Too many pirates when I try to mine. Any tips?

[Jeff Kaos]

I've been seeing a lot of posts about how lucrative mining can be and last night I tried my hand at it in a solo game and managed to figure out how to make some money doing it but when I logged on today every time I drop into a ring there's at least 4 pirates. It doesn't matter where I go either. I saw a post elsewhere that said that "random" encounters with pirates are based on the value of your cargo when you drop into a mining area but even with nothing but limpets I encounter at least one wing of pirates. It's making the whole mining process, which is already a pain in the @$$, even harder. How are some people able to make hundreds of million credits an hour without encountering pirates every time they enter a mining hot spot?

[van Leeuwenhoek's mustache]

If you're only carrying limpets, the pirates will simply scan you, complain about you not carrying any goods and then leave you alone.

Btw, avoid RES.

[MTJ]

Where ever you drop off into the cruise mode; fly for ~50-100 km into the field, and the spawns should stop. (away from all the ships obviously :P)

edit:
and yea, as the poster above mentioned, RES mining is not a 'thing' anymore. use scanner to find motherlode hotspots and go deepcore mining. What I wrote, applies to the hotspot mining, you NEED to fly from the 'spawn' location or you will get pirates etc.

[Laurreth]

That should only really happen in or near inhabited systems, if you take a few jumps outside the bubble you're usually alone.

If you're encountering AI in your location of choice, as soon as you drop out of supercruise, start boosting in any direction. (You aren't running an immobile bucket, right?) While NPCs may spawn initially, they usually don't catch up to you an eventually you're free to do whatever.

[Wraith]

In my experience, and as stated above, the pirates tend to scan you then leave if you are carrying nothing of value. I have had them come back once or twice after a few minutes, but then I was able to mine as much as I wanted.

I have a pilot for taking an SLF along to try it out, but either forget to activate (take them onboard) them or forget to launch them. At some point I will have to attempt it again to find out how well my pilot does. Don't really need him to do much. Just draw attention/ fire away for a second or two to allow me time to line up and cycle fire groups.

[Agony_Aunt]

What you shouldn't do, unless prepare for a fight, is log off mid mining. Because when you respawn, there is a good chance of a pirate or 3 spawning as well. So if you are going to log off, and not prepared for a fight, get out of the ring first, or go sell your stuff if you have the time.

[Heckett]

As said, when you drop out of supercruise into the ring, fly away and the pirates should despawn.

What I normally do is drop out on the edge of the hotspot and fly toward the middle and keep an eye out for anything minable and grab it. Generally even if you find a crackable asteroid right away, by the time you crack it most pirates go away anyway.

Your only other option is to use a large ship with a big shield and offensive weapons to scare the pirates off if they attack.

[juanxlink]

Originally posted by Jeff Kaos:

I've been seeing a lot of posts about how lucrative mining can be

But you never looked at the basics? Like flying away for a few minutes in any direction to remove the ships that spawn with you after the jump?

Weird that...

[Jeff Kaos]

Originally posted by juanxlink:

Originally posted by Jeff Kaos:

I've been seeing a lot of posts about how lucrative mining can be

But you never looked at the basics? Like flying away for a few minutes in any direction to remove the ships that spawn with you after the jump?

Weird that...

I saw a few posts about how to make money mining painite and watched a few videos (mostly the official mining tutorial) and went out and tried it. I'm a hands on learner and nowhere did I see that the enemies in mining zones will vanish after a while. My only experience thus far with pirates in mining areas is as a bounty hunter. And since this was an issue which others who advocate mining as a quick way to earn money obviously have dealt with I decided to ask the community. And look: everyone who commented gave me sound advice. Well, almost everyone.

[Wraith]

Originally posted by Heckett:

Your only other option is to use a large ship with a big shield and offensive weapons to scare the pirates off if they attack.

Don't rely on that. I fly a fully engineered corvette and can tell you with all honesty, the fact that I am equipped with two huge weapons, a large and an assortment of medium and smalls, it has never managed to keep me from having to put a few shots into their bow before they attempt to break off the engagement. I get a lot of anaconda pirates now, which is cool. At least it's worth turning the ship and engaging.

[The Colgate King]

I mine in an anaconda, so when I drop in if I have something of value in my cargo I usually just bop them with my nose and watch them explode. If its something I don't think I can bop I high tail it out of there. What other people said about dropping in and boosting away with nothing of value in your hull (pirates no longer care about stealing your limpets) you can just despawn them. Also when mining its best to stay in your instance and just keep flying sub light around looking until you fill up your hold. Don't log out, leave enough time in your session to leave your mining spot and get back to your sell station.

[caaront]

I drop in and wait until the pirates scan me then leave, then I go down to the rocks and mine.

[malorob]

when i mine this is what i do:

i mine about 400ly from colonia and there is npc pirates that say hello when you first jump into the rings.
let them scan you empty then.
go mining no problems ........ except interdiction when you get back to the bubble.
dirty drag drives can help with interdiction's made easy.

just make sure you know where to sell your goods as prices change in the market

[caaront]

Originally posted by malorob:

when i mine this is what i do:

i mine about 400ly from colonia and there is npc pirates that say hello when you first jump into the rings.
let them scan you empty then.
go mining no problems ........ except interdiction when you get back to the bubble.
dirty drag drives can help with interdiction's made easy.

just make sure you know where to sell your goods as prices change in the market

That is right, I assumed the station I sold at last was still paying a premium, lol, they were'nt so I was able to get a little more close by, but certainly not a premium.

I will check Inara first the next time I mine.

[ExtremelyMift69]

Go to an uninhabited pristine system with plenty of ringed & mineable planets to exploit. Like Wolf 161 for instance. Do the probe thing to find where the mother loads are to be found. Fly safe Cmdr and fruitful mining. o7

[Jeff Kaos]

Originally posted by ExtremelyMift69:

Go to an uninhabited pristine system with plenty of ringed & mineable planets to exploit. Like Wolf 161 for instance. Do the probe thing to find where the mother loads are to be found. Fly safe Cmdr and fruitful mining. o7

Thanks! I appreciate the tips and the sentiments. This weekend I was doing the painite mining run near Futin that I'm pretty sure everyone has been doing and I managed to square up about 75 million credits through simple surface mining. I know that core mining is better and probably more efficient but any time I send a wave scan into the field I never get a rock I can blast to show up. So I just fire a mining laser at whichever one I can and I manage to fill my small cargo area in minutes. I'm using a simple Cobra mining setup. So with 16 cargo spaces and 6 bins I can clear a decent haul with little effort. And since the ship is small and maneuverable I have little problems flying inside a belt and can usually pull out of the inevitable interdiction when I try to unload.