Asteroid belt mining
An asteroid belt — inspired by the Orion belt — is automatically generated at the gravitational limit of every solar system, beyond the farthest planet. No planet can exist past this ring. It's a renewable resource source exploitable only by Asteroid Miners.
Belt placement
- One belt per solar system
- Radius = farthest planet orbital radius + a small margin
- No planet can appear beyond the belt
- Richness and metal/silicon/deuterium ratios are rolled at belt generation
Access and UI
The belt is visible as a dense cluster of rocks in the Solar System view. Clicking anywhere in this band opens a side info panel showing the orbital radius, richness and composition, along with a « Send a mining mission » button. If no Asteroid Miner is available, a direct link to the Shipyard replaces the button.
Harvesting
To extract resources, send a fleet made exclusively of Asteroid Miners on a Mine mission to the belt. The player picks an initial mining duration (1h to 5h, or up to the current game cap).
- Ship required: Asteroid Miners only — no other ship type, no escort
- Mining stops as soon as cargo is full OR the chosen timer expires (whichever first)
- The fleet then auto-returns to its origin planet
- Multiple players can mine the same belt in parallel, each with their own timer
Per-second yield formula
The total volume collected each second is computed with the following formula:
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Research bonus
The Advanced Mining research grants Asteroid Miners the same multiplicative bonus as planetary mines: asymptotic formula capped at +50%, reached progressively (~+25% at level 10, +33% at level 20).