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Author Topic: Ability to mark or flag key minerals/gases  (Read 6396 times)
Antilak
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« on: January 02, 2015, 06:00:09 PM »

The idea is I can mark or flag minerals/gases which're used in manufacturing or combat. I can mark (or flag) them in the manufacturing or cargo screens. When they're marked they have safeguards so you don't lose by mistake. If you attempt to sell it or eject it a yes/no warning message will come up "This is a flagged item. Do you really want to sell/eject this item?"

It will additionally color-code these minerals/gases in the cargo screen.

So as review this does a couple things:
1) Safeguards important minerals/gases used in manufacturing or combat (or otherwise)
2) Alerts me via color-coding which items in my cargo bay are valuable to me

I bring this up because there're a number of minerals/gases used in manufacturing and some are also used to repair armour. Keeping it all organized in my head is hard. By being able to mark them, I could more easily sell or eject my cargo using sound decision making, as opposed to the more troublesome option of memorizing and putting a check on it myself.

Please note this still requires me to mark them. It's not a feature which operates exclusively on its own. It's the aspect of this game wherein we manage and calculate our way to success which I like. I don't think this feature request detracts from that.
« Last Edit: January 02, 2015, 06:25:57 PM by Antilak » Report to moderator   Logged

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« Reply #1 on: January 02, 2015, 11:18:13 PM »

If the game ever changed to have a player driven economy and you couldn't just buy an infinite amount of resources from Sol then I would definitely agree that this would be a great feature to put in. As is however I feel like it's pretty... unnecessary. There are simply a great deal of other things that need to be worked on ahead of this. Still it isn't a bad idea, just the fact that you can buy whatever resources you need for building at any time you want back at Sol makes it kind of not mattter whether you sell something or not. Unless you were selling massive amounts of resources or very rare materials then the amount of money you lose out on is pretty insignificant.
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Antilak
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« Reply #2 on: January 03, 2015, 04:06:29 PM »

If the game ever changed to have a player driven economy and you couldn't just buy an infinite amount of resources from Sol then I would definitely agree that this would be a great feature to put in. As is however I feel like it's pretty... unnecessary. There are simply a great deal of other things that need to be worked on ahead of this. Still it isn't a bad idea, just the fact that you can buy whatever resources you need for building at any time you want back at Sol makes it kind of not mattter whether you sell something or not. Unless you were selling massive amounts of resources or very rare materials then the amount of money you lose out on is pretty insignificant.

Hmm. I'll try to detail what I'm going through...

I do a lot of mining because I like too. I get a lot of minerals/gases this way. I haul them to SOL and sell them. The past couple runs I just sold what I had without looking. However, everytime I arrive at SOL I upgrade for several days using the solars I gained by selling. After looking at my manufacturing screen several dozen times, I started to see I sometimes have sold minerals/gases which I could have used in manufacturing and/or kept a small supply of them for repairing armour. So here I am at SOL wanting to sell a big haul, yet I'm looking at my manufacturing screen and wishing I could mark them to make it easier to sell. The only option I have now is to memorize the minerals/gases which makes it harder.

Example... Cobalt sells for $275 and is purchased for $330 at SOL. Lets say I have 100 in my cargo on arrival and (stupidly) sell it for $27500. Several hours later I buy 100 Cobalt to upgrade something for $33000. I lost $5500 in this transaction.

Inevitably I have to plan ahead before I sell. This means looking at my manufacturing screen for some time to know what the minerals/gases are, since I don't have a photographic memory. It also depends on what I'm upgrading and how much, since $5500 isn't a great loss. I also sometimes have other ships in the vicinity which I can upgrade as well.

If the sell/buy price were equal then none of this would matter much, since taking the time to mark anything and keep track of how much I need of each mineral/gas would eat up more time than just selling and buying impulsively.

In the grand scheme of things this is a small thing. And you're right, there're lots of things which could be done. And yet a lot of the problems this game has are related to this problem. It's an interface and/or management-overload issue. One example is when I want to upgrade something I have to know what and how much. There's no way to setup a purchase via the manufacturing screen to ease the burden. I have to memorize or write down what I need and how much. (*)

I've taken it all in stride. Yet I've made a dozen documents at least to aid me. I literally have a document which lists all the modules, their costs and how much I need at particular MK levels. I do this to make it easier for me when I'm purchasing.

* - I imagine it'd work something like this... You go to Manufacturing screen and click on one of the modules to Manufacture or click on Mark Upgrade. Then when you enter how many MK levels you want, the computer would calculate for you how much you're missing and would then offer you the ability to automatically purchase it either via the Salvage Ship or a SOL station. Alternatively it sets up preorders and you have to go to the Salvage Ship or the SOL station to execute the order.
« Last Edit: January 03, 2015, 04:47:46 PM by Antilak » Report to moderator   Logged

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« Reply #3 on: January 03, 2015, 04:46:43 PM »

Which is why most of us have spread sheets that tell us these things so we don't have to go back and forth between the manufacturing screen and the buying screen. You can download one of those sheets in the Knowledge bits and Information section of the forum. Personally I don't like the format of that sheet so I use my own.

Mining doesn't make a lot of profit, at least not quickly which is why a lot of us don't even bother. As I mentioned in another thread I really want mining to be good and I would love to make it my profession in a game like this but the way mining works is just a waste of my time compared to the alternatives. Another tip would be to not use armor, it's just a constant resource drain not to mention a time drain when you have to constantly look at the materials and amounts needed to repair them. Pretty much all of us use shields for that reason.
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« Reply #4 on: January 03, 2015, 04:54:28 PM »

Which is why most of us have spread sheets that tell us these things so we don't have to go back and forth between the manufacturing screen and the buying screen. You can download one of those sheets in the Knowledge bits and Information section of the forum. Personally I don't like the format of that sheet so I use my own.

Mining doesn't make a lot of profit, at least not quickly which is why a lot of us don't even bother. As I mentioned in another thread I really want mining to be good and I would love to make it my profession in a game like this but the way mining works is just a waste of my time compared to the alternatives. Another tip would be to not use armor, it's just a constant resource drain not to mention a time drain when you have to constantly look at the materials and amounts needed to repair them. Pretty much all of us use shields for that reason.

I like mining, but maybe that's because I've only done one or two missions. And yet now that my combat-oriented ship is well over 50000 power I can now do combat missions without problem. I plan to do those when  traveling to the places where I mine.

Another thing I did recently was make a hangar for my defense/transport-oriented ship. I'm putting a scout in it. This way when I'm mining I can use the scout to look at surrounding places for good deposits of minerals/gases. It's quicker and cheaper, possibly. Even if it's not, it's fun so far. I gues that's the way I feel about a lot of things.
« Last Edit: January 03, 2015, 04:57:57 PM by Antilak » Report to moderator   Logged

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« Reply #5 on: January 03, 2015, 05:16:06 PM »

I'm not gonna say you shouldn't enjoy mining certainly, there are just much more effective and efficient ways of making money. I would much rather commit my ships to running laps in the outer ring picking up refugees from the SoS signals. I mean regardless of your power you can pick up a group of refugees that will pay you anywhere between 250-480k just to take them back to Sol, you pick up a couple of them and you can very quickly make millions. The only problem with it is that it requires you to be reasonably active to make a steady income out of it. Well that and getting sufficiently fast engines and enough cargo space for the fuel needed to get out there and come back. Once you get your steady income of a couple mil each day then building a decent COM ship isn't that bad, it takes some time but so does everything else in this game lol.

I would love to mine but SirEmi has placed limitations on it that just make it not fun and far less profitable than almost any other method to make money. It makes me sad =/
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« Reply #6 on: January 04, 2015, 07:50:20 PM »

I can make hundred(s) thousand(s) solars per day easy in mining. Right now I'm really inefficient. But if I could get organized I could probably make million(s) per day mining. The more miners/ships I have the quicker I'll do it.

You may be right, but being new as I am, I just have to test the limits myself.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2015, 07:53:17 PM by Antilak » Report to moderator   Logged

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« Reply #7 on: January 04, 2015, 11:25:46 PM »

True but there is also another problem with that, the more you spread out and mine different planets the more you risk pirates and other unfriendly characters finding your assets and deciding they would be put to better use under their command. As Jam once told me anything you don't/can't defend is pretty much up for grabs by anyone who comes across it and you can't really complain. Certainly at this point in time the game is enjoying a period of relative peace but that doesn't mean you are really safe. Just a word of warning and caution, luckily there are folks like me out there that couldn't care less about attacking other people. If you are interested in making mining your profession I would recommend you talk to Sargas if you haven't done so already as he is one of the more notable miners in the game you could learn from.
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« Reply #8 on: January 06, 2015, 10:26:06 AM »

Yes, I do mine, but only 4 of my 22 ships are dedicated to mining. All my ships carry at least one mine for deployment during my 100 hour combat timers (it only took one attack to make me remember to scoop them up before hostilities begin - think I lost a MK XXV ADV mine and a bunch of Uranium). All my ships are also involved in 'search and rescue (there are always 'pod-people' to return to their mommies).
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« Reply #9 on: January 06, 2015, 03:59:41 PM »

Lol the fact that you even have ships dedicated to mining makes you more of a miner than probably 95% of the players on here Sargas xD Then again if SirEmi would make some changes... *cough* auto-unload when modules are full *cough* that would change pretty quickly I would wager xD Man, that was a bad hacking spell, I need to go find me some cough drops.
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Antilak
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« Reply #10 on: February 16, 2015, 10:25:53 PM »

Want to update this thread with a list I made in a random post:
1) Greatly reduce hte number of minerals/gases which're used in manufacturing, so it's trivial concern
2) Make sell price equal to buy price, achieving almost the same effect as (1)
3) Allow player to preorder minerals/gases from Manufacturing screen - making use of what's in the ship's cargo - and enable completion of the order by going to SOL station and paying or by filling the order as cargo permits
4) Allow player to custom flag minerals/gases (or other inventory) which're valuable to them (and is visible in cargo screen)
5) Flag all minerals/gases which're used in manufacturing with detailed descriptor (and is visible in cargo screen)

I favor (3) or (5). I think most would favor (1) or (2).

Regarding (3) it should remove or not permit errant selling/ejection of minerals/gases filling a preorder. Removing the minerals/gases which're used in the preorder is preferable, but unsure about ability to cancel, as it could be exploited to create more cargo space. The idea behind preorders is they're the prelude to actually manufacturing or upgrade a module. They're like a loan almost. Also when one visits the SOL station to pay the order, it could be listed under "Orders". Simply clicking "Pay" would complete it. This has corresponding effect of making manufacturing easier because you don't need to remember the mineral/gas names or quantity.
Regarding (5) it should say in the Cargo screen (perhaps optionally) which module a mineral/gas manufactures.

And YES I'm still mining because I love to. I do lots of things lately:
1) Explore new systems for minerals/gases
2) Preparing to build a station for extracting EVERYTHING (convenience) from gas giants or planets
3) Move/unload miners on random planets
4) Do COM and (very rarely) SOS missions
5) Learning to use the Hangar and scout ships
6) Observe common courtesy when placing labs/miners/harvesters (aka. 1-slot planets or no-slot conditions)

(6) - If there's no room on a planet, player more likely to attack to make room. Avoid this.
« Last Edit: February 16, 2015, 10:55:13 PM by Antilak » Report to moderator   Logged

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