Newcomer / Intro Stupid Questions

[Demonlord79]

I've been playing this title since day one and am very aware of the learning curve, so I turn to you guys here in the forums to help out. BTW thank you guys for this...

So with the absolutely terrible mess of Odysseys arrival there are some new things I'm not familiar with such as on my friends list it shows them on but shows them playing Beyond? Can anyone explain what Beyond is?

Next is the mining hotspots. Are they broken as I'm in a painite hotspot and have used around 300 limpets collecting materials but have NEVER seen even one fragment of Painite off any asteroids, even the hot ones?

Lastly is the Dry Dock Markers. What do those mean, or what for?

Thanks Commanders for any help, advice, or information.
See you in the black, hopefully... o7

 

[Frankymole]

Briefly:

Beyond is the previous version of Elite, without the DLC that is Odyssey. You can play this from the Launcher and so instance / team up with friends.

Buy a prospector limpet controller too - this will enable you (once targeted on the limpet that is stuck to an asteroid) to see what minerals it has. Even in a painite hotspot, some rocks don't have painite. A prospector attached to a rock will also give an increased yield.

Dry Docks are, I think, places where Fleet carriers can be fitted out, but I'm not sure.

 

[Ashnak]

How are you mining, and in which type of ring (see e.g. this thread https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/can-i-do-any-mining-mission-using-deep-core-mining.570652/ ).

Painite hotspots should only be in metal rich rings, in which case you will find Painite only as core mineral. That in turn means you will have to

• find a core asteroid (some of the ones that are glowing in the PWA pulse)
• sample the prospective core asteroid with a prospector limpet
• if the asteroid actually contains a core (and that core is actually Painite), blow up the 'roid with your seismic charges
• and finally collect the chunks, either with collector limpets or by manual scooping (there aren't that many, a good yield is a dozen). Some chunks may still be stuck to the 'roid fragments, so bringing an abrasion blaster is also a good idea

Last time I checked, if you go for Painite, laser strip mining in a metallic ring was supposed to be the most effective method.

 

[Chris Simon]

All has been answered here, but just to add a reassurance - yes, the hotspots are broken.
Well, not completely, but they definitely don't work like they used to in Horizons and I've stopped using them. 'Coz I can't be bothered to have Horizons installed and switch to it every time I want to go mining.

 

[Frankymole]

The "hot" scanned ones are ones which require core mining, which Ashnak describes above - they're not usually "hot" for the painite (or whatever the hotspot claims to be) usually it's lower-value stuff. You can get more painite, quicker, using laser mining off the surface of the 'roids but will need a prospector limpet controller to (a) detect the best ones and (b) get enough of a yield to be worth your time. Even then, use a third party tool like Inara or the Miner's Tool at http://edtools.ddns.net/miner to find a place that is buying for a good price. The latter tool also shows your nearest overlapping hotspots - where two painite hotspots overlap you will find many more of the right juice asteroids. Always go to pristine rings where possible.

Anyway, I find palladium more productive in Credits/hour.