Mining Missions

[nattta]

Hello everyone, i like mining aspect of AG a lot and would love to see more miners around. About mining missions; unlike gas giant ones, solid planet missions are usually not worth the effort with current state since they are harder to find comparing gas giants, when planet is found, you get very few slots(4 to 9 most of the time) usually filled with science labs or miners belong to other players, which eventually causes issues between players or you just simply give up on that deposit.

My suggestion is, mining missions could address a special asteroid spawn in dead space instead of spawning on a random planet or moon. That asteroid could spawn when you move to a specific location mission journal suggests( not when you accept mission otherwise dead space would be crowded with such asteroids). That asteroid would have decent slots only available for mining modules like regular asteroid belt slots and when mission deposit is depleted asteroid would be destroyed as well. I would suggest these changes for only mineral missions since gas giant missions are already easier to access and have lots of free slots.

[Fenix]

Honestly that is kinda how I thought those deposits worked, by that I mean the deposit didn't even spawn until you or someone else actually accepted the mission and paid the fee for the location. The slot issue on solid planets certainly can be an issue, but if somebody has already laid claim to a planet that isn't really the games fault.

I could see debris fields turning up in space after supernovas are put into the game so that would be cool if they could add special ones that only spawn after you accept the mission to mine them.

Of course that still leaves the issue of how long it takes to mine anything in this game... Even if all this was done if auto-unload remained at 6 hours instead of when the module is full I would still ignore them because it just isn't worth the time.

[sargas]

Hello everyone, i like mining aspect of AG a lot and would love to see more miners around. About mining missions; unlike gas giant ones, solid planet missions are usually not worth the effort with current state since they are harder to find comparing gas giants, when planet is found, you get very few slots(4 to 9 most of the time) usually filled with science labs or miners belong to other players, which eventually causes issues between players or you just simply give up on that deposit¹.

My suggestion is, mining missions could address a special asteroid spawn in dead space instead of spawning on a random planet or moon. That asteroid could spawn when you move to a specific location mission journal suggests( not when you accept mission otherwise dead space would be crowded with such asteroids). That asteroid would have decent slots only available for mining modules like regular asteroid belt slots and when mission deposit is depleted asteroid would be destroyed as well. I would suggest these changes for only mineral missions since gas giant missions are already easier to access and have lots of free slots.

¹
I have found that most people are friendly enough when you deliver a deposit to a player already at the planet.
The proper procedure is respectful diplomacy.
Offer to share the spoils (especially if there are mines present).

I have had a lot of luck this way. And if the response is negative, I simply thank the player, wish him(her) good luck, and move on to the next.



(edit because - if I didn't, you might not believe it's me)

[sargas]

if the deposits can be made more enticing on smaller, rocky planets. no common material but maybe a mix of 88% uncommon(tin etc), 11% rare (thorium etc) and 1% ultra-rare(diamond etc)

[nattta]

Well, my main concern was not about player modules on planets. My point was solid planets has already low number of slots, and they could be used purposes out of mining unlike gas giant slots. Filled with modules or not, a 4 slot planet is a pain for miners, that was my main reason to start this thread. I know we have a friendly community, people usually clear planets for miners, as i did for you couple weeks ago Sargas.

Another idea came up to my mind, if spawning an asteroid in dead space is a bad idea for server load or too much code work for developer, adjusting those missions to spawn only on gas planets and asteroid belts would also be much better than current system in my opinion. We have lots of asteroid belts with decent number of slots pretty much unused by anyone, except the ones in sol and couple systems surrounding.

[sargas]

another solution would be to build high level mines, but you would have to have a ship there to harvest frequently, as a station will only auto-unload every 6 hours.
A MK XVII (~17 cubics per hour)will deliver ~100 cubics in that time period.
I am not going to build mines/harvestors above level 40 untill a more realistic unloading period happens.

An expensive MKC Universal Miner will mine ~100 per hour with a 1500 capacity (instead of 100). That's 600 cubics per 6 hours.