Newcomer / Intro Where is all the Gold?

[Heracles]

Well, having got the Elite addiction again after a 30 year abstinence, ( there is really no cure, I keep telling my wife! Was that Christmas just gone by...?). I thought I would take my type 6 out into the asteroid fields and mine some of those fantastic looking asteroids!

Gorgeous, lovely 3d asteroids full of character.

I reasoned that a 100 ton cargo capacity filled with Palladium, Platinum or Gold should be a nice diversion from the trade runs and net me some nice profits!

I was totally wrong!

I carefully selected two systems with "pristine" "Metal Rich" rings around two planets and set off filled with hope and the anticipation of the Lucky Strike! 57 Zeta Serpentis and Noatiaca


After a whole day lazering rocks I found only one asteroid with any metal content and that was Silver. After lazering the poor rock to death I barely had enough for 1 Ton.

The local cops, who showed up from time to time, scanned me and I could hear their scornful laughter as they sipped their Christmas Romulan ale.

All the asteroids in both planetary rings, contained mineral deposits not metal! At least all the ones I blasted away at.

The "metal rich" pristine asteroids were in fact mineral rich.

Minerals I found were ;-
Bertrandite
Coltan
Gallite
Indite
Rulite, etc. etc.....

No metals....?:S

I blame the Thargoids who I "know" are around, hiding in Witchspace and sneaking into asteroid fields to steal all the metal!

There is no metal in there! No:-
Aluminium
Beryllium
Cobalt
Copper
Gallium
Gold
Indium
Lithium
Palladium
Platinum
Etc, Etc.... ?


So I come cap in hand to any developers with a spare minute to read this.

Can there be a few more "Metal Rich" asteroids in the Pristine Metal Rich asteroid belts please?

Also, if the icy asteroids can have a beautiful icy graphical render on their surface ( gorgeous and worth blasting them just for the fun of seeing the ice break off!) , then can there be a hint that alludes to certain asteroids containing metal. i.e. a glint or two of Gold or Silver? Just to guide us poor beginner miners in the quest for that lucky strike asteroid?

I am afraid there are some second hand Mining Lazers to be snapped up along with my Refinery apparatus. Its back to trading, as the only sure fire way I know to make doe!

Right on Commanders!

 

[Alex988]

go for metallic rich sytems

 

[Rickenbacker]

Yeah, "metallic" is much more likely to contain actual metals than "metal rich".

 

[Tsunamicom]

Metal Rich typically has the lower-end minerals and lesser metals.
You want to find Pristine Metallic.
There's a guy (SWT980) who has been putting together a list of ones he finds here:
http://imgur.com/a/vEqgv

I've also found a few that aren't on the list:
-HIP 75446 (High-Tech system, the station has a lot of goodies also - they have a high demand as well and also the station is orbiting the same planet as the rings you are mining, so travel time is very low)
-Bhotho
-HIP 60953

I hope that helps!

You'll find the following in a Metallic ring system:
Platinum
Palladium
Gold
Silver
Bertrandite
Gallite
Indite

I'd recommend getting either a Cobra or ASP for mining if you get the chance. Cobra maneuvers better, but has less cargo space. ASP can fit a larger refinery (size 3 vs. the Cobra's size 2), and has more cargo space - but it has a much greater weight and in turn makes it a bit harder to scoop. ASP is also much MUCH more expensive, and doesn't really add a whole lot to the mining table for it's cost.

The mining laser you use doesn't affect what chunks you get off of an asteroid, only how fast you mine. I recommend either 1x Medium or 2x Small.
Make sure to also equip a few weapons for the occasional pirate NPC or player.

 

[the100thmonkey]

Isn't that what the refinery module is for?

I thought it was for, y'know, refining minerals into metals.

 

[Tsunamicom]

Isn't that what the refinery module is for?

I thought it was for, y'know, refining minerals into metals.

Oh we could only wish for that. The refinery on the ship only extracts the Metals/Minerals from the mined rock chunk. Then you'd typically want to sell at Refinery Stations. Refinery stations Import the Minerals, and Export the Metals. If you're selling the higher end metals, though, go for High-Tech.

 

[the100thmonkey]

Oh we could only wish for that. The refinery on the ship only extracts the Metals/Minerals from the mined rock chunk. Then you'd typically want to sell at Refinery Stations. Refinery stations Import the Minerals, and Export the Metals. If you're selling the higher end metals, though, go for High-Tech.

Remind me not to go mining any time soon.

 

[OxKing]

I think mining needs a major overhaul.
Doing it randomly was a very bad idea. I want to find a certain mining field (FooBar Ring Cluster 3)
and note it as "Here Gold" and "There Bauxite", to be able to mine certain minerals if i need to.

Sure, people exploided this log off and log back in thing in mining.
But as it is now it is absolutely useless and idiotic.
This whole "only $number of chunks per rock and player" is annoyingly stupid anyway.
This should be at least managed by reducing the percantage of the ore per rock, not switching them off,
and then for all, not just for the player.

 

[Darth Ender]

I haven't had the pleasure of mining yet in this game. But it's boring in every game. With any luck Frontier will give mining more of a function than just selling bits of ore to stations.

ie. modules that mine bits of asteroids to repair your ship's hull and such. or perhaps modules that can manufacture certain items right on the ship if you mine roids rich in certain minerals. Things like mass projectiles for use in whatever guns are available that use mass projectiles.

 

[Tsunamicom]

I think mining needs a major overhaul.
Doing it randomly was a very bad idea. I want to find a certain mining field (FooBar Ring Cluster 3)
and note it as "Here Gold" and "There Bauxite", to be able to mine certain minerals if i need to.

Sure, people exploided this log off and log back in thing in mining.
But as it is now it is absolutely useless and idiotic.
This whole "only $number of chunks per rock and player" is annoyingly stupid anyway.
This should be at least managed by reducing the percantage of the ore per rock, not switching them off,
and then for all, not just for the player.

To really improve mining (and scooping in general), they really need to implement some sort of Magnetic Attractor (maybe add a new module) to pull things into your scoop when you get close enough without the need to target each individual item. This would solve a lot of problems not only with Mining, but also with Pirating and Salvaging (USS). I think what they did with the log-off/on to replenish the rocks was justified. Just search once for a Platinum 40-50% rock worth 100k+ and relog everytime you mine it? Yeah that's just crazy. Having random minerals in each asteroid makes sense to a degree. They apparently also implemented a higher percentage of pirates showing up each time you re-log into an asteroid field as well as an additional deterrent.

Having some sort of Mineral Scanner that you can use to find the ore you want would indeed be helpful, however it may require that they make every asteroid a target-able object. This could cause a lot of server/client stress as it is, so would have to be only useful within a certain range if they did decide to implement something like that...

As it stands, mining off one chunk and taking a look to 'guesstimate' the value of the total asteroid mine is as about the best you can do with it for the moment.

What they truly need to do is make the different ores worth something (add some sort of crafting or additional refining bonuses later??). Example: Why would you mine in a Rocky, Icy, or Metal Rich field when all you get is essentially garbage loot for your time spent? Heck some of these 'lower-grade' belts have a worse income-to-time ratio than Exploring... and THAT's bad. Basically anyone who wants to actually make a decent bit of cash mining HAS to find a Pristine Metallic ring, and HAS to mine either Platinum, Palladium, Gold, or Silver - with the other metals you get essentially being bonus loot. Having a static mine field would narrow your options down even further, where you would never ever leave the exact spot you're in. But until they change it - mining AT BEST will net you only 300-500k/hour even in the best belts with the best equipment, scooping like a pro from 1984. You could jump into a Lakon-6 and make that same kind of money in 10-20 minutes if you find a good enough route, or 10 minutes in a Lakon-7, and even more than double THAT in a Lakon-9... It just doesn't scale well.

 

[BigBadB]

I carefully selected two systems with "pristine" "Metal Rich" rings around two planets and set off filled with hope and the anticipation of the Lucky Strike! 57 Zeta Serpentis and Noatiaca

As others have mentioned, if you want to mine silver, gold, palladium and platinum, you need to find a Metallic ring or asteroid field (rings are generally much better for mining).

The "metal rich" pristine asteroids were in fact mineral rich.

Minerals I found were ;-
Bertrandite
Coltan
Gallite
Indite
Rulite, etc. etc.....

No metals....?:S

The majority of those are metal ores. Betrandite is an Beryllium ore, Coltan in a Tantalum ore, Gallite is a Gallium ore, Indite is an Indium ore, Rulite is a Titanium ore, and so on.

These ores are refined into metals at Refinery economies.

That's what 'Metal Rich' means in game - rich in metal ores.

There is no metal in there! No:-
Aluminium
Beryllium
Cobalt
Copper
Gallium
Gold
Indium
Lithium
Palladium
Platinum
Etc, Etc.... ?

As mentioned above, the majority of these metals are mined as ores, and refined at Refinery economies.

The only metals I know for sure that can be mined directly are silver, gold, palladium and platinum. As far as I know, all other metals are mined as ores (minerals).

So I come cap in hand to any developers with a spare minute to read this.

Can there be a few more "Metal Rich" asteroids in the Pristine Metal Rich asteroid belts please?

There are loads (in fact, pretty much all of them) - they're just rich in metal ores, rather than pure metals.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

What they truly need to do is make the different ores worth something (add some sort of crafting or additional refining bonuses later??). Example: Why would you mine in a Rocky, Icy, or Metal Rich field when all you get is essentially garbage loot for your time spent? Heck some of these 'lower-grade' belts have a worse income-to-time ratio than Exploring... and THAT's bad. Basically anyone who wants to actually make a decent bit of cash mining HAS to find a Pristine Metallic ring, and HAS to mine either Platinum, Palladium, Gold, or Silver - with the other metals you get essentially being bonus loot. Having a static mine field would narrow your options down even further, where you would never ever leave the exact spot you're in. But until they change it - mining AT BEST will net you only 300-500k/hour even in the best belts with the best equipment, scooping like a pro from 1984. You could jump into a Lakon-6 and make that same kind of money in 10-20 minutes if you find a good enough route, or 10 minutes in a Lakon-7, and even more than double THAT in a Lakon-9... It just doesn't scale well.

I agree, and trade suffers from a similar problem - there are only about three or four non-rare goods worth trading (the ones that can give the highest profit/ton), so there's very little point in all the other non-rare goods and the NPC economy built around them, other than for bulletin board missions.

 

[gogereaver]

i go there to hunt pirates better then nav point when you first warp in its pretty calm lots of ai mining then maybe a pirate or 2 then you kill it and its on they come in waves because you off the faction good bounty's.

 

[Heracles]

I thank all you commanders for your advice
Looks like there is a "metallic" ring around a planet not too far away!
If you have a well armed ship (Asp or cobra) I guess you can mine for that Palladium/gold and take out some pirates after your hard earned nuggets!
At the moment I am stuck in the "I need more credits" psychology!!
This isn't a game , it's a reflection of your ego! Shamefully, I want to be rich and powerful with a ship that can defend me against all commers!

 

[Nebiroth]

You probably won't see many pirates unless you mine at places marked as extraction points. Essentially, these are established mining areas with NPC's, and make for good hunting spots, but bad mining spots, if you mine there, you get jumped.

If you mine elsewhere, the game effectively demonstrates how big and empty space is, and how hard a ship would be to find...espescially if it's lurking in among a whole bunch of floating rocks

 

[Dewar]

At a metallic asteroid field I have managed about 150k an hour, including the time to warp off and sell it, as well as bounties from killing a few nosey pirates. It's certainly not what you can get doing trading or bounty hunting at higher levels, but it's the most I've made in my Cobra so far.

 

[Quineloe]

I really wish that the lower value of minerals would be offset by giving you more % on each fragment

It makes no sense that gold would be so much more valuable than bauxite if both can be mined at the same pace.