Mineral depleted

[maximus84 (OP)]

Hello,

There are 2 minerals on my planet I did mine out. . .  i did read a little bit about survey teams in the wiki and I thought they have the ability to open up new deposits of depleted ressources?

Now I have a geo team on this planet and they keep telling me that they believe that they cant find anything new.

[Haji]

That's incorrect. Geology teams have a chance of finding new deposits, but it's random what deposit - and how much - they'll find. Also, after each find, they have a chance of declaring a survey complete, which means no new minerals can be found there. In a team with a low skill (below 150) it's very likely that a team will find only a single new deposit on the planet.

For details please check this link:

http://aurorawiki.pentarch.org/index.php?title=Mineral_Generation

Note: Geological survey will be revamped in the coming (5.7) patch.

[maximus84 (OP)]

Ah Thx.

So. . .  basically its best to send a 5x60 Survey Skill team or better to survey a Body, cause they will have better chances in opening up more deposits or bigger deposits before completing the survey?

Whats the best way to train Survey Skill? For the beginning I did pack some Survey Commanders on Survey Ships in Survey Task Forces and set them to training. . .  is there a better way?

[Haji]

Basically... you send them to do surveying work. Most people (including me) just send them first to some usless bodies to get experience.

The thing to remember is that there are two types of bodies when it comes to surveying: small and big. Small bodies will have very small (new) deposits but more importantly, it takes a lot of time to find anything there. Becouse of this it's almost impossible to train your geo team on asteroids and small moons. For that matter for me it's rare to find new deposits on asteroids even with 250+ skill team.

So pick relatively large bodies that doesn't have minerals on them. The idea here is to have few small deposits discovered there for training and then discover several deposits in places you're already mining. Good targets (if they don't have minerals) are: Pluto, Charon, Titania, Triton, Titan, Galilean Moons, Luna and Venus. Mars and Mercury should be surveyed last (even if they don't have minerals) as they can be terraformed, allowing for mining with normal (manned) mines.

[nafaho7]

If you create and staff several Task Force command groups, officers assigned to the various staff positions will slowly accrue experience with the skill relevant to their position.  This includes, of course, the Survey officer.  You can still remove this officer at any time to form a new Geology Team, or leave them in place until a worthwhile body presents itself.  You end up with a top heavy officer structure, but I'm sure that you can expand until that is no longer a serious problem.  Think of it as preparing for future construction.