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Mining Guide
- by Jdftheman
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Introduction
Hi, welcome to my guide on mining in Discovery 4.85. This guide was written with information coming from the Discovery UK server, if you aren't playing on this server some information might not be 100% correct, so don't shoot me for something like that. Also, this guide reflects some of my personal opinions, whether you agree with me or not is entirely up to you, this guide is mainly to help out those that are new to the fascinating world of Discovery Role Playing.
Ok, now on to the more interesting stuff, mining. Some people love it, others hate it. Me, I love it, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this guide. Mining is without a doubt one of the most profitable things to get money from, if you do it correctly. The main reason for this is that mining is supposed to be a team effort, with several people working together, although you can still make quite allot money mining on your own, it isn't nearly as fun as doing it in group, nor is it as save. Always keep this in mind.
I would like to conclude this introduction by saying that you are best to read through server rules before going ingame, so that you know what can or can't be done on the server.
Mining for rookies
This section of the guide is meant to help those that are first time players on the server. If you already have some experience, feel free to skip this, though it might be interesting to read.
Ok, so you made your first character and now you find yourself on the surface of planet Erie with a brand new starflier at your disposal. First thing I would recommend is reading the info cards of the special cargo you have on board your ship, there should be three items there, and reading them shouldn't take more than a few minutes, but they can make your stay on the server so much easier.
- Press here to open your cargo hold
- These are the items I was talking about, make sure you have read them. After that, you can sell them on any base for roughly 100 credits.
Now, I suggest you take off and start flying around a bit, see if you can find some people in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania is the new starting system introduced in version 4.85 of this mod, and it has al lot to offer new players. Also, both Pennsylvania and the New York system are commonly the most populated systems on many servers, so it shouldn't be too hard finding someone there if the server isn't empty. Now you could wonder why you need to find some people. Simple, to talk to. Why you need to talk to them? Again simple, to make friends of course. Why do you need friends? I already gave the answer to this one, how should mining be done? In groups. Now chances are that you will find some other new players, or maybe even experienced players, if you talk to them I am convinced that you will find someone who is willing to help you.
If, in real life you have some friends who are also interested in freelancer (or not, in which case convince them to join) , you can ask them to help you out ingame, and you wouldn't have to find people on the server.
One final note, only try to find friends, don't go doing missions or even fighting NPCs, otherwise you might not be able to follow this guide. I'll explain why later.
Now, let's start with the assumption that your newly made friend is, such as yourself, a new player. In this case, the two of you will have to decide. Are you both willing to trust each other and work together to climb up the ladder of RP? If so, the next thing you'll want to decide is who of you will become the Miner, and who the Hauler.
Wait wait, what's a hauler? A hauler is the best friend of the miner. Haulers usually have ships with large cargo holds, which the miner can than fill up with mined products. miners need haulers because later on, miners are limited to ships who's largest cargo hold is only 2750 units, while haulers can get ships with cargo holds up to 5000 units, which basically comes down to the fact that haulers will be able to carry twice as much per run (= trade run, this basically means the entire trip you'll take to get from the mining spot to the place that sells them and back) then a miner could carry.
If you have several friends, its best to follow the following order: miner, hauler, miner, hauler,… With this I mean that if you are with 2, its best to have 1 miner and 1 hauler, if you are with 3, its best to have 2 miners and 1 hauler, for 4, its best to have 2 miners and 2 haulers, and so on.
Now that that's decided, it's time to use something very special. It's called, flhook. Now don't worry, you don't need to worry, this program comes with the server, so you don't need to download anything. Most servers running the discovery mod will have this program, as well as the necessary plug-ins that this guide (and mining) relies on. If the following doesn't work, even after several attempts, than I fear that this guide won't be of much use to you.
Now, open up the chat bar (default: press enter). Now make sure you are in a base. Miners should now type the following command: “/restart miner”; and the haulers should type: “/restart Liberty” (ps. don't type the “ ”). If you did this, you will be kicked off the server, but don't worry, this is normal. Now log back in, and you will see that both the miner and hauler are back on planet Erie, only you now have new ships. Miners will have a light fighter called the Basalt, whilst Haulers will get a ship called CSV.
Next up, the hauler needs to go to the ship dealer on Planet Erie, and buy a Rhino freighter. When buying a new ship, always make sure that you transfer your ID along with you, ID's are a necessary part of your ship, as they are your tractor beam, and they tell you what you can or can't do. Note that ID's are MANDATORY on almost any Role Playing server.
Now that the hauler has bought the Rhino, both the hauler and miner should undock and meet up in space. Here, the Hauler should give all the credits he has left to the miner, so that the miner can also buy himself a Rhino. Like the Hauler, the miner should make sure he transfers his ID, but also one specific weapon, the mining laser. Whatever you do, don't sell that one, you'll need it later.
If all went well, both of you should now have a rhino freighter, each capable of carrying 225 units of cargo. Finally we can do what we wanted, mining. Our first mining site can be found behind planet Erie, inside a nebula. Go into the nebula until you see large asteroids. Now, to start mining, you need to shoot, not the big asteroids, but the smaller ones that move around. For now, both the miner and hauler can shoot the rocks. Do this till both of you have your cargo bays full with Helium (this is what should come out of the rocks you shoot). Now there are two places to sell your freshly mined helium, either sell it for 400 credits on planet Erie, or take the trade lane and sell it for 550 credits on Philadelphia station. The choice is yours.
This picture shows the area where you should be mining for helium looks like. The ship you can see is a basalt.
- This is what the helium looks like after you shot some rocks
- These smaller rocks are the ones you need to shoot, you can't miss them, as they are the only ones that move.
You should be doing this till the both of you together have at least 2.250.000 credits (or 2.25 mill). Reaching this amount will mark the end of your helium mining career, and will mark the beginning of your career as true miner/hauler. But what to do with all that money? Now, it is time to go to Bethlehem station. To get there, go to Philadelphia station, there you will find a tradelane that leads to Bethlehem. Once you get there, make sure that the hauler has 2.2 mill, and the miner the remaining cash. Now, both of you should dock with Bethlehem. The miner should now buy a basalt again, which should cost somewhere around 75.000 credits (75K). Yes you will now buy the exact same ship you sold earlier, if you hadn't done that, it would have taken you allot longer to get the 2.2 mill you needed for the hauler. Talking about the hauler, he should now buy the Dromedary freighter, a nice little ship capable of hauling a whooping 650 units of cargo. Don't forget your ID's and miners, don't forget your mining laser.
So, what now? Now you read on with the guide. Later on, I will tell you about the real mining sites and what you can mine there and stuff like that. Use this to decide where you will be mining. Also, the miner will be a miner/escort. I'll explain later what that means and how you can do this.
Now, if you couldn't find anyone to help you out, or you just didn't feel much for searching one, you have 3 options if you want to become a miner.
- Use the /restart miner command, this will give you a basalt to mine with. Now you should fly around and offer people your services as a miner/escort. This however largely depends on how much a miner/escort is needed, so success isn't guaranteed.
- Use the /restart Liberty command. Like the hauler, you should sell it and buy a rhino freighter. Use this to mine helium. Do this till you have enough to buy a dromedary, then use the dromedary to mine helium. Now you will be better of selling it at Philadelphia, since it offers a better price than Erie. Keep doing this until you have roughly 6.5 mill credits. Go to the Kepler system, and dock with Ames Research station to buy yourself a new ID, the independent trader ID. After this, go to planet New Tokyo in New Tokyo, and buy a bumblebee there, this little baby has a cargo hold of 1800 units, and should help you reach your next goal. Start trading with this one until you have around 25 mill. You can then use this ship to buy yourself a mining ship, and become a miner/hauler. Again I will explain later on what this means.
- This is the option I suggest the most, go to the forums, and look for a mining faction to join. The members of this faction will no doubt be happy to help you become a respectable miner, as well as a respectable member of the community.
Facts/tips about mining
I'll use this section to tell you a bit over mining in general, as well as give some tips. Like stated in the intro, these are based on my own opinion and what I think of it, others might not share my opinion.
Mining bonuses
Mining bonuses are a special feature that is allowed by flhook. What this means is that you will get an increase in mining droppings depending on what ship/equipment/ID and IFF you are using. Later on I'll explain more about which ships/IDs/IFFs can be used for this, but I'll explain the basic principle right now.
First off, equipment, there are two types of turrets that give you a mining bonus. The fighter mining turret, and the transport mining turret. The difference between the two is only the size and there class, fighter classed ship can only mount a fighter mining turret, which is a class 2 turret, whilst transports use the transport mining turret, which is a class 7 turret. Only when you are shooting rocks using these turrets can you get the bonus. Your ship can have other weapons onboard, but you won't get a mining bonus if you use these to shoot rocks.
IDs and IFFs are also very important factors for getting a bonus. The miner ID, the one you get when using the /restart miner command, gives a mining bonus for every type of ore or diamond you'll be mining, however the size of the bonus is significantly less than what you would get from specialized IDs. Also, it works with any IFF, both lawful and unlawful. However do remember that this is a role playing server, and the IFF you take will show the other players where your allegiance lies.
I would personally suggest that you use the miner ID to look for a mining spot that sooths your taste, and then do missions to get the proper ID/IFF of a specialized faction. Remember, you will need both an IFF and a proper ID to get the bonus. Later on in the guide, I will explain which factions get bonuses for which ores.
Finally, ships, all I'll say for now is that the basalt is one of the ships that gives you a mining bonus, however later on in the guide, I will list all the ships that give a bonus.
Best way to mine
The best way to mine, and this method is generally considered to be the best way to mine, not only by me but by a lot of people.
For small ships, all you need to do, is go into cockpit view (The default way to do this is by pressing ctrl+V), then put mouse view (default: press space). Now all you need to do is go from one moving rock to the other, and that should do the trick.
However, for bigger miners, this method isn't as effective because of their decreased turning rate. For them I suggest you do the following. First, you need to enter cockpit view. Next what you need to do is move backwards, while turning upwards. The best way of doing this selecting two keys on your keyboard that are close together, and put them as secondary commands. You will need on for reverse trusting, and on for pitch up. See the image below if you don't really understand what I mean. The encircled keys were added by me especially for mining.
This method is so good because it allows you to see more minable rocks in a shorter period of time (for some reason unknown to me). However some people don't like this because chances are you'll crash into stationary asteroids, or they just got nauseous from the spinning.
As a final note, I would like to point out that some ships only have rear facing turrets, as a result the mining turrets on those ships can only fire backwards. Should you be mining using one of those ships, the best way to use them is using turret view (default: press H). While some people might say that turret view is the best way to mine, I find it one of the worst, as your ship is usually blocking a large portion of your view, so you can't see if there are rocks behind it.
Haulers and escorts
Haulers are the people transporting the mined ores to the places that sell them. They usually fly the larger types of cargo ship, the type of ships miners can't use because of the bonus system (the big ships don't get a mining bonus).
Some haulers will also make a miner char to help fill his/her ship. Because they are mining with two, they can fill up a transport twice as fast. When they think they are almost done, the hauler will go get transport which is usually docked on the closest base. He will then pick up all the ores dropped by both him and his partner, and if his ship still isn't full, his partner can do the final mining to fill up the entire ship.
If you plan on becoming a hauler, than there are two ships I recommend for you, the akegata and the shire. These two ships are almost identical, apart from there looks. Both costing a little over 100 mill, they have a cargo hold of 4200, which isn't the largest available, but they have one very nice extra feature that well outweighs its lack of cargo space, and that are there 12 turret mounts. These allow them to fend off many possible attackers, and combined with one or two escorts, only pirates in gunboats stand much chance against them.
Which brings me to the next part, escorts, something every ore hauler should get himself. Unfortunately there are very few escorts available at best, and most people would rather risk losing their cargo than pay for an escort.
The best way to escort an ore miner is not by flying beside it, but by flying ahead of it. What this means is that the escort will take the trade lane/ jump gate first, and the hauler will wait until the escort gives the all clear. This way, the hauler will not be exposed to possible danger from pirates. If there are pirates, the escort can make arrangements with the pirate(s) to insure that when the hauler passes, the pirates won't destroy it and the ores you worked so hard for will remain in your hands. If the pirates however are unreasonable or for some reason untrustworthy, the transport can still make a large detour around them and make it safely past them. Though this will slow you down considerably, you're cargo, and hard earned credits, will be safe.
Miner/escorts
Alright, time to explain what I mean by miner/escorts. Miner/escorts are, like it suggests, miners who after the mining also serve as escorts for the haulers they just filled up. This is in my eyes how things should be. Not only will this improve the chance of your cargo reaching its destination, it's also a lot more fun to stop shooting those rocks and just do some flying every now and then. Unfortunately there are very few miner/escorts, because this requires teamwork, and for some dark, obscure reason, people prefer making money on their own instead of making it in groups.
Miner/haulers
These are people who do there mining and hauling in the same ship, usually the mining ship. This way they can do everything all on their own without the need for anyone. These guys often only care about the profits, and they don't care about the fact that they could be making more money if they were working together, because they hate the idea of sharing. However there are also some who just couldn't find a trustworthy hauler, but are still searching for one while they do their hauling on their own. So don't judge them too fast.
Miners for hire and miner/sellers
Miners for hire are often people who offer their services to anyone willing to pay them for it. Deals are made before the actual mining begins. Miners for hire don't care who hires them, nor do they care about how and where the ores are going to be sold, as long as they get paid.
Miner/sellers aren't much different from miners for hire. The big difference between the two is that a miner/seller mines before he searches for someone to sell his ores to. These miners often use mining ships, because of their large hold.
The big disadvantage of being one of these types is that this won't provide a steady source of income, as it is very dependent on having other players being willing to hire you/buy your ores.
Stationary miners
These miners always work together with a hauler. While the hauler is on his way delivering the ores, these miners will stay in the mining zone and continue mining, so that when the hauler return, the next batch of ores will be waiting for him. This is the fastest way to make money, since the hauler rarely has to wait for his ores, so he can keep moving back and forth without long intermissions. The only disadvantage of this is that it will require a third person to provide the escorting (unless they move it without escorts).
Ships
The final part of this guide is dedicated to mining ships, and my personal opinion of them. I will also provide links to their respective wiki pages, where you can get more info about them concerning stats and stuff like that.
General mining ships
These ships can be used by any mining faction, except ALG and Junkers, who each have special ships to do their job with. If ALG or Junker pilots use general ships, they won't get there bonus for mining scrap or toxic waste. Also, Junkers using ALG equipment or ALG using Junker equipment won't get any bonus neither. The independent miner ID only works on General mining ships.
Basalt
This is the ship that you get when using the /restart miner command. It's the smallest and by far the cheapest mining ship around.
Classed as a Light Fighter, it's one of the few LF that is capable of mounting fighter torpedos. This can provide it with some much needed firepower when encountering bigger enemy ships when serving as an escort. However I wouldn't suggest you use this ship any longer than you need to, as it isn't a good ship to mine in. The reason for this is that its only turret mount is rear facing, which forces you to go into turret mode in order for you to mine with any efficiency.
Dacite
Next in line is the Dacite, a major improvement over the Basalt, this Very Heavy Fighter is more than capable of defending itself. But the most important improvement over the basalt is definitely its forward facing turret, which allows you to mine in cockpit view.
It's also very good to escort with, seeing as it can hold 6 guns whilst its profile is rather small. However, you'll never see me flying in one of these for 1 reason. IT IS UGLY, no seriously I can't stand the look of this thing, I forced myself to fly it around a bit to test it out, and while it performed better than I thought, the looks just make me resent it.
Mafic
The major improvement that the Mafic has over the Dacite is most definitely its ability to mount freighter shields and it improved power core, which allows this thing to mount even bomber torpedoes. I personally have a SNAC (Super Nova Antimatter Cannon) on it and it works wonders for me. It is however rather slow and doesn't
Even though this isn't a bomber, you'll be able to take on most pirates flying transport, and 2 of these can make short work of gunboats. In short this is a miner who packs quite a significant amount of firepower and is more than capable to defend his hauler against possible attacks. However much like the Dacite, its looks aren't very nice, still much better than the dacite, but they don't have the feeling of being Freelancer ships around them.
Spatial
The spatial is much like the Mafic, only this one has even more firepower in terms of regular guns. This allows it to fight fighters a bit easier than the Mafic. Not to mention that is has 2 mine droppers, which make these ships extremely lethal in the hands of a skilled mine dropper. All this comes at a cost however, as the Spatial is significantly larger than the Mafic. Personally, I prefer this one over the Mafic, simply because of its superior firepower and much better looks.
Hegemon
This is the absolute big shot of any other mining ship, this baby is the only transport classed general mining ship and it looks exactly like many of the stationary miners you can see around Sirius. The Wiki has a nice review of it, so I suggest you read it.
This is also the best ship for miner/haulers, since it has the largest possible cargo hold of all general mining ships. However it is big and you can get stuck when trying to dock with trade lanes or flying through asteroid fields. For weapons, I suggest you use the first 2 turret slots to place mining turrets, and all the other for defensive turrets, although some people prefer to put mining turrets on all 10 slots, this makes no significant difference in terms of mining bonus or speed of mining.
ALG mining ships
Rheinland Armored Transport
Though its name says it's a transport, this thing is only a freighter in reality, which means it can't carry transport shields. This is the cheapest mining ship available to Rheinland, but that doesn't take away the fact that this ship is a very descend mining ship. These ships can be used to fill up bigger ships, then fill themselves and fly as escorts along the bigger ships. Some people will say it's stupid to think that freighters are any good, but I find that they can sometimes surprise pirates, mainly due to the fact that they are highly underestimated. Fly one yourself and see how much fire power one seemingly insignificant freighter has.
Behemoth
This is the Rheinland middle sized transport. Personally I would only suggest these to those that don't have very much money and wish to Role Play an ALG miner/Transport. Mining with it can be surprisingly pleasant none the less, as it turns much faster than the hegemon and has a much smaller profile than the Hegemon. This makes this ship very capable of moving through asteroid fields.
Golem
This is without any doubt the biggest ship in terms of cargo space that gets a mining bonus. However this comes at the cost of having the worst turning rate of any of the mining ships. In terms of size, it's smaller than the hegemon, apart from perhaps its length. This slow turning can make it very annoying to mine, and is one of the reasons some people put full mining laser equipment on this ship and mine in turret view. But in my personal experience, both ways are equally fast, even though you get the feeling it goes faster in turret view. Ultimately, you should decide for yourself how to mine with this one.
Junker mining ships
CSV
The second smallest/cheapest mining ship of all, this ship is the one you get when using the /restart command (except for the miner restart). However it is highly unsuited as a mining ship for the same reason as the Basalt. Its only turret is rear facing, making it impossible to mine in cockpit view. The only reason anyone should use this ship is because they either like them, or they can't afford a better one yet. In my personal opinion, the description given on the wiki tends to make you believe it's better than it actually is.
Collector
A beefed up CSV, this ship has forward facing guns, which make it a suitable miner/escort. All I would add to this is that the wiki description is fairly accurate on this one, so make sure you read it.
Combat Service Freighter
The freighter version of the CSV, this basically is to the Junkers what the Rheinland armored transport is to ALG. The Wiki expresses my opinion on this ship, and I personally like it better than the RAT for some reason I can't really express.
Recycler
The recycler can be compared very closely to both the Mafic and the Spatial, in that it is a Super Heavy fighter which can mount a freighter shield and bomber torpedoes. It can even mount 2 of them, which make it more a bomber than a fighter. However I would highly recommend you don't put a SNAC on it for a simple reason. Namely that it's power core is only 75% of what the Mafic and spatial have, which isn't very impressive. This means that a single shot of the SNAC will completely drain your entire energy supply. However the dual mount can be very useful when combining a Nova Torpedo Launcher or a mini Razor with an Inferno. With this setup I have one day seen 2 recyclers along with a collector take down a shire in less than a minute, which is very impressive considering these aren't fully fledged bombers.
In my eyes, Recyclers are the best Miner/escorts any Junker mining group could have, and with it, the group could easily switch from mining to pirating without the need of other ships (do remember that Junkers can only pirate OUTSIDE house territory).
Salvager
This is the ship of choice for the Junkers who prefer solitude over group effort. The salvager is basically your every day transport, with the exception that it can carry gunboat weaponry, which drastically increases its killing potential.
However, for mining this ship can be rather annoying. It is extremely large when you look at it from above. The only reason it performs well in asteroid fields is because it is very thin. The best way to compare it is with a surf board. If you mine with this ship, I suggest you move sideways instead of up or downwards, otherwise you can be almost certain that you'll collide with the asteroids of the field you are mining in.
End
Well, I've told everything I wanted to say with this, any questions regarding mining, feel free to ask for it in the feedback thread. I'll try to answer it as good as possible. Of course regular feedback is always welcome.
Any feedback can be given here.
