The Mining discussion thread.

[TargetLost]

Have any of the peeps making claims about mining actually tried it in this release?

I am in a Pristine Metallic ring (ie the best) and I can only find 3-7% of anything. This needs to be fixed otherwise mining will be a complete waste of time.

It seems very random.
In this release I was in a major resource metallic system cluster and to my surprise I found palladium with yield of 40% the very first I probed. Haven't checked more because I was there for bounty hunting actually.
For comperation In gamma in pristine cluster I found 35% palladium in maximum never more than 35%

 

[Skymax]

If you have the type 6 you need to be trading. Forget mining. Once yo uhave the type 6 you will earn more trading than is remotely possible mining even on the best ore.

It is possible to find 1 system jumps where you can make 140K one way and 30-100k back. This will net you over a mill an hour. It is extremely boring. It will however give you some rep and let you kit out a cobra or viper with all the best upgrades. What I do is spend one night trading and make 4 or 6 mill. Then I dump that into a new ship for hunting or exploring, and I go out and do that for a while. Maybe take a few missions for my trading station to gan some other types of system faction.

And there you have it. That is all there is in the game right now.

Sure you can do like some folks and build up your own fantasy world around the existing stuff. This is called roleplay and the majority of people dont do it. I'm not here to make up for all the things lacking in the game.

So OP my suggestion to you is play less and play more diverse. Otherwise based on your playstyle you will burn out fast because there just isnt enough here to keep everyone happy.

Also another word of advice. Dont even think about trying to get a type 9 right now. You will lose money every time you take it for a spin. The game is not ready for large ships. Spend time collecting the smaller ships. Kit them out with grade A gear. Spend some time going to see one of the nebula or something. If you get all that done, take a break for a few months and come back when they add features and content.

Thanks for positive advice, I only intended to get the 9 as a trader then move on to Exploring, seems like the 7 will do after hearing your experience.

 

[saviornt]

I have, if the stats are right, 4 mill in "assets", which I put everything into an Adder (the entry level "exploration" vehicle).. using that to drift around the galaxy, do some exploration. That should, with any luck, take several real-time months. Hopefully, when I get back to civilization, there will be some cool content for me to mess around with.

I had hoped for trading enough to get an anaconda, but I kind of got bored and irritated at the trading mechanics :\

 

[Atronx]

Thanks for positive advice, I only intended to get the 9 as a trader then move on to Exploring, seems like the 7 will do after hearing your experience.

Tread with care if you do upgrade to the 7. Operating costs increase and jump range decreases dramatically until you put ALOT of money into it. You probably need an extra 10-20M on top of the 17M purchase price to outfit it so that it can have similar range and survival to the type 6. Dont forget that you also need to keep 2-3M of trading capital. SO if you want the type 7 and you dont want to be really sad when you get it save up about 45M. It's not really that bad. maybe 10 days of trading. half that if you are a grindy player.

The advantage is double the earning power. Now you can buy a python in the next 5-10 days. Save up another 10 days and then take your bad to the bone ship all over the galaxy without a care in the galaxy.

 

[5PIDER]

Look for metallic cluster belts and planetary rings. Mining palladium, platinum, and gold made me 300k an hour with a Cobra and 32 cargo slots.

 

[BlueFalcon]

Have any of the peeps making claims about mining actually tried it in this release?

I am in a Pristine Metallic ring (ie the best) and I can only find 3-7% of anything. This needs to be fixed otherwise mining will be a complete waste of time.

I haven't personally but there a large number of people I talk to in teamspeak have. If you are getting a yield that low move on to a new place.

 

[Zaptruder]

Elite is currently balanced around people that want to live their lives in virtual space.

It's not balanced as a game for people that have lives outside of been an obsessive anorak. At least not if you want the bigger ships.

That's ok. Just a bit sad that I'll never make my way into an Anaconda. Or an Imperial Clipper. I'll be lucky if I can grind to a decent Viper at the rate I'm going. Maybe that's just a sign I should revisit once ED gets its balance sorted and content upgraded.

 

[Merquise]

Elite is currently balanced around people that want to live their lives in virtual space.

It's not balanced as a game for people that have lives outside of been an obsessive anorak. At least not if you want the bigger ships.

That's ok. Just a bit sad that I'll never make my way into an Anaconda. Or an Imperial Clipper. I'll be lucky if I can grind to a decent Viper at the rate I'm going. Maybe that's just a sign I should revisit once ED gets its balance sorted and content upgraded.

I think you're spot on here.

I like ED, but it seems tobe a very niche product and I really think there will be only a very small player base.
I have some hardcore friends not afraid to grind/play afew hundred hours in various games.
300+ in Fallout 3, no problem
300+ n SWTOR, no problem
300+ in Diablo 3, no problem

But I cannot think of anyone who will play ED in it's current form....
Many many hours just to fly a Lakon 7?
Many many many hours just to find 2 'smugglers' ?
Or in my case: many many many many hours to get reputation from hostile to unfriendly ?

ED doesn't need 300 million players but if trend continues like it does now we'll have 3000 players left in 6 months from now... and that's bad...

 

[Gremlin]

Its like a car in a real life- whats the point of driving the most expensive model, when in order to do so you stop having fun?

No idea what you drive my friend, but all my rides offer me something fun, If I didn't enjoy driving them I wouldn't have them.

In ED I went sidey->hauler->cobra....->T6..........ASP. A Python is next and Anaconda after that.. I seriously do not want to spend a year grinding on it though.. this is a game, in that regard I agree with the OP.

Seeing as you mentioned cars - each of my RL rides is different - just like the ships in ED.. This is my current set: BMW Z4 N54 Dinan Tune (360/380), BMW 5.0 E63 X6 ESS tune (500/580) and in May next year - I get my first hybrid.. a BMW i8.

Anyway - the point of the reply is that in my case, each car is more expensive than the previous one in the list and each is fun in a different way.. being more expensive doesn't reduce the fun for me. I have friends and acquaintances that drive ferraris, porsches, lambos, mclaren, an i8, Audi R8s, Teslas, BMW 'M' cars and that stupidly fast Nissan, so I'm not alone..

Expensive doesn't degrade the fun - flipping burgers to grind out the cash for any of those toys would not be fun.. and that is what ED is doing to us.

For the record - I also have friends that drive pimped scoobies and BRZs, and prior to the Z4 I had a *heavily* modified super-charged Miata - I didnt flip burgers to pay for any of these toys.. more like got lucky trading rare commodities in RL

 

[ShadowGar]

Darn, I never heard the starting pistol...oh wait, com'on this isn't a race.

First of all, its not a race and the most expensive ship is not a goal of the game.

FD considers their game something to be used as a race.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=76535

 

[Roobarb]

I posted this elsewhere, but it's a valid point to make here:

Mining not profitable?

Really? Then you're doing it wrong.

Spoiler

550K for a little over an hour and a half. I could have filled my hold with a bunch of less profitable stuff within 1/2 hour if I wasn't being picky.

Know your belts.

Pristine Metallic planetary belts are where the cool kids go.

And no, I'm not telling you where I am.

 

[BBcokeley]

Mining Heaven OR mining Hell?

Mining heaven:
.
with the release and a small amount of Cr to start with I have found that mining has changed and is not quite as dull as before.
.
I have found my little place in space for now its a cluster of systems with everything I need to progress to better equipped ship, so I started in a hauler mining the clusters in gamma as soon as the news of no wipe dropped, it was very lonely out there, then when gamma 2 hit I noticed one or two more ships where there were none before, a few patches later and bigger ships would come.
.
Now in release I have a decked out cobra for mining with mil grade plates a fat 5 slot refinery 2 gimballed lasers and 2 mining ones with plenty of cargo space to boot and the best upgrades my system had to offer for power management. Now im an avid fan of mining as it has gotten less lonely, but then something strange happened, which I have never seen before....
.
Pirates!!! Pirates everywhere!!!!
Not sure if its a mechanic built for amount of time spent in one area but damn.... I almost had full cargo when one after the other pirates, a nice steady stream, I'd pop one cobra (very nice bounties for them mind 10k+ per kill) and an eagle would appear immediately after, pop him, two side's turn up, pop them a cobra and an eagle duo..... this was highly amusing and certainly stopped me going into auto pilot drunk beer time mode as you cannot afford to lose a big haul. Makes me think maybe I SHOULD grab them pirate missions from the station before heading out tonight.
.
Can a dev confirm these changes to player location and pirate activity please?
I very much approve if this was intended
.
TLR. sorry long post but Pirates... pirates everywhere while mining lots of fun. no such thing as mining hell anymore

 

[BBcokeley]

Also would like too add with the current increase in bounty Cr, you do not (in my experience) get the issues with non wanted becoming hostile, as the npc's are acrively hunting you, if you can put up with the ruse, then its very profitable atm.

 

[Brandon31]

I agree, but I don't hate grinding totally, in fact many ppl enjoy the right amount of grinding when they are not feeling up to Combat because it takes little concentration and they can relax and make money. I set a gaol which I must now modify to fit the new reality.

Yeah same for me, I don't always want to be on the edge of my seat waiting for the next horror to hit me in game, its nice to be able to chill out and "grind" (read relax) a bit.

 

[Watcher]

I've always found 'extraction sites' to be pretty busy, plenty of ships around and often one or two fire fights but, until recently, ring clusters and elsewhere have been pretty quite. That definitely seems to have changed, mining in an effectively unarmed hauler has suddenly got a lot more interesting - as you say, no autopilot, you need to keep an eye on what and who is around. Had to run for it the other night, glad I was to have paid for all the thruster and power upgrades.. I rather suspect I should be shifting to an Adder just to make sure I have something to shoot back with, I don't like being a sitting duck.
That said I had a calm night of it last night, no pirates showed up at all, no police either which is unusual for the system I was in. Didn't dare step away though, that would obviously be the moment someone would jump in and start taking pot shots

 

[BBcokeley]

..... Didn't dare step away though, that would obviously be the moment someone would jump in and start taking pot shots

Exactly why mining has just become a little interesting
.
glad you found the same as I, also, in rings do you drop into a random place or use the extraction sites? they have changed the drop ins, I found a sidey and a type 9 followed me in as soon as I exited SC they popped in about 10 secs later, they wer clean so I left them too it (they could be my bait ships as it had a bigger signature )

 

[Tuzmaal]

I made yesterday 91k every 9 min for 3 hours, so OP, you doing it wrong.

 

[BBcokeley]

I find mining fun as it CURRENTLY is

 

[Wicz]

I've stopped playing trading Elite until the prices hopefully improve.

Consider this, I have a Type 6 that now only earns $144000 an hour playing non-stop.

To get a Type 7 I would have to trade nonstop 6 hours a day for THREE WEEKS if the prices stay the same, which they wont.

Then my new Type 7 would only hold a few tons more than my previous ride.

Mining is nerfed too it now only pays 3-5% per scoop meaning 20-30 "scoops' to make a ton of something that is only worth a few thousand credits takes forever and mining is so boring.

Contracts on the Bulletin board pay peanuts too and most require you to sell your cargo ship and buy a fighter.

Right now a Type9 will take you over 6 hours a day nonstop play for OVER a year and a half!!

Somebody made a mistake and now the incentive to play is gone.

So you want life to be easy so you can have all the things now? I think I can safely say that it's never going to happen here.

My incentive to play is that I love flying around in space, if all I wanted was to make money, I would get another job.

I think you've missed the point of this game.

 

[Watcher]

I have to admit I tend to give rings a miss at the moment, I've not found any to my liking - which is to say metallic. Metal rich doesn't seem to be so profitable. If I find some metallic ones I'll give it a go though
When I have gone to the rings in the past I have tended to just dropped in randomly to mine.
I go to the extraction sites to bounty hunt