The Mining discussion thread.
Mining is an quite poor atm, not sure if scanners work, but there is a different sound when you hit a mineral spot.
One of the major annoyances are that it doesn't automatically jettison ore of a different type when your hoppers are full, so you may get 2 separate ores with differing types. This leads to scooping, going into the menu to jettison every time you pick up another chunk of space rock.
Not sure what angle they were going for with mining but it's really quite unpleasant atm and will have nowhere near the income of anything else. Currently you will need to find a good source by mining a few rocks, mine, catch a few rocks before they expire and you'll only end up with 1 unit at the end of it, unless you find a spot which gives 2 resources and gives enough for one refine.
One of the major annoyances are that it doesn't automatically jettison ore of a different type when your hoppers are full, so you may get 2 separate ores with differing types. This leads to scooping, going into the menu to jettison every time you pick up another chunk of space rock.
Not sure what angle they were going for with mining but it's really quite unpleasant atm and will have nowhere near the income of anything else. Currently you will need to find a good source by mining a few rocks, mine, catch a few rocks before they expire and you'll only end up with 1 unit at the end of it, unless you find a spot which gives 2 resources and gives enough for one refine.
I decided that mining is not for me.
Bought the best refinery I could find and afford, a D2 for 1 million credits; has 6 different mineral bays. Found out that ice asteroids do not lose minerals only rocky asteroids. Ok, found rocky asteroids shot at them and collected Coltan 15-20% fragments and Bauxite and Rutile. So I needed 5-6 fragments of a kind to get 1 ton of mineral.
Collected 3 tons of different minerals. Flew to the next station and saw the abysmal prices (Bertrandite, the most expensive one is about 2.500 credits). Sold refinery and mining scanner right away. Mining is not for me.
Bought the best refinery I could find and afford, a D2 for 1 million credits; has 6 different mineral bays. Found out that ice asteroids do not lose minerals only rocky asteroids. Ok, found rocky asteroids shot at them and collected Coltan 15-20% fragments and Bauxite and Rutile. So I needed 5-6 fragments of a kind to get 1 ton of mineral.
Collected 3 tons of different minerals. Flew to the next station and saw the abysmal prices (Bertrandite, the most expensive one is about 2.500 credits). Sold refinery and mining scanner right away. Mining is not for me.
Just had a quick look at the system map for STYX 4, where i see quite a few people trying out Mining.
If you click on the gas giant with the asteroid belt, you will notice it gives the composition of the rings
and also says Low Reserves. So i guess its not going to be that profitable.
If you click on the gas giant with the asteroid belt, you will notice it gives the composition of the rings
and also says Low Reserves. So i guess its not going to be that profitable.
Did you really expect mining to be exciting? Sure it can be boring if you have that attitude.
Don't mine the first asteroid you see, go out and explore and mine far and distant uncharted places!
MINING IS GREAT!!!
I've found a cluster of asteroids rich in palladium, OUT of the "old bubble", 10 minutes to exctract 4t of said mineral. Gone to HiTech World, in BB found a corporation that wanted 3t of palladium for 74.000CR, more or less. Sold the remaining one for 12.000CR. Total balance: 86.000CR in 15min.
It's less than hauling big cargo, but it's in no way boring. You have to explore, not blindly, but using the tools provided and a bit of immagination. In the system map, once the system have been charted (and detail-scanned) a lot of data is displayed.
Now exploring is not only a matter of cartography, but also a profitable way of making money.
I've found a cluster of asteroids rich in palladium, OUT of the "old bubble", 10 minutes to exctract 4t of said mineral. Gone to HiTech World, in BB found a corporation that wanted 3t of palladium for 74.000CR, more or less. Sold the remaining one for 12.000CR. Total balance: 86.000CR in 15min.
It's less than hauling big cargo, but it's in no way boring. You have to explore, not blindly, but using the tools provided and a bit of immagination. In the system map, once the system have been charted (and detail-scanned) a lot of data is displayed.
Now exploring is not only a matter of cartography, but also a profitable way of making money.
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I just tried mining at one of the styx sites. Got about 5 tons of palladium and sold it at Asselius for about 14,000 each. So not too bad considering I also had about 6 tons of other various things.
I do feel that perhaps a chunk of asteroid should be a percentage of a few tons of cargo instead of just a percentage of a single ton. Like a chunk comes off, it's about 8 tons, 15% of that is a mineral you need. Each spot in the refinery is about 1-6 tons depending on the refinery you have which would be dependant on the ship you have. Keeps the same type of work but makes it a bit faster.
A scanner that would show what the asteroid contains, as well as a marker on the asteroid to show where to shoot to maximize the amount of chunks would be nice as well. Give a bit more for a player to do, rather than shoot and scoop for hours.
I do feel that perhaps a chunk of asteroid should be a percentage of a few tons of cargo instead of just a percentage of a single ton. Like a chunk comes off, it's about 8 tons, 15% of that is a mineral you need. Each spot in the refinery is about 1-6 tons depending on the refinery you have which would be dependant on the ship you have. Keeps the same type of work but makes it a bit faster.
A scanner that would show what the asteroid contains, as well as a marker on the asteroid to show where to shoot to maximize the amount of chunks would be nice as well. Give a bit more for a player to do, rather than shoot and scoop for hours.
Sargon
Banned
Mining has by tradition, never been 'fun' for everyone. It's nice if you're a patient person and if this is done properly, we can also hit a substantial jackpot.
A.D.D. is a terrible thing... LOL
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I've just spent a bit of time mining and ended up with 6 tons of palladium, and some assorted other goodies.
Now I just have to find some place to sell it
It's a far better mechanic than pointing a laser at something and getting the goods automatically - FD, well done!
The only confusing thing is the hopper - sometimes it's full and can't accept more input, even though the refiner has processed what it can into cargo loads and the unit has free pools to feed. Also - please consider adding a chunky grindy melty sound as the refiner processes resources - it's a little tame at the moment
Now I just have to find some place to sell it
It's a far better mechanic than pointing a laser at something and getting the goods automatically - FD, well done!The only confusing thing is the hopper - sometimes it's full and can't accept more input, even though the refiner has processed what it can into cargo loads and the unit has free pools to feed. Also - please consider adding a chunky grindy melty sound as the refiner processes resources - it's a little tame at the moment
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Well said Sargon... LOL
I bought a 2 hold Refinery and a laser and headed out to Styx Site 6. In my Sidewinder if I wanted to keep my basic discovery scanner (which I thought I might have needed for the mining), I had to dump my shields. You don't need the basic discovery scanner, by the way, for mining.
Pretty dramatic, all the rocky asteroids rotating slowly in the brightness of a very close by sun.
My observations:
You can't target individual asteroids. Asteroids thus have no names and no way to identify one from the other. There is no way to scan an asteroid for minerals before mining.
Asteroid "fields" are no where near as crowded as the rings of a planet. They're probably 1000m+ away from each other, and all of them I've seen so far are about 1/3rd as big as a station. If you get jumped in an asteroid "field", you should play it pretty much like you're in deep space. Not like you can do some fancy and daring Empire Strikes Back flying to avoid enemies, but I suppose you could circle strafe around an asteroid to confuse the enemy.
Each asteroid only spits out about 10 chunks, sometimes less. Then you have to move onto a new asteroid, which, since you can't target the old asteroid, becomes a bit confusing. There is no notification that the asteroid is "empty" - you'll just stop seeing chunks pop out, and then you move on. You could easily head towards an asteroid you've already mined and have no idea after several asteroids worth of mining, because they all look the same and there's no way to tell them apart. I would assume the asteroids replenish their minerals every xx minutes to keep them "stocked".
You don't have to keep the laser in one spot. I thought this to be odd. The asteroid is spinning, so you can just point in one spot and let your mining laser paint a pretty series of lines all over it, and watch for the chunks to spit out. Originally I thought you had to keep the laser focused on one spot which was challenging as the rock is rotating.
After you have the chunks, open your scoop and go collect them. Don't hit the asteroid!
Chunks fly out and presumably tell you how much % of 1T worth of a material they contain, but I don't find that number to be accurate. I'm not sure what that % means. They could also contain other minerals.
You won't be hurting for cargo hold space, you'll be hurting for Refinery space. It takes 10+ chunks to make 1 ton of minerals. Problem is, you have only 2 refinery spots. If you mine one asteroid and it spits out Gallium, you now have say 10% of 1T of Gallium sitting in your refinery. In order to "clear" that 10% of Gallium and reclaim your refinery spot, you either need 90% more chunks to make 1T, or you need to vent it. Say you bail on your Gallium asteroid and go next door - and this asteroid is now spitting out Silver. Now you have 10% of 1T of Gallium and 10% of 1T of Silver - and your refinery slots are full. If you get a chunk that contains say 10% Silver and 10% Gold at this point, the gold has no refinery slot to go into, so you have to vent it.
I've crashed out to the main menu 3 times however. After 15 minutes and 3 asteroids, I had Bernditate and Endite (spelling, I know) in my refinery. My 2 refinery slots now contain Bern at 90% and Endite at 80%. Pick up a chunk of Bern and see that it also has Silver. I don't have any room in my refinery for silver, and since I'm so close to finishing up both my End and Burn, I figure I just vent the 10% of silver I picked up, and that way I have room in my hopper to finish up Bern and End.
Problem is, when I eject my Silver, server disconnects and back to the main menu I go. Happened 3 times in a row.
Not sure what multiple Mining lasers would offer you. Maybe twice the chunks, or 1 chunk shows up twice as fast. Either way, you're limited to the amount of flying skill you have to pick up the chunks - that's your bottleneck, not the mining laser speed. You can usually free up all 10 chunks with 2 charges of a single mining laser, which takes about 2 minutes or so.
Anyway, I'm fairly impressed with the system. Dynamic vistas and the orbiting asteroids plus the relative difficulty of picking up the chunks before they spin away too far is a challenge. Head out to a Styx asteroid site even if you don't have a mining laser and just check out the big rocks floating super close to the glare of a giant sun, it's really dramatic looking.
Didn't see anyone near me nor any pirates. Much like Exploring, it's not very exciting nor is it very profitable unless you get lucky picking an asteroid with expensive minerals. I found it to be relaxing and you have to concentrate just enough where it's not just SC'ing to distant stars so you can scan them. I'm in Styx like everyone else, and I don't think the asteroids "give crappier materials the more they're mined". I think it's more like "the easier they are to get to, the crappier the materials".
Pretty dramatic, all the rocky asteroids rotating slowly in the brightness of a very close by sun.
My observations:
You can't target individual asteroids. Asteroids thus have no names and no way to identify one from the other. There is no way to scan an asteroid for minerals before mining.
Asteroid "fields" are no where near as crowded as the rings of a planet. They're probably 1000m+ away from each other, and all of them I've seen so far are about 1/3rd as big as a station. If you get jumped in an asteroid "field", you should play it pretty much like you're in deep space. Not like you can do some fancy and daring Empire Strikes Back flying to avoid enemies, but I suppose you could circle strafe around an asteroid to confuse the enemy.
Each asteroid only spits out about 10 chunks, sometimes less. Then you have to move onto a new asteroid, which, since you can't target the old asteroid, becomes a bit confusing. There is no notification that the asteroid is "empty" - you'll just stop seeing chunks pop out, and then you move on. You could easily head towards an asteroid you've already mined and have no idea after several asteroids worth of mining, because they all look the same and there's no way to tell them apart. I would assume the asteroids replenish their minerals every xx minutes to keep them "stocked".
You don't have to keep the laser in one spot. I thought this to be odd. The asteroid is spinning, so you can just point in one spot and let your mining laser paint a pretty series of lines all over it, and watch for the chunks to spit out. Originally I thought you had to keep the laser focused on one spot which was challenging as the rock is rotating.
After you have the chunks, open your scoop and go collect them. Don't hit the asteroid!
Chunks fly out and presumably tell you how much % of 1T worth of a material they contain, but I don't find that number to be accurate. I'm not sure what that % means. They could also contain other minerals.
You won't be hurting for cargo hold space, you'll be hurting for Refinery space. It takes 10+ chunks to make 1 ton of minerals. Problem is, you have only 2 refinery spots. If you mine one asteroid and it spits out Gallium, you now have say 10% of 1T of Gallium sitting in your refinery. In order to "clear" that 10% of Gallium and reclaim your refinery spot, you either need 90% more chunks to make 1T, or you need to vent it. Say you bail on your Gallium asteroid and go next door - and this asteroid is now spitting out Silver. Now you have 10% of 1T of Gallium and 10% of 1T of Silver - and your refinery slots are full. If you get a chunk that contains say 10% Silver and 10% Gold at this point, the gold has no refinery slot to go into, so you have to vent it.
I've crashed out to the main menu 3 times however. After 15 minutes and 3 asteroids, I had Bernditate and Endite (spelling, I know) in my refinery. My 2 refinery slots now contain Bern at 90% and Endite at 80%. Pick up a chunk of Bern and see that it also has Silver. I don't have any room in my refinery for silver, and since I'm so close to finishing up both my End and Burn, I figure I just vent the 10% of silver I picked up, and that way I have room in my hopper to finish up Bern and End.
Problem is, when I eject my Silver, server disconnects and back to the main menu I go. Happened 3 times in a row.
Not sure what multiple Mining lasers would offer you. Maybe twice the chunks, or 1 chunk shows up twice as fast. Either way, you're limited to the amount of flying skill you have to pick up the chunks - that's your bottleneck, not the mining laser speed. You can usually free up all 10 chunks with 2 charges of a single mining laser, which takes about 2 minutes or so.
Anyway, I'm fairly impressed with the system. Dynamic vistas and the orbiting asteroids plus the relative difficulty of picking up the chunks before they spin away too far is a challenge. Head out to a Styx asteroid site even if you don't have a mining laser and just check out the big rocks floating super close to the glare of a giant sun, it's really dramatic looking.
Didn't see anyone near me nor any pirates. Much like Exploring, it's not very exciting nor is it very profitable unless you get lucky picking an asteroid with expensive minerals. I found it to be relaxing and you have to concentrate just enough where it's not just SC'ing to distant stars so you can scan them. I'm in Styx like everyone else, and I don't think the asteroids "give crappier materials the more they're mined". I think it's more like "the easier they are to get to, the crappier the materials".
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As far as I can remember, FD never liked tractor beams nor gravity generators for Elite.
Wish I had looked at this thread earlier, just spent 10 frustrating minutes doing circles around an Ice asteroid trying to "cut off" a lumpy bit. Now I realise I need to find a metallic or rocky roid....
Would be better if you had to actually cut off the roid though, rather than just pointing it at a roid as it spins.
Would be better if you had to actually cut off the roid though, rather than just pointing it at a roid as it spins.
Skimmed thread real quick and figured I'd leave my own first impressions.
-It'd be nice if when you vented ore, the chunk came back out. Then at least someone else could pick it up if you're working in a team.
-It's incredibly annoying to have 99% of something like Palladium and then have the local rocks run out. A station service where you could perhaps sell whatever's left in your hoppers at a markdown would be pretty neat.
-I also really wouldn't mind the ability to equip multiple refiners, or carry raw,unrefined rocks as some sort of cargo item. (if a non-standard one? maybe only in special bays? Maybe make refiners and their hoppers separate parts, or expandable by the addition of more hoppers?) Mostly since my first though upon seeing the mechanics was to get a pile of haulers to collect chunks for a bigger ship stuffed to the gills with refinery units. That said, I do get that if you could cram a ship full of enough refineries, as things are, the aspect of refinery management becomes totally moot. Though considering the expense it'd be to get enough of the things...
I imagine it is like it is to avoid being too EVE like in the mining cycle. (Shoot rocks, return to station, dump, shoot rocks...) but I'd certainly like to see it develop into something that allows for multiple players to get creative working together on it. (If the cycle itself was simple, coordinating mining teams in EVE was a lot of fun.)
With very large ships, like the Type-9, I could see finagling the scoop into place being a real hassle. If tractor beams are out, something like retrieval drones may be handy? It's a fairly low-tech solution, and one that comes with a risk/reward built in. (Drones make things easy/drones can be attacked, use fuel)
-It'd be nice if when you vented ore, the chunk came back out. Then at least someone else could pick it up if you're working in a team.
-It's incredibly annoying to have 99% of something like Palladium and then have the local rocks run out. A station service where you could perhaps sell whatever's left in your hoppers at a markdown would be pretty neat.
-I also really wouldn't mind the ability to equip multiple refiners, or carry raw,unrefined rocks as some sort of cargo item. (if a non-standard one? maybe only in special bays? Maybe make refiners and their hoppers separate parts, or expandable by the addition of more hoppers?) Mostly since my first though upon seeing the mechanics was to get a pile of haulers to collect chunks for a bigger ship stuffed to the gills with refinery units. That said, I do get that if you could cram a ship full of enough refineries, as things are, the aspect of refinery management becomes totally moot. Though considering the expense it'd be to get enough of the things...
I imagine it is like it is to avoid being too EVE like in the mining cycle. (Shoot rocks, return to station, dump, shoot rocks...) but I'd certainly like to see it develop into something that allows for multiple players to get creative working together on it. (If the cycle itself was simple, coordinating mining teams in EVE was a lot of fun.)
AbueloNemesis said:
With very large ships, like the Type-9, I could see finagling the scoop into place being a real hassle. If tractor beams are out, something like retrieval drones may be handy? It's a fairly low-tech solution, and one that comes with a risk/reward built in. (Drones make things easy/drones can be attacked, use fuel)
half an hour mining for 1 ton of leopadite. I think they are missing a decimal place for the effort it currently takes.
should have been 10.
also I see metal rich belts in system view but not in navigation ,do I need to detail scan the main star to make the belt nav points appear?
should have been 10.
also I see metal rich belts in system view but not in navigation ,do I need to detail scan the main star to make the belt nav points appear?
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I might have to look into the mining side of things. Seems there's no lucrative ways of making good cash in this update.. every system I've been to so far entails getting minerals etc. No decent missions at all that I've come across so far.