What’s the state of mining ?

RamboChicken

R
Haven’t done any mining in over a couple of years when mining was the hot method to scoop in credits.
I am out in the black with my carrier and thinking about doing some mining.

So what’s the state of mining these days ?
 

RamboChicken

R
Just looking to fund my carrier while out exploring.
Just wondering what makes the most sense mining these days.
Won’t sell Till I get back in the bubble.

Not even sure if it’s worth the time spent now.
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
Interesting question, if the plan is to carry them around and sell them on your return.

Laser-mining of Platinum is certainly normally the most efficient in terms of credits/hour, though as with a lot of laser mining the really high yields are relying on a HazRES to boost it and allow mapping. Still, even in deep space you should get something decent.

But Platinum certainly isn't the most valuable commodity per-tonne - Monazite and other core-mined gems can sell for 2-3 times as much per tonne, so if you're still planning a long trip, or don't have a huge amount of free hold space, doing it that way will get you the biggest sales at the end for the same size of cargo hold.

There's also the option to mine Tritium (generally with subsurface missiles, though laser mining is possible but slow) - it doesn't sell for anywhere near as much as the others, but you might need it anyway depending on your fuel budget. Combining subsurface Tritium mining with core-gem hunting in an icy ring might work out quite well, and it does have the advantage that you might be able to sell it while still in deep space to other players for much more than you'd get at the bubble's NPC markets.

Whether it's worth your time probably depends how much you want to go mining to provide variety in the exploration. (You'd always be more "efficient" - since the mined goods wouldn't be weighing you down - heading back to the bubble without, and then mining when you got back. But if you want to go mining now, go mining now.)
 

nemolomen

nemolomen
I concur with @GroG79, laser mining Platinum and Osmium in a metallic ring at a platinum hot spot will be about the best you can do bar core mining.

I would suggest also picking up any Painite you find as well. It will be a small amount overall but pays higher than the other two.

I normally also collect the Gold and Palladium but if you're going to be out there a while, best to fill your carrier with only the highest paying ones especially since its a factor of 3 or better difference in max sell price.

For pricing reference, according to Inara, here are some current stats:

1699308715927.png


And for Painite, which is a mineral:

1699391157158.png

Notes:
  1. Most other mineral require core mining, especially the higher paying ones.

  2. Laser mining Low Temperature Diamonds in Icy rings may look enticing but the drop rate for them is much much lower than Platinum and Osmium in metallic rings.

  3. As mentioned by @Ian Doncaster, in deep space, you wont achieve 500t/hour. It typically takes me about 2.5 hours to fill my 576t T-9 with Platinum, Osmium, Palladium, Gold and Silver along with 10 or less of Painite. But the T-9 is very cumbersome and slow, which is why I like it. Its very relaxing, not fast paced, but I couldn't do more than 1 or 2 full cargo hold runs in a row without doing anything else in between or it becomes a drag...a smaller, more nimble, ship may work better.

EDIT: Removed original Painite references pricing and replaced with current, more accurate, pricing.
 

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RamboChicken

R
Thanks all for input.
My carrier is currently at Explorer’s Anchorage, not a whole lot to do out here other than poking around exploring.
Lots of room on my carrier, so I thought I would bring back some goodie’s to sell.
 

K Olley

K Olley
Bromellite is also worthwhile if you have got to mine for Tritium, demand is low ATM only 4.5k at 300,000+Cr from other carriers, Mining it is a common mission board task and pays even better if your rep is high enough, demand from other carriers at times can exceed 10k.
 

Brrokk

Brrokk
Platinum (including sub-surface) and osmium... but keep the osmium to hand in for missions rather than selling. Cores are more fun though.
 

Schmack

Schmack
I actually like mining but since the limpets were slowed so much and the drops nerfed, my mind cannot get over the hand of god doing that when all they needed to do was let supply and demand dictate the price. Lower prices means no gold rush but still great mining activity especially for tritium.

I mean, that just had to be fixed but getting billions for shooting a passive pinwheel, that's content.
 

Darth Ender

D
pirates in non res sites aren't really effective at being dangerous. so there is little difference mining out in the black vs near the bubble.

I'd say the state of mining is the money makers haven't changed in the last couple years. it's been a long time since the diamond nerf. and other than the money makers, there's little to no point in mining anything else, since the only thing these mined commodities are good for is converting to credits.

I'd suggest switching between ice for tritium and metallic (if you find any) or core it up to break up the boredom. i don't think core mining is impacted by hot spots in terms of quantity.
 

Schmack

Schmack
Darth Ender said:
pirates in non res sites aren't really effective at being dangerous. so there is little difference mining out in the black vs near the bubble.

I'd say the state of mining is the money makers haven't changed in the last couple years. it's been a long time since the diamond nerf. and other than the money makers, there's little to no point in mining anything else, since the only thing these mined commodities are good for is converting to credits.

I'd suggest switching between ice for tritium and metallic (if you find any) or core it up to break up the boredom. i don't think core mining is impacted by hot spots in terms of quantity.
Click to expand...
If we could only sell raw mats to other commanders like we sell mats in EDO.
 

Darth Ender

D
for mining and trading to get out of the rut they have been left in for so long, a purpose needs to be given to all the crap that's not worth anything.

crafting makes the most sense if the economy is going to remain infinitely available like it is. that way we can give value to these things outside of credits. what you would craft... not sure. but i imagine you could find plenty of uses for all kinds of commodities with a player owned dredger that you can fly like a regular (very big) ship.

selling to cmdrs doesn't really fix the core issue with mining and trading... and that's that commodities have only one purpose in the game, to become credits. missions try and give them purposes but missions are rng based and those still end up only existing to convert to credits and minor bgs effects. all things in mining and trading need to be given a real in game value.
 

Schmack

Schmack
Darth Ender said:
for mining and trading to get out of the rut they have been left in for so long, a purpose needs to be given to all the crap that's not worth anything.

crafting makes the most sense if the economy is going to remain infinitely available like it is. that way we can give value to these things outside of credits. what you would craft... not sure. but i imagine you could find plenty of uses for all kinds of commodities with a player owned dredger that you can fly like a regular (very big) ship.

selling to cmdrs doesn't really fix the core issue with mining and trading... and that's that commodities have only one purpose in the game, to become credits. missions try and give them purposes but missions are rng based and those still end up only existing to convert to credits and minor bgs effects. all things in mining and trading need to be given a real in game value.
Click to expand...
I agree. I remember commenting years ago that things like bauxite has real world applications and so shouldn't be simply seen as noise while searching for signal. The only issue I have with what you propose comes from experiencing the evolution of these things. All things are given in game value, then people complain that the values aren't balanced, that bauxite is more needed than gold, and becomes more expensive. They want it balanced. So all things become basically the same. Once again, it becomes just a placeholder for credits. The only way I see that not happening would be if you had to mine to actually repair your ship instead of buying repairs at a station, or if you could build something on the surface of a planet but needed a variety of mined goods to do so.
 

Darth Ender

D
balance doesn't exist now, so not being balanced but giving a wider swath of items value is still a good choice. obviously the best choice is an economy that isn't super fake with infinitely available items. the current model will never do what it needs to with the free style game play this game uses. but fixing the whole economy is definitely a much bigger task than implementing additional crafting
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
A lot of the problem in that sense comes from there being well over 150 different trade/mining commodities (before you count the various salvage/rescue/exobio/guardian commodities which don't necessarily form part of the "economy", and not counting rares).

That's an excessive amount, and even in terms of purely existing to be hauled from one station to another Elite (1984) style a lot of them are entirely superfluous: similar prices, similar reactions to Political states, identical import/export, etc. The main point of them is so that they can have separate text descriptions on the market screen.
 

Darth Ender

D
burn the bubble. eliminate 95% of stations (land and space). then it becomes feasible to make only raw ore from mining infinite. once mined, all ore can be tracked and added to an npc baseline dictated by the bgs. all stations could then be given requirements that need to be met to produce output above the baseline (baseline leaves little for players to use for themselves)

output from stations can be fully tracked and scarce. that output would be needed by other stations to provide things like modules and ships. as well as impact pricing and with that piracy etc.

then you have the makings of an interesting economy where items have a purpose beyond converting to credits.

otherwise, they could remove all but like 5 commodities from the entire trade board. most of those would be mineable ore.
 
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