A small hint for mining

    yeah, I finally mined some gold in dublin for the first time successfully. I found it easier to spray randomly rather than actually trying to target rocks. Question re: the map, where is shows mining areas. Sometimes it shows a ´darker´ area, and sometimes a ´brighter´ area. Which is denser? MINOR MINING SPOILER: In dublin, it looks like the center of one gold field is bright. But in the Von Rohr belt in Omega-whatever (radioactive diamond field) the brighter color is the outside ring. huh? ER Edited by - Easy Rhino on 16-03-2003 10:33:36

    I tried some mining and I think the "rock rate" is too low (perhaps it differs in different areas, only tried it in Dublin). At times I had to wait around 30 seconds between rocks... I suggest an increase in the generation rate of the targettable rocks (to balance it you´d probably need to lower the chance of getting minerals, but then again mining seems to be the least profitable career in the game)

    in the southeast BMM mining field in dublin, I was able to fairly quickly fill up the 40 capacity in my light fighter once I was in the &quot;core&quot; area and really got good at breaking rocks. Course, if you really wanna make a big profit, then you need to haul the gold somewhere far away. So mining is kind of like being a normal merchant. But you break rocks to increase your return on investment <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> ER

    Buh, rocks? You people mine rocks? How barbaric. Are you aware of those little ships which fly around, that can also be mined? The procedure is the same: Shoot them, they blow up, and you pick up the loot which falls out. They also move and shoot back. That makes it more fun. Trust me on this one. I´ve been mining ever since Elite. Just me, the open spaces of Riedquat, and my trusty 30MW mining laser. Great place for mining.

    Using a turret is the best thing when mining... Hit H to switch to turret view then SPACE so you´re in mouse-look mode... Sit in one spot and swivel around shooting rocks. The &quot;rock rate&quot; doesn´t really apply then, since there´s always swarms of them on other sides of your ship. Downside: getting dizzy spinning your turret in a single direction for too long. <img src=smilies/icon_smile.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

    so can ALL rocks get mined or just the ones that make your crosshairs light up. I was in the ice fields (I forget the system) and I tried shooting the big rocks and nothing. I saw a little star shaped one fly by my screen and it made my crosshairs light up....I shot it and got something.

    I just wanted to make sure I wasn´t doing something right. Like the other day I thought I´d try my hand at priating......I stopped at a trade lane and shot at it, but the ships continued to go through. Later I found out from someone that you´re supposed to be within 300 meters of the trade lane.

    well it would be terrible if u did something RIGHT eh?? lol anyway, yea, i fired a starkiller at one of the bigger ice chunks and nothing, so... imagine if u could tho... badlands here we come!!!! Did somebody say my name? -Gamma Wing It´s the dreaded G-Man[[![[![[![[! -Moose

    The best way to mine is to have a freighter and a couple of friends in fighters to help you. The cargo capacity of the freighter lets you haul in enough to make a run really worth it, and your friends can help you mine when they aren´t fighting off all the people who hate you. Whenever I try mining on my own, I spend 90% of my time fighting off pirates and never pick up enough stuff to pay for my sheild batteries and nanobots.

    Life is much too important a thing ever to talk seriously about it. -- Oscar Wilde

    well yes you must be within range to damage trade lanes... im in my anubis and I disable a tradelane... fight of the pirates... the police.. the civilians and destroy the cargo frieghters with my guns... then i hit tractor.. get all the junk i don´t want and end up gettin a tractor failure so i can´t get the stuf tht i do want! Phoenix out PS: is combat damage a factor in tractor failures??? <img src=´http://members.shaw.ca/electricbrain2/phoenix.jpg ´> From this celestial bough all but one did fall into the pitiless fires of reach. A soldier’s ignominy to have dreamt while his brothers bled. But oh, for the rest of us his shame was our salvation.

    Combat damage? Nono wrong idea, &quot;Tractor Failures&quot; only occur when your ship can´t hold any more of the type of things floating around you. - If your shield battery phalanx is all full, then you won´t be able to tractor in any more shield batteries. - If your cargo hold is full, then you won´t be able to tractor in any more commodities. Then, and only then you hear that &quot;tractor failure&quot; sound. Your tractor emitter cannot take any damage, it will always work perfectly. The only thing that you can _always_ tractor, is equipment (dropped guns, shields etc.) because equipment does _not_ take cargo space, but is stored &quot;elsewhere&quot; in the ship. You can lug around a stash of 300 wepaons if you want and still tractor in more. Note: if you have your cargo hold full of junk and some valuable thing is floating before you in space, open you inventory (F7), switch to ´cargo´ and you´ll have the option to jettison selected cargo items by clicking on the &quot;trashbin&quot; icon in that window. That way you can free space for the &quot;good&quot; stuff. (look for the &quot;tractor only selected item&quot; key in the options, you´ll need it if you don´t want to re-suck in all the junk you just threw out <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> ) WARNING: your shields are down for a certain timespan while jettisoning stuff, so don´t try this with a squad of pirates in front of you. <img src=smilies/icon_smile_big.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle> D_R <img src=´http://home.arcor.de/digital_ronin/pics/vhsigweb.jpg ´> +++ <b>&quot; Infinity? Nah, been there. &quot; </b> +++ =) Edited by - Digital_Ronin on 20-03-2003 21:37:14

    [img=http://home.arcor.de/digital[_]ronin/pics/vhsigweb.jpg] +++ " Infinity? Nah, been there. " +++ =)

    Speaking of tractoring in stuff, in SP is it possible for NPCs to steal stuff that is floating around in space? Also, if I leave a bunch of stuff floating around (say, because my cargo hold is full), but I leave a waypoint marker at that spot, then fly to a base and return, will the stuff still be there? Wap

    First answer: no, NPC will never tractor things, at least I never saw a single one do it in the 100-odd missions that I did. (Only one exception, I think: if some pirate threatens you to drop your cargo and you actually do it, then he´ll most probably grab it. Never watched them do it though.) Second answer: nope, the universe is &quot;rebuilt&quot; each time you leave a base, and all but the static stuff (bases, tradelanes, planets) will be gone. Pretty much for the same reason you can load the same savegame twice - and in one time you will see a huge war going on outside the station after undocking, while the other time all will be clear and empty. &quot;Enemies close outside&quot; seems to be one of certain random factors during the universe-rebuilding process that takes place during each undocking. D_R <img src=´http://home.arcor.de/digital_ronin/pics/vhsigweb.jpg ´> +++ <b>&quot; Infinity? Nah, been there. &quot; </b> +++ =) Edited by - Digital_Ronin on 20-03-2003 22:30:05

    [img=http://home.arcor.de/digital[_]ronin/pics/vhsigweb.jpg] +++ " Infinity? Nah, been there. " +++ =)

    Easy Rhino said &quot;MINOR MINING SPOILER: In dublin, it looks like the center of one gold field is bright. But in the Von Rohr belt in Omega-whatever (radioactive diamond field) the brighter color is the outside ring.&quot; Just want to tell you that the ring is in the Omega 11 system