Do asteroid fragments despawn?

[Simoom]

In a foolish attempt to clean up the traffic routes in Gaian Star, I destroyed a few large asteroids to help make the paths to NPC stations easier. Well, needless to say... soon I found myself breaking the rocks into smaller and smaller chunks (so they don't one-shot my freighters in case of collision), and now the sector is covered in probably tens of thousands of small rocks everywhere.

I have three ships on "Collect Rock" command, and they've been working for three days straight... they hardly cleared up a fraction of the mess I made! :/

I know destroyed asteroids sometimes respawn (I was hoping they will be in different locations when they do) - so I was wondering if the same applies in reverse - do asteroid fragments created by the player eventually despawn?

[Timsup2nothin]

I recommend a TL with an ore collector. Just make sure you aren't close to any full size asteroids and spin in place...pausing if your shields start to get low. A Mammoth cleans a fair size disk. Then bump vertically and do it again.

Rumor has it that if you clear the rocks while you are in sector they will not respawn.

[Alex Corvis]

Rumor has it that if you clear the rocks while you are in sector they will not respawn.

That's the point. You have to be in sector. Otherwise you ship collect and collect and ... Some people got rich by collecting Nividium this way

You could try to build mines on those asteroids before destroying them. Then destroy the mine and after a while the wreck will vanish and the asteroid would respawn.
Or, if you are already modified, use a cheat script to remove the mines.

[TTD]

Asteroids with mines on them ,then destroyed,wil NOT respawn.

That is the only vanilla way to completely remove 'roids.

[Alex Corvis]

... and the asteroid would respawn.

Oops, I mean and then the asteroid would not respawn.

[Alan Phipps]

This is where the game matters. In X3TC, if you collect every rock in a broken rock cluster, the cluster will respawn nearby (both OOS and IS) - hence the endless rock collection exploit. It happens less often IS because the collector makes more mistakes in shooting and collection and so some rocks can get destroyed instead of collected. In X3AP the collected rocks do not respawn.

The only dead-certain ways to clear a sector or route of all rocks in X3TC is to shoot them to oblivion (PSG or PBG are good when using a shoot, pause, shoot, technique) or to ram them to death with a well-shielded big ship with no ore collector.

BTW: A full sector-map asteroid when broken will later respawn with similar yield of the same mineral in the same position, perhaps still surrounded by debris from its predecessor.

[Simoom]

This is where the game matters. In X3TC, if you collect every rock in a broken rock cluster, the cluster will respawn nearby (both OOS and IS) - hence the endless rock collection exploit. It happens less often IS because the collector makes more mistakes in shooting and collection and so some rocks can get destroyed instead of collected. In X3AP the collected rocks do not respawn.

The only dead-certain ways to clear a sector or route of all rocks in X3TC is to shoot them to oblivion (PSG or PBG are good when using a shoot, pause, shoot, technique) or to ram them to death with a well-shielded big ship with no ore collector.

BTW: A full sector-map asteroid when broken will later respawn with similar yield of the same mineral in the same position, perhaps still surrounded by debris from its predecessor.

Hmm, sounds like I majorly messed up then. x__x (I am playing vanilla X3AP)

My ships are collecting rocks from OOS, given enough time, will they be able to clear the sector of small rocks? :/ I should have just used a mine...

[Alan Phipps]

Yes they will clear the sector of collectable rocks (within scanner range) given enough time.

In X3TC there was a fps-saving 'feature' that could ruin the endless collection exploit. It re-amalgamated lots of broken small rocks into a few pretty worthless bigger rocks if the number of rocks was affecting sector fps badly and you moved all player ships well away from the collection site while you personally remained IS - I don't know if that carried on into X3AP.

[Simoom]

Yes they will clear the sector of collectable rocks (within scanner range) given enough time.

In X3TC there was a fps-saving 'feature' that could ruin the endless collection exploit. It re-amalgamated lots of broken small rocks into a few pretty worthless bigger rocks if the number of rocks was affecting sector fps badly and you moved all player ships well away from the collection site while you personally remained IS - I don't know if that carried on into X3AP.

I think I noticed it taking effect in AP - because I was personally breaking apart all the larger rock chunks using PBGs, but I noticed some of the large chunks keep coming back. :/

Still cleaning up Gaian Star. 5th day of rock collection... xD This is so ridiculous.

[Timsup2nothin]

Seriously, try the Mammoth approach. It's a LOT faster.

[Simoom]

Seriously, try the Mammoth approach. It's a LOT faster.

Trust me I thought about using a large, flat ship to quickly collect all the rocks. In fact that was the first thing I tried (using a Kyoto - it doesn't get larger than that).

The thing is the collectable rocks are acting a bit strange (may be because there's way too many of them in the sector?) - they would float right through my ship's hull without being collected. I watch as dozens and dozens of them just transparently pass through my ship. Meanwhile all the larger rocks still dent my shield just fine, and break into little chunks that... float right through my ship.

It seems that either 1) Only a small portion of the ship will count for cargo collection when coming in contact with collectable objects, or 2) Due to the huge number of collectable rocks, the game is limiting the amount of rocks you can interact with at any given time in order to save compute cycles.

Personally I think it's case #2, because I noticed when I tried to burn all the rocks away using PBGs, only a few of them will blow up (even though the flame went right through dozens of rocks). This may be why even a huge ship can only collect a limited number of rocks per pass, when in-sector.

[Timsup2nothin]

Seriously, try the Mammoth approach. It's a LOT faster.

Trust me I thought about using a large, flat ship to quickly collect all the rocks. In fact that was the first thing I tried (using a Kyoto - it doesn't get larger than that).

The thing is the collectable rocks are acting a bit strange (may be because there's way too many of them in the sector?) - they would float right through my ship's hull without being collected. I watch as dozens and dozens of them just transparently pass through my ship. Meanwhile all the larger rocks still dent my shield just fine, and break into little chunks that... float right through my ship.

It seems that either 1) Only a small portion of the ship will count for cargo collection when coming in contact with collectable objects, or 2) Due to the huge number of collectable rocks, the game is limiting the amount of rocks you can interact with at any given time in order to save compute cycles.

Personally I think it's case #2, because I noticed when I tried to burn all the rocks away using PBGs, only a few of them will blow up (even though the flame went right through dozens of rocks). This may be why even a huge ship can only collect a limited number of rocks per pass, when in-sector.

I'm guessing something like case #2 as well. Too many collision events happening all at the same time so the smaller ones are being ignored. If that is the case it wouldn't be a question of how many rocks are in the sector, just how many of them you are hitting at any one time. Possibly the Kyoto is TOO big, or perhaps you are going too fast.

If you are willing to experiment I would try either a smaller profile approach or lower speed to reduce the collision frequency and see if it eliminates the transparency effect. Even if you have to go slower you will still be a lot more efficient than a bunch of AI rock collectors swimming in circles.

[Bobucles]

Too many collision events happening all at the same time so the smaller ones are being ignored.

It doesn't look like that. The game appears to only track up to 3 rocks that are closest to your camera. Anything else will not be collected. This is very annoying as the ship has to be constantly moved towards the active rocks in order to pick anything up.

Yes, I did a LOT of Aran mining. And yes, your ship can still smash into any rock that is not the smallest size (which can re merge if you look away, letting you ram into them again!)

[Simoom]

Too many collision events happening all at the same time so the smaller ones are being ignored.

It doesn't look like that. The game appears to only track up to 3 rocks that are closest to your camera. Anything else will not be collected. This is very annoying as the ship has to be constantly moved towards the active rocks in order to pick anything up.

Yes, I did a LOT of Aran mining. And yes, your ship can still smash into any rock that is not the smallest size (which can re merge if you look away, letting you ram into them again!)

Yup, that's the exact symptom I observed in my game (thanks for describing it in detail). The game will only track three collectable rocks close to me and I am unable to collect or destroy anything behind them (AKA "out of focus").

This made mass rock collection or destruction impossible. :/

[Nanook]

...
The thing is the collectable rocks are acting a bit strange (may be because there's way too many of them in the sector?) - they would float right through my ship's hull without being collected. I watch as dozens and dozens of them just transparently pass through my ship. Meanwhile all the larger rocks still dent my shield just fine, and break into little chunks that... float right through my ship....

Don't try to collect while in camera view. Collect only while viewing from inside the ship. While in camera, i.e., third person, view, the collectible rocks will indeed 'float' right through your ship. But they are all collected if you are viewing from the cockpit. I've had dozens of rocks suddenly flood my ship once I went back to first person. Try it, you'll see.

[Simoom]

Don't try to collect while in camera view. Collect only while viewing from inside the ship. While in camera, i.e., third person, view, the collectible rocks will indeed 'float' right through your ship. But they are all collected if you are viewing from the cockpit. I've had dozens of rocks suddenly flood my ship once I went back to first person. Try it, you'll see.

I was in first-person view though (collecting rocks isn't... any easier... in third person view with a Kyoto... that thing is massive). It may just be that Kyoto has some erratic collision behavior due to its sheer size, but I am not sure.

For burning away rocks though, the "three rocks" rule is definitely in play.