Very complicated, very in depth, praise Splitsie and his tutorial series otherwise I would be stuck crashing the red ship over and over again.

A traditional review isn't enough for my autistic obsession for this, so here's how to make a mining ship.

First, use a cockpit. Drone-miners work well and are a necessity in late-game and multiplayer-faction logistics, yet cockpits have their own storage capacity and conveyor points. And drones can be pretty finicky as they rely on antennae and cameras to work, which takes up power, which means more batteries, which leads to the eternal cycle of weight compensation. Also for a general rule of thumb, use small grid as large grid parts cost more and are heavier, so unless you want it to refine the material as it mines, downsize it, or go for prototech but at that point you're probably stacked enough to make a large-grid mobile refinery. Since this is the first stage, you can set it up for proper manufacturing either by using small-grid landing pads, or by connecting a small-grid connector to an upwards-pointing large grid connector. If you're in space, this shouldn't be an issue outside of life support.

Second, make the structure. Drills, cargo, conveyor lines, batteries, hydrogen tanks (if you're using H2 thrusters) and the main connector. Make sure the conveyor points match so mined ore can flow freely and H2 thrusters can burn that sweet double-proton gold. The cargo size and battery count depends on the miner's purpose. If it just flies out and digs at a nearby deposit, it doesn't need much cargo and you can even comfortably use the drill itself for storage. If it goes kilometers away from base and digs at deposits, it needs a medium or large cargo hold to compensate for the energy cost, and will need more batteries to power the multiple thrusters and gyros needed to heave all that cargo. If it also doubles for ore scouting, you could afford to give it some form of power generation, (and basic life support depending on the planet), but that's more weight and less room for cargo. You can skimp on thrusters and power for 0g asteroid mining, yet thrusters are a major concern on planets and moons, ion thrusters are expensive, and some consideration for life support should be made. For another tip, spread the frame out a bit as it gives you more surface area for thrusters, the spine doesn't need to be sleek and compact, the shell does that job for it. Remember that thrusters still matter in 0g, as weight means inertia, making your brakes worse the heavier you are, and that's especially bad news for a ship that gets really heavy and parks a lot.

Third, make it mobile. Place thrusters where you need them and gyros wherever they fit. If you're in a gravity well, you can afford to skip downward thrust, yet that means you gotta pay attention to that artificial horizon on your hotbar, as if it goes topsy turvy you're stuck and in need of a backup save. Make sure the thrusters point away from your ship so it doesn't destroy itself, One or two gyros are more than enough for small craft, yet you can use three or four for more ambitious projects, or one prototech gyro if you're rich. Prioritize backwards and upwards thrust in-atmosphere, as backwards lets you get out of the mineshaft, and upwards keeps you off the ground and not crawling like a slug.

Fourth, tech. Ore detectors are vital for spotting valuable ores like cobalt and platinum, conveyor sorters and small connectors help to drop byproducts, as although stone is your lifeblood for the early game it weighs a lot more than unrefined ore and makes gravel, which only exists to make reactor comps and clog up your cargo and refineries/assemblers. If you like stone and can handle the logistical strain of refining it, you can still turn those sorters and connectors off, so win win. Lighting is important to not crash in tunnels, and you can add a remote block, camera(s) and antenna to both track it and run it from the comfort of your home/mothership, You can even give it some smart capabilities using AI blocks and event controllers to run it completely hands free, at the cost of more power, and more batteries, and more weight.

Fifth, decor. Keep it minimal so all the blocks don't weight you down, weight is especially crucial on a mining ship. P to set block color, MMB to color the block, shift+P to get a color from another block, etc. Maybe add some text by either physical letters or an LCD screen. Make it fancy, color coordinate with your faction, all that jazz. Also fill out the LCD's in your cockpit for either more info or notes.

Sixth and finally, binds and tweaks. Press K for the control panel, group all of your batteries together, press G, select your battery group, select recharge on/off, and assuming you got it connected to a grid, turn it on so the batteries can get recharged to full, just make sure to turn it back to auto once you're ready to fly. Get your drills online via the Tool Blocks, wait for it to charge, make some last minute tweaks, and take it for a spin. Get a feel for it, mine with it, bring it back (preferably in one piece) and you're (not) done!

Congrats on the successful (hopefully) test flight! Klang will smite you down for your hubris soon, save and prepare.

Seventh, improving. As any engineer should know, it isn't fixed until it broke before, and the first thing to do with any working design is to break it. Congrats on the test flight, now make it fly better. Add more thrusters to compensate for speed or tipping angles, fill in gaps with small batteries or more gyros, take some decor off and shave every kilo; Constantly improve and streamline and re-iterate, and if it takes doing it all over again to fix a problem, so be it. If you can't think of anything to fix, add more until there's something that needs to be fixed.

Congrats you lazy bastard, now get more cobalt for the cause with that beautiful hunk of scrap.

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