Balanced Asteroid and Planetary Mining Progression

TL;DR

• In SE1, asteroid mining was easy but boring.
• In SE2, space progression is currently much faster and easier than planetary starts.
• Asteroids should be rarer and farther away, not right outside planets.
• Mining in space should rely on scanners, not eyesight.
• Scanners can create a clear progression path, from basic to advanced and beyond.
• Planets should stay relevant with larger, richer deposits and reasons to build mining outposts.
• Refining should scale with power input, encouraging proper infrastructure and planning.

In SE1, mining asteroids is both superior and more boring compared to planet-side mining. Superior because you could find everything you needed and mine with ease. Mining and transporting ore in zero-G is much more convenient. At the same time, it was boring because searching for ores in space was(is) repetitive and tedious, and asteroid mining offered very little engineering challenge.

In SE2, we now have beautiful planets, and I would really like them to be just as desirable for resource mining as space, especially in the early game. Right now in SE2, asteroids start spawning almost as soon as you leave the planet. This feels both unrealistic and too easy. I tried starting both on Verdure and in space, and space is by far the easier and faster option to progress.

I think asteroids should start spawning much farther away and be significantly rarer, with much larger distances between individual asteroids or clusters. Finding them should not rely on naked eyesight. Even with today’s technology, we have far better tools than that.

Besides ore detectors used to find the exact location of ores, there could be (ore) scanners. A small, basic scanner could search within a limited radius, for example 30 km, while larger and more advanced scanners could reach 100 km or more. These scanners would not need asteroids to be visually rendered or fully generated. The world generation algorithm already has the data and could provide information such as position and rough composition probabilities.

As you get closer to an asteroid, the scanner would provide more precise information about its contents. Scanners could also support modules that extend their range or improve accuracy. Rare/exotic modules could help narrow down tolerances for specific ores (elements).

Most asteroids would still be fairly boring, containing only small amounts of basic ores. This creates a reason to invest in better scanners, hunt for advanced modules, or trade for them. Over time, you gain a clear advantages for asteroid mining, unlocking better tools and more efficient methods instead of having everything available immediately.

Planets would remain a desirable starting location and a more predictable source of resources. They could also host much larger ore deposits, justifying the construction of dedicated mining outposts. Once water is introduced, this could naturally tie into nuclear power infrastructure, providing the energy needed for power-hungry refineries.

Ideally, refineries should scale with power input. Instead of building many refineries, you could build fewer but supply them with much more power to refine ores significantly faster. This would reinforce engineering decisions, infrastructure planning, and long-term progression.

A couple of notes about consequences for production chains.

Having ingots back in the game would also help clearly separate refining and manufacturing, giving players more flexibility. Refining is power-hungry, which naturally makes planets more desirable thanks to better power options like wind, hydrogen, and efficient nuclear setups (with water and possibly heat management). Once you can reliably search for ores in space, it would still make sense to bring raw ore down to planetary refineries, turn it into ingots, and build up a proper stockpile. Those ingots could then be transported anywhere in the star system for manufacturing and base or shipbuilding.

Late game fusion reactors, requiring some very hard to obtain exotic components, could finally allow for all space setup.