drill/plant/spaceship hybrid

[Trajan_Slawic]

Something came to my mind:

 

Some day, when players have made high developed civilizations, there will be also bigger mining vehicles to remove for example big mountains, the digging can then be sent to a facility to get the ore or other things we want and are worth it. To make it easier, what about combine the drill and the facility? The drilling head would have "nozzles" which hoovers the material into the machine (like a tunnel boring machine in real life). Of course the drill has to be as much big or even bigger than a TBM, especially because the machines to refine the ore also have to have space on it, also large reactors to supply drill, "hoover" and factory with energy.

 

Why spaceship? Because you can use this giant thing for more than one planet: What is when the time comes and one planet has no worth able sources to exploit anymore? Do you have to let it rust? Or deconstruct it and rebuilt in on another planet? If it's possible, you can make even larger reactors which also supply a bridge and a hyperdrive - to move it to other planets, moons or only meteors to exploit. Then you can make a supply chain which clears the (small) warehouse of the "plant ship"  and you can transport it to your station or trade with it or whatever you can do with refined ore and dirt.

 

I know that there are many other topics which deal with "mining in space", but in my idea you can fly with this also to planets (voxel entities or not) and "plug and play" there: Switch off the drives and switch on the drill It would also lighten the colonization of other planets by high developed civilizations, I think.

[Traceur]

With player construction I doubt their would be any problem in combining refining facilities into drilling machines ourselves. I believe they even give that as an example of the sort of thing a multicrew ship might have in one of their devblogs.

 

Regarding the actual element - the drill head - we know that elements will have a set size. A large drill option would be cool, and certainly more eastheticaly pleasing then a wall with a hundred small ones.

 

What might be cooler is having a more basic element, like a protruding plate with a blade and a suction area on its' side, that would allow us to construct our own drill head covered by it. If you can build a mechanical structure that revolves and slides it against a surface you want to mine through, you can use it for mining.

[Shynras]

Still i personally would like to have both options, to drill on a planet, or with a ship. They could be balanced by making the ship option to be less efficient, consuming large amount of fuels. So if you decide to use a ship, so you'll not have to deal with the "build a mining base for each planet", you'll still have a penalty, and both ways would be viable. 

[Trajan_Slawic]

Even if i have a penalty when using this hybrid it would be more comfortable in each way, and in the long term it would depend on the amount of ineffectiveness. To build a drill, an industry and a power plant for the energy, houses for the workers and so on takes time, money and space - keep in mind, that you (maybe) can transport the drill and the machines, but not the infrastructure. The hybrid would include energy, machines, accomodations etc. and can fly also on planets (i think spacecrafts have the same options as aircrafts, but do not know) to other destinations ON this planet.

 

But your reply has given me an idea: what about modul housing? You could transport them with cargo ships and then "plug and play" them on the surface of a planet. Then it would be possible to "replace" the infrastructure what makes the building-of-facilities-on-each-source easier, faster, and cheaper. (When it's possible)

[Hisshadow]

In space engineer I would build large mining ships with opposing arms and drill mitts.. would fly up, embrace an astwriod and it would just grind to dust.

 

So anything is possible with the right moving pieces

[Hisshadow]

I like your cargonpod housing idea... I'd first dig a trench and cover them with dirt to hide them

[Trajan_Slawic]

Thank you for your contribution to my cargo pod housing idea, but i think i will make that an own topic.

 

I have never played space engineer, but yeah - i also hope that this is possible. It would be also fine if you can use blueprints selecting the size of the object e.g make with the blueprint of a small drill a very big one (costs more materials, of course), that saves time.