Best Ship for Mobile Drilling System

[SirDeity]

Which ship should I use to mount my mobile drilling system? I know I can use other weapons but I want a ship devoted solely to breaking up asteroids with the mobile drilling system. I'm not sure which would be best though as the only ships I currently own capable of mounting this weapon don't have any main guns (only turrets).

[StarSword]

Those will work fine OOS. I have no idea how well they'll work IS.

[DrBullwinkle]

Best ship for Mobile Drilling System (MDS)? None.

The vanilla mining scripts will not break asteroids. They will break up smaller rocks, but they can do that with almost any laser. They do not need the MDS. In fact, the MDS has a low refire rate and is less effective than other lasers.

On the player ship you can, of course, break asteroids with MDS. But, again, you do not need it; you can break asteroids with Hornet or other high-yield missiles.

In short: You don't need MDS, and AI ships will not use it (unless you use the Prospector script).

[SirDeity]

I'm using vanilla. I want to break up the nividium asteroid in my private sector but it is too large to break up with my Vidar's main weapons. I don't have missiles because they are too inconvenient to supply. I want a more permanent solution than using missiles so I don't have to resupply anything.

What weapon should I use to break up very large asteroids without having to purchase missiles or ammunition? And what ship would be best for performing this task? I already bought the damn mobile drilling system, so I'd prefer to use it if I can find a ship that can mount it as its main weapon.

[DrBullwinkle]

It doesn't matter which ship you use to break asteroids. Any ship that will mount the MDS is as good as another.

Most TL's can mount MDS, if that helps. And TL's are also useful for mobile mining, as well as homebases for AI mobile miners. So there is some synergy in using a TL. But whatever ship you want to use is fine.

(And you don't need a lot of missiles; one Hornet per asteroid is all it takes. Most sectors do not have many asteroids -- although they may have many smaller rocks, which can be broken with any laser).

[Morkonan]

Caimen Miner is a decent choice, for lower end ships, IIRC. Mercuries can mount it as well. I prefer the Mobile Mining Base Ship, for flavor, though.

[SIMON POPPLEWELL]

You can't get ships to mobile mine nividium in anycase, only ore/silicon. You best bet is to break the roid into collectable rocks and drop a satelite in the middle and then send ships to sat and order them to collect rocks, it's the only way to collect nividium to sell.

[EmperorJon]

And I believe that OOS mining isn't infinite any more either. No more infinividum.

[SirDeity]

The plan is for me to go in there and break up all of the nvidium small enough to be scooped up by TSs. Then I'll drop a satellite nearby the smaller nvidium deposits, and go out of system to the nearest shipyard. Then I'll about 10-20 TSs and send them in to collect the ore, then when they cargos are full I'll send them back to the nearest shipyard and sell the entire ships with their full cargos for some decent profits.

I just spent about 350 million credits to purchase my new sector so now I'm broke, which is why I need the fast cash. I'm hoping this nvidium strategy will be my solution.

[SIMON POPPLEWELL]

The plan is for me to go in there and break up all of the nvidium small enough to be scooped up by TSs. Then I'll drop a satellite nearby the smaller nvidium deposits, and go out of system to the nearest shipyard. Then I'll about 10-20 TSs and send them in to collect the ore, then when they cargos are full I'll send them back to the nearest shipyard and sell the entire ships with their full cargos for some decent profits.

I just spent about 350 million credits to purchase my new sector so now I'm broke, which is why I need the fast cash. I'm hoping this nvidium strategy will be my solution.

Probably not the best site to mine as the rocks dry up when you enter the sector. Perpetual Sins (paranid sector) is a good site for mining, with 3 niv roids available and a shipyard in the next sector it's the best place to mine.

[SirDeity]

On this mobile mining guide it says TS ships with the word "miner" have ore collectors and special command software preinstalled. But when I look at the split shipyard in Zyarthh's Dominion, for example, and press 'i' with a Caimen Miner selected, it only shows trade software mk 1 as being preinstalled (the preinstalled items are on the bottom of the information window). Why aren't the ore collectors or special command software built-in components listed on the information?

Also, how do I instruct my ships to collect a specific type of ore? If I tell them to collect ore in sector they end up picking up all of the plain old ore instead of the nvidium I want them to gather.

[DrBullwinkle]

Caiman Miner should include Ore Collector and Mineral Scanner, yes.

However, one area in which I disagree with most mining guides is the choice of TS ships as miners. Standard TS ships are not very durable, which is important for mining.

M6's and Falcon Haulers are superior miners, IMHO. Offset their smaller cargo space with a TL, either as a homebase or with CLS2.

In AP, the new TS+ ships are far superior to the standard TS ships (Sturgeon, Drake, Tern, Hayabusa, Snotra).

If you do not mind using scripts, then consider Mobile Mining Mk2, which fixes a lot of problems in the vanilla scripts. If you want ships to mine only Nividium, then Mobile Mining Mk2 (or Prospector) are the only ways to do it.

[SirDeity]

Are those scripts vanilla friendly?

[SIMON POPPLEWELL]

If you plan on selling the ships go with the cheapest ships, just install ore collecter and special commands software. If you can afford it also increase cargo hull to max to increase maximium profits in ship sales.

[Old Drullo321]

It doesn't matter which ship you use to break asteroids. Any ship that will mount the MDS is as good as another.

Question to this because for me it seems it is not working (or I dont use it properly).

Sector: Three Worlds => Lots of mini asteroids
2x Split Drake with 1 Pulsed Beam Emitter and every software avaible, using "collect minerals" command.
It seems they dont crack mini asteroids, they only collect stuff I broke for them (with my Hyperion)

So how to properly use TS cleaning a sector out of mini asteroids by collecting them? So I have to use a ship which can use the MBS and equip any weapon to that special slot?

[Alan Phipps]

@ Old Drullo321: The collect rocks command never has used a laser or anything else to break rocks. It just does what the command says; ie collect ready-broken smallest size rocks. If you want the ship to use a laser remotely to break rocks and then collect them you must use 'mine mineral', or 'mine and trade minerals'. They don't need the MDS, a PAC is pretty good.

[Old Drullo321]

I used the command, which dont need any further commands (c-4-3).
So if i use the c-4-4 command and for example specify ore he will break and collect rocks (of the choosen mineral) until he reached the given amount (I hope that means if i use CAG or other tools to exchange the stuff before the miner reached its limit, it will mine endlessly up to the point no rocks are left? There was no way like type in "-1")

[DrBullwinkle]

@Drullo: No, you do not need MDS on any ship. In the vanilla game, only the player ship can break full-size asteroids (the ones that appear on the sector map). Asteroids can be broken with Hornet or other heavy missiles, and smaller rocks can be broken with any laser, so MDS is unimportant.

To get AI ships to break smaller rocks, you must use one of the mining commands (on the Special Menu or Trade Menu). For that purpose, any laser is adequate.

"Collect Rocks" will not break rocks at all.

Nividium is special:

• - Vanilla Mining commands will not collect Nividium.
  
  - The vanilla method to collect Nividium is to use a fighter (or M6/M7) to break up rocks into collectible size. This is time-consuming but possible. Then command your AI miners to "Collect Rocks".
  
  - Mobile Mining Mk2 is much easier because, among other things, you can command miners to mine Nividium. Of course, any script marks your game as "modified" (including Mobile Mining Mk2).

If you use the Mine Minerals command (Mine.S), and homebase your miner to a TL or station, then the miner will drop off minerals. In Mobile Mining Mk2, the same command will drop off when full then continue mining.

(Menu positions vary, so your technique of "c-4-4" may be different on other ships or in different games).

[Alan Phipps]

@ Old Drullo321: Correct - the given amount being when it cannot hold any more after which it goes where you said to unload and stops, or just stops in space. The CLS ship emptying him often enough will prevent that stoppage but if it does stop you have to start it off again. (Having it report when a command is complete is a good way to know this has happened and do something about it.) I don't know where DrB got the bit about it starting to mine again after a drop-off as it doesn't in vanilla X3TC.

You can usefully use ships separately running remote miner and collect rocks at the same place OOS. The miners break rocks and all ships collect. Collect rocks does not stop the command when full but they just drift in space until emptied and then they resume collecting. Report when finished does not work for them when full.

The mine and trade minerals command sets off ships that do their own thing mining and selling then going back to mining without any supervision - but they do wander around the galaxy following minerals and markets and can get into trouble in and crossing hostile sectors as a result. (Typically they jump to trade when full but fly back to a mineral source the slow way.)

[DrBullwinkle]

I don't know where DrB got the bit about it starting to mine again after a drop-off as it doesn't in vanilla X3TC.

Wow, really?! I could swear it is in the code... maybe it's a bug? What does it do? Drop off at homebase and then stop?

In any case, I fixed it (if you don't mind a modified game). I also made a wing command, so you can start an entire wing of miners with a single command (in addition to several other improvements).