Loud Guns demonstrates a practical solo mining setup in Star Citizen using a C2 mother ship and a Drake Golem snub miner, highlighting efficient techniques for scouting, mining, and refining ore in a low-risk location. He discusses potential improvements and future scaling options, emphasizing careful planning and community involvement for larger mining operations.
In this video, Loud Guns explores the feasibility of running a solo mining operation using a combination of a C2 mother ship and a Drake Golem snub miner in Star Citizen. The experiment is motivated by recent updates in the 4.11 PTU, which now allow players to set up refinery jobs directly from stations, making solo mining more practical. Loud Guns aims to demonstrate this approach in action, sharing both successes and failures to provide a realistic view of the process and potential improvements for solo miners.
The setup involves carefully preparing the ships and cargo. Loud Guns advises using an XL hangar for easy access and stacking the Golem inside the C2 to transport it to mining sites. He stacks spare cargo bags in the C2, aiming for about seven runs worth of capacity, and equips the Golem with a laser mod and consumables. The strategic choice of a remote, low-risk location in the Aaron Halo is highlighted for safety, with careful plotting of a course to avoid threats and identify suitable asteroid clusters for mining. The Golem is used to scout rocks quickly, taking advantage of its mobility and the visibility of the mother ship’s marker in the system.
Mining with the Golem proves surprisingly effective despite its small cargo capacity, which is alleviated by frequent resupply and efficient unloading. Loud Guns demonstrates cracking rocks up to 20k in size, noting that the laser and Golem’s capabilities are quite sufficient for solo mining. He emphasizes the importance of using the snub to scout and check rocks, and details the process of returning to the C2, detaching cargo bags with tractor beams, and transferring them into the ship for refinement. The process of unloading, stacking, and preparing for subsequent runs is streamlined, allowing for multiple mining sessions with minimal downtime.
After collecting enough ore, Loud Guns heads to a refinery station, specifically Arcal 1, to unload and set up a refining job. He notes that the station’s interface only allows refining all the materials in the station inventory at once, which can be time-consuming. He discusses potential improvements, such as prioritizing higher-value materials and refining smaller batches to speed up the process. He also considers adding a medical respawn station on the mother ship for safety, and highlights the importance of careful planning and multitasking to avoid losing valuable cargo due to mistakes or mishaps.
Finally, Loud Guns reflects on potential future developments, including scaling up the operation with more players and ships for larger, more efficient mining fleets. He envisions a coordinated effort where multiple ships load and unload cargo, taking advantage of station bonuses based on materials mined. The video encourages community involvement through a Discord link and promises further content on large-scale mining operations once the patch goes live. Overall, the video presents a practical, experimental approach to solo mining that could be expanded for more ambitious, multi-player endeavors.