Rich Ore and Unstable Ore: Ending Orbital Mining and Making Surface Mining Fun

[Valiant70]

What if planetary ore were far, far richer than asteroid ore, but but impossible to collect with salvage beams? If it were valuable ENOUGH then it would attract player to planets. These new ores would be called Rich Ores and Pure Crystals, and they would spawn commonly on planets and rarely on asteroids. The exact richness of these ores would have to be experimented with.

OK, so digging by hand is boring. It's sure great or starting resources though. Beyond that, we would need something more interesting: a precision mining beam. It doesn't work like a normal salvage beam. It doesn't destroy blocks, but only removes the ore from inside. Oh, it's quick enough, but it only works at very close range (5m max). They increase in speed when built in a pyramid with the output at the tip.

Now here's where it really gets interesting. There are certain resources even rarer and more valuable called Unstable Ores and Charged Crystals. These would explode like warhead blocks if hit by salvage cannons, but give a very large number of capsules per ore. In addition, mining them by hand would apply the usual potential bonus, so it might be worthwhile. Again, numbers will require experimentation, but I'm thinking something like 1000x asteroid ore at least.

So how would mining actually look? Perhaps players would employ small mining mechs equipped with antigravity to dig out rich ore and pure crystals, and larger ones with salvage beams to shave off ore-free layers to expose more below. Me? I'd build a rail with an automated salvage beam head where I could punch a button and shave off a layer. Then I'd use either a moving crane or a mining mech to get the rich ores and pure crystals, then hop out and grab unstable ones by hand. It would also be possible to build a precision head on a moving rail system and let the whole thing run itself - sweep the whole surface indiscriminately with the precision beam, removing all the ores, then fire salvage beams from the side to shave off a layer and repeat. The whole thing would be less laggy and a lot cooler than a full orbital miner. Planets would last longer too and clever miners could work underground without ruining the landscape above.

 

[Circuitbomb]

I don't want to 'have' to mine a planet just so I get better yield. I like playing in space.

 

[zigyzigy]

What if planetary ore were far, far richer than asteroid ore.

So I think yes planets should have a significant advantage over asteroids in terms of their resource potential beyond simply being made of more blocks to shoot lasers at. However I would personally prefer an ore node that can be harnessed to continually produce a small amount of resources of one kind (depending on the planet type) this way planets become a 'staple income' and asteroids become one off cash bombs.

there should be a way of increasing the efficiency of ore nodes so that they produce resources faster but still have a soft cap at how quickly they collect resources. The node would eventually run dry but by this time would have produced something like 100x what an asteroid would yield. This makes planets feel more like planets and not just slightly bigger asteroids. Planets could also be mined as normal but this would be far less efficient and only yeild 10% of what you would get through harnessing an ore node but obviously would be much faster.

This system delivers the option to the player of how they like to gather resources (in big bursts or a constant flow) and also lets you preserve planets for wildlife etc but still enables you to collect resources from them. (save the space polar bears)

 

[Circuitbomb]

resource potential

Aren't planet segments already comprised of different ores? I do like the idea of depleting nodes.

 

[Pacific_Jim]

Personally I would rather have planet mining be a slower, but more sustainable alternative to asteroid mining. The way I would see it is you set up a planet base, build a mining rig as part of the structure then can more or less just leave it running, with maybe a link directly to your refinery. This would need some serious balancing of course, I see a big power investment and expensive components being necessary.