Ten more ships updated!
Aries LATK-2
Vagabond EX-4
Wanderer EX-2
Arden LM-2
Revenant ATK-5
Corsair HATK-2
Ashaton MATK-3
Kraken HATK-7
Traveler EXP-2
Trident MATK-7
https://youtu.be/3cq99khcXo0
The new drone mining system is in the game. Here is how it works.
You can now purchase mining drones at any ship equipment vendor. The total maximum number of drones you can have active and on your ship is 20. Drones on your ship are transferred to any ship you are actively flying so, if you transfer to another ship, any drones aboard your current ship get transferred along with your cargo. Drones are fairly expensive, however, they pay for themselves in a few runs and are a great way to make money while exploring the universe.
Drones have a maximum capacity of 1000 units. When they are deployed, the drones fly to the targeted planetary resource node and mine until full. You can use the drone manager to manage your drones, check their status and set their AI (more on the drone manager below).
Drones have two AI states:
Automatic – Drones will mine a node until full and then fly to the nearest station and unload and sell their cargo. You will get a notification when cargo is sold and credits will be added to your account when the transaction is complete. Drones sell cargo at the base universal average for any resource type. This option is ideal for players who want to earn extra income in a semi-automated fashion to pay for ship and equipment upgrades. If a drone sells a full cargo hold of ore, you will receive mining experience on the crew member assigned to the weaponry station.
Manual – Drones will mine a node until full and then set their status to “IDLE”. The drone will wait on the planets surface until you enter the star system the drone is located at and retrieve the drone. The drone will fly to your ship (assuming you have enough cargo space) and unload the drone to your cargo hold and return itself to storage. This option is designed for players who want to engage in the future trading and crafting features. They can then refine the ore and/or trade crafted items, raw and refined ore. This option will require a ship with a fairly high cargo capacity. If the drone fills its cargo bay, you will receive mining experience on the crew member assigned to the weaponry station.
Deploying a drone:
To deploy a drone you will first need to scan a planet. If that planet has any resources they will be displayed on the planet map in the upper right corner of the screen. Higher skill in scanning will display more nodes if there are any and provide higher quality scan results. The higher the quality of the resource node, the more resources it has available to mine. Higher quality resource nodes also provide higher returns as they are usually rich in valuable resources.
Select the node on the planets surface and the “deploy drone” icon will be displayed below the planet info panel along with the number of available drones you have to deploy. Select the icon and a drone will be launched. The drone will fly to the surface of the planet, the node icon on the planet map will change to let you know a drone is assigned and the drone will be added to the drone manager list.
Retrieving a drone:
Eventually, drones will deplete the resource. A drone with a depleted resource (or a drone that was set to manual that has a full cargo bay) will be displayed in the Drone Manager as “IDLE”.
To retrieve the drone, fly your ship to the system where the drone was deployed, select the drone in the list and click the “Retrieve” button at the bottom of the drone manager. The drone will return to your ship, unload if it has any cargo and set itself to storage. The drone will be removed from the drone manager.
Drone Manager
The drone manager can be accessed while in space via a new icon in the lower left of the screen. You can see how many drones you have and how many are deployed. Every deployed drone is listed and selecting any drone will show you it’s current status ( mining, traveling, idle etc.).
You can also access the drone manager from the Log->Map in space or when at stations or mission locations. Selecting a drone will center the map on the system where the drone is deployed.
If you select a drone while in FTL space, the system the drone is located at will be selected in the upper left system panel making it easy for you to target and approach that system for drone retrieval.
NOTE: Currently “Gas” nodes retrieve ore. I’ll make the changes needed to harvest various gas nodes when I get the trading system in the game.
There is a new in-game guide entry for the drone mining system.
Thanks as always for supporting Stellar Tactics and have a great weekend!