Best way to mine?

[Grug]

The only ore on my planet is about a half kilometer away from my actual colony. Characters have to walk all the way over, mine once, then walk all the way back. Is there a way besides micro-managing to indicate how much a character should mine? Maybe they can bring some beer and food with them?

[Catashe]

There are tools for that.. can't off the top of my head remember what it called but its basically camping supplies to allow them to sleep and eat for acouple nights away from base

[Olleus]

Drones help. Send a survivor to the mining location (just after waking up and eating/relaxing), and have them mine all day. Send quadcopter drones to fetch the ore as they mine it. Have the survivor walk back as dusk falls. Greatly raises output possible as it saves a ton of time walking back and forth.

It does require a fair bit of micromanagment though. Selecting many things to mine, having a survivor with high mining priority, and using work zones help a little.

[OverThere]

The advice up thread is good for medium distance locations. So far, in my one in-progress campaign, metal seems to be the only serious bottleneck and near constant balloon expeditions are enough to keep the metal shortage from getting out of hand. My plan when I reach the stage of having to go very long distances on the map to get stuff is to:

1. use the work zone functionality to set a zone around the resource cluster
2. assign a worker exclusively to that zone
3. before the worker departs, equip them with tools and the survival kit (sleep gear and ten (?) emergency rations; 'survival kit' is one of the early research options)
4. within the work zone, start construction of an emergency shelter with a sleep mat on one side, two storage areas on the other side, a camp fire (to heat emergency rations; just like the first few days after the crash!) and a dart board on the shelter (something recreation)
5. send the drone to deliver the materials to the shelter and camp fire so that the designated worker only needs to build it on arrival and then start mining/scavenging

That would in theory reduce all the micromanagement to noticing when the zone was mined out, deleting the work zone so the worker returns to the main base and sending the drone to pick up all the mined resources.

On my map, there are a few remote locations that are crowded with space wreckage. I soon may set up camp in the middle of such a group.

[Olleus]

Originally posted by OverThere:

The advice up thread is good for medium distance locations. So far, in my one in-progress campaign, metal seems to be the only serious bottleneck and near constant balloon expeditions are enough to keep the metal shortage from getting out of hand. My plan when I reach the stage of having to go very long distances on the map to get stuff is to:

1. use the work zone functionality to set a zone around the resource cluster
2. assign a worker exclusively to that zone
3. before the worker departs, equip them with tools and the survival kit (sleep gear and ten (?) emergency rations; 'survival kit' is one of the early research options)
4. within the work zone, start construction of an emergency shelter with a sleep mat on one side, two storage areas on the other side, a camp fire (to heat emergency rations; just like the first few days after the crash!) and a dart board on the shelter (something recreation)
5. send the drone to deliver the materials to the shelter and camp fire so that the designated worker only needs to build it on arrival and then start mining/scavenging

That would in theory reduce all the micromanagement to noticing when the zone was mined out, deleting the work zone so the worker returns to the main base and sending the drone to pick up all the mined resources.

On my map, there are a few remote locations that are crowded with space wreckage. I soon may set up camp in the middle of such a group.

That ought to work - unless your outpost gets attacked in which case you might be in trouble. Building a 2nd balloon might just be easier. I find ore almost entirely ignorable, scrap is just much easier to come by. Silicon can be farmed. Stone is harder to do without (especially when it comes to concrete) but it's plentiful enough to be unlikely to be a problem in practice.

I guess the long term solution to any of this is - win before you run out of resources that are within reasonable reach. The game isn't set up to encourage indefinite, sustainable settlements.

[sugarskull]

I believe you can get ore on expeditions also. You could try setting up a mini-outpost near the mine and a work zone with some covered storage and equip the survival kit tool to the survivor that you send to work out there.

[CyberDown]

Drones can help, but also get pricey if they keep getting picked off going too far. I had a "salvage yard" on the other side of the map and the drones would go right past where waves would congregate and get munched.

I made a simple shelter bedroll table and storage yard so people could camp there, there are survival kits, but they can be a pain to maintain. Storage yard caused unintended issues with haulers going across map and storing things there for no reason.


Basically: this game doesnt have a good solution.

[Stimpacker]

Done all the above. Still no good solution.
Delivery drones help with mid-range distances.
Work camp with survival kit only works for staying out 1 or 2 nights. Unless it's Nova, the survivor will go mad.
Late game when resources are further out, the only thing I need is scrap metal. So I get most from expeditions. Sending people out scavenging/salvaging is still a must if you hope to get a Mech core.

[Bjørn]

There is also this, if you're willing to use mods (it's made by one of the game developers):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3024794065

[atrox]

I always wondered why there are no backpacks or transport utilities in game. My people can craft laser pistols, but something like a bag or backpack is beyond their scope ?

Game lacks some credibility sometimes....

[pappysshoes]

The Survival kits work fine unless it is Keoni or Rhea or someone with Glutton, Jack can stay out there 3-4 days taking walks lol, if you put up a shelter and one storage box in the Winter even Keoni can grind through 3 days if someone shoots red meat or harvests vegetables into the box.

Why backpacks aren't a thing remains a mystery.