Wow. I clearly need to improve my Hotspot finding skills. I once spent an entire day, from 7am when my wife left for work to 5.30pm when she returned, mining a VO hotspot and received 500 million selling at 1.6M per tonne.
I never did admit that I spent an entire working day mining in a gas giants ring system for fear her eyes would fall out from all the rolling
She doesn’t share my love of Elite Dangerous and would probably like me to do something a little more constructive with my time off.......yet buying and fitting an FdL is constructive. Right?
I'm not an expert, but my mining skills are improving, according to my profit. A few things I've stumbled upon (some trivial):
The ring needs to be pristine. You can find those easily using EDDB. Under Bodies, select pristine in the System Reserve field. You won't have any doubt when you find a good spot. If it seems bad after a few minutes it is. Then drop it and go for another one. Bookmark the good ones you find.
Go for rings as far away from the star as possible. Fewer people want to travel 5-10,000 ls to get to a good spot. Also those can be dark, and dark is good, when it comes to pulse scanning. Again, find the ring at EDDB.
Don't bother going far away from home to mine. I've found excellent spots just around the corner from Jameson's Memorial. Staying close to home, but in a ring far from it's star, speed things up, and reduces the chance of pirate interdictions. Look at EEDB to find a selling point. You can find those a few jumps from places like Jameson as well.
Learn the one and only shape of the good asteroids. Don't go for the small shiny "nuggets", no matter high bright and juicy they look. Be skeptical. Likewise with the brightness. They have to be distinctively bright, in a certain manner, like a bright lamp through orange juice, in lack of a better term.
Don't worry about pirates. Just don't bring other cargo than a load of limpets. There will often be pirates scanning you when you arrive, but they leave with an insult, when they discover what your cargo holds. I bring hardpoints and a shield, and start with scavenging the soon dead pirate's materials. They are not hard to kill. Especially after all the aiming practice you get using the abrasion blaster. Once you're on the way to sell, don't go dancing with pirates. Just concentrate on finishing your mission.
Bring as large a shield as possible. It makes the ring much more entertaining. Like a mid sized shield gen and a load of shield boosters. I mine mostly in a Conda, and I use the ship to move the rocks to get my aim. The shield looses a few rings, but rebuilds before you find your next rock.
Scan like crazy and look back as well. You often pass good rocks because you don't see them. It feels like the RNG drops a few after you passed a given point.
Don't only concentrate on opals in an opal hotspot. Learn which cores are expensive. I repeated the "Grand-Void-Alex" until I knew it. Diamonds, meh. Hate Bromelite! This way you fill your cargo faster, and if that makes the trip too short, go again.
