Why cant i get much money from mining anymore?

[TheGoldGiantHvG]

I got real into this game and made some money from selling indium i farm but now selling indium gets me very little money. Why did the developers do that? We dont use credits to buy anything of real worth only ships that spawn on their own randomly and then we use the quicksilver to buy real worth items like accessories. I understand quicksilver needing nerfed if it was necessary (which it isnt) but indium? Really? Id suffer anyway from selling in a system then crashing the economy permanently but why add more suffer? Games' going from stupid to good to stupid and over controlled by developers.

[GenSec39]

This is something they did long ago. They nerfed prices for lots of resources. Honestly - this was reasonable decision. The game got s-so many ways to get millions of easy credits, that even more nerfs would not hurt.

[XOLiD]

It's far more lucrative to scrap sentinel ships

[Captain Brendig]

Just IMO, it seems like the devs are trying to find a balance between units, nanites, and salvage modules (both types). QS items are, like you said yourself, accessories. They really don't add a whole lot of value to the game play unless your focus is base building. Which is a fun aspect of the game, which I do enjoy myself. But no realistic trade value.

[Mr. Bufferlow]

HG has tried to eliminate the farming to have the best of everything within four to ten hours of game play. That was a problem for most players because they then ran out of reasons to keep working on upgrades way too quickly.

They also appear to have wanted players to use more of the C and B class items in the game so those actually had a purpose to exist. Prior to the changes they have made, it never made sense to even look at a slightly better C class ship/tool/freighter because you lost any upgrades for those items when you traded up. Now you can store and reuse those upgrades so even a slightly better C class with a few more slots can make sense early game.

They probably also know that you can use the save game editor to fund your desires if you just are too impatient to wait a reasonable length of time for that S class freighter, tool, or ship.

So if you really can't wait and want it all now, the Save Game Editor and various duping tricks are still available to you. At least in my experience, it takes thoughtful planning to NOT max out everything in less than fifty hours.

[Rexxer]

With the Fractal update (Feb 22, 2023), NMS readjusted the prices of all metals and materials. Here is the relative price list now ... notice NO activated metal is worth mining now, only Gold. (Platinum is worth more, but can't be mined automatically):

20 = Non-O2 gases
20 = Condensed C
30 = O2
60 = Biome unique minerals (Pf, Py, CO2, P, U, NH3)
40 = Na
40 = Cu
75 = Co
80 = Cd
80 = Fe++
80 = Na+
90 = Chromatic Metal
100 = Em
125 = In
140 = Pugeneum
143 = In+
160 = Co+
160 = Ag <----- BEST to mine at the start now
325 = Au <----- BEST to mine at the start now
450 = Pt
68,000 = Larval Core <--- BEST to mine at the start now

Since Larval Cores remain pretty easy for most players who are used to farming these to do at the start, I will always mine these at the very start, esp since the starting quests lead you directly to abandoned buildings at least twice, if not more. Space metals (Ag, Au, Pt) are also mineable at the start, in space, but only Ag and Au can be mined with automated planetary mining extractors, which are also easy to set up at the start of any game.

(NOTE: refining Co to Co+ (ionized Cobalt) is also surprisingly accessible at that start, and could be used for some short term money building right off your spawn in a game. I'd still focus on getting a gold mine up first, though)

Once you have enough nanites and salvage data modules, (about 1 hr into the game), you can buy all the mining equipment and other upgrades. A word of note: one step gas combinations, ie. making themal condensate, nitrogen salt, or condensed carbon ... instantly turns gases into higher priced trade goods:

20 u non-O2 gas becomes 50,000 u per unit (for thermal condensate, nitrogen salt, condensed carbon).

So a fast way of building up cash at the start is to (1) mine gold and silver and (2) mine all gases. Sell gold and silver directly (Ag is also directly valuable as it's used in glass cuboids), and combine gases with condensed carbon (you can easily breed this fast as it's breeding reaction (with O2) has not been nerfed), then sell the one step trade good. Mining the gases early also gets you set up for a few of the steps for making the high value trade goods later. Just 40 stasis devices will give you 600,000,000 units ... but you need to build a farm and populate it first, also buy a ton of materials blueprints, (or raid a dozen mfg centers), so stasis devices aren't what I would consider something to do "at the start".

[Guh~hey~hey~♫]

Originally posted by GenSec39:

This is something they did long ago. They nerfed prices for lots of resources. Honestly - this was reasonable decision. The game got s-so many ways to get millions of easy credits, that even more nerfs would not hurt.

and then they added crashed sentinel ships.....

[GenSec39]

Originally posted by Guh~hey~hey~♫:

and then they added crashed sentinel ships.....

... in totally perfect condition. HG really needs to damage most of cargo and tech slots, like with other distressed ships, or it's just 40-60kk in less than 10 mins out of air, with almost no efforts.

[tkwoods]

My 2 cents, the game is an explorations game at heart. You are rewarded for exploring and finding stuff. I can start a new save, have 10 million units and a lot of stuff in the first 30 minutes and never leave the starting system. Never build a farm that I have to keep making repeat visits to, etc..

My advice is to see what other avenues exist in game for units rather than just do the some old hum-drum stuff over and over.

[Guh~hey~hey~♫]

and about larval core..... radiant shard do the same things (turn into nanites) and more, without all the hassle that come with farming them

[Silverlight]

Game is less fun after all the updates imo.

Farming/ spawn manipulation and weird inventory nonsense made the game unique and made up for it's generic moment-to-moment gameplay.

Each update it loses a little more janky-offbeat sci-fi charm .

I'm sure it will do well on switch now though

[icepurple]

You kidding right?

[tkwoods]

Originally posted by Guh~hey~hey~♫:

and about larval core..... radiant shard do the same things (turn into nanites) and more, without all the hassle that come with farming them

There are many items that yield nanites. Even selling unwanted upgrades.

[bigbadbedwetter]

Gold and Silver are good to mine at the start. Another source of these is to refine Grantine, Magno-Gold, Aronium and Lemmium. Early game, you won't be using them for crafting, so refine them and they will be worth ~20% more as gold or silver. They can be found by general looting or by raiding a supply depot. That said, gold and silver can be used to repair crashed ships, so you might want to keep some on had for that later on.

[Rexxer]

The update was actually pretty good as it also introduced a small exploit that allows you to maximize your ship upgrades more easily. I might post about it at some point, but I need to collect more data on it first.

[Temnikov]

Anyway, what to spend all these units? I've hitted the 1 bil. mark recently and I really can't figure out what to do with it.
So, is earning units is a big deal really? I bet NO.