Blood from a Stone

[Maxaxle]

I've been doing nothing mining on my singleplayer sandbox, trying to get to a million (or more) credits as quickly as possible so I can build a station, and I'm starting to realize that, the more I upgrade my ship (for faster mining), the more money it costs me, and the more time it takes for me to recoup my original funds.

TL;DR at what point does it stop making sense to upgrade a mining ship, if I'm only trying to get to a million, or maybe two million, credits?

 

[Lidren]

Best idea is to decide on a mining array size. Get to that size and stop adding and continue mining. My ideal small rig for the beginning hauls is a 40ish tube double checkerboard with 10 unit long tubes. Its enough to chew through asteroids with a quickness. Make sure you faction claim the system you're mining in.

If you don't mind a little extra work, I hear that salvaging all but one block of an existing abandoned station makes buying that station cheaper than starting one yourself.

 

[Deleted member 433088]

Since you say it's costing you to upgrade your ship, I assume you're buying the parts from the store; I never bought a single one, instead built all my ship parts on factories.
What I did to get my first million for my first station (in singleplayer too) was find myself a planet, mine a few craps on-planet, build a few factories, use those factories to build my ship parts, make myself a mining ship, make a faction module, claim the system for that mining bonus. Then I took my mining ship, slowly ate through a few asteroids, turned those asteroids into carved blocks, and sold those. It took me some hours, not sure how many.

 

[DrTarDIS]

mine asteroids (perferably wit hfac bonu) sell resources (either raw or refined to shop. use credits from sale to buy whatever computers are highest stocked (and thus lowest price) move to next shop, is lower in that computer SELL, buy highest stck, repeat. ~2 000 000 000 in 2-3 hours using this method. it snowballs QUICKLY if you find wellstocked and poorstocked shops, making your cash on the difference, can be muchos exploited once you get to the 50k mark by waiting for shop prices to update via simulation and just "selling high, buying low" until the shop you're at runs out of credits.
bonus funtime: giving the shop the credits it needs to buy you expensive blocks by buying it out of "useful' blocks first!

 

[MrFURB]

If you're mining an entire asteroid in one salvo but spending more time going from one to the next then you may want to either stop increasing your vessel's mass or start increasing it's speed/maneuverability. That changes with planet mining where capital-sized miners excel, but then you're facing server stress issues that can limit your size.

In my opinion, an 'optimized' mining vessel is one where adding more salvage capability yields the same net gain as adding thrusters.

 

[ltmauve]

Also, pirate station alphas have shops with ridiculously high prices. Get a perma-cloak/jam ship, fly to one of those, and sell paint or something to them.

 

[Maxaxle]

Also, pirate station alphas have shops with ridiculously high prices. Get a perma-cloak/jam ship, fly to one of those, and sell paint or something to them.

Oh wow, I should definitely try that.

The only reason I haven't claimed a planet (and therefore, a system) is that escaping a planet's gravity every time I go mining/exploring/etc. is kind of a pain.

 

[QuantumAnomaly]

I prefer a mix of selling and crafting. Instead of selling raw resources, weapon and effect computers are pretty easy to craft. Craft a few thousand of those, then start a trade run. Selling raw resources seems like a waste when even a little refining gets you a better deal in almost every case.

Alternatively, once you do have a base set up, crafting the larger portion of your required blocks becomes a lot easier. You can also buy out derelict stations THEN use a build block to harvest those sweet sweet parts.

 

[DMTKenna]

Oh wow, I should definitely try that.

The only reason I haven't claimed a planet (and therefore, a system) is that escaping a planet's gravity every time I go mining/exploring/etc. is kind of a pain.

on the planet i claimed in solo i would just get close/orbit, then take a small docked ship to the surface. on multiplayer to be safer i built a really tall tower with a docking module and a plex elevator, call it my space elevator. its up high enough so no gravity.

 

[Megacrafter127]

The only reason I haven't claimed a planet (and therefore, a system) is that escaping a planet's gravity every time I go mining/exploring/etc. is kind of a pain.

You can claim an abandoned station and use it to claim a system until you are ready to move to somewhere else.(If you don't mind turning a single faction module to scrap)

 

[Maxaxle]

You can claim an abandoned station and use it to claim a system until you are ready to move to somewhere else.(If you don't mind turning a single faction module to scrap)

That approach doesn't work anymore AFAIK; you have to buy the station to claim it.

 

[kiddan]

Also, pirate station alphas have shops with ridiculously high prices. Get a perma-cloak/jam ship, fly to one of those, and sell paint or something to them.

Selling to heavily armed pirate stations? A bit of a paradox going on here, who's the enemy, again? :p But I guess cloaking makes them not know who you are, those silly pirates! :D