Fuel Harvesting, and Mining

[Aukel (OP)]

Hi All,

Started about 3 games, so far, just to explore the Aurora System.

Have managed to build ships, explore, Colonise Mars, and watch a Civilian Mining Colony appear.

But a few questions:

I have tried to build a fuel harvestor:

Code: [Select]

Oregon class Fuel Harvester    50000 tons     690 Crew     966 BP      TCS 1000  TH 625  EM 0
625 km/s     Armour 1-120     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Capacity 12 MSP    Max Repair 60 MSP
Fuel Harvester: 7 modules producing 140000 litres per annum

Nuclear Thermal Engine E1 (10)    Power 62.5    Fuel Use 10%    Signature 62.5    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 360.0 billion km   (6666 days at full power)

This design is classed as a commercial vessel for maintenance purposes
I even sent it to orbit Jupiter.

But it doesn't appear to be Harvesting anything.

Can someone tell me the process for setting up a Asteroid Mine, and the how to get it to actually produce some Minerals.

I figured out the whole us a mass driver to send them to Earth thing, but I can't get work out how to make one myself, or how to get the one that my Civilians went and sent up on their own.

[sloanjh]

Hi All,

Started about 3 games, so far, just to explore the Aurora System.

Have managed to build ships, explore, Colonise Mars, and watch a Civilian Mining Colony appear.

But a few questions:

I have tried to build a fuel harvestor:

Code: [Select]

Oregon class Fuel Harvester    50000 tons     690 Crew     966 BP      TCS 1000  TH 625  EM 0
625 km/s     Armour 1-120     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/0     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Capacity 12 MSP    Max Repair 60 MSP
Fuel Harvester: 7 modules producing 140000 litres per annum

Nuclear Thermal Engine E1 (10)    Power 62.5    Fuel Use 10%    Signature 62.5    Armour 0    Exp 1%
Fuel Capacity 1,000,000 Litres    Range 360.0 billion km   (6666 days at full power)

This design is classed as a commercial vessel for maintenance purposes
I even sent it to orbit Jupiter.

But it doesn't appear to be Harvesting anything.

Question 1:  Did you geo-survey Jupiter yet (with a survey ship)?  If so, did it have Sorium deposits?  If there's no sorium, then there's no fuel to harvest....

Question 2:  You gave it 1ML fuel capacity.  How much fuel does it have on board?  If the answer is "1ML", then the tanks are full and there's no place to put the harvested fuel.

Can someone tell me the process for setting up a Asteroid Mine, and the how to get it to actually produce some Minerals.

Add a colony to the body in question (open the F9 screen, select the body, then hit the "Add Colony" button, or you can go through the right-click menu on the F3 System map).  Transport some automines to the body in question, typically by moving them with a freighter with a multiple of 5 cargo holds.  The colony will start producing minerals, as will be visible on the Mining tab of the F2 screen.  I assume that you've already geo-surveyed the body and it actually has minerals....

I figured out the whole us a mass driver to send them to Earth thing, but I can't get work out how to make one myself, or how to get the one that my Civilians went and sent up on their own.

Mass drivers are facilities which are built by your industry using the Industry tab of the F2 screen.  Add a task to the queue to build at least 2 mass drivers (one for the colony, one for your home world, unless you want the colony dropping rocks on Chicago :oops:

John

[Aukel (OP)]

Hokay so,

I now have a few more 'Colonies' on some asteroids, and they are now mining and mass driving the minerals back home.

The Fuel Harvestor thing is still not working.

I have sent a Geological Survey Ship there but once it completes its survey, the results do not show up in the F3 Map under Minerals.

As far as I know, my survey ships have scanned every body in the system.

Also Neptune is also missing from the Minerals pane, does that mean it has no minerals?

[Hyfrydle]

Is the best way to keep a good source of minerals to set-up automines on all bodies in a system with minerals then mass driver them back to the main system planet? Also what's a good mining set-up?

Minerals are now starting to run out in my newbie aar.

[Andrew]

I have sent a Geological Survey Ship there but once it completes its survey, the results do not show up in the F3 Map under Minerals.

?

If no results show up it means there are no minerals there. Most gas giants have no Sorium, it is quite common to find none in the Sol System

[Andrew]

Is the best way to keep a good source of minerals to set-up automines on all bodies in a system with minerals then mass driver them back to the main system planet? Also what's a good mining set-up?

Minerals are now starting to run out in my newbie aar.

It depends.
I favour placing automated mines on the most mineral rich sites and mass drivering it back to my main industrial centre , however if a planet has a resoanable colony cost or can be terraformed it can be more efficient to place a colony and normal mines there. To decide which sites to mine I work out what I need most of (Duranium and usually Galicite and Sorium) pick somewhere with decent avaialbility and good reserves for each of them and place autoamted mines that will often also cover the other minerals but if necessary I will pick out sites for them as well. There are usually at least some mineral sites in my home system that I do not bother exploiting as they have small amounts or poor availability
If the best mining sites are in adjacent star systems you will have to use freighters to gather the minerals so it amy not be necessary to gather them in a central location first