mining options

[Daehawk]

is it possible if I find a mineral rich planet but cant colonize it, can I remote mine it some way?

[Daehawk]

hey thnx a bunch..sounds like the best thing to do is if I cant colonize it to just wait till I can and guard it with something till i then.

[Taqwus]

Anybody try the latest patch with the new options limiting colonization? Perhaps one could do some damage via remote-mining planets that you can't (ever) colonize, but your opponents can... drain their potential resources with satellites, or ships if you're feeling extravagant (or are maintenance-free...).

If it works when cloaked, so much the better. ;-)

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-- The thing that goes bump in the night

[raynor]

Yes, you can remote mine planets and asteroids. You either need to build a ship with Robo - Miners on it and send it to the sector where the planet is. Or, you can build a base with Robo Miners in the sector with the planet. Or, you can build a satellite and place in orbit around the planet.

In my games, I never, ever build remote miners. Most of the time, it seems the maintenance cost of the ship/base exceeds what you get from mining. But mostly, I know that within a matter of turns I will be able to colonize the world and get an endless flow of many, many more minerals from the world. Remote mining *permanently* reduces the value of the planet. So, you get the minerals sooner. But you get less of them, and they don't Last as many turns.

A quick addendum: Only one ship, base or satellite can mine a world at once. It takes at least a large satellite to fit a Robo Miner. By the time you have researched large satellites, you will probably have the ability to colonize the planet. It takes at least a frigate sized ship to fit just one remote miner. If the world is fairly rich, you should make a profit for at least thirty turns that way. But your best bet is to build s space station with four Robo Miners around the world.

Just did a quick experiment. If the sector has moons as well as a planet, your remote mining base will mine everything in the sector. Unfortunately, it also reduces the value of both of them every turn as well. The planet was 143% minerals, and the moon was 80% minerals. Added together, this is 223% minerals. With a base station and 4 miners, I was getting 5352 minerals initially. But this slowly went down until 107 turns later, the maintenance on the base was more than the minerals coming in because both the planet and the moon's mineral percentages had gone down by so much.

I then built a base station with four Robo Miners in orbit around a planet with 122% minerals. I was able to mine this planet for 86 turns before it stopped giving enough minerals to be worthwhile.



[This message has been edited by raynor (edited 28 February 2001).]