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Gas mining: tricks to make it easier.

edited April 2019 in Feedback
Okay, I've never had any trouble playing snake while collecting gas. 

Here's the secret: Use the Nexus client or code the ship window into your client. 

Go out in an interceptor they turn better. They turn on one square. I've acquired a corvette, horrible turning. 
Deploy your gas scoops before you set out. Your ship sensors can't see gas clouds without a scoop deployed. 
I've flown past gas clouds and my ship beacon never picked it up without the scoops deployed. test it if you don't believe me. 

Never direct your ship to turn west or east. Do it by increments: NW then N, or SW then W.  So if you need to swing west, turn NW/SW and then wait for the ship to move into the right square then turn W.  

Never scoop gas at full speed, ships go too fast to collect gas. do it on the lowest default setting. This also makes turn easier.  Work from back and forth from North to south. Go column by column.

Once you get the hang of it the tedious part of gathering gas is flying around looking for it. 
I could be mistaken here, but as a general rule of thumb, gas clouds can be found nearer to asteroid clusters and planets. If you head towards those bodies, you'll find a cloud on the way or past it, half the time. 

Hope that made sense

Admin: could you give space maps and live stream radar for gas scoops at the higher levels of captaincy and admiral? It would make mining a whole lot easier. 

Comments

  • SHIP BEACON only shows gas within your ship's range, and it has to be in the same zone. So even if you're right next to a gas cloud or an asteroid, (or even a ship), if it's in another space zone, it won't ping on your beacon.

    Gas scooping isn't difficult, it's tedious and time-consuming. 10 minutes to fill up a scoop (at minimum, assuming you get a gas cloud large enough or two clouds right next to each other, and not counting the travel times) is too long. I can bash up around 2000 marks in that time, with minimal effort, to boot.


    Mereas Eyrlock
    "They're excited, but poor."
    - Ilyos (August 2019)
  • edited April 2019
    @Matlkael I agree, if you're bashing 8k per hour then mining isn't the way to go as a mainline. It's still profitable for new players. 

    Two: increasing the yield per load, while magical and would make my life a whole lot easier, would in the long run maybe lead to a comms glut/ (any economists around here? can you guys give us a magic number?) Gas scooping is tedious and it really shouldn't take you 10 minutes to scoop up a cloud. If it does take that long, you're doing it wrong. It's the flying around to hunt down a cloud that's tedious. 

    I bet if you're not fussy about the gas or asteroid you collect you can go and come back within 20 mins. (unless you have data that proves otherwise).  Lastly if you're doing it in anything bigger than an interceptor (which turns on a square) it's going to be very painful. I've tested that. 


    two yes, mining should get tweaks but in the meantime.....lets just use what we got. 
  • I think for higher level players, it would probably be a better idea to mine gas or asteroids on the way back from incursions. I mean you're heading back anyway, and you're usually on the other side of the galaxy. At least, you cover the cost of ammo. (and drinks. maybe)
  • Comms glut concerns are offset by a lot of factors: it takes marks to refine and produce, and it takes marks to store products.

    Sure, you can refine 10k elessium and create a glut, but it still cost 9 marks to refine each of that, plus 100 marks per day to store it. This isn't Lusternia or Imperian where you can quest or magic comms out of nothing and store it for no cost. Starmourn has a lot of checks to its resource economy that we can afford to widen the tap by a lot.
    Mereas Eyrlock
    "They're excited, but poor."
    - Ilyos (August 2019)
  • Tiase said:

    Deploy your gas scoops before you set out. Your ship sensors can't see gas clouds without a scoop deployed. 
    I've flown past gas clouds and my ship beacon never picked it up without the scoops deployed. test it if you don't believe me.  
    I'm sitting in the middle of a gas cloud right now with no scoops deployed.
  • Does it show on ship beacon? I've noticed, without scoops, that beacon sometimes detects clouds, and other times I fly past them in visual range and no cloud appears in the beacon output
  • It's zone restrictions. You can be right next to a cloud and not spot it on a beacon, if you and the cloud are in two separate zones.
    Mereas Eyrlock
    "They're excited, but poor."
    - Ilyos (August 2019)
  • Okay, I stand corrected. I swear I've flow right into clouds with no scoop and have it no show up on beacon. Maybe they made some changes. 
  • It's weird. If it's a big clump of cloud, only one (the "originating" square) that will show up on your beacon. If that square happens to be on the other side of a zone boundary, then it won't show up on your beacon (because it's cross-zone), even if you are in a square "within" the rest of the cloud itself.
    Mereas Eyrlock
    "They're excited, but poor."
    - Ilyos (August 2019)
  • For me going in a spiral works best 
  • Kirin said:
    For me going in a spiral works best 
    this was before widescoops. You had to basically play snake and cover every single square one at a time. 
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