Mining seems like there's nothing to advance in

Vas · Post by **Vas** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:16 pm

I only started the game today and it seems like I've already advanced as far as possible in mining. I seem to have the maximum cargohold of 5 cargos 25 each. Which well, kinda sucks. Being only able to upgrade to a maximum of 125 units of anything total is not really that great. I see no mention of a mining / tractor beam x2 or anything upgraded. Being right up there directly next to the asteroid sucks, I barely touched it going 36 and exploded in an instant with level 5 shields! I figured i'd ask if mining really is just a pointless piece of the game or if you can upgrade yoru cargo and mining lasers more than what I've discovered so far.

Also, I can't figure out how to lock on to the asteroid to tell me how much longer it will take to mine it dry. I'm doing the mission that says I'm supposed to mine 20 asteroids, but the only way I was able to get rid of any was to blast them to bits where I tried mining one and it was taking forever even with upgraded capacity to apparent max. How do I tell how long is left mining one asteroid? Or is that even possible?

49rTbird · Post by **49rTbird** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:28 pm

Hi Vas, the mission says to clear 20 asteroids so yes you have to blow them up. An asteroid will "NEVER" run out of material by mining it (not at this time anyway) so don't feel bad about not being able to mine it to death. The reason for mining IMHO is to let the player build up enough money to upgrade the ship and equipment to be able to do other more dangerous things.

Welcome to the forum and the Sim. Have fun and hope to see you in "Multi-Player" sometime.

[Edited on 4-26-2012 by thetiebers]

Post by **Marvin** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 5:37 pm

What T-Bird says is correct. When either shooting at asteroids or mining them, you need to get close enough for the cannon (about 500km) or tractor/mining beam (about 50km) to cause the asteroid to "sparkle" (erupting into small balls of fire). Personally, I begin firing/using the beam from a distance and then creep up on the asteroid 'till it starts to sparkle. As for mining, it's the easiest way to make enough money to upgrade your ship.

Post by **DaveK** » Thu Apr 26, 2012 8:41 pm

Welcome to the game!

You can also mine planet rings and moons and planets (atmosphere, oceans and land)

I think you can mine nebulae as wll. If you have a fuel processor you can use your tractor beam to turn nebulae material and star atmosphere into fuel

There is the puzzle to solve with mining of finding the best places to sell your materials. You can also take certain materials to constructor stations and turn them into much more valuable items

When you are mining an asteroid keep the beam moving around and you mine quicker

Vas · Post by **Vas** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 2:54 am

But there is no mining upgrades and your maximum cargo is "5 cargoholds" with 25 max each?

In EVE I am a miner and industrialist. I usually fit my ships with mining upgrade lasers or expanded cargoholds to carry a lot at once or mine faster. This doesn't seem possible in the game. Shouldn't you have asteroids deplete over time and different mining equipment? Maybe make mining effect the prices of items in the surrounding markets when you sell the ore?

I don't understand why you have to be within 160 of the asteroid to mine it and 600 to shoot it. If your weapons have greater range you shouldn't need to be that far, and having to be directly up next to stuff can get bothersome especially if you just barely touch it and explode. I think that should be fixed, if you just barely touch an asteroid, it should take away shield strength and hull, not immediately blow you up. It's like blowing up in real life if your car barely touches a brick wall. I'm sure the ship shield and hull can't be so weak they explode if they get touched by a rock.

Edit: Also, how do you send distress calls? I ran out of fuel once and just ended up floating endlessly through space till I smacked into a planet 3 hours later.

Would be nice to send a fuel related distress call and an attack related distress call.

Still in single player for now testing things out. My friend tried the demo but it keeps crashing on his PC, had hoped to get all my friends interested cause it is a nice game at least till I saw mining was a pointless part of the game.

I'll have to keep trying things to see if it gets any better. You can't force industrialists to enjoy games where industry is a moot point.

[Edited on 4-27-2012 by Vas]

MiaZ · Post by **MiaZ** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 3:07 am

You should be able to gently bump the asteroid without exploding.
Do you have a shield boost installed?

There are some other mining beams, specialized beams that pickup only plat or gold etc.
Also the mining probe can be used.
in SP can hire wingman to mine.

Mining is good way to get some starter money in the bank.
A faster way to big money however in not in mining but trading

Vas · Post by **Vas** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 5:55 am

Well I had the shield boost 2 installed and I had upgraded cargo and shield in the ship yard as well to the 5th item in both. I keep dieing cause I accidentally pressed F2 and jetted myself directly into an asteroid from 80 from it >.> On top of that when i die I restart from the beginning and lose everything. :/

Where are the specialized beams anyway?

MiaZ · Post by **MiaZ** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 6:33 am

Accidentally pressed F2 is something we have all done. I suggest remapping the F2 "jump" it to a different key.
You should quick save a lot to avoid having to go back to the beginning and lose everything.
Accidents happen and quicksave is your best friend in these cases.

I believe Vega system is where I first found the specialized beams.
They are most likely available in other systems.
In the multi play servers there are likely to be available in more places too as players can boost Tech level with support stations.

[Edited on 4-27-2012 by MiaZ]

SeeJay · Post by **SeeJay** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 7:04 am

Hi and welcome Vas.

Pearl always delivers when you need special items;)

Maarschalk · Post by **Maarschalk** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 12:56 pm

Hi Vas, Welcome to the game and forum!.....Hope to see you out there some time!.....

Vas · Post by **Vas** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 5:03 pm

This game seems to lack the things I need in order to plot courses, like nav points and safe warps. I click on a planet to warp near it and warped into the center of it. I warp to far away from stations even when I click spot on. I can't see gate names in the F1 map when I'm trying to find out where they go unless I zoom in all the way, and use the map arrows to go looking for them, have to count out how many blocks this way then that way I have to go just to read one gate name. Gonna take me forever to figure out how to get to Vega, and a lot of information isn't around at all. Like where I can get a Constructor.

Would there be any sort of wiki with easy to access informaton? Freelancer has a wiki made by one server owner and his team.
http://wiki.discovery-usa.com/index.php?title=Main_Page
Equipment all nicely organized into categories for newbies to easily find the stuff they are looking for and set goals:
http://wiki.discovery-usa.com/index.php ... _Equipment

http://mercenary.junholt.se/ is a nice map but it lags and seems to have some broken scripts to it at times. It doesn't help me a lot right now while I try to find the stuff I'm looking for.

Post by **Vice** » Fri Apr 27, 2012 5:05 pm

One key step to keep in mind that will help with your description is right clicking. Right click on station icons to plot a jump/waypoint directly to their locations. When you zoom out on the nav map, right click on the nearby sector you want to zoom in on. Edit: Also, this video may help further: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hwGOJxYUCoM

[Edited on 4-27-2012 by Vice]

Gelda · Post by **Gelda** » Sat Apr 28, 2012 11:55 pm

I'm another miner, and yes I played Eve online and did mining and Industry to make my way in that game.
Every space sim ive played I do as mining so i can earn cash doing that first. Yes I save everytime I get to stn had a instantce where I was in planet atmo and tried to warp and boom lost ship. Had to start over from nearly scratch so yes i save often.

Sven2157 · Post by **Sven2157** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 12:24 am

From post: 136035, Topic: tid=9235, author=Gelda wrote:I'm another miner, and yes I played Eve online and did mining and Industry to make my way in that game.
Every space sim ive played I do as mining so i can earn cash doing that first. Yes I save everytime I get to stn had a instantce where I was in planet atmo and tried to warp and boom lost ship. Had to start over from nearly scratch so yes i save often.

As suggested, you may want to remap that F2 key. Also, remember that unlike Eve, you can descend to the planets, and planets have atmospheres. You have to slow to under ~1400mps when going down to the surface, and wait until your Ship's AI tells you she is switching to Space Mode, then you can safely Jump!

Vas · Post by **Vas** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 7:33 am

I think it's silly calling it miles per second when you aren't actually going that fast. Should be called meters per second, otherwise things would be a lot faster.

I noticed that if you turn IDS off while on a planet, you slow down even if you are heading straight down into the planet.

I also noticed that Gravity is 0 when you are just barely far from the planet. No where in space is gravity a 0. In EVE you may not be able to land on planets but it does use realistic size of space and speed messurements. Just doesn't have Newtonian physics. This game almost has it, just not totally.

I guess if you did have total physics it wouldn't really be a game anymore cause you'd have to be in NASA to navigate anywhere in the game.

Then again you could equip advanced IDS to enable hover mode and orbit patterns. Advanced IDS would be a nice thing to see in the game, to allow new things like telling your ship to hover at a certain altitude on a planet. You do kinda hover when you land cause you don't see the texture of landing on the planet. :/ Kinda weird seeing your ships engines off in 3rd person view floating above the ground when you mine.

I sent the game demo to my friend when the game was 50% off on steam but for some reason he can't play it unless it's on it's lowest graphics, it kept crashing saying it could not find images. Is there any way to help him and give him a coupon thing for it again once he can try it out fully?

49rTbird · Post by **49rTbird** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 2:41 pm

Hi Vas, your friends computer may have a lot going on in the background that eats up needed memory ( I had this problem ) you can have them search the forum for answers to the problem that the computer has or post themselves with request for help. Good luck and hope to C your Friend in the game.

Post by **DaveK** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 3:24 pm

From post: 135755, Topic: tid=9235, author=Vas wrote:
Would be nice to send a fuel related distress call and an attack related distress call.

[Edited on 4-27-2012 by Vas]

Hop onto MP - find a server with some pilots and ask for help

Post by **DaveK** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 3:43 pm

From post: 136067, Topic: tid=9235, author=Vas wrote:I think it's silly calling it miles per second when you aren't actually going that fast. Should be called meters per second, otherwise things would be a lot faster.

Have a look @ http://www.starwraith.com/forum/viewtop ... #pid127801 for a detailed discussion

speed is measured in metres/sec; distance coordinates is measure in Decametres (1 Dm = 10 metres)

So I sector = 200 000 Decametres = 2 000 000 metres = 2 000 km

Post by **Marvin** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 4:24 pm

Meters, miles, yards, leagues, parsecs, AUs, etc. ... all are Earth-oriented systems of measurement. Which is why I always think in terms of sectors per second/minute/hours ... 'cause we are dealing with at least one foreign, non-human species. And maybe more. What care they for Earth measurements?

Post by **DaveK** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 7:24 am

good point!

Vas · Post by **Vas** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 10:03 am

So what if we use earth related measurements of speed and distance. Miles is an inaccurate measurement for space. I don't even think US space pilots use miles as a measurement in space. Anyhow, there is plenty missing from the game that I find necessary for space games. I'll have to compile a list later on though, I don't think many of my ideas will be taken in