Mining ship size

[HeTiCu7]

I am still somewhat new to this game; 159 hrs in "Learning to Survive" scenario. I inherited a mining ship from the start that is made from small blocks. I built a cargo ship with docking bay that I carry the mining ship in when I go out to mine.

Has anyone built a mining ship from large blocks? I have been pondering it, but the ship would need up and down thrusters which I would be inclined to set end-to-end. But then they would probably get ripped off as I burrow deeper into an ore pocket, right? Or would the tunnel diameter made by the drills be larger than the 4 block height of the end-to-end thrusters? Or, with a large block ship, does one have to mine in shallow bites? Thanks!

[Dozz]

Honestly, i have never liked large grid miners, not really needed unless you plan on building a mega ship, id suggest a small ship for you that i have built, but its not use to you so no point, thing is large girds that i use have been walls of drills and or use the mega drill mod, which just makes your ship into one of those subway tunnel drills

[Dozz]

But, ill tell you what, i need something to do, so ill hop on now and build one, as soon as i do ill build you a ship

[ShadedMJ]

Building a mining ship with large blocks is almost identical as small blocks, in my opinion. Overall just keep the thrusters (and everything else) within the drill area. Large block ships end up being longer on average because things like a large block antenna is 6 large blocks high.

[SpeedDaemon]

Are you talking about mining in gravity or zero G? I only use small grid in gravity, with a large grid cargo ship to get it to space, or a large grid cargo rover. Once I'm established in space, I build a large grid miner for two reasons:
1. Can make a 7x7 drill head that the rest of the ship can be built 5x5 behind, making it possible to just cruise through asteroids at ~0.4m/s with dampeners off.
2. Can add a jump drive (although you can't really go far at once with 10kT of ore onboard)

[HeTiCu7]

Originally posted by SpeedDaemon:

Are you talking about mining in gravity or zero G? I only use small grid in gravity, with a large grid cargo ship to get it to space, or a large grid cargo rover. Once I'm established in space, I build a large grid miner for two reasons:
1. Can make a 7x7 drill head that the rest of the ship can be built 5x5 behind, making it possible to just cruise through asteroids at ~0.4m/s with dampeners off.
2. Can add a jump drive (although you can't really go far at once with 10kT of ore onboard)

Thanks for the feedback. I am in space, for now, and my pondering of building a large block miner is so I can maybe go though asteroids at a significantly higher pace. It sounds like you have done that. And the dims you stated are exactly what I was wanting to know, before I go to the trouble of building the ship. Thanks!

[Nightwing]

I have a (Failed) large grid miner design that I made once, where I had a 30x30 grid of drills on the front, with the main body of the ship itself following a 25x25 design, and a 15x15 hangar in the rear. The reason I say that design failed, is because when I was testing it, I couldn't stop it from slewing around for some reason, and I kept ripping open the sides on the rock around the ship. Because of this, I've never actually built and used a large-grid miner in any serious capacity.

I've gotten good at making large-grid funnels, though, complete with a standardized shape and design based on size and depth of the desired funnel.

[ShadedMJ]

Generally @Nightwing : I think computer specs plays a part in that too. I've heard players complain that their 2x3 drill ship was falling apart, but my 50x50 drill ship works fine.....

[Nightwing]

Part of the issue with my design was that when it was built, Space Engineers itself was fairly young. Hell, the ship was built before it was even possible to make subgrids, because rotors and pistons didn't even exist, and the only conveyor blocks we had available were the full-sized blocks. Conveyor tubes weren't even a thing until about a year after I built that ship.