Making Mining Borgs useful again?

[Floor_Tile]

Currently there are only three things miners use nowdays, the mining pod, power hammer, and concussion gloves. And the only reason to use the power hammer and gloves is when they pull in a hollow asteroid.

A mining borg's only mining tool is a laser drill, which is much much weaker than everything a human miner starts with.

Possible solution 1: Make laser drill a borg only tool and increase its power to drill everything without issue.
Possible solution 2: remove mining borg module.

Any one have any ideas?

[RAWK_LAWBSTAR]

Clearly the mining borg needs to have some high power drill or be equipped with the ability to manufacture and place explosive charges. Of course these things onlywork on asteroids. Unless they are emagged of course. Then everything is an asteroid!

[Roomba]

Maybe the lazer drill could be swapped out with a power hammer. Also, give borgs the ability to auto-drill/hammer an asteroid wall when it walks into it with a drill equipped. Should speed things up a bit and make mining with a borg almost as viable as with a pod.

[Vitatroll]

I think it'd be okay to basically make a mining borg on par with a pod.

Give em the pod drill, a powerhammer and a heavy ore scoop that holds a lot. The drill could be a problem when rogue, but still not comparable to chem based borgs. I agree with Roomba that it would be better if you could just activate the drill and walk into stuff. Same with the scoop.

I'm on the fence about giving them masons straight off. I think I'm more for it, as no other borg has to ask for things directly related to them doing their job. Also because I personally hate masons except in very specific situations, but eh.

[Noah Buttes]

Auto-drilling is a great idea, and would get me to play as a mining borg more frequently.

[BaneOfGiygas]

I think that one of the problems inherent with mining borgs stems not from the actual capabilities of the mining borgs, but just from the way that the mining department is set up: Once you have one person working at the magnet, you really don't need anyone else to do actual mining, because that's the only place where mining ever happens. The existence of human miners renders mining borgs, for the most part, completely redundant, and vice versa. While I definitely agree with giving mining borgs a more useful toolset, giving them more places to mine is also a solution.

[Paineframe]

Do mining borgs even need to exist at all anymore? Mining is a nice, easy job that doesn't need the extra manpower any more than hydroponics needs plant-watering borgs.

[Floor_Tile]

Once you have one person working at the magnet, you really don't need anyone else to do actual mining, because that's the only place where mining ever happens.

Usually when I go mining, one person does mining and ore collection and the others handle sorting the ore, and taking care of crates and artifacts.

[Remmon]

Once you have one person working at the magnet, you really don't need anyone else to do actual mining, because that's the only place where mining ever happens.

Usually when I go mining, one person does mining and ore collection and the others handle sorting the ore, and taking care of crates and artifacts.

I used to do this as well, but with the pod ore bay, that has become even easier and if the QMs are active, you can just team with one of them. They usually have enough spare time to take advantage of free minerals to make a profit.

[Vitatroll]

Do mining borgs even need to exist at all anymore? Mining is a nice, easy job that doesn't need the extra manpower any more than hydroponics needs plant-watering borgs.

From a logistical point of view, you are correct. The way mining is currently set up, any borg could just use a pod and perform far better than a borg with a mining module. This stays the same even if the module was changed. I think the point of it is just to add gravy. More flavor and more freedom of choice for the player.

I could certainly see cyborgs trimmed down to 3 modules. Civilian, Engineering, and Scientific. The problem being the disparity of power between modules. And by power, I mean the ability to kill people, which is what most people use to rate modules. Which is dumb. Still, it's a thing. It's also a bit more boring.

[misto]

mining needs improved hazards. pulling in a fermid nest would make a mining crew very glad to have a borg on hand, since theyre immune to poison. pulling in derelicts with still-active turrets that a borg could simply switch off, or leaky reactors whose radiation they can ignore.

the free power hammer + indus. armor from mining fabs bug should also finally be dealt with

[Floor_Tile]

the free power hammer + indus. armor from mining fabs bug should also finally be dealt with

Mining has access to 4 mining fabs, and I don't really bother with indus armor because it doesn't protect from radiation which is usually my primary concern when dealing with mining ore, I only bother to get power hammers when we finally pull in a hollow asteroid.

Indus armor is only good against explosions, and if you are close enough to an explosion, chances are they're gonna finish you off without explosives, OR that armor wouldn't help against that explosion anyways.

I could certainly see cyborgs trimmed down to 3 modules. Civilian, Engineering, and Scientific. The problem being the disparity of power between modules. And by power, I mean the ability to kill people, which is what most people use to rate modules. Which is dumb. Still, it's a thing. It's also a bit more boring.

The last few rounds I've been borg my primary concern is "what can I do? and what can't I do and can someone help me with this?" and I've been given a few kill orders but I never got the chance to kill them.

For borg ?classes? I seperate them into 4 groups

Construction (all have mostly standard toolbox stuff)
Engineering: blowtorch, device analyzer, soldering iron, canister pickup
Construction: NO BLOWTORCH, RCD, Glass, Metal, floor tiles, rods

Medical:
Medical: Infinite stamps, 4 beakers, charcoal and epidepherine, suture, defib, assisting in de-braining
Chemistry: 3 Beakers and syringes, mini-chem machine for making pills and removing/isolating chems.

?Fun?: borgs that can't do anything a human could already do and a human could do better usually, exception is bro-bot.
Standard: " "
Botany: " "
Mining: " "
Bro-bot: " " and has snack dispenser and noise maker.
Janitor: " "

[Floor_Tile]

For borg ?classes? I seperate them into 4 groups

I am bad at checking my posts before I post because of lack of edit button.

Brobot is pretty much it's own group because it can dispense snacks and make annoying noises.

[Roomba]

Personally I see it less about 'is the borg's existence necessary/how well does it kill things' and more about what you're capable of doing as a borg. The mining/botanist/janiborg etc. modules may not be strictly necessary, but if you just want to bugger off and hit rocks/grow weed as a borg, it's nice to have the option there. It doesn't harm anyone to have the option open.

Modules were trimmed down a while ago and it was very boring. I think it's fine not to have them be perfectly balanced capability/killing-wise, although I wouldn't mind if some of the lesser-used modules got some love.

[Grek]

Replace the current Mining module with

Supply Module

Laser Drill
Power Hammer
Cargo Transporter
Geological Scanner
Ore Scoop (Contains large satchel)
Forklift (Holds 3 crates; click crate to load, click forklift to unload)
Multipen (Click in hand to change colour)
Clipboard (Special: Click paper with active clipboard to put paper in clipboard)
Wrapping Tool (wrapping paper that does not require scissors)
Paper Box
Hand Labeller
Space GPS
Fire Extinguisher

Starting Upgrade: Speed