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[EuchreJack]

I find that that both geosurveying and gravsurveying take up so much time that I would never have use for a dual-purpose ship.  At least until the Aliens surround my struggling empire.

[Rince Wind]

Well the ship moves now, created two subdesigns and refit the shipyard because the ships would not move with both geo and grav survey equipment. Now I'm mining luna for its considerable Duranium and Corundium deposits (nearly 2.5mil each)

More important that the deposits (above a certain threshold) is their accessability. It could be 50mil tons of everything on Venus, if it all is .1 I'd still ignore it.

[coleslaw35]

Yeah, it's super frustrating finding gigantic deposits of minerals you're running out of only to discover that they're 0.1 accessibility deposits.

On the topic of survey ships, I always just build them as fighters so that I don't have to build and outfit a shipyard for them. They've got super clever names too.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

GEO-M171 class Geological Survey Vessel    460 tons     17 Crew     344.5 BP      TCS 9.2  TH 30  EM 0
3260 km/s     Armour 1-5     Shields 0-0     Sensors 1/1/0/5     Damage Control Rating 1     PPV 0
Maint Life 22.16 Years     MSP 468    AFR 1%    IFR 0%    1YR 2    5YR 27    Max Repair 300 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 96 months    Spare Berths 0   

(x0.5) 30 EP Plasma Core AM Drive (1)    Power 30    Fuel Use 3.5%    Signature 30    Exp 5%
Fuel Capacity 20 000 Litres    Range 223.5 billion km   (793 days at full power)

Phased Geological Sensors (1)   5 Survey Points Per Hour

This design is classed as a Fighter for production, combat and maintenance purposes

And the grav survey vessel is essentially the geo survey vessel above but with a grav sensor. Their slow speed doesn't really matter to me and I'm in no hurry to expand and explore, though I haven't been finding aliens even with the 100% NPR generation chance upon exploring a system with a suitable body. I've been finding plenty of suitable bodies which is odd but I'll find one sooner or later.

[Khan Boyzitbig]

Well the ship moves now, created two subdesigns and refit the shipyard because the ships would not move with both geo and grav survey equipment. Now I'm mining luna for its considerable Duranium and Corundium deposits (nearly 2.5mil each)

More important that the deposits (above a certain threshold) is their accessability. It could be 50mil tons of everything on Venus, if it all is .1 I'd still ignore it.

0.9 and 0.6, though I did drop some miners on Venus despite being 0.1. Also mining Metis more for its small quantity of 1.0 accessibility sorium than anything else.

[Sirus]

Well the ship moves now, created two subdesigns and refit the shipyard because the ships would not move with both geo and grav survey equipment. Now I'm mining luna for its considerable Duranium and Corundium deposits (nearly 2.5mil each)

More important that the deposits (above a certain threshold) is their accessability. It could be 50mil tons of everything on Venus, if it all is .1 I'd still ignore it.

...why? Throw some autominers down and let them run. They cost nothing other than the initial build cost.

I never leave such huge stockpiles of resources sitting around, especially if one or more of the resources is in short supply elsewhere. That trickle could be the difference between normal operations and shutting down vital production because your stocks ran out.

[Rince Wind]

Because usually the automines can do better elsewhere. Automines cost 240 minerals and wealth. With the basic mining tech they get 1t of each mineral at .1 from the planet. In one year. With better mining techs the difference to planets with better accessibility only gets worse.
Sure, if earth is empty and I am not sure where to put the mines yet I'll drop them on Venus for at least something. But if I have a spot with 3 or 4 minerals with good accessibility I'd rather put them there. You often get some .1 or .2 extra.

[Flying Dice]

They're dirt cheap. Doing a run of 200 or so is peanuts, and ultimately low-access reserves closer to home are still better because there's less logistical infrastructure necessary. I plop automines on every body with >50k t minerals.

[Sheb]

They're dirt cheap. Doing a run of 200 or so is peanuts, and ultimately low-access reserves closer to home are still better because there's less logistical infrastructure necessary. I plop automines on every body with >50k t minerals.

Opportunity cost. Those 200 mines could be producing many time more minerals on some other body.

[andrea]

lets also keep in mind that automines require only 2 kinds of minerals to build.
it can make sense to spend those 2 resources in large quantities to gain small quantities of other stuff.

Plus, where do you people get so many high accessibility deposiuts? whenever I play, I hgave a dead zone all around me with several minerals not available at all in a radius of a couple systems.

In fact, I believe I have never seen a significant sorium deposit in solar system ever, while everybody talks all the time about mining jupiter.

[RAM]

But you have to go out and find somewhere else, and ship all the mines there, and ship the resources back, and then find the next place and the next place and then you have to start defending territory and moving your manufacturing centres closer to the resources and... I mean, sure, early on, when mines are few and resources are plentiful, but just permanently dismissing them because they are slow? You can overcome that with numbers, and after a while numbers are easier than moving shop constantly or being caught out-of-position or completely draining the known world and having all your mines be on the far side of the galaxy...

Better to gently ramp up your .1 harvesting to keep you solvent if you can rather than try to ride a perpetual gold-rush.

[Flying Dice]

They're dirt cheap. Doing a run of 200 or so is peanuts, and ultimately low-access reserves closer to home are still better because there's less logistical infrastructure necessary. I plop automines on every body with >50k t minerals.

Opportunity cost. Those 200 mines could be producing many time more minerals on some other body.

Obviously if another body within a similar range has better deposits you start there. But if it's markedly farther away or particularly small (as high-acc deposits tend to be), it's the opposite. I didn't mean peanuts just in terms of material costs, but also in how much industrial and transport capacity they take up. You should be pumping automines out pretty much constantly as long as you've still got reachable deposits, and the stuff that's multiple-million-ton at <0.4 is a better long-run investment than 5-digit at >0.5.

Basically you should already have a decent stockpile from Sol. If you mine the big, low-acc deposits elsewhere while that's still around, you'll have more from those mines than the total deposits of most high-acc stuff before you run out at home.

Like, if all that mattered was accessibility, you'd be hyperfocused on comets. But comets generally aren't worth much effort unless you've got an immediate shortage since the deposits are so small.

[Khan Boyzitbig]

Accidentally mass drivered earth a few times... Thankfully only with small rocks but still, Next time I should check that there are enough spare mass drivers before letting the civvies take them off world.

[Detros]

Accidentally mass drivered earth a few times... Thankfully only with small rocks but still, Next time I should check that there are enough spare mass drivers before letting the civvies take them off world.

I am directing all my Sol mineral packets to Luna and only from there to Earth. That way if anything bad happens, only those few dozens of millions of people at Luna get hit and it also works as a basic sign of how much I am mining in all those mining colonies - one can see the power of Luna mass drivers and check if there are ores accumulating there.

[Detros]

Plus, where do you people get so many high accessibility deposiuts? whenever I play, I hgave a dead zone all around me with several minerals not available at all in a radius of a couple systems.

In fact, I believe I have never seen a significant sorium deposit in solar system ever, while everybody talks all the time about mining jupiter.

At Mars I have 5M of Sorium at 0.7. Is that enough? And this is the planet two jumps from Sol:


Btw, I am currently building a JG to a system just next to Sol. There is a planet with 153M of Mercassium at 0.7 (!) and 5 more ores with 0.1 or 0.2 accessibility and deposits of few dozen millions.

[Rince Wind]

5m tons is plenty. If you ever run out you should have more than enough alternatives.


Also damn you all, I started a game of Aurora again.
Mars has all the Mercassium I'll ever need at .9, and some other stuff at lower. Merkur ALSO has all the Mercassium I'll ever need at .8 and a bunch of other stuff.
None of the gas giants has any sorium, but both colonies have it at .3, so I have enough for now.
There is a 0.0 world in a nebula right next to Sol, but I might wait until 2nd gen ships will have some armor (there is also a job opportunity for all those researching in the field of defences, the only scientist I have none of yet (17 years and 3 academies)).
I found what are probably precursor resupply/listening posts in another neighbouring system, but strangely no attackers, not that I am complaining.
Setting up my first extrasolar colony soon on a planet with 12m tons of Duranium at .9 and everything else besides Tritanium, Mercassium and Corundium at .1. I do hope for geo teams here, but they have mostly proven useless in their current iteration. There are some wrecks in this system, but nothing disturbed my explorers.