The Ultimate Mining speculation thread!

[lysan]

So let's get started.

What we know so far

1. You can now blast asteroids to smiterings
2. Better ways to find the goodies (scanners, drones?)

Here is where the speculation comes in

Mining need as everything else in the core game to be redesigned, and I guess they already did some napkin design by the watercooler.
So here is what I would like to see in the game concerning mining in 2018.

1. Surface mining on moons and planets.
2. SRV mining rig, need a drill of some kind to get down to all that yummie metal/minerals.
3. NPC logistics, you call a NPC service or a friend, and they will come and pick up the refined products or the raw extractions, and the bring it to a refinery station. You get paid when it arrives at destination.

4. Auto miners (from DDF): these are large deployed devices that can mine a location over time, allowing the player to collect them at a later date
They cannot be found by other human commanders unless the commander is also present at the location, though on return commanders may find that they have suffered malfunctions or been contaminated, more expensive auto miners are more resilient to adverse effects and can offer greater yields.

5. Hire NPC crew to assist with the operation, like controlling search skimmers, special skimmers you can deploy to scan an area for ore where to start mining.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

One thing thats pure speculation but a mining SLF was floated quite a lot and I'm almost certain FDev have seen it. Doesn't sound too hard to do compared to some other things and would add something to multicrew mining so I think that will probably come in 2018.

Not sure if SLF prospecting would be a possibility but that'd be cool to have 2 friends flying around tagging rocks to mine with the mothership and collector limpets going around gathering in the sweet stuff.

 

[Troy_McClure]

Arrghh Noooo! My nemesis strikes!

God Damn you to hell, Lysan!

 

[Cmdr Ultra]

I just wish the NPC crew could do basic mining / strip mining whilst I patrol in a ship launched fighter in a RES.

 

[CMDR Ofan]

I am so down with anything they add to mining. I'm literally going to find a few like minded rock smashers, grind a fleet ship and go on a sabbatical.

 

[Cmdr Ultra]

Deep space mining away from the Bubble with much more valuable resources and "wild west dangers".

 

[Bunkerkind Anni]

the thing i hope the most,
is that they do not add another limpet type for blasting rocks up (one of the things sandro said sounded like it)

 

[YinYin]

I wonder if destructible asteroids will be new and unique, added in between the existing ones.

Because the procedural ones we have are far too large for this and I think we will neither have entire asteroids respawn nor get a system that permanently remembers which procedural asteroids have been destroyed (that's akin to a second, much larger exploration database).

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

Destructible asteroids? For real?

So our little ships will be able to obliterate million ton asteroids with a few shots. How droll.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

What i think needs to be done for mining:

1. Refinery that doesn't lock up
2. Stop displaying the incorrect "Refinery Full" message (it makes the info screen completely useless when mining)
3. Remove the unnecessary delay when deploying a limpet - particularly prospectors
4. Balance pass over collector controllers (is 128 tons for 4 limpets in a class 7 controllers reasonable?)
5. Add some engineer upgrades that are actually useful to miners (currently the only useful engineer upgrade is weapon focused distributor, as module weight or integrity are irrelevant to miners).
6. Allow limpets to be synthesized. This would make long range prospecting (see 12) possible. edit - we are getting this one. \o/, though I'm not convinced that 7% of used limpets replaced is really QoL.
7. Rethink the mechanic of having pirates spawn every time you drop into a ring - especially in remote systems
8. Display the material percentages of a ring on the system map
9. Add class-5 element materials to rings, also add yttrium now it's class 4. Maybe just in 0.5%-1% amounts
10. Balance pass over the ore yields in the different ring types - particularly icy, which is less than 1/3 the yield per roid compared to metallic
11. Add some rare profitable ores for rocky and metal-rich rings, more gem types would be good
12. Add some reason to mine well away from the bubble, such as extremely rare ores (see 19), radioactive isotopes, rare vacuum life forms (see 14), jackpot roids (see 21)
13. Add LTDs, painite (and the new ores from 11) to ores available in asteroid clusters
14. Add vacuum krill as a minable resource - particularly in Baltha'Sine 4B, and similar small lifeforms for the dangerous ones (see 15) to eat when they can't get miners
15. Add some dangerous vacuum life forms, especially where minable life forms (see 14) are present. They could also be valuable resources.
16. DSS scan displaying areas of the ring with varying ore concentrations, also show points of interest (see 22)
17. Specialised mining ships - mostly multi-purpose, important features are: power distributor, lots class 3 modules, cargo space, specialised modules (see 18)
18. Specialised mining modules for the specialised mining ships (see 17)
19. Gold-rush mechanic for very rare ores in remote locations (see 12) that eventually deplete from players mining them
20. Add some skill based mechanic to the fragment chipping part of mining. - Currently, the only skill mechanics are: directing the fragment stream so that your limpets are more efficient, and how to chip fragments of wildly tumbling roids without losing all your limpets. If there were techniques that maximize the yield of metal per fragment, and others that maximized crystals, or materials. This would make mining much more interactive, immersive and fun.
21. Add rare "Jackpot" roids. Ones that have 100 fragments of 100% platinum, or 100 fragments of class 4 and class 5 elements. These roids shouldn't be persistent.
22. Points of interest within a ring containing unusual stuff (see 12, 14, 15 ,21). They would be unknown unless the CMDR has investigated the same type previously.
23. Tourist missions to take prospectors to unusual mining places (see 22), particularly big game hunters (see 15)
24. Large and Huge mining lasers
25. Balance pass over the distributor drain and heat generation of mining lasers
26. Increase the materials storage.
27. Mining missions that take you to USS in a ring, e.g. a tip-off for a jackpot roid (see 21)
28. Hotkey to cycle targetting prospector limpets.
29. Ability to create a small area with RES type fragment yield increase by dropping a load of bioreducing lichen. Will need to create a semi-persistent USS.
30. Missions to drop bioreducing lichen into RES (see 29)
31. Prospector limpets that move a tad faster. It's a bit of a joke in the Clipper, Orca or Cutter to sit and wait in front of a roid for your limpet to catch up.
32. Ability to package partial tons of an ore instead of venting it, automatically reloaded into the refinery when a bin has been allocated to this ore.
33. Rings thick enough to get lost in
34. Rings dense enough to be a hazard in a large ship
35. Very sparse rings - so sparse they seem more like how asteroid clusters have been implemented until you fly a little further
36. Chaotic rings, very recently formed. These will be hazardous places, but possibly good sources of rare ores (see 12)
37. Display the refinery bars on the HUD
38. Display the limpet lifetimes on the HUD
39. Alternative to lasers for mining, maybe projectile and/or explosive based
40. Balance pass over the profitability of mining compared to other professions.

 

[Han Brannigan]

4. Auto miners (from DDF): these are large deployed devices that can mine a location over time, allowing the player to collect them at a later date
They cannot be found by other human commanders unless the commander is also present at the location, though on return commanders may find that they have suffered malfunctions or been contaminated, more expensive auto miners are more resilient to adverse effects and can offer greater yields.

Why?

 

[CMDR-AD]

Long ago I had imagined Prospector Limpets armed with explosives. They'd attach and then explode, creating a field of debris and materials for recovery.

With regard to rocky/metallic asteroid mining:
1) The Prospector Limpet is replaced by the Prospector Launcher, which is a turreted missile hardpoint. Instead of having to carry empty Limpets for prospecting, we refill the ammo capacity of the Prospector Launcher. Target an asteroid, fire a Prospector missile which steers to the asteroid and embeds in the surface, reporting the contents.

2) If the mining laser beam touches the "burn trace" from where it has already mined the asteroid, it generates no mined fragments. Keep the beam tracing to new, un-mined territory to keep the fragments flowing.

3) Turreted mining lasers can lock onto an active Prospector, and track it as the asteroid rotates. This will allow mining fragments on auto-fire, while the CMDR is doing more prospecting. However, due to potential of beams tracing over already mined areas (as in point 2), efficiency may be lower. Smart ship positioning based on the asteroid rotation axis/angle prevents this. Multi-crew control of the mining laser turret is ideal.

4) Asteroids can be targeted (point 1 above), thus is no more straight-ahead dumbfire Prospector Limpet. Target desired asteroid, and the Prospector will steer to target and engage. Makes prospecting during auto-lasing (point 3 above) quite workable without constantly aiming the ship at every asteroid. Turret view for Prospector Launchter for targeting asteroids (which adds a new Multi-crew gameplay function, dividing prospecting turret and mining laser turret/collection labor).

Now for ice Asteroid mining:
1) New Gas Mining Refinery. Instead of Collection Limpets, a Gas Refinery allows the open cargo hatch to be used to collect free gasses being boiled off ice asteroid surfaces. Lase the ice asteroid to heat the surface, sublimating the surface and creating a growing gas cloud. Move the ship through the cloud to do collection, with the gas cloud shrinking/fading after 1 to 3 collection passes.

Ships with bottom mounted hardpoints are ideal for this, letting the ship do gas collection and turreted lasing simultaneously, at close enough range (just don't get so close as to risk being hit by the asteroid!).

2) Ice asteroids could have a rare chance of a sudden emission of pressurized gas during mining. A large gas plume jets out from the asteroid, rich in mined solids fragments, gasses, and materials, and then dies as the pressure fades. Much like a planetary ice geyser. When these jets occur, the ice asteroid may react by increasing or changing it's rotation rate and/or angle.

3) Mining of solids (Low Temp Diamonds, etc) are much the same as rocky asteroids, but the laser heating still releases some gas clouds (which may or may not be collectible, depending on whether a Gas Refinery is fitted.

For surface mining:
1) I'd love a dedicated SRV for this. Instead of shooting rocks with the Scarab pulse repeaters, use the mining SRV's mining laser to get more materials from Outcrops and other sources. This new SRV offers less combat capability (or none!), but far greater mining returns.

2) New miner SRV can place, retrieve, and maintain auto-miners on planet surfaces. Placing these creates a personal POI Bookmarked site allowing easy re-location for collection later. Beware, as placing these auto-miners can attract pirates, who will camp out the sites and watch for their owners to return for collection.

3) Surface mining would also have the ability of lase gases off the surface of icy worlds, and the miner SRV could be equipped to collect these gasses, whether lased, or from ice geyser plumes (but be careful to avoid damage from the plume jets).

4) The Gas Refinery module in the ship could also collect materials from surface geysers and plumes, by flying through the plume with the cargo hatch open. Works for ice geysers, and even rock fumeroles. There are risks due to high gas temperatures damaging the Cargo Hatch or Gas Refinery, however. Keep a safe distance to keep temperatures down, or fit an AFMU to keep the equipment maintained.

Anyway, some ideas. I do look forward to what they've got in store for making this gameplay more full.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

Now for ice Asteroid mining:

Good ideas. Ice mining should be very different than metallic mining.

 

[coca_fr]

Also Squadron Cruiser could be used to drop your cargo, restocks and defend yourself against pirates.

 

[CMDR Ofan]

Destructible asteroids? For real?

So our little ships will be able to obliterate million ton asteroids with a few shots. How droll.

It's almost like a few tiny sticks of dynamite can destroy a whole rock face in the here and now, how absurd the equivalent is the case 1000 years into the future

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

It's almost like a few tiny sticks of dynamite can destroy a whole rock face in the here and now, how absurd the equivalent is the case 1000 years into the future

If it's knocking a few hundred tons off the surface, fine.

 

[Ian Skippy]

So let's get started.

What we know so far

1. You can now blast asteroids to smiterings
2. Better ways to find the goodies (scanners, drones?)

Here is where the speculation comes in

Mining need as everything else in the core game to be redesigned, and I guess they already did some napkin design by the watercooler.
So here is what I would like to see in the game concerning mining in 2018.

1. Surface mining on moons and planets.
2. SRV mining rig, need a drill of some kind to get down to all that yummie metal/minerals.
3. NPC logistics, you call a NPC service or a friend, and they will come and pick up the refined products or the raw extractions, and the bring it to a refinery station. You get paid when it arrives at destination.

4. Auto miners (from DDF): these are large deployed devices that can mine a location over time, allowing the player to collect them at a later date
They cannot be found by other human commanders unless the commander is also present at the location, though on return commanders may find that they have suffered malfunctions or been contaminated, more expensive auto miners are more resilient to adverse effects and can offer greater yields.

5. Hire NPC crew to assist with the operation, like controlling search skimmers, special skimmers you can deploy to scan an area for ore where to start mining.

I think the devil is in the details: how do you plan on making srv mining or auto mining engaging in terms of gameplay and mechanics? Just sitting still pressing the 'drill' button wouldnt be more exciting than space mining and automated mining doesntvsound exciting either...

 

[c00ky1970]

From the concept art that was shown when mining was discussed, it showed a Cobra (Not an ASP sadly) in front of an exploding asteroid.

To me this infers player presence during mining activity, so I don’t think unattended auto mining will occur.

Sandro’s comments were about prospecting, gold rush and abou5 a Wild West style feel. So probably some enhancements to prospecting limpets around how you search for mineable resources, maybe also some changes to scanning that would show you where in a ring certain elements abounded.

He talked about bonanzas where you could strike it rich, so maybe the annihilation if some rocks would be an option with the right limpet or maybe a different hard point placed object (Mining Cannon that you have 2-3 shots in and can be used to obliterate a candidate asteroid if the content has high enough yields.

A lot of Lysander points on existing mechanics I think need to couple with this new game play to make a mining experience not only slicker but also more engaging for a player. You don’t want another automated process that people just minimise the screen or flick over to Netflix for 2 hours.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

The mining bit of has been highlighted in another thread.

Watch this https://youtu.be/02wg1HWuzNg?t=1196

Here is what he said:

We are going to take a look at one of the features that has been in the game from early on, pretty much from the beginning, which is mining. We are going to give mining some love and attention. We are going to improve the way you detect and extract resources when you're mining. In effect we are going to give you a miner's toolkit, modules and capabilities. Give you options, varieties and choice when you are out there in the black. Importantly, what we are going to try and evoke, is the feeling of wild-west prospecting. Now, whether that is through jeopardy, through crises and challenges, unforeseen cropping up when you are out there in the black, trying to get the rewards, or through the concept of striking it big, striking it rich. Hitting the mother-lode. Deep core blasting an entire special asteroid, for example to get a bonanza of rewards. So the end result is going to make mining a fully fledged feature that players can aspire to progress through, and importantly have a lot of fun in the moment to moment game play while they are doing so.

 

[NascentChemist]

Right now, I'd settle for the ability to cycle through prospector limpets using the "cycle next target" key...