Setup
I recommend using an Ozias if you can get one. It will help greatly. There is an expensive setup, and a somewhat not terribly expensive setup. The most expensive uses Owl Miners from PTNI Headquarters Beta. The mining variants of the Caiman and Vulture are efficient as well. And less expensive. (Considerably)
Mining Fleet
Ozias and 10 mining capable TS class ships. Armoured TS are fine as well. You can push 12 if you wish, but I keep those slots reserved for a fuel tanker and runner.
Equipment Recommended: Transporter Device on TL. Mining Command Software on all mining TS ships.
The Transporter Device is very much important for efficiency. If you keep the TL near the mining fleet, it can pull the ore as they mine.
Great Solo Miner: Argon Consus - Great mining ship, but you need to give it a mining command software (Above referenced sector PTNI beta).
All TS can utilize the collect rocks with Special Command Software, but they have to be near the miners to use it. Cumbersome, but can be done. And don't forget to get them ore collectors.
Also great solo miner: Mobile Mining Base Ship (Terran TL)
Extra equipment recommended for your runner;
- Jump Drive (for obvious reasons)
- Best Selling Price Locater (for viewing where the nearest order is.)
- Places to find Nividium -
These have to be in spoiler tags, sorry.
Spoiler
Show
This first group as asteroids you can mine.
The Void Alpha (And Theta / Eta? The 2 you pass through at the start)
Holy Vision epsilon and alpha
Perpetual Sin
Unclaimed Sector (This is near Getsu Fune)
Brennan's Triumph (all but the Terran sector)
You can find nice quantities in the debris field here. Just use a survey debris command from a scout to find it quickly. In truth, the miners will find it on there own.
The randomly chosen/discoverable sectors for your playthrough have it as well, but these "do not" respawn once mined out. The rest all do.
Unknown Enemy Sector and Sanctuary of Darkness
You can mine these out as well before they activate. Connect the hub to there gates to access them. Once you claim a Hyperspeed Access Point, then I wouldn't recommend it after this point.
The Void Alpha (And Theta / Eta? The 2 you pass through at the start)
Holy Vision epsilon and alpha
Perpetual Sin
Unclaimed Sector (This is near Getsu Fune)
Brennan's Triumph (all but the Terran sector)
You can find nice quantities in the debris field here. Just use a survey debris command from a scout to find it quickly. In truth, the miners will find it on there own.
The randomly chosen/discoverable sectors for your playthrough have it as well, but these "do not" respawn once mined out. The rest all do.
Unknown Enemy Sector and Sanctuary of Darkness
You can mine these out as well before they activate. Connect the hub to there gates to access them. Once you claim a Hyperspeed Access Point, then I wouldn't recommend it after this point.
- Selling Nividium -
There are 2 methods that you can use to accomplish this. Both utilize the Spacelab Headquarters, but one sells it directly while the other manipulates the barter system. The second is 50% more profitable if done correctly.
1. To sell directly from the Spacelab, simply set it's price to slightly less than average price. NPCs will show up and clean you out eventually. I recommend setting the ware type to product to avoid them selling back immediately, but you can use tradeable as well. I've had it happen to me a few times where they sold back almost right away.
2. To sell via barter system is slightly trickier. You need to have a supply of it on hand at the Spacelab Headquarters. Set it to product. "do not" let npc's dock to purchase it. Turn the allow others to trade with station switch off. Otherwise when you get cleaned out the buy orders will vanish almost instantly.
Manipulating the barter systems can be tricky. Firstly, don't overload the Spacelab with Nividium. Have a healthy amount, but not extreme. Try between 3k and 7k. This influences the barter price. It works similar to the selling price at NPC stations. Have too much and prices go very low, too little and it maxes it's price. But below an unknown threshold and all buy order become 1 unit of Nividium. What you actually want to do is have enough that orders from 300 units to 3000 units get generated. Also selling at the highest price. The price range is between 8k and 24k for Nividium. Average being 16k.
The prices and quantities can bug sometimes. So resetting things may help. Remove all nividium from the Spacelab and letting it reset for a little while.
For the selling protion; use your runner to run the supply from the mining groups to different npc stations around the Spacelab. I usually start with the nearest Trading Dock. Open barter and scroll down looking for merchants wanting to buy. Then sell them out. Next> Open the best selling merchants tab and look for one showing Nividium listing a quantity price. It will save none found in red if none left in system. But these should cycle as you go between stations. And be mindful a buy order can vanish while your ship is transiting there.
Trade Rank- This impacts the quantity requested by the merchants. The better your rank, the better the quantities to be requested. The game will raise the needed rep with this as well for the race requesting the trade.
The range from the Spacelab Headquarters> 3 sector distance influence. All NPC merchants within a range of 3 jumps out will be influenced.
Also, the ore you are selling is the stuff being actively mined. Not the stuff stored at the Spacelab.
Warning: Put an Advanced Satellite in the unclaimed sector next to Getsu Fune. Xenon "can" enter there and attack your miners. So for that reason keep a jump drive on them as well with a small amount of energy cells for a just in case of emergency. Or keep a destroyer on the gate with frigate escorts.
