Astroid mining ships.

[GenJeFT (OP)]

Are the astoid mining modules broken? I built 3 35 ton ships with 3 mining modules each and I cant get them to mine any astroids or comets. I am in short supply of two minerals I need real badly and know where to get it but my ships wont mine the comet or any asteroids for that matter.

[Conscript Gary]

How asteroid mining modules work (and terraforming modules, and maintenance modules) is that when they are in orbit of a colony they act as their ground-based equivalent.
So for one, make sure you have a colony declared on the asteroid you're mining. You don't need to put anything on it, it's just going to be a mineral depot.
Secondly, I mentioned they'll act as their ground-based equivalent. So an asteroid mining module in orbit of a colony will act as an automated mine on the ground, and will deposit the minerals it extracts into the stockpiles of the colony. not into any cargo holds present on the mining ships.
At this point you can either use freighters to move the minerals where they need to go or use a mass driver.

[Mel Vixen]

What gary said.

Most people do the massive approach and use orbital habitats for the miner. This allows you to mount a big number of miners without using any shipyard space. This also allows you to include sufficient storage space which you can fill with a periodic "load minerals" order. Another thing you can do is use the miner as shuttle for your geoteams.

[GenJeFT (OP)]

What gary said.

Most people do the massive approach and use orbital habitats for the miner. This allows you to mount a big number of miners without using any shipyard space. This also allows you to include sufficient storage space which you can fill with a periodic "load minerals" order. Another thing you can do is use the miner as shuttle for your geoteams.

I think I might do that, I did put tractor beams onto the astroid miners, I could build 3 orbital habitats with mining modules on them and use my astroid miners to tow them around. Not exactly the fastest system but oh well.

[kks]

You could also drop automines onto the asteroids and send them home with a mass driver.
Most of these little rocks haven't got big amounts of minerals, so you shouldn't make a to big effort to mine them.

[TheDeadlyShoe]

Generally, don't put cargo holds on mining ships. Specialization increases efficiency in the commercial sector.  A mining ship shouldn't be spending time hauling minerals, it should be mining

It used to be extremely contraindicated, because the civilian shipping lines would use any cargo ship as a freighter....   thankfully not the case anymore. 

[Sudragon2k3]

I usually put enough cargo space for a mass driver in my asteroid miners. If you're using a large, Orbital Habitat based ship, it doesn't make that much of a difference.

[Nibelung44]

Reviving this topic, as I'm clueless why my remote miners are not doing anything.


They are on Thyra, sol system. This is an asteroid. I created a barren colony on asteroid. Each ship do have mining module (15 each). There is mineral on the asteroid. I waited 10 days. Nada, zip, nothing... Nothing on the asteroid or on the small holds of the ships.

What I'm missing?


related question, is each captain providing its own extraction bonus (mining bonus) to his ship only, or would one single fleet commander suffices?


side question, what is used for the factory skill for ship commanders, except for stargate building? I fail to see any other use, which seems a pretty focused skill thus...

[Black]

Do you see them in Mining/Maintenance window? They should be listed in Mining Report tab. If you don't see them there try to give your mining ships move order to Thyra.

[Nibelung44]

That's it! 

I gave them another move order, and then they are appeared in the mining tab. Any idea why the first move order did not the trick?


In any case, thanks to you!

[alex_brunius]

I gave them another move order, and then they are appeared in the mining tab. Any idea why the first move order did not the trick?

I have seen that if you have a fleet stationed at the body giving other ships order to join fleet these ships will not have their effect applied to the body until you give a move order (seen with terraformers).

[TheDeadlyShoe]

AFAIK:  Ships have a field which defines if/what body they are at. if a ship joins a fleet that's at a body, it doesn't get this flag set.  The easy workaround for this is to issue a move urder to the mining target, THEN a join fleet order.

[MarcAFK]

This affects Asteroid miners, orbital habitats, terraformers, and fuel harvesters also. And i would imagine maintenance modules.