The Mining discussion thread.

Good Idea?


  • Total voters
    7
More mining method

I read the discussion archive for mining and there's 3 main methods:
- Solid - Mineral (Asteroid mining)
- Liquid - Frozen liquid (Comet mining)
- Gas/Dust (Cloud mining)

Very straight forward and simple. I was also hoping with planetary landings there would be few more alternatives.

Scooping fluids from oceans or atmosphere and mining the surface for minerals. These resources will vary across the planet and will have distribution patterns. Like atmosphere resources could be in belt like strips that mimic the atmosphere currents. Or there could even be multiple layers, which might be going a bit too far ahead. The way you could mine planetary bodies could be a problem. The simplest way is use already discussed ways, like scooping or drilling, or assisted mining (drone & autominer). I think these are perfectly fine for the moment but maybe there could be ways to bring in larger 'extractors' that would aid players or NPC to mine orbital bodies (or even stars?... maybe too ridiculous).

The probably the hardest type of planet to mine but easiest to implement would be Gas giants. Necessarily you wouldn't have a surface to land on that is safe but a spaceship could enter low orbit and skim above or just under the cloud layers and scoop up some of the gas/dust. Of course there would be something different about it than gas/dust clouds in space. The high atmospheric pressure would mean higher concentration/quality of the gas/dust thus bigger yield or yield rarer elements/compounds. Also there would be a greater risk involving the environment. Turbulence in gas giants will throw the ship around and the pilot has to keep the ship aligned to keep it from falling into the gas giant and maintain enough speed to scoop the gas/dust. Sort of like a death minigame where a mistake could kill the pilot. There could be other methods like using drones or autominers. Also there could be a simple method of pipes that drops down into the atmosphere to suck up gas/dust while safely away from the turbulence from above.

This just one example but there could be more. I probably haven't used the search function right and maybe there is a forum exactly like this one. Do attach if you do find one.
 
Where Do I Find Mining Lasers?

Hi, I'm an active player in Elite: Dangerous, and I've been curious as to where I find mining lasers!

I've searched (most) of the main systems, including... (System names I forgot about not included): Eranin, Assellus Primus, & Dahan.

If you help, kudos!
If you don't, burn!


Thanks!
 

Jenner

I wish I was English like my hero Tj.
Mining is not possible yet for player characters, but is a planned feature for at least final release.
 
Hi, I'm an active player in Elite: Dangerous, and I've been curious as to where I find mining lasers!

I've searched (most) of the main systems, including... (System names I forgot about not included): Eranin, Assellus Primus, & Dahan.

If you help, kudos!
If you don't, burn!


Thanks!

IIRC mining lasers will be introduced in the standard beta and are not included in the current build.
 

Mark Allen

Programmer- Elite: Dangerous
I'm afraid you find them in our TO-DO list ;). The mining lasers the AI use are placeholdery and don't actually mine anything.
 
Hi, I'm an active player in Elite: Dangerous, and I've been curious as to where I find mining lasers!

I've searched (most) of the main systems, including... (System names I forgot about not included): Eranin, Assellus Primus, & Dahan.

If you help, kudos!
If you don't, burn!


Thanks!

You don't...at least not yet.

Mining for players hasn't been implemented yet.

You can read the design proposal over here though:
http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=7196
 
I'm afraid you find them in our TO-DO list ;). The mining lasers the AI use are placeholdery and don't actually mine anything.

That explains the behaviour of some of the miners back in Alpha. Every so often you'd find some that tried 'mining' with their pulse lasers. Maybe they were trying to tell us something:p
 
I'm sure when planetary landings are introduced further, appropriate, methods of resource extraction will be added. You could certainly land on a planet and drop of a mining rig in FE2. However, as far as I'm aware, the DDF has been given any proposals on planetary landing to discuss. It is still some way off and I expect FD will not want to present detailed proposals on the future expansions until they have the main game ready for launch or close to ready.
 
Mining operations with wingman

Is there a chance that we will be able to set up our own mining operations with NPCs, hire them to go mine an asteroid, and then guard them in a viper or cobra?

It would be great to have some miner ships at the mission boards ready to be hired and protected while they make the run, also we could hire a group of NPC fighter pilots for additional protection and go to a dangerous part of pirate space to mine some high valued ore.

That would attract NPC pirates and players alike, make it a point on the system map, "mining operation", and let the fun begin.

That would be a cool addition to gameplay as i don't want to spend the time sitting in a lakon or something else to mine while i can fight and explore. But i would gladly run an mining op, scan for higher yield asteroids and exotic ores, fend off pirates along the way.

As soon as the hold is full escort the miner back to the base. Pay him his share and go on with life. Or do another run in a different system. If the miner dies, i have to pay insurance to the family of the deceased :)

Also this could be good interaction for players, as they could easily find other ppl in space to interact with, simply by looking on the map. Some can join in for protection, others for pirating

IS there a chance that we will be able to do something like that?
 
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That is an interesting way of looking at things.

My guess - I know nothing - would be it is more likely that an NPC miner might offer a contract for you to protect them. If I had a fitted mining ship I would look to hire protection and take the bulk of the profits myself, so I guess NPCs would do the same.

In the same way it might seem a little odd for a Sidewinder or Eagle to hire a Lakon type 9 to trade for them while they ride shotgun. Just my opinion of course.
 
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