Mining In Star Citizen
The Miner.
As usual in this series, it took a large chunk of time to crush this subject into a no bull format. I would greatly appreciate you linking this to friends or future citizens who might benefit from it.
This career is going to be the main driving force behind the universes economy.
Mining will require a skill. There are no aspects of the planned mining gameplay that will allow a player to simply press a button and move on. The document “Mining in Star Citizen” from February 2015, laid out the set of specific jobs that would offer a team of friends interesting and profitable gameplay. mining will require the right equipment, ships and a team of skilled friends performing co-dependant jobs. You're likely going to start at the Trade Development Division or TDD. The TDD is the trade floor at a stock market mixed in with and overarching governance that regulates the trade. This is where you will find out what's in demand so you can estimate your profit margin when deciding on a course of action.
You can Freelance or Run as an agent on behalf of another corporation. Being freelance, your profit margin could be higher because you are your own boss. You won't have any top cover which is risk. You’ll need to do your own planning and prospecting, before staking a claim. To stake a claim, you need to have a basic idea of where you want to work.
The Pioneer is the role of the prospector. The person, not the solo mining ship. This specialist is part of the exploration trade. They use long range scanners and telemetry probes to scan huge areas of space. Something like an Endevour or Terapin. The Pioneer will elect to sell such information to a broker, can sell it privately or elect to keep it for their own org. I know the best pioneers will be those citizens amongst you that will focus on nothing scanning.
Its fine and all to stake a claim, but if you have no way to stop someone from taking it, the claim means nothing. This is where the more relaxed gameplay of being an agent might be more appealing. As an agent, you work for a corporation. This will drop your profit margin, but you won't have to worry about, survey, legal, security or transport. When you take a contract, you will agree to task and a quota to achieve. You will be offered an advance which is your operating budget, but you owe this advance against a ledger to produce the ore. Fail to deliver or break a contract and you will probably have trouble getting a job in the future or wind up with a bounty on your head. I personally think working as an agent could dumb down the excitement of mining. I do also understand that there are citizens who just want to drill some rocks in peace. If you decide to do it on your own, it would be a good idea to plan ahead and build up a team of friends. Staking your own claim you will need to pay a Pioneer or scout it for yourself. You also have to consider your cargo plan.
Normally in industry, very large operations try to have zero downtime. Assembly lines run 24 7 on rotating crews. Every minute that the operation is down is non productive and eats into your profit margin. You could decide to mine until your bays are full and then transport the goods yourself but that is downtime. You should probably arrange to offload the material by selling it onsite to a transport company. This is the exciting nature of mining. It's all about flipping a profit and there are so many factors to be considered.
Every solar system is tracked in the ARC MAP. This information considered public knowledge but it isn’t detailed or complete. It includes the basic location of major asteroid fields throughout the universe. As an entry-level miners, you could begin your career by heading towards well-known sites. Your margin will be small but there is low risk and you can practice your skills. Valuable new fields will need to be discovered and can be added into the universe as needed by the development team responsible for the economy.
Let talk about the jobs.
There are a total of 5 Jobs directly related to mining operations and 2 jobs that support the job site. The Pilot - Although it sounds obvious, the pilot is the one who navigates the dense asteroid field and aims the drill. ts up to them to maintain synchronous attitude with the target if landing is not an option. The pilot need to be able to react to a bad situation and quickly put the ship out of harm's way. The Scan operator - The scan operator sends probes known as “remote material analysis packages” (R-MAPs). The R-MAPs send telemetry data back which the operator and pilot use to decide where to drill. The R-MAP gives a general idea of the material composition. The Beam operator - The beam operator is responsible for running the huge cutters that split large sections free. t's not as simple as using a sword on a mellon. The beam operator will have to modulate the output of the cutter. Too little and you cut nothing, too much and you risk setting off a chain reaction within the rock. The operator will rely on three readouts to decide how to best manage the beam. The Exothermic Reaction Detector - is is the early warning readout used to anticipate a buildup of heat which will lead to a dangerous explosion. The Laser Seismometer - is the early warning readout used to anticipate any dangerous harmonic vibration. The beam operator will need to ensure the safety of the team by modulating the beam width and strength based on what is displayed in real time. Finding that balance and knowing how hard you can push the surface will be the difference. To help the beam operator, the document outlines a third display. The Analytical Materials Processor - This is the real time readout of the composition at the cut site. It will help guide the beam operator find the desired mineral.
The Cargo operator - This station is responsible to remotely manages the cargo. The cargo operator has access to the repulsor and tractor systems to take or reject the cargo based on its quality. The Fragment Scanner will show the operator the composition of the shard. Any Shards low in the desired material can be discarded. The cargo operator will need to manually adjust the rotation and velocity of the shards to enter the crusher on their way to the refinery. The Refinery operator - Crushes and separates the unwanted material from the target ore. he waste gets ejected as dust and only those minerals deemed as “Keepers” make it to the cargo holds. he better the refiner, the more pure the final product can be. If the refiner isn't careful, they can cause the process to fail and the equipment to be rendered unserviceable. Remember, downtime costs money.
I will mention that any mining mission should also include a dedicated Security Force and a dedicated team of cargo runners. AI crew will be a thing, but as a miner, I think the only two jobs that can be trusted to non players is the Refinery and Cargo Operators. Positioning the ship and drilling seem too critical to the profit margin and safety.
The Ships
Technically any ship can pick up raw ore, but within mining there are currently two ships that are able to refine it.
Your two mining ships are the Misc Prospector and the RSI Orion.
The Prospector is your solo mining grinder. I really like dogfighting and combat, but I have a prospector because I see its potential. This ship takes all aspects of the gameplay down a level and puts them in the hands of one person. Scanning, Cutting, Moving, Crushing and Refining are at your disposal. This is also the only ship announced that can mine the surface by landing on it. Its name perfectly describes its capability. The rear of the ship has expanding saddlebags for collecting the refined ore. Once full, the pilot can release the bag and continue to work on a fresh bag. The bags can be transported by the Prospector, but operating with a small cargo craft will make more sense.
The Orion is a flying mega factory. It is the step up where individual jobs need to be performed by a team. Unlike the prospector, this ship will be able to bore and split deeper into the surface. Its signature counter rotating containers are part of the storage system. The refinery operator will be able to choose several materials to sift for and store them ready for collection. This is a huge ship and it's unlikely to be seen in a hangar or landed on a planet.
I just want to point out that the largest weapon announced in the game, isn’t even a weapon, but a drill. CIG Please allow Orion pilots to use the drill against other ships. I don't care if it has a two minute charge delay and I don't care if it's a handfull to aim. I think it would be epic if a mining operation was attacked, to see the orions pivot and decimate a capital ships defenses. “repelling a weapon of that magnitude” should be a real concern and part of the attack plan. I know some orgs might even try to use it as a sort of “doomsday machine”. I normally don't get off into theorycraft and I don't see this request as bull. To me it makes sense because in real life, when the chips were down, I know Id point mine at the enemy without hesitation.
As usual I have prepared a scenario so you can see how this might all play out.
Your org buys some information from a Pioneer about an unknown section of newly discovered space. It's a large deposit of the most valuable resource in the universe. “Nobullanium” It's in a dense asteroid field and you plan to spend the weekend making it your own. The team is an Orion, Two prospectors, A hull C, Two Vanguard Harbingers, two sabers, an Argo Cargo and a Cutlass Red Standing By. Scans show some deposits near the surface so the prospectors get to work. The orion fires probe after probe to map out where the main effort should be. The Argo carries the pods from the prospectors to the Hull C so there is no downtime. Minerals Exhausted, the prospectors move onto a new rock. Now it's up to the Orion. The rock is cut in search of big deposits. The surface is just pushed aside because of the earlier efforts. The cargo operator chooses carefully and brings the shards to the crusher. The refinery operator notices a good quality of titanium and gold in the fragments. The nobullanium, titanium and gold are collected, the rest is blown back into space as a trail of dust. You see where this is going, we have active security for the mining operation. And the cargo will be delivered to any TDD approved collection facility and converted into credits or taken against the ledger the you owe on contract.
In closing, I was interested to see mining in game. After researching it in greater detail, I can see this being a major part of my gameplay. Its interesting and skillful, but most important, it has massive potential to pay the bills.
I hope you liked this no bull rundown of the mining game mechanics. Please pass it onto an org mate of friend who may be interested. Fly safe and I will see you in the verse.
As usual in this series, it took a large chunk of time to crush this subject into a no bull format. I would greatly appreciate you linking this to friends or future citizens who might benefit from it.
This career is going to be the main driving force behind the universes economy.
Mining will require a skill. There are no aspects of the planned mining gameplay that will allow a player to simply press a button and move on. The document “Mining in Star Citizen” from February 2015, laid out the set of specific jobs that would offer a team of friends interesting and profitable gameplay. mining will require the right equipment, ships and a team of skilled friends performing co-dependant jobs. You're likely going to start at the Trade Development Division or TDD. The TDD is the trade floor at a stock market mixed in with and overarching governance that regulates the trade. This is where you will find out what's in demand so you can estimate your profit margin when deciding on a course of action.
You can Freelance or Run as an agent on behalf of another corporation. Being freelance, your profit margin could be higher because you are your own boss. You won't have any top cover which is risk. You’ll need to do your own planning and prospecting, before staking a claim. To stake a claim, you need to have a basic idea of where you want to work.
The Pioneer is the role of the prospector. The person, not the solo mining ship. This specialist is part of the exploration trade. They use long range scanners and telemetry probes to scan huge areas of space. Something like an Endevour or Terapin. The Pioneer will elect to sell such information to a broker, can sell it privately or elect to keep it for their own org. I know the best pioneers will be those citizens amongst you that will focus on nothing scanning.
Its fine and all to stake a claim, but if you have no way to stop someone from taking it, the claim means nothing. This is where the more relaxed gameplay of being an agent might be more appealing. As an agent, you work for a corporation. This will drop your profit margin, but you won't have to worry about, survey, legal, security or transport. When you take a contract, you will agree to task and a quota to achieve. You will be offered an advance which is your operating budget, but you owe this advance against a ledger to produce the ore. Fail to deliver or break a contract and you will probably have trouble getting a job in the future or wind up with a bounty on your head. I personally think working as an agent could dumb down the excitement of mining. I do also understand that there are citizens who just want to drill some rocks in peace. If you decide to do it on your own, it would be a good idea to plan ahead and build up a team of friends. Staking your own claim you will need to pay a Pioneer or scout it for yourself. You also have to consider your cargo plan.
Normally in industry, very large operations try to have zero downtime. Assembly lines run 24 7 on rotating crews. Every minute that the operation is down is non productive and eats into your profit margin. You could decide to mine until your bays are full and then transport the goods yourself but that is downtime. You should probably arrange to offload the material by selling it onsite to a transport company. This is the exciting nature of mining. It's all about flipping a profit and there are so many factors to be considered.
Every solar system is tracked in the ARC MAP. This information considered public knowledge but it isn’t detailed or complete. It includes the basic location of major asteroid fields throughout the universe. As an entry-level miners, you could begin your career by heading towards well-known sites. Your margin will be small but there is low risk and you can practice your skills. Valuable new fields will need to be discovered and can be added into the universe as needed by the development team responsible for the economy.
Let talk about the jobs.
There are a total of 5 Jobs directly related to mining operations and 2 jobs that support the job site. The Pilot - Although it sounds obvious, the pilot is the one who navigates the dense asteroid field and aims the drill. ts up to them to maintain synchronous attitude with the target if landing is not an option. The pilot need to be able to react to a bad situation and quickly put the ship out of harm's way. The Scan operator - The scan operator sends probes known as “remote material analysis packages” (R-MAPs). The R-MAPs send telemetry data back which the operator and pilot use to decide where to drill. The R-MAP gives a general idea of the material composition. The Beam operator - The beam operator is responsible for running the huge cutters that split large sections free. t's not as simple as using a sword on a mellon. The beam operator will have to modulate the output of the cutter. Too little and you cut nothing, too much and you risk setting off a chain reaction within the rock. The operator will rely on three readouts to decide how to best manage the beam. The Exothermic Reaction Detector - is is the early warning readout used to anticipate a buildup of heat which will lead to a dangerous explosion. The Laser Seismometer - is the early warning readout used to anticipate any dangerous harmonic vibration. The beam operator will need to ensure the safety of the team by modulating the beam width and strength based on what is displayed in real time. Finding that balance and knowing how hard you can push the surface will be the difference. To help the beam operator, the document outlines a third display. The Analytical Materials Processor - This is the real time readout of the composition at the cut site. It will help guide the beam operator find the desired mineral.
The Cargo operator - This station is responsible to remotely manages the cargo. The cargo operator has access to the repulsor and tractor systems to take or reject the cargo based on its quality. The Fragment Scanner will show the operator the composition of the shard. Any Shards low in the desired material can be discarded. The cargo operator will need to manually adjust the rotation and velocity of the shards to enter the crusher on their way to the refinery. The Refinery operator - Crushes and separates the unwanted material from the target ore. he waste gets ejected as dust and only those minerals deemed as “Keepers” make it to the cargo holds. he better the refiner, the more pure the final product can be. If the refiner isn't careful, they can cause the process to fail and the equipment to be rendered unserviceable. Remember, downtime costs money.
I will mention that any mining mission should also include a dedicated Security Force and a dedicated team of cargo runners. AI crew will be a thing, but as a miner, I think the only two jobs that can be trusted to non players is the Refinery and Cargo Operators. Positioning the ship and drilling seem too critical to the profit margin and safety.
The Ships
Technically any ship can pick up raw ore, but within mining there are currently two ships that are able to refine it.
Your two mining ships are the Misc Prospector and the RSI Orion.
The Prospector is your solo mining grinder. I really like dogfighting and combat, but I have a prospector because I see its potential. This ship takes all aspects of the gameplay down a level and puts them in the hands of one person. Scanning, Cutting, Moving, Crushing and Refining are at your disposal. This is also the only ship announced that can mine the surface by landing on it. Its name perfectly describes its capability. The rear of the ship has expanding saddlebags for collecting the refined ore. Once full, the pilot can release the bag and continue to work on a fresh bag. The bags can be transported by the Prospector, but operating with a small cargo craft will make more sense.
The Orion is a flying mega factory. It is the step up where individual jobs need to be performed by a team. Unlike the prospector, this ship will be able to bore and split deeper into the surface. Its signature counter rotating containers are part of the storage system. The refinery operator will be able to choose several materials to sift for and store them ready for collection. This is a huge ship and it's unlikely to be seen in a hangar or landed on a planet.
I just want to point out that the largest weapon announced in the game, isn’t even a weapon, but a drill. CIG Please allow Orion pilots to use the drill against other ships. I don't care if it has a two minute charge delay and I don't care if it's a handfull to aim. I think it would be epic if a mining operation was attacked, to see the orions pivot and decimate a capital ships defenses. “repelling a weapon of that magnitude” should be a real concern and part of the attack plan. I know some orgs might even try to use it as a sort of “doomsday machine”. I normally don't get off into theorycraft and I don't see this request as bull. To me it makes sense because in real life, when the chips were down, I know Id point mine at the enemy without hesitation.
As usual I have prepared a scenario so you can see how this might all play out.
Your org buys some information from a Pioneer about an unknown section of newly discovered space. It's a large deposit of the most valuable resource in the universe. “Nobullanium” It's in a dense asteroid field and you plan to spend the weekend making it your own. The team is an Orion, Two prospectors, A hull C, Two Vanguard Harbingers, two sabers, an Argo Cargo and a Cutlass Red Standing By. Scans show some deposits near the surface so the prospectors get to work. The orion fires probe after probe to map out where the main effort should be. The Argo carries the pods from the prospectors to the Hull C so there is no downtime. Minerals Exhausted, the prospectors move onto a new rock. Now it's up to the Orion. The rock is cut in search of big deposits. The surface is just pushed aside because of the earlier efforts. The cargo operator chooses carefully and brings the shards to the crusher. The refinery operator notices a good quality of titanium and gold in the fragments. The nobullanium, titanium and gold are collected, the rest is blown back into space as a trail of dust. You see where this is going, we have active security for the mining operation. And the cargo will be delivered to any TDD approved collection facility and converted into credits or taken against the ledger the you owe on contract.
In closing, I was interested to see mining in game. After researching it in greater detail, I can see this being a major part of my gameplay. Its interesting and skillful, but most important, it has massive potential to pay the bills.
I hope you liked this no bull rundown of the mining game mechanics. Please pass it onto an org mate of friend who may be interested. Fly safe and I will see you in the verse.
