Starting remote mining, CLS question.

[SIMON POPPLEWELL]

Just starting to start mass scale mining to supply my complexes with ore and sillicon. The remote logistics on my ships are greyed out. Do CLS 2 pilots have to be of a certain rank before they can collect ore/sillicon from ships? Or am I missing something on my ships.

[cmdnenad]

If you're starting fresh CLS pilot, the ship has to be docked. THe rank doesn't limit the type of cargo, but lower ranks have limited number of waypoints.

[SIMON POPPLEWELL]

Does it have to be docked at a homebased station? The plan was to use them to collect ore from my miners and drop it off onto my TL.

[cmdnenad]

No, any station will do.

[SIMON POPPLEWELL]

Thanks cmdnenad, I'll dock it at the nearest station.

[Infekted]

When you start them, they will be apprentice rank. Meaning max of 4 waypoints. Not very handy for mining really.
Starting them whilst docked in Herrons Nebula Trade station can get you up to Cargo Messengers which = 15 waypoints. Which is more or less perfect for mobile mining.

[JAFA_NZ]

Actually 4 waypoints per CLS2 pilot isn't too bad for early Mobile Mining, 'cos you probably can't afford a 16 ship fleet anyway.

So you buy 5, set 4 to Rock Collection & the fifth to aggregation of the collected material, when it's full, you offload to a spare (2nd hand?) TS which you dump at the nearest SY for the money to expand your Mining Fleet.

Meanwhile your CLS2 pilots are levelling up, once you've reached your planned quantity of CLS2 pilots, you just keep adding collectors to their waypoint list as they level up, they should hit Cargo Messenger 8 or 10 hours after you start them going IIRC.

[SIMON POPPLEWELL]

Actually My mining operation is pretty small atm. 2 ore miners and 1 sillicon miner with 2 CLS2 ships. How many miners can a broken up asteroid actually support? Also how many miners can one CLS2 ship support? I think I need a couple more ore miners to support my current complex.

[JAFA_NZ]

AFAIK a broken up Asteroid can support as many Mobile Miners as you can afford.

Further commentary spoilered because it may be spoilerish, boring, or just contain advice people would rather have a choice about seeing

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The Highest level of CLS2 pilot ostensibly supports an unlimited number of waypoints, but reports in other threads indicate it starts to break down at or above 200.

A CLS2 at "Cargo Messenger" level supports 15 waypoints, & there's theoretically nothing preventing the construction of a "Tree" of Miners & CLS2 pilots (i.e. a CLS2 collecting from other CLS2s collecting from 225 Miners).

Collection speed seems to dependent mostly on the number of Miners rather than the quantity of debris present (in fact it appears that having a minimal amount of collectable debris of each type is best so they all congregate around it), with the miners collecting 0-2(0-3?) units of whatever every 20s.

I'm currently setting up my mining operation in the US south of Menelaus' Oasis, I've broken 1 of each asteroid, far enough apart that there shouldn't be any collection overlap, & I've assigned 15 Caiman Miners (since unlike Demeters, when there aren't any L-grade Caimans, you can just sell some 25MJ sheilds to the EQD & buy them when you buy the ships) to each cluster (long enough ago in fact that they're all full already), & I've just shipped my CLS2 fleet (Caiman Miners again, for commonality of hold volumes) in, & I was in the middle of setting them up when I had to reload because the mine I was towing in Harmony of Perpetuity blew up (Blowing the SPP was intentional, but I want the 'roids/mines for stockpiling).

My plan is to create a CLS2 net across the sector to (when I can afford it/them) a TL (or more) at the gate, the CLS ships all have TDs, so I put one in the middle of each cluster to leech from the 15 miners already there, then at ~4.9km steps, I'll have a series grabbing from the next one out, except for the one in range of the gate, which will also dump to the designated Storage vessel(s) [though I may have to play some games there later on].

Then any leftover CLS ships (or extras I have to buy if required) will be equipped with JDs & set to deliver from the Storage TL to my various Mine Complexes, from where a secondary fleet (probably of Mistrals, not the SF version) will disperse the Minerals to those Complexes or Stations requiring them [Which will include some chip plants as soon as I can afford them, 'cos I've only 24% of those required for the 1st Hub shipment].

[SIMON POPPLEWELL]

Thanks JAFA_NZ, that info will help.

[Turiko]

No, any station will do.

Except for the hub, shipyards and equipment docks. Tricky to get a cls pilot onto a TL ^^.

[cmdnenad]

No, any station will do.

Except for the hub, shipyards and equipment docks. Tricky to get a cls pilot onto a TL ^^.

Rookie pilots can't get any near TLs anyway . I think the minimum rank for flying a TL is Cargo messenger.

As for the smaller ships, they can be started from any station.

[Infekted]

No, any station will do.

Except for the hub, shipyards and equipment docks. Tricky to get a cls pilot onto a TL ^^.

Not true? I've started them at the Hub and EQ docks many times. Not sure on shipyards, tho I cant see why not.

Its trickier getting them into a TL, as they have to be at least Cargo Messenger to fly one. You can only get those from Herrons or by levelling. As you cant dock a TL into a trade station this means you have to transfer a suitably qualified pilot from another ship.