Mining pods

[Peter]

So I'm pretty sure everyone knows the mining pods which you can buy, drop and detonate to reveal ore by now. I'm just wondering: has anyone found a way to make them viable? In my eyes, they are probably one of the worst and most pointless items in the game, as I've never made a profit using them. Anyone got another perspective/angle on this topic?

[Song]

They work.....if you know how the mining system works and get the right stations that tell you if there's a deposit or not and get lucky. Otherwise....yeah, not that good. You really need that hint of where deposits might be before charges are worth it.



....they're fun to derp enemy station with though!

[Peter]

Wait, wait...

get the right stations that tell you if there's a deposit or not and get lucky

There are stations which tell you where ore is?

[AssumedPseudonym]

 No, just if there is a deposit in the system. You have to kind of pay attention to the text when you dock at a mining colony asteroid, it’ll tell you if there are any major deposits left or if the system is more or less mined out.

[Song]

 No, just if there is a deposit in the system. You have to kind of pay attention to the text when you dock at a mining colony asteroid, it’ll tell you if there are any major deposits left or if the system is more or less mined out.

Specifically, if a mine has everyone moping around --> No deposits
Whispering about an undiscovered deposit --> ONE deposit
Talking about undiscovered deposits (note plural) --> Two or more deposits.


....It's better than nothing, but it's a bit unhelpful. After that, you want to look for clusters of reasonably sized asteroids. The algorithm can and will spawn them near stations....sometimes right next to the mine that's trying to find them. But sometimes they're out in the middle of nowhere....or relatively so.

[Peter]

Ooooh. When did they add that? Or am I just completely oblivious to everything?

[PM]

Same time as when the mining pods were added.

As for pods, after trying them and seeing them as the waste of money that they are, I ignore them and mine the old-fashioned way, that is, shoot every last rock in the system.

Not all ore is within the so-called ore deposits.

Sometimes, ore deposits are more useful for attracting outlaws, and player can farm the outlaws (at least the Borers) for loot instead.

[Peter]

Same time as when the mining pods were added.

Ok I'm glad I'm not 100% oblivious. I stopped playing for about 2-3 years and only just recently started playing again, and when I came back mining pods were in the game.

[shanejfilomena]

Same time as when the mining pods were added.

As for pods, after trying them and seeing them as the waste of money that they are, I ignore them and mine the old-fashioned way, that is, shoot every last rock in the system.

Not all ore is within the so-called ore deposits.

Sometimes, ore deposits are more useful for attracting outlaws, and player can farm the outlaws (at least the Borers) for loot instead.

Ditto.

However I first thought the Mining Pods were like the Thumpers of MissionFramework ( which I can't seem to get an uncorrupted copy of anymore and nobody ever posted it to xelerus..)

However, the Mining Pods are useful if you need to Farm for supplies such as Fuel from the Borer ships with the added + of some ore here and there to sell.

I too quickly found the Pods are not all they are cracked up to be when I accidentally hit rocks and got Ore out them when the Pod claimed there was no Ore ( in the level it could detect).

However they ARE cool for an extra weapon to weaken or destroy Hostiles:
Drop them while running away or Drop them to create a defense line and if things get rough run behind the line and set them off.

other then that I don't use them much for actual Mining operations.

[Peter]

Wow, that was a fast response. I had the idea of making a mod to make the mining pods better, but first I decided to post here to see if there was something I was missing, and I'm left thinking that there isn't really anything that I'm missing, so I might do it.

However the damage is pretty ridiculous, I decided to test it as soon as I bought one, and down went my shield and half my armor.

[PM]

Excavation pods are bad. I detonated the biggest one next to a rock in Heretic. Mined less than ten tons of ore out of over a hundred or so - very lame. Stuff like this encourages me to ignore pods, and shoot rocks when I need to mine, if my weapon is powerful enough.

Shockwaves from mining pods have default stats, meaning shockwave fragments have 80% passthrough. Unlike other missiles, shockwaves do not disappear when absorbed. If a shockwave fragment fails a passthrough check, it will continue to animate but not hit anymore objects even if shown otherwise. This is how scanner pods produce false negatives. If mining pods remain as they are, they need passthrough raised to 100%.

As for mining mods, mine features a rom or cube that installs a scanner program that passively scans for ore, and it should be reasonably up to date (at least 1.5).

[TheLoneWolf]

We need a heavy/dual/triple mining laser or a very low damage continuously firing plasma torch.

[gunship256]

PM's Drake Technologies Alpha makes lasers like that available as part of standard mining inventories.

[Peter]

We need a heavy/dual/triple mining laser or a very low damage continuously firing plasma torch.

Normally when I mine I use a quick mod a made for myself which adds a mining laser wall with very low damage. Just so I can actually hit the asteroids without going crazy...

[PM]

We need ... a very low damage continuously firing plasma torch.

Asteroids have a minimum damage threshold required (per hit) to mine, which escalates as system level increases. Weak, multi-hit mining weapons become obsolete quickly!