mats per hour, I’ve found nothing better so far than anaconda with my setup. But I know players have different credit balance, so just use whatever best ship you can afford.

Plus if you get around to G5 engineering the anaconda, it’s pretty darn fast enough with dirty drives. At least for asteroid mining.

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

sounds like most of the waiting time is due to the prospector limpets crawling through space.

 

[jacozilla]

sounds like most of the waiting time is due to the prospector limpets crawling through space.

Actually the single largest chunk of time in mats-only mining is depleting the asteroid, followed very closely by limpet collection. So yes, limpets traveling to retrieve and return is a big chunk too, but if you get enough limpets (9-11), the single largest chunk of time will be laser blasting till asteroid is fully depleted.

If I had to assign a swag estimate by numerically rating what percent of total time each activity represents, and again this is just complete mental estimates - I've not timed this in person -->

1. Laser mining the asteroid - 40%

2. Limpets retrieving - 30%
**Caveat!! - this is HUGELY relative to how many limpets you take along, take only a few and your proportion of limpet collection time will be LOT higher. So fyi this estimate is based on my very specific build and playstyle

3. Moving between asteroids - 20%

4. Skipping 'bad' low yield asteroid - 10%
* this is simply estimate of time I used moving extra distance to next asteroid because I skip low yield asteroids; lots of time I don't take much of time hit as next asteroid is very close, but sometimes it takes another 10-20 sec before I can start drilling another asteroid - those little bits add up. This is just a mental estimate.

For newer players without engineering, you will also have some other time factors that good ships + engineered modules don't have to deal with -->

5. Recharge time for mining lasers - can be small part, can be big part, just depends how deficient your distributor size/recharge is. For my Anaconda I can perma-fire all 4 mining lasers with zero drain.

6. Using cheaper limpets - generally class A is best, like 3A, 5A, etc. Has best mix of duration before expiration and over 1km range. But if you're brand new in a hauler and have to use cheaper class limpets, it will add significant time because you add more time replenishing constantly expiring limpets who drop their mat chunks in mid space when they die, so you waste more time for new limpet to get half way dropped chunk plus next new chunk, and can't move away from asteroid at good speed because cheaper class limpets have smaller range.

TLDR - if you don't use enough limpet collectors, then collection will be biggest time sink by far. If you do use lots of collectors, enough to keep up with your laser blasting speed, then it will be your laser blasting till depletion of asteroid as single largest time (although not by huge margin, in my mental recollection it's just a tiny bit more, not huge amount more than total collection time)

Honestly, if I wasn't paranoid about sometimes having to fight off pirate spawns, I would drop more weapons and use (6) mining lasers instead of my (4) setup

 

[addthebadd]

Quick mining related question...

I am out at a Guardian site with no SRV ammo and no mining equipment on my ship just basic pulse lasers. Can I do anything to get some sulphur or do I have to head back to the bubble and replace the SRV?

p.s. I use VR and the SRV makes me nauseous! re earlier post.

 

[Nadreck]

You don't need mining equipment, just the SRV. If you aren't already out of fuel, you'll have to use it to find/shoot/scoop sulphur deposits (and phosphorus if you're low on that too). You'll need a planet with sulphur, and preferably volcanic fumaroles (scanning with the DSS will list these as geological features).

Or you could go to a station. The nearest one to Guardian space is an asteroid base in the Pencil Nebula. You can find the nebula nearby, then use the Civilisation filter to screen out "None": there will be one bright "Human" dot (or you could use Inara or similar to find the nearest station).

 

[addthebadd]

NO AMMO!!! So it looks like I'm heading for the Pencil Nebula! Thanks

 

[Deadlock-3000]

what confuses me here is your comparison to SRV material gathering. If you mine purely for material, with all those limpets?

if I were to go mining for engineering material (because SRV gathering is purely dedicated to it) then why not being so dedicated here too? Just put all non materials on the ignore, strip the roids so that collectors only gather the materials and nothing else. In hat mode you surely shouldn't need like 9+ limpets (5 or 6 should be sufficient). as I doubt theres so much material coming out of a single roid in such a short time. Also, you are using prospectors? I never paid attention to it, but prospectors make you get more chips from the roid, so maybe it also wields a higher chance to get more material chips? So are they needed at all? I geuss yes. but.

I wonder if other ships can do that job better, like a faster and more nimble ship as it might lower the time needed between the asteroids and. Sure you will brign less limpets but you also travel elss so the limpets may collect more before running out.
At leats an APS X might sound like possibility. And cheap alternate for those not havign a conda.

You don't need to put non-materials on ignore. Just don't carry a refinery at all, or if you do have one, deactivate it. Limpets will ignore all refinable chunks and only go for materials.

And SRV gathering isn't purely dedicated to mat mining. You can also pick up medium-value wanted cargo two tonnes at a time and crawl backwards and forwards between the site and your cargo hold, loading them up two tonnes at a time, like a bleedin' peon. Because it wouldn't be SRV play if it didn't literally kill your brain dead.

 

[avow555]

Because it sucks.

Interesting for the 1st day at best. After that not so much.

It certainly does.

You would think they could come up with some alternatives as this rng riddled nonsense is a snooze.

Deployable mining rig thx.

 

[MajorHavoc]

NO AMMO!!! So it looks like I'm heading for the Pencil Nebula! Thanks

The premium reloads do not require sulphur, might want to see if you have the other mats ?

It is possible to just use your ships' lasers to break open surface rocks and even scoop directly, no SRV required at all ! DBX great for this, Asp and Krait no problem either.

I have been meaning to test if it is possible to raise the Guardian pylons and just scoop the keys without the SRV as well.

 

[addthebadd]

The premium reloads do not require sulphur, might want to see if you have the other mats ?

It is possible to just use your ships' lasers to break open surface rocks and even scoop directly, no SRV required at all ! DBX great for this, Asp and Krait no problem either.

I have been meaning to test if it is possible to raise the Guardian pylons and just scoop the keys without the SRV as well.

I do have the other materials. I tried lasering a few rocks in the area but I did not know how to identify which rock to hit. Is it possible to scan the rocks from the ship?

 

[MajorHavoc]

I do have the other materials. I tried lasering a few rocks in the area but I did not know how to identify which rock to hit. Is it possible to scan the rocks from the ship?

Unfortunately it is not possible to use the surface wave scanner from the ships' cockpit. You can currently spot the breakable rocks quite well on icey worlds at the moment due to a bug which seems to prevent the 'clutter/non breakable rocks' from appearing. Just fly low and slow and look out for the small dark black ones, should be visable at about 300 metres. They cannot be targetted either but the fragments can once broken. You can also land and use the SRV to find them then return to your ship and fly over by following the tyre tracks. Good hunting cmdr !