surface mining on planets

[Darth Ender]

synthesize a special mining rig you can equip to srv

you can then hunt for repositories of certain mineable commodities. similar to signal sources.

when near, you can (if using odyssey) walk around for a more detailed scan that improves the mining yield/rate. these activities involve mini games. the activity can be done from srv but it is harder to get a perfect pinpoint.

once done you will be shown what the spot will provide.

recall your ship and land nearby. facing the spot. you must be within 50 meters.

you can then use your srv mining rig to begin processing the ground at the marked point.

this causes a conveyor to telescope out of the ship to the srv if it's in range. the srv cannot be driven while mining is active. the ship cannot take off until mining is stopped. this is controlled at the srv or if the srv is destroyed.

there is no limit to how much can be mined but the rate falls off at varying amounts of time and it will become better to find a new spot. this rate is highly dependent on how well you place your mining marker and the quality of the spot.

the surface spot is not persistent and so not mappable. you can wing mine but each player will have to position themselves on a different spot and not interfere with any other player's conveyer. this will likely lead to slightly less than ideal mining for all but potentially one.

average yield is 100ton in 20min of mining, but surface spots are not reliable to be found with a needed resource and not searchable from off surface and not all resources that might be mineable are listed on planetary stats in system map. however it is not entirely rng. what is mineable is based on given specs of the planet.

also, just for giggles, if you aren't that great with the mini game or mine a spot too long, you have a rising chance to hit a gas pocket that could blow your srv up. there is very little warning to stop mining to avoid disaster. hope you aren't in it and afk.

 

[varonica]

Surface mining would be nice, just a mining equipped srv type would do the trick, no need to synthesise, it would be slower than a regular SRV, able to carry around 50 tons of stuff, would probably need a large SRV bay though, just drive under ship, transfer cargo, and go out again to mine.

 

[Darth Ender]

a huge storage of material didn't seem very possible to have implemented on an srv, since srv's are quite small and the bays they use are sized to fit.

hence the convoluted conveyor tube/ramp. it took us 6+ years to get a second srv. any way to avoid needing a third is likely more possible that ideas that require one.

the synthesis of it though is so it can be added and not require players to have the return to civilization to make use of it.

i haven't been to a populated system in almost two years.

 

[varonica]

a huge storage of material didn't seem very possible to have implemented on an srv, since srv's are quite small and the bays they use are sized to fit.

hence the convoluted conveyor tube/ramp. it took us 6+ years to get a second srv. any way to avoid needing a third is likely more possible that ideas that require one.

the synthesis of it though is so it can be added and not require players to have the return to civilization to make use of it.

i haven't been to a populated system in almost two years.

Synthesising a mining rig just doesn't.....fit.....with any sort of logic or consistency for Elite Dangerous, hence the mining SRV, sure have a conveyer back to the ship if you want, but not synthesising mining rigs, in that case why don't we just synthesise SLFs, or SRV's, even entire ships, why do we need to buy them at all? Why can't I synthesise a Sidewinder?

 

[Maolagin]

Synthesising a mining rig just doesn't.....fit.....with any sort of logic or consistency for Elite Dangerous, hence the mining SRV, sure have a conveyer back to the ship if you want, but not synthesising mining rigs, in that case why don't we just synthesise SLFs, or SRV's, even entire ships, why do we need to buy them at all? Why can't I synthesise a Sidewinder?

Canonically SLFs are "printed" on-demand, which is used to justify the 60 second countdown to launch a new one after one is destroyed, not to mention the fact that a Keelback could not remotely contain six fully built fighters. Our ships can synthesize (nanotechnology?) complex machinery like missiles and limpets from raw elements found lying around. Modules can be repaired using nothing but AFMU "ammo", and SRVs and SLFs are magically repaired whenever they dock. While I wholeheartedly agree that the concept doesn't fit cleanly with other details and resource constraints of the Elite world as described, I don't think you can dismiss it as inconsistent with established mechanics.

 

[DemiserofD]

I like it. I do feel like it might be a bit dull, though. No worse than standard laser mining I suppose, but at least there you move around and maneuver.

What if rather than being mounted on the SRV, they were independent and you could place multiple at once? Imagine having like 6 rigs running at once, and each one has a chance to hit a gas pocket at any given time, so you're constantly running from one to another to blow the pocket or stop mining or whatever. The better SRV driver you are, the faster you can mine!

Just an idea.

 

[varonica]

Canonically SLFs are "printed" on-demand, which is used to justify the 60 second countdown to launch a new one after one is destroyed

Technically they are indeed printed, but from a supply of materials, which may or may not include ready manufactured and assembled parts like microchips, and once that supply runs out, no more SLF, you need to fly back to a station and purchase them again, I'd be fine with deployable mining rigs that worked that way as well.

I don't think you can dismiss it as inconsistent with established mechanics.

The established mechanics are....contradictory at best and sometimes just silly, but all that aside we have never had the ability to manufacture from scratch machinery the size of SLF's or SRV's, SLF's are assembled from a pre-existing store of materials and equipment and once and SRV is gone, well it's gone, and I am considering that a mining rig with conveyers and piping envisaged here is of necessity a more complex and larger device than a limpet or missile....mind you I personally think that's pushing things a bit myself and we shouldn't have that ability to synthesise that sort of device but that's just me, and AFMU's as well, maybe we could carry a stock of spare parts that can be drawn upon, but that opportunity was lost long ago when AFMU's were introduced!

We can surface mine already using SRV's, portable surface mining rigs or specialised mining SRV's are something that could be used to differentiate ship setups, not just a magic something we can press a button have appear whenever we want, otherwise why not just synthesise modules as we need them, refineries perhaps and etc, I am sure they won't be more complex than a portable mining rig that can mine and apparantly refine raw ore. Somewhere we have to draw a line and say, no you can't synthesise something like that, it's a choice that differentiates ship builds and a specialised surface mining rig or SRV would be a choice, like deciding between one of the two types of SRV's we already have.