Massdrivers

[ExChairman (OP)]

How do I get my massdrivers to send alot of Corundium... I got about 25000 tons mined of it on Venus, but my 148 massdrivers only packs away 1300 tons each time it fires.... It should be able to fire it at once... It seems to be sending at most 10% of whats in store?

[Erik L]

Mass drivers are limited in the amount the can send per year. This is of course, spread out over the year. So if you get a 1300 ton packet in one 30 day period, your total capacity is (12 x 1300) or 15,600 tons. So to deplete your stock on Venus, will take just over a year and a half. That is if you don't add more to it.

[Beersatron]

I find it handy to have small '1 Cargo Hold' freighters that I can assign to run and pick up excess minerals.

[Brian Neumann]

Also mass drivers automatically send an equal amount of each mineral present.  If any are missing, or not enough then they will add more to the others, but always trying to keep an equal amount of each mineral.  In your case if Venus has a lot of different minerals then they will be trying to send a little bit of each mineral present on each packet.

Brian

[Sheb]

Is there a way to have a mass driver send only one type of minerals? In this precise exemple, I'd like to move my fuel refinery away from Earth, so it'd be handy if I could send the Sorium away while keeping the rest.

[randal7]

Go to the population and production screen, select the mining/maintainance tab. The last column in the mining section is "reserve", meaning the colony will only launch minerals over that amount via mass driver. Double-click the column for each mineral and set it to a high number, leaving only sorium at zero. Tedious but should work.

[Sheb]

Thanks!

[jseah]

I don't see the "little bit of everything behaviour".  
1 mass driver, on a planet with everything.  

Sends 10 duranium and 4 neutronium per 1 day tick.  (I play with 86 000 time step)
This ratio is exactly the same no matter which planet the mass driver is on.  Home planet, my manufacturing planet, whatever.  All the same, 10D 4N per 86400 seconds.  

Only when Duranium is out then it switches to Neutronium and the next one and so on.  

[Steve Walmsley]

I don't see the "little bit of everything behaviour".  
1 mass driver, on a planet with everything.  

Sends 10 duranium and 4 neutronium per 1 day tick.  (I play with 86 000 time step)
This ratio is exactly the same no matter which planet the mass driver is on.  Home planet, my manufacturing planet, whatever.  All the same, 10D 4N per 86400 seconds.  

Only when Duranium is out then it switches to Neutronium and the next one and so on.  

I haven't checked the code but I think the mass driver will load up to 10 tons of each mineral that is available then check the next mineral. If it gets to Gallicite (last one to be checked) it starts again with Duranium. So in the case where a single mass driver can handle 14 tons per 5-day increment, it will always be 10 tons of Duranium and 4 tons of Neutronium if there are mineral stockpiles available. In other words, it does send a little bit of everything but in increments of 10.

Steve

[gamemonger56]

Is there a certain number to work? I have one on venus and i cant get a target lock for earth Had one that worked fine on luna.

[Erik L]

Is there a certain number to work? I have one on venus and i cant get a target lock for earth Had one that worked fine on luna.

All you need is one launcher and one catcher.

[gamemonger56]

so for everyone out in the black i need a matching one on earth?

[welchbloke]

so for everyone out in the black i need a matching one on earth?

Unless Steve has changed it for 5.3, you only need the one on Earth for multiple sending massdrivers.

[sloanjh]

so for everyone out in the black i need a matching one on earth?

Targetting aside, it's generally a good idea to have a "catcher" mass driver on the target planet.  Unless, of course, you want to rain death from the sky onto your civilian population :-)

In other words, it's a very BAD idea to remove your last mass driver from Earth after you have other planets sending packets.  Think The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.....

John

[gamemonger56]

i dunno.  lil 1-ton mineral packets raining down on the planet should encourage the population to exercise. . . .