Hi, so I reached that point in the plot where I have to mine some Nividium. It's not really clear how I should do this: I have a Caiman Miner that's equipped with a Mobile Drilling System. And I can break up the Nividium asteroid with the MDS, but I can't pick up the pieces. It seems to be impractical to break up the Nividium rocks in the Caiman, beacuse the MDS is mounted in the rear turret, which makes aiming difficult.
As far as I know there's no "attack rocks" command in TC, which briefly existed in Reunion. Is it recommended to actually not do this in a mining ship? Maybe I should be using Hornet missiles and IREs in some M6, and then commanding my Miner to collect the rocks -- or should I just be collecting them myself? I've read people saying that the Collect Rocks command is unreasonably slow.
Also, when I have attempted to break rocks in another ship using PACs, I've found it confusing. Sometimes I hit rocks and they just seem to disappear. I guess this means that I've gone one stage "too far" and destroyed them, but it's not obvious to me how to know when I'm about to do this.
Grateful for any advice!
Thanks -- Dave.
[X3TC] Mining Nividium
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patient zero
- Posts: 329
- Joined: Sun, 25. Mar 07, 19:19
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Bill Huntington
- Posts: 2493
- Joined: Mon, 2. Feb 09, 17:34
Niv
Like he said, some consider it an exploit. But shifting a TL load of Niv from one sector to another in AP gets barely a yawn because it's part of the Stock Exchange. In AP that sector shift can earn $330 million. And I can repeat it forever, not even selling the TL.
In TC you can earn big money in Niv. There's a lot of mistakes you need to avoid or the continuous thing will die.
I start with the small asteroids in Seizewell. They aren't listed because they're small. They need one hit from anything to break into small pieces that can collected. The big asteroid needs four hits to be collectible. There's four small Niv asteriods near ( -4.4, -8.6, 17.4) in Seizewell. I begin by breaking one or two of them with my M3 and any weapon, even an IRE or Mosquito. I drop a satellite to mark the spot. Then I leave the sector and don't come back. I order some Vultures from the SY in the sector. Your personal ship needed a Mineral Scanner to identify the little asteroids ( with 'U' command). Your collecting ships don't. They do need the Special Command and an Ore Collector. I like a 5 MJ shield on them. With $2 or $3 Mil you can start a nice operation with pretty fast results. But a few ships can start and you can finance it out of profits. One Vulture load sells for $7 Mil. I generally have one big TS there with a Transporter device. Then it collects from the collecting ships and they don't stop. The big TS goes to the SY, you buy basic Vultures, fill them from the big TS, and sell the full Vultures for $7 Mil. The big TS can collect between loads. You can even use a TL for this part of the job. I find that a fleet of 25 collectors is about right with a TL to collect from them. The speed of the ship doesn't matter. I get half of the engine tunings just to get them there. A TS with 10% of hull and a speed of 15 collects just as fast as anything else.
You use the Collect Rocks command for the Special Command software when you're exactly in the target area. The specialized Mining Ships aren't any better than the worst TS.
The small asteroids in KE are okay but there's no Ore Collectors available in KE. There are some in Three Worlds, which you have to ferry to the SY in KE.
Some times you can make a visit to the sector and the continuous thing doesn't quit. But it can. Best to stay out. While you're IS, jumping in or out, even transporting between ships, can end the Niv production. Just leave. If the Niv stops go back to a previous save and figure out what you did wrong. These ships rarely get attacked but an M6 in the area can handle that OS combat. It can collect too. A good pirate rating will help prevent attacks too.
I enjoy the combat parts of the game and the plots. Mining Niv lets me do what I enjoy the most. Though I don't do Niv much anymore. Capping and Boarding now.
Good luck.
In TC you can earn big money in Niv. There's a lot of mistakes you need to avoid or the continuous thing will die.
I start with the small asteroids in Seizewell. They aren't listed because they're small. They need one hit from anything to break into small pieces that can collected. The big asteroid needs four hits to be collectible. There's four small Niv asteriods near ( -4.4, -8.6, 17.4) in Seizewell. I begin by breaking one or two of them with my M3 and any weapon, even an IRE or Mosquito. I drop a satellite to mark the spot. Then I leave the sector and don't come back. I order some Vultures from the SY in the sector. Your personal ship needed a Mineral Scanner to identify the little asteroids ( with 'U' command). Your collecting ships don't. They do need the Special Command and an Ore Collector. I like a 5 MJ shield on them. With $2 or $3 Mil you can start a nice operation with pretty fast results. But a few ships can start and you can finance it out of profits. One Vulture load sells for $7 Mil. I generally have one big TS there with a Transporter device. Then it collects from the collecting ships and they don't stop. The big TS goes to the SY, you buy basic Vultures, fill them from the big TS, and sell the full Vultures for $7 Mil. The big TS can collect between loads. You can even use a TL for this part of the job. I find that a fleet of 25 collectors is about right with a TL to collect from them. The speed of the ship doesn't matter. I get half of the engine tunings just to get them there. A TS with 10% of hull and a speed of 15 collects just as fast as anything else.
You use the Collect Rocks command for the Special Command software when you're exactly in the target area. The specialized Mining Ships aren't any better than the worst TS.
The small asteroids in KE are okay but there's no Ore Collectors available in KE. There are some in Three Worlds, which you have to ferry to the SY in KE.
Some times you can make a visit to the sector and the continuous thing doesn't quit. But it can. Best to stay out. While you're IS, jumping in or out, even transporting between ships, can end the Niv production. Just leave. If the Niv stops go back to a previous save and figure out what you did wrong. These ships rarely get attacked but an M6 in the area can handle that OS combat. It can collect too. A good pirate rating will help prevent attacks too.
I enjoy the combat parts of the game and the plots. Mining Niv lets me do what I enjoy the most. Though I don't do Niv much anymore. Capping and Boarding now.
Good luck.
Bill in S.F., enjoying the game
Thanks, this worked great!patient zero wrote:Easiest way is go to Kingdom End at (0,0,0) and start collecting. No blasting is needed. Works best if you are OOS. There are several old threads that discuss this in detail and it's usually considered an exploit.
Not sure what you meant by "blasting", but I did have to blow up the rocks with lasers using a different ship, before my miner started collecting them. I'm not sure if blowing them up just made him realize that the Nividium rocks existed in the sector, or if I actually did make them small enough for him to collect by blowing them up. I didn't have to use any missiles to break them, though.