Mining Drones

[KohlSalat]

So, are mining drones basically worthless? I deployed one drone, just to play around with it, and watched it gather some ore. Then I got bored staring at it, so I wandered off to do some combat, and when I returned to retrieve the drone, it was empty, and the node was depleted. What gives? Is there a timer or something that dumps your ore? Do I have to stay in the same system while it mines for 100 years? Are they just bugged and give nothing? Is my experience just a bug? If I have to stay in the system and babysit the thing, how can I make that feel less tedious? I spent 100k on the little guy, and I'd like to get some value out of him. Thank you.

[Azurewrath]

Drones have two modes, auto and manual. I forgot which is default setting.
Just use auto mode, leave it at a node and go to do other things. It will mine and sell ore automatically as a passive income until the node is depleted.
Use manual mode only when you are ready with a bigger ship and a good refinery.

[Stellar Tactics]

If you press "H" to open the in-game guide, there is a section on mining drones that explains how they work.

The drone was empty because it depleted the node. It was selling the ore for you and sending messages to the log when a transaction was completed - giving you passive credits. You do not need to be in the same same star system.

You can change the drones behavior from automatic to manual mode in the drone manager. In manual mode, the drone will mine until it is full and then you can retrieve the drone to your cargo hold if you have enough cargo space.

You can monitor the status of drones in the drone manager.

When a node is depleted, you can fly to the star system where the drone is located and pick it up and drop it on another node and let it mine for you.

[KohlSalat]

Oh, ok. Thank you both! I did read the guide section but did not notice anything about selling the ore automatically. I'm glad I'm just stupid and the drones aren't useless, ha.

[Stellar Tactics]

I think it needs a tutorial. I'll be adding a mini-tutorial for drones in the future along with every other system in the game. On the help screen, the second page of the tutorial goes over automatic vs manual. I think the page system on the help screen (located at the bottom center of that screen) is confusing and needs an overhaul. It's easy to miss the fact that many of the help screens have multiple pages.

[KohlSalat]

Oh, yeah, I had no idea there were multiple pages. I saw automatic and manual mode, but I didn't know what they did. I'll have to take another tour of the guidebook.