ROC Mining is Broken....or is it? - How to consistently find more gems!

[@LoudGuns]

UPDATE: As of 3.17.1 the range at which ROC Mineables can be detected is now about 2.5-3.0km. The principal still works the same, it just isn't such a small range.

[@nodge8972]

Great vid, I was wondering if this was still current.

[@Noidhole88]

The problem I have on Aberdeen is that I keep finding 6 or 9 node hadanite but they spawn inside a large stone or a tree or something. Its always a good idea to get as close as you can and make sure the gems are accessible before going through the trouble to land and unload the ROC. Might have to try Daymar.

[@LoudGuns]

Yeah, the dunes of Daymar are better for avoiding those gem in rock moments, another point for my new favourite spot!

[@KhairulFadzlyAKarim]

So when the mining bomb that they are making came into the game those big rocks should not be a problem then?

[@vinniexl75]

@@LoudGuns i did have the occasional gem in rock moments today in 3.16 on Daymar, though most were ok. Otherwise, thanks for the awesome and clear tutorial.

[@aimlessgamre2065]

god saying cutless white cause your ship is a cutless black but with a white skin makes it sound weird lol

[@digitalfabric]

Brilliant! This was the most useful video on ROC mining that I have come across in the last year, and I have seen many. Thanks for putting it together!

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers Ashley - all you need are vector diagrams!

[@pbeatz911]

Awesome video and incredibly helpful. I will try that from now on whenever I am going for ROC mining. Let's hope the rocks donÄt spawn inside bigger rocks.

[@Mischievous65]

Amazing explanation. The depiction with the circles was exactly what I needed to understand what the active scanner was actually doing. Also, thanks for the range update.

[@MrHowdi]

In 3.15 and this advice is still great for someone getting into it, I had this method already in use, but found that I am traveling too slow. I can now fly at around 300ms or faster, covered almost 3x the ground. This is great!

[@LoudGuns]

Perfect - glad it’s helping out mate!

[@MrGrumblier]

Thank you very much for this. I never noticed the difference in ranges. This will help me immensely. Now, if the damn game would stop losing server connection every time I have a full load of ore...

[@bjaarki]

Great video man. Noob to the game (couple thousand hours in ED tho lol) and this will help massively. I was facing all the pitfalls you mentioned - 180 degree scan angle, 100 m/s speed etc. Thanks for the info AND outlining specifically why yours is a better method. Exactly my kinda nerdery!

[@LoudGuns]

Glad it helped you out Nathan! Now if I could only go back and apologise to the maths teacher I repeatedly questioned on how I would ever use what she was teaching me 😂

[@HadoukenPotato]

Will make good use of the speed:coverage calculation, thanks again dude. Love your schtick, keep up the good work!

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers mate - as with most of life maths has the answer :D

[@KodiakGaming]

Gonna have to try this method, been having a hell of a time finding hand minables since the scanning update, granted Quant has been way easier to find so the wallet hasn't suffered, but I need to brush up before the wipe.

[@LoudGuns]

Indeed- figured this might be useful since we’re going to have to roll back come the wipe!

[@jeremygrant1325]

Yeah I think I need to bounty my way up to a prospector and just run around for quant

[@Jett_Heller]

Many thanks for this. Usually went slower and was looking for the gem icon without realising that they may also appear as a box. Got a thumbs up from me!

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers man- if it’s helpful I’m doing something right!

[@Jett_Heller]

@@LoudGuns Keep up the great work!

[@BreadbearWasHere]

This is really helpful I used to just go for any blocks symbols and hope their gems

[@DraegerV1]

I just tried your method and i went from finding 4-6 mining nodes in 2 hours to about 30 nodes within 30 minutes. Thanks for your time, really helped me out!!!

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers man, great to hear!

[@baronvonschnellenstein2811]

Thanks for this video, Loud Guns. Like your ship mining video(s), a thorough, but clear and concise guide. Whilst mining / scanning has changed again in SC 3.17, the overall principles are still applicable - I can improve my mining by following your tips around setting radar coverage angle and optimal traversal speed for efficiency and coverage. Cheers!

[@GuyJustCool]

The actual optimal coverage speed idea is great. Thank you boys. Dont run into mongrels

[@OMeffigy]

Nice! I like this method. I have been doing slow rolling and not scanning to avoid pirates but, I didnt realise how this was working. Thanks for the info!

[@LoudGuns]

No worries- I think they even introduced something in 3.15 so pings are now not visible to other people, so should be safe enough!

[@jordanrivas7398]

This is an absolutely brilliant guide. This is going to help a ton in 3.15 when any earning potential will be even more important.

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers Jordan! Yeah I figured a lot of folks would be back to a ROC and maybe not aware of all the changes.

[@SolSearcher]

If it wasn't for videos like yours I don't know how I would have ever learned this. Thanks!

[@Otaku073]

Thanks so much about the info on pinging! No other video I've seen really goes over that at all and thats what I wanted to know the most

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers mate! Yeah knowing how to mine gems and rocks is all well and good, but first you need to find them!!

[@Otaku073]

@@LoudGuns Exactly. I understood how to mine but I couldn't find them until I knew about needing to be 1.2km away. Thanks to your video I was out mining last night. I was getting so frustrated why I was only spotting big rocks everywhere I went lol. Everyone else's videos just cut to "oh look here's a patch of rocks" with no explanation of how they found them.

[@rusbilak2186]

I'm a new citizen and I appreciate all your videos. I purchased the ROC paint package, and now can't figure out how to apply any of them to my ROC, lol.

[@LoudGuns]

Lol don’t worry Rus - it’s confusing. Make sure you’ve got your home base selected as either Lorville or New Babbage, then claim your roc to there if you’ve already had it out somewhere else. You’ll then be able to apply the paint in the vehicle manager part of the mobiglass

[@rusbilak2186]

@@LoudGuns I got it done, but it cost me 5.000 aUEC :) The ROC wouldn't show up at Lorville until I loaded it in my Freelancer Max, landed in the hangar, unloaded it from the Max and parked beside it. That got me the "reckless vehicle operation" and my Freelancer got impounded. After I paid the 5,000 fine the ROC showed up in my vehicle manager and I was able to change the paint.

[@timdavis6913]

Thanks for the content. I'm buying a Greycat after work today.

[@Sentrix141]

Thank you so much! Was wondering what I was doing wrong

[@Tikky177]

This is the best clearly explained video of mining basics with ROC! Thank u!!! No shit talking, just facts and tips

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers mate - that’s what I aim for……well maybe I talk some shit from time to time :D

[@tommo2944]

good but of info thanks mate - been flying around at about 75........time to speed things up :)

[@winterband1]

This is the single most helpful video I've found on this matter. Thanks!

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers man - vector diagrams have their place after all!

[@simonpinner2991]

Good advice. Have been spending a lot of time gem mining with my CB and Roc. The biggest flaw I am finding is I discover good Hadanite rock groups but more often than not they have spawned inside surface rocks and cant be mined. This is so broken!! I also have al kinds of issues with extraction not working properly unless I select it then exit mining mode and then re entering it. Also sometimes the power metering wont appear and I am getting pretty good at breaking rock but feel and judgment. That is pretty satisfying.

[@bronney]

same here but I found a workaround. When your extraction and or charging stop working, spam M. The modes are tripped and thought your M is retracted when it's deployed. It's a very common bug if you program voiceattack without variable checks. Spam M and right click, because sometimes the arm thinks it's in extract mode when it's in fracture mode. Very messy this.

[@LoudGuns]

Another thing I found is to switch the laser back to fracturing mode from extraction after you’re finished, before you switch off mining mode. It seems to reduce the amount of times it bugs.

[@TjarkoTarnen]

Great advice there, thank you. Traveling too slow does sound like it's the issue.

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers mate, you’re most welcome!

[@SHOCKSTRUT]

Great video man! I'm new at ROC Mining and this method of scanning helped a lot. I found a cluster of 10 Hadenite stones and halfway through my ROC overheated. As I'm new I didn't know what to do. I moved what I could by hand into my Cutlass Black but had to log out in the bed as I was headed out to dinner. When I logged back in the gems were in my cargo but outside my ship my ROC was gone as well as the remaining five Hadenite Rocks. Dang! Where'd you get that Cutlass paint job?

[@goggleBOX_OG]

This was really helpful it understanding how to actually search.

[@CubicleRanger]

A star citizen content creator that rolls out vector geometry and Excel for his vids? I've found my home. Haha. Keep up the great work; your profession guides really helped me get oriented coming back after a few patches away. Glad I found it. Easy like & subscribe.

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers mate, I know my content might be a bit too dry at times for some people….but it’s exactly that level of nerd that makes it perfect for others!

[@Jambon3D]

Dude, thank you! I knew I was doing something wrong, used to find gems so easily

[@LoudGuns]

No worries mate! Glad it was helpful!

[@jonthemediocre626]

Thanks for making this technique video. It does help, even though I still wish it was easier to find ROC mineables

[@LoudGuns]

I know right - still we work with what we have! :D

[@Maxxmentum]

I have a Taurus, but when I get a chance I will give this a shot. The 1.2-1.4 is helpful.

[@LoudGuns]

Nice - Taurus should be quite good for it, although I don’t honestly know how a Connie flies at 400m/s planetside :D

[@raimee81]

Your videos are so helpful. It pointed out 2 things i was doing wrong. Moving too slowly, and being too ping happy. I've been able to try out the tips and was able to find more gems more quickly. Still need to be on the look out. The most frustrating thing is to find a nice 3 gem hadanite deposit......under a big rock! And I can't get to it.

[@LoudGuns]

Yeah unfortunately that happens quite often on some moons, less on Daymar than Ariel though so another win for Daymar!

[@arcadealchemist]

we need scan blades be cool to be able to scan faster and lock on scans so it shows details on a radial pip

[@LoudGuns]

That would be really cool, I hope there are plans for plenty of server blades so that they don’t just become a way to avoid multi-crewing multi-crew ships. One thing I’d like to see is a kill warrant scanner like in ED, enhancing the payouts you get from Bounties to an extent that it’s better to multi-crew something like a Scorpius rather than just slaving the turret.

[@tallaaron1115]

This helped, thank you. I joined your discord also to find people talking about mining. What interesting timing. Ha ha :D

[@LoudGuns]

Nice! Glad to have you onboard mate!

[@zpilot4523]

Good advice about the optimal scanning speed

[@LoudGuns]

Now if I could just learn not to crash at much above that it’ll be gravy :D

[@brentschmgbert3578]

Brilliant guide. Thanks! I was making the mistake to fly too slow and now I know better👍

[@LoudGuns]

Haha, thanks mate! Yeah I don’t think you were alone :D

[@clickboomgaming5712]

I just started SC last week and have been hammering out bounty hunting, but it is sometimes incredibly buggy and frustrating, mining seems like a really relaxing thing to do and this channel has finally converted me xD

[@LoudGuns]

I do enjoy a bit of bounty hunting, but I was rolling around with a couple of mole crews at the weekend and it’s a really great way to just chill out and hang with mates (plus you make bank!).

[@clickboomgaming5712]

@@LoudGuns For sure!

[@GravitasZero]

Tried roc mining for the first time recently, tried to bring the roc back on the cutlass black, failed to go up the ramp because it was 10 cm off the ground… Got out of the roc to pilot the ship to a more flat area, died for walking on said ramp. Alt-F4ed out of there and stopped SC for the day.

[@PikuYost]

exactly what I needed. Thank you! I'm off to try roc mining once more after giving up previously multiple times. Seems I wasn't scanning low / often enough and moving far too slow.

[@LoudGuns]

I spoke to a bunch of people in the org and that seemed to be the common factor!

[@vagabondprime1691]

I can't wait to check this out! Fantastic information once again! Thank yoU!

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers mate! You’re most welcome :D

[@thegobstopper323]

"I'm a massive nerd thats gonna show you charts" -- I about died. Good shit brother.

[@TheBrotherGrimm]

This is actually a pretty great guide! Props dude!

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers mate - glad it’s useful!

[@dalemckenzie335]

Nice little guide on effective scanning!

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers Dale - much appreciated!

[@celeste136]

Had my first ROC mining experience the other day. Went pretty well, mined about 6 rocks and figured "this is good enough to take back to sell". Game crashed 5 seconds later. 10/10 would suffer again.

[@KhairulFadzlyAKarim]

Thanks, it took a while but I understand your ROC method.

[@gatorpika]

Nice. Next up how to defend yourself with the mining laser from all the pirates who will be preying on ROC miners after the wipe. :0

[@LoudGuns]

Send all the other people to Daymar while you go to Wala? Wait no delete delete delete

[@djsixninesix]

Rail gun

[@mobiusnm]

Rail gun and manually flying to a point since porates cant see your pings anymore

[@mastersoanes]

Gems.... That's outrageous, truly truly outrageous. Great description 👍

[@LoudGuns]

Truly :D

[@nethead72]

Sharing with org, excellent breakdown. My tactics were all wrong lol.

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers Levi - let me know how you guys get on!

[@cdanielh128]

Just about to start mining. Looking for a good guide and it looks like I hit paydirt. Keep up the great work.

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers mate! Thank you very much!

[@sketto1283]

Nice simple illistration on the ping and speed! Well done.

[@LoudGuns]

Simple illustrations are all I can manage :D

[@xcandy007x]

Great video. most helpful one on the internet pls keep making more!

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers Nick! Will do

[@xcandy007x]

@@LoudGuns I'm a noob still on my first ship. going to save up and skip over the roc mining and go to prospector.

[@myarbro909]

I think I commented about this on a previous video of yours. Finding them has never been an issue for me. Fly low, and fly slow. My problem is that I get about 2-3 good groups mined before they desync. You can see them, scan them, but your mining laser doesn't have any affect. I have tried just about every solution in the book, and the only thing that fixes it is a relaunch of the game, which wastes a lot of time. I hope that gets fixed.

[@LoudGuns]

Ah sorry if I missed that - I think there’s an issue where the laser bugs and switches. Rather than logging out one definite way to fix it is to go back to the mining outpost and put the ROC away, then take it back over - it’ll work. I also found you can reduce the frequency it happens by switching your laser back to mining mode from extract before you exit mining mode.

[@myarbro909]

@@LoudGuns 2 things I haven't tried yet! Thanks dude, I will give it a shot and leave feedback.

[@LoudGuns]

@@myarbro909 cheers man - it’ll be good to know if it’s just me thinking it works :) I think I meant “switch back to fracturing mode before exiting mining mode” - words fail me past a certain time in the evening!

[@zpilot4523]

@@LoudGuns the storing definitley works. But switching back doesn't stop the "laser ceasing to work" but it does help negate the switch bug

[@HadoukenPotato]

A person on the council thing suggested holding down 'right click' and 'Y' together and it actually fixed it for me. You switch the mode and exit buggy at same time. The lady voice repeats the mode when you get back in the buggy and it syncs up again. At least that's what happened to me on the one occasion I tried it. Did feel as though it glitched back into place. Much Hadanite will be had

[@FreeLancer0nyx]

Loving the quantitative data like this

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers mate!

[@negative-7846]

You have a great voice and speaking skills, plus you make really nice videos. +1

[@LoudGuns]

Thank you very much! And after many many many comments having to apologise that my voice is gravelly from a misspent youth it’s really nice to get my first positive one!

[@stoneguard]

Great technique, thanks for sharing!

[@LoudGuns]

No worries mate - glad it helps!

[@rolanders7553]

I miss the old triangle scan returns Great vid

[@LoudGuns]

Sometimes I do too, mostly I miss gems having a sig you could pickup at 2.5km :D

[@rustywires6848]

The big boss coming in again with the solid Intel. Thanks again ya legend!

[@LoudGuns]

Big boss? I might have to get this printed on a mug.

[@rustywires6848]

@@LoudGuns 🤣🤣🤣

[@Underleaf76]

How do you get the fly over shots outside of the cockpit, is there a key bind or special camera angle you use for that? The footage is amazing.

[@Jahru]

great guide! I will definitely try it out

[@olmecultra6588]

Is the scan a sphere or a box? So, as altitude increases the surface area scanned decreases???

[@LoudGuns]

Based on the animations it appears to be a sphere, so low flying does help a lot.

[@olmecultra6588]

@@LoudGuns I have found that the Nomad excels in this role. It is nimble, small and has excellent cockpit visibility allowing you to effectively touch the cockpit glass to the node if needed to examine it before breaking out the ROC. It is also easy to park just about anywhere. :)

[@LoudGuns]

@@olmecultra6588 yeah I do really like the nomad for roc mining, although I did make the mistake of doing a qt jump with the roc on the back once :(

[@Maxos43]

Nice tips dude ! Any workaround for collection ? They don't want to come in the ROC just messing around :/

[@mobiusnm]

We were unable to get ping results at 1200 meters. We had to fly within 150 meters to get gens to result on a ping. Altitude meter showed 1000 meters when we were hugging the ground. Wonder if thats part of the issue. This was on auberdeen.

[@arnaudblanc]

Thanks for the guide, this is very useful !

[@LoudGuns]

No worries mate, glad it helped!

[@SHOCKSTRUT]

Just had an idea... when my ROC overheated half full couldn't I have just jumped in my Cutlass, hopped over to Shubin mining facility and just sold the contents of my ROC or does the ROC physically have to be present @ Shubin? I need to try this.

[@steveh3206]

Solid helpful info, thanks LG!

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers Steve, glad it was useful mate!

[@damian3182]

This was very helpful! Thanks!

[@renemaimann-roland1904]

great information, thanks for sharing!

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers Rene!

[@peoplelikeus3684]

Where are the best named locations for hand mining if you're in a starter ship and just wanting to grind your way into bigger better etc.

[@Sneemaster]

What's that white Cutlass paint? It looks cool.

[@LoudGuns]

It’s the 2950 best in show paint - a personal favourite of mine for sure!

[@Thaelose]

Great video! This was extremely helpful.

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers Tucker, glad it helped you mate!

[@rio20d]

I always prefer Daymar, the atmosphere is thin and you could see far ahead ( better field of vision) with Abeerdeen the atmosphere is so thick, you cant see a bloody thing ,until you get quite close to the surface lol

[@mike_d_melb_music_fan5229]

Do you need / want differert mining modules for the Roc? Or does they just apply to mining ships ?

[@artificerempyrean239]

Damn, someone ingame told me to fly 50m/s. Gonna try this tomorrow and see if I can actually find some rocks.

[@LoudGuns]

Oof, they need to find this video too :D

[@Dalers84uk]

There's one thing about the ROC I had trouble with was loss of power on the lazer , after mining continously after a while I couldn't mine anymore deposits. Is it true the ROC power depletes over time? I have to store then reclaim in order to continue.

[@LoudGuns]

I think this is a bug with the laser switching modes while still visually showing the other one. Hopefully they fix for 3.15, but one thing I’ve found does seem to help - when you’ve finished extracting switch the laser back to fracturing mode before you switch off the mining mode and put the arm away. Let me know if this helps.

[@redskizedski7336]

Mining’s so glitchy at the moment, I wouldn’t even bother. Storage depot’s not seeing ship/Roc inventory. Log on the next day and find yourself losing it all and ending up in blue pyjamas even though you logged off correctly the day b4 grrrrrrr… still waiting on my ticket!

[@LoudGuns]

Ah it’s glitchy for sure but still some of the best cash in game for new players. That said I’ve got hopes that the mining gadgets in 3.16 make mining in a rental prospector viable.

[@Shadow-Hawk]

I find more gems using the prospector than I do with the Drake. Its just to bad you can not pick up the gems with the prospector, you have to go pick them up by hand. I spent 2 hours collecting Hadanight and filled the prospector storage full and the 120K back pack and all storage areas full. Then on the way to sell them and the damn game server crashes. The worst thing about this game is the Developers are to into making money with adding new ships to try to lure people into the game, and the sad part is the game has loads of bugs and crashes and server disconnection errors. and they seem to not have them on their top priority list. So when you buy the game come's a big disappointment, your buying game pieces and no game to play them on. They really need to get their heads out of their asses and start fixing the game. So far their hasn't been much progress with bug fixes/.

[@threerisingsuns]

I tried this method, but unfortunately, it doesn't work for me. I tried Aberdeen, Arial, Magda, and Daymar. I flew around until I burned through all my fuel. After a couple hours of scanning, I found 0 Hadanite, 1 cluster of Dolovine, and 2 clusters that spawned underneath larger rocks and thus un-mineable. ROC mining seems totally broken now in 3.15 unfortunately.

[@LoudGuns]

Tbh I’ve found the scanning part ok, but extraction currently seems to have issues. Hopefully get it fixed before live but at least there’ll be a 3.15.1 patch with IAE

[@itscheswomack]

How do you keep your ship and ROC from being stored everytime you go to land to sell.

[@raholll]

why would you keep it from being stored, you want to store it, so that nobody can ram it on the pad. U can sell/process ore also when the ship and ROC is stored inside station. The persistence should make it so that the ROC will be inside the ship after you take it out again, until you claim the ship.

[@dementegg]

It's that white color skin for the cutlass is still for sale?

[@silentone11111111]

Daymars big. Do I go somewhere in particular or just fly anywhere? Hope u can help. I’m really struggling with the roc now and was considering melting mine.

[@shadowfax9861]

Currently not getting mineral id from scanner. Having to land and scan with ROC

[@LoudGuns]

Some of these elements have developed new bugs in 3.15 - a good trick can be buddying up with a guy in a prospector though. Can scan for you and break the gems quick (particularly with a lancet) using short bursts.

[@StarBadger07]

Great info. Thank you!

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers Scott!

[@davidhawley5237]

A comment for CIG: even the old (1980's) helicopter I flew for the Navy had a radar altimeter. It looks as though you are flying about "0.7" clicks in alt. would you guess that is around 500 m?

[@LoudGuns]

One thing I’m determined to do is actually learn more about flight terminology, I really need to brush up! But yeah I’d guess I’m just a bit under 500m off the ground at max points.

[@davidhawley5237]

@@LoudGuns Sorry, about that... a "Click" or "Klick" is 1,000 meters. Shorthand for Kilometer. Not really a flight term - more of a map reading term. I used your method in my Nomad this past weekend and found it very useful. It almost appeared that passive radar was as effective as scanning. Or maybe the scans were so frequent gems seemed to pop up on my flight path frequently. After the 3.15 wipe I expect I'll be doing ROC mining to grind up to a Prospector again. Thank you again.

[@LoudGuns]

@@davidhawley5237 no worries David, it’d be really interesting to talk to someone with some more real world flight experience so feel free to swing by on discord and say hello!

[@CptFrosty]

I have a problem with the extractor not being able to pull anything in after the inventory reaches 23.5 out of 80. Anyone else having this?

[@baileywills8267]

How did you get that skin for your cutty

[@TacticalBeard]

How do you set up scanning In a ship?

[@anthonyclare6750]

thanks for the info mate, subbed

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers Anthony!! Much appreciated.

[@arielm9847]

Massive nerds are cool. Thanks for the guide. Really helpful.

[@LoudGuns]

Haha - cheers Rhys!

[@12wolf68]

I think my problem is was going a bit to slow. I will try speeding up a bit and cover more ground. Question, however. Does the radius vs speed differ on the type of ship you are using?

[@LoudGuns]

I don’t believe the scanner size makes a difference in terms of the range you detect gems. Bigger scanners can generally detect mineables in a larger radius (so you’ll see the surface rocks pop up at further away) but it’s the signature that factors in on the gems so they only show at about 1.2km - I tested with a nomad and cutty and there was no difference (assume the same for the larger ships but I could be wrong).

[@12wolf68]

@@LoudGuns thanks for the follow up. It makes sense. Bigger scanner will be better for ship mining, from what you are saying but not helpful with ROC

[@user_16309]

Does the Cutlas have a yellow HUD? Thanks.

[@LoudGuns]

Hmmm hadn’t noticed until you said but it must be this Best in Show skin?

[@presidiun]

My problem is that what I mine tends to disappear in the map and I can't collect what I've mined.

[@LoudGuns]

Yeah unfortunately gems have been glitching into the planets a bit more recently which does suck, haven’t found a good way around that just yet.

[@michaelnapper4565]

Subbed after that video. thx bub!

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers Michael - much appreciated!

[@DigThat32]

Great explanation

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers mate, and thanks for all your great content!

[@Scrobes]

Hey LoudGuns, do you know what to do if the gem nodes are *inside* a rock formation, and therefore completely unreachable it seems? I've tried blasting the rocks with weapons, and nothing happens. The icons are there, but they're just.. inside a rock somehow. Like it's a bad spawn of nodes. So weird.

[@LoudGuns]

Yeah unfortunately it’s a just move on moment! Sometimes I think it’s actually picking up spawns in the caves, but sometimes it’s terrain (this has kinda ruined Ariel for me which used to be my favourite place).

[@Scrobes]

@@LoudGuns Yeah this was on Ariel. Thanks for the quick reply :-) I might join you guys on the disc. I've got my orange uniform and a mole, and been getting time on the tools over the last few days. Just by myself, but I like the setting up of the mole. Like a game of billiards with position, and lining up for the shot. Ahhh I remembered another question I wanted to ask. I hope you see this. Do you know if FLTR-XLs stack? Like.. if you put 3 on a mining laser, will it be -90% extraction rate, but -60% collection of inert materials? It sort of feels like it doesn't work because -90% rate should make any collection take a very long time. I've done this on one of my Mole's mining turrets, while the other 2 are for cracking.

[@kofeyh]

@@Scrobes If you are using a MOLE, the FLTR modules are pretty redundant; you have more space available than a single rock (with Quantanium) can consume, even if it had some insanely high percentage; it would take about 3 rocks with about 30% Quantanium each; afaik the filter modules will not stack. I just use the single mining laser to crack and collect, using two surge and a stampede for consumables. All the time spent faffing about changing seats and trying to optimise is really just stealing time from when you could have been back at the refinery, offloaded, and heading back out again. Turn and burn. A bit like the ROC mining approach.

[@Scrobes]

@@kofeyh Great response, and I agree. When you're up against the clock with extracting quant, even if you found 2 rocks together and broke them all, you'll never completely fill the Mole and would never have time to go find a 3rd to crack. I realise this. I suppose my response is: sometimes I don't just want to be maximum efficiency with regards to time. I'm happy to hunt for rocks, and make case by case decisions on whether to crack one for something that *isn't* quant, while always stopping and cracking one that does have quant, knowing I will have to head back to the refinery straight after. I respect everyone's desire to play this differently, and sometimes I want to be super efficient, and sometimes I'm happy to take my time. When I take my time, I might use Mole arm #3 and shift seats a bit. It's not a big deal to me as I'm solo. :-)

[@Leptospirosi]

Useful tutorial! Thanks!

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers mate!

[@TRAYBALL187]

Great info, thanks for this

[@LoudGuns]

Cheers mate - if it helps I’m doing something right!

[@BerraLJ]

Last try i did i found 2 sites with ROC minables inside a large rock, yeah that helps lol. Ohh and i hope we get a paint for the mole, can't stand the orange see me and shoot me color :)

[@LoudGuns]

Yeah that seems way to common on Ariel for me to keep recommending it. Personally I will paint my mole an even brighter orange….and hire security.

[@Monkeyman5625]

How do you suck the gems up without them flying all over the place?

[@LoudGuns]

Hi Monkeyy, it’s a bit buggy in 3.15 but I generally find the best way is to be patient - set the extract going but then leave your laser pointed in one spot on the ground (don’t move it even when it starts picking gems up). It’ll pick them up from a patch even from one spot so once they’re done move it and do another patch etc. Moving the laser around like a paintbrush can lead to them going everywhere.