The Mining discussion thread.

[IndianaGeoff]

Now look at mining. I tried this too today in a heavily upgraded cobra. I wasn't happy with the results. I was able to completely deplete a rock of ore chunks in a few quick bursts, no problem there. Chasing down the ore also wasn't terribly difficult. The best ore I found was 20% indite or 20% palladium, in both cases a lesser mineral was also present. In this best case scenario, I needed 5 chunks of ore to make about 15k credits. Blasting off 5 chunks isn't an issue and is wicked fast. However chasing each one down and scooping it, though not difficult, does take a few minutes. This is where the problem with mining lies. Even when you do get top end stuff, the fact that you have to chase many little chunks around eats up way too much time. The ore simply isn't worth enough for that.

100% agree. For a mid tier ship and above, mining is a total waste. The issue is chasing down the chunks. That is way too tedious for the reward.

Cargo scooping some high value salvage for big bucks... that makes sense. But cargo scooping individual chunks while mining does not. There should be some sort of auto load ability. Then you could take a big ship, load it up with mining lasers and high volume mine.

I can imagine the scene were a crew of sidewinders is mining along. Then a big hauler comes in, pulls out 4 mining lasers and proceeds to decimate the field. Sidewinders decide enough is enough and try to take him out.

 

[Lestat]

Mining too hard. that odd. I been making about 80k to 100k per run. But like the other person said pristine location of ore helps

 

[Monk]

After having done a good amount of mining and trading, back to back, I've come to some conclusions.

It isn't that unbalanced. As many have said, mining is pure profit. However, it can be a bit sleepy at times (not a bad thing, but if you want mining with action do it in an extraction zone), while also being incredibly safe and easy on your ship costs.

Trading on the other hand, has much greater potential for raking in profit. However, the expediency of that profit comes with other costs. a) you have to outlay the capital, putting your funds at risk b) you could run into all kinds of trouble flying about the galaxy c) Ship maintenance racks up with fuel costs and damage from pirates

This is why I think they are balanced. Find a good field, mine it peacefully and make a lot of credits at a somewhat slower rate than trading. However, if you want to boost your profit potential, mine at an extraction zone and collect bounties when flying between roids. Plus, once you have some gold in your cargo, the bounties will come to you.

From one run picking up palladium and silver in my cobra while also netting bounties I made over 200k in well less than an hour.

 

[Lestat]

Maybe you should look at other locations.

The Ore Vein (good mining locations)

 

[kb_Nomad]

Anyone kitted up an ASP and went out?
Ship might be to big to try to catch flying rocks though.
Add a fuel scoop and go way out there, haul back 128 tons of high priced stuff - just a thought..
KB

 

[Krait_79]

It's not exactly fine as it is - the mechanics of it are tedious: mine a piece of rock, fly chasing it like a dog dashes after a thrown stick... that part would do with some polishing - send a drone to fetch the pesky rock, even if it'd take exactly as long as it'd take for you to fetch it, it'd avoid the rather cumbersome hassle of zigzagging around and let you concentrate on the job itself.

No really it is! Chasing the rocks is the fun part. I'd rather have a drone mine the rock whilst I gather them. Sitting there blasting a rock with a laser is actually the tedious part!

 

[Hawkmoon]

Keep hearing about how easy mining is....

I have read so many post about how easy mining is but I have always struggled to get any kind of pay out worth the time, that is until last night when I found my first pristine metallic ring. I only had 45 mins there but made 60K in my eagle. Had a 2 slot refiner and a 4 ton cargo bay took back 3 tons of gold and 1 of palladium in the hold and a ton of gold and platinum in the refiner. I am docked at the local station so tonight i will buy a hauler with last nights takings and take that back to the same ring. I can't mins for too long as I really don't enjoy it but the returns are very good so will most likely leave what ever ship I am using there and just pop back now and then to top up my creds until I am in a position to strike out.

 

[Cmdr Andy B]

i'm surprised you even bothered with more than a tonne of gold, if you log off and on again in front of the platinum asteroid it regenerates and you can keep on mining it until your hold is full.

 

[Barulf McBaren]

I would like to know if the relog-asteroid-refill is actually working as intended or rather some kind of exploit?

 

[JonnyC0mbat]

I must be a bit odd because I really enjoying the slow pace of mining. Whenever I get tired of bounty hunting, I like to just jump in a hauler and find a ring system to disappear into. I'll happily spend a couple of hours drifting around peacefully, well away from any signs of life, listening to some tunes.
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Besides, a large number of my family were miners in the '50's and '60's and they never said the job was fun. It was a dirty, monotonous, dangerous job, so I think Elite has captured it perfectly
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I'm not interested in any relogging to refill asteroids, seems like a cheap way to make a living.

 

[Tuzmaal]

i'm surprised you even bothered with more than a tonne of gold, if you log off and on again in front of the platinum asteroid it regenerates and you can keep on mining it until your hold is full.

Stop exploiting broken gamemechanics, it helps alot to keep the game entertaining for you alot longer.

 

[Per Ardua]

i'm surprised you even bothered with more than a tonne of gold, if you log off and on again in front of the platinum asteroid it regenerates and you can keep on mining it until your hold is full.

Hope you've logged this exploit

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I would like to know if the relog-asteroid-refill is actually working as intended or rather some kind of exploit?

Exploit or the game would let you mine more than a dozen(ish) chunks

 

[ZephyrDark]

To those stating that its an exploit, its not one I believe they could fix easily or police easily. Despite it being an exploit, its still extremely tedious to do and when you log back in its not like the rock is right in front of you, you'd have to go an find it. Its tediousness takes a lot of patience (which is why I haven't bothered with it).

 

[Binerexis]

That doesn't make it any less of an exploit.

 

[Per Ardua]

To those stating that its an exploit, its not one I believe they could fix easily or police easily. Despite it being an exploit, its still extremely tedious to do and when you log back in its not like the rock is right in front of you, you'd have to go an find it. Its tediousness takes a lot of patience (which is why I haven't bothered with it).

It may not be easy to fix but people are still exploiting an unintended (imo) game mechanic . There are other easier ways to exploit . Which I ve ticketed and won't share here

 

[Cmdr Andy B]

To those stating that its an exploit, its not one I believe they could fix easily or police easily. Despite it being an exploit, its still extremely tedious to do and when you log back in its not like the rock is right in front of you, you'd have to go an find it. Its tediousness takes a lot of patience (which is why I haven't bothered with it).

can i just correct you there, the rock IS still right in front of you, you don't need to move even an inch. all you have to do is deploy your mining laser and drop your cargo scoop and you are exactly where you were when you logged out.

 

[Hawkmoon]

can i just correct you there, the rock IS still right in front of you, you don't need to move even an inch. all you have to do is deploy your mining laser and drop your cargo scoop and you are exactly where you were when you logged out.

Wow way to make a game boring, I think I will leave that alone or I might as well say "it will take me x hours to make y credits, so in z hours I will be able to by that ship". Sounds too much like another game that bored me to tears.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

It may be an exploit but it ain't going to change.

The game is not going to track the state of every rock in every cluster in every ring in every system.

 

[CMDR i Tetsuo]

To all the users of the log-out-log-in exploit, I'm not mad at you, just very disappointed....

 

[Cat_Astrophe]

To all the users of the log-out-log-in exploit, I'm not mad at you, just very disappointed....

Tetsuo? Is that you?
>
Oh heavens, now even the AI in War Thunder are jumping ship!
>
But back on topic... I don't know if you have tried mining yet, but it's hardly "finished" and it shows. I've jumped into asteroid clusters and been greeted by half a dozen "roids"... in a belt said to have "major reserves"... which dropped no better materials or quantities of materials than belts with "common reserves". It's not "broken" exactly, but what do you do until the evolution of that minigame gets a little farther along?