Surface Prospecting Stations, For Buying Planetary Materials.

[MrSleepin]

Surface prospecting is fun to a lot of CMDRs, but hell to others...a lot of CMDRs just want to get their materials asap so they can engineer and be competitive.

There's months of grinding and luck involved in engineering. Something i propose to make it a lot more tolerable, add a special settlement to landable planets (maybe not every one) that sells the materials available on that planet. Based off availability, price would fluctuate. Example, a 2.3% arsenic planet would cost 15,000cr/Arsenic, but a 1.0% Arsenic might cost 19,000cr.

Not only should you be able to buy at these settlements, but you should make it a viable source of income to those that do enjoy surface prospecting. Just like ring mining.

 

[Teh Smoo]

There's already a "materials extraction" device you can run across on planets. Not player built, ofc.

If there was a second "construction" model SRV that built temporary extractors (and the game saved that place as a waypoint), you could get cargo units, build extractors, then return later for materials or cargo. Prefab stuff could be stored in cargo containers.

If they were reusable, that would be great for exploration! Build a few extractors and log, and next session you would have materials harvested! In the bubble, you could just build something and come back later, if no other commander found it against all odds, and decided to "harvest it prematurely."

One energy generator that supplies like 8 extractors, per commander, shouldn't cause much database bloat. And have them expire after a week.