More mining tweaks, how surprising

[JohnnyJohn]

More simple stuff because mining is basically nails on chalkboard on my flesh.

The first suggested tweak is to give geoscanners an auxiliary mode to switch broad scans for long-range specific scans. In this mode, the scanner won't be able to get a full read on the immediate environment, but it will be able to accurately pinpoint specific ores/tile types/treasure crates from a far range. It also gives coordinate readouts so you plug them into your GPS.

The second is making the drill and plasma cutter tools for pods cheaper to make. Instead of uqill, the drill just takes extremely dense metal and high energy conductor, the plasma cutter takes high energy conductor and significant power source. I think this is justified because the pod mining tools are still generally weaker than the hilariously cheap and powerful claretine blaster a miner can slap together, but still allow for pods to be viable. As-is, I genuinely have not see anyone fabricate a drill or plasma cutter pod part once in the entirety of 2025. The only time I see people use them is if they find prefabs.

The third change is changing the mining phaser so that is will gradually damage and wear down asteroid/trench tiles over time. It's still slow, but at least you can actually MINE with it. But it's still tedious enough to make you want to ugprade it as soon as possile.

The 4th change is a machine that miners can get from cargo, which allows them to compress materials into uqill. How much material it takes depends on the material. For example, it takes less bohrum to compress into uqill than it does rock.

5th, miners have a small chance to develop a beard and the dwarf mutation from drinking beer (chilled or not), at no stability cost.

And 6th, rockworm pet and cosmetic kits from cargo. These just allow you to dress up tame rockworms and give them names, because even those grizzled rock-crushers need pets to keep them company!

[Cappan]

I have some thoughts on this, which I'm gonna go over one at a time. For context, I'm pretty sure I'm in triple digit mining shifts at this point.

1. I don't think that trench mining and treasure hunting would be improved by being reduced to following an arrow.

2. People do make pod mining gear as needed, the reason you're not seeing it may have to do with it not being an activity worth announcing. They're not cheap, but given we're talking about mining, they're easy enough to put together.

3. The mining phaser is not meant to be particularly good. Think of it like the pod version of the non-powered pickaxe.

4. We do have something that does this already, in the form of tamed rockworms. If you're not thrilled with how much they move around, you can pen them in pretty easily.

5. Miners used to have a chance to spawn as dwarves. This was removed, I believe, to give players more control of their characters and the way they play them. Alcoholic miners probably shouldn't be cursed to inevitably become short and bearded.

6. Rockworms can be labeled with a label printer, and I've used this to name them (or just mark them as company property) a few times. That said, I would very much like to put hats on them.

[meaow589]

kinda interesting to 1) have pin pointer for specific ores and might effect meta
for example
miner speed run to get star stone /erebite at early of game.

2). uqil is not that hard with few credit you can speed run get it as well.

3)it use for defend / fight more than mining since we all know pod drill is slower than use tool hand anyway if able to use power mode for mining and consume more plasma might be interesting
there other are just some funny creative idea so i so so with it.

[JohnnyJohn]

Again, I don't know what you're talking about. I've played several mining rounds on oshan, neon, and nadir, and not ONCE have I seen any of my fellow miners make a pod drill/cutter. I've also gone several rounds not finding a single nugget of uqill despite digging up nearly half the trench. So what in the world is happening here? Is there some not-explained-in-the-wiki meta strat I'm unaware of, yet again?

[jan.antilles]

Again, I don't know what you're talking about. I've played several mining rounds on oshan, neon, and nadir, and not ONCE have I seen any of my fellow miners make a pod drill/cutter. I've also gone several rounds not finding a single nugget of uqill despite digging up nearly half the trench. So what in the world is happening here? Is there some not-explained-in-the-wiki meta strat I'm unaware of, yet again?

There's no "meta strat." Uqill drops from rocks as a "bonus" in the same way gemstones do. If you scan your environment and make sure to mine all the rocks marked with an aqua-colored triangle, you should find some before too long.

[Wander]

Just because you don’t understand how something works or it is challenging doesn’t mean it requires a code change to make it easier. Feel free to ask other miners how they do things if you’re having a hard time with it and want to find out ways to do things more conveniently, those players would likely be glad to teach you. It’s also an option to experiment some and figure it out yourself if you have the patience.

That said, rock worms being able to wear something like hats or similar would be cute. That idea is good.

[JohnnyJohn]

I just don't get it. I mine entire chunks of trench, nothing. I ask other mining players, they know even less than me. What the hell is going on? Is it because I'm a classic player instead of a roleplay player? This is like being told that I'm just not trying hard enough, when tasked to stare at a boulder until it splits apart.

[jan.antilles]

What the hell is going on? Is it because I'm a classic player instead of a roleplay player?

No? There is literally no difference between Classic and RP except for which antags can spawn and what rules the players have to follow.

If you're not finding uqill fast enough, remember that you can substitute tier 1 gems for it. According to the wiki, these are diamond, ruby, topaz, emerald, sapphire, and amethyst.

This is like being told that I'm just not trying hard enough, when tasked to stare at a boulder until it splits apart.

No, this is staring at the rock and then yelling at people to fix the rock for you, because there's too much RNG or you need to actually involve another person in the multiplayer game. This game is not meant to be "solved" and optimized by one person every single round.

[meaow589]

Again, I don't know what you're talking about. I've played several mining rounds on oshan, neon, and nadir, and not ONCE have I seen any of my fellow miners make a pod drill/cutter. I've also gone several rounds not finding a single nugget of uqill despite digging up nearly half the trench. So what in the world is happening here? Is there some not-explained-in-the-wiki meta strat I'm unaware of, yet again?

Some sea map also have Ores merchant like i mention before. Look at Mar shuttle and interact with it.

[Vulwin_Gilran]

Can also always f3 if you arent sure about stuff, mentors love answering questions and there is an immense trove of knowledge between them and the wiki.

I personally enjoy having pod parts that are hard to make, as I find it a very enjoyable little journey of kitting out my cool pod while supplying the station with their minerals. If you are getting REALLY bad RNG for the uqill, building a pen for rockworms is really good and then just feeding them rocks.

I agree that we should totally be able to give rockworms hats, because thats just adorable.

[freedo5]

1- I would have it as an upgraded scanner which can detect minerals long range, but not loot because people might use it for just that

2- they aren't too costly considering they are also solid weapons imo, try mining koshmarite clusters, they should have a higher chance of containing uquill

3- the mining phaser does need a small buff, it barely digs the softest rocks

4- maybe bringing the rock worms to sea map might help, being able to find rock worm eggs maybe might be good

5- yes

6- yes yes yes

[Cappan]

I just don't get it. I mine entire chunks of trench, nothing. I ask other mining players, they know even less than me. What the hell is going on? Is it because I'm a classic player instead of a roleplay player? This is like being told that I'm just not trying hard enough, when tasked to stare at a boulder until it splits apart.

I want to say this and specify that I mean absolutely zero offence, though I can see how you might read this as snarky. If you ever want to see if we can wind up on the same round at some point, I'd be very happy to pass on some of my knowledge to you ingame, or over another chatting medium. I really don't wanna just come in here and be all "skill issue" about things, but there might be some stuff you haven't picked up on. I'm usually on roleplay, but I am very familiar with the ins and outs of trench mining, though I'm mostly not a sub guy. Not huge on treads movement, I'd rather just get eaten by the critters.