Asteroid Miners

[Elvin (OP)]

I build myself half a dozen mining ships, with 7 modules on each. At present tech levels, thats 140 tonnes per year. So I park them first above Charon, Pluto's moon. After waiting 3 months, nothing happens. So I look through the Individual Unit details pages, looking for an "on" button. None presents itself, so I take the asteroid part of the title a bit more literally and move them to a mineral rich asteroid. However, still no luck, they aren't doing anything.

So what am I missing? I order them to "move to Asteroid", they complete it and I can see them on it on the system map.

Thanks!

[Elouda]

Do you have an 'population' on the world/rock they're over?

Like with terraforming ships, you need to have a 'population' (even of 0) there before they will do anything. This can be done easily by right clicking the planet/moon/rock their over (you may need to zoom in for moons), and selecting "Populations -> Create Colony on XXXXX". You can also do this from the System view (F9) if you want to. This will create an empty colony and your ships should now work.

If you've already done the above, then I dont know what the problem is.

[Elvin (OP)]

Ah, I hadn't realised I needed to create a colony on the rock. Thanks, it all works now  

[AndonSage]

I build myself half a dozen mining ships, with 7 modules on each.

I haven't gotten into asteroid mining ships yet, but I've found some asteroids with a good amount of minerals, and am now thinking of the best way to get them. Would you mind listing your ship design for an asteroid miner? What I'm wondering is if the asteroid mining ships need Cargo Holds to hold the minerals, or if the minerals appear on the asteroid and you need Freighters (or an asteroid mining ship with cargo holds) to transfer the minerals to a ship, or plop down a Mass Driver.

[Elouda]

You dont need holds, they go onto the planet. You can however, fit holds if you dont want to have to fly freighters over there, but this means a bigger ship, or sacrificing some mining capacity.

I generally build miners in two styles;

1. Local - These carry 5 cargo holds with a mass driver, and several mining modules. They go up to a rock, drop the Mass Driver, and start mining. The mass driver sends the minerals where I want them. These generally operate in populated systems (like Sol).

2. Independent - These carry a lot of cargo holds, and less mining modules. I build a few and use them in systems that wont be seeing populations in the near future (or ever). They tend to be even larger, and will mine what they can carry, then head back with the minerals. They occasionally double up as superfreighters on the way back if theres colony enroute.

Lately though, I've been thinking of a new approach for uninhabited system mining, using the 'Local' miner design. It would involve sending several of these into the system, each on a different rock, with the mass drivers all pointed at one of the rocks which will act as a 'depot' for the minerals. As theres a miner and mass driver there too, it can collect all the minerals. I would then run freighters to and from this one 'depot', making logistics easier. Optimally this rock would be near the Jump Point too - though as I use 'orbiting asteroids' this may not be quite as important.

I would post designs, but I've just started a new 'conventional' game and suffice to say, mining will not be a priority for a while..!

[sloanjh]

I build myself half a dozen mining ships, with 7 modules on each.

I haven't gotten into asteroid mining ships yet, but I've found some asteroids with a good amount of minerals, and am now thinking of the best way to get them. Would you mind listing your ship design for an asteroid miner? What I'm wondering is if the asteroid mining ships need Cargo Holds to hold the minerals, or if the minerals appear on the asteroid and you need Freighters (or an asteroid mining ship with cargo holds) to transfer the minerals to a ship, or plop down a Mass Driver.

I think it's fair to say that most "old hands" use automines rather than asteroid miners.  OTOH, this tendency is from the days when such ships had to pay maintenance costs (in minerals).  Now that you can send them out forever, they might be more economical.

John

PS - The easy way to get minerals back from mining colonies is to drop a mass driver on the colony and one on your homeworld (or wherever you're planning to send the minerals).

[UnLimiTeD]

Yeah, but Mass Drivers don't go through Jump gates.

I would prefer having two mining designs:

One with 2-10 Mining Modules, depending on tech, requirements, it really doesn't matter.
One with 5 Cargo Holds, and probably far less modules.
Then I would send a Swarm of those to an Asteroid, Mine it dry within years, or months if it's small, on continue on to the next, always sending to minerals to the colony or asteroid closest to the jump point for taking.
Or simply use a freighter with it.

[sloanjh]

Yeah, but Mass Drivers don't go through Jump gates.

Of this I am aware.

If you've got a mining colony in a non-populated system, then the typical strategy is to have the cargo ships which carry automines into the system carry the minerals back.  A single cargo ship can carry a LOT of minerals.

I haven't looked at the size/cost of mining modules recently, but I suspect that they won't be as efficient as automines.  The reasons are the following:

1)  You have to buy engines to move the things around (unless you're going to tow them with tugs), in which case the engines just sit there while the thing is mining giving you zero ROI.

2)  SY tend to have a MUCH lower build rate than industry, so it would take forever to build an appreciable number of mines.

Like I said, I haven't tried mining ships lately and so haven't examined the economics in detail (lately), but I saw that the person asking the question was a new player, as were most of the folk answering, and wanted to point out that mining ships aren't necessarily the only way to go.

John

[UnLimiTeD]

True, it's not the only way.
Asteroid Mining Modules cost 120 BP, which, if I remember correctly, is one fourth of an Automine.
Keep in mind you can build them with Industry and let the shipyards just assemble them.
The Engines are an argument.