Imperial Cutter. I have one for laser mining that is also fitted with defense and weapons. A second Cutter that has all types of mining tools aboard for Core mining etc.
What’s your favorite laser mining ship ?
- Thread starter Red Rocket
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Well, I know what I will be doing later
This Corsair.
192t is the limit of my stamina for laser mining. After watching my friend almost lose his mining Anaconda to mass lock and a wing of pirates, I am very appreciative of 600 m/s boost speed under load and enough firepower to fight any pirates I want to. I'm also very attached to beak-braking, an elegant strategy where you save time getting from asteroid to asteroid by closing your cargo hold, boosting to 600 m/s, going 4 SYS and instantly brake by ramming right into the damn thing.
192t is the limit of my stamina for laser mining. After watching my friend almost lose his mining Anaconda to mass lock and a wing of pirates, I am very appreciative of 600 m/s boost speed under load and enough firepower to fight any pirates I want to. I'm also very attached to beak-braking, an elegant strategy where you save time getting from asteroid to asteroid by closing your cargo hold, boosting to 600 m/s, going 4 SYS and instantly brake by ramming right into the damn thing.
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I've used a number of ships for mining over the years. Early on, before i had a lot of cash, the Dropship was my first dedicated mining ship.
Later I got a type 9, because it just screams "mining ship" to me. However, that stupidly low mass lock factor kept annoying me and combined with the slow speed and turn rate ditched it. For a long time i used a Cutter for laser mining, and i would say its the best laser mining ship if you plan on doing long sessions and always want to return with a huge cargo load every trip and have loads of collectors out at once to keep up with the huge number of lasers you can have mining. In terms of efficiency, i don't think any other ship can touch it (maybe the Panther Clipper will be able to).
However, for the last couple of years, the Beluga has been my mining ship. 5 medium mining lasers means you can mine efficiently enough for the number of collectors you can field and not so huge cargo space you're tempted to keep going at a single run for ages. Gather a couple of hundred tons and hand in. Its also decently fast and not a complete brick like the type 9. A decent compromise ship when you don't care about being maximally efficient.
My core mining ship is a Type 8, everything just fits so nicely into it for all types of non-laser mining.
Later I got a type 9, because it just screams "mining ship" to me. However, that stupidly low mass lock factor kept annoying me and combined with the slow speed and turn rate ditched it. For a long time i used a Cutter for laser mining, and i would say its the best laser mining ship if you plan on doing long sessions and always want to return with a huge cargo load every trip and have loads of collectors out at once to keep up with the huge number of lasers you can have mining. In terms of efficiency, i don't think any other ship can touch it (maybe the Panther Clipper will be able to).
However, for the last couple of years, the Beluga has been my mining ship. 5 medium mining lasers means you can mine efficiently enough for the number of collectors you can field and not so huge cargo space you're tempted to keep going at a single run for ages. Gather a couple of hundred tons and hand in. Its also decently fast and not a complete brick like the type 9. A decent compromise ship when you don't care about being maximally efficient.
My core mining ship is a Type 8, everything just fits so nicely into it for all types of non-laser mining.
Heh, nice to see someone with mining lances. They aren't great for mining (smaller chunks), but hey, if we all did what was "best" then life would be pretty boring.
My Anaconda.
I can strip an asteroid in about 20 seconds, turn to fire off a prospector at another as my collectors are just grabing the last fragments, and do every type of mining if I feel like it, while being able to defend myself with a C4 beam laser.
I can strip an asteroid in about 20 seconds, turn to fire off a prospector at another as my collectors are just grabing the last fragments, and do every type of mining if I feel like it, while being able to defend myself with a C4 beam laser.
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Main reason I got hold of Mining Lances was to fit to exploration ships.
You can use it as a mining laser (duh!) and FDev has a habit of releasing new content that we're required to interact with by shooting and I'm not entirely sure a regular mining laser would work so a Mining Lance means I'll have something shooty to use if I ever stumble on some new content out in the black.
Same reason I always fit a corrosion-resistant cargo rack in my exploration ships;- I'd rather have it and not need it than need it and not have it.
For mining, the Mining Lances are slightly useful due to their extra range (1km vs 500m).
When I've run out of limpets but I just need a few tonnes of ore to fill my cargo hold before my remaining collectors expire it can be handy to be able to shoot at a 'roid from 1km away to see what's in it.
I have the Lances in a different fire-group, switch to them when I need them, give the 'roid a quick blast and if it yields what I'm looking for I'll switch back to normal lasers to finish mining it.
2000m range, but if you're mining at that range your collectors are going to hate you.
Kudos if you have the tenacity to mine 576t.
I'm happy for my T10 to have 256t of cargo racks.
It takes about an hour to fill and that's about as much mining as I can take in one go.
Also, 256t is a good amount because it means I can dock my T10 at the nearest station and swap to my Python, which also has a cargo capacity of 256t... and a fairly solid shield and some big guns.
Not quite as important these days, where most people will simply drop the ore they collect on their FC, but it can still be useful.
That shouldn't be a problem.
I have all the junk in my ignore list so the only thing collectors will head for is usually whatever I'm mining... in which case I'll be heading toward that 'roid anyway.
I generally don’t mine in or even near the bubble, therefore I typically don’t have to deal with pirates.
Because I don’t have to deal with pirates, I am able to break up my mining runs into a few sessions.
That said, it typically takes about 3 hours to fill it up.
And regarding pirates, even when I do have to deal with them, I can usually just run away before they get close. Occasionally I have to jump out to get away though.
That’s life on the frontier…
Shieldless Cutter, here's my current setup for the CG. I don't LOVE the Universal Controller but being able to repair my hull without wasting a slot on a repair controller is a pretty sweet bonus:
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This was how I saved up for my first Cutter.
Then, I did this in an armed Cutter, sometimes inside the bubble, to save up for my carrier.
Now, I take the carrier outside the bubble to mine, and I don't need a large cargo hold anymore. So I set up a Beluga with twin size 2 lasers plus all the other goodies (because the Beluga has the most size 2 hardpoints of any ship, plenty of unrestricted internals, and isn't especially expensive compared to other large ships). I still have the armed Cutter for mining in the bubble, which is especially useful now that it can earn merit. I should probably build a Corsair now, though, since it will do almost everything the Beluga does and will maneuver through a shattered asteroid more easily.
The AspX is such a good first medium ship! I mined with it, of course, but a good miner needs at least four class two hardpoints: Two for lasers, two for launchers (I know this is a laser miner thread, but ignoring cores and surface deposits is so silly to me that I just can't). The problem with the AspX is only having 3 small mining lasers, which is slower than two mediums. Ditto the type 9. The only way to get two medium lasers on the 9 was to use a class one displacement missile, and then I was constantly running out of ammo...FWIW, I reckon THE best ship to use as a cheap, do-it-all, miner is the venerable AspX.
It has enough hardpoints so you can fit all the mining toys and a couple of small weapons for seeing-off small pirate ships.
It has a C6 slot, so you can bung in a 64t cargo rack to make mining trips worthwhile.
It's agile enough to move around 'roids, laying seizmic charges when DC mining and then get in amongst the chunks and it can do a bit of laser mining too.
It costs less than half of any alternative ship, which means it's also cheap to transfer around to anywhere you find a likely mining site.
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I admire you for using the 10. I thought hard about it every time I built a miner, and always went with another option for one reason or another.
Type 10, every time.
Enough cargo to fill before I get bored. Enough weapons to fend off pretty much anything and armour/shields to save me from anything I can’t (be bothered with.)
It looks like a dirty old mining ship and that makes me smile, if I had some oily old overalls I’d pop them on before each mining trip.
The final plus, when you’re in a Type 10 your eyes are safe as you can’t see the daft spoiler. Shush, don’t mention the spoiler.
Enough cargo to fill before I get bored. Enough weapons to fend off pretty much anything and armour/shields to save me from anything I can’t (be bothered with.)
It looks like a dirty old mining ship and that makes me smile, if I had some oily old overalls I’d pop them on before each mining trip.
The final plus, when you’re in a Type 10 your eyes are safe as you can’t see the daft spoiler. Shush, don’t mention the spoiler.
I quite like the spoiler. It doesn't need to make sense.
Happy for you to run patrol missions whilst I mine anytime you want to take in the
I'll do it in my turreted Multicannon Type 10 so I can switch to external camera and bask in all the twin spoiler glory...Happy for you to run patrol missions whilst I mine anytime you want to take in theoddityawesomeness of the Type 10’s spoiler
Spoiler? What spoiler?
You mean the aerodynamically-optimised sensor antenna array mounted on the rear of the ship?
I think that's what you're talking about, right?
Right?