Robo miners/Remote Mining maintenance Reduction

[Tarkin]

I was curios if anyone has come out with a practical reduction in maintenance cost to make robo miners/ remote mining more cost effective. I am too new to this game to just make a random guess and would like the advice from this board's veterans on an appropriate reduction figure that will not throw the game off balance.

I have researched past threads on this subject but have not seen any figures mentioned.

Tarkin


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Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their Chances!

[Suicide Junkie]

Have you tried making a special hull?

eg. Base Station, with -80% maintenance, but requires 75% spaces devoted to Resource extractors?

[Baron Munchausen]

The best approach in the default configuration of the game is to build bases full of remote miners over the planets you want to mine. Bases have 1/2 the maintenance cost of ships, so you can get a 'profit' much more easily with a base than a ship. Look for planets with moons, btw. ALL unoccupied planets in a sector are mined by the remote miners. So, of you have 3 planets with a total of 250 percent mineral value, you'll get 250 percent return from your miners.

[Tarkin]

Thanks for the response. This is a really helpful community. The best I have ever seen.

What I am really looking to do is reduce the maintenance cost. I like the base idea but ships should also be able to perform this function as I see it.

Also I am not much of a tech wizard when it comes to adding new features such as new hull types. So I am opting for an easier solution.

I will experiment with different cost reductions to see how it effects the game. I just thought someone from the forum may have already researched this method and had a few suggestions.

Thank you

Tarkin

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Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their Chances!

[Baron Munchausen]

Now, if you are talking about MODS, then you could do what I did. Give transport hulls a reduced maintenance cost, too. My transports get a -25 percent maintenance adjustment. Then, give remote mining components an extra ability of cargo storage. Just the ability, no capacity (set it to 0). This lets you put remote mining components in transport hulls and they count towards the cargo storage requirement. Put as many as possible in the hull, and as little of anything else as possible (to save maintenanc cost). There ya go. Remote mining SHIPS with less maintenance cost. They can turn a profit, just not as much as a base.

[Tarkin]

Baron,

Would you mind showing me an example of just how to do that and I'll give it a spin.

Thanks

Tarkin

[Baron Munchausen]

Add the Cargo ability to all of your remote mining components, like this:


Name := Robo-Miners I
Description := Robotic machinery which can mine asteroids or empty planets remotely, but this will decrease their value permanently. Only one ship at a time can use remote extraction in a sector.
Pic Num := 243
Tonnage Space Taken := 100
Tonnage Structure := 100
Cost Minerals := 800
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 200
Vehicle Type := Ship\Base\Sat
Supply Amount Used := 100
Restrictions := None
General Group := Remote Mining
Family := 30
Roman Numeral := 1
Custom Group := 0
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Minerals Extraction
Tech Level Req 1 := 1
Number of Abilities := 2
Ability 1 Type := Remote Resource Generation - Minerals
Ability 1 Descr := Automatically mines 600 minerals from any asteroids or empty planets in the sector each turn.
Ability 1 Val 1 := 600
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Ability 2 Type := Cargo Storage
Ability 2 Descr := Can be used in place of cargo capacity in a transport.
Ability 2 Val 1 := 0
Ability 2 Val 2 := 0
Weapon Type := None

Then give your transport hulls a reduced maintenance ability like bases have:

Name := Small Transport
Short Name := Small Transport
Description :=
Code := ST
Bitmap Name := TransportSmall
Vehicle Type := Ship
Tonnage := 300
Cost Minerals := 100
Cost Organics := 0
Cost Radioactives := 0
Engines Per Move := 1
Number of Tech Req := 1
Tech Area Req 1 := Ship Construction
Tech Level Req 1 := 1
Number of Abilities := 1
Ability 1 Type := Modified Maintenance Cost
Ability 1 Descr := Reduced performance requirements allow for 25 percent lower maintenance costs than a warship.
Ability 1 Val 1 := -25
Ability 1 Val 2 := 0
Requirement Must Have Bridge := True
Requirement Can Have Aux Con := True
Requirement Min Life Support := 1
Requirement Min Crew Quarters := 1
Requirement Uses Engines := True
Requirement Max Engines := 5
Requirement Min Engines := 1
Requirement Pct Fighter Bays := 0
Requirement Pct Colony Mods := 0
Requirement Pct Cargo := 50

[Codo]

For my mod, I am making 3 hull types specifically intended for remote mining. The small prospector has enough space for bridge, crew, life support, 1 robo-whatever, and 20kT extra (intended for supply storage). The medium has enough room for 2 robos, and the large has room for 3 robos. All three have -75% maintenance. What's to prevent them from being used as warships? They only have 2 engines, they are 75% easier to hit in combat (Slow and bulky...) and weapons fire from them is at -75%. Now honestly, I wish the Requirement X Type system from the vehicle sizes was working as advertised. Then it would just be easy to rig the hull to require x% hull space for remote mining...But until someone can tell me how to make this work, I think this is a great way to make a cost effective vessel for mining, but to discourage its use as a combat vessel...


WOO-HOO! It appears that this particular post has granted me my promotion! After long wondering how many Posts it would take me...I've made Corporal!

Codo


[This message has been edited by Codo (edited 10 March 2001).]

[Tarkin]

Baron,

Thank you for taking the time to work this out for me. However as I knew once I started messing with my data files I would screw something up. I followed your directions and when I tried to give it a test run I came up with multiple data file errors based upon the changes I made. I am sure I missed something or did something wrong. I think I will sit back and wait for a mod that might accomplish this. But I thank you for your efforts.

Codo,

I am glad I can help in your promotion:-) I think your mod idea sounds very interesting and look forward to you finishing it!

Thank you

Tarkin

[This message has been edited by Tarkin (edited 10 March 2001).]

[Hal01]

I usually wait untill I have a base ship and load it up with miners. This is the ship that will maximize output vs maintenance. I have found that I can even mine asteriods with this ship and still make a profit.