Astro Galaxy - a realistic space exploration game

This mission is accessible from SoS signals outside explored Quadrants -1,-1 to 1,1

You are asked to embark of a treasure hunting quest to a distant Quadrant to find a big resource deposit.


The mission was also a preliminary for other exploration missions, to see how it can handle navigating to more distant areas and finding certain events.

Exploration, archaeology, investigating alien incursions, searching for wormholes / black holes etc. are more of the missions to come in the future, that will use the same principle.

We also explored setting course to center of quadrants with two navigation methods (in prep for the auto-nav computer) like this:

1. Navigating to precise nav computer coordinates
    -> this is more precise navigation, but limited to VIP nav computers on long distance coordinates

2. Navigating by direction (N,NW,W,SW,S,SE,E,NE)
    -> This method computes a direction towards the target. It's not as precise and the ship arrives in an arc at the destination, similar to a ship on water.
    -> it will be used more on missions and for arriving at general destinations where you have to search a certain area


You will notice the prospectors will give you a nav computer waypoint to the destination (using method 1), but you can also ask them for directions (method 2) by talking with them from the cargo area.
Both methods yield the same results, and will be used in future missions.

Hey Emi, was just wondering about the frequency of the mining missions at the moment.

A few people have commented on not finding them very often, and I haven't spotted one yet (although I probably haven't hit as many signals as others)

What's the frequency they should be operating at, and is it set in stone as of now, or do you think you'll keep altering it?

Thanks, and I look forward to finding that ever elusive diamond planet :)

At this time, 5% of the SoS signals in unexplored Quadrants are "Mining expedition", so it's about 1 in 20 SoS signals...

That's another thing that we tested, making certain missions more rare then the others.

The deposits you find are never common types, it's uncommon to rare / extremely rare resources.

The mining mission payout is kind of a mini-lottery and I don't want to spoil it, but it's possible to find a huge "Diamond" or "Radon" deposit...

lol Diamonds are easy to get. Just do some nest. if I really need diamonds bad enough that is what I do. Though I don't usually need them often really anymore. Still it is nice to see more options out there.

Thanks emi

Guess I'll have to stick it out and find one!  And even if its not too profitable JamJul, surely it gives more people incentive to mine, which has to be good.

Your right about that. Though I think I will stick with what seems more profitable to me. lol

JJL, if you remember anything that I have taught you, it should be 'everything is a commodity'.  If you don't want to do them yourself, sell them (oops...make that - transfer their contract)...

I know that. But what I could have out wasting time doing that i could just have out there doing a COM.  Though it would be nice to spot someone else doing one of these missions.  It might be possible to raid them. lol. Though these days I probably wouldn't even bother with it just cause it would mean a large attack timer lol. I don't usually send smaller ships further out.

lol

but, if you aren't doing 'search and rescue', you don't really need the smaller ships out there...

lol yeah.  My lower powered ships are my raiding ship, my science ships and my factory ship. rest is either high powered COMs or in the process of being made into a high powered COM.  I don't even do SOS missions anymore.  Since I started working I didn't really have the time to keep up with them.

Just finished mining expedition mission. It a long search.  Now do I need to mine the minerals? Need some help here.

More then likely. Did it give any sort of location to where they are? If not it might be tough to find them. lol

Ok. One of my guys got me the info you need here.  It will tell you the planet type you need to go to and the sector.  Then you just search planet to planet of that type in that area until when you click on it, it tells you that you are in the right spot.

The ship holding the mission in their cargo bays needs to be the one who looks.  Talk to them every time you orbit the correct planetary type.  You can transfer the cargo to another ship.

Lol. Man this suck, I need to mine it. To much trouble for the little profit and time spend to mine.

Thank for the information.  I go back to com work.

This is what it said when my guy started doing one.


We've measured the deposit at 57849 m3 of Chlorine, for an estimated value of $9,255,792 solars!


He sent it to me. One of my other guys gave him the mission. lol.  Payout looks nice. though it prob means you need good mines/harvesters which aren't cheap lol. COMs to me are looking better and better.

Same with my but low on value at 4,000,000. And it even diamond. Lol

Yes you'll need good mines/harvesters and to really mine it like crazy to get those resources in the time it takes to earn them through COMs.

I'm thinking of investing in mines etc. and checking these out, but I think I'll only bother mining the stuff it's a material we really need. I mean I don't need some of this stuff and can't mine it fast enough for it to be more profitable than a COM, but if I can use it for upgrades it might be more worthwhile than doing a com to pay for it as it can then pay for something else.

Then you also might run into situations where another player is set up all over the planet and you have to remove their stuff to get to it.  I wonder if in that case some might accuse people of piracy lol

some people might see it that way.  lol

Yes but with much of the galaxy mined out we may find some worlds with nothing on it and no resources that now will have $15mil of something useful.

It seems like Sir Emi wanted these to prototype the search based missions.  I'm looking forward to scientists saying they've found artifacts from an advanced alien civilisation, or scientists searching for wormholes.  also maybe a geologist who's found a small cache of a mineral that's worth 10,000 per metre.

It should be interesting if we get some different missions that follow this scaffold.  Although even this mission gives people an incentive to take their ships out of the safe zones, and a reason to buy stations; which is surely a good thing.

The search base missions take so long to do. should be reward you as you find your target.  Not have to mine for it.

 :))


I would like to see something like that as well and I suspect that's what the 'mysterious encounters' etc. will be like and these new modules will be rewards in them like the crematoriums etc. from nest missions.

Yes, all those are now possible scenarios... also we wanted to introduce a certain degree of luck in the mix... that's why sometimes it takes longer for the search (Barren is common), sometimes less...

For the record, if you think this mission is offering to low you shouldn't always take it. The thing is a mini lottery and the ticket will be worth from a few mil to 100+ mil. If you want to maximize profit, you could make a specialized scout to search for the big ones :)

Sir Emi: When you came with this new mission, I already had an optimized scout to search for this new mission. After a day I found one worth 13+mil. I sent it a ship with 10 Atmospheric harvester Mk CD, it took me a day to found the deposit (I did not read the instructions correctly lol). Since that time I have been mining and protecting the deposit. It is a very long process, I now have 21 Atmospheric harvester Mk CD on the planet. I will not look for those missions in the future, they do not pay enough compare to COM attack mission.

Recommandation: have a button on the surface control to "unload all", going manually one by one to unload is a pain.

I was thinking those missions would be good for our small captains because the reward is random, they could be lucky. But they do not have the tech level to mine those effectively.

Yeah it's not just the total worth of the deposit, but also the speed that it can be mined(with what we have) relative to what we can earn from other missions.

Even if it's worth $100mil, the time and effort it would take for us to get all of it means we would make less than if we invested that time and resources into COMs or something. But perhaps those with enough of the new modules or high mk tech can mine it out more rapidly where it's more worth it.

At the moment the missions aren't worth it because there's not enough certain/quick reward.

What if the prospectors jumped on your ship for free, and promised you a bounty it you get them to the deposit?

So there's a 100,000,000 deposit out there, and they promise to pay 5% of the deposit (for example) up front when you get there.  Then if you want to, you can stake your claim to the deposit as well.

This would allow the rookie captains the boost that matamure was referring to, and would give more established captains a reason to do these missions, since there's reward even without mining the deposit.  Both would help fill up the universe with resources so that mining becomes more feasible/widespread.

This mining mission can't really be compared to the combat missions. The investment in specialized modules for combat ships is much more then the investment needed for dedicated mining ships.

The mining expedition is meant for mining ships. In time it will balance out as mining gets more profitable when it combines with searching for artefacts etc. while combat gets more difficult as pirate ship designs get more upgrades, illegal modules and maybe even pirate ship optimizations. The aliens will be even tougher...

The problem with mining ships is many aren't powerful enough to really protect high MK advanced mines and harvesters you need for this. That is why most miners just use basic mining modules often times at MK 1 for mining.  Larger modules become tempting targets for pirates. So in order to really do this quick you need high MK mine and harvesters. But you also need a decently powerful ship to protect the stuff.  Thing is once you have such a ship your better off just doing COMs.  So these missions just overall aren't that great for anyone.  I am about to give it a try anyways though.  My net was down so I didn't have a chance to try it yet.

JJL is quite right on this one.

Additionally:
A. I've seen occasions, when doing COM missions, I'd drop a random mining module, forget to scoop back to the cargo bay before engaging combat, and then have one of the enemy ships, instead of targeting my ship, instead targeted the very weak module, destroy it, then enemy ship is also destroyed is short order by my COM ship. so even parking a combat ship in orbit there is no real safety for your high level mining modules, and/or orbital stations.  I've sent Sir Emi an ingame message regarding this over a week ago, and to date "no response"
B. Putting a orbital station in orbit to auto-offload your minerals for higher level modules, doesn't work correctly. Auto-offload is set on a 6 hour timer, and a high level module could fill-up several times in that amount of time. Consequently, the highest effective level of mining modules "unless you're mining at extreme depths", is low to mid teens on module level. That leaves a miner, constantly baby sitting the very long tedious task of mining, or waiting months to mine out the deposit you paid for, and then spent hours searching out.

Seems a bit more tweeking is in order here. Additionally, I like one of the previous suggestions that when deposit if found, the finder receives and automated "finder fee", of some multiple of the mission cost or size/value of deposit found. this would be compensation for completing that portion of the mission. These missions compared to either COM and/or SOS are not yet where they need to be.

To change the topic slightly.  I was wondering with these missions, if there's any way to gauge the mineral that's there.  If I get a 100,000,000 dollar deposit, then of course I'm interested in going out, If I can be guaranteed that it's diamond, not tin.

Is there any correlation between higher deposit worth, and higher value minerals?  Or could I just find an absolutely enormous pile of a 200 dollar mineral?

No response because it is not happening anymore since the combat system revamp.  Try checking the updates sometimes. :14:

Actually it could still happen. If someone were to leave something on the planet it would be included in the combat fight.  This is why I don't usually mine as I do COMs. lol.

Is there the ability to set the planetary force, even if it's just a lone miner, as a protected force?  That way it wouldn't be target unless you lost the COM.

(I haven't mined while doing COM's since my timers are too short to make it worthwhile, so I've never tested it)

Protected status I think only works for if you are on the defense. On COMs you are always on offense.

cough. this is AFTER updates, unlike you i actually can read, but thanks for the taunt

Of course it will be included, but not in the way gronk described it. Stations and planetary modules will always be in the protected forces.


Wrong. Protected status also works on the offence but only to stations and modules, not ships.


So what's your purpose of bringing it up today when it no longer applies? Are you looking for attention? LOL

Gronk is saying this is happening after the updates.  Something which is likely.  Say his ship runs out of ammo or something, the other ships can hit his planetary stuff.  Which is a good reason not to mine while doing COMs. It is too easy to forget about them lol

Well, I've tested this as well (running out of ammo on ships, and with protected forces) and it didn't happened to me.

It's hard to understand when gronk tries hard to communicate and says something like "then enemy ship is also destroyed is short order by my COM ship" LOL wut??? Hahahaha

so Ralph,

with the new rounds of combat, it's not really that difficult to understand, maybe too big of words for "admiral" cough Ralph.
   i.e. 5 enemy ships
       one of them fires first, instead of me. it fires on my mining module, instead of my COM ship.. one needs to use small words for ralph so he can also understand
       then when it's my ships turn to fire
       my ship fires and destroys enemy ship.
       next ship up for combat, etc, etc, etc
        small enough words for you?? Admiral. lol.

are you now saying you are the game developer? interesting, thanks for the info.

Um even if it fires first it should be firing on your ship. There is no reason that your stuff on the planet should have more power then your COM ship. lol.

JJL,

correct, my module didn't have more power then my COM ship, that's why I send Sir Emi, and ingame message about it.

Yeah even in the old system that shouldn't have been happening either. It definitely sounds like a bug.

not that I have seen, my largest (so far) is a $45 million deposit of TIN.

...and I had to go there to see what it was...

I don't see a problem here...

ships fire first (and second) on ships.

the third round brings in the attack(s) on the 'protected forces (whether on planet, stations in orbit, and those ships that were given 'protected' status...

What he is saying is that when he is doing COMs. the enemy ship is attacking his planetary module before it even attacks  his COM ship.