Yet another mobile drilling system question. Not again!

[Ghostwish]

Well I went searching about for the answer to this, and came up blank.. So here goes..

It seems to be that your automated miners have some kind of fetish for asteriods, and refuse to attack them. Instead, they merely sit in one place, and magically fill their holds with whatever rocks they can...

.. which is to say only the ones that can actually be gathered. The larger ones seems to have to be manually blown up in order for your dum-dums to get them.

So here's the question: How do I tell which asteriods are ready to be collected? Are they simply the ones that do not show up on the sector map?

Eager to get my nividium business going, that is as soon as I can find a place to sell it all.. hrm.. back to searching!

[Nanook]

Well I went searching about for the answer to this, and came up blank.. ...

Really?? I easily found this in the Search

The large map asteroids, i.e, the ones that can be seen on the sector map, and hence can have mines placed on them, can only be mobile mined if you blow them up first. However, all those much smaller rocks that litter sectors like Home of Light and Seizewell, can be mobile mined by your miners, as long as they're equipped with the proper equipment.

[Ghostwish]

Roger! Thanks!

[Alan Phipps]

The collect rocks command will pick up any minerals present of the very smallest size of rock. It will not break up any intermediate sized rocks.

The mobile mine command will break and collect intermediate and small rocks of the mineral you specify as long as there is any laser mounted in a turret on the mining ship and at least one broken asteroid or outcrop of that mineral.

Because of rock respawns, they may even not move on from one place if they break and/or collect every rock from a single outcrop.

[TTD]

In Reunion.my TLs would smash into the large asteroids and collect any usable minerals.
Had to look out for the shields though

[Harrass]

In Reunion they actually did not know what to do with the laser, and always tried to crush those rocks with their hull.

I am really glad they learnt that trick in TC

[Ghostwish]

Has anyone else noticed that the only boron ship that can use a drill is their TL? Guess them green-thumbs don't like messing up the pretty space rocks.

[Nanook]

First of all, Boron TS's don't carry weapons anyway. So whether they can mount the MDS is irrelevant. However, if you want a Boron freighter that can mobile mine, you could use the Pleco, their TM. Or you could use their TP, the Boron Angel. Both can mount weapons and carry XL-type cargo. But yeah, the Orca works, too.

[Snafu_X3]

The mobile mine command will break and collect intermediate and small rocks of the mineral you specify as long as there is any laser mounted in a turret on the mining ship and at least one broken asteroid or outcrop of that mineral.

That may explain why my Caiman Miner sits in Rolk's Fate doing nothing. From this, are we expected to learn that a 'collect rocks' order requires some sort of gun on the turret in addition to the built-in MDS?

TIA

[mrbadger]

No ship has a built in mining laser.
However, a PAC is sufficient.

[Nanook]

The mobile mine command will break and collect intermediate and small rocks of the mineral you specify as long as there is any laser mounted in a turret on the mining ship and at least one broken asteroid or outcrop of that mineral.

That may explain why my Caiman Miner sits in Rolk's Fate doing nothing. From this, are we expected to learn that a 'collect rocks' order requires some sort of gun on the turret in addition to the built-in MDS?

TIA

The only mining gear the miner variant TS's have built-in are the mineral scanner, ore collector and Special Command software. The MDS is a separate item, to be supplied by the player.

And note that these miner variant TS's, the Caiman Miner, the Demeter Miner and the Vulture Miner, can only mount MDS's in their turrets. They can't mount any other lasers.

There are a couple of exceptions. The Terran Baldric Miner can also mount EMPC's in its turret, and the Argon Enhanced Mercury can mount an MDS in addition to it's normal weapons. These two mining ships are difficult to get, though.

However, you don't need a 'miner' to mine. Any TS that can mount weapons can also mount the ore collector and mineral scanner, and can thus mobile mine with pretty much any weapon it can put in its turret. As mrbadger said, the PAC is an excellent mining laser.

[foszae]

in my experience, it seems like it's only worth owning a single Mobile Drilling System across the entire fleet. in my case, it's on an M6 that also has my single tractor beam. anythime you want to start a mobile setup somewhere, you go in personally, use the MDS to blow up the significant (map-apparent) asteroids you want, and then the rest of the job is done by your miner with a regular weapon in their turret.

[tommyth3cat]

So essentially the mining laser just breaks the rock as any weapon would? Good to know I wanted to try out mining with my Demeter.

[Ghostwish]

Here it is simplified:

There are three different types of asteroid sizes.

Big ones: These show up in your sector map. They can only be destroyed by a mobile mining drill system, or, according to some reports, a powerful missile. Non-player miners will ignore these, hence the player must do the deed.

Medium ones: These are nearly ready to be collected, but must be broken apart further. Any weapon will do, and non-player miners will do the deed if given a laser to work with.

Small ones: These can be collected.

[Alan Phipps]

That's a pretty good summary. Actually there are 4 or 5 rock sizes that would be classed as medium and they each break down into various fixed quantities of smaller medium and small rocks - so the miner may have to do quite a bit of breaking in the same area before it can collect everything (and so get a rock respawn).

[brattbags01]

Send your Caimen Miner to the sector south of Menelaeses ? Oasis and tell it to mine minerals, works for me and there are also some Nividium asteroids in there.

[Snafu_X3]

The only mining gear the miner variant TS's have built-in are the mineral scanner, ore collector and Special Command software. The MDS is a separate item, to be supplied by the player.

And note that these miner variant TS's, the Caiman Miner, the Demeter Miner and the Vulture Miner, can only mount MDS's in their turrets. They can't mount any other lasers.

I understand that, thanks. However, having now armed my Caiman Miner with 4 PACs in the front (wouldn't allow me to equip in back) I've sent it back to Cho's Defeat & it still won't 'collect rocks'

1) Why should a 'collect rocks' order need anything to break up rocks in the first place?

2) I've had assorted Miners getting rocks for me earlier in this game - why won't this one behave?

I've performed a scan of Rocks in the sector, & it's looking pretty good. Should I tell my Miner to perform the scan hisself in case the info wasn't passed on? (clutching at straws here...)

[Ghostwish]

Snafu - Read up, your sector only has 'big' rocks in it.

[Snafu_X3]

Snafu - Read up, your sector only has 'big' rocks in it.

Not according to my visiscreen, but I'll try another sector. TVM

[Alan Phipps]

In any case, remote miners never use the weapons in the front battery to break rocks, they will only use a valid weapon mounted in a turret and that can be any suitable damage laser.