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[Akura]

Spoiler: Built a mining rig (click to show/hide)

The rotors and piston work. Haven't checked if the conveyor system works, but I don't see why not. It's not visible in the picture, but there's a control seat behind the crane.

Controls are a pain in the ass. There's no way, at least without modding, to simply hold down a button to extend(or retract) the piston. I either have to toggle extend/retract, plus set a hotkey for changing the minimum/maximum ranges, which is a single hotkey each(5 total). For the rotors, I have them set to increase/decrease velocity, so that's 2 keys per rotor, 6 total. And one final hotkey to toggle the drill.

Also, the drill tends to launch ore everywhere rather than collecting it.

[PTTG??]

Consider adding a gravity generator.

Also, pistons and rotors tend to explode.

[n9103]

Unless there's been a recent tweak to it, simply setting the rotor's force (kN) low enough will avoid spontaneous destruction.
Haven't used pistons yet, but I'd be surprised if the same wasn't true.

[Aseaheru]

 So, having finally managed to acquire the game, here I ask if the server is still a thing.

[BurnedToast]

I'm curious how everyone else is dealing with planetary mining. I've spent more time than I like to admit over the last couple of days thinking about it and I can't figure out anything that really seems to work well.

Flying miners are very easy to build and operate, both "scoop" miners that swoop in to get ore, and up and down tunnelers. The problem is that atmos thrusters can't really carry very much ore (even after the 20% boost) so you need to add lots of them, which require lots of power, which adds mass, and it all spirals out of control very easily. You end up consuming huge amounts of power, and lots of time making small trips.

I have not tried hydrogen thruster miners, it feels like despite the huge abundance of ice to make fuel hydrogen tanks are just too big for how long they last for it to be really practical.

I've never been able to get driving miners to work very well. Pistons aren't long enough, and stacking them adds a horrible amount of wobble even with tool shake off. I tried making ones with rotor arms (both side and forward) but drills are so heavy they throw the balance off and make it a nightmare to drive. I have had some success but overall it seems more trouble than it's worth, especially since wheel vehicles are apparently very buggy and randomly fall through the ground and/or have the wheels vanish (have not had either problem yet myself, though)

Ultimately I feel like the best solution to planetary mining is "don't, just scrap everything to build a space rocket and mine asteroids". and if you absolutely need to mine a certain ore, just take the hand drill to it. Which makes me kind of sad since space is better than planets in every other way too and if the best thing to do at the start of the game is go straight to space and ignore planets forever.... why did they spend a year building them?

Edit:

So, having finally managed to acquire the game, here I ask if the server is still a thing.

As far as I know, there's no B12 server. Multiplayer is still kind of a train-wreck so I'd stick to singleplayer or to small 2 - 3 person localhosted games until they get around to fixing the netcode.

[LoSboccacc]

what about a mining vessel carried around by a wheeled thing?

[forsaken1111]

The most effective way of mining that I know is to dig out a long ramp and put collectors at the bottom, then mine using the hand drill so the ore chunks roll down to the collectors.

[BurnedToast]

what about a mining vessel carried around by a wheeled thing?

The most effective way of mining that I know is to dig out a long ramp and put collectors at the bottom, then mine using the hand drill so the ore chunks roll down to the collectors.

These are both pretty good ideas, thanks. I'm going to test them both out next time I get a chance. I'll be honest, I totally forgot the collector block even existed since I haven't used it in so long. I'll probably try to make a truck with collectors on the back to park on the bottom of the ramp so it loads it's self up, ready to go

Also part of my problem was I did the math wrong on how much ore an atmos thruster can carry (probably confused kN and N at some point) so the flying miners ended up not quite as bad as I originally thought they were. They still use too much power (imo, since I have not found a uranium patch yet) to be practical to fly around the planet with a hold full of ore, but with a carrier to unload on and carry it around to save power it should work pretty good.

[jocan2003]

Unless there's been a recent tweak to it, simply setting the rotor's force (kN) low enough will avoid spontaneous destruction.
Haven't used pistons yet, but I'd be surprised if the same wasn't true.

Yeah having the infinite force on rotor cause an infinite force against the locking location wich mean well... its like the landing gear or anything is hitting the locked object at an infinite speed, you need to set it much lower than the locking force of the landing gear else it goes boom.

[jocan2003]

Also part of my problem was I did the math wrong on how much ore an atmos thruster can carry (probably confused kN and N at some point) so the flying miners ended up not quite as bad as I originally thought they were. They still use too much power (imo, since I have not found a uranium patch yet) to be practical to fly around the planet with a hold full of ore, but with a carrier to unload on and carry it around to save power it should work pretty good.

You wont find uranium on planets ever, htey onlye spawn on asteroid from what ive read somewhere.

[PTTG??]

I found a substantial uranium deposit on my survival planet.

[deoloth]

Also have uranium next to my earth planet base. I believe it is platinum you are thinking of.

-Edit-

From the 1.108 patch notes,

"platinum is found only on moons and asteroids, uranium is rare on planets"

[Mookzen]

So, is there meaningful persistence and PVP yet ?

[forsaken1111]

Uranium is simply 'rare' on planets. It still shows up. Platinum is exclusive to asteroids (and moons maybe?)

[Sensei]

So, is there meaningful persistence and PVP yet ?

That's been in for ages, but everybody is waiting for the new net code to do serious multiplayer.