TD's Guide to the World of Mobile Mining! -Updated-

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Whitepaw
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Post by Whitepaw » Fri, 12. Mar 04, 23:02

I've been playing as a miner pretty much since I restarted my game a week or so ago, and last night I started using the hornet missles to bust up the asteroids. I switched my dolphins to mantas for ore recovery, for the higher speed, and I seem to be making more money. My main question is, do asteroids respawn normally when using hornet missiles?

If they do, I think I'll keep using this method, and maybe place a personal hornet factory. :P It's alot faster, my Hercules fills in no time, and if the Khaak show up, I'm already in one of my fighters to bust a cluster. :)

Mcitchy
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Post by Mcitchy » Sat, 13. Mar 04, 17:49

Whitepaw: aye good isn't it :)
Spoiler
Show
I find having the pirate base in ore belt keeps me well supplied with Hornets after knocking down a few pirate ships.
Thanks for touching on the hornet method was starting to think i was unique in my views ;)

-TD-13-
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Post by -TD-13- » Sun, 14. Mar 04, 18:19

UPDATE :idea:
3/14/04

Updated the guide with your ideas, quotes and suggestions.
More on the way in a little bit. :D
Enjoy!

-TD-13-
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Post by -TD-13- » Sun, 11. Apr 04, 05:27

BUMP
(To celebrate my 1101 post :) )

I also think I forgot to mention that I added more stuff that the 1.3 patch changed/or made possible. Now you can use the jumpdrive on other ships, allowing mobile minning to be more profitable than ever. :D

As for myself, I've been working on my 2 stock mine factories. (2 or 3 is all I can really handle : P )

My first is in Red Light, which makes about 300k-400k an hour, while my other one in Antigone memorial makes around 200-300k an hour. I really didn't expect it to be this profitable. :o

Anyone who hasn't given this a shot yet, should definatly give it a go. It may be a little more work than your average factory, but in the end, you won't regret it. :)

Shanjaq
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Mining!

Post by Shanjaq » Sun, 11. Apr 04, 08:05

Just read through the whole thing, this is highly educational! Thanks for putting this together, it has certainly helped in planning future investments!

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Brianetta
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Post by Brianetta » Sun, 11. Apr 04, 12:13

For posterity, this is up on the Argonopedia along with Momaw's excellent guides.

http://argonopedia.ppcis.org/tech.php?tech=29
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Brianetta
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Post by Brianetta » Sun, 11. Apr 04, 13:24

Some notes regarding the original guide:

Several times TD mentions using Mantas - at one point, simply to expand the storage capacity of a mine (and he even recommends no shields or gadgets). It's probably wiser to use TS class ships for storage expansion.

Additionally, just a point on micromanagement of upgrades - you do not, ever, need to install trading extensions or best selling price locators on any ship which you do not intend to fly.
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FanaticChiken
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Post by FanaticChiken » Mon, 19. Apr 04, 15:45

There is more usefull equipment to get a quick buck. Try using the following setup:

Split Caiman - for the player (said equipment + jump drive & transporter)
2/3 Dolphins - (said equipment + jump drive & transporter)

Why the transporters???

Did anyone noticed that when collecting rocks your cargo bay never fill up completely and you start to wander away from the ore? The transporters allow you to fill up a dolphin to the notch (3000). I use this to harvest together with a Dolphin and when my rater small (1300) Caiman is nearly full, I beam it over to the Dolphin, untill at max capacity. Then I order it to jump and get the next dolphin in. All this time I collect ore without ever changing my ships orders.

Why is this useful:

1. You finaly use capacity to the max, requirering less jumps. This effect is of course bigger when using Mantas that only have 1000 cargo space.

2. You have an easyer time, collecting from high yield asteroids (50+). A silicon asteroid of value 64 will fill up 2 dolphins and your Caiman in no time and with still some ore to harvest. Some chuncks of silicon are so big, that only three will fill up your poor Caiman completely, the 4th chunck problably won't be taken or is clipped (resulting in precious silicon being destroyed).

3. Bigger cargo is less/simpler managing, equals speed. And still you have only 2 ships harvesting at a time and thus no collections.

Of course if you blow up multiple asteroids, one or two dolphins can start harvesting nearby, while you and a 3rd eat a high yield asteroid.

One question remains to be answered: Why use transporter equipment on the Dolphins to?

The transporting interface is a bit sensitive to human error, resulting to a 'beam me up scotty' effect. Essentialy putting you inside the trgeted Dolphin...now how to correct this mistake?

Get my drift?

-- Fanatic out --

madned
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TL selection and stock mines

Post by madned » Tue, 20. Apr 04, 04:58

Wouldn't it be more cost effective to buy a cheap TL like the paranid Hercules and some cargo maxed dolphins.

consider hercules at 17M and dolphins at 1M?
vs. the orca (26M) 17K cargo vs. 13K+9*3K cargo.
although it may just be cheaper to buy stock dolphins @ 170K credits
for 18*1.5K and save 540K credits

also doesn't it make sense to stock the stock mines with energy buyers?
if nothing else they can serve as fuel depots for the jump engines.
on low yield asteroids the return won't be very good, but it's a minimal investment 160K or so, and will continue to return money, even when you neglect it and and don't stock it for a while. it sucks having a ton of minerals and no where to dump it.

using a dolphin as a storage cache works in favor of the hercules too since you could carry a bunch of them store your take in em, then exchange when stocking mines.

I've found a dolphin (~2600 cargo free) will last about 2+ restocks before it runs dry.

with an active economy Ianamus Zura seems to be a pretty hot spot for silicon. but it seems to need nostrop oil to get the high tech stuff there going.
an Ore mine in Reservoir of Tranquility seems to do pretty well.
got another silicon mine in Preachers Refuge which does ok.
I'd hazard one in or around Lucky Planets would do well, due to the crystal fabs in the surrounding sectors and the chip and computer plants in Lightwater. which may be part of why the Preacher's Refuge mine does so well.

Flaco
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Post by Flaco » Thu, 22. Apr 04, 12:04

Superb work on this guide. Thanks. :thumb_up:

Al
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Post by Al » Thu, 22. Apr 04, 12:13

Might be time to start trying this mining. Bounty hunter missions are pretty thin on the ground and having just purchased my first TL I feel its time to try. Will make a change from capturing :D

Al
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X2 Capture Guide

Rex
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Post by Rex » Tue, 27. Apr 04, 07:45

Thanks for the Mobile Mining Guide. :)
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Jha'dur
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Post by Jha'dur » Fri, 30. Apr 04, 16:29

Hey, the mobile driller are quite good for fighting. If you can hit anything, that is. I just killed a Khaak M3; once I got past his shields it was two hits on the hull and splat.
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Jha'dur
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Post by Jha'dur » Sun, 2. May 04, 21:37

Why are the ship you're sitting in much (about 3-5 times) more efficient at picking up ore than ships that you remotely set to pick it up. I'm in the same sector, and the Demeter I'm sitting in picks up ore and silicon much faster than my two Vultures. The Vultures actually fly a bit faster, so that's not the reason, and all three ships work on pieces of separate roids some lenght apart, so no-one is getting in eachothers way. And this happens every time. All three ships are on autopilot, why would it make a difference that I'm sitting in one of them?
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-TD-13-
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Post by -TD-13- » Mon, 3. May 04, 01:42

Brianetta wrote: Several times TD mentions using Mantas - at one point, simply to expand the storage capacity of a mine (and he even recommends no shields or gadgets). It's probably wiser to use TS class ships for storage expansion.
Hehe. Wonder why. :P

Don't worry, I will be upgrading the guide as soon as the 1.4 patch hits, to make accommodations for anything that has been changed in the game.

We all know that something is going to happen to the manas and possibly the TL class, but as of now, nothing is clearly know and is subject to change. I will update the guide when the patch is released. :)

Thanks for the support guys!
(And a big thanks to Brianetta for put'n me up on the Argonopedia! Thanks! :D )

freakshow
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Post by freakshow » Thu, 13. May 04, 15:58

Just an idea here....

But we've got this (fantastic) guide to mobile mining... but there's one thing we still need to know... places to sell your hard earned Silicon/Ore.

It'd be great if we could gather together a list of all the systems that have at least 2 (more is better!) factories that require silicon/ore/nvidium.

I pulled these off another thread. All the systems below buy silicon & included with them is the number of factories that buy silicon.

Red Light - 4
Rolk's Drift - 3
Cloudbase Southwest - 2
CEO's Buckzoid - 2
Antigone Memorial - 2
Ore Belt - 2
Greater Profit - 2

Obviously this is helpful, but imagine having a list of all the biggest silicon consuming systems ready to hand when you've just loaded up your last unit of silicon into your jump capable TL with 5 or 6 dolphins on board ready to sell a couple of hundred units each. Suddenly you'll find yourself jumping in and out of ore belt every 5 minutes.

LongOne
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Post by LongOne » Fri, 14. May 04, 10:17

THX for the guide - it's one of the best :)
But I've got one question: what is the ultimate time of asteroid respawn? I've played X2 for a couple of hours and none of asteriods were respawned...

KarlHemmings
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Post by KarlHemmings » Tue, 8. Jun 04, 12:26

Excuse me TD
"We all know that something is going to happen to the manas and possibly the TL class, but as of now, nothing is clearly know and is subject to change. I will update the guide when the patch is released"

Or let me be a little more specific.

"Possibly the TL class" - I have neither seen nor heard of this anywhere else.
My nice new Orca - do I need to worry?
Okay "nothing is clearly know and is subject to change"
Plus I guess non disclosure.

Xenon_Slayer
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Post by Xenon_Slayer » Tue, 8. Jun 04, 13:13

I cant imagine the TL's going down to Large cargo.
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Brianetta
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Post by Brianetta » Tue, 8. Jun 04, 15:39

LongOne wrote:THX for the guide - it's one of the best :)
But I've got one question: what is the ultimate time of asteroid respawn? I've played X2 for a couple of hours and none of asteriods were respawned...
Several hours, followed by a random period of several hours (so they don't all come back together). Not just a couple of hours - it's calle dmobile mining for a reason.

Remember, the Argonopedia has this guide (and others) mirrored, in case it ever becomes hard to locate or the forums go down.
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