Crystal mining and the "Flashes" of light

[soyer]

So i'm at the point in a certain quest tree where i need to mine Mitonene Crystals (9).. (Spoiler free statement)

My issue is i've never done crystal mining.. i can't ever seem to "see" the flashes reported in videos.. I'm not saying i'm OLD or anything.. but.. apparently i don't see them

Is there another way to mine crystals, something a bit more deterministic? Here i am flying around with 32billion in cash and shipyards all over the place.. and I'm having to fly around in a little ship looking for "flashes" of light in asteroid fields.

Am i missing something obvious ? Is there a gamma setting or some game setting i may have wrong? Or am i just experiencing a poor-eyesight related handicap

[Rastuasi]

So i'm at the point in a certain quest tree where i need to mine Mitonene Crystals (9).. (Spoiler free statement)

My issue is i've never done crystal mining.. i can't ever seem to "see" the flashes reported in videos.. I'm not saying i'm OLD or anything.. but.. apparently i don't see them

Is there another way to mine crystals, something a bit more deterministic? Here i am flying around with 32billion in cash and shipyards all over the place.. and I'm having to fly around in a little ship looking for "flashes" of light in asteroid fields.

Am i missing something obvious ? Is there a gamma setting or some game setting i may have wrong? Or am i just experiencing a poor-eyesight related handicap

If you are accepting mod suggestions, there's a mod called "CrystalFinder" on the nexus. It makes the asteroids light up with color when approached (based on draw distance settings) and helps to spot them.

[soyer]

I appreciate the suggestion.

Right now i'm still in vanilla mode (I always like to try to experience a game like the developer wanted first), but this and my pilots not leveling past 3 stars are adding to the weight of me modding

[dtpsprt]

Fly aroud the asteroid field in Scan Mode (Shift 2) then you'll be able to see the different coloured spots in the asteroids that contain the crystals. What you are looking for is the purple ones (not sure but worth a try).

[soyer]

Thanks!

[Ezarkal]

You can also get them from ventures, I think. For some reason, I already had 6-7 in stock when I did that quest, so I assume venture was the reason.

[Skeeter]

The lights are a bit small ego should really brighten them up a bit also the crystal model should be a little larger so its easier to spot as sometimes there so small sometimes u cant find them on certain roids even tho the beacon told u theres one there.

[spookywatcher]

Be sure to hit ctrl-h to get rid of the cockpit. That'll help tremendously when spotting the flashes. And once you see them once...you'll be able to see them from then on.

[pref]

i can't ever seem to "see" the flashes reported in videos..

Iirc the angle is important between sun crystals and you. At least when i tried to find crystals it looked like i get way more reflections from one direction then the rest.
Might be coincidence, didn't spend much time on it.

[grapedog]

I appreciate the suggestion.

Right now i'm still in vanilla mode (I always like to try to experience a game like the developer wanted first), but this and my pilots not leveling past 3 stars are adding to the weight of me modding

You really don't need 3 star pilots. A LOT of people are hung up on 3 star pilots, but automated miners and traders make a ridiculously small amount of money compared to stations, unless you are literally flooding the universe with them... which once you start building stations becomes redundant because you're taking business away from yourself. Once you have an advanced economy, and a good number of stations, 2 star pilots on freighters for distribute wares does a better job of moving goods around compared to auto-trade anyhow. Sector auto-miners are fine to get you started... then buy a couple cheap basic and 1 star seminars, and do a few 2 star pilot missions, and all your miners will be 3 stars and can auto-mine to their hearts content. My current play-through, I think I've gotten 3 of my auto traders to 3 stars with seminars... but I'm only using 5 auto miners for gas and ore each, and 5 total for auto-trading or distribute wares.... but distribute wares does a better job now of moving goods around than auto-trade anyhow. My station traders and miners do the heavy lifting when it comes to resources, goods, and trading... and by a LARGE margin.

3 star pilots are really easy to get now, and also completely unnecessary except maybe for combat pilots. But you can also level up combat pilots pretty quick by parking a small fleet outside a Xenon gate and they'll level quite quickly just gate guarding. a LOT of people parrot the "i need 3 star pilots" line like it's some kind of truth... but it's not, at all. There are plenty of ways to work the economy, just as well, or better, if you experiment outside of just using an automated fleet to make you money while you sit on seta overnight like a lot of people do.

[Nort The Fragrent]

Get a bigger screen,
I have a huge monitor, and the crystal blinks are very obvious.

[RodentofDoom]

i can't ever seem to "see" the flashes reported in videos..

Iirc the angle is important between sun crystals and you. At least when i tried to find crystals it looked like i get way more reflections from one direction then the rest.
Might be coincidence, didn't spend much time on it.

Pretty much this.
You want the sun behind you and the crystals in front of you.
You can still spot them when the sun is in front of you, but it's a lot harder if you don't know what you're looking for.

You're not looking for ambient light bouncing off them, they have a very small localised pulse to highlight their presence.
Having the bright light of the systems star behind you just makes it easier to spot.

I found a dumbfire launcher to be the best harvesting method.
1 missile pops all the fragments even with a 'close hit' .. gunfire has to be dead-on in comparison and requires multiple hits.