Question regarding Asteroid Mining Modules

[Eseraith (OP)]

Do Asteroid Mining Modules and Sorium Harvesters upgrade with increases in C/P tech? For example if you have a Asteroid Miner with 10 producing 100 tones a year and you up grade your mining tech level to 12 dose the Asteroid Miner now produce 120 tones a year?

[Ziusudra]

Yes, even with already built ships the modules will use the latest mining/fuel production/terraforming rate that you have researched.

[sonofliberty]

How do you get asteroid munchers to mine? Here is my design, did I miss something?

Insect class Asteroid Miner    61,400 tons     1267 Crew     1901 BP      TCS 1228  TH 1600  EM 0
1302 km/s     Armour 1-138     Shields 0-0     Sensors 6/6/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
MSP 19    Max Repair 120 MSP
Asteroid Miner: 10 module(s) producing 120 tons per mineral per annum

Magneto-plasma Drive E0.7 (    Power 200    Fuel Use 7%    Signature 200    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 200,000 Litres    Range 83.7 billion km   (744 days at full power)

Thermal Sensor TH1-6 (1)     Sensitivity 6     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  6m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-6 (1)     Sensitivity 6     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  6m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

[xeryon]

The sensors were not necessary but all you need is a ship with Asteroid Mining Modules, which you have, and park it over an asteroid and wait.  It will mine nice and slowly and deposit the materials on the surface of the body.  In your case the single ship will produce 120 tons of accessibility 1.0 minerals per year.

[Marthnn]

How do you get asteroid munchers to mine? Here is my design, did I miss something?

To what population is your ship assigned? You can see that in Ship Details screen (F6) on the top right. Once you select the right population, reopen your Economy screen (F2) and the colony should register the mining modules in orbit. Just make sure said colony is an asteroid or comet. No planet, no moon.

[sonofliberty]

The sensors were not necessary but all you need is a ship with Asteroid Mining Modules, which you have, and park it over an asteroid and wait.  It will mine nice and slowly and deposit the materials on the surface of the body.  In your case the single ship will produce 120 tons of accessibility 1.0 minerals per year.

I place sensors on many ships as a kind of early warning system. They are cheap, take little space, and give me a sense of security(maybe a false sense of security).

To what population is your ship assigned?

There is no population. It is an empty, unpopulated asteroid.

[xeryon]

On mine I built up a task group of 10 of them and set them to move to next mineral source in the task group automated commands and set them loose in the asteroid belt and manually went back to collect minerals once a year or so.

[sonofliberty]

I am using the same command and sub command. They don't seem to be doing anything.

On an unrelated note, I finally built some tankers. They are filled with fuel and sitting with a fleet I need to refuel. I don't see a "refuel" command for either the tanker group or the battle group. How do I refuel the battle group from the tankers?

[Marthnn]

There is no population. It is an empty, unpopulated asteroid.

Any colony is considered a population, even unpopulated asteroids.

On an unrelated note, I finally built some tankers. They are filled with fuel and sitting with a fleet I need to refuel. I don't see a "refuel" command for either the tanker group or the battle group. How do I refuel the battle group from the tankers?

You should be able to give the order "Refuel from target fleet" in the Task Group Orders tab in TG screen. You have to use the Task Group checkbox so your tanker TG shows up in the list of system locations.

Alternatively, you can give the order to your tanker to "Refuel target fleet".

[MehMuffin]

Unrelated question, didn't want to start a new thread; is there any way to make a new commander theme?

[Theokrat]

I am using the same command and sub command. They don't seem to be doing anything.

On an unrelated note, I finally built some tankers. They are filled with fuel and sitting with a fleet I need to refuel. I don't see a "refuel" command for either the tanker group or the battle group. How do I refuel the battle group from the tankers?

1)   For the asteroid miners you need to found a “colony” on the asteroid, even if there is no population (or anything else for the matter). The reason is that the game needs to dump the mined minerals in the stockpiles of the (otherwise empty) colony. You can found a colony by right-clicking on the asteroid on the map and clicking on the correct command.

[sonofliberty]

Thanks Theokrat.

This is my tanker/harvester. For some reason I cannot refuel from it. I have plenty of fuel on board, but no type of "refuel" command shows up for either involved task group.

Royal Dutch Shell class Tanker    120850 tons     1460 Crew     2390 BP      TCS 2417  TH 3000  EM 0
1241 km/s     Armour 1-217     Shields 0-0     Sensors 6/6/0/0     Damage Control 1     PPV 0
Maintenance Capacity 12 MSP
Fuel Harvester: 20 modules producing 480000 litres per annum

Magneto-plasma Drive E0.7 (15)    Power 200    Fuel Use 7%    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 106.4 billion km   (992 days at full power)

Thermal Sensor TH1-6 (1)     Sensitivity 6     Detect Signature 1000: 6m km
EM Detection Sensor EM1-6 (1)     Sensitivity 6     Detect Strength 1000: 6m km


This ship is classed as a commercial vessel for maintenance purposes

[metalax]

Make sure that the tanker design is flagged as a tanker in the top right of the class design screen. The various refueling options don't show up unless that is the case.

[sonofliberty]

Well damn. Ok, thanks. I just built 4 of those. 

[metalax]

You can always change it and it will take effect for any that you have already built. The same applies to all of the flags that can be set in that area.

Note that you will probably need to close and reopen the taskgroup orders window for the new orders to show up.