Mass Driver
This article contains information relevant to both the C# and VB6 versions of Aurora. Where differences exist, they are noted in the appropriate sections.
| Mass Driver | |
|---|---|
| Cargo Size | 25,000 |
| Population Required | 0 |
| Total Cost (BP) | 300 |
| Duranium | 100 |
| Neutronium | 100 |
| Corbomite | — |
| Tritanium | — |
| Boronide | 100 |
| Mercassium | — |
| Sorium | — |
| Uridium | — |
| Corundium | — |
| Gallicite | — |
| Vendarite | — |
Mass Drivers are installations that send minerals to another colony in the same system. Each Mass Driver can transport up to 5000 tons of minerals per year. In order to safely receive the minerals, the destination colony also needs to have its own Mass Driver, but one Driver is enough to accept an unlimited number of incoming mineral packets.
Note that Mass Drivers are only usable in-system. They cannot send minerals to other systems - for that, you need to use ships with Cargo Holds.
Mass drivers can allow you to set up a main industrial or logistical hub at any colony in a system, with minimal micromanagement. Simply set your hub as the "Mass Driver Destination" for each mining colony (on the Mining tab of the F2 Economics screen), and all minerals mined in system will be sent to this single planet. From there, they can be used to produce on-site, or they can be collected together for easier transportation by freighter.
Orbital Bombardment
[edit]In C#, you cannot set a colony as a destination unless it has a Mass Driver of its own. Even if that Driver is later removed, the packets will still arrive safely, but no new ones can be sent until the Driver is replaced. As such, Mass Drivers cannot ever perform an orbital bombardment in C#.
In VB6, any colony can be set as a destination for minerals, even if it does not have a Mass Driver. Any packets that arrive at a planet without a Driver will crash into the planet, dealing significant damage to it. This orbital bombardment will kill population, destroy installations, and harm the environment. You should avoid this at all costs when sending minerals to your own colony, but if you have an empty "colony" on the same body as an enemy colony, and that enemy colony has no Mass Driver of its own, this can be used for cheap and easy orbital bombardment of the enemy colony.