Mining on Arkadia
As a miner on Planet Arkadia, you are part of a profession that underpins the economy. A clever miner follows the market trends of the various resources that are available, and uses the changing supply and demand to his or her advantage. An experienced miner will also know where to look for certain materials when they are in demand and will achieve the best price. If you’re fortunate you could hit a big find!
Mining is essentially a three stage process. You need to locate the resources, extract them from the ground, and then you can refine them to the form that’s required by manufacturers. But first, you need some equipment.
Equipment
The basic equipment is available from the Trade Terminal (TT), though you may still have some of the training equipment you were issued in the new player mission chain. More advanced versions can be manufactured, either by yourself (once you gain the relevant level of skills) or by other players. It is up to you to find a supplier who suits your needs. To start with the basic equipment you will need:
1. A resource finder, for locating the resources. The available finders in the Trade Terminal are called the TerraMaster TT (L).
2. Survey Probes – these are consumed by your finder
3. A resource extractor, for getting your resources out of the ground when you have located them. The available extractors in the Trade Terminal are called the Rock Ripper TT (L).
4. A resource refiner. This turns the raw resources you find into the refined resources that are needed for manufacturing. Use of a refiner is optional, however you will probably find a larger group of buyers available to you if you do (if a manufacturer buys unrefined resources, he or she will need to refine them instead, so it’s usually part of the service for the miner to do it). The Trade Terminal refiner is called the PTech Refiner TT.
When you’re done buying equipment, take a few moments to hotkey each of the items, preferably to a brand new Action Set that you have set aside just for mining.
Ready to begin!
The Mining Process
It is important to understand that resources currently come in two different types: Energy Matter (commonly known as enmatter) and Mineral Ore (commonly referred to as ore). There is another button for Treasure which can be handled the same as the other resources. The treasure resources fall under Treasure Hunting and they can be only found on Arkadia.
1. Locating resources
Equip and operate your resource finder, the TerraMaster TT (L). In the interface that appears, you can use the buttons at the bottom to select either enmatter, ore or both. Whatever you have selected is what the finder will search for when you next operate it. The finder uses 10 Survey Probes to search for enmatter and 20 for ore (or a total of 30 to search for both at once).
Miners generally roam the lands of Arkadia, operating the device at various intervals. Part of the skill of mining is to settle on efficient technique, timing, distance and locations for this. Different equipment choice will yield different results. When your probe successfully locates a deposit, a Claim Marker will appear on the landscape. It also appears on your Radar as a red circle with a white X in the middle (Radar is discussed here).
Your finder interface will display details like the coordinates, depth, size and direction of the Claim Marker from your current position.
A Resource Deed will also appear in the Money and Deeds section of your Inventory.
The Resource Deed and the Claim Marker give you the right to extract the resource you have found, however there is a time limit! The time limit depends on the size of the claim. The bigger the claim, the longer you have, with the minimum time period being one hour. If you don’t extract the resource within this time, the Resource Deed and the Claim Marker will disappear.
2. Extracting resources
Once you have found a resource, it’s time to get it out of the ground! Equip your extractor, the Rock Ripper TT (L). Stand within 5m of the Claim Marker, point the extractor at the Claim Marker and operate. You will usually need to do this multiple times until you have extracted the entire deposit, which will now appear in your Inventory. When you’ve extracted the whole deposit, the Claim Marker will disappear and the Resource Deed will be removed from your Inventory.
You now have a raw resource that someone out there probably wants to use in a manufacturing process! To be used, however, it needs to be refined first.
3. Refining resources
Refining is optional. In order to be used in manufacturing, the resource must be refined, however you can choose to sell your raw resource as you found it, and leave the refining to somebody else. To refine your resource, equip your refiner tool and click to operate. The device interface will then appear on your screen. Drag your raw resource into the refinerinterface, and click “Refine”. You now have a refined resource, ready to use in your own manufacturing, or be traded with another player. You can do this by listing it on the Auction, selling it from a shop, or trading directly with another avatar!
Handy tips
Many miners will take enough probes with them to cover an area of land, and either extract the resources as they go, or come back afterward to extract them all at once. The choice is yours. Since raw resources are Stackable, it is advisable to allow your resources to gather in your inventory until you have finished your mining run, and then if you wish to refine them you will be able to do it in one refining session (though you can only refine one stack of resources at a time).
It is possible to amplify your finder using an amp, increasing the size of claims you find. Like all equipment, amplifiers decay at various rates as they are used, and a skilful and experienced miner will be able to make good choices about when and whether to amplify.