Orion Mining Ship

[OldBloke]

Concept sale starts Friday. Ship will be $325.

It better be crap or I'm in

[TeaLeaf]

I'll be right behind you in the queue.....

An additional bit of excitement for me is that it is the last piece of kit I want for my intended fleet.  I reckon I'll have all the roles that I'm interested in covered and so I'll be looking forward expectantly for the alpha of the PU later this year.  

Awesome stuff! :thumbsup:

[Obsydian]

Do you hear that?... I think that's the sound of Space Marshall approaching!

[albert]

I have to say, I hate them, it feels like months since our last offering and my bank account as just starting to recover! :doh:

I'm sort of hoping the design competition ships get a revisit because this is just epic:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rax0h9mgsx8

[Justin Tolerable]

Do you hear that?... I think that's the sound of Space Marshall approaching!

[Sigh]

I already floated past that some time ago...

Not sure about this one.  I'll see how I feel about it.

[Obsydian]

My condolences JT. Any more room on that ledge? Move over.

[TeaLeaf]

It's here!



The RSI Orion

-mining platform
-170 meters in length
-multiple independent mining drones
-onboard refinery
-saddlebag-class storage units capable of holding 16,288 standard cargo units of ore
- a crew of up to six (responsible for flight operations, engineering and manning both turrets and pre-installed drone interfaces).
- onboard accommodations
A genuine complete mining solution, a single Orion can locate, identify and extract lucrative ores, or it can be paired with explorers and transports to form the centerpiece of a larger-scale mining operation!

I love it, it's exactly what I was hoping it would be and I'll be getting one later today! :thumbsup:

Fleet complete, thank you RSI!  :worship:

This is well worth a read:
Star Citizen Careers - Mining

MINING SPECIALISTS
The mining occupation supports a variety of dedicated specialists, each of which has a critical role to play in the effort. As previously noted, one of the basic objectives in the design of the various occupations is breaking down large, complicated endeavors into a number of smaller jobs, each of which can test a dedicated player’s mettle in unique and interesting ways. This encourages but does not force players to act in concert with one another to accomplish larger tasks, as you’ll always have the option of simply doing it all yourself â€" however inefficient that might be â€" or, more likely, simply hiring NPC crew members to work alongside you. There’s a lot of thought and effort going into the hiring, evolution, simulation of motivations, and evaluation of such NPC crew members, but that’s a topic best left for another discussion.

Pilot
The pilot, of course, navigates the ship. While this sounds straightforward, in practice it is often challenging as impacting an asteroid can seriously damage a player’s ship, and the asteroids with the most attractive resource compositions are often deep within a concentrated field. Pilots make the final call as to which individual asteroid warrants the most immediate attention, often choosing from an array of possible targets identified via the scanning process. They also determine whether to remain in a fixed position around an asteroid throughout the excavation process or to adopt a more active role, gradually rotating around a selected asteroid and thus giving the beam operator a better opportunity to find and extract valuable pockets of buried ore. Many asteroids are filled with dangerous materials that, under the right conditions, can blow the asteroid to pieces, increasing the value of a good pilot that can quickly navigate a ship to a safe distance even when the warning time is minimal.

Scan operator
The scan operator is responsible for injecting remote material analysis packages (RMAPs) into nearby asteroids that, upon success, immediately begin sending telemetry data back to the pilot and scan operator informing them as to the asteroid’s precise material composition. Depending upon the ship and its associated hardware, anywhere from several dozen to hundreds of RMAP-equipped manually guided missiles may reside upon a mining vessel.

Upon selection of an asteroid, the center of mass is automatically calculated and the scan operator begins the process of gradually scanning for a suitable RMAP insertion point. This is a multi-faceted process involving a search for a section of surface geometry oriented such that its perpendicular traverses the center of mass or somewhere close to it. The operator receives feedback on the angular difference, but it’s ultimately their call as to whether a given site is good enough or not.

Once an insertion site has been selected, the location and optimal injection orientation are displayed, and the scan operator may launch an RMAP-equipped missile. The missile’s thrust and guidance system are manually controlled, with the objective being to impact the asteroid at the precise point and with the exact orientation dictated via the previous step. The distance from the computer-specified injection position, deviation from the optimal angle, base material of the asteroid, and final impact velocity ultimately determine whether an injection is successful or not.

One interesting aspect of this particular effort is that the confidence of the scan operator plays a significant role. The more optimal the initial insertion point selected â€" which typically takes more time to achieve â€" the larger the error can be in the subsequent missile guidance stage and still achieve a successful insertion. More skilled operators, therefore, will often be willing to accept even a mediocre insertion site so that they may quickly proceed to the next stage, confident in their ability to hit the precise location at the specified speed and angle such that they’ll still be able to achieve success.

Beam operator
The beam operator is typically the second-in-command of a mining expedition. They are responsible for wielding the multi-megawatt mining beam generators affixed to one or more robotic arms near the front of the ship that fracture asteroids into digestible chunks. The beam operator has direct control over the output wattage, and is thus able to precisely control how much energy to dispense into a given area of an asteroid. This is critically important, as the injection of surplus energy into a volatile material can cause an explosive chain reaction to occur, with the total destructive force ultimately determined by the type and amount of reacting material. The beam equivalent of a sledgehammer, therefore, can be used to quickly excavate large quantities of inert materials, but a lower-wattage scalpel will be necessary when attempting to safely extricate those that may react violently in the presence of sufficient energy.

The Exothermic Reaction Detector is a status display on the beam operator’s control panel that detects the production of excess energy indicative of the fact that the mining beam is causing a chain reaction in some portion of the materials in close proximity to the beam. This information is presented to the operator in the form of a vertical bar graph plotted over time showing the probability per second of such a reaction growing out of control and consuming â€" often in a powerful burst of energy that can send huge, dangerous shards of the asteroid flying towards the player’s ship â€" all of the material in the nearby area.

Exothermic Reaction Detector

Every minable material has its own unique set of parameters dictating how much energy a given quantity can absorb, how quickly it can dissipate energy, how easily it can transfer excess energy to surrounding materials, its probability of fragmentation as energy levels reach critical levels, and numerous other things.

The average size of the fragments carved from an asteroid as the result of a mining beam being utilized, then, depend upon the amount of wattage the beam is injecting into the body, as well as the type of materials into which the energy is being directed.

As fragments are torn asunder from the parent body, they generate seismic tremors that resonate throughout the asteroid and only gradually dissipate. Some volatile materials are sensitive to such vibrations, and as such minimizing the magnitude of any such tremors is often of considerable concern. This is complicated, however, by the fact that such tremors are modeled independently of one another, with the sum total displacement caused by the superposition of the waves constantly being applied against the various materials within the asteroid. Thus, even a series of small tremors can present a serious threat depending upon how the waves interfere with one another.

Laser Seismometer

The Laser Seismometer shows each individual tremor within an asteroid, as well as the superposition of the various waves. It also shows the vibrational thresholds for any seismically sensitive materials contained within the asteroid, assuming that an RMAP has been successfully injected. Explosions that occur as the result of a seismic event are often considerably more dangerous than chain reactions that consume a quantity of material in a localized area because they will cause all such material within the entire asteroid to detonate, with the end result often being the complete destruction of the asteroid, and a pronounced danger to any mining ship unfortunate enough to be in close proximity at the time. Fortunately, such events are often telegraphed in advance via seismic activity growing progressively more erratic and tiny pockets of material prematurely detonating and causing the ejection of small sections of the asteroid into space.

Highly compressed pockets of gas buried within an asteroid present another distinct danger to a mining operation. Exposure of even a small portion of a gas pocket to the vacuum of space results in an immediate explosive decompression that can splinter nearby sections of the asteroid, send astronauts hurtling through space, and generate considerable seismic turbulence.

Analytical Materials Processor

The mining beam is equipped with a high-energy scanning probe called the Analytical Materials Processor that provides constant feedback as to what type of materials lie beneath the surface â€" within range of the probe â€" in the specified direction. Each material identified is presented on a horizontal bar graph replete with information regarding the depth at which it can be found and the approximate quantity.

Cargo operator
The cargo operator utilizes a console on the bridge of the ship that allows them to monitor a camera mounted within the forward-facing input port. From that vantage point the cargo operator can view the impact area of the mining beam, as well as the various asteroid fragments that are broken apart from the parent body and ejected out into space. The input port contains a powerful crusher that quickly reduces any incoming asteroid fragments to rubble and stores them in attached cargo modules for transport or, on ships with an integrated refinery, subsequent processing into their purified elemental forms.

The cargo operator directs a targeting cursor towards fragments of interest, with an integrated Fragment Scanner â€" similar to the Analytical Materials Processor utilized by the beam operator â€" providing immediate feedback in regard to the fragment’s precise composition. In this manner, the operator is able to get a quick sense as to the relative value of the fragment, and whether it is worth attempting to guide it into the input port, or whether it contains so little of value that it’s best avoided so as to preserve precious cargo space or time-consuming refining effort. The Fragment Scanner also displays the object’s mass, trajectory, and velocity.

The cargo operator controls attractor and repulsor beam generators typically mounted just within or outside the input port, and the magnitude of the force generated by each can be precisely controlled so as to allow for intricate modification and control of a fragment’s trajectory. The cargo operator’s display allows for a variable magnification zoom, which is necessary since attractive and repulsive forces are applied at the precise location denoted by the target cursor. Application of force to a fragment’s extremity, then, will typically result in generating a rotation on the object rather than any significant change in its direction. Thus, considerable skill â€" including the ability to quickly estimate an object’s approximate center of mass â€" is required in order to efficiently apply forces and guide fragments along the desired path.

Refinery operator
The position of refinery operator only exists on mining ships that contain an integrated refinery. Refineries allow raw ore to be gradually converted into their purified component forms, with the undesirable elements being ejected back out into space in the form of dust. Purified materials consume a small fraction of the storage space of their unrefined counterparts, which is of particular concern when dealing with low quality asteroid fields that possess valuable elements only in a highly diffused form, or when attempting to minimize the number of return trips back to a trading or storage facility. The refinery operator controls the routing of ore to a variety of specialized processing units, each of which has a different role to play in the separation of one material from another. Operator errors in the refinement process can cause sensitive equipment to fail, stalling the conversion process and costing valuable time until the affected item is replaced, typically with a surplus part stored in the ship’s inventory.

All of the aforementioned specialist positions may be helmed by either a player or an NPC, with more experienced NPCs performing their duties in superior fashion, but usually at the expense of demanding a higher monthly salary.

[albert]

Just checked it out myself. Nice design. I've got one big utility ship and will forego the pleasure of The Orion. PS: I bet your fleet isn't complete regardless of this arrival

[Justin Tolerable]

I agree, it looks great.  I especially like the mining article.  I don't feel the need to own one though - it'll be fun just to crew TeaLeaf's

I bet I have one by the end of the week...

[OldBloke]

Core. That's ore-some. It shall be mine, mine, mine.

:getmecoat:

Seriously, CIG have managed to design a mining mechanic that looks like a winner. Choosing mining as an in-game career path could have been a boring grind (no pun intended ... this time) but instead it's a multi-skilled, multi-faceted exercise with a very attractive teamwork element thrown in. With my reluctance to focus on combat the purchase of the Orion (alongside my Carrack and Merchantman) gives me mining, exploring and trading as my main paths.  

I'm with you, TL. This will be my last cash-based purchase. Anything else will be earned in game or be the result of melting other assets.

[TeaLeaf]

Purchased.  That's 2 in the fleet now, gratz Oldbloke & me!

[Galatoni]

Same old with me... i'm totally skinted but i think i'm happy with what i have. Hope they generate enough to finish the development.

[TeaLeaf]

Hope they generate enough to finish the development.

They already have enough to finish the development, every bit more just adds to the detail that will be delivered in the finished game.  

759,000 backers.
Over $73m raised

I reckon we'll get a game, the trick will be delivering all the frills we have unexpectedly funded!

[Galatoni]

Indeed. The potential for scope creep is incredible.

[Justin Tolerable]

Purchased.  That's 2 in the fleet now, gratz Oldbloke & me!

Nice work, guys!

Incidentally, I've swapped the Idris loadout around.  Now it's got 3 super hornets, 1 Gladiator, 1 Avenger and 1 Scout (my only non-LTI ship).  So hopefully I can protect some big mining runs