Star Wars Galaxies: Friday Feature 4/15 -Space Mining

Space Mining is an exciting new type of gameplay in Star Wars Galaxies™: Episode III Rage of the Wookiees™. Players can gather resources from new types of asteroids located in all space zones with a mining laser that can be equipped on all types of ships. While mining different kinds of asteroids, players will also have to fight off pirates who want to keep them from mining the valuable cargo! After fighting off the pirates and gathering their cargo, players can use the asteroid resources as trade goods at a resource hub space station, or keep it to be used in crafting schematics.

Getting started with Space Mining

So you want to be a space miner, do you? Well, to get started, you're going to need a cargo hold to store all of the asteroid ore. All types of space ships can have a cargo hold, but keep an eye on your ship's total mass if you have a small craft. If you have a smaller fighter, you may have to choose between a cargo hold or a piece of equipment you may need for heavy combat. Heavier ships and multi-passenger crafts won't have any problems adding a cargo hold and if you really want to get into the mining business, then you might want to start thinking about getting yourself a Y-8 Mining Vessel (shown to the right). The Y-8 Mining vessel is a dedicated, multi-passenger ship with extra guns and an increased cargo hold.

Once you have laid your hands on a cargo hold, the next thing you will need are Mining Lasers. Mining lasers are a special weapon designed specifically for mining asteroids. Before launching into space to mine ore, a pilot will have to equip a mining laser into a ship's normal weapon slot. Mining lasers will take up a weapon slot, but they can be used to defend yourself if you get attacked by pirates or mercenaries. Its main purpose, however, is to blast asteroids apart and mine for valuable ore.

The other key piece of equipment you will need to mine space ore is a Tractor Beam. Once an asteroid has been blasted up into the tiniest chunks of ore, a tractor beam is used to haul the ore into your cargo hold. Tractor beams need to be equipped before launching your vessel and also take up a weapon slot.

Mining the Ore

After your ship is equipped with mining lasers and a tractor beam, pilots can launch into space in search of asteroids rich in ore. Asteroids worth mining are in areas of known space. Pilots can find these asteroid mining belts by using their datapad and assigning a waypoint. After you have located an asteroid field you want to mine, activate your waypoint and travel to that position. Once you are in position near an asteroid, heat up your mining lasers and start blasting asteroids!

Shooting asteroids with a mining laser will first cause medium sized chunks to break off and float into space. These chunks must also be broken down further with your mining laser into even smaller chunks to get at the rich ore. After mining the asteroid into the smallest possible chunks, they can be harvested in two possible ways. The first way to gather the ore is simply to blast them away. Once they are destroyed, the gathered ore will accumulate in your cargo hold. The second way to gather the ore is to use a tractor beam. By using the tractor beam, space miners will be able to get a higher yield of ore, but it will be a bit trickier than just blasting them away. You will have get close enough to the asteroid chunks to get into the range of the tractor beam and then pull them into your ship. The asteroid chunk will get closer and closer to you until it is "transferred" into your cargo hold. Your cargo hold will have a meter on your heads up display so you can tell how full your cargo hold is.

Different zones will have different types of asteroid ore, so there will be an element of exploration as you search for valuable resources to mine!

Selling your Resources

Spending all your hard earned credits on a cargo hold and mining lasers can mean only one thing; the search for profit! After you fill up your cargo hold with rich asteroid ore, your first option is to take the ore to a space station and sell it to an ore vendor. There are specific space stations that will buy the ore and different ore trading space stations will have different prices. Some ore is needed more than others, depending on which space zone you are in and it will affect the price you can get for the resources.

For instance, Tatooine might buy rock at 3cpu, gold at 10cpu, and space diamond at 20cpu. Naboo might be the same, except that it buys space diamond at 25cpu. Thus, if you are mining space diamond in Kashyyyk, you will likely want to travel to Naboo to sell your goods. There will be a special window you can open up to see the going rates of different resources and options to sell your goods.

Enterprising space miners have a second option. They can choose to sell their ore on the open market via the bazaar or even keep it themselves as crafting resources. For those interested in crafting, some of the new craftable items that use these specific resources include:

High-Mass Ships: High Mass Z-95 Headhunters, TIE Fighters or Light Hutt Fighters can be crafted with the proper schematics. Each of these space ships has an increased mass that makes it comparable with higher tier ships of a similar class.
New Ship Weapons: New craftable ship weapons with different appearances and characteristics.
New Multi-Passenger Ship Components: There are new craftable components that are so heavy that they can only be used on ships such as the YT1300, but have better statistics.
New Craftable Paint and Texture Kits: Space ore can also be used to craft new paint and texture kits.
Other new items: Other new items will be showing up in the galaxy for both ground and space that will require these new types of resources, so stay tuned!

Space Mining Quests

Space Mining will be introduced with a series of quests. Over the course of this adventure, players will learn about how to go about the process of space mining, get basic equipment and even go on advanced space mining operations.

The adventure begins on Kashyyyk. The Corellian Engineering Corporation has been conducting mining operations in Kashyyyk space since the Empire began its operations on the planet. Things go awry when the Empire starts looking into CEC affairs.

Interested space miners may be given the opportunity to "unofficially" get a hold on some second rate equipment to help out the CEC while they work through tough times. Along the way, players will meet chief engineers who need help, rival corporations, go on salvage missions and more as they work their way into the space mining commodities market.

Pirates!

With all this talk about mining and resources, there is certainly one thing every space miner learns about sooner or later. If you are looking to fill your cargo hold full of valuable resources, you can be sure there are pirates who want it for themselves! When attempting to mine resources, pirates may attack your ship to try to keep you from completing your task. Depending on what kind of ship you are mining with, what kind of equipment you have and where you are looking for resources, you may need to find yourself a hot shot pilot.

That is just about all you need to know to get into the space mining business. Good luck getting your gear and getting into space!