Crystal mining is bugged

[Mega_Tron]

After installing update 4.0 and Cradle of Humanity, i decided to start a new game. Using a few mods - just to make a game a bit better. One of them is called - CrystalFinder. This mod lights an asteroid with the color of crystals on it. After starting a new game i went straight for a xenon sector where is a Holly order destroyer ( to claim it and sell it) and as usual, on the way wanted to pick up some crystals. Here is what happened ( many times after restarting the game). As soon as i pick up 1st crystal - green, blue, orange, or yellow rest crystals ALL turn purple even if they were all different colors before this. I tried this so many times with a new game and even went back to my old game and tested and it's the same crap. As soon as i pick up 1st crystal - the rest turn purple. Also, why is HOP faction at -15 relations at the start of a new game? They were always at 0 as far as i can remember and always sold them their destoyer. I tried the game without any mods - same crap...all crystals i find after 1st one are purple.... I EVEN re-installed the game and all updates and its still the same crap. Is this a new BUG that has to do with a Cradle of Humanity add-on? ... If someone knows, please do tell me how to sort this out. Thanks !!!!

[Zaemar2017]

You're not alone. It's purple everywhere.

[Mega_Tron]

You're not alone. It's purple everywhere.

i started a new game as soon as i installed add-on and update 4 and it was fine. Everything was normal, but today it just all went pare-shaped... not sure why ... Must be something to do with update

[MSterling]

Nope. It is borked.
Nerfed.
Whacked with the banhammer.
Is no more.
Has gone to the exploit in the sky.

For me, its balancing was that it was kinda boring, but zenlike trances early game when you don't have much else to do that is actually involving, makes it a good way to kickstart your game, but when you have stuff to do, unless you#re SETAing while waiting for something to complete, maybe you'll watch for the shinies then.

But it isn't worth it except in the early game.

However, the decision was that it was too OP and if everyone was doing it or advised to do it to start the game, then it was a bad idea and unbalanced. I think it was done because while you were doing the missions and exploring, you had an NPC pilot passively earning for you. If something different were a requirement, then the gamestarts should ALL have had an NPC piloted medium trader ship or miner you can start off while you do the rounds with the other items.

[Mega_Tron]

Nope. It is borked.
Nerfed.
Whacked with the banhammer.
Is no more.
Has gone to the exploit in the sky.

For me, its balancing was that it was kinda boring, but zenlike trances early game when you don't have much else to do that is actually involving, makes it a good way to kickstart your game, but when you have stuff to do, unless you#re SETAing while waiting for something to complete, maybe you'll watch for the shinies then.

But it isn't worth it except in the early game.

However, the decision was that it was too OP and if everyone was doing it or advised to do it to start the game, then it was a bad idea and unbalanced. I think it was done because while you were doing the missions and exploring, you had an NPC pilot passively earning for you. If something different were a requirement, then the gamestarts should ALL have had an NPC piloted medium trader ship or miner you can start off while you do the rounds with the other items.

Where di you read about it?

[MSterling]

Where di you read about it?

I heard about it in the livestream.

The occurrence of missions has been beefed up, so you SHOULD be able to make money quicker than before running missions. Blowing up laser towers is easy money, 200k for four lasertowers that pose no danger whatsoever. I hope a lot more "Please find a resource area" missions are highly amped up, because with the new mining paradigm (you will have more success mining off the beaten path than right beside the superhighway), you will be killing two birds with one stone, maybe three birds:
1) Earning while flying about randomly
2) Exploring while finding the areas
3) Finding resource deposits that you will be able to use

[Alan Phipps]

The OP's observation isn't new and it isn't bugged. There were various balances done in versions before 4.00 such as making the flashes harder to see or even disappear after a while in asteroid fields, and then making every crystal deposit found after the first few in a hunting session be of the more common types. This was to stop unbalancing get-rich-quick schemes always revolving around crystals.

[Falcrack]

I'vw seen crystals change color too after I collected high value crystals. Had the next asteroid targeted so that I could find it easily after the first, but nope, changed color on me after I collected the first high value node.

[dtpsprt]

Besides Crystal mining being significantly nerfed (maybe a good thing), you should also consider the fact that so soon after the release of V4.00 (and given the Hotfix just today) some mods may bot work as intended or at all...

[humility925]

Might well removed crystal mining because way I see it, it's not worth mining with all lot of time looking, trying find high value crystal but no longer there because it's been nerfed to ground, whatever happen let player choice and free how they want to play? They just removed fun part and player's choice because other don't like that gameplay style, it's better to buff other area to make more interested making open more way to play rather than to nerfed into ground and more limited way to play. To the point player got stuck or slow snail unable to do anything to grow over many real life time hours, so go on.

[zakaluka]

Might well removed crystal mining because way I see it, it's not worth mining

This is just a dramatic thing to say - even if all you're getting is bandannite, crystal mining is still much higher income than missions while all you have is a starter ship.

It won't launch you to a 5 mil bank account in an hour anymore, good.

[Feloidea]

Blowing up laser towers is easy money, 200k for four lasertowers that pose no danger whatsoever.

I've always shied away from those missions because I just assumed you get negative reputation on whomever owns the lasertowers. Is that not the case and you can actually destroy them without any rep loss? Happened to get burned by another mission that had me attack a criminal (where it didn't say in the mission briefing that thre action would be criminal as opposed to missions where it says as such so at the time I assumed the target was fair game) and then losing a good bunch of rep for a main faction so I just never touched these sort of kill missions again.

[Mega_Tron]

Besides Crystal mining being significantly nerfed (maybe a good thing), you should also consider the fact that so soon after the release of V4.00 (and given the Hotfix just today) some mods may bot work as intended or at all...

i would sat massivly..No invidium anywhere now lol ..This is going to be not an easy start for new playerrs now ))

[dtpsprt]

Blowing up laser towers is easy money, 200k for four lasertowers that pose no danger whatsoever.

I've always shied away from those missions because I just assumed you get negative reputation on whomever owns the lasertowers. Is that not the case and you can actually destroy them without any rep loss? Happened to get burned by another mission that had me attack a criminal (where it didn't say in the mission briefing that thre action would be criminal as opposed to missions where it says as such so at the time I assumed the target was fair game) and then losing a good bunch of rep for a main faction so I just never touched these sort of kill missions again.

No... these Laser Towers belong to SCA which rep is locked to -5... they'll shout, they'll call the "authorities" but nothing happens

[Feloidea]

Blowing up laser towers is easy money, 200k for four lasertowers that pose no danger whatsoever.

I've always shied away from those missions because I just assumed you get negative reputation on whomever owns the lasertowers. Is that not the case and you can actually destroy them without any rep loss? Happened to get burned by another mission that had me attack a criminal (where it didn't say in the mission briefing that thre action would be criminal as opposed to missions where it says as such so at the time I assumed the target was fair game) and then losing a good bunch of rep for a main faction so I just never touched these sort of kill missions again.

No... these Laser Towers belong to SCA which rep is locked to -5... they'll shout, they'll call the "authorities" but nothing happens

Like, categorically all such mission lasertowers belong to the SCA? That'd be wonderful since I happened to see those missions a fair bit during my earlier exploration run before I ran into the problems with the mining changes.
I also hope the "no danger whatsoever" line doesn't assume a heavier player ship ... new to X4 and I happen to remember that that lasertowers in X3 could be quite nasty for M5/M4 ships (which most X4 S class starter ships are equivalent to).

[StoneLegionYT]

So this has to be a new Nerf?

Maybe not I think before when they nerfed it the way it worked at least I thought was that it be limited time then I could not find any after I mined a bunch then they come back like 20min later or if saved/reloaded. Now I have to agree I get like one Yellow or Blue and then boom it's all just the pink ones and nothing else.

I wish a Dev would explain the nerf how it works, is there zones that make this nerf feel less nerfing or is the idea that crystal mining was totally destroyed? I wish we get some answers instead of always guessing hehe.

[grapedog]

Besides Crystal mining being significantly nerfed (maybe a good thing), you should also consider the fact that so soon after the release of V4.00 (and given the Hotfix just today) some mods may bot work as intended or at all...

i would sat massivly..No invidium anywhere now lol ..This is going to be not an easy start for new playerrs now ))

This was a good change. Plenty of ways to make cash.

[Old Drullo321]

Don't do crystal mining. Find two of the abandoned ships, sell them and buy/sell advanced satellites. That way you earn cash alot faster then the old boring crystal mining. I wonder why Egosoft nerfed it anyways

[grapedog]

Don't do crystal mining. Find two of the abandoned ships, sell them and buy/sell advanced satellites. That way you earn cash alot faster then the old boring crystal mining. I wonder why Egosoft nerfed it anyways

Probably because so many "pro-tips" to making cash fast said mine crystals. And there are better ways... I can't think of a single thing in this game more unpleasant than mining crystals. Sending new players to do this is just the worst.

Hey, new guy, this game is awesome, try it... no don't think, trade, fight, or build.... scrape crystals off rocks bro.

[Poacher886]

The nerf to crystal mining was good...i use a mod 'Crexit' that nerfs it further.

Problem is, spacefly's are an even bigger exploit, and you don't even have to look for them, just go to a mineral zone and hoover them all up, space caviar and 1mill+ credits every 15min. And you don't even need to find a black market to sell them, as everyone seems to take them off your hands. Makes crysral mining seem like hard work..