Void Opal Mining - Broken?

defekt

defekt
I'm new to this malarkey but it seems that you can earn a cosmic f%&kton of money doing relatively little, at no risk, right in the heart of the bubble, and the most broken^Hamazing part is that it's not even remotely grindy.

It feels like someone's made a bit of a mistake with this. It renders just about every money-making elements of this game pointless. (Cue folks who say they make more per hour trading.) Or at the very least, it makes other kinds of mining pointless.

How long has this been part of the game? Is it due for a vigorous personal encounter with the nerf bat?
 

Vedmo

Vedmo
It was released end of last year in 3.3 or Beyond 4th quarter.

I'm of the opinion Frontier had no clue their BGS changes would raise prices to the level they did, and after they dropped the patch and went on Christmas break there were Fontier posts looking into it, then saying all working as intended.

You are correct though, when one's motivation is maximizing credits per hour, nothing else can come close with as little investment and as much on demand repeatability.
 
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777Driver

777Driver
I wouldn't say zero risk, it is like trading, except it requires a little more skill. The devs slightly balanced it by removing a bug in the abrasion blaster, so profits dropped a little. As you have already mentioned, BGS trucking and doing pure mission cargo runs also bring in a huge amount of credits.

Don't worry about, enjoy yourself and keep avoiding those interdiction's. For the past few years many of us part time miners have been doing it for very little reward, I welcome the changes and increased payouts.
 

DDastardly00

D
I would say the one thing trading has over Void opal mining is that it's more consistent. I mean, If I can make 80-100 million per hour trading, consistently when Void Opal mining can be a bit hit or miss the I don't see the advantage. Plus there is a market safeguard/ check already built in. The more people who mine and sell void opals, the more it drive the price down to reasonable levels and forces people to mine something else. A nerf is not needed.
 

DNA-Decay

DNA-Decay
[video]
]Source: https://youtu.be/yz3muxSfsfg[/video]



This guy Cabra has 2 videos on the subject.

Obsidian Ant also has one and mentions that Frontier do not consider this an exploit.

It does pay pretty well.

But it also has some depth and complexity. My kid and I gave it a shot for an hour or so and he really liked developing the skill to read the pulse wave scanner.
“Yeah, don’t even prospect that one dad”
 
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Lightspeed

Lightspeed
The impression given is that void opals are easy to find everywhere ... but this isn't the case ! They sometimes vanish from where you think they are plenteous, and sometimes you can 'waste' hours looking for them and finding other minerals.

The payouts are too high though ... find a lucrative sales point and you rush through the trading ranks like a hot knife through .... well you get the idea.

But as someone thoughtfully pointed out above, miners have had a bad time for many years, so it's good for them to hit a "gold rush" at last !
 

EUS

EUS
Tried it a few times at the beginning, never found a single one, but did enjoy the explosions.
 

DNA-Decay

DNA-Decay
Yeah -
I just made Elite Trade!

dfoZH7z.jpg
 

mp4x

mp4x
Gives a good financial balance. Many players, over the years, have posted about feeling disadvantaged about missing exploitable cash cows, or coming in to the game late while others built up a fleet in easier times. That kind of thing. It's a good way for anyone who plays, at any level, to level the [financial] playing field.

Bravo FD
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Yes, It is hopelessly broken.

The weird thing is, the new mechanics are great. But instead of creating one integrated mining experience that becomes more profitable as you equip more gear, they created 2 distinct mining modes that are incompatible and differently frustrating in their own way. The ridiculous profits are the only thing saving it from becoming a complete farce.
 

Schmack

Schmack
I think it's fine. It brings people to the belts to see new mechanics in mining they otherwise might ignore, and once you have a couple rebuys for the ship you want to fly, all else is just numbers on a screen. It's a sense of accomplishment, but I do see how it makes other things feel pointless. I did the mining for a while, probably a billion and a half, then went to soloing wing missions for pirates. Doesn't pay as well but it's more fun. I sill like mining though, and it's not just opals obviously.
 

Schmack

Schmack
DDastardly00 said:
I would say the one thing trading has over Void opal mining is that it's more consistent. I mean, If I can make 80-100 million per hour trading, consistently when Void Opal mining can be a bit hit or miss the I don't see the advantage. Plus there is a market safeguard/ check already built in. The more people who mine and sell void opals, the more it drive the price down to reasonable levels and forces people to mine something else. A nerf is not needed.
Click to expand...
What I've seen is that the wave of ask/sell peaks has moved around, there's always several stations paying 1.65 or so, they just don't stay in the same systems for long so you have to follow the buffalo.
 

c_of_death

c_of_death
This was a nice addition to the game. Now I only have to go out for 3-4 hours farming VO to get the money necessary to enjoy other aspects of the game. Like powerplay and xeno fighting. Now I can take my Corvette, not have to worry about it getting trashed because I have enough to cover insurance. Or now I can go out and buy whatever I need in order to go on a long expedition to the far reaches of the galaxy. Not having to worry about money has made this game way more enjoyable which I'm sure is what FD was going for. Not to mention I can now take some of the other mission completion options like the grade 5 mats, or influence in order to help my squad expand their control.
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
defekt said:
It feels like someone's made a bit of a mistake with this. It renders just about every money-making elements of this game pointless. (Cue folks who say they make more per hour trading.) Or at the very least, it makes other kinds of mining pointless.
Click to expand...
Not even other types of mining - in certain circumstances, Painite laser mining can be more profitable, as it's half the profit per tonne, but you can laser mine Painite way more than twice as fast as core mining if you can find Painite rocks quickly.

There are a few ways to guarantee finding lots of Painite rocks, but they're all more work than just firing a few probes at icy rings until a void opal hotspot shows up. The obvious ones are:
- find a Painite hotspot in a pristine metallic ring, ideally two overlapping ones.
- find a Haz RES in a pristine metallic ring, and carefully map it to find out where the Painite-containing asteroids are
 
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