The Mining discussion thread.

[Badd Mongo]

If you can find some good locations to do your mining to get the top metals such as Platinum (18k/unit) or Palladium (14k/unit) it should be possible to rack up a decent amount of credits from mining pretty quickly and the best metals are more likely to be found in abundance in less travelled/undeveloped/low population systems.

If you are trying to mine low value metals in a high security system in your Sidewinder with 1 mining laser etc then no it is not likely to be very profitable or worth doing.

 

[CMDR Brock Samson]

I've tried mining for an hour or so, not worth it at the moment.

 

[Corviuse]

Question About Mined Fragments...

Hello;
i searched forum but cant find any answers to my question so i wanted to make a topic about it.
when mining as you know fragments are spilling to space. and players have to collect em with help of cargo scoop. Cargo scooping is a very time consuming action in my opinion.
but i was wondering are there any modules for pulling fragments to the ship like a tractor beam??
thx for answers.

 

[burzum]

No, there is no such tool. The point is that you have to do something for your credits, no magical item collection in this game.

 

[Henri]

it would be fun if two or more people could co operate but others can not see my fragments making it impossible to co operate on the whole mining thing

 

[This Forum Sucks]

it would be fun if two or more people could co operate but others can not see my fragments making it impossible to co operate on the whole mining thing

Really? That's disappointing.

 

[xxThe_Dice_manxx]

I have a feeling that mining is really intended for the larger ships, there are rumours that there will be cargo drones,I think these drones will be utilized for the collection of the mined fragments,this all makes sense when you consider that anything smaller than a hauler has barely enough cargo space to collect enough mined material to make real money that and lack of module space.Just my opinion of course.

Oh and I forgot to mention the large ships are not very nimble and would have difficulty picking up the frags via the scoop.

 

[Grinchy]

To mine you need a refinery and mining laser, I found both mine at a high tech station, look around

 

[Corviuse]

I have a feeling that mining is really intended for the larger ships, there are rumours that there will be cargo drones,I think these drones will be utilized for the collection of the mined fragments,this all makes sense when you consider that anything smaller than a hauler has barely enough cargo space to collect enough mined material to make real money that and lack of module space.Just my opinion of course.

Oh and I forgot to mention the large ships are not very nimble and would have difficulty picking up the frags via the scoop.

wow thank you i didnt hear about rumors... cargo drones sounds perfect to me....

 

[metatheurgist]

Previously trading wasn't profitable, then bounty hunting wasn't profitable, then couriers weren't profitable ... see a pattern?

 

[King Hrothgar]

Trade actually worked just fine in Beta 2 once you left the core systems. It also works just fine in beta 3 doing the same. The real problem is that mining simply takes too long compared to trade. As an example, the lakon 6 with nothing but cargo space upgrades (104t, still has shields) and an FSD upgrade is a pretty good hauler. I used this in both beta 2 and beta 3. The route I ran this evening netted 130k credits round trip, the stations where less than 150 LS from the star and there was a single mid point. So a round trip was maybe 10 minutes at most. 130k every 10 minutes with a 1.5M credit ship and completely farmable is setting the bar rather high.

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.

Bounty hunting shares a similar problem currently. Even with the heavily buffed combat zone rewards, you'd have to kill maybe 70 npc's in 10 minutes (assuming 60k in stacked mission rewards) with a 1.5M credit fighter of your choice to break even with the 1.5M credit Lakon 6. I'm just going to go ahead and call that as completely impossible. There is no way you can kill them that fast in such a ship. And then consider the top end, let's say a Lakon 9 vs an Anaconda. The Lakon 9 can do at least 4x what the Lakon 6 can in the same amount of time. So that's 500k credits every 10 minutes. The anaconda can certainly plow through combat faster than little fighter, but even it can't reach that 70 kills every 10 minutes mark to break even with the lowly Lakon 6. Even if it could kill them that fast, they won't spawn quick enough! The only place bounty hunting could possibly compete is in high bounty targets, such as war essence. The problem is you could easily spend 20 minutes trying to find the guy. Much like the ore chasing with mining, it's the running around in circles that's the issue.

 

[adflet]

Bounty hunting shares a similar problem currently. Even with the heavily buffed combat zone rewards, you'd have to kill maybe 70 npc's in 10 minutes (assuming 60k in stacked mission rewards) with a 1.5M credit fighter of your choice to break even with the 1.5M credit Lakon 6. I'm just going to go ahead and call that as completely impossible. There is no way you can kill them that fast in such a ship. And then consider the top end, let's say a Lakon 9 vs an Anaconda. The Lakon 9 can do at least 4x what the Lakon 6 can in the same amount of time. So that's 500k credits every 10 minutes. The anaconda can certainly plow through combat faster than little fighter, but even it can't reach that 70 kills every 10 minutes mark to break even with the lowly Lakon 6. Even if it could kill them that fast, they won't spawn quick enough! The only place bounty hunting could possibly compete is in high bounty targets, such as war essence. The problem is you could easily spend 20 minutes trying to find the guy. Much like the ore chasing with mining, it's the running around in circles that's the issue.

Minor correction here - you're confusing combat missions with bounty hunting. Bounty hunting is more profitable than combat missions, though still not as good as trading can be.

 

[King Hrothgar]

I spent 3 hrs mining and made close to 200k!
You are either doing this in a Sidewinder (If so everything is slow in a sidewinder) or your doing it wrong.

I made 600k in 1 hour in a modestly upgraded Lakon 6 moving fish and marine supplies. Mining is terrible, I tried it in a pimped out Cobra. The limiting factor is chasing all those bits of ore about. I'm decent enough at scooping cans, but they still take a couple minutes to grab them all.

 

[King Hrothgar]

I consider anything that pays a bounty to be bounty hunting. Doesn't matter to me if it's a conflict zone, nav beacon or chasing down War Essence. It's all bounty hunting to me.

 

[Krait_79]

Hello;
i searched forum but cant find any answers to my question so i wanted to make a topic about it.
when mining as you know fragments are spilling to space. and players have to collect em with help of cargo scoop. Cargo scooping is a very time consuming action in my opinion.
but i was wondering are there any modules for pulling fragments to the ship like a tractor beam??
thx for answers.

Would you like a bot to play the rest of the game for you incase that is too time consuming? I mean you will have 400 billion systems to explore!!

 

[Genophix]

I made 600k in 1 hour in a modestly upgraded Lakon 6 moving fish and marine supplies. Mining is terrible, I tried it in a pimped out Cobra. The limiting factor is chasing all those bits of ore about. I'm decent enough at scooping cans, but they still take a couple minutes to grab them all.

I think most points have been covered here, yes it seems the bog standard mining is not a good way to earn money at the moment. But didn't they say that if you scan roids before you start and get better data you get more? Not sure if this is even in the beta yet but then this would make sense right?

If you just go shooting rocks you get little, if scan and find decent places you will find the good stuff.

Just one thing, find it very frustrating having to go into the cargo hold to jettison the remaining ore every time I've picked up a piece. Is there way around this? I've not tried having two refineries on board yet but this would work right?

 

[Lowe1978]

it would be fun if two or more people could co operate but others can not see my fragments making it impossible to co operate on the whole mining thing

I saw an NPC's fragments last night after scaring him with a Kill Warrant Scan. So I'm not sure that's strictly true.

 

[BBcokeley]

Mining a quick review and suggestions

Hey guys, spent about 5-6 hours mining last night, here are my thoughts on this new mechanic.

• The ship I chose was a hauler, reason being is its cheap can refit 2 x 8slot cargo bays, has one hard point only (one I needed for this experiment), and room left over if you get rid of the shield for a refinery.




• The equipment you need is acceptably priced, and straight forward, some of the advanced refinery? (forget the name) do cost a bit but the medium 4 slot one does the job.



• 3.Choosing where to mine does have impact on the kinds of ores you will be expected to come across, this being said i found the most lucrative fields were the ones literally 20 mins drive from the star.



• Mining, this is straight forward, approach the asteroid (slowly) and blast away with your laser, little chunks come off and you go collect them. This can seem bugged as the chunks seem too close to the roid they came off but they are safe to get, I noticed a fair amount of people claiming the chunks flew off rapidly into space but I did not come across this once, every roid releases between 10-14 chunks, and this is not dependant on the size of the roid nor what it yields material wise. **** The best roids out there are 'metalic' in appearance these can yield the most expensive mats same rules apply with amount **** this mechanic is fun, and different from the other mechanics, and exactly what I expected it to be like. It does get boring, so stick the radio on. Ikept my scoop open at all timeswhile mining/collecting as I didn't want to smash my ship to bits if I miscalculated distance.



• The processing part is automatic once you have chosen the materials you want to refine out, and is very quick, once processed the tonn is put into an empty cargo slot, or stacked if you have some already. the average roid SHOULD give you a tonn of what ever it yields, but some rarer materials do not, this is understandable.



• 6.Trip home: baring in mind you did not jump a max distance and leave yourself stranded when your hold is full. I went to look for a mission where the materials I had found were wanted, this is the most way to make cash out of this.



• 7.Conclusion: mining is a fun and different mechanic it seems to work as intended, although the yield is quite low, and the time spent is longer than some other credit making techniques (bounties) it does not seem to be broken, if this was taken further and specific missions where introduced for the raw chuncks/un refined stuff this could be a good way to make cash. Or maybe some production could be exchanged for the refined stuff, maybe ship parts, or discounts at stations where you hand in these missions.



TLR ~ All in all mining is decent, its functional, and is a different approach. Slow but with a few missions/production/discounts thrown into the mix it could be a fun way to approach credit making.



It is a very lonely career path, But I did enjoy my time with it, look forward to it being refined and bulked out

 

[blacky75]

second that

Love the way they've done it! Some already are talking about whishes: tractor beams

First time I mined, I went after the ejected piece immediately. Wrong... now I mine, once nothing is coming out anymore, I collect (so all parts are 'still' in space and move around anymor

Now the balance needs to be adjusted, cause it's way too time consuming in regard of what it does to low incomes... (I bought the refinery around 1M... ^^)

Cheers, good posting

 

[BBcokeley]

Thanks, yes I love the way it currently works, with a few tweaks it could be a fun way to advance in elite, wow I just scrapped 900k after beta 2 lol

good job

and yes, mining all before collecting is wise