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Mineral Formation
Currently it is extremely easy to find and mine rare ores, you find a sector with some nice Heliocene in it and you can easily get Heliocene for the rest of your life, the only limiting factor being the heat of those asteroids. What if rare ores such as Heliocene didn't stay at the same percentage while you mine it? Lets say you completely deplete several asteroids of Heliocene ore, now since Heliocene ore is extremely rare it can be assumed that it is very rare for an asteroid to form the ore, and if it does form the ore it would take a long time for the ore to turn into a large deposit.
The rarer an ore is, the slower the ore will form. Also, an asteroid with very little of an ore will form that ore much quicker than asteroid with a large amount of it. An asteroid that contains 0% may be able to form 10% of an ore in two hours, but an asteroid that contains 40% of an ore could form 10% in 5 hours. A fairly common ore, such as Lanthanic, might be able to hit 60% in four hours, while a very rare ore, like Pentric, could take two days. Of course, common ores that make up most asteroids, like Aquean, will never be depleted.
Now, to make this further more dynamic we can take the very rare asteroids and look at their description. Heliocene for example is described as a rare ore formed under intense heat and tidal forces, we can take this information and assume that Heliocene does not form unless it is subject to tidal forces. Tidal forces can be observed on earth, the tidal force is the moon's gravity causing the water on earth to bulge towards it. This would happen between to large objects such as stars and planets, asteroids situated between two of these would be able to form heliocene. Asteroids situated exclusively between two large stars would be the most likely to form Heliocene and would form it quicker than those under different conditions. This is because the stars emit gravity and heat, both of which are needed in Heliocene's formation. Of course, you can artificially heat up asteroids that are between two planets by using your mining beam for a long time. This would speed up the formation and allow asteroids that could not form Heliocene able to form it.
Of course, what is a suggestion without the possibility of eye candy? When an asteroid has large amounts of an ore, you would be able to visually see that mineral. An asteroid with Ishik in it would have veins that glow teal, Xithricite veins would glow purple, Lanthanic would glow purple, Pentric would glow yellow, and Heliocene would glow red.
The rarer an ore is, the slower the ore will form. Also, an asteroid with very little of an ore will form that ore much quicker than asteroid with a large amount of it. An asteroid that contains 0% may be able to form 10% of an ore in two hours, but an asteroid that contains 40% of an ore could form 10% in 5 hours. A fairly common ore, such as Lanthanic, might be able to hit 60% in four hours, while a very rare ore, like Pentric, could take two days. Of course, common ores that make up most asteroids, like Aquean, will never be depleted.
Now, to make this further more dynamic we can take the very rare asteroids and look at their description. Heliocene for example is described as a rare ore formed under intense heat and tidal forces, we can take this information and assume that Heliocene does not form unless it is subject to tidal forces. Tidal forces can be observed on earth, the tidal force is the moon's gravity causing the water on earth to bulge towards it. This would happen between to large objects such as stars and planets, asteroids situated between two of these would be able to form heliocene. Asteroids situated exclusively between two large stars would be the most likely to form Heliocene and would form it quicker than those under different conditions. This is because the stars emit gravity and heat, both of which are needed in Heliocene's formation. Of course, you can artificially heat up asteroids that are between two planets by using your mining beam for a long time. This would speed up the formation and allow asteroids that could not form Heliocene able to form it.
Of course, what is a suggestion without the possibility of eye candy? When an asteroid has large amounts of an ore, you would be able to visually see that mineral. An asteroid with Ishik in it would have veins that glow teal, Xithricite veins would glow purple, Lanthanic would glow purple, Pentric would glow yellow, and Heliocene would glow red.
and of course, depleting those ores would cause the veins to disappear. Maybe in those sectors where rare ores form, all of the roids would have the possibility of forming that ore (except maybe the smallest roids), just the rate of formation would be proportional to the size of the roid. Huge roids will tend to form ores faster (because of the extra mass and availability of materials, or whatever) than smaller ones.
I think depletion should also apply to Xithricite ore too. I mean, it is supposed to be a bit rare, and it has glowing veins, so you'd think that those would deplete too.
Maybe to make rare ores even more rare, optimum formation requires a certain proportion of other minerals. Too much Van Azek ore, for instance, hinders the formation of Pyronic ore, so for a Pyronic ore to form in an asteroid, Van Azek must be mined to under 10% of the asteroid's composition. The lower the percentage of Van Azek, the faster the formation of Pyronic, etc. The super rare ores like Heliocene might require two ores to be under a certain percentage, for the fastest formation. This means that artificially large veins of rare and ultra rare ores aren't easy to do, they require a lot of extra work.
What might be cool (although impossible, I think, under the current system) would be for large roids, the rate of rare ore mining to be related to where on the roid you mine from. For instance, if veins only partially cover the roid, then you're more likely to get ore near those veins than if you mined away from them. This means that if you mine exclusively from one area of the roid, you'll deplete that side of the roid and you'll have to mine from a new vein. This means that you have to plan a bit more when mining, and you have to move around a bit more to make sure that you stay at an optimum mining location.
I think depletion should also apply to Xithricite ore too. I mean, it is supposed to be a bit rare, and it has glowing veins, so you'd think that those would deplete too.
Maybe to make rare ores even more rare, optimum formation requires a certain proportion of other minerals. Too much Van Azek ore, for instance, hinders the formation of Pyronic ore, so for a Pyronic ore to form in an asteroid, Van Azek must be mined to under 10% of the asteroid's composition. The lower the percentage of Van Azek, the faster the formation of Pyronic, etc. The super rare ores like Heliocene might require two ores to be under a certain percentage, for the fastest formation. This means that artificially large veins of rare and ultra rare ores aren't easy to do, they require a lot of extra work.
What might be cool (although impossible, I think, under the current system) would be for large roids, the rate of rare ore mining to be related to where on the roid you mine from. For instance, if veins only partially cover the roid, then you're more likely to get ore near those veins than if you mined away from them. This means that if you mine exclusively from one area of the roid, you'll deplete that side of the roid and you'll have to mine from a new vein. This means that you have to plan a bit more when mining, and you have to move around a bit more to make sure that you stay at an optimum mining location.
lol, if all this stuff was implemented, the word "roid farming" would truly become a reality.
the original term "roid farming" came from way before the time mining was around. It meant "issuing on a roid", despite what the wiki might say.