Ascent: Choices

Sadly,  I didn't get much time to play Ascent this weekend.  However, that's not to say I wasn't thinking about it which is a hallmark of a good game.  I really need to figure out my path forward, as I have several possible routes.  Currently, I am flying a 160 ton Falcon and have 3 million credits to my name.

New Ship.  I can just barely afford the Squid, which has a 320 ton cargo hold.  I've been advised to skip this ship as the view from the cockpit makes mining difficult.  The larger cargo hold would make a lot of things easier though.

Mining Beam.  I currently use the basic class 1 mining beam.  I've been told that upgrading this is well worth the money.  For a 3 million credits I can get a class 3 beam.  This should improve my mining by a good amount.

Hyperdrive.  I could invest in a class 5 Hyperdrive and start exploring.  This is a part of the game I am really looking forward to, but does not really help me make more money.

Construction.  I still want build my own Mining Beam, but there is quite a bit to be done before I am able to do that.  I need to build a Starbase Warehouse which involves 2,000 Iron.  That is a lot of trips for my Falcon, so I am leaning towards a ship upgrade first.

Miners Guild.  This isn't really a choice, as I am planning on doing it.  The Miners Guild is a group of players working together.  Besides the social aspect, they offer discounts on items like the Mining Beam, so I may be able to get a good deal.  They have a website:    http://miners-guild.com/

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Starbases and Research in Ascent

One of the first things you can do in Ascent is purchase your very own starbase.  It is surprisingly affordable, only costing 10,000 credits.  You pick up the deed for one on SS Plato in the Apollo system using the contracts board.  Once purchased, you'll have a new autopilot option to go to Deep Space.  

So what is a starbase for?  The basic idea behind it is that you build starbase rings and place modules on them, 6 per ring.  You can have a maximum of 100 rings!  Although, you'll need to upgrade to Premium in order to build that many.  More on that in a later post though.  On a starbase you can build things like ships, modules and some materials. 

My initial goal with the starbase is to produce a Class 2 Mining Beam.   My current ship came with a Class 1, so moving up a class will help improve my mining yields.  Before I can manufacture the beam I need to conduct some research.  So my first starbase module is the Research Lab.  You can find the blueprint for the lab on a Contracts board.  You'll need Electronics and Mechanical Parts in order to build the lab.  You can purchase these off of the Galactic Market.

Building a Research Lab works just like it did for the Grain Farm.  You place the module, then give it the raw materials.  Once it has the materials, it took close to a day to complete.  Now that I have a lab, I need a blueprint for the Mining Beam.  First, I need to acquire the blueprint for a Class 1 Mining Beam, then research it to Class 2.

To obtain the blueprint for a Class 1 beam you'll need to participate in some combat.  Head over to Janus A, and do the first 2 combat missions.  Once those are complete, you'll have new contracts available which allow you to purchase a number of blueprints.  Now we should be able to Up Class our Class 1 Blueprint to Class 2. 

It'll take a couple of days for the research to complete.  I also need to build a Shipyard in order to manufacture ship modules.  That sounds like a good idea for my next post!

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Mining in Ascent

Another one of the activities in the space MMO, Ascent, is to mine asteroids.  You can get all sorts of minerals through mining, as each type of asteroid has a different makeup.  Currently, only two systems in Ascent have asteroids:  Vulcan and Veritas.  For my first foray into mining I went to Vulcan and found quite a large asteroid field.

Not all of the asteroids are able to be mined though, just the ones with a name.  Thankfully,  collision is not enabled on the non-mineable asteroids either.  That would make it quite a dangerous activity.  The first step in mining is getting up close and personal with your asteroid.  You need to be within 1km in order for your mining laser to activate.  I've noticed the hit box for the asteroids can be a little strange sometimes, so you may have to start the laser off of the asteroid. 

There is an art to mining an asteroid.  In addition to keeping up with moving asteroids, you have to pay attention while mining. You need to watch for the color of it to change while you are using your beam on it.  Once it does, you stop the beam and the asteroid implodes.  If you have the beam on it for too long, you will just destroy it and not get any minerals.

There are a couple of ways to improve the yield you get while mining.  First, you can improve your skill value just by mining.  Secondly, you can buy a better mining laser.  These are made by players and can be bought off of the Galactic Market.

Ok, you have a cargo hold full of minerals, now what?  The easiest way to cash them in is to sell them to the NPC local market.  This is not an option for all of the minerals, like Niobium.  So for those you can either sell them to NPC contracts, or sell them to your fellow players.  The most profitable route is usually sell them to other players via the Global Market.  You can make some nice money on Tin and Niobium that way.

Mining can be a lucrative way to earn credits in Ascent.  I'm not sure it is something I will do often, as it isn't the most exciting of activities.  Trading is a bit easier to do in my opinion.  Sure, it isn't exciting either but requires less aiming and maneuvering. :)

http://wiki.thespacegame.com/mediawiki/index.php/Asteroid_Mining

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Running the Numbers

I am now the proud owner of a Grain Farm in Ascent.  It produces grain at the rate of 207 per day.  So what does that really mean for me financially?  In the Ceres system, grain can be bought for 100 credits per ton.  This is low as the system produces grain.  But, it also means I don't have to travel to other systems.

My ship can only hold 40 tons of cargo, so that means each ship load of grain will net me 4,000 credits.   I have seen grain prices up at 130 in the Vulcan system, so if I make that trip it'll get me 5,300 credits per ship load, but it involves using the jump gate.

I can also make money by trading.  My favorite route is trading Aluminium and Carbon between Vestra and Sol Invictus. Sol sells Carbon for 1,100 and Vestra buys it, at the time of this writing, for 1,419.  That's 12,760 per ship load.  It does require a jump gate, but that is a pretty sweet deal.

Right now, it makes more sense to be trading rather than selling grain from my farm.  I've heard mining can be quite lucrative, so I will be exploring that aspect of the game soon.  For now, I will continue my quest for more cargo space and my eventual Hyperdrive.

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Building in Ascent

Last week, I covered the basics of trading in Ascent.  Through trading, I upgraded my ship to a Unicorn and built up a nice reserve of around 200,000 credits.  One of the tutorial rewards was a deed on the planet Ceres and a Grain Farm blueprint.  As you might suspect, this lets me build a Gain Farm and produce grain.  In the starter systems, each planet only produces a single kind of good i.e. Grain. regular planets do not have this restriction.  It's time I take a break from trading and start to be a producer.

Building in the starter Apollo (starter) systems is different than the rest of the 270 billion star systems.  You don't really explore the planets yet, instead you are given a section to build on.   Once you get a deed, you get a 6 x 5 grid, for a total of 30 plots on the planet.  

After you find a nice spot for the farm, you can place it.  The blueprint is not used up, so you can keep on building so long as you have the raw materials.  To give the structure the materials it needs to be built, just double click on it.  If you have the supplies in your cargo hold, they will be applied to the construction site.  Now that I've started my structure, I need to go around to different systems and gather the needed raw materials.  You can drop materials off, so you don't need to carry them all at once.

For a listing of building materials and some grid setups, check out this wiki entry.

Once all materials are there, it starts to build.  In the case of my Grain Farm, it takes about 22 hours to construct.  Once operational, the Grain Farm can hold 260 tons of grain.  I'm a slacker, so I may not be getting to my farm before it overflows and no one wants to waste food.  Luckily, there is a solution to that problem.  Warehouses let you store up to 10,000 tons of goods.   To get the goods to the warehouse, you'll need to setup some Transport Grid nodes.  These nodes connect everything you build, so planning is an important part of building.

I went looking at each station's contracts and eventually found blueprints for the Warehouse and the Transport Grid.  I then built a Warehouse and two Transport Grids to connect it to the Grain Farm.  The Warehouse takes roughly 11 hours to build, and the Transports take 30 minutes.  Total cost of this project has been 88,000 credits.

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Trading in Ascent

Ascent starts you off with some tutorial missions.  You'll learn the ropes, like how to move your ship and how to navigate the map and stations.  Eventually, you will reach a point where you'll need to earn some coin in order to advance.  There are a couple ways to go about this.  You can play taxi/delivery man and drop off passengers/packages.  Or you can trade.

There are 8 primary star systems which you have access to without a Hyperdrive.  Each one of these produces a resource, and buys the rest.  There are 9 resources available for trade.  Trade in these systems is primarily with NPC's, as you advance in the game you will get more into the player based economy.  Normal trade rule applies: buy low, sell high.  Below are what each station trades in.

Vestra - Aluminium
Sol Invictus - Carbon
Apollo - Meat
Veritas - Titanium
Vulcan - Iron
Ceres - Grain
Ubertas - Vegetables
Pamona - Fruit

There is not really any supply and demand factors at work in the Apollo (starter) sector.  It's meant for new players, so there should always be a way for them to make money.  You can often find profitable trades between systems right next to each other.  I have a nice little trade route between Sol Invictus (Carbon) and Vestra (Aluminium).

My goal is currently to save up enough money to buy a Hyperdrive, which runs about 800,000 on the Galactic Market.  It's not cheap, but it is certainly attainable.   Getting to that point in the starter ship would be brutal.  I've upgraded my ship twice already.  I started out with a Ladybug (10 ton cargo), then bought a Sparrow (20 ton cargo).  I recently purchased my third ship, a Unicorn, which has a 40 ton cargo bay.

So buy goods, take them to another system, sell them.  Rinse and repeat.  It's not the most exciting activity, but it goes pretty quick as travelling does not take very long and the interface is easy to use.

Next up, starting up my grain farm!

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Ascent: Indie Space MMO

I'm a sucker for space games, especially ones that have a focus on exploration.  A few days ago, a Massively post about a game called Ascent appeared in my Twitter feed.  I was not sure whether to click on it, but I am glad I did.  I found out about a new(ish) game called Ascent.

Ascent is a MMO developed by two intrepid and motivated gentlemen.  Unlike many games these days, this was not a post about a Kickstarter for some project in the future.  Instead, it was about a game I could play right now and was also free.

"Werit, I don't have time to read these paragraphs so just tell me what the game is all about in bullet point form."  You got it!

• You start with your choice of ship, combat or trading.
• Trade, Combat, Manufacturing, Research.
• 270 Billion Star Systems.  Yes, you read that right.
• Procedural Generated Star Systems and Planets. Real Exploration.
• Build on these planets
• Asteroid Mining, Gas Collection from Gas Giants
• PvE Focused.
• Build your own Star Base.

You can go play the game, for free, at:  http://www.thespacegame.com/

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