Do you modify your mining ships and stations

[invaderzim]

I was watching my mining ships earlier and I noticed that gas miners seem to fill up their holds really quickly (they filled 650 in about 2 weeks without any mining upgrades). Regular mining takes much longer, it took about a whole month to get 80 steel.

So I was wondering if it makes sense to redesign your mining ships and stations to have more extractors and bigger cargo holds. The standard mining ship only has one cargo hold, so it seems like they spend a lot of time flying back and forth and not that much time actually mining.

[Gotum]

yeah we all modify them. I read somewhere that you want 3 mining engines. Thats optimal. I also add max amount of cargo space and more fuel cells. thats for mining ships. The stations i turn into mini fortresses. usually 3-5 of my best weapons with shields armor and such.

[Larsenex]

In fact I even go in and modify cargo transports to have armor, shields and a big fat rail gun since the AI never upgrades armor!

[jamthree]

Yep and honestly one part of the game I wish would change, Luxury extractors are massive and you gotta have the different extractors per the planet type to get the best bang for your buck. Designing mining stations takes a lot of time to have enough types for all the different planet makeups, if they would just get rid of the luxury extractor and make it so gas and mineral would get them as well would make it a lot simpler.

[Regularity]

A few things to keep in mind if you're modding your stations:
- Since resource deposits never "deplete," it's more cost effective for upkeep, more efficient for shipping time, and more defensible to have a resource setup that revolves around a small number of huge and highly defended resource extractors. In other words, a small number of super-large extractors is the ideal.

- The amount of storage space will vary based on location. Mines orbiting your homeworld, for example, can have materials picked up in mere seconds, while far-flung gas cloud extractors may have to wait weeks for pick up. So plan the amount of cargo space accordingly.

- I don't bother with mining ships, only mines. Mining ships mine whatever they want, so you can't rely on them to mine specific materials you may need -- unlike mines, which cannot change their output whenever they feel like it. Additionally, their free movement means they tend to get killed a lot, or spend lots of time NOT actually mining (in transit to/from depots and fuel sources). Very inefficient overall.

[Larsenex]

So what about a resupply ship with tons of Fighters/torpedoes/lasers/Armour and shields..a fortress that you can tell where to extract. That really seems like the ideal extractor, however it does not pull out luxuries or building materials.

[turtlefang]

While in theory, this should work, it doesn't in reality. I ask the same question a long while ago, and then tested the answer. Unless the mining rates have changed in the recent expansion, mining bases actually have optimal designs:

a) Mining stations. 3 Extractors until you research the first technology that improves your mining rate. Then 2 extractors. In theory, 1 extractor after the second technology advance but I have never had the guts to test it.

The game economics plays on 19 day cycles. This fills up cargo space in the station and will maxmize the cargo shipping to the nearest space station.

For whatever reason, even doubling the cargo space and the extractors doesn't change the actual units transported back to the space station.

b) Gas stations. 4 Extractors, reducing 1 and 1 for each tech advance. In theory, 3 should work the same as the mining extractor, but it test I have done seem to show that 3.5 is optimum in most gas giants.

c) Lux extractors. 4 to 5 Extractors, varies depending on the luxury. Doesn't reduce based on tech.

There is some trade off due to the % of the item at the location - the higher percent the lower the number of extractors needed.

And distance to the nearest startport can make a difference but not as much as I thought anyway. It is more in the reduction of transit times, not really in the collection times. Mining stations in really out of the way locations just aren't visited as much as other, but this depends on how many cargo ships you have.

Just as a note, based on some small test, a small cargo transport with 4 standard cargo holes is 50% more effective than one with 3 - so it is very worthwhile to change the small cargo transport to 4 cargo holes. I saw some improvement but all the improvements were less than the % increase in cargo holes for the medium and large freighters.

[mikeCK]

If I have already researched a few mining tech levels, do I need to even bother changing the stock design? I assume they automatically upgrade if I have left them on auto?

[turtlefang]

Not sure I understand your question.

The mining technology upgrades are like any other - once you research them, they apply to all your extractors.

Early in the game, I put 4 gas and mining extractors on each mining stations; mid game after the first technology upgrade, I put 3 extractors on each station; later in the game I put two extractors.

While this isn't the most technically efficient, it the easiest way for me to manage my stations. And I will admit that I am still adapting to the new rules that mining/gas stations upgrade.

And because I am basically lazy, all my gas and mining stations have 2 Lux extractors so I just have one active design at a time (one for mining and one for gas).

In reality, you should custom build your gas/mining stations to each location - if no Lux exist, then you shouldn't have any lux extractors on the station. If Lux exist, you should have 4 extractors. I just don't micromanage to that extend - too lazy.

[mikeCK]

I think you answered it but I will clarify.

I left mining ship/ base design to the Ai so I assume they built them with one extractor. Now, people are saying that you need three but that after you have researched a few mining techs, one is good. So, since mine have only one and I have researched those mining techs, I can safely assume that the one extractor that was built into my mines eons ago automatically upgrades with the new tech... So I do t need to build new mines and destroy old ones or something

[Shark7]

About the only thing I do anymore is to add more docking bays to speed throughput and add in electronics (ECM etc).

I used to arm my freighters, but have discovered that the AI empires will treat them as military ships if I do, and I get tired of being warned constantly.

[Larsenex]

lol Shark ^^^^ Please remove your freighter that's providing us huge cash flow because its got a pop gun"...

[dostillevi]

I load my mining bases with roughly the same shielding, armor, and weapons I give to a frigate or destroyer, along with a repair bot. I rarely lose a mining base and don't have to pay for a fleet of ships to run around rescuing them all the time.

[FlashXAron_slith]

... has anyone found out, if more cargo space for freighters really helps ?

I have the Feeling they ignore it and how much they load DEPENDS ONLY at your tech at
"DOCKING BAY" ?

Also do I have the Feelings they only stay very short in the spaceport and even there are more resources in that port for transportation, they ignore it !

MY large freighters could transport up to 10000 but only use 10% or so ...

so 1000 for small, 2000 and 3000 for large should be enough ?

[invaderzim]

a) Mining stations. 3 Extractors until you research the first technology that improves your mining rate. Then 2 extractors. In theory, 1 extractor after the second technology advance but I have never had the guts to test it.

The game economics plays on 19 day cycles. This fills up cargo space in the station and will maxmize the cargo shipping to the nearest space station.

For whatever reason, even doubling the cargo space and the extractors doesn't change the actual units transported back to the space station.

Can you explain this a bit more? Is there more written somewhere about these 19 day cycles? Also, why shouldn't you build a mining base with 10 extractors and 50 cargo holds? Is mining speed capped at a certain amount?

In reality, you should custom build your gas/mining stations to each location - if no Lux exist, then you shouldn't have any lux extractors on the station. If Lux exist, you should have 4 extractors. I just don't micromanage to that extend - too lazy.

Ideally they should probably just rid of the luxury extractor, it just creates more work for when you want to customize your mining bases and creates a huge mess if the AI decides it's time to auto-upgrade all your mining bases to the latest design.

Also why does a luxury extractor work equally well on gas giants and rocky planets? It makes no sense!