Remote Mining

[Spyder]

I tried to do build remote mining stations Last night so that I could rely on them for my resources and put my planets to better use.

I quickly noticed that the asteroid/planet degradation caused by the Robo Miners quickly made the Mining Stations unproductive....costing more to maintain than what they were mining. Even the Farmers & Extractors weren't worth the Minerals they used for the Organics/Radioactives they acquired.

I was using Small Space Stations with 4 robo miners. Anyone have any input or comments?

Paul E. Mason
Senior VMS Systems Administrator

[Drake]

Unless you have an very low maintenance, I think remote mining is a waste in this game. I think this could be improved greatly by changing how quickly the planet degrades, making it dependant on how many resources are being mined from it that turn.

Even on a tiny planet, 5 Monolith IIIs and a robotoid facility III will generate more resources than a remote miner over the planet would, plus you don't have to mess around with building up the planet values again after you strip mine it.

Just my take on it, maybe someone else has actually found a use for them. *shrug*

-Drake

[alasyr]

Well RM cannot beat monoliths on terraformed tinies (well if there is one tiny at location, that is at least, and even than not forever because of value degradation), but in the begining when you don't have the atmospheric improvement techs it might be a good way of using resource reach tinnies, especialy if there are more than one at same place.Starbase present there will mine them all.First you have to forget about using space station for it as it doesn't pay off.The 2nd and 3rd starbase (14 or 24 miners respectively) as RM have much better mineral output and therefore life span.I did some calculation on this before and if I remember correctly 14 miners on battlestation would still make some profit (a tiny thought) on a 30% resource value world.

[raynor]

In a previous post on this same subject, Drake said he'd calculated it out, and RM lost out becuase they don't get the population or race bonuses, he thought.

Personally, I'm rather inclined to believe him.

[Triumvir Emphy]

the only cost effective way is sats which you ferry around once you deplete asteriods.

(there is a zero maintenance way, which is almost like cheating)

[alasyr]

Drake is right about max output.Once again made a mistake in reasoning that two RM tinies would outproduce maxed out colonizied ones.