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

[5150]

I'd like to thank the OP for posting this, I tried it last night and it works although its far from trivial to setup and manage.

Ideally I'd like Egosoft to create a saved game convertor so I can just pickup in X3 where I left off in X/X-T/X2 (I don't have as much gaming time as I used to have) but I realise that won't happen for a multitude of reasons so a [reletively] quick cash-cow fits the bill.

I do have a couple of questions though......

1. I only blew up 2 roids, because at that point I couldnt identify which 'roids' were fragments and which were still untouched - is there an easy way to tell what is a fragment and what is a 'full' roid?

2. If you inadvertantly blow up (and thus despawn) a fragment have you broken anythnig? (presumably it wont respawn as you are in system?)

3. Do my ships collect slower having only blown up 2 roids?

4. Do you really need to blow the roids up at all for the ships to collect?

5. What happens if you don't send the ships to the location before issuing the order? (the order is just collect rocks in sector so what happens if they are anywhere in the sector?)

6. Is there anyway to issue the 'collect rocks' order to a wing? (I dont appear to be able to, I suspect the answer is no)

[Bill Huntington]

5150, you ask a number of good questions!

Let me answer what I can:

1. You can identify an unbroken regular asteroid because it is numbered. You can see what you have with a fragment by selecting it and hitting either "i" or "u".

2. At some point, you will blow up an asteroid that is already the smallest size. It is gone. But there are plenty more. Learn to identify the smallest size by looking at its size and distance.

3. If you only have one small fragment to start, that is probably enough. I usually make more though. Don't worry about faster or slower. There is plenty for every gathering ship. In my experience all the gathering types gather at about the same rate, no matter what speed or type they are. Some ships gather more than 1 item in each gathering period, so some pilots have other ships move to that position with some good results. But there is plenty without that extra effort.

4. Niv mining has different rules from Mobile Mining. In earlier versions, this is what worked. It still works now, but it might have been made easier, don't know. Anyway, this works for sure: you have to break the niv roid or fragment to the smallest size. Then you or a ship very close to you starts gathering. This establishes an active field. I usually start two ships gathering before I leave the field. The field initially is about 2 - 3 km around. That means you can go that far away without breaking the field.

Breaking the field means losing the respawn feature. The field will spawn without limit if unbroken. You have to keep a ship gathering within the field at all times, or the respawn feature is lost. You use the Gather Rocks command when the ship is in position.

Once started, you cannot use your transporter anywhere in the sector. You cannot jump in or out of the sector. At some point, you in your personal ship leave the Niv field. You cannot go back. When you leave the sector, you should not go back. (Sometimes you have to. That is a little complicated. Ask later.)

I'm not sure if you can send miners in later, and start the Niv mining later. I haven't done it that way. I'll let others explain it.

I put a Satellite marker when I have the Niv asteroids to the smallest size. I have 20 - 30 gathering ships, which stay right there. I have a TL collect when I can afford it, and that TL takes a full load to the SY. You can transfer it to the cheapest unimproved TS you can build there by the tens, and then sell the TS.

There are some other items, but this is enough to get you well into it.
Good Luck!

[5150]

Thanks for the info

[Admiral Craigie]

AAAWWEESSOOOMMEEEE I FOUND THE NIV FINALLY !!!
I would like to thank a few people for helping me and possibly a few others on our journey
Thanks to JAFA_NZ & MarvinTheMartian for posting your replies up in regards to the co-ordinates, and what Vanilla actually ment

Thanks to Mightysword, deca.death, Bill Huntington, for helping me with my scanning issues , i probably should read the manual a bit more

Thanks to Kryten for putting his post up as well :
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=263657

Search this " Rock locations for Mobile/OOS mining" in google. Thankyou to nponobeghuk for posting a Video up on YouTube about Niv mining and showing people on how to do it and also putting in that message on his video about rock locations
If anyone needs a visual guide on how to do this mining, check the vid out, it will help you if you are still unsure on how to go about it. It helped me heaps
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUXYWS3eb7I

Thanks again to all

[5150]

Just a note to the nay-sayers (and anyone thinking of trying this out)

I think I mentioned before this method is far from trivial. I'll reiterate that and add that I'm still having to buy Boron Dolphins (the SLOWEST hunk of junk in the galaxy!) in Kingdom's End and send them to Argon Prime to get an Ore Collector and then all the way back to Kingdoms End to start mining (did I mention how slow they are?) because (despite having started a brand new game) my Argon rep isn't high enough for to buy Mercury's in Argon Prime (which would save me a ton of time!)

My Argon rep does seems to be slowly climbing by selling them the Dolphins and buying the Ore Collectors from them however but I think I'm going to have to run missions or something to raise my Argon rep before I go mad!

[deca.death]

.

Just do some missions for Pete's sake. Rep is very easy to raise actually.

[Infekted]

Or

Spoiler

Show

Buy disco in Argon Prime SY, barebones. Get it CLS2. Nav1 and nothing else.
Dock it at AP EQ dock.
Start CLS2.
Waypoints - Buy up to one Mosquito missile at max price.
- Sell one (manually entered) Mosquito at min price.
Supply conditions - Collection percentage to zero.
Click start.

Just one will pump your rep up to about +5 or so very quickly. More than enough to get TS's. After a while it will get you enough to buy TLs. Although much beyond that is extremely slow. It will cost nothing, as they are bought and sold at average.

[zazie]

...that I'm still having to buy Boron Dolphins (the SLOWEST hunk of junk in the galaxy!) in Kingdom's End and send them to Argon Prime to get an Ore Collector and then all the way back to Kingdoms End to start mining ...

You might consider to do this ONCE - and never again. Your first bunch of Miners needs the Ore Collector, only one needs a Transporter Device. Let them mine forever - and send in a fleet of empty, cheap freighters from Kingdom's End SY. If the miners are well stocked, transfer the Nividium into the freighters and order them to dock again at Kingdoms End SY. Sell them.

I have a couple of Miners in Scale Plate Green mining Nividium. Those are the ships I bought as cheap second hand-ships in early game, some of them without shields and with damaged hulls. Mo worries, they mine Nividium anyway. I have always a group of Vultures queueing up at Scale Plate Green close to the Miners waiting to be filled up. When I sell the full ones in PTNI I order another Vulture-package.

[deca.death]

.

Oh I have most serious but small fully automated nV mining operation. Pepertual sin, 10 demeter miners, one demeter hauler collector, one mammoth storage and one orca which caries nV to QR, buy another orca, and sell husk with nV, 100 MIL clean, almost every day. Too easy actually.

[5150]

Thanks guys.

Ironically I hit enough Argon rep selling the subsequent wave of Dolphins (and equipping the replacement ones) shortly after posting.

I've also gone and got the transporter.

Just need to pop over to Yaki space and grab a TL as the Argon won't sell me theirs yet (although its just occured to me I haven't checked if the Boron will)

[Bill Huntington]

5150, it seems you are a newer pilot. If so, you are doing very well to have figured out what you have.

There is an Argon Equipment Dock in Three Worlds that you can buy your Ore Collectors at. You can do a Ore Collector shuttle from there to the SY in KE. Have your Dolphins wait in the SY until they are fully outfitted, then send them to the mining field. That way you can use the fastest TS or other to do the shuttle and get your mining gatherers into service as fast as possible.

With a steady income from Niv mining, you can really get into a lot of TC quickly. With 30 Niv collectors, I had enough income for the whole HUB plot.

Good Luck!

[JMCorp]

2. At some point, you will blow up an asteroid that is already the smallest size. It is gone. But there are plenty more. Learn to identify the smallest size by looking at its size and distance.

it's easier to tell if you are at the smalles rock like this:

use two phased repeater guns. shoot two volleys. if the rock doesn't break dont keep shooting it, it's collectible. a collectible rock will ALLWAYS break after one or two shots from a pair of PRG's. if you keep shooting it, it will be destroyed.



4. Niv mining has different rules from Mobile Mining. In earlier versions, this is what worked. It still works now, but it might have been made easier, don't know. Anyway, this works for sure: you have to break the niv roid or fragment to the smallest size. Then you or a ship very close to you starts gathering. This establishes an active field. I usually start two ships gathering before I leave the field. The field initially is about 2 - 3 km around. That means you can go that far away without breaking the field.

if a roid can be reduced by shooting it, it's not collectible. the more 'collectible' rocks there are the more ships can collect at once

Breaking the field means losing the respawn feature.
i have not tested this, and i'm sure smarter people than me may have tried already, but if you destroy the rocks completely, they are supposed to respawn after 3 game days. if you have destroyed a cluster, check back a few game days later and see if it's back

[5150]

5150, it seems you are a newer pilot. If so, you are doing very well to have figured out what you have.

There is an Argon Equipment Dock in Three Worlds that you can buy your Ore Collectors at. You can do a Ore Collector shuttle from there to the SY in KE. Have your Dolphins wait in the SY until they are fully outfitted, then send them to the mining field. That way you can use the fastest TS or other to do the shuttle and get your mining gatherers into service as fast as possible.

With a steady income from Niv mining, you can really get into a lot of TC quickly. With 30 Niv collectors, I had enough income for the whole HUB plot.

Good Luck!

Thanks, I've only just started playing X3 TC since getting 'A sunny place' from the Steam promotion (had it for ages but until recently didn't have a PC good enough to play it reasonably) but I've played all the others except Reunion.

Now that I'm using Mercury's the smaller cargo space is resulting in more frequent management and obviously lower sales price. I haven't checked the comparison posted earlier to see if there's a significant profit difference but I might go back to using Dolphins to save my sanity

I grabbed a transporter last night (TL still to get) but couldn't obviously see a way to move cargo with it but I'll admit I haven't spent much time on that yet so maybe it's just me

[Infekted]

If you go advanced->freight exchange with. Then you can transfer cargo anywhere withhin roughly 5km if you have a transporter. Otherwise it is greyed out unless they are docked.
Amusingly, you can even transport a transporter device this way. Transfer it using itself. Always thought that was odd.
Anyways. The whole buy ship, send it mining till full then sell it is basically the dumb way of doing it. Ok, its great in the very beginning to get some start up capitol. But once past that, it makes much more sense to have dedicated miners, that are emptied into other ships, then those are sold.
You can even achieve this automatically, using the bonus pack CLS software.

[5150]

If you go advanced->freight exchange with. Then you can transfer cargo anywhere withhin roughly 5km if you have a transporter. Otherwise it is greyed out unless they are docked.
Amusingly, you can even transport a transporter device this way. Transfer it using itself. Always thought that was odd.
Anyways. The whole buy ship, send it mining till full then sell it is basically the dumb way of doing it. Ok, its great in the very beginning to get some start up capitol. But once past that, it makes much more sense to have dedicated miners, that are emptied into other ships, then those are sold.
You can even achieve this automatically, using the bonus pack CLS software.

Ah that explains it, I was looking for a new menu or option.

So presumably you can't use it to move docked ships between carriers or between stations and carriers?

[Infekted]

No you cant trasfer ships with them, tho you can trasfer yourself into other ships with them.

[Zero12345678]

A quick question, am I correct in assuming that all of the breakable asteroids in the are of the kingdom's end that the TC mentioned are nvidium asteroids?

[deca.death]

.

Probably not, there are usually just few of them. That's why you have scanner.

[5150]

Is there a reason (and I'd imagine there is) why, once you have a TL you don't fill it from the miners and the jump tp PTNI and sell the Niv at NMMC HQ?

I've just run some rough numbers and my 16mil Dolphn's load is worth ~128mil (I shudder to think how much a TL's cargo would be worth)

Is it something simple like not being able to dock a TL there or is it more for simplicity?

[deca.death]

.

Because customers that buy nV store like ridiculously small amount of the mineral (2 or 4) and do stock it - takes some time to sell it away, they don't disappear.

Anyway for full orca you get minimum price (like half of average) and pure profit per TL sold this way is approx. 100 million. More then enough, trust me. Even with 10 miners you get like 1 ship per one-two gaming days, say approx. each 3 hours.