How mining will work?

[Necandi Brasil]

Hello my friends, I'm new around here

So... I searched the forums for more information on how mining might work, but so far my answer is still unanswered...

- Has this been already discussed by the developers ?

- If not, what can we expect?

I've played the Kethane mod and while I enjoyed it, I really don't think we should limit the mining to only fuel, but we should also mine minerals and rare metals etc...

Mining is the feature I'm really expecting to see placed... and maybe in the future we can have multiplayer trade based on this feature ...

This game is awesome and sorry about my english

[Sir Nahme]

other than an incredibly complex resource map we have limited information (which may not even be final) but your speculation is as valid as the rest of ours

[Tommygun]

I'm looking forward to it, but I'm hoping it will not be too complex.

If we have a dozen resources think of the logistical issues and fuel needed to get them all to a base in order to build a rocket or other items out of them.

[Necandi Brasil]

other than an incredibly complex resource map we have limited information (which may not even be final) but your speculation is as valid as the rest of ours

Do you have a link ? I would love to see this !

I'm looking forward to it, but I'm hoping it will not be too complex.

If we have a dozen resources think of the logistical issues and fuel needed to get them all to a base in order to build a rocket or other items out of them.

I agree, we don't need to start with 100's of different resources, maybe a simple mine-refine-export is apropriate at the level the game is currently in ...

[Kialar]

Here is a link. Don't konw if this is the actual diagram.

[Necandi Brasil]

I like the way they are planning things... hope they maintain the basic structure of this !

[Scotius]

So, couple of things can be ascertained from this diagram. We will have mining parts: drills, pumps, scoops, intakes. From these, mined raw resources will be stored in intermediate tanks. Next step will be processing units, that will refine raw materials and send useable end products to final tanks. Pretty much like kethane now works, so we should catch up pretty fast. One of questions remaining is - how it will work in practice? Will all parts be placed on one ship, or will it be possible to set up separated units? Will there be some sort of pipes/cables/transporters pushing stuff from one end to another? Time and devs will tell

[FlamedSteak]

Cripes life support is going to seriously up the challenge levels.

[Tommygun]

One thing that could really complicate things is if one needed resource is on one side of a planet/moon and the other needed is at the opposite side or even just a few hundred kilometers away.

[haltux]

I guess it has been discussed to death on other threads, but one thing this diagram says is that nuclear fuel will have to be taken from eve, making it an extremely complex ressource to exploit.

I trust Squad to make all that nice and enjoyable, but before that it would somehow make sense to get use to not having nuclear engines for free. Otherwise I guess it will be a little bit painfull the day we ressources are actually integrated in the game.

EDIT: I made a mistake: you can get blutonium from rock as well.

Edited May 31, 2013 by haltux

[Uncle Mort]

...but one thing this diagram says is that nuclear fuel will have to be taken from eve, making it an extremely complex ressource to exploit.

Well if that happens I'm doomed.

[Olvirm]

I guess it has been discussed to death on other threads, but one thing this diagram says is that nuclear fuel will have to be taken from eve, making it an extremely complex ressource to exploit.

I trust Squad to make all that nice and enjoyable, but before that it would somehow make sense to get use to not having nuclear engines for free. Otherwise I guess it will be a little bit painfull the day we ressources are actually integrated in the game.

It says you can get Blutonium from rocks

[haltux]

It says you can get Blutonium from rocks

Yes, you are right. I missed that, sorry.

[bsalis]

Mining will be optional for those that want to do it. It's not needed now right?

It also looks to be only used for consumable resources, like the different types of fuel. I don't expect it to be any more complex than that.

[EleSigma]

My guess is that Blutonium will be a rare resource with not much of it on any of the planets except Eve. So you would only need to harvest the Eve Blutonium if you were planning on basing your entire space program around nuclear power, or operating extensively in the outer planets where solar panels wouldn't work well.

[Scotius]

My guess is that Blutonium will be a rare resource with not much of it on any of the planets except Eve. So you would only need to harvest the Eve Blutonium if you were planning on basing your entire space program around nuclear power, or operating extensively in the outer planets where solar panels wouldn't work well.

For now it's pointless speculation. We don't know how abundant blutonium will be, or how much of it engines and reactors will require. Nonetheless, i would be glad to see a branch in research tree allowing to build increasingly power efficient parts.

[Tw1]

I'm hoping there's nothing stopping you from buying blutonium on kerbin. Eve has a lot of it because that's just the nature of the planet.

[Splode]

You won't need to mine if you don't want to, but 9 times out of 10, it'll actually make life easier for you. You'll always be able to just bring the resources you need with you.

I'm looking forward to this, it'll give me a reason to start making bases, and make interplanetary missions more challenging, and less like apollo missions with huge booster stages.

[Pulstar]

The chart is in some parts outdated, the current version of it remains a secret as a lot of the things related to how resources will work. Two things that we know are planned to be different are the amount of converter/processor parts is lower (it got too complicated and some functions got combined into single parts) and there being resources used possibly for construction pf parts/spacecraft (metals and kerbon). The latter is speculation, as in the screenshot of the WIP resource list in the knowledge database shows metals like Titanite and Alium, I assume they're metals functioning roughly the same as the real life elements they're based on.

This is the old shot of the database resource list. The list could have less/more/different elements whenever resources get added,:

What is known is that you will have to detect resources, but while there will be different kinds of detectors you won't scan the planet for them like ISA Mapsat or the Kethane detectors do. Not sure how they plan to do it (or I don't remember and the details got lost in the forum time travel incident of April), but it is known it's not supposed to be as uneventful/slow as scanning for kethane is. Oh and deposits are supposed to have random locations although they'll be restricted to specific moons/planets like the chart says. So no water on Ike.

Overall though mining will look a lot similar to how kethane does it, at least for fuel although the specifics may differ (for one the deposit locations will be market in orbital view and there will be many kinds of minerals). Detect resources, land mining equipment at a deposit, collect resources, use refining/processing equipment to turn it into something useful (fuel, possibly spacecraft parts but that bit was never outright confirmed, the metals on the list may just be fluff).

[comham]

The chart is in some parts outdated, the current version of it remains a secret as a lot of the things related to how resources will work. Two things that we know are planned to be different are the amount of converter/processor parts is lower (it got too complicated and some functions got combined into single parts)

I think that's a bit of a shame. Lots of specialised parts means lots of launches are required. In-game reasons to do stuff, more interesting than "Cool, I've sent the handy dandy omni processor up, now I have everything". But it's not that big a deal, and I'm sure someone could mod in specialised parts.

I'm hoping mining involves moving physics objects around, like blocks of ore, and dumping them into processing funnels, moving them along conveyor belts etc. Probably not though.

[Richy teh space man]

I'm guessing the blutonoum on Eve will be better used in situ. Getting it from anywhere else in the system would be a lot easier.

It's not impossible to get it from Eve, but unless new technology is added to the stock game it just won't be as practical to get it from there.

[Scotius]

I wonder if water in the form of ice will make its way into resource system? This way we could get it not only from Kerbin and Laythe (maybe Eve), but also from Minmus, Eeloo and even some airless moons too. After all ice was found on the Moon and Mercury.

[Pulstar]

I think that's a bit of a shame. Lots of specialised parts means lots of launches are required. In-game reasons to do stuff, more interesting than "Cool, I've sent the handy dandy omni processor up, now I have everything". But it's not that big a deal, and I'm sure someone could mod in specialised parts.

Well it still won't be one omni-processor IIRC, more like a few processing combines. But my memory is fuzzy on that part, I do know there's supposed to be a smaller and larger processor since Nova made a model for the small one and it was shown in one KSP weekly and the larger ones WIP animation was shown on the stream.

The key challenge will be finding resource locations that overlap so that you can refine them on the ground in one place. Although in the case of small bodies like Minmus, Bop, Pol or even Vall simply getting things into orbit and refining it there may be practical. Even with mining being just drill+convert with little input actually using those resources will require time and effort.

I wonder if water in the form of ice will make its way into resource system? This way we could get it not only from Kerbin and Laythe (maybe Eve), but also from Minmus, Eeloo and even some airless moons too. After all ice was found on the Moon and Mercury.

There's a pump drill for that, I think a screenshot of it was even shown once.

The second one on the left I think.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Pulstar

[superm18]

As long as there will be different parts instead of a single all-in-one tool to mine and proces, then i'm happy.

The whole resource thing adds soo purpos to the game, not to forget career

[bsalis]

The whole resource thing adds soo purpos to the game, not to forget career

I don't see how it adds any more purpose than it already has. You could argue it defeats the purpose of getting craft and materials (eg. fuel) out to where you want them, in order to achieve what you want.

Personally I think mining is a bit of a wrong turn.