[AP] Struggling with Nividium collection for PHQ

[modernrocko]

Okay, this is probably a really dumb situation for most but I'm getting pretty frustrated.

I'm at the point in the PHQ mission where I need to collect 75 Nividum. I read in a different thread that Mosquito missiles could be used to blow up a Nividium asteroid into smaller chunks but after throwing 500 at the one in CEO's Wellspring it's still completely solid and not a single inch of its "Hull Strength" bar has dropped.

So then I read Hornet missiles work, but apparently I don't own any ships that can load Hornets. I don't have a Hyperion yet and I'd rather not have to go buy one just for this mission as I won't use the ship otherwise (I don't want to risk my Paranid rep to board one either). I assumed that my Cobra M7M would be able to load just about anything (being a missile frigate and all) but I was mistaken on that and apparently the Cobra is super limited in what armaments it can carry.

I then purchased some Hammer Heavy missiles since I figured those should be strong enough to blow the 'roid up into tiny nuggets, but after scouting the universe and finding a Military Outpost that had some in stock, I return to the sector and find that I can't fire Hammer Heavy missiles at it. "Missile requires enemy target in range."

Any alternatives? Aside from my Cobra and Springblossom I own a whole bunch of Mistrals, an Ariadne, several Terran TL's and an assortment of M3 fighters but so far I haven't found a single ship I own that is compatible with Hornet missiles. Is there something else I can use to break these up without shelling out ten million for a new corvette strictly to equip Hornets for this one mission? Seems like such a waste when I know I won't use it afterward...

I don't remember struggling with this as much as I am now when I went through the PHQ mission in X3:R. Must have been using different ships back then.

EDIT: I just remembered that Mobile Drilling Systems are a thing that I've never tried before. Thought this would be the answer to my problems--I found a station with one in stock, loaded it onto one of my Mistrals and made sure it had other appropriate softwares (Ore Collector and such) and jumped it in to CEO's Wellspring. Unfortunately it looks like you cannot select Nividium as a target for the MDS. It only cycles through Ore, Silicon, and Ice.

The struggle continues!

[RainerPrem]

...

EDIT: I just remembered that Mobile Drilling Systems are a thing that I've never tried before. Thought this would be the answer to my problems--I found a station with one in stock, loaded it onto one of my Mistrals and made sure it had other appropriate softwares (Ore Collector and such) and jumped it in to CEO's Wellspring. Unfortunately it looks like you cannot select Nividium as a target for the MDS. It only cycles through Ore, Silicon, and Ice.

The struggle continues!

Hi,

You need to break the big chunks into small chunks first.
You can use any weapon for this*. The Mobile Drilling is too slow.
Then give the command "Collect Minerals" and since there's only Nividium in the vicinity it'll work like a charm.

You need to leave the sector immediately, since miners tend to collide with every rock they can find.

In AP you need to monitor your miners for the moment the small rocks are exhausted. (In TC there is unlimited supply)

Then: 1) STOP ALL MINING before you jump in.
2) Jump in and break more chunks into smaller rocks
3) Jump out and restart mining again.

Have fun
Rainer

* Alternatively you can use a large ship with good shielding to break the rocks even faster by flying through them. One of the clumsy Terran M2s or M7s comes handy here.

[modernrocko]

I must be doing something wrong then. Or is the 15 yield Nividium asteroid in CEO's Wellspring invincible/unbreakable? I've tried every laser I have and they have no effect.

It is absolutely necessary to do this in UFJD sectors? I'm starting to think that the Nividium asteroid in CEO's Wellspring is a phony!

[Sinxar]

Not sure where the idea you can break up a large asteroid with any weapon came from but that is simply not the case. In AP mosquitos don't do anything in terms of damage.

Use your MDS, hop in the turret and fire at the rock manually to break it down unto chunks that other weapons can break farther. But no you can't break down the largest roids with any weapon. You may be able to use hornet or hammerhead missles for the same job, not sure which one or if it even works. I always used the MDS to break down the big one, then you can use whatever to break it up more.

[modernrocko]

I think I (somewhat) figured out what the problem was, or at least part of it.

Before my last post I had brought my Ariadne in to sector and hopped aboard to try firing a couple of Hammerheads at it. I was able to launch the missiles without having an enemy target locked, thankfully, but for some reason the missiles were still ineffective. Fired three of them back to back, which I figured should be *more* than enough damage to take out pretty much anything, asteroids included. Nope. Not even an explosion.

So I just reloaded my game to prior to launching those missiles and found a different Nividium asteroid, this time the 18 yield asteroid in Guiding Star. Brought my Ariadne in close and fired away... and sure enough, one single hammerhead was enough to detonate the big rock into small chunks. Used lasers to break up the rest and now I have the Nividium I need to progress the PHQ quest.

Out of curiosity I went back to CEO's Wellspring to check out that asteroid again and noticed something: All of my weapons fire passes straight through the asteroid as if it weren't even there, missiles and lasers alike. I hadn't noticed it before but firing a long string of missiles at it (used mosquitos again to test) makes it way easier to see on radar that they pass straight through the 'roid without detonation and then self destruct somewhere far behind it.

So it looks like my game isn't recognizing that asteroid as being physically there, even though I can select it as a target or throw it up on one of the monitors. Very strange.

Anyway, thanks for the responses. Much appreciated!

[RainerPrem]

I think I (somewhat) figured out what the problem was, or at least part of it.
...

Out of curiosity I went back to CEO's Wellspring to check out that asteroid again and noticed something: All of my weapons fire passes straight through the asteroid as if it weren't even there ...!

And that leads to the Standard Response (tm): What mods do you use? If any: go to the S&M-Forum with your problem.

cu
Rainer

[modernrocko]

That's the thing, I'm playing a purely vanilla game, though I do have the bonus pack installed. Aside from that, I haven't so much as looked in the S&M forum yet. I was planning on finishing all of the plots and collecting most of the Steam achievements on this playthrough before I try out a modded game.

Very strange indeed. Seems weird that it's only that asteroid in particular that's affected, although I guess I can't say that for certain--I haven't tried blowing up any others aside from these two Nividium rocks. Ultimately I'm not too concerned with it, I don't plan on setting up any mining operations anytime soon as my Silicon/Ore complex is generating all I need for the PHQ, and I don't plan to take advantage of the Nividium selling trick (provided that's still a thing). Hopefully this will be my last run-in with exploding asteroids, on this playthrough anyway.

[Alan Phipps]

That sounds like the asteroid model is glitched in your save - it happens (very rarely) even in vanilla with ship and station models too. It may be due to some sort of interrupt to the removal process code such as doing a manual save just as an item was in the process of exploding and the removal code never recovers to exactly where it was at the time of the interrupt. It might sort itself out if and when some hidden timer runs out though.

It is fortunate that you were able to find another source and that all ends well.

[DrSuperEvil]

Spectre missiles also can kill asteroids so just collect some in the war sectors and use your Springblossom.

Several other sectors have Nividium containing asteroids such as Guiding Star, Cathedral of Xaar, CEO's Wellspring, Unknown Sector (16,0), Xenon Sector 534, Enduring Light, Spires of Elusion, Twisted Skies, Xenon Sector 695, Perpetual Sin and Distant Clouds.

You can manually fire the mobile drilling system at the asteroids.

[jlehtone]

I don't recall any need for touching Asteroids; Kingdom End, Scale Plate Green, and couple other sectors have enough Nividium rocks.

[RainerPrem]

I don't recall any need for touching Asteroids; Kingdom End, Scale Plate Green, and couple other sectors have enough Nividium rocks.

Hi,

don't they deplete rather quickly in AP? I always concentrated on Niv-asteroids as well.

cu
Rainer

[AleksMain]

I don't recall any need for touching Asteroids; Kingdom End, Scale Plate Green, and couple other sectors have enough Nividium rocks.

Hi,

don't they deplete rather quickly in AP? I always concentrated on Niv-asteroids as well.

cu
Rainer

I can recommend X3 Wiki for information about nvidium:

How and where to obtain Nividium?
...
Sectors which can be reached by using the unfocussed jumpdrive.

There is unlimited amount of nvidium in X3 universe.

[RainerPrem]

I don't recall any need for touching Asteroids; Kingdom End, Scale Plate Green, and couple other sectors have enough Nividium rocks.

Hi,

don't they deplete rather quickly in AP? I always concentrated on Niv-asteroids as well.

cu
Rainer

I can recommend X3 Wiki for information about nvidium:

How and where to obtain Nividium?
...
Sectors which can be reached by using the unfocussed jumpdrive.

There is unlimited amount of nvidium in X3 universe.

Hi,

You can use the "fly a big ugly ship and ram the chunks yourself" method in an UFJD-Sector but you can't leave any ships there. So it's reasonable for harvesting a small amount, but if you want to fill a TL, it's not.

cu
Rainer

[DrSuperEvil]

The Kyoto is pretty effective at that method. Just have 4 docked hayabusas using CLS and you can get 60k cargo worth quite easily.

[jlehtone]

What if you carry the Kyoto&Co into unknown with Aran (or a stack of them)?

don't they deplete rather quickly in AP?

I don't recall having any issues with the measly plot required amount. Just a wee bit of manual collection personally.