remote mining

[Baron Munchausen]

Originally posted by Ruatha:
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?

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.

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

[capnq]

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.

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.

[Suicide Junkie]

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

[Gandalph]

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 ]

[eorg]

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

[Ragnarok]

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.

[DirectorTsaarx]

Originally posted by Ragnarok:
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.

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.