Miners have too many tools. Condense them into one modular tool.

[Lefinch]

I don't mind what you do, the idea sounds fun. Just please don't stick us without a tool that doesn't cause explosions. Put a requirement to make it as we have now, but don't take it away.

[Frank_Stein]

There's something that I always found odd with manufacturer tools vs nano-fab tools. It's that they seem to use like 2 different systems for mining!
Manufacturer tools are RNG, on a high roll they break rocks, and on a low they do nothing, and the pickaxe isn't strong enough to roll high enough to break materials, indicating some sort of progression system.
Nano-fab tools however use a health system. No matter how weak the nano-fab tool, and how strong the ore is, spamming hits will eventually whittle down any ore. This obsoletes the manufacturer's progression system!
While deciding on a rework, it seems important to me to decide what the preferred system is.

About the bohrum hammer meta, in theory, the system has more depth. With the right knowledge, you can make tools that are just as good if not better than a bohrum hammer, pharosium/claretine blasters are fun, chitin drills are well suited in oshan, mauxite/molitz picks are perfectly servicable when you need to mine, say, valuables, with no better materials on hand. But people don't bother because a bohrum hammer is "good enough," because of the Nano-fab system!

I think that's a good point

Probably worth expanding on why different digging methods would be needed.

Maybe more reasons to not want to fully damage some rocks, so as not to shatter crystals or something

Could make digging more like a kind of puzzle where you need to plan ahead where you're going to dig, using different tools or drill heads to sort of stage a controlled demolition

[Cal]

With the mining changes people are putting forward, I feel like this could use a bump for interest

[JohnnyJohn]

BREAKING NEWS: LOCAL DEVELOPER PLAYS THEIR OWN GAME

In all seriousness, I do like the idea of changing up mining a little bit. Though personally, I'd make it more "as-needed" or something like that, like being able to switch on the fly as you encounter different kinds of ores and celestial terrain.

[Waffleloffle]

admins aren't necessarily developers, there's a fair number of them that don't work with the code at all

[Chasu]

About that self-recharging part: Maybe it could be boosted or rely on some kind of hand-cranking action? Something to give the player a little more control about how long they have to wait for the drill to recharge. Alternatively, the low/no(?)-power mode would do a lot less damage, but recharge the battery when mining.

[Cal]

About that self-recharging part: Maybe it could be boosted or rely on some kind of hand-cranking action? Something to give the player a little more control about how long they have to wait for the drill to recharge.

Sounds like a good incentive to make custom batteries with matsci imo