Mobile Mining Mk2 (MM Mk2) v1.05 [TC][AP][SCR]

[DrBullwinkle]

Another workaround would be to use an Aran (or one of the other ships that can dock a TS) as your homebase for the Vultures. That way you could use Marine Repairs and Training to do the repairs in the field.

(Vultures are not great for mining due to their weak shields. The "Vulcan Miner" is sort of a joke. But, with MM Mk2, they should work well enough.)

[dubnium]

how about sending the player a message and/or changing the name of the homebase ship when its cargo hold is getting full? this would be helpful for nividium trading where you have to manually buy a ship, load it up with the stuff and sell the ship back.

[DrBullwinkle]

Good idea.

Personally, I just sell Nvidium from my PHQ. Traders will sell it over time -- at a higher price than you get at a shipyard.

[dubnium]

i always thought nividium market is so small that it can be considered non-existent. has this changed in AP?

[DrBullwinkle]

Urban legend.

It was never true -- not in TC or AP, AFAIK.

[dubnium]

from what i know there are about 5 places in the universe that buy at most 10 units of nividium. even if that nvidium is instantly destroyed to make way for new sales you would need a constant stream of ships capable of carrying XL cargo flying there to offload nividum at the rate it is being mined.

[DrBullwinkle]

Traders won't buy all of your stock instantly. It takes time to sell your Nividium from your PHQ. But it is faster than you think. And easier, as well.

[dubnium]

how many simultaneous miners can one run with a setup like that without a surplus building up? also, in one of your earlier posts you spoke about traders selling your nividium, which implies player-owned traders, while in the most recent one you speak about traders buying your nividium, which implies npcs traders (which seems more feasible to me as npc traders are too stupid to realise that every other trader in the universe is buying the same nividium that is almost impossible to sell); which is it? if it's npc traders, how low does the price need to be to attract them? if you mean player-owned traders, where do they go to sell it, corporate HQs?

[DrBullwinkle]

Both. Try it.

I use gnasirator's Improved Mk3's for most trading, and Shimrod's new(ish) traders are awesome as well. While it is possible to do a lot of trading with CLS2 and CAG, I find it more trouble than it is worth.

Your mileage may vary.

[dubnium]

how many miners can work simultaneously without building up a surplus?

[Sanjor]

Code: Select all

* Subroutine: Transport wares to specified TL
SubMineralsTL:
skip if $station->exists
  endsub

* Sanjor: \/====================\/
do if [THIS]->get amount of ware {Transporter Device} in cargo bay
  $TransporterDevice = [TRUE]
do if $station->get amount of ware {Transporter Device} in cargo bay
  $TransporterDevice = [TRUE]

* Move to target if in jumprange
if $follow AND $TransporterDevice
  $tmp = [THIS]->call script '!move.movetoobject' : Target=$station  Range=4500
else if $TransporterDevice
  $tmp = [THIS]->call script '!move.movetoobject.samesector' : Target=$station  Range=4500
  
else
  gosub SubMineralsTLDock
end

if $tmp == {FLRET_TARGETREACHED}
  do if [THIS]->get amount of ware {Transporter Device} in cargo bay
    $TransporterDevice = [TRUE]
  do if $station->get amount of ware {Transporter Device} in cargo bay
    $TransporterDevice = [TRUE]
  if $TransporterDevice
* Sanjor: ^====================^
    
    $x = [THIS]->get amount of ware $mineral in cargo bay
    $y = $station->get free amount of ware $mineral in cargo bay
    do if $y < $x
      $x = $y
    = $station->add $x units of $mineral
    $x = -$x
    = [THIS]->add $x units of $mineral
    
* Sanjor: \/====================\/
  else
    gosub SubMineralsTLDock
  end
end
endsub

* Subroutine: Dock and unload wares to specified TL
SubMineralsTLDock:
skip if [THIS]->is docking allowed at $station
  return 'error.CannotTransferMineralsToTL'
* Return Error.  I don't even know if I'm doing this wrong. -Sanjor

* I don't know how it will handle the TL being in an unconnected sector. 
* The station subroutine didn't check for that, so I guess it's safe. -Sanjor
$ tmp = [THIS]-> fly to home base
if $tmp == {FLRET_LANDED}
  $x = [THIS]->get amount of ware $mineral in cargo bay
  = [THIS]->unload $x units of $mineral
end
endsub
* Sanjor: ^====================^

return null

I took a crack at transferring freight from either miner- or Homebase-based Transporter Devices and allow transfer via docking.
The unload command doesn't behave as I had hoped, leaving my miners docked and full of ore. I could replace it with the code used for the Transporter Device-based transfer, but I'd like to use trade commands if an appropriate one exists.
It occurs to me that I could use $tmp in place of $TransporterDevice at the expense of some readability.

[Lakz]

Thanks for that script. The wing command has been an absolute godsend

[Ferenczy66]

.

If you ask me whether it works with XRM, I'm going to tell you to punch yourself for asking.

Just a side note Doc...

XRM removes (as far as a quick scan goes) all XL cargo from fighters...meaning Falcon Haulers wont work in that scenario, unless players edit their Tships.

I'm doing that now...as I want to compare productivity of some of Lucike's scripts with their counterparts from other authors.

[DrBullwinkle]

Yet another reason not to use XRM.

(Just kidding. Editing the parts that don't make sense is probably the right thing to do. There are several. Otherwise, though, it has some great features.)

[Lakz]

Just a side note Doc...

XRM removes (as far as a quick scan goes) all XL cargo from fighters...meaning Falcon Haulers wont work in that scenario, unless players edit their Tships.

I'm doing that now...as I want to compare productivity of some of Lucike's scripts with their counterparts from other authors.

Not true, there are a few fighters having an XL cargo hold. Mostly goner crafts. They're fast and have outstanding shields, making them perfect miners. However, they're pretty expensive . You can always cap them, if you have the bailing script (plenty to find in Yaki territory). Coupled with a light carrier and a TS for CLS, they make a good little mining solution.

But if you want to be serious about it, I recommend buying a large fleet of Mercury MK1 (80+), a Mammoth with a few marines (for eventual repairs) and a good TS for CLS (i.e. Mistral). Have also a few military assets patrolling, depending on the sector (rapid corvettes with a light carrier wing should work well).

[DrBullwinkle]

I don't know about XRM, but Falcon Haulers are *better* miners than TS's in the vanilla game. I would call them very "serious".

[Ferenczy66]

Just a side note Doc...

XRM removes (as far as a quick scan goes) all XL cargo from fighters...meaning Falcon Haulers wont work in that scenario, unless players edit their Tships.

I'm doing that now...as I want to compare productivity of some of Lucike's scripts with their counterparts from other authors.

Not true, there are a few fighters having an XL cargo hold. Mostly goner crafts.

Actually, the Goner crusader and Ranger are the "only 2" with XL cargo.

So assuming you, like me, were trying to follow the author's advice, you might not pick up that fact until after you had bought a fleet of falcons and found out it was a mistake.

[DrBullwinkle]

The qualities that make Falcon Haulers good miners are the heavy shields, large cargo bay, XL cargo capacity, and decent turn rate. Falcon Haulers have heavier shields than most TS's (although the new TS+ ships in AP are fine for mining). (Also, you can dock Falcon Haulers at your TL and jump to another sector, including Undefined Space. You can't do that with TS's and most TL's.)

The reason that I point this out is that there are many misleading "guides" on the forum that incorrectly recommend TS's as miners. In fact, vanilla TS's are the worst miners (due to low shields and slow turn rate). M6's are better, and Falcon Haulers better still.

For those who play ship mods (such as XRM), you will have to figure out which ships have the right combination of qualities in your mod.

[Idleking]

In fact, vanilla TS's are the worst miners

True story. Ever seen 25 freighters trying to mine a single rock cluster?
Uuuhh.. let's say the collision avoidance algorithm seems to have the upper hand in more cases than less.

Just something that came to my mind trying to "automate" collecting the remnants of a Nividium Asteroid in Unfocussed Jump Space:
Am I the only one that had the idea of using a Transporter Device to collect rocks?

Sure it might be a bit imbalanced but well, since you can find an Aran and dock TS/M6 to it and bring them to unfocussed space, it's not much of a big deal, since those sectors give you "free money" anyway.
Might aswell make it work within a couple of meters to balance it a bit, because ~5km collecting radius would be insane.. so, what about 200m?

Possible/doable?
In the mood to?

[DrBullwinkle]

I break an asteroid then set my miners to mine.

If I intend to mine myself (as in Undefined Space), then I break a second asteroid and mine there. That way, I do not have to worry about proximity to my miners.

In my experience, the miners spread out nicely when used this way.


Sure, transporter mining is possible. Script-wise, the mining "technology" uses a form of transporter anyway... the script command is the same. The reasons for the extremely short range are immersion and balance. Mobile Mining is already competitive with Universe Traders for "passive income". If we make mining *too* profitable then it would detract from the game rather than improve it.

That said, I will take another look at mining range the next time that I do tests with MM Mk2. Thank you for the suggestion.