remote mining
 

gandalf i will try your idea in my next game :-) let's see what people think http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

question: how frequently you use REMOTE MINING in your MULTIPLAYER games

Re: remote mining
 

Well I voted Never, but I do have some remote miners in the construction queue in some of my PBW games right now. So my vote will soon change to "I've tried it" http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: remote mining
 

I haven't played alot of PBW games but in the ones I have I use remote miners early on to get some extra minerals esp. around planets with moons...good bonus there. The only thing I dislike is they use lots of supplies so you have to remember to replenish them often or use solar collectors.

Re: remote mining
 

As I said over in the FAQ thread, now that asteroids can have resource values up to 300%, I plan to use remote mining more often. It still has drawbacks (researching up to cruisers, so you can put space yards on a ship, researching base stations/starbases and/or better remote mining components); but it may be faster to build a remote mining base in an asteroid system than it is to set up a new colony. And the asteroid systems are likely to have 2x the resource value. Not to mention the fact that if you colonize a non-breathable atmosphere planet you can't put many mining facilities on it.

I'd also guess that if you use the "colonize only breathable" and/or "colonize only home planet type" options, remote mining becomes even more important...

Re: remote mining
 

My vote will change soon too, but that's only because I'm playing a nomadic race in one of the games. I abhor the ecological damage that remote miners do; its almost as bad as the xenocidal glassing of planets, but easier to avoid.

Note: I have settings.txt set for a 30% loss when a planet is glassed, so you can imagine how much worse I feel about remote mining in the standard game.
!!!Remote mining for a year is as bad as glassing the planet, people http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif !!!

Re: remote mining
 

When you remote mine the values for the planet/asteroids are "degraded".
I suppose that means that the up to 300% rate will slowly drop?
Will it reach zero?
In that case, if I have built a starbase at the asteroids it will continue to require maintnance, Can I destroy it without a self-destruction unit on it?

[ May 15, 2002, 21:39: Message edited by: Ruatha ]

Re: remote mining
 

It's Not that hard to mine, SATs have 0 maintenance, infinate fuel, and can be moved. You will need to research larger SATs http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

quote from another thread:
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However, there is apparently a restriction against having more than one ship with mining components working in the same sector, even if they have different kinds of comps.
To sum up:

Three large sats each with different comps can mine the same sector. Additional sats of any type get nothing.

One ship (and I am assuming base here too, it would take too long to test that) only can mine per sector, regardless of types of mining components onboard. But you can put as many mining comps as will fit on that one ship and get all the resources from them.

Geoschmo
_________________________________________________

SATS Happen

Re: remote mining
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">As for so many things there is a control in SETTINGS.TXT for whether remote mining reduces the value of asteroids and planets. If you do not change this from the default, then yes remote mining will reduce the vlaue of either an asteroid field or any uninhabited planets in the sector. I think value can still reach zero but it might have a 'safety' limit of 1 percent now to make restoration possible with planetary resource enrichment facilities. If your mining base/ship doesn't have a self-destruct component you'll have to send a spaceyard ship to scrap it. Or at least a frigate with some weapons to fire on it. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ May 16, 2002, 00:09: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]

Re: remote mining
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">The commands to scrap or fire on your own ships are on the Scrap/Analyze/Recycle(/Retrofit) window (hotkey G). I think self-destruct is triggered with Use Component (ctrl-Z), just like a Resupply Pod, but I'm not certain about that.

Re: remote mining
 

Self-destruct is in the scrap/retrofit/etc window.

Re: remote mining
 

OK, here are some numbers from a game I am currently playing. It is now turn #58. I have three robo-mineral bases with 4 level one robo-min comps.
MTCE=881min 87org 100rad Prod=5880min

I also have a rad base with 4 level 1 robo-rads.
MTCE=631min 87org 125rad Prod=4998rads

I don't know how this can not be seen as profitable. I did no additional research for this, just normal ship size increases. Once I get a battle station and higher levels of robo's, the numbers get astronomical. I have seen as much as 35kt of resources coming from one base.

EDIT: It allows me to finance a very large fleet without having a lot of planets.

[ May 16, 2002, 04:22: Message edited by: Gandalph ]

Re: remote mining
 

how much is the cost of one base and how long it mines before value drops to non-profitable rates?

Re: remote mining
 

When I play I put Baseships on the astroids with 4 min miners, 3 farm miners, and 4 rad miners. The result is I make at least 8K in min per turn, at least 6K in farm per turn and at least 5K in rad per turn. The maintance on a Baseship is 2592 min - 140 Farm - 451 rad. So for me it's very profitable. Now only time it don't become profitable is when one of the %'s drop down to around 40% or lower. I've got on that's producing 218% min - 218% farm - and only 33% rad. I'm making alot off the min and farm but the rad I'm only making 500 per turn now. So pretty soon I might have to scrap that one and put a miner on it with only farm and min miners on it. Oh BTW, the % drops by 1 for every turn taken. So if you have a astroid that is say 250% in all 3 areas. Then I'm guessing you have about 20 years before you start losing money on it. That's just my 2 cents.

Re: remote mining
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Your math sounds about right... and don't forget, people, that 20 years is 200 turns.

To answer Georgi's question of how quickly you mine enough mins/orgs/rads to pay for the base; with a good enough asteroid field, it should be very fast. In Gandalph's example, the first turn of mining pretty much paid for the mining base.

One Last point - I usually run such a surplus of orgs and rads off planetary production that I don't really care about the org/rad maintenance numbers on the remote mining bases. When you already produce thousands of kT more than you can use (or store), who cares what the maintenance cost is? So I usually just use the mining bases for minerals.

Re: remote mining
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Oh... an important point... so a base would really be better than a mining SAT.

Is that 1% only for the (one) resource being mined?

Re: remote mining
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">AFAIK, yes.

Re: remote mining
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Unless, of course, you play one of the many mods that alters the costs and makes radioactives much more important, and increases the importance of even organics. P&N is one such mod, as is mine, Derek's Mod Gold. Try one of those, and it really changes your perspective on which planets and asteroid fields are important, and which aren't... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Derek