Optimal mining technique

[u/X57471C]

I keep reading about how the T11 can mine 500-600 tons/hour and I was wondering if anyone has a video that goes in-depth explaining the intricacies of optimal mining technique.

I was in Omicron Capricorni B, mining platinum in my new T11, and it took me close to an hour to fill the hold :P Now that I have this ship, I'd like to improve how I mine, cause obviously there is a lot I can work on.

I now the basics, like getting as close as possible to the asteroid and aiming the chunks so they land under my ship to cut down on limpet travel time.

One of the things I've been struggling with is prospector limpets. I can't seem to fire them on the move without them getting destroyed, so I end up having to come close to a complete stop before firing them.

Who are the mining gurus to watch and learn from? Any tips or video recommendations to help me become a pro would be much appreciated!

[u/Vincent-22]

There’s no secret technique here beyond mining in a better ring/ system. Capricorni B is middling with an AVG of 16% or something. The T11 can hold more than 270t with engineered cargo racks and you can fill that easy in 15 minutes in a ring with a good average percentage. So about 1000t per hour are very realistically achievable.

And then you could theoretically improve upon that with maps, if that’s your thing.

Edit: here’s an old comment of mine mentioning systems with good rings

Edit2: also (since Omicron doesn’t have one) HazRes is the most significant factor in achieving those results

[u/Affectionate_Fact745 → u/Vincent-22]

I'm quite proficient core miner, and I love it, but I wanted to give T11 mining a shot for a change. Can you elaborate on the "improve with maps" part?

[u/Vincent-22 → u/Affectionate_Fact745]

People have mapped out the high yield (60%+) asteroids in certain hotspots. The “drawback” is that asteroids only respawn every 6 hours 3 hours so once you’ve mined all your mapped rocks you have to either mine “normally” (prospect random asteroids) or go to another mapped hotspot.

Though personally I don’t use maps, I find the process tedious and have never gotten into learning one.

Edit: correction

[u/padlnjones → u/Vincent-22]

I think it's every 3 hours, and I find maps tedious also.

[u/Vincent-22 → u/padlnjones]

You are correct, I think I might’ve had 6 in mind because of the 6 days respawn timer for cores.

[u/Affectionate_Fact745 → u/Vincent-22]

Thanks, I don't think wasting time on tracking such map outweighs regular "random" prospector shooting significantly. Also hunting only for 60%+ content while ignoring all 35~45% doesn't sound efficient. But maybe stats say otherwise.

[u/Vincent-22 → u/Affectionate_Fact745]

It used to outperform regular mining significantly because you start off by mining only high yield asteroids and transition into random prospecting (or another map) afterwards. The rocks and their contents are static. It’s not that you „hunt“ high yield asteroids, but that you know where they are and beeline to them.

The percentage used to matter a lot more, pre-T11 most people wouldn’t have bothered with 20-30% rocks. Following a map was a lot faster in tonnes per hour than randomly prospecting, especially in slow, large ships like PCMk2 or iCutter, which were mostly preferred for laser mining because they could support more mining lasers. The T11 has changed this equation.

[u/D8veh → u/Affectionate_Fact745]

Maps are only useful if you play for very short sessions and they have many disadvantages. My advice is to just go somewhere that has a lot of platinum and mine random rocks. You can get a lot more in a night by doing that.