Mining Beam Rate

posted on September 23rd, 2010, 7:23 pm

I've figured out how to make the mining beam mine at higher rates.

In the _mine_.odf file, set the shot delay to whatever you want.  A value of 0.0 will fill up your freighter almost instantaniously.  A value of 1.25 is normal, and a value higher than that will slow down the speed of the mining.

In the _mine_o.odf file, set the lifespan to a value higher than 1.5, which is the default value.  A value of 2 should give you an unbroken beam throughout the mining process.  A value higher than that will make the beam fire even if it has been several seconds since the freighter was filled up.

If this isn't in the guide, can we put it there?

posted on September 23rd, 2010, 7:54 pm

sounds like a good idea to me.

posted on September 23rd, 2010, 8:27 pm

It should fit in a subsection of the 'Weapon ODFs' section (when it's made).

posted on September 23rd, 2010, 8:49 pm

I forgot to mention something.

As you reduce the shot delay value in the _mine_.odf file, you will need to reduce the lifespan value in the _mine_o.odf file to mine the resource at a constant rate.  Otherwise, the rate will fluctuate.  It's a bit annoying and could be mistaken for computer lag when it's not computer lag.  So it's helpful to change both values when you want to modify the rate.

posted on September 23rd, 2010, 9:56 pm

Here's an example of the Borg mining rate being increased.  There is still a little bit of fluxtuation in the rate.  It seems to get a steady rate, the lifeSpan and the shotDelay values need to be identical with the lifeSpan value just slightly higher than the shotDelay value.  If the shotDelay is longer than the lifeSpan value, then the beam will stop firing for a moment.

In theory, if you make the lifeSpan value 1.5 times greater than the shotDelay value, you'll double the mining rate.  But I have to do more testing to confirm that.  I think I had a shotDelay of 1.5 and a lifeSpan of 2.0 to double the rate.  Making the shotDelay value 75% of the lifeSpan value.  It seems to be that having the lifeSpan value higher than the shotDelay value allows more than one mining beam instance.  Doubling the rate for a short period of time on a specific ratio.  It's all in theory right now.

Enjoy being able to expand faster.  Oh, and you might need these files as well.  They will help you process the resources to keep up with the increase in the mining rate.  Two assimilators will still optimize one moon though.

These are just examples of the mining rate being altered.  Don't try to use them online or you'll get a version mismatch.

Attachments

Borg_Mining_Beam.zip

(1.12 KiB) Downloaded 235 times

Borg_Resource_Node.zip

(4.15 KiB) Downloaded 201 times

[Dominus_Noctis]

posted on September 23rd, 2010, 11:08 pm

Last edited by Dominus_Noctis on September 23rd, 2010, 11:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Yup, this will of course be in the guide once the section is prepared  .

Currently the Weapon classlabel stuff is sitting at nearly finished, but ordnance stuff hasn't been started yet, so the cannon classlabel hasn't been added in. I'll bookmark this page on the off chance that we screw something up of course

EDIT: if you want, for now I can put it in the 'viewable' ODF page if you think it is that important

posted on September 23rd, 2010, 11:31 pm

No, take your time.

I've found that by making the shotDelay something like 0.1 and the lifespan something like 0.2, you can have the beam mining twice as fast without noticing any mining rate accelerations.  Although I wouldn't recommend value being lower than 0.1 or any ratio higher that 1/4.  The 1/2 ratio will create 2 instances of the mining beam.  A 1/3 ratio will create 3 instances, and so on.  Up to about 1/4, you might begin to notice the acceleration of the mining rate.  The ratio is /.

posted on September 24th, 2010, 10:08 pm

By the way, if you modify the mining beam rate, make sure that the ratio can be simplified down to 1:.  Eg:  1/5, 1/4, 1/8, etc.  Something like 3/4, 4/5, 2/3, 5/6, etc are bad ratios as they will cause constant fluctuations.