How mining will work?

[Pulstar]

I disagree, producing fuel on site has been proposed for a variety of return missions most notably Mars Direct. It makes sense for a space program to use it as it reduces the payload and thus carrier rocket you need to get everything wherever it is you want to go. For career mode the most important implication is that reusable craft will indeed be reusable which within budget constraints is an important benefit. You have to remember that career mode will have limitations on what can you can design and launch which will be part of the challenge.

[Pbhead]

What I am a little worried about is the tech tree, and how that will work with this mining thing.

because that tech tree said it would require resources.

Which means, in order to build rockets, you need to be mining.

Which means, There better eventually be ways to set up things to be automatic.

Otherwise, if you have to mine and transfer resources manually... It will be like telling your SCVS/probes/drones to manually go out the the mineral patch. Then once it gets there, tell it to mine, then onces it is done mining, you gotta tell it to come back, and then once it is back, you gotta tell it to unload, and then you got to tell it to go back to the mineral patch. for every single worker. every time you want 5 minerals.

[Akalaël]

I'm looking forward to the mining stuff personally.

It will give a sens to the game, I mean, an other sens than going to planets for... er, for just going there at the moment.

[haltux]

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.

If it were, then getting blutonium from Eve would be completely pointless. It would not even help you to leave Eve because nuclear reactors have low thrust.

And if it were pointless but just a geological fact (which does make sense), it would not be specifically highlighted in the chart.

[comham]

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.

It's something to do besides fly missions. Something to do on a planets surface besides plant a flag and explore aimlessly.

[EleSigma]

If it were, then getting blutonium from Eve would be completely pointless. It would not even help you to leave Eve because nuclear reactors have low thrust.

And if it were pointless but just a geological fact (which does make sense), it would not be specifically highlighted in the chart.

But resources are going to be finite. So if there is a little on Kerbin and other planets, once those run out then you'll have to turn to Eve.

[Pulstar]

Ocean and atmospheric resources will probably be infinite, deposits in ice/rock are going to be finite but they're supposed to be in the "takes a long time to deplete" range. Even the combine in Half-Life 2 only managed to drain a few meters worth of sea-level in 20 years, I don't think Kerbals could do better as much as jeb would like to.

[Sir Nahme]

But resources are going to be finite. So if there is a little on Kerbin and other planets, once those run out then you'll have to turn to Eve.

I can't find the quote but harvester specifically said resources would NOT be infinite, but that it would take a long time to expend them completely

[Pbhead]

Define long time.

The world burns 93 million barrels of oil a day... and we have been doing that for a long time, and can do it for at least another 40 years minimum (based on proven oil reserves.. but we have been saying we have 20-40 years left of oil for 120 years or so). I am not sure how that translates into the kerbal jet fuel tanks.

There is enough thorium in the US alone to power the US for 700 years. I am not sure how that translates into LV-N usage...

Now, kerbal is a much smaller planet than earth. but its also alot denser...

and, we are not powering a world here, just a few rockets.

[Comrade Jenkens]

Anyone up for draining kerbins atmosphere and oceans and transporting them to Duna?

[Kilmeister]

Anyone up for draining kerbins atmosphere and oceans and transporting them to Duna?

Only if you have the combination to the air shield.

[Shadow86]

On the whole they should be infinite for practical purposes, at least for most of the minerals. Sure, you shouldn't be able to mine the same vein ad infinitum, but there should be enough veins on a planet that it'd take thousands of years to completely deplete a common-ish mineral. After all, the human race has been mining copper for like 4000 years and we aren't close to depleting Earth's supply.

And there's also the subject of storage. I don't know how Kerbin will store raw materials for spacecraft production, but if there's a limit, miners likely won't mine whenever that's reached.

[comham]

Even the combine in Half-Life 2 only managed to drain a few meters worth of sea-level in 20 years

The combine didn't drain the sea in any way, unless I'm very much mistaken.

[Necandi Brasil]

Hey guys, thanks for all the replies ! Gonna work on a low cost spaceship, and maybe work on automatic mining rovers .

[EleSigma]

I can't find the quote but harvester specifically said resources would NOT be infinite, but that it would take a long time to expend them completely

That's what I meant, finite=limited, not infinite.

[Mephane]

But resources are going to be finite. So if there is a little on Kerbin and other planets, once those run out then you'll have to turn to Eve.

Is that a definite info? I'd much more prefer for deposits to have a max "yield per time" limitation than being actually limited. Especially considering the ridiculously high effort to get anything off from Eve, resources on that planet could just as well not exist at all. If I were at a point were I had no other choice than mining Eve and hauling stuff from there, I'd most likely just start a new game instead.

Another thing I hope for a resource system is the capability to establish self-sufficient bases on other planets/moons. For example, I love Minmus, the small size and thus high curvature, the flats and mountains, the slightly weird greenish color, it all looks just alien enough to me to be a cool place to build on. I would love to establish a completely autonomous colony there not for the low gravity (though it is a nice bonus), but for the place itself.

Edited June 2, 2013 by Mephane

[royying]

I concern about will the resources on plants /moons be deplete

[Sir Nahme]

That's what I meant, finite=limited, not infinite.

misread your post, my apologies

[lazarus1024]

I just hope that in the end there are only a very small handful of resources.

1) Ice for rocket fuel

2) Blutonium to refuel NERVA, RTGs and nuclear reactors (if when on the later), though all should take a VERY long time to run through their fuel (I'd propose around 10,000s of firing for a NERVA before needing nuclear refueling...obviously using rocket fuel/hydrogen during that time period, roughly 5yrs of in game time for RTGs/Nuclear reactors or maybe even somewhat longer).

3) Air either from ice or from the proper atmosphere to recharge life support systems

4) MAYBE metals (perferably just a single generic metal) you can mine to build ship parts at a base (building as KSC doesn't require resources, but unless you brought it with you, refueling, life support top off, nuclear materials refueling or building parts away from the KSC will require you to mine and refine resources).

This is my hope anyway.

[Krizzen]

I haven't seen that flow chart before. It looks AWESOME! It's both simple and complex at the same time. I mean, to make rocket fuel, you just need a pump drill and rock drill, fuel compressor. I would expect the simple resources to be somewhat plentiful on the Mun, and generally gets more complex further away. However, you could have a more complex mining rig that could handle most any resource. I'm just too excite!

[DannySwish]

Anybody else starting to get confused with the similar names?

We have:

Kerbin

Kerbal

Kerbol

Kerman

and now, Kerbon, the Carbon analog. Heh.

[rkman]

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

Right now it's not "needed" only because it's not ready yet. Just like we don't yet need to pay for parts and fuel.

Possibly resources/mining will be optional in sandbox mode, but i doubt that it will be optional in career mode.

[Pulstar]

The combine didn't drain the sea in any way, unless I'm very much mistaken.

It's not said outright in the game but the coastal bits in particular strongly hint that, also Mark Laidlaw and Half-Life 2: Raising the Bar confirmed that at some point. You have a harbor that's basically a beach with no water and piers just standing over it with rusted ships quite far inland.

Either way I doubt kerbals have portals to teleport large amount of water from planet to planet.

[Promii]

Anybody else starting to get confused with the similar names?

We have:

Kerbin

Kerbal

Kerbol

Kerman

and now, Kerbon, the Carbon analog. Heh.

Kerbol is still unofficial I believe. In game it's just called "The Sun". I'm not a huge fan of the 'K' names but I think Kerbon works pretty well.

On another topic, Squad needs to rename "Liquid Fuel' since when used in a NERVA it's not the fuel, it's only the propellant. The Blutonium is (or will be) the fuel.

[Atanar]

After all, the human race has been mining copper for like 4000 years and we aren't close to depleting Earth's supply.

You can easily make that 6000 years. You could even say 8000 if you want to count simple collection of native copper.

To the topic:

In my opinion, you should be able to buy almost anything on Kerbin, but you have to get the money somehow...

Manufacturing your own resources should only be the alternative to buying things from the money you get from missions like "bring satellite to orbit" or "land on x" (in the sense that you get goverment fundings if you keep space stuff popular as well as commercial stuff like planting communication sattelites).

A third alternative should be shipping very precious materials back to Kerbin and selling them for a lot of profit.

Edited May 31, 2013 by Atanar