Multiple Drills

[raymazoida]

I am looking at upgrading my (small ship) mining ship to have multiple drilss, not only to speed up mining, but hopefully to do so in such a way it minimises the times you get "stuck"

I have looked through some of the previous discussions on this and found allusions to putting them in "tiers" but no concrete examples of what this means.

I am thinking of having a central drill, with another 2 on each side rotated at 90 degress, and starting 2 blocks further back and 2 blocks out

Which kind of looks like this

xD
xD
x
xxxD
xxxD
xxxD
x
xD
xD

Any thoughts, experiance which may be helpful? Should I go for 5 in a + shape with the middle further forward? Or some other configuration?

[ScruffyBamboo]

I've tried a bunch of configurations, and I went back to the simplest - six drills in a tight 2x3 pattern. It gives me maneuverability, and yet it chews rocks fast enough to fill a large cargo container in about 15-20 minutes of mining.

At one point I had a small ship wth 16 drills, but it was large and unwieldy. I had trouble with it once I actually got inside the asteroids. That's when I went back to a smaller ship.

Others may have different experiences, though!

[Cain]

5 drills, in a diamond or cross pattern with one at the center.

cannot fly this design from cockpit view as a drillis in front of it so 3rd person only.

i use this setup for a tunneler and it kinda of looks like an electric razor lol

[Cain]

another thing i just figured out was right clicking with drills will make you drill out a huge hole instead of the normal size, but beware you will get no ore from this method and its easy to over drill, it also works with the hand drill.

didnt know if you were mining out a void to build a base or mining for the actual ore...

[stormageddon]

in reality, the best mining configuration, is a 3x3 large drill and it's the optimal drill combo for large ships. you are going to need the micro thrusters mod for reverse, and remember to add two connectors to eject the ore so your not stuck waiting all day.

[Cain]

Originally posted by stormageddon:

in reality, the best mining configuration, is a 3x3 large drill and it's the optimal drill combo for large ships. you are going to need the micro thrusters mod for reverse, and remember to add two connectors to eject the ore so your not stuck waiting all day.

why two connectors? i have always used just one and i use it in place of landing gear aswell..... although i have had them send me spinnning before, dont know what that was about. but im sincerly curious as to why two? is it more efficient?

[ScruffyBamboo]

Originally posted by Ronin:

Originally posted by stormageddon:

in reality, the best mining configuration, is a 3x3 large drill and it's the optimal drill combo for large ships. you are going to need the micro thrusters mod for reverse, and remember to add two connectors to eject the ore so your not stuck waiting all day.

why two connectors? i have always used just one and i use it in place of landing gear aswell..... although i have had them send me spinnning before, dont know what that was about. but im sincerly curious as to why two? is it more efficient?

Maybe if you're using the connector as an ejector, but that takes all day. Much easier to just connect, and transfer all the ore in one go (it's instantaneous). Not sure why anyone still uses the old "ejector/collector" system anymore, expect maybe that it looks cool?

[Cain]

Originally posted by ScruffyBamboo:

Originally posted by Ronin:

why two connectors? i have always used just one and i use it in place of landing gear aswell..... although i have had them send me spinnning before, dont know what that was about. but im sincerly curious as to why two? is it more efficient?

Maybe if you're using the connector as an ejector, but that takes all day. Much easier to just connect, and transfer all the ore in one go (it's instantaneous). Not sure why anyone still uses the old "ejector/collector" system anymore, expect maybe that it looks cool?

yea see me either, i do the same as you, one connecter, and multiple hook ups on my base. one at each landing grid as i dont use landing gear, this one is connected to fuel and ammo storage. then i have another hook up connected to ore storage which goes to my factory floor. its very simple actually, conveyor tubes everywhere tho lol.

i still use eject for making rail guns and ejecting stones behind and around my ship as a kind of psuedo shield/ mine field lol

[stormageddon]

Originally posted by Ronin:

Originally posted by stormageddon:

in reality, the best mining configuration, is a 3x3 large drill and it's the optimal drill combo for large ships. you are going to need the micro thrusters mod for reverse, and remember to add two connectors to eject the ore so your not stuck waiting all day.

why two connectors? i have always used just one and i use it in place of landing gear aswell..... although i have had them send me spinnning before, dont know what that was about. but im sincerly curious as to why two? is it more efficient?

actully, it's much faster as the conveyor network has to move it to the connecter to before moving it to the other ship, with a limit based on its inventory size. it's a shard of code from a update before you could use them to dock. unless you were looking for things like it, there is almost no chance that you would notice it.

[m@gicpanda]

Check this out. Just drive straight through the asteroid. :)


http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=326892109

[ScruffyBamboo]

Originally posted by stormageddon:

actully, it's much faster as the conveyor network has to move it to the connecter to before moving it to the other ship, with a limit based on its inventory size. it's a shard of code from a update before you could use them to dock. unless you were looking for things like it, there is almost no chance that you would notice it.

That's not my experience at all. As soon as I connect, all of the ore in my cargo hold goes instantly to all my refineries - no input from me. Anything left over, I just transfer manually to my platform's cargo hold. It's instantaneous. I can empty my miner in about 10 seconds.

Emptying a large cargo container with the "ejector" mode takes a LONG time.

[raymazoida]

Originally posted by Streaming Phoenix:

I use this, cockpit in the middle, drills top, left and right. Will drill a fair sized hole through rock.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=249863386

That is a cool design, my current dril is below the cocpkit so i may "invet" it lol

[raymazoida]

Originally posted by stormageddon:

in reality, the best mining configuration, is a 3x3 large drill and it's the optimal drill combo for large ships. you are going to need the micro thrusters mod for reverse, and remember to add two connectors to eject the ore so your not stuck waiting all day.

I've just started work on my first "large" ship, which will be a miner. I was going to have a 3x3 config at the front.

I planed on it being super "funky" looking and having the drills on a bed moved by a piston from out under the ship, but i hear "shake" isn't good for pistons.

I've got some retractable landing gear that will tuck in nice behind the drills though.

[PyroMancer]

People getting off topic talking about ore transfer methods. :)

Anyway regarding OP, what do you mean you get "stuck"? If you mean you have to back out because your ship doesn't fit through the hole you just drilled then you simply need more drills so the hole is large enough that your ship can fit through.

Also spacing drills can be more resource efficient and server friendly but it's not always best. And gaps in the drills can potentially leave unmined asteriod. And since asteroids don't move regardless of how small they are as you thrust forward it will end up cutting a hole through your ship.

I use to space the drills out so I could cover more space with fewer drills. But when you try to just plow straight threw the asteroid I would too often end up with a tiny block of unmined roid which would end up cutting a whole in my ship. I mainly did this back before ship welders when everything had to be welded by hand. Now I don't mind putting massive amounts of drills on my ships.

As such I mine straight threw most roids, because that seems to be the best approach to gather lots of ore. Trying to surface mine I found is often slow and less rewarding, since there is a ton of stone.

[raymazoida]

Yeah i need more "survace" area at the front as the connector block at the rear is bigger than the current single drill, hence my thoughts as to the best way to do it on a small ship as it won't let you put them right next to each other as the dril' ends are bigger than the bit that connects to the ship and also unlike the large ship ones they aren't big straight easy and obvious to group.

My problem is also need to mine faster, I have a nice conveyor system, just got a large cargo hold to hold the ore while it's waiting to be refined (probably need more than my 2 ref's + arc) but it's taking just too long to mine so i wanna go quicker so i can build my big mining ship and go even quicker etc etc lol

[ScruffyBamboo]

Originally posted by mrraybaker:

I've just started work on my first "large" ship, which will be a miner. I was going to have a 3x3 config at the front.

I planed on it being super "funky" looking and having the drills on a bed moved by a piston from out under the ship, but i hear "shake" isn't good for pistons.

Not sure if yoiu know this, but the "large" drills actually have a much smaller footprint: 1x1 vs. 2x3 for the "small" drill. 3x3 on a large ship won't cover much at all ;)

And I'd stay away from combining pistons and drills for the time being. I saw a great video of a guy who made a large ship that would just slowly push it's drills into the asteroid with the aid of pistons, but he ended up having to put a bunch of thrusters on the "drill bit" section to try and stabilise the whole lot. Ha managed to fully extend the pistons, but the whole thing blew up when he tried to retract it. He said that was the furthest he'd ever made it - it usually blew up before retraction.

Looked very cool, but ultimately inefficient.