Feature request: Automated Mining Station for planets

[lh]

In later stage of the game the main work is to build mining machines on veins. This micromanagment of providing enough minerals is annoying. You could introduce a new planetory automated mining station. This automated station mines on all veins inside a specific radius or even more highlevel, just build one mining station per planet. this station sends drones to the complete planet. for example you have 100 or 1000 minerdrones. These drones can be prioritized to specific material. Priority order is important to reduce micromanagement

[Swat__Raptor]

there are mods that more or less do this already FYI , check out the thunderstore

[Regicide]

One is PlanetMiner, description is somewhat unclear but it simply enables all your PLS and ILS to mine Ore and Fluids planet wide by just picking the ore/fluid you want (it has to be available on the planet of course) and set it to local demand. Mining is affected by your VU research and costs energy each tick.

[TLHeart]

I don't want automated mining of the whole planet.

I can see how some people just want to rush around, slap down one item, and be done with the planet, with no thinking, no planning, just a click fest, and move on.

I would like to see upgrades to the current miners, where with research, one miner could cover and entire node of material, with multiple ports for outputs.

[Regicide]

Originally posted by tenderloveheart:

I can see how some people just want to rush around, slap down one item, and be done with the planet, with no thinking, no planning, just a click fest, and move on

Let's talk about this after you spent 3 and more hours just setting up hundreds of Miners, Belts and PLS/ILS. That's no offense, but I really doubt you allready were in need to do that yet. Or you're allready so high in VU that a single Miner fills a full MK3 Belt, then I guess it's easier and not that time consuming. But can't tell since my highest VU ever was only lvl 40 yet.

Because it has nothing to do with thinking, planning or strategy. It's just a very annoying and dumb task you have to perform manually hundred of times in a game were automation and efficiency is the goal. It makes no real sense. It'f fine for early and midgame, but late-midgame and lategame it's just time waste with no fun at all.

But I agree to solve this by a new or upgraded technologie or research, instead of using a sort of/tiny bit cheaty mod.

[starfish]

Originally posted by tenderloveheart:

I would like to see upgrades to the current miners, where with research, one miner could cover and entire node of material, with multiple ports for outputs.

There is a mod called Advanced Miner[dsp.thunderstore.io], which add new Mining drill Mk.II that has increased range. You can also change its max radius in config file.

[TLHeart]

Originally posted by Regicide:

Originally posted by tenderloveheart:

I can see how some people just want to rush around, slap down one item, and be done with the planet, with no thinking, no planning, just a click fest, and move on

Let's talk about this after you spent 3 and more hours just setting up hundreds of Miners, Belts and PLS/ILS. That's no offense, but I really doubt you allready were in need to do that yet. Or you're allready so high in VU that a single Miner fills a full MK3 Belt, then I guess it's easier and not that time consuming. But can't tell since my highest VU ever was only lvl 40 yet.

Because it has nothing to do with thinking, planning or strategy. It's just a very annoying and dumb task you have to perform manually hundred of times in a game were automation and efficiency is the goal. It makes no real sense. It'f fine for early and midgame, but late-midgame and lategame it's just time waste with no fun at all.

But I agree to solve this by a new or upgraded technologie or research, instead of using a sort of/tiny bit cheaty mod.

I have spent hours, and hours mining more than one planet. I am only at level 25 on VU, so no to that also.

I do not want a click and forget method to any part of the game. Where the program does all the work for you, that is not fun either. Ie the entire miner mod, that mines everything on the planet with just one tower.

I do want to see the miners have an upgrade path, to the point that one miner can collect an entire vein, and have multiple ports to handle the output. I do not want the programmers forcing any part of the game to fit only one play style.

[Regicide]

Originally posted by tenderloveheart:

I have spent hours, and hours mining more than one planet. I am only at level 25 on VU, so no to that also.

Then you either like the pain, or you're one of those guys who can easily switch of the brain if needed. A friend of mine was able to do so, too. He is brilliant and works as engineer for daimler, but at home he switches his brain off and watches totally trash movies. It's his way to relax. So please do not take this as offensive either. I wish I would have such a switch, too.

Because for me, placing down hundreds of Miners for hours is no challenge at all. A brainless zombie or my dog could do this. But after a little while my brain just wants to commit suicide due to extreme boredom.

Oh btw. PlanetMiner is not just one building you slap down once and ores fly magically to all your production buildings. It alters PLS/ILS to be able to mine ressources. So you still need to setup the Logistics. It just deletes the need for placing Miners and connect them to the PLS/ILS. Think off it like invisible Mining Drones.

So it's more close to be a nice and research/upgradeable feature, then just being cheaty.

[TLHeart]

Originally posted by Regicide:

Originally posted by tenderloveheart:

I have spent hours, and hours mining more than one planet. I am only at level 25 on VU, so no to that also.

Then you either like the pain, or you're one of those guys who can easily switch of the brain if needed. A friend of mine was able to do so, too. He is brilliant and works as engineer for daimler, but at home he switches his brain off and watches totally trash movies. It's his way to relax. So please do not take this as offensive either. I wish I would have such a switch, too.

Because for me, placing down hundreds of Miners for hours is no challenge at all. A brainless zombie or my dog could do this. But after a little while my brain just wants to commit suicide due to extreme boredom.

Oh btw. PlanetMiner is not just one building you slap down once and ores fly magically to all your production buildings. It alters PLS/ILS to be able to mine ressources. So you still need to setup the Logistics. It just deletes the need for placing Miners and connect them to the PLS/ILS. Think off it like invisible Mining Drones.

So it's more close to be a nice and research/upgradeable feature, then just being cheaty.

I just spent the last two hours mining two planets. Yes I would like to see the miners improved via research. I tried the miner tower mod, way too easy for me, and was not fun either. So for now, I will spend the time to place the miners, run the belts, insert the ships, rinse and repeat.

The difference between you and me, is I enjoy loosing time while playing the game, no matter how tedious, and then setting back with Icarus and enjoy the view. My goal is not how fast I can get to my goal of 1 TW, which I have achieved. It is enjoying the game as I play it. Now I am trying to finish the 3 spheres I am building.

And in my opinion, yes planet miner is a mindless slap one building down, set the tower up, and your done. It does magically move the resources to the tower to be shipped. Not what I want out of the game. No ships, no drones, no belts, nothing, just a tower.

If the developers do give us a researched miners with different levels, then those who want to place individual miners can, and others can use the improved miners... and maybe they will do the mining drones, that you will not have to do anything except slap down a building to mine the whole planet. Options are good. Where the program does all the work for you, is bad for my game play.

[Nailfoot]

Originally posted by tenderloveheart:

Originally posted by Regicide:

Then you either like the pain, or you're one of those guys who can easily switch of the brain if needed. A friend of mine was able to do so, too. He is brilliant and works as engineer for daimler, but at home he switches his brain off and watches totally trash movies. It's his way to relax. So please do not take this as offensive either. I wish I would have such a switch, too.

Because for me, placing down hundreds of Miners for hours is no challenge at all. A brainless zombie or my dog could do this. But after a little while my brain just wants to commit suicide due to extreme boredom.

Oh btw. PlanetMiner is not just one building you slap down once and ores fly magically to all your production buildings. It alters PLS/ILS to be able to mine ressources. So you still need to setup the Logistics. It just deletes the need for placing Miners and connect them to the PLS/ILS. Think off it like invisible Mining Drones.

So it's more close to be a nice and research/upgradeable feature, then just being cheaty.

...

If the developers do give us a researched miners with different levels, then those who want to place individual miners can, and others can use the improved miners... ...

This can be balanced by requiring Mark 2 miners to use a whole lot more power. So they are less feasible on a brand new planet, unless you ship in power. Sort of like the massive jump between Mark 2 and Mark 3 power poles.

[Kylr]

I would like to see a planetary core mining drill, we are striping mining the galaxy to build our sphere/spheres, let us crack a planets core. Can only be placed on a planet poles, takes a truly massive amount of power, a small ish sphere level of power.

Outputs kinda like crude oil, each planet has a set rate. The rate should be lower then actually mining a planets surface. This gives those that want to set up mining stations all over the planet a bonus for doing so. Also gives a mined out planet further resources (at a lower rate), or lets those of us who dont want to set up little mining stations over and over all over a planet the choice not to.

Also a side note, is there a way to force a blueprint, like factorio? Example, I make up a few mining station blueprints to throw down, if they dont cover or something is in the way, it just wont place the blocked ones?

[Nailfoot]

Originally posted by Kylr:

...

Also a side note, is there a way to force a blueprint, like factorio? Example, I make up a few mining station blueprints to throw down, if they dont cover or something is in the way, it just wont place the blocked ones?

Nope. :(

[cwattyeso]

I downloaded and installed the Planet Miner mod yesterday evening but could not figure out for the life of me how to make it work in game. I didn't see any new recipes for new buildings for the Planet Miners. The description and instruction on the mod page are practically non-existent and am guessing written by someone who's first language is not English, hence probably why there isn't a more detailed and helpful description.

I have PLS and ILS over several planets and none of them of harvesting or mining anything by themselves. I wonder if the mod is broken, as it's not been updated since the most recent game updates.

I also use the AdvancedMiner Mod for the MKII Miners. I did find it odd that the Developers never gave us this option in game, yet we got upgrades for pretty much everything else such as belts, sorters, assembler machines and smelters. They all have MKII and some have MarkIII upgrades that unlock as you research various things. I would have thought a MKII Miner would have appeared around the same time you got the MKII Assemblers and Smelters unlocked. However I'm quite happy with the Mod and definitely will continue using that anyway, as I like it's configurability to adjust the miners range and nodes it will cover. I also like that with my MultiplyItemStack Mod I can carry 250 MKII Miners in one slot in my inventory, meaning I never run out when exploring planets and tapping new material veins.

[Regicide]

Originally posted by cwattyeso:

I downloaded and installed the Planet Miner mod yesterday evening but could not figure out for the life of me how to make it work in game. I didn't see any new recipes for new buildings for the Planet Miners. The description and instruction on the mod page are practically non-existent and am guessing written by someone who's first language is not English, hence probably why there isn't a more detailed and helpful description.

I have PLS and ILS over several planets and none of them of harvesting or mining anything by themselves. I wonder if the mod is broken, as it's not been updated since the most recent game updates.

Author is of Asian origin, ye. And the translation is hard to understand/very confusing.
But the Mod is working, I'm using it right at the moment.

It's not adding any new buildings. It alters all your new and existing PLS/ILS Stations to be able to mine resources. To make this work:

- Your PLS/ILS needs to be powered. Mining costs Energy
- You need to setup one of the slots (or more) to the ore/fluid you want to mine and set this slot to LOCAL DEMAND.
- The ore/fluid you're trying to mine has to be available on the planet. It can't mine what's not on the planet.

Mining speed is affected by your UV research and overal veins available on the planet.
Ore consumption is also affected by UV research.

Try it again, it should work. If still not, then maybe you're facing a mod conflict.

[cwattyeso]

Ahhh Okay, so it requires the vanilla PLS and ILS to work. Okay then that is why it doesn't work for me as I use the Giga Stations Mod so only ever build and place Giga PLS and Giga ILS stations. I found the normal PLS and ILS didn't have anywhere near enough items slots and capacity for my liking.

[Evil Tidings]

Originally posted by cwattyeso:

Ahhh Okay, so it requires the vanilla PLS and ILS to work. Okay then that is why it doesn't work for me as I use the Giga Stations Mod so only ever build and place Giga PLS and Giga ILS stations. I found the normal PLS and ILS didn't have anywhere near enough items slots and capacity for my liking.

No it works with the gigastations too but that mod is slightly broken right now, if you have it enabled then you'll lose materials here and there. like I had a planet dedicated to mining spinoforms and making them into carbon nanotubes, and the tubes were disappearing when they entered the towers, they weren't being sent away. Just disappearing. it was bad enough around my cluster that the guy working on the mod asked for my save to figure out what the heck is happening lol.