DontCamp.com

[DogShxtTaco]

I've been dabbling in mining recently, and now that I feel like I've got a good handle on it I figured I'd leave my thoughts on it here and get my focus back on combat for a while.

First off, mining can be pretty lucrative. I went out today with a Type-6, found a bunch of Palladium and Painite, and with 64 tons of cargo space, made around 800k in 30 minutes of gameplay. The trick, of course, is finding space boulders with Painite and Palladium in them.

What seems to be the best is a Hazardous RES in a metallic ring with pristine reserves. While the system map doesn't show you where the RES are, it does show you planets with rings, what type the ring is (Icy, Rocky, Metal-Rich, Metallic), and how bountiful the ring is (Pristine or GTFO). You can't mine Icy reserves (yet?), Rocky reserves are primarily minerals, Metal-rich is a blend, and Metallic is what you want, because metal = money.

To that, I revisited Delkar 7, which at the moment has a Hazardous RES in its rings. I jumped into the RES, and started flying away from the nav point (farther out than 30km). The farther away you are from the nav point, the less likely you are to see pirates. Past 30km, you'll see none. I expect that you can drop out anywhere along the ring and can completely ignore the RES and still get the same mining yields, but haven't checked.

Upon arrival, I get my ship into the ring plane and drive toward the planet. While mining, I tend to keep the same orientation and always face the planet, so that it's reasonably simple to keep moving in the same direction. That way, you don't find yourself revisiting asteroids; just keep flying toward the planet and leave the "used" roids behind you.

For a loadout, you need mining lasers, a refinery, a prospector limpet controller, and collector limpet controllers. Shields are optional, but recommended, and the rest of your compartments should be devoted to cargo. I leave the station with my cargo hold half-full of limpets.

Once you enter the RES and find a safe spot, start launching prospector limpets at asteroids. The number of controllers you can have out simultaneously is limited depending on the quality of your controller, so keep that number in mind when launching prospectors. After launching, target the prospector. When it hits an asteroid, its targeting information will be updated with the amount of ore in the asteroid. In addition hitting an asteroid with a prospector limpet doubles that asteroid's yield. This is where some decision making comes in...

If all you see in the asteroid is minerals (ends in "-ite"), and none of it is Painite, move on. That's all Crapite. If you do see Painite, mine that shit, because it's the most valuable per-ton mineable material in the game.

Prospect another rock. If you see some metallic stuff (Silver, Gold, Platinum, other stuff that ends in -ium), you again have a decision to make.

I use the metal chart here for reference:
http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Miner#Values

If I don't see Osmium or better, I move on. Even that is probably a little too liberal, and if the asteroids are putting out Palladium or Platinum, you can potentially skip out on things like Osmium or and Beryllium. Osmium is one of the mission metals, so it might be worth picking some up for a chance a few extra thousand if you manage to find a mission for picking some up.

This is a little bit of a gambling operation now, because of the limpets and how stupid collector limpets are. With half of your cargo hold being limpets, you will quickly reach a point where your cargo hold is full of mined mineral and unused limpets. Asteroids that contain good metals almost always contain crapite, too, so as you chip of the good stuff you'll pick up the shit.

If you want (and I recommend doing it), you can micro-manage your refinery and keep up with venting the crapite before you get enough to make a 1-ton canister. The refinery is on the right screen in the inventory tab. Managing this while simultaneously mining can be a bit of a pain, so at some point you'll want to start jettisoning crap.

This is where limpet stupidity becomes infuriating. Prospector limpets are cool. They go where you point them and do their job. Collector limpets are assholes when you're trying to jettison anything (abandoned or not), because like a fucking puppy they just bring it right back and put it back in your hold. As a result, some creativity is required.

On thing you can do is just fire off propector limpets. This buys you one ton of space per limpet. This take a lot of time, and leaves the crapite in your hold. My preferred solution is to turn off the collector limpet module(s), jettison all the crap, and then fly away from it until it drops off your radar so that your stupid collector limpets have no chance of fetching the jettisoned cargo.

This uses up limpets, so I prefer to kill them near their normal expiration time, which varies based on the quality of your drone controller. With my current controller, this is after mining the second asteroid, but can vary wildly.

Continue playing the limpet/laser game until your cargo hold is just about full and you run out of limpets. Then, go cash in. I tend to get good prices on metals at High-Tech stations, like George Lucas or Janes Horizons.

I was using a Type-6, but it looks like the recommended ships for mining are (in order) Cobra Mk III, Asp (Explorer), and Python. Other ships are alright, but the prevailing opinion is that buying a Type-7 for anything other than trading is like, as one forum poster put it, "like buying a self-cremating coffin". I've just now sold my Type-6, and am trying to get up a little more cash to be able to buy the Asp and kit it out for mining.

[MTLMortis]

How do I not ever see any of you guys playing E

Never tried mining, with my goatee and preference for baseball caps I prefer space trucking. Make a few mill every half hour or so.
_________________
[MTL]Mortis - "No one says you have to fight a war with your pants on..."

http://www.cultofzal.com
http://www.twitch.tv/cultofzal
http://www.youtube.com/cultofzal

[JoeSwindell]

I was just reading a EVE dudes guide on this. He suggested finding planets with rings, super cruising towards the ring and letting it pull you. He said he has been avoiding pirates a lot using this method.

[MTLMortis]

[JoeSwindell]

Stop being a cunt mortis