Science & Industry

In another thread, it was suggested that even though the value of Scordite per m3 is higher than for Veldspar, Veldspar may be a superior choice for semi-AFK mining because Veldspar roids tend to contain more ore, and so requires less attention. Less frequent re-assignment of stripper targets.

For instance, it may be the case that many Veldspar roids contain enough ore for 3-4 stripper cycles, whereas the typical Scordite roid is exhausted after 2 cycles. If that is so, then I think there's a point to it, accepting 10% less profit in exchange for more convenient mining.

But is it so? Are some roids larger than others? Going by signature radius, as shown in the overview, Veldspar roids are gigantic, compared to other types, but using my Survey scanner, and mentally correcting for the fact that 3 units of Veldspar takes up the same volum as 2 units of Scordite, it looks as if there is little or no correlation between roid signature radius and ore content in m3.

Do some roid types tend to be "born" with a higher ore m3 content than others?

Veld roids are larger than other roids, but less dense. Veld ore takes up a smaller volume per unit than any other ore type, which is why it tends to be the best money maker: it's more valuable per unit of volume than any other ore.

But I also don't think that asteroid sizes correlate all that closely with how many units of ore they contain. More dense asteroids can be much smaller than a Veld asteroid but contain the same M3 of ore (though not the same number of units of ore).

I understand that.

But what kind of roid is most likely to last through the largest number of stripper cycles? My experience suggests that the average Scordite roid pops after 2 stripper cycles.

Viewed from this angle, is there some ore type that I'd be better off mining?

yes, but not in the way you're thinking.

Each system (for example) has a set spawn size per respawn. Say something like this for a 0.5 (note, all numbers made up):

1m units Veld
750k scord
500k Plag (or equiv for non-gallente space)
250k Omber (or equiv for non-gallente space)

now, there are say 5 belts in system. ON AVERAGE this means each belt will get:

200k Veld (and variants) --> 20,000 m3
150k Scord (and variants) --> 22,500 m3
100k Plag (and variants) --> 35,000 m3
50k Omber (and variants) --> 30,000 m3

Keep in mind however, that there's probably an absolute minimum a belt gets, and also an absolute maximum (i.e. there isn't necessarily an even split).


now, let's say there are 16 veldspar rocks in a belt, 6 concentrated, and 3 dense (total of 25 rocks). This means that on average, you'll get ~800 m3 of rock. That's 8k units of veld per rock per day ... though as with the volume a belt gets on respawn, there is most likely a mechanic that varies how much each individual rock gets per respawn. This is further complicated by the fact that (anecdotally anyway) leaving "seed" rocks makes the belt respawn more per DT (but this is probably just made up by players who had a run of a few good spawn days or something).


That said ... your best bet (as with anything, for the most part) is to go somewhere with significantly fewer people, because the likelyhood of anyone mining the rocks is significantly lower. Furthermore, station-less systems will tend to have larger rocks, because of the extra logistics involved in moving things to a refinery.

It in all honesty depends on where you are as to how long the asteroid lasts per cycle. Hisec belts last alot less often due to the **** of them daily by miners while lowsec and nullsec (where people mine less) in general have 3-10x the amount of any hisec rock.

And as people have said the asteroids grow in time until a limit is reached (which also depends on the sec rating per system) a 1.0 system has a much MUCH smaller limit per roid than a .5 a .1 a 0.0 or a -1.0 roid. In general a hisec roid wont last more than two cycles of a strip miner no matter which asteroid it is. So its simple. if youre in a mining fleet in hisec just clean the belt out . dedicate a few hours to mining a system with a corp and a hisec system can be emptied by 5 TII crystal hulks with orca and hauler support easily.

If solo in say a retriever you can still easily clean a hisec .6 belt out in two hours approx


*Washes the carebear off and grabs his hail ammo, cane, and goes out to shoot a few more FW derps in lowsec*

The size of the roid deposit in high sec is directly linked to when it was last mined out.

If there are miners who are strip mining scordite but not touchin the veld, then in 1-2 weeks the veld roids become quite huge enough to allow for 4-5 cycles to run on it. Same goes vice versa. If the miners strip mine the veld but don't touch the scordite then in 1-2 weeks the scordite roids will allow 4-5 cycles on it.

Just get a survey scanner, jump to a belt. Scan and then pick the biggest roids if you want to afk mine.

eve's nerdiness truly knows no bounds. great link

This is bullshit, from one end to the other.

If you want to know how much ore is in a 'roid, invest in a survey scanner.... works wonders

No guess work, no wondering, no issues...

For high sec I found you can usually fill a retriever with just 2 roids mining Plagioclase, one for each laser if they are are 40k+ units. They seem to range from between 30k-50k units in size. With scordite it seems like I have to change roids 3-4 times for each laser to fill a retriever. Mix of math and observation. Veldspar somewhere in between.

So IMO Plagioclase seems to be the best afk ore to mine. At the time of this post its also up there for best ISK/m3 being #1 or #2 in high sec. depending on your ore chart reference.