[TC] 1 Billion credits, day 3, Vanilla, here's how.

[Dantrithor]

Don't you notice a decrease in mining speed? I use only 10 mercury haulers, as most times i tend to forget about them and notice 4 real-time hours after dropping them there (~8 in-game, depending on how combat/build-intensive was the session), and after grabbing 4,000 cargo worth of nvidium, they stop scooping chunks 2 by 2, and only grab one every several seconds.

[CaptainRAVE]

Don't you notice a decrease in mining speed? I use only 10 mercury haulers, as most times i tend to forget about them and notice 4 real-time hours after dropping them there (~8 in-game, depending on how combat/build-intensive was the session), and after grabbing 4,000 cargo worth of nvidium, they stop scooping chunks 2 by 2, and only grab one every several seconds.

I actually found that 30 freighters collect the ore quicker than one on its own for some reason!

[Dantrithor]

I didn't mean, as it's obvious. What i meant is that it seems the ore respawn can't keep up with 10 TS's constantly mining in KE, as the ore scoop rate seems to get lower after some time.

[PQTaggart]

Probably they compete harder, the more ships take part

Even with 400 ships I didn't notice a slow-down. On seta 10 it usually takes around 5-10 seconds until they collect 2 or 1 Nvidium.
I made the same ovservation as you but over time I think I've learned that they just switch every now and then; sometimes it's 2, sometimes it's 1.

You know CaptainRAVE, I think you've found the backdoor of the developers or testers to make money fast... thanks again for sharing this!

[CaptainRAVE]

I didn't mean, as it's obvious. What i meant is that it seems the ore respawn can't keep up with 10 TS's constantly mining in KE, as the ore scoop rate seems to get lower after some time.

No no, sorry I wasn't clear. What I meant was this - any ONE ore collector from my 30 collects the Nividium a lot quicker than when I just had the ore collector on its own. Maybe there is something in the engine that means with more ships they move around less and spend more time collecting. Where as when I had the one ship on its own it was travelling between the Nividium. No idea.

Probably they compete harder, the more ships take part

Even with 400 ships I didn't notice a slow-down. On seta 10 it usually takes around 5-10 seconds until they collect 2 or 1 Nvidium.
I made the same ovservation as you but over time I think I've learned that they just switch every now and then; sometimes it's 2, sometimes it's 1.

You know CaptainRAVE, I think you've found the backdoor of the developers or testers to make money fast... thanks again for sharing this!

I do like how this "feature of the game" has developed over the 11 or so pages. I think it is quite formidable now . If only there was a way to broadcast to all ships, "collect the rocks"...haha, that would be too easy

[Cougar81]

Not that this completely game unbalancing process needs any help
but it sure would be nice if you could broadcast ANY command to a wing instead of just the very select few they allow.

I suppose it would be a LITTLE extra cpu overhead to check the ships for equipment and then give you the commands that ALL the ships are capable of accepting (thus if they all have ore collectors and special commands software, they can all take the collect rocks command as a Wing).

edit: btw.. an advanced version of this might be done in Terran space - in the last unknown sector there is an nividium roid - the advantage the Terrans have is the mobile-mining-base which comes preconfigured with the ore collector and special commands software (and 60k cargohold). It's 8 jumps away in Saturn - but there is a military base in the target sector so you can dock a couple in advance to keep it constant. No pirate threat, and I rarely (if ever) go in those sectors myself. I'll have to check the cost efficiency of the ship and it's sell price tho. Terran "things" tend to be priced higher even if they arent any better than anything else.

[Magnu]

No pirate threat

I assumed this too, until I got a 'Attention, one of your ships..' message.
I was using a Mobile base ship without a jumpdrive and there was no way to get there in time to rescue it.

[Cougar81]

I may have to put a couple of springblossoms on patrol there. i assume the only possible threats would be fighter sized.

[N4N]

once you broken the main asteroids one time, do you need to continue broken the rocks into even smaller pieces or no need to?

Also do you need to go to sector some times to broken nvidium asteroids again?

[EnderIII]

lol, such a long way to do it. Just get them to dock at the boron equipment dock. Even those that cant fit will sit next to the equipment dock. It is right next to the nividium at 0,0,1.5 anyway - so then you just have to tell each to collect the rocks. Quicker than directing them to the nav sat . Also, the docking command can be sent to ALL ships at once

Doesn't work on mine, when I send them to the equipment dock, they scoop up ore instead.

[CaptainRAVE]

lol, such a long way to do it. Just get them to dock at the boron equipment dock. Even those that cant fit will sit next to the equipment dock. It is right next to the nividium at 0,0,1.5 anyway - so then you just have to tell each to collect the rocks. Quicker than directing them to the nav sat . Also, the docking command can be sent to ALL ships at once

Doesn't work on mine, when I send them to the equipment dock, they scoop up ore instead.

That just means you/or another ship has broken up an asteroid with ore in it. OR you have broken up the wrong nvidium rocks i.e. too far away.

[CaptainRAVE]

once you broken the main asteroids one time, do you need to continue broken the rocks into even smaller pieces or no need to?

Also do you need to go to sector some times to broken nvidium asteroids again?

No, break them up once - a single missile works well on each rock.

DO NOT EVER GO BACK TO THE SECTOR!

[robot297]

Kudo's the the original poster. And Thank goodness I read, don't go back into the sector until you're done, haha. Starting this process out was a little slow but after I filled up my first Mercury and bought like...10 more fully fitted the income is coming in a lot faster.

Wasn't sure if this has been answered or not, I know the Mercury is the cheapest freighter to buy, but could I also use the Dolphin (knowing the ROI won't be as much). Will it have a significant impact as to how much I'll make? Thanks!

[AgamemnonArgon]

Use any TS that can carry an Ore Collector. I am using a mixture of around twenty Mercury and Mercury Superfreighters, and a few Elephants also with Ore Collectors. Then jump the - full of Ore - Elephant to any shipyard, buy several cheap TS, load them up with Ore, then sell them to the shipyard. A full Elephant should carry around seventy to eighty million worth of Ore to the shipyard for you.

[EnderIII]

That just means you/or another ship has broken up an asteroid with ore in it. OR you have broken up the wrong nvidium rocks i.e. too far away.

Yea I think I ran into one.

I wonder if I can send a TM to the point and order everything to dock at it?

Sure TS can't dock there, but I wonder if the order will make them approach it.

I guess I could always go capture an Aran. But I am not a fan of missle boats.

[WildAce]

once you broken the main asteroids one time, do you need to continue broken the rocks into even smaller pieces or no need to?

Also do you need to go to sector some times to broken nvidium asteroids again?

No, break them up once - a single missile works well on each rock.

DO NOT EVER GO BACK TO THE SECTOR!

you can safely go back the sector as i did, but only do it when your collectors are Full.

i had to return to the sector for one of the plot missions and just did it when they were full and not collecting rocks then i left sector offloaded them and had them get back to work.

[Yllidor]

Well, it took three tries (for me) and reading this entire thread (which pointed out the mistakes I made the first couple of times), but now I seem to have a working Nividium mining operation.

Kind of dull work, but I'll keep it going for a while to accumulate some capital and then get back to other matters.

Thanks to the original poster, and those who took the time and trouble to post subsequently.

[AjRyder]

The technique does scale if you go to other sectors and use the other clusters out there. FWIW on each cluster I have one TL and about 10 TS ships centred around a nav sat collecting full speed. I've got:

Spoiler

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Two in Queen's space, one in Kingdom's End (although there are two clusters) and one in Seizewell (I am pirating Split ships, sending them through there to get a load of nividium before selling them on)

I've found that the ore collector is the kicker - a tenth the price of the ship. It is easier to (after a few loads) buy a TL with a transporter device, use that to store up the nividium from the miners and then dock that every now and then and fill hulks with it. The most efficient ships to do this with are Mercury Haulers, after that the basic model Mercs/Demeters and so on are the best.

To the query abotu selling it: to sell the stuff just sell the ship - you get about 6M for a fully loaded Mercury that cost under 300K to buy.

M

Could you give me the cords for the one in Seizewell thanks

[AjRyder]

I put my Sat right next to the Nvidim and have just sent 30 ships there!!!

They are all collecting the same thing and it looks like they are all on top of each other

Ok I have gone a bit OTT with this now, I have 50 ships collecting as we speak and another wave of 40 to go in as soon as they have loaded up. It only takes about an hour of game play for each ship to fully load up, on SETA

[Bill Huntington]

AJ Ryder, you can save keystrokes and credits by having the collectors just collect in the Niv field. Then have a TL next to them. The TL transfers Niv occasionally, and then the TL goes to nearest shipyard.

At the shipyard, create 20 of the cheapest TS without any improvements. (This saves $). Transfer Niv to the TS. Then sell all the full TS. Any leftover TS will be there for the next run. Then the TL returns to Niv field.

You mentioned 50 gathering. I think there is no limit. My personal limit was 20. One thing - always keep one gathering TS in the Niv field or respawn will stop.

Any ship that can mount an Ore Collector can collect Niv, including TS, TL, M6, M7. They all gather at about the same rate. You can sent all your extra ships if you want. I wanted to keep my visits to a minimum, so I sent Mistral Super Freighters (without extra Cargo bay, to save $). I created them 10 at a time, and sent 20 to the Niv field.

I hope this helps.