Finally tried Mining in Elite: Dangerous

[Kenadian]

I wish I could set a mimumum / have a savings account with the Federal Galactic Reserve. I myself almost went below my minimum when I wasn't paying attention and splurging on some upgrades.

When you're trading you have to maintain a savings or your game is pretty much over if you get killed.

I actually filled my cargo hold once and didn't notice how much I was spending. I ran the route with 200 credits to my name and a rebuy price of well over 20,000 credits.

This on a night I'd been interdicted a few times and nearly bested once.

 

[little P]

Ah that's all part of the fun

The other night I bought a Python, and didn't have enough to max out it's cargo let alone for insurance. I flew one trade run and I was a nervous wreck. If I'd lost it at that point I would have been gutted. But that's the appeal of this game for me, we have the choice to put it all on the line, knowing full well the consequences if it all goes tits up. But conversely pulling off a risky run with not enough for insurance is one of the best feelings eh

Suffice to say I sold the Python and went off on my exploration jaunt. The Python will take an absolute fortune to get anywhere near where I'd want it to be. At least 100M CR just for starters

Once I get back from my little jolly I will be aiming for a Python again though unless I decide to stay with my goal of a T-9. It was an impressive ship!

Good for you for trying mining Duke, I never really gave it a good go, it's been on my "to-do" list so good to hear feedback from a miner

 

[ElektroVodka]

Good good, all of you should start mining, i'll be waiting right outside of the no fire zone right next to your preferred station to "collect" your lewts!

I was wondering tho, would it be possible to have your wingman pick up the material without it being classed as stolen?
Because that could make mining easier i think, 1 big ship with a mining laser and 2/3 smaller ships to collect the materials and fight of the pirates.

 

[ElektroVodka]

Hory feck, don't you guys have work to do?
I can't keep up

Edit: nevermind, internet borked and it seemed like the last 3 replies were posted at the same time.

 

[Kenadian]

little P I think mining would be right up your alley. It isn't too stressful so far, mind you I'm not currently in a Resource Extraction Site and my ship is still very capable even in reduced capacity.

You really have to make a lot of little thruster adjustments to keep on target, more so than any other maneuvering in the game. Each new asteroid presents a new challenge in finding its center mass and its rotational pivot point.

Then of course there's the scooping up of resources that are floating away from you at differing trajectories and speeds within a hostile asteroid field.

It's absolutely awesome and the more I talk about it the more I want to do it.

I have two goals tonight, one is to revisit the metal ring I was at last night but much closer proximity to the planet. The other is to visit a Resource Extraction Site and compare how its resources stack up.

I'll post again once I know.

 

[Kenadian]

Due to 1.2 stable being released I didn't get to test what I'd promised but I still have some news.

In order for me to properly test what I wanted I had to go back to the original planet where it all began. I thought there was a good probability that I gave up on it too soon because I wasn't finding enough of the minerals/metals on my first (and only) visit.

The Jury is still out on this one because I did much better this time out but it was still a massive failure overall. In roughly the same 3 hour'ish window I managed 40,000 credits this time around in Planet 1 but a fair amount of that could be attributed to having a 5 slot hopper rather than a 3 slot.

Had I been limited to a 3 slot choosing what to keep would have been much more difficult so I could see that number definitely being cut in half to 20,000 credits. I think that's still a very good improvement for Day 2 but not nearly what I was expecting.

I think there is a correlation between fragment purity and proximity to the planet but I can't confirm that in these early stages.

The other thing I'm not sure about is ring color because as you traverse the planet rings there are actually a lot of subtle shifts in the ring color. Since I was always advancing toward the planet I just passed through them without taking too much notice.

I think that may be a mistake because in doing that I came across all kinds of minerals, one being Silver. I think it may have been wise to stay within that particular ring color and mine it exclusively which I'll try tonight at planet 2.

One huge time-saving tip I can offer though is to not waste too much time trying to find each asteroids center of mass initially. This can burn a lot of time and it's all wasted if the fragments aren't worth anything.

The fastest approach I found late in my outing is to simply pick a spot and laser as you get close to the asteroid. In that time a fragment will break off and once you lock it you can see on the lower left panel exactly what it's composition is.

If it's not what you're looking for then move on to the next one.

You can cover a lot more ground in a lot less time with this one technique alone.

Also, when scooping up multiple fragments from the same "stoid" (that's what the cool Miners call them) ensure you select the very first one and keep it locked the entire time.

This way when you go to scoop them up you see the beginning of the "conga line" so scooping up is simply a matter of moving from fragment to fragment mostly in a straight line. This assumes of course that you successfully found the stoid's axis and all fragments broke off in the same direction of travel.

Lastly, when you scoop up one fragment come to a complete stop or even slow reverse. This also saves a lot of time because fragments are often within close proximity of each other.

If you keep moving forward as you process fragments can bounce off your hull and there a pain in the ass to grab after that.

It's better to reverse the engines and just line up the next fragment. This will save you a lot of time and you will lose a lot less fragments in the process as they have a certain dwell time before disintegrating into nothing.

The one thing about Mining that is a complete mystery to me is how boring it is but how fun it is as well. I've never seen this in a game where I can do some menial task and have so much fun doing it.

The other great thing about Mining is you come to know your ships handling characteristics in very short order. I don't know how many times I nearly bounced off a rock simply because my ship wasn't responsive enough.

I really got to get my ships weight down because my Cobra needs upgraded thrusters badly, it handles like a bathtub currently.

 

[little P]

Interesting read Duke. I know what you mean, there's something mysterious about this game that a boring thing is actually supremely relaxing and fun... there must be something wrong with us all lol

 

[tmtm]

Duke, I thought I read somewhere that you want gas giants with rings that say major reserves or pristine in the description. Or am I late telling you all this?

 

[Kenadian]

Duke, I thought I read somewhere that you want gas giants with rings that say major reserves or pristine in the description. Or am I late telling you all this?

I saw the same thing but it was in a BETA version of the game and have not come across that description as of yet.

I've found the right system with the right kind of planet but I'll be damned if that description comes up anywhere in the System Panel.

...or any resource delimiter stating current status.

 

[Kenadian]

OK so it sounds like "Pristine" is still used to describe a Mining Site which I didn't know. I was expecting some type of standard delimiter stating "Pristine", "Rich", "Mined" or something of that nature.

I've found a bunch of information on systems to go to but am ignoring all that to find one on my own.

It looks like I'll be blowing a lot of credits on System Maps over the next few play sessions. :icon_neutral: