Resource Probes/Satellites

[Banshee]

I have noticed now in 9.0, that my resource probes are constantly being damaged, but not my satellites. Anyone else having this issue?

[Mellow]

I have the same observation

[Pandorian]

It's not a bug, it's a feature.

It's part of the mining overhaul.

[Puravs]

There is new "Prospect" behaviour, when scout ships can search for richer resource areas, and deploy resource probes there.
There is new behaviour "prospect for commander", for ships which got assigned to a station.
Also, you can order your scout to do prospecting. If pilot have 3 stars in piloting.

As much I understand, idea was that when resources get depeated, and respawns in another area. Then old probes kinda slow game down (need to do calculations, while area are unprofitable to mine). So, they decided that slow degradation of probes is the solution.

[Banshee]

thank you, probably need to just roll back to 8.0

[Dunkler Messias]

Originally posted by Banshee:

thank you, probably need to just roll back to 8.0

Just be aware that resource probes are no longer necessary in 9.0. Previously there was a hefty penalty if ships tried to mine outside of the range of a resoure probe, so you had to drop resource probes "everywhere". But in 9.0 there is no penalty anymore. Resource probes on their own also don't offer any bonus on their own.

It's just that now resource probes are supposed to tell miners to work in a specific area. Ships set to prospect (and with a high skilled pilot) may find a resource area with a higher resource yield than the ones the miners found, making them to work a little bit faster. And probably a bit easier to defend I guess.

[Fisken]

How does all this affect the probe getting damaged, though?

And I have also noticed that it's not exactly easy to either find a 3-star captain or seminar to get him there, and you still can mine even if you don't have a probe in the sector, so why all the unnecessary faffing around with probes and prospectors?

[WastingSanity]

So it looks like now you will have to keep an eye on resource probes and retrieve them before they self destruct, then drop a new one.

[Dunkler Messias]

Originally posted by Fisken:

How does all this affect the probe getting damaged, though?

To improve performance and so you have a reason to use prospectors. Resource areas deplete faster and spawn in a new region within the same sector, so new resource probes have to be deployed anyway.

Originally posted by Fisken:

so why all the unnecessary faffing around with probes and prospectors?

Because some players want to. Again, there is no heavy penalty anymore, so you really don't have to drop resource probes. It's just an option for players who want to minmax and control where their ships work.

[Fisken]

"Because some players want to" Hmm... I wounder who's mom I need to talk to to get a hole update with things I want in the game?

[Banshee]

well Ill be, lol, i was getting bored real quick constantly repairing them.

[FPStewy]

Originally posted by Dunkler Messias:

Just be aware that resource probes are no longer necessary in 9.0. Previously there was a hefty penalty if ships tried to mine outside of the range of a resoure probe, so you had to drop resource probes "everywhere". But in 9.0 there is no penalty anymore. Resource probes on their own also don't offer any bonus on their own.

It's just that now resource probes are supposed to tell miners to work in a specific area. Ships set to prospect (and with a high skilled pilot) may find a resource area with a higher resource yield than the ones the miners found, making them to work a little bit faster. And probably a bit easier to defend I guess.

After observing this they are kinda necessary, I'm in Heretic's End and have a probe in Watchful Gaze and my mining ships would mine in the middle of that sector but when the probe expired, after a bit they went mining for Ore at the edge of Heretics where the keept having visits from the Kha-ak but once the resource probe was put back in Watchful Gaze they went back mining there.

[Dunkler Messias]

Originally posted by FPStewy:

[...] they went mining for Ore at the edge of Heretics where the keept having visits from the Kha-ak but once the resource probe was put back in Watchful Gaze they went back mining there.

You could also just create an activity blacklist and only allow your miners to work in one specific sector.

[FPStewy]

Originally posted by Dunkler Messias:

You could also just create an activity blacklist and only allow your miners to work in one specific sector.

Yea I have that, the thing I noticed is that if you don't have a probe in the sector I want them to go to then they might just not see the resource and not go to that sector at all.

Also for ex.. if they don't see the resource in Morning Star IV they will stay in Heretics End and go to the edge and atrack the Kha-ak.

I'm starting to think that they put probe decay in 9.0 because if you leave your game running and once the probe decays you might end up losing a few miners because they don't see the resource.