Appear to be missing the mining ship research topic...

[XCOMJunkie]

I'm in year 2 or 3, do they still spawn that late or am I SOL?

[ivandogovich]

The mining ship research topic has a lot of dependencies.  It is not directly related to the Excavator ships flown by the factions (though this is one of the requirements).

Spoiler:

    dependencies:
      - STR_SLAVE
      - STR_SLAVE_BRUTE
      - STR_SLAVE_SKILLED
      - STR_SLAVE_MANAGER
      - STR_UFO_NAVIGATION
      - STR_MINING_LASER
      - STR_RAIL_DRIVER
      - STR_VESSEL_EXCAVATOR
      - STR_WORKSHOP
      - STR_CONTACT_SHIP_JUNKYARD
      - STR_CLOAKING_DEVICE
      - STR_GRAVITY_PHYSICS

The actual "Excavator" topic is easily available through any number of prisoners: Air Sailors, Engineers, and other Pilot types.

[Ethereal_Medic]

Excavator topic should be on the easy side of getting the deal done.
That implosion bomb-launcher tho is on a completely different level of RNG

[XCOMJunkie]

Yeah, that's exactly what I was missing, unfortunately. I thought the missing topic meant I had missed the excavator ship way back, but it was indeed the bomb launcher I needed to find. First cruiser did it though, thanks rng!

[ivandogovich]

I'm a bit lost guys.  How does Mining Ship Research relate to Implosion Bomb Launcher?

Nvm.  Just Checked.

Spoiler:

Its a requirement for Gravity Physics.

[Ethereal_Medic]

I'm still a bit sad how *optional* the mining ship is considering the small crew, the expensive fuel burned and slow approaching speed all for 4x metal per deployment.
Yes you can print obsidian chips out of the ore but eh... it's a long to get the ship for little value.

I'm happy for anyone showing the fantastic positive trade-offs.

[ivandogovich]

Yeah, it has morphed considerably in its role and importance since it was introduced.  I personally have NEVER used one in any of my campaigns.  Likewise, stuck behind implosion launchers, it feels way too late to be really much of a ship.  Maybe you could use it on late game infiltration/bounty missions, but meh.

[RSSwizard]

Yeah, it has morphed considerably in its role and importance since it was introduced.  I personally have NEVER used one in any of my campaigns.  Likewise, stuck behind implosion launchers, it feels way too late to be really much of a ship.  Maybe you could use it on late game infiltration/bounty missions, but meh.

What did it originally do?

I think one way to make it more viable is to make it generate negative maintenance so that "its used for mining by your faction" and its just on call to do other things when you need it. Same way that courtesans make money except this should make a giant fat bill of change for you since it takes up a hangar.

[greattuna]

What did it originally do?

I think one way to make it more viable is to make it generate negative maintenance so that "its used for mining by your faction" and its just on call to do other things when you need it. Same way that courtesans make money except this should make a giant fat bill of change for you since it takes up a hangar.

It does exactly that, or at least used to. Gives 400000$ per month, not a very interesting sum of money by the time you can craft the ship, but still.

[ivandogovich]

Because it came earlier in the campaign it was also touted as a decent capacity dropship for ground assaults.   I felt it was too slow to warrant such use.