New mining technology and machinery

Suggestions
1

Hello,

I’d like to suggest an improvement or the addition of a new mechanic.

At present, I find that mining carried out using the Orbital Mining Module technology is mainly used for building space stations. The ore is mined and stored on the planet.

What I’d like to suggest is the introduction of another potential research project that becomes available once this one has been completed. This technology would enable the construction of mining ships using the same mechanism as the Sorium Harvester; the ore would be loaded directly into the mining ship’s hold, allowing for a direct transition to a cargo ship once the mining ship is full, so it can set off to unload on a planet

The Trial: Lessons Learned
2

Its generally inefficient to include a cargo hold on an orbital miner, but you can already do so if you want . Then just issue a load order before you leave the planet. Or you can move the minerals to a different population via a separate freighter, or by mass driver.

1 Like
3

It is in this area, more or less, that I’m suggesting a change.

The current mechanics with the module are fine. But I find them mainly useful if you’re building a station – in other words, without engines and so on. Generally speaking, at least in my experience, my station weighs 100k tonnes and produces 200 tonnes per year (without any specific technological upgrades).

The logistics of moving such large stations, should we build bigger and more significant ones. My vision for this suggestion is to allow you to have a smaller module, which mines fewer tonnes of ore and can be mounted on a ship.

We could have a ship equipped with a component such as a tractor beam; we could add a cargo hold of 5,000, for example, and this would enable less costly logistics and easier movement

4

I think one of the approaches people take is a fleet of mining ships, each with small cargo holds.

You can then drop a mass driver onto the planet surface as you mine, firing back to home.

That way you don’t need a station and do get he ore back fast!

1 Like
5

To me I don’t see the need for smaller modules, as the current modules already require large stations to be economically effective. The shipyard cost of making so many mining ships would be steep, and unlikely to ever have a good ROI.

6

Why not just have fewer mining modules fitted?

1 Like
7

I either use orbital mining platforms with a variable number of mining modules, or automated mines dropped onto the planet or asteroid. Then I use either a mass driver to move the mined ore to the system’s main colony, or send a freighter or fleet of freighters to pick up the ore.

Being able to mine an asteroid or planet without having people there is a great feature.

8

Honestly, all of the current mining modules are pretty lackluster in terms of size versus output.

I think it’d be a good change if the current big modules got buffed and a series of sizes with different outputs got introduced, to make the design space less binary.

Say having a large station with commercial hangars and large mining modules over a particularly juicy body, while a fleet of smaller miners works a surrounding asteroid belt of the smaller gains. This would allow some degree of automation when multiple smaller bodies are in a system, and offer some extra utility when a critical resource is scarce enough to begin considering sub-optimal sources. And role play, of course.

Or, having a big refinery over a particularly good or particularly poor accessibility gas giant while a fleet of smaller miners goes a jump over to a more lucrative gas giant. This allows you to protect your bigger station more easily behind a jump point, allows you to use a smaller jump ship/ jump station, and could give some use for the currently not so useful sub 50% engine power settings. (They have some use, but are marginal and taper off fast IMLE) Also, good for RPing weird space governments. Maybe the ruling monarchy has rights to that gas giant, but the feudal lords have rights to the other ones, and so the monarchy keeps them “happy” by setting up a combination gas station/harvesting station.

1 Like
9

There’s more than one mining module?

1 Like
10

First, you don’t need shipyards to make your mining ships. You can use construction factories to build armourless stations.

Second, if you are committed to continuous production of your mining ships, then it is better to build and use a shipyard for them even if your ships are armourless stations. Shipyards provide more BP production per worker than confacs.

If you are only going to occasionally build mining ships, and those ships are armourless stations, then you might prefer to use confacs. Better to be less productive per worker on occasion than to have workers tied up in an idle shipyard.

1 Like
11

Yeah. Sorium Harvesting and Orbital Mining.

12

All both of the production modules.

Both of which are much smaller than the equivalent planetary installation, with the same output. Hardly seems lackluster.

1 Like
13

This is where modding shines.
People have different tastes, playstyles and ideas.

14

Ah I guess they got buffed at some point without me noticing. Still, no reason NOT to have smaller ones, and 10 tons at a fraction of the cost with no population is actually incredibly strong, so plenty of room for a little nerfing. Oh well.

15

What is 10 tons?

16

10 tons, of minerals, per annum.

20

I’ve trimmed the last few replies. Lets not snipe at each other over minor misunderstandings :slight_smile:

4 Likes
21

Having read through all the replies, perhaps some people are finding it difficult to understand my idea.

To come back to this and make myself clearer, I’ll do my best to provide some examples.

Currently, the only mining method we have is the orbital mining module.
Personally, I use it like this: I build a station with 20 modules for an annual output of 200 tonnes (without any technology bonuses). Ultimately, the station produces around 100,000 tonnes, and I think this is the setup that many people use.

This therefore requires a shipyard costing over 100k, which is feasible but still demands resources at the outset. Alternatively, we can use our industry facilities on the planet, which is what I do every time. The cost is also quite high, so if we want to produce in large quantities, we need to have reserves.

My idea, as explained, was to have a smaller module that takes up less space, mines less than the current one, and of which only one copy can be fitted to a ship – in which case it functions like the salvage module. The ship allows you to extract the ores and have them go directly into the ship’s cargo hold, rather than being stored as reserves on the planet or asteroid being mined

Now, I’m not sure if this is a good idea, but essentially the ‘Orbital Mining Module’ research leads to two research paths:

one to obtain the current module – larger, more powerful and designed for installation on a station. This research costs more RP than the second one

The second research path costs fewer RP, but the module is smaller – only one can be fitted to a ship – and less powerful.

It’s an option and an additional gameplay method that allows for quick, low-cost orbital mining, albeit with limited output.

22

But why not simply fit less mining modules in the first place? There is nothing stopping you from fitting just one module to a ship or station with cargo bay and cargo shuttle.

1 Like
23

That’s possible. But I think there’s room for improvement in this aspect of the gameplay, so I’m putting forward my idea

All of this is just for consideration; I’m simply raising the topic to gather ideas to add to the game and perhaps help Steve improve aspects he hadn’t thought of or simply hadn’t come up with.