Space Mining

I don't think I've had that problem... but regarding the miners, are you supposed to be able to use them over and over again, or are they supposed to vanish after you improve the asteroid field? As i5 is now, it looks like I can keep using the same miner over and over again indefinately.

My miners don´t improve asteroid fields either. Improve button just goes blackish and nothing happens.

Noticed this too, I sent my miner to an astroid field and nothing happened. There was another one next to it so I sent it there instead and it started improving. I was rather surprised it wasn't used up to build the base, but I sent it back to the first field and it improved it then.

Ya after a few asteroids mines been built they dont build on new ones... ahh ya I have to force them to do it.

You can set them to auto-improve. That works for me.

Noticed this too, I sent my miner to an astroid field and nothing happened. There was another one next to it so I sent it there instead and it started improving. I was rather surprised it wasn't used up to build the base, but I sent it back to the first field and it improved it then.

I have mentioned this in the thread created by Brad. I would like to see the initial mining ship behave like a freighter and appear in the weird blue line as a moving ship. Subsewuent ships would then vanish on improving the bases. This would promote the idea of actualy building more than one mining vessel which i cant see the point of right now???

I have mentioned this in the thread created by Brad. I would like to see the initial mining ship behave like a freighter and appear in the weird blue line as a moving ship. Subsewuent ships would then vanish on improving the bases. This would promote the idea of actualy building more than one mining vessel which i cant see the point of right now???

I agree, but the upgrading of a mine should just stop the mining of it until its improved, rather than requiring another space miner to do the work. Or maybe it could require a constructor? Hmm...

But in any case I've been building one more space miner, just so I can capture more of the asteroid fields at once. But, I too have noticed that Space Miners don't always want to upgrade their target when they arrive (and it's annoying that you can't select the mine with a miner over it...)

On that note... I'm kinda disappointed that asteroid fields only provide industry bonuses. The way they were always described in the previews always seemed to hint that they were a sort of combination of galactic resources and planetary improvements. IE: when you found an asteroid field, it had some kind of material that provide a bonus (whether it be industry, research, morale or whatever) and you sent a
space miner to build a mine and send the materials mined to a single planet.

The xml files do list research, morale, and pop growth "modules" for the asteroid fields.... but they've all been commented out. Why was this idea removed?

I am also concerned because as of right now asteroid fields are undefendable by themselves. You would need a fleet to protect it. The mining colonies should have some sort of defenses. This is especially true because you can have mining colonies in neutral space.

The xml files do list research, morale, and pop growth "modules" for the asteroid fields.... but they've all been commented out. Why was this idea removed?

More likely that at the present stage in beta development the code for using the different types is not finished so to give us an idea of how they will work the devs put in a basic mining module instead..... Maybe

More likely that at the present stage in beta development the code for using the different types is not finished so to give us an idea of how they will work the devs put in a basic mining module instead..... Maybe

True enough. The beta's also missing the Fertility Clinics (at least the building, even the tech itself mentions them) as well as the Lab Networks (both mentioned in the rebalancing post). I guess I'll keep on hoping then

I think a game play improvement needed is the ability to attack mining bases. I tried to do that but nothing happened. It would be cool to reak havoc on the enemies production that way.

So as it stands mining bases have no defences but it doesn't matter because they can't be attacked? Sounds odd, that means the only way you can knock them out is to culture flip them.

This thing about the ships not being used up to upgrade doesn't sound right either, I imagine we'll see some changes here.

The miners do not build/upgrade mining bases when they using the auto pilot. you need to move them first next to the asteroid field and then manually move them in. Also you need techs to upgrade them, just like starbases.

Hopefully I can clear up some of the confusion about asteroid fields and mining ships.

It is INTENDED that the space miner ships are not destroyed/consumed when building or improving mining bases. 

If you select a mining ship and right-click an asteroid field or mining base, the ship will begin building a base or improving the existing base when it arrives.  This is because the asteroid field is the ship's destination.  If you set the space miner ship to go to a tile and on the way there it passes through an asteroid field, it will not begin improving it, because the asteroid field is not the ship's destination.  

Some of the base upgrades require certain Space Mining techs, so if your ship arrives at an asteroid field with a base on it, and the Improve button is greyed out, that is probably why.  IIRC, you will only be able to build the initial base until you start researching the Space Mining techs.  Then you will be able to upgrade them.  Please check to make sure you have the appropriate techs and that your space miner ship's destination is set to the asteroid field.

You can use SHIFT+M to set the selected Space Miner ship into "Auto-Improve" mode.  This will make the ship mine the asteroid fields automatically.

I think a game play improvement needed is the ability to attack mining bases. I tried to do that but nothing happened. It would be cool to reak havoc on the enemies production that way.

Mining bases CAN be attacked.  Take a ship with weapons on it, and move it onto a mining base that is controlled by another civ.  You will be asked if you want to declare war, if you haven't already.
Please check the ship you used to attack the base with. Did it have weapons or was it a transport ship (no weapons, just troops)?

If you have a case where your attack ship cannot destroy the base or the mining ships are not behaving as described above, please save the game, and email it with a brief description to [email protected].  Also, please include your debug.err file ( found in c:/program files/stardock/totalgaming/galciv2/darkavatar/debug.err )

Thanks.

My ships did have weapons and they just occupied the same spot as the mining base when I moved it there. I have already finished that game and saved over it so I'll have to start a new one. If it happens again I will send in the saved game. And I agree that mining ships shouldn't be used up when building mining bases. I think it costs more to make a mining ship than the amount of bonus you get from creating mining bases until I have a high mining tech.

Well I started a new game and I was able to attack mining bases this time. My enemies are having fits! Haha.