THE WORLD OF MOBILE MINING
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***UPDATED for the 1.4 patch***
-No more Mantas, they can no longer hold XL cargo
-Slight price changes
-TS Cargo and Speed changes
Also updated with a new section thanks to thecwby- it lists every silicon consuming factory in the Universe, by sector! Scroll down and check it out, it's not something to be missed.
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Welcome to TD’s Guide to the World of Mobile Mining!
For newbies and Veterans alike, this guide is to help those exploring the X-Universe's new, slightly ignored, yet highly profitable feature, mobile mining.
Before we get started, lets answer a few questions.
Q: What is Mobile Mining?
A: Good Question. Mobile Mining is a new feature in the X-Universe. Using a combination of new mining equipment and ships, you can literally deprive an asteroid of its resources with out any continuing cost to the player. In essence, after the ship and equipment are paid for- anything you mine is yours free to sell for pure profit!
Q: Ok, this is all great and stuff, but why write a guide on it?
A: Didn’t I mention that mobile mining easily has the potential to be more profitable than any factory in the game? Yep, you heard me. Because Mobile Mining relies on the demand from the AI factories rather then the production rate and resource cost of a player factory, it does not have a clear max profit. And on top of that, because it really doesn’t cost anything to mine except the initial ship, all profits you earn from mining are pure profit. (That means there are absolutely no production costs of any kind) Take a look- just one good run of Silicon can make you 300,000cr in less than an hour. Nice.
Q: What makes this different than other things in X2?
A: Well for one, mobile mining isn’t a “set and forget” operation, unlike most factories. The player must be involved in some way, as the AI can’t do it by itself. This is bad news for those who love to use SETA for long periods of time, as if you’re going to get into the mobile mining biz, you’ll have to use SETA a lot less. Second, although the income isn’t always as secure as a normal factory, it still has the potential to be more profitable than a normal factory. However, it is more secure than capturing. (Well, unless you’re really good at capturing.) And finally, to get started in mobile mining, all you will need is one good ship, that will cost about the same amount as a factory.
Q: Shut up! I want to get started!
A: Although not really a question, sure thing. This guide is broken down into 3 so called parts. They are the set-up, simple mining, and advanced mining.
Let's get started!
THE BUSINESS OF MOBILE MINING
Fact: Mobile mining relies more on the surrounding AI factories ability to consume their resources rather than the production times/costs of a single player owned factory. In essence, you can easily make more money than any factory in the entire universe, due to these lack on confines. (By a long shot!)
Station Mining vs. Mobile Mining
There is a VERY big difference between the two. If you’re looking solely for profit, than Mobile Mining is the way to go. Station Mining (Building Ore/Silicon Mines on asteroids) does NOT make good profit. An Ore Mine can only make a maximum profit of around 19,000cr per hour, while a silicon mine can make a max profit of around 24,000 an hour, depending on the asteroid’s yield. Even on the best yields however, the max profit for both kinds of factories will very rarely exceed 30,000cr an hour. Profit wise, mobile mining has the edge. Just simple mobile mining alone can make you 250,000 a run! (But remember- you can still flood the market this way) There are only several benefits to station mining. First off, with factories you can “set and forget”. Mobile mining nearly always requires the player to be apart of the process. (This may change with future scripts from the community of course. ) Second, Ore and Silicon mines are good for supplying other factories, at a more automated and constant rate. But when it comes down to profit, mobile mining easily wins.
Profit of Mobile Mining
Unlike factories, mobile mining relies simply on the player’s ability to gather and sell the mined material. Anything the player makes by doing this is considered pure profit, as there are no production costs, except for the initial cost of the ship. Because of this, it is very difficult to estimate how much a player will make. Usually, selling a load of silicon for near max price will get you around 300,000. So, if you’re dealing with silicon, you can expect to make around 100,000-300,000 per trip. If you start a convoy of mining ships, you can easily make 800,000 an hour- more than any station can hope to make! (Remember… your profits will go down if you flood the market with your mined product)
Asteroids: What they can do for you
Yield: What’s it all mean
An asteroid’s yield stands for how rich the asteroid is in its peticular material (Ore/Silicon/Nividium) Generally, the higher the yield, the more material you can get from the said asteroid. Use yield signs wisely! If your cargo bay is small, don’t go and mine a high yield asteroid! You’ll only waste the asteroid’s contents because you won’t be able to pick up all of the asteroid’s remains.
(Note: For station mining, the higher the yield, the lower the production time of the factory built on it)
Asteroid Chunks
No, not a breakfast cereal. These are the good pieces of the asteroid that break off when you destroy the asteroid with a mobile drilling system. They can only be scooped up into your cargo bay and sold for profit IF you have the Ore collector installed on the collecting ship. Otherwise, you’ll get some nasty hull damage when you go to bring the chunks into your cargo bay. Asteroid chunks contain different amounts of material per chunk, which also varies along with how many chunks are made. The amount of variation is due to the asteroid’s original yield.
The greater the yield, the greater amounts of asteroid chunks, and the greater amounts of yield per asteroid chunk.
Silicon vs. Ore vs. Nividium
In the current X-Universe, there are only 3 types of mineable resources. They are Silicon, Ore, and Nividium. Ore is by far the most common, with Nividium as the rarest. (In fact, Nividium is so rare that it is only found (so far) in undiscovered Unknown Sectors, like the one next to Xenon Sector 534) So… which resource is the most profitable? Ore is too common, and generally a single trip will make you only in the thousands. Nividium, while rare and high priced, it is not the most profitable. Because only a few select factories buy it, and only in quantities less than two, it is not possible to keep a constant high profit with them. As you might have guessed, Silicon is by far the most profitable element to mine in the game. It can make you up to 300,000cr per single trip! During most of this guide I will be referring to Silicon, as that is the element of choice.
Asteroid Respawning
In order to keep the Universe filled up asteroids, the game will respawn destroyed asteroids after a given amount of time. The asteroid comes back with a random yield of its previous element. Respawning takes about 2-3 days after the said asteroid is destroyed.
3iff wrote:You also forgot to mention about those HUGE asteroids with tunnels that you can't break up with normal mining...
...fly inside a tunnel, then shoot.
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HOW TO MOBILE MINE
Finally! This section is dedicated to the art of mobile mining an asteroid. It goes over what kind of ships/upgrades/equipment is needed, how mining is performed, and selling your mined goods.
Choosing a Mining Ship
There are only a handful of ships that are capable of mobile mining. Choosing the right ship is up to you. Keep in mind: A good mining ship needs to be somewhat fast, able to carry all of the equipment needed, and have an extremely large cargo bay. Here I will go over the basic ships that are capable of mining.
Split Caiman -TS Class
Speed: 158.91 m/s
Accel: 4 m/s^2
Steering: 11.69%
Cargo Bay: 1300u XL (From 300)
Turrets 1:
Front Turret: IREs, some PACs
Back Turret: Mass Driver, Mining Laser, and Ion Disrupter
Shields: 2* 25mw
Teladi Vulture –TS Class
Speed: 123.73 m/s
Accel: 3 m/s^2
Steering: 11.69%
Cargo Bay: 2000u XL (From 800)
Turrets 1:
No Front guns
Back Turret: Mining Laser, and Alpha PSG
Shields: 2* 25mw
Paranid Demeter –TS Class
Speed: 117.11 m/s
Accel: 3 m/s^2
Steering: 17.9%
Cargo Bay: 1500u XL (From 666)
Turrets 1:
Front Turret: Mining Laser, Alpha PSG
Back Turret: Mining Laser, Alpha PSG
Shields: 3* 25mw
TD’s Choice: For my first mining ship, I chose the Teladi Vulture. It is the second fastest ship in the lot and has the largest cargo bay. Not to mention when everything is bought and paid for, it is also the cheapest of the TS’s. I’m not using the ship for fighting, so I don’t need the strong weapons and shields of the Split and Paranid models. All you really need is a weapon just strong enough to keep the Khaak M5s and M3s off your back. The Teladi vulture’s single APSG does come in handy, and it’s enough to get the job done.
All TLs can also use the minning laser. Although they're faster than all of the TS’s and obviously have the largest cargo bay, they are a bloody pain in the neck to line up with asteroids. Not to mention their huge cost of over 20 million and the fact that you will need support ships to gather the materials.
Equipment
A mining ship is useless without it’s equipment. What shields and weapons you put on your ship is up to you (and your bank account!). Remember, one can never be to prepared… Here are some basic equipment that will come in handy:
Mobile Drilling Laser = Needed! Used Like a weapon to break up asteroids into chunks
Ore Collector = Needed! Allows you to scoop up asteroid chunks into your cargo bay
Special cmd Software Mk1= Allows you to use Auto Pilot to collect the asteroid chunks
Full Engine Tunings = Time is money!
Full Rudder Upgrades = TSs turn slow. If you’ve got a mining back turret, might be a good idea
Mineral Scanner = Needed! Allows you to see the yield and type of the scanned asteroid
Jump Drive = Allows you to get places extremely quick to gather and sell your goods
Best Selling Locator = With this you can find out where to sell your stuff for top dollar without having to scan every station in the sector
Shields: I recommend at least a 5mw. At best they will help you from accidental collisions with Asteroid Chunks.
Weapons: Not really needed, but who knows when you’ll run into a bit of trouble…
How Exactly to Mine an Asteroid
Ok, you’ve got a brand new TS and you’re cruising through space. Let’s mine an asteroid!
Step 1: Find a suitable asteroid. If you are in a sector with a few asteroids, target and fly up to one of asteroids and then press the ‘i’ key. This will scan the asteroid, and bring up a screen with its element type, yield and a graphic of its size. As this is just as test, any asteroid will do. (Note: you must be within 20km of the targeted asteroid in order to scan it)
Step 2: Now, exit out of that scanning screen, and fly within 300m of the asteroid. This can be a little nerve racking at first. In my opinion, using the external view and rotating the camera around the ship works best to estimate how close you are to the asteroid. (The target range is always a little off because it targets the center of the asteroid, and not the outer wall of the asteroid)
Step 3: Equip your mining laser by going into your ship's menu (‘s’) and then hitting the ‘g’ key. Use the arrow keys to select the mobile drilling laser, and then press 'enter' to equip it.
Step 4: Depending on which ship you have, you may need to rotate or align your ship up so that your turret/front gun is pointing straight at the asteroid.
Step 5: One you are lined up, start shooting! If your shot’s miss (they pass through the asteroid or disappear before hitting it) you are still to far away. Get closer and re-align your gun. Then keep shoot'n!
Step 6: After 10-20 shots from your mining laser, the asteroid should explode into many smaller asteroid chunks.
Step 7: Now, if you have purchased the Ore Collector upgrade, you will be able to scoop up the asteroid chunks into your cargo bay. Treat each asteroid piece as if it were a cargo container. Press ‘o’ and then fly into them. They will be sent straight to your cargo bay.
Step 8: Collecting the asteroid chunks manually takes a while. If you have purchased the Special cmd Software upgrade, you will be able to scoop up all of the pieces on autopilot. Go into your ship’s comm menu, and activate “Gather all wares in Sector” command. Your ship should now start collecting the asteroid pieces on it’s own. You can even use SETA to speed up the process even more.
Step 9: Selling your stuff. You can make the selling bit a little easier/faster if you have the Best Selling Locator. To use it, hit the ‘5’ key. It should bring up a menu showing where you can sell each item on your ship. Scroll down to silicon and look at the price. If the price is too low or average, fly to another sector and try the Selling Locator again. Repeat until you’ve found a good place to sell your material. Once you've found the perfect spot to sell, dump off your goods and get paid.
Well there you go! You’ve officially mined and sold an asteroid. To keep making money at it, try other elements, particularly Silicon. All you have to do to keep the profit rolling is just rinse and repeat.
Getting your goods around
Now, you don’t have to collect the asteroid chunks yourself. If you want, you can buy a couple of TLs to pick up
the asteroid's remains. This will give you plenty of cargo space to work with. Make sure your collecting ships are equipped with the Ore collector!! If not, they won’t be able to pick up the asteroid chunks, and they will just sit there. You should give each ship the same upgrades as your personal mining ship, except for the Best Selling locator, the Mineral Scanner, and the Mining laser and the jump drive.
Team TS
Whether you just need a few helping hands to carry Silicon/Ore around, or you need a fleet of ships to feed your TL and stock mines... transports are a major part of minning life. Here's a short breakdown on all of the ones avalible.
There are 2 major things you should look for in a transporter ship. One, speed. Your TS will need to move fast in order to pick up all of the silicon dropped by the asteriod before it disapears. Speed also helps get your ships out of tricky situations, and make several trips without taking up to much time. Second, cargo. Cargo pretty much determines how much of the asteriod you collect, along with how much money you make. The more cargo the better! (It also means less trips to your TL to unload them)
TS - Split Caiman
Speed: 189.18 m/s
Cargo: 600/1500 units
Sheilds: 2x25mw
Price:
-S = 150k
-M = 250k
-L = 650k
TS - Teladi Vulture
Speed: 123.73 m/s
Cargo: 1600/2500 units
Sheilds: 2x25mw
Price:
-S = 150k
-M = 230k
-L = 500k
TS - Boron Dolphin
Speed: 120 m/s
Cargo: 2000/3000 units
Sheilds: 3x25
Price:
-S = 170k
-M = 310k
-L = 720k
TS - Argon Mercury
Speed: 150 m/s
Cargo: 900/1800 units
Shield: 3x25mw
Price:
- S = 130k
- M = 250k
- L = 700k
TS - Paranid Demeter
Speed: 175 m/s
Cargo: 999/1665
Sheilds: 3x25
Price:
-S = 130k
-M = 250k
-L = 700k
TD's Choice:Cargo Upgrade Chart wrote:1000 extra units = 500k
750 extra units = 300k
500 extra units = 130k
250 extra units = 34k
Well, for certain jobs I'd have cetain TSs. For collecting, I'd definitily use the Paranid Demeter. It's the second fastest TS, and starts with a decent Cargo bay (1 unit off of the old Manta's cargo bay- which before the 1.4 patch it was the best collecting/storing ship. They are only around 25m/s off in speed as well). The caiman is also extremely cheep, making a fleet or replacements affordable. As for storage, the Dolphin wins out easily. 2000 units of starting cargo is amazing, and the price isn't to bad either.
Equip your TS’s with the following Equipment to get the best results:
-Ore Collector = Needed! Allows you to scoop up asteroid chunks into your cargo bay
-Special cmd Software Mk1= Allows you to use Auto Pilot to collect all asteroid chunks
-Navigational Software = Helps them get around easier
-Full Engine Tunings = Time is money!
-Full Rudder Upgrades = TS turn slow. If you’ve got a back turret, might be a good idea
-Shields: Whatever suits your playing style, 2-3 x 5mw shields are good enough
-Weapons: Warning! If your TS is equipped with weapons or Fight software, instead of trying to run, it will turn and fight the enemy! More often than not, it will lose.
~~~~~Jumping~~~~
If you have the 1.3 or 1.4 patch installed, you should notice a new command under the navigation commands menu. You now have the power to tell your ships to jump around the universe. Use this to your advantage! You can now easily create a team of mining ships that can jump around the universe to sell their products. You can also use the selling locator on each one, allowing you to maximize your profits.
Keeping it real
It may be very difficult to defend yourself and your convoy of ships from your single mobile mining TS! If you have purchased a good fighter ship, have it follow your TS wherever it goes. Also install the Goner’s transporter device on each ship, so that you can hop from ship to ship with relative ease. This will give you the ability to save your mining operation from any trouble you run into.
Hornet Missile Minning
(aka- dynamite fishermans mining technique(tm) )
You can also use hornet missiles to mine asteriods. Just target the asteriod and let one rip..... errr... the hornet missle that is. Hornet missiles cost around 10,000cr each. Although they will eat into your profit margins for Ore and Nividium, they will only dent a silicon roid's profit. Also, Hornet missiles are a much faster way of minning.
Negatives:
1. When you use hornet missiles, it destoryes a good portion of the yeild along with it. This means you will get much less per roid.
2. After only 16-20 hornet missiles, they'll have cost you more than the minning laser. After you use 100 of them, they will cost more than the ship.
3. The search- you'll obviously have to search around to find hornet missiles. You'll also have to jump in and out to resupply.
Benefits:
1. Faster way to mine
2. Less inital start up cost
3. Great for just starting the game and getting into minning!!!
4. Big explosions 8 )
5. You can defend you collecting ships much better, as you'll be in a ship that can carry hornets!
Mcitchy wrote:Fly to sector > Scan the asteroids, 1 nuke for each high yield silicon asteroid you find (I usually hit the 18+ ones) > send in the [TS]'s on collect wares duty > wait for [TS]'s to fill up > give the [TS]'s somewhere to sell there wares > wash > rinse > repeat. Meanwhile you are free to protect your investment from your handy m3 and may well get some more captures while the AI does the scarpering about cleaning up the mess [ external image ]