Strip mining

[Yngen]

Ok I'll admit it, mining sucks in this game.

So I've tried to come up with an improvement to mining that would work in the FL engine.

And here it is:

1)Make a new weapon that only mining ships can equip called the strip miner.

2)Put a collection of Asteroid class stations in every mineable field (Maybe 4 or 5 per field,) and give them a name like Niobium Lump, Alien Nest, Gold Vein, Diamond Cache. Don't bother with the ice fields, its not worth it.

3)Only allow ships with the strip miner equipped to moor with these objects and have them dispense ore at a profitable rate (like fill the hold in 10 or 15 minutes.)
This would work best if it could be made that the ship stays on the outside of the object when it moors.

An alternative would be to make the strip miner a type of tractor beam that can be activated on these objects to release ore at a good rate.

Ok daydream over.

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[AU]Anton_Blix
-Signature by Doom

[McNeo]

Mining is alright if you know the best spots, and i happen to know the best for mining Niobium....

in 20 mins i can fill a hold in the stock miner (still wants bigger miner holds)

But i agree, in most areas that just doesnt happen. I just stumbled upon the area in Tau 37 and started mining. Most fields probably dont have a rich area like that...but i doubt your daydream is implementable.

And a quick word on the mining mine....

The little asteroids spawn around the camara so a mining mine is almost completely pointless because only the ones spawned next to the mine would be affected.

Im sure that this field of view can be changed, but until then...i dont think a mining mine would be as good as everyone thinks. (ive been meaning to say that for a very long time)

[Yngen]

The little asteroids spawn around the camara so a mining mine is almost completely pointless because only the ones spawned next to the mine would be affected

[snapback]46416[/snapback]

I'm not sure you understood what I was saying then. I'm not talking about shooting the little rocks in this case. The 'station' would be the rock that you shoot by mooring with it.

Heck we dont even have to do the whole mooring thing, we could just shoot at the big station size rock with a strip miner and get chunks of 10 or 20 tons each to tractor in, thats probably the simplest thing. Only I don't know how possible it would be to get a station that lets pieces be blown off of it.

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[AU]Anton_Blix
-Signature by Doom

[McNeo]

Not even a station, just one of those big rocks (the ones you see when going to Omega 5 from Cambridge)

And that was from the bit talking about mining mines :P

[Chucc]

there once was a mining guild as a faction, where did they go I wonder. I bet they would be all for it and help you figure this out, maybe even come up with a REAL solution.

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Looking into returning, maybe.

[Yngen]

most of PMG are busy fighting a war I believe.

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[AU]Anton_Blix
-Signature by Doom

[Winkie]

That would be so cool, I love mining, even water. I have sat out in the asteroid fields for hours shooting rocks.... Hmmmm Perhaps that is the reason I after 60 hours of game play I am only up to an armered trasnport... :$

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My Lil' boats are
SS_Scorpion
SS_JackyBlue
SS_Guppy

[Dab]

The asteroid fields can be improved so as to drop 5-10 pieces of the substance being mined per asteroid shot. So instead of 4 small asteroids shot and 4 pieces of niobium. You could get somewhere between 20-40 pieces.

Only problem is, this makes nothing special of the miner ship itself. As any ship can do this.

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[Qunitinius~Verginix]

Lol the PMG are here still. Winkie if you love mining that much, who not join the PMG? we are a mining clan and i can get a spot if you want.

Also, i think the 'asteroid base' would be good. only miners with the upgrade can dock and then they get the stuff in the commodity dealer for 1 cr each! lol really cheesy but it works.....

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[Knucklehead]

The biggest trick to making this particular "Asteroid" is how to make it require a certain item to allow docking. If this were Escape Velocity Nova, it would be somewhat simple, but this is Freelancer. I think the only things that prevent docking are Reputation/hostility and the size of the ship (not an issue with Discovery).

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It's official, I have too few ships now...