How do you mine Nvidium? How do you use the Mobile Drilling System?

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jopejope
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How do you mine Nvidium? How do you use the Mobile Drilling System?

Post by jopejope » Mon, 3. Sep 12, 10:12

So I need some Nvidium for ... reasons. But I can't figure out how to mine the stuff.

Through searching online it seems I have to find an asteroid and then break it up. OK. I've found some Nvidium asteroids. And I gather that I can use a Mobile Drilling System to break them up.

So I've got a TS ship (Mistrel) setup with a few Mobile Drilling Systems. I go up to the asteroid, but now I can't figure out how to fire my Mining drills! The ship only has turrets, no frontal guns. So, how do I fire my Mobile Drilling System to break-up the asteroid? I tried setting the turrets to "Attack my Target" but they don't do anything when I target the asteroid. I also tried telling auto-pilot to attack my target (targeting the asteroid) but then my ship just flies around like an idiot and doesn't attack anything.

Also, the mine and collect minerals special command doesn't give Nvidium as an option so I can't use that either.

So, what do I do? How am I supposed to use my Mobile Drilling System if I can't figure out how to get it to fire?

Am I missing something really obvious here?

SVAndrei
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Post by SVAndrei » Mon, 3. Sep 12, 10:19

I usually banually break the asteroids using a fighter with some HEPT's, or an M6. Never tried turret options yet.

There is no way to automate the nividium mining in vanilla. Break up the rocks, drop a n advanced sat near the resulting asteroid field (regular one may work as well, not sure about that), then tell your miner to gather rocks. If i recall correctly, they will head for the advanced sat, and start collecting the nividium.

Thrasher91604
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Post by Thrasher91604 » Mon, 3. Sep 12, 10:29

I think you can manually fire the turrets. Use the F1 key to jump into a turret with the mining laser installed. Good luck!

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Klord
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Re: How do you mine Nvidium? How do you use the Mobile Drilling System?

Post by Klord » Mon, 3. Sep 12, 10:37

jopejope wrote:but now I can't figure out how to fire my Mining drills! The ship only has turrets, no frontal guns. So, how do I fire my Mobile Drilling System to break-up the asteroid? I tried setting the turrets to "Attack my Target" but they don't do anything when I target the asteroid. I also tried telling auto-pilot to attack my target (targeting the asteroid) but then my ship just flies around like an idiot and doesn't attack anything.

So, what do I do? How am I supposed to use my Mobile Drilling System if I can't figure out how to get it to fire?

Am I missing something really obvious here?
First of all. one Mobile Drilling System (MDS) is enough.
To switch to the turret from the cockpit you need to press F1. Then you can fire weapons installed in the turret.
Install some fighter weapons in other weapon slots. So you can break rocks in to small pieces to gather.
jopejope wrote:So I've got a TS ship (Mistrel)
Use "Caimen miner" the best TS miner.
SVAndrei wrote:I usually banually break the asteroids using a fighter with some HEPT's, or an M6. Never tried turret options yet.
You cant break asteroids by HEPT. You need mobile drilling system or heavy missiles (Hornet) to do that.
SVAndrei wrote:There is no way to automate the nividium mining in vanilla.
This is true....automated mining cant be done in vanilla game. (a game without mods & scripts)
But there are some great mining mods in the mods library, which you can use to automated mining.

Prospector
Moble mining MK2

Happy mining.... ;)

Edit - If you are a new player, even with these answers, Im definitly sure your problems related to mining will not solve. I have been in your status couple of months ago. So frustrating. :roll:
Keep posting here & experienced players will help you out. (as they have done to me 8) )
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Coreblimey
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Post by Coreblimey » Mon, 3. Sep 12, 11:47

What you will need:
1 Mobile Drilling System
1 TS/Miner (If you are using a TS you will also need an Ore Collector)
1 Special Command Software
1 HEPT (Optional)

Install the MDS in any available turret.
Make sure you are within range of your target asteroid
Using key 'F1' switch your position to the turret containing the MDS
Fire the laser once (the laser is very slow and it may seem an age before it hits the target)
Once the asteroid has broken you can either keep using the MDS to break up the boulders or switch to the HEPT.
When the pieces are small enough to be collected issue your TS/Miner to collect rocks in sector (Command Menu>Special>Collect Rocks In Sector) or collect them manually.

Hopefully you should soon have a cargo bay full of nividium. :)
If it doesn't work, give it a kick. If that doesn't fix it hit it with a hammer. If it still doesn't work, USE A BIGGER HAMMER!!!

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cjm3fl
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Post by cjm3fl » Mon, 3. Sep 12, 19:58

TC 'vanilla' and I've been remotely mining Nividium following this method, but only using 1 TL and 11 different types of TS's...
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php? ... ng&start=0

I have a few tankers, a pair of "miners", and the rest are Super and XL freighters all with mineral scanners, special command software, and ore collectors.

I've built an empire and good sized fleet with the money this method has generated.
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StarSword
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Re: How do you mine Nvidium? How do you use the Mobile Drilling System?

Post by StarSword » Mon, 3. Sep 12, 20:40

Klord wrote:
SVAndrei wrote:I usually banually break the asteroids using a fighter with some HEPT's, or an M6. Never tried turret options yet.
You cant break asteroids by HEPT. You need mobile drilling system or heavy missiles (Hornet) to do that.
Correction: you can't break full-size asteroids (big enough to put mines on) by HEPT. Smaller rocks break just fine with HEPT.
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Wolvan
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Post by Wolvan » Mon, 3. Sep 12, 20:51

Just a heads up, if you get into large scale Nvidium mining, you might as well just install the cheat scripts.....

Next best thing to a credit printing machine! :twisted:


Me personally I can never mine just a hold worth of Nvidium, soon as I do I can't resist the temptation of going back for another... and hey since I'm there, buying another freighter, and before I know it I have 3 TLs and 15 TSs running around kingdoms end....
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jopejope
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Post by jopejope » Tue, 4. Sep 12, 00:29

That worked great, thanks everyone! The F1 key to switch to turrets was exactly what I needed.

I just needed a little Nvidium. I'm not going to build an empire mining it, I was just at a loss as to how to get even 1 unit of the stuff given that I couldn't figure out how to turn on my Mobile Drilling System. I didn't know you could use the F1 key to take control of your turrets.

Coreblimey
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Post by Coreblimey » Tue, 4. Sep 12, 08:26

Don't forget, unless you think you are going to do some more mining later in the game, sell your mining lasers back to an equipment dock. I would keep one though. You never know when it is going to come in handy. :)
If it doesn't work, give it a kick. If that doesn't fix it hit it with a hammer. If it still doesn't work, USE A BIGGER HAMMER!!!

Unknown Sector..... That's what you get for using Bing instead of Google!

T3Lunaris
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Post by T3Lunaris » Tue, 4. Sep 12, 10:46

I've actually found that the mining laser is only useful for breaking up the big rocks, from there break up the semi big rocks with regular guns and then I just start slowly (15 m/s or less) flying into the pile, (note I'm usually in a TL or M7) the ships shields are usually strong enough to survive the impact of the asteroids. I've also found that if you stop fully and turn your ship into the smaller asteroids(it helps if it's a rather long ship which gives you more surface area) you don't take nearly as much damage to the shields, it's much faster than breaking up rocks individually down to their smallest parts and you don't lose any due to your guns destroying a medium into a small when it's surrounded by collectible rocks.

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Aragosnat
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Post by Aragosnat » Tue, 4. Sep 12, 21:31

Also if you find a hammerhead missile. Then an M3 is the only ship needed as they work just as well as a hornet and usually find one well before having enough to buy an m6. Also remember to stay at 10 km away to stay out of the blast radius. Killed one of my DiD games that way.
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