So... Mobile Mining?

Libelnon · Post by **Libelnon** » Fri, 15. Jun 12, 08:47

I saw a decent enough deal on a Vulture Miner a few hours back, and thought 'ooh, grab that, repair and resell'. Y'know, easy money scheme.

I was surprised to find that it automatically had all of the equipment needed for mining. Guess I should've seen it coming, but it made me think for a second: 'The asteroids in Ceo's Sprite are low-yield, and everything needs ore. I could make me some profit!'

So I went off to the Vault in search of a mining laser. Unfortunately, GoD had destroyed the mining laser fab there, so I had to go without. Can someone tell me roughly what I've missed out on in not having that mining laser?

(The asteroids I was planning to mine were 4 Y:5, a Y:3, and a Y:2.)

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Fri, 15. Jun 12, 08:56

Do the asteroids you're interested in appear as asteroids on the sector map? If they don't, then they can be broken up and mined with any laser--it's only map asteroids that need a mining laser (or a high-yield missile like a Hornet), and even then you only need it for the first breakup of the asteroid into rocks; the rocks can be broken up further with any weapon, as above.

Libelnon · Post by **Libelnon** » Fri, 15. Jun 12, 09:08

Yeah, they're all sector-sized asteroids.

Vim Razz · Post by **Vim Razz** » Fri, 15. Jun 12, 18:25

Well, if your heart is set on mining from full-sized asteroids right away, then as pjknibbs noted you'll need a mining laser or hornet missile to break them into smaller bits first.

If you don't really care, though, you can just give it a PAC or IRE and set it to Mine and Trade Minerals in any sector that has rubble and weapon fabs -- Siezewell or Aladna Hill for example.

It's not a ~huge~ money maker by any means, but if you picked it up used and stick with a cheap gun, then it should still pay for itself soon enough.

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » Fri, 15. Jun 12, 19:41

Ceo's Sprite is one of those sectors with a lot of debris, to go along with it's asteroids. You can tell the miner to mine ore now, while you go off to find something capable of mounting an asteroid killer, and when you come back, you need only destroy the primary map roids, and not have to restart the trader. It will keep going, and move on to the new debris when it's done with the current.

Post by **Nanook** » Fri, 15. Jun 12, 19:48

Triaxx2 wrote:Ceo's Sprite...

Maybe you're thinking of Cho's Defeat? Ceo's Sprite is mostly Teladi govt. and high tech stations. I don't recall seeing any debris in there at all. At least, not in TC.

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » Fri, 15. Jun 12, 21:02

No, Seizewell. I just wandered through there a little bit ago. Teladi owned, shipyard, lots of debris.

Also a good place to mine.

Serops · Post by **Serops** » Sat, 16. Jun 12, 03:42

Does the debris respawn? I'd set up mobile miners if it would clean up some of those sectors and make them easier to navigate in.

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Sat, 16. Jun 12, 12:59

A note on the Taledi Vulture Miner...

I hate 'em.

Very frequently, my Vulture Miners show up with hull damage while they are working.

Now, I know that collision detection is turned off OS, but AI ships "mine" by repeatedly bashing themselves against junk... I haven't been in any of the sectors where I have Vulture Miners operating and those sectors are Terran sectors (Asteroid Belt/Kuiper Belt) crawling with lots of my M5s on "Scout for Enemies" missions not to mention patrols of mine sufficient to take down the Death Star and it's cousin, the Derp Star.. at the same time. Ain't no in-fil-trators an' pirates an such in these here woods. Not no more... (Since I had some pirates take out a few Terran stations, way back.)

So, what gives? These Vultures never see an IS sector, never see a red ship of any sort and bork around all day, humping asteroids. Is there some sort of auto-damage in AI mining they could be taking, somewhere?

Anyway, I generally end up noticing that I have to repair at least one of them about once every 5 sessions or so. Off to Saturn or Mars they go to get a new paint job.. Once, when I had forgotten to add more shields to a Vulture Miner I had bought on impulse, it had taken 50% damage before I noticed it needed to be repaired. (Real Life months after I had purchased it.)

I don't know what's up with that or if the Taledi are trying to sabotage my operations or not, but it gets aggravating.

All that being said, grabbing a TS Miner early in the game can be a lot of fun and be pretty helpful. Any new player should disregard my comments so as not to end up believing in a fanciful myth. It could all be done with mirrors, for all I know. I'm also not trying to disparage anyone's Taledi Vulture! I'm just insulting my own.

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » Sat, 16. Jun 12, 17:58

All Miners take damage as they mine. It's built into the script used. Vultures seem more vulnerable to it for some reason, despite having the thickest hull.

Vayde · Post by **Vayde** » Sat, 16. Jun 12, 21:59

Teladi Vulture's/Miners have only 2 25mj shields so they suck big style.

Triaxx2 · Post by **Triaxx2** » Sun, 17. Jun 12, 03:57

Forgot about that. I almost never use anything other than the Superfreighters, which have four.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

So... Mobile Mining?

So... Mobile Mining?