Mining to profitable and to easy?

[Koranis]

As I stated it in the subject, in my opinion mining activity is to lucrative, easy and accessible.

Let's take trading for example. There is a high risk with ending up with loosing money if at the destination of the trading run the market fluctuations put everything upside down and you find yourself with the cargo that has to be sold elsewhere if you want to earn enough cash to cover fuel expenses, your time, and feel any advancement in the game.

Trading is a highly "unstable" activity in this game, you have little info on the markets, the only source of info is the news which is superficial at best. You don't have a stockmarket view on the commodities that could let you take some notes, analyse etc. Other than that you have 1//3 commodities that popup whenever there's a surplus.

It is quite challenging and surely more interesting than in the most of games of this kind, but I see no point in trading. Why should I be going around the sector, checking for prices, taking notes, plan trade routes etc if it is sufficient to buy a simple mining tractor beam, go into an asteroid field, mine for 10 minutes and sell all the cargo for 1000% more profit?

After few hours of mining I had enough cash for a striker with high end equipment.

And why risking my neck in the combat missions for 50.000 (even 200.000) if I can earn 500.000 on AVERAGE in a well planned mining operation? And faster too...

I don't know if I'm the only one who feels that trading is the most difficult and the most underpaid activity here.

I think trading should be more profitable and mining either require more investment (maybe a mining computer which would cost a LOT and occupy a slot in the equipment) or simply the asteroid should not be FULL of valuable ores.

By the way, I feel there's missing something, maybe it could be put on the future TO DO list: smuggling!

Thanks for your time! What are your opinions?

[Edited on 6-21-2009 by Koranis]

[MMaggio]

A lot of players feel that mining is too slow and boring and think trading is the way to amass millions in a short time.
Some like to do contracts.
That's one of the neat features of this game. You can decide what you want to do and build the best ship for it.
But don't limit yourself just to trading among other ships! Trading from planet to planet or to station might prove to be very profitable if you find the right route.
"Smuggling" or forms of it have been mentioned in past debates. I don't think it's on the "to do" list atm.
Have fun!

[Vice]

From a previous discussion regarding profit for mining:

It's been a very long standing request from a major portion of the player base to offer mining as an effective means of making money early in the game (something they complain isn't available in many other space games that significantly devalue mining in comparison to other activities), so that's what it's designed to do. [What you might get] in an hour might sound like a lot, and early in the game, that is pretty good. But that is (slow) pocket change for what you will need to survive much farther along in the game, in more hostile regions among far more powerful enemies and where prices are far higher. But it's enough to help get you started and many players appreciate this option of non-combat gameplay early on (they can often earn their first major overall ship upgrade in about that hour). It tends to get the most compliments and fewest complaints at around the current rate, which is right where I like to balance such gameplay options.

And as for trading. Sounds like you just haven't yet found the more lucrative routes and items

And why risking my neck in the combat missions for 50.000 (even 200.000) if I can earn 500.000 on AVERAGE in a well planned mining operation? And faster too...

And as long as you don't do contracts, that's all you'll make. Contract pay is low for players who have not earned much of a reputation for completing much of anything. As you build your reputation, the price you command for your services goes up and you'll soon find your contract pay dwarfs what you could earn mining in many cases. Many elements of this game are dynamic, they change as you progress, either for the better or for the worse. And they vary based on the activity or objective involved. What you do in the game determines who will pay you best for what and where. When you first start out, mining is a great way to earn some credits because it doesn't depend on your behavior or performance track record like so many other elements of gameplay do. But that is not a static condition, it can and will change.

So you'll want to complete contracts if you want to be paid more for them. They effect your long term wealth potential and opportunities far more than mining will.

[Koranis]

That clears it up! Thanks for your time and patience!

I'm going back to looking for "right" trading routes....

EDIT: By the way, what faction the Guild is? Are they pirates? And I still have to find a "Clan" ship.

[Edited on 6-21-2009 by Koranis]

[Ravenfeeder]

You can earn up to 25m on a good trading run. You might think that you're making good, and easy money mining - it doesn't seem so good if you want to buy fulcrum torpedoes; they're 6m+ a pop, fill up your missile slots and that's 50m you've got sitting there. Now, if you were to find a planet/station that sells the fulcrums cheaper, you're in the money, or a planet that pays more than 6m for them, again, you're laughing.

As Vice says, once you've built up your reputation, contracts can be quite valuable to your pocket - just doing military contracts, in a war zone, builds up your reputation.

Lost Rucker is very handing for building up your initial money float - there's plenty of descriptions of how to find it on the forum. Once you've got a decent amount of money, in excess of 50m, then you can go exploring for more lucrative locations/means. You can also build up the type of ship that you want in L/Rucker.

Have fun!

[Maarschalk]

Yes, I discovered a trading run that makes me 52 million per run in 10 to 20 min. And one that can make me 80 million in 30 min to 1 hour. Ones you discover some of these routes you'll never go back to tedious minning. It took me along time to find these routes but they are worth it. The way I found these routes was by minning platinum and then find the most profitable place to sell them. Once I found the sytem paying the highest price for platinum I went exploring that system for hidden planets and stations and see which of these paid even more for the platinum. Once I found the Highest paying Station or Planet I would check what else that Station or Planet payes a premium price for! And then went searching
where I could find that item the cheapest. And I found Stations where I could buy Fulcrum torpedos for about 5,130,000 and a planet where I could sell them for about 9,200,000
So you load up 5 cargo bayes with 5 of these and load up your eight hardpoints with 8 of these and sell them all and that is 13 x about 4,000,000 profit. Now the 80 million route involves loading up 12 fulcrum torpedos and getting the 13th item in an empty cargo bay free. This free 13th item you will find at the end of the legends beacon quest and you can sell this free Item for about an average 32,000,000 at the highest paying place I found.
So doing the math 12 x 4,000,000 = 48,000,000. 48,000,000+ 32,000,000 = 80,000,000 in profit!;););););)

[Koranis]

you mean I can put the torps in the cargo hold?

[Maarschalk]

Originally posted by Koranis
you mean I can put the torps in the cargo hold?

Yep, only one torpedo per cargo hold though!
just right click on them!;)

[Edited on 6-21-2009 by Maarschalk]

[Ravenfeeder]

Originally posted by Koranis
you mean I can put the torps in the cargo hold?

By right clicking you can put just about anything in the cargoe holds! Mind, only at stations, and cities, not inflight.

[Jeremy]

If mining is too easy, you're doing it wrong.

Here's what you do:
for every two ounces of material that you mine, jettison one of them into space for other players to pick up.

Makes it much slower, and you're helping people!

[Vice]

If mining is too easy, you're doing it wrong.

Here's what you do:
for every two ounces of material that you mine, jettison one of them into space for other players to pick up.

Makes it much slower, and you're helping people!

LOL! That caught me off guard, still laughing...

[Maarschalk]

Originally posted by Vice

If mining is too easy, you're doing it wrong.

Here's what you do:
for every two ounces of material that you mine, jettison one of them into space for other players to pick up.

Makes it much slower, and you're helping people!

LOL! That caught me off guard, still laughing...

And if you realy want to make it hard and tough, go mining on a planet with storms raging and only mine for the cheapest item and then do the above what Jeremy is suggesting! ROFL:P:P:P

[Nigel_Strange]

Whoa whoa whoa...there...back up a bit.

When you first start out, mining is a great way to earn some credits because it doesn't depend on your behavior or performance track record like so many other elements of gameplay do. But that is not a static condition, it can and will change.

Does this mean that you're going to have to be popular with all the right people, just to get a decent price on platinum?

[Nigel_Strange]

So doing the math 12 x 4,000,000 = 48,000,000. 48,000,000+ 32,000,000 = 80,000,000 in profit!;););););)

Yeah, you're going to need that cash if you want to be able to keep paying for fuel and weapons while doing contracts. I have a pretty good rep, and were it not for excaliburs, I wouldn't be able to afford to do contracts.

[Maarschalk]

Originally posted by Nigel_Strange
Whoa whoa whoa...there...back up a bit.

When you first start out, mining is a great way to earn some credits because it doesn't depend on your behavior or performance track record like so many other elements of gameplay do. But that is not a static condition, it can and will change.

Does this mean that you're going to have to be popular with all the right people, just to get a decent price on platinum?

Yup, pretty much, but not only that, but also the place and time is important to maximize your earnings.

[DennyMala]

Add crew fees to the total and you pretty got the idea.