Nividium Mining - Automatic way to break up rocks?

[SVAndrei]

Hello everyone.

I recently started having a go at Nividium mining. I was wondering if there's a way to break up the individual rocks down to collectible size? I have several TS class ships set on collect rocks, but every once in a while they stop due to there being no more collectible size rocks available. Is there a way to have a ship automatically break the rocks, or do i have to do it by hand?

Thanks.

[Alan Phipps]

For Nividium you have to do the breaking up yourself (in vanilla). Since your minerals run out, you are obviously playing X3AP rather than X3TC 2.1 or later.

[Raize]

Get a PSG ship like Deimos which speeds things up nicely with AoE fire.

[Snafu_X3]

Stick any normal gun on any ship equipped for mining & it will break up the rocks itself while you're out of sector (OOS)

You only need the mining 'laser' for breaking sector-viewable asteroids into smaller bits, that can then be broken up by normal guns & mined as above

Not all ships have the weapons energy to fire a mining 'laser' - it needs over 1000 IIRC - so despite them being able to fit it they can't use it. Check the weapons energy carefully if you're going to fit one

IIRC Mining 'lasers' can't be used remotely; they must be fired by the player when <player> is in an appropriately kitted ship

[Nanook]

Stick any normal gun on any ship equipped for mining & it will break up the rocks itself while you're out of sector (OOS)...

Except for nividium, which is what the OP wants. Nividium has to be manually broken up and then collected using the Collect Rocks command.

[Alan Phipps]

@ Raize: PSGs will not leave a lot of Nividium to collect though.

[Snafu_X3]

Except [...] Nividium has to be manually broken up and then collected using the Collect Rocks command.

Oh? I must be imagining my nvidium miner filling up every so often then, from one Hornet at the Treasure Hunt 'roid.. & previously from a Niv 'roid in US below Menelaus' Oasis..

[Nanook]

Except [...] Nividium has to be manually broken up and then collected using the Collect Rocks command.

Oh? I must be imagining my nvidium miner filling up every so often then, from one Hornet at the Treasure Hunt 'roid.. & previously from a Niv 'roid in US below Menelaus' Oasis..

No, what's happening is in TC, rocks respawn endlessly when you're OOS to the miner. That means you can break up a few yourself, then leave the sector and the miner(s) will continue to pick up nividium infinitely using the 'Collect Rocks' command. Some nividium fields even have some rocks small enough to be collected without the player first breaking them up, so it gives the illusion of the miner breaking up the rocks with its laser. But it is just an illusion.

Your Hornet, by breaking up a map 'roid, has created a few collectible rocks, which your miner will collect forever OOS unless you enter the sector long enough for them to run out while IS.

[donpera]

That means you can break up a few yourself...

Did that and ordered baldric to collect but he is idling. What now?

[glenmcd]

<snip> what's happening is in TC, rocks respawn endlessly when you're OOS to the miner. That means you can break up a few yourself, then leave the sector and the miner(s) will continue to pick up nividium infinitely using the 'Collect Rocks' command.

Has that changed in AP??

[Alan Phipps]

Yes, there is no rock respawn in X3AP. Only the broken full-size asteroids will respawn.

[ajax34i]

If you want to mine Nividium in AP, you must break up the roid yourself, and if you're persistent and keep breaking it up until you have a huge field of tiny rocks, your miners will not go idle for quite a long while.

Two things I have noticed:

1. How much Nividium you get depends on the visual size of the roid, rather than on what the scanner says. A huge Nividium=3 roid gave out 1500 pieces, whereas a much smaller Nividium=7 roid gave out only 400.

2. Big roid (level 1) breaks into smaller roids (level 2) which break into smaller dull gray (level 3) and smallest shiny golden (level 4) roids. The level 4 are collectible by TS'es. What seems to happen is, if you break up all the level 2 and 3 into 4, and move your ship away from the field of rocks, when you come back some of the 4's coallesce back into 3's, and you can break them up again. Move away, break them again. Move away, break them again. Repeat this enough times and some internal count seems to increase indefinitely, resulting in more Nividium in the end.

I've had the same Nividium roid yield 1500 one time, and 2000 upon reload and redo. May be a random number generator, but it does feel as if repeatedly breaking up the level 3's increases the final piece count.

[Snafu_X3]

No, what's happening is in TC, rocks respawn endlessly when you're OOS to the miner. [...]

Your Hornet, by breaking up a map 'roid, has created a few collectible rocks, which your miner will collect forever OOS unless you enter the sector long enough for them to run out while IS.

OK, I understand better now; thanks