[POLL] Has Mining update been successful?

[Lo6a4evskiy]

Bottom post of the previous page:

Resonator is already like 750 points. I think it's the cheapest mining tool in the vending machine.

[Lovecraft]

I like being in the "I've always hated mining" camp.

[paprika]

mining has this dorf-esque association in my eyes, grizzled miners coming back from a hard day to a completely wrecked station has always struck me as masochistic

[RG4]

mining has this dorf-esque association in my eyes, grizzled miners coming back from a hard day to a completely wrecked station has always struck me as masochistic

Nothing better than trudging onto the station with goliath plate armor only to see that it's a cult round, pickaxe in hand and a satchel for of a change it's time to be the hero this station needs. Then you here a -BOINK- the admins try to stop you and the only response is "Isn't everyone culted?" The admin realizes his mistake and gives you the go ahead, the next thing you know cult blades and construct attack but they don't hurt you.

[Zsword]

So, after spending several days in mining, playing shift after shift back to back in it and getting a feel for it and trying to get 'good' at it, I've compiled a small list of complaints and ideas that I feel would really help flesh it out.

1: The Mining Analyzer. Good idea, current implementation is the epitome of tedious. I'm not gonna say it should be gotten rid of entirely, but I do think it could be improved. What I'd like to see with it is either a little hud activation icon for whenever you have it in your pocket (like the Lantern or Welding mask do, where clicking it just causes it to do it's thing.) so that I can just hold onto my Resonator and Pick, or Pick and Accelerator, or hold a pick and keep a hand empty in case I need to quickly toggle my drone into 'murder' mode. Though what I'd REALLY like to see, ideally, is taking the Analyzer, and turning it into a toggle-able like the T-ray scanner, and have it just on, and automatically send out another 'flash' of ore-sight whenever the 'cooldown' is up.

2: The drone, only a small complaint here, I'm just tired of it shooting me in the back, and sometimes it seems like it takes FOREVER to decide to pick up ore. Not sure what all could be done here, just, a quip.

3: Prizes! There are none! I mean, really. It took, the entire round of serious co-operation with me, the RD, and the Captain to make 1 not-RIPLEY, and when I say the whole round, I mean we finished it after the shuttle had docked. Sometimes I get a diamond drill, and that's kinda cute, except, all it's good for is more mining, which, the diamond drill is kinda the 'ultimate' reward of... and the plasma cutter, doesn't seem all that great for anything. The Lazarus Injector is cute, I mean, I remember one round where the HoP was gonna space a dead Ian and I burst in like Pippin and resurrected him, but, it's not like you can drag around your pet Goliath... then you have the Jet pack, woooo. They're freaking filled with Carbon so they're almost unusable, cause my suit slot is dedicated to ym Air, and my Backpack has all my mining tools that aren't a pick. (like say, my resonator, or Kinetic Accelerator.) Goliath plates are kinda nice, but you'll only ever get like 2 in a round, cause you pretty much NEED an Accelerator or Resonator to take care of em... not nearly enough to get decent bonuses. i've already seen people mention not being able to use the Styms... and all the other items are just kinda gimmicky and knockoffish. (Not that that's necessarily a bad thing, you can have fun with novelty items.)

4: Monster spawns vs. Difficulty. This is gonna sound kinda wierd, but as a suggested fix to part of the balance issues (namely: Goliath plates...) It seems like monsters are too rare and too hard for what little reward they give, I've spent 10 minutes looking for a Goliath to no avail, just to get jumped by a Basalisk and a Hivelord. Hivelords and their cores are FAR too rare to even remotely be useful as there purpose, being your sorta 'cookie for being a badass'.

5: Treasure troves: Actually, I have decently minimal complaints for these, though I feel there spawn rate could be ramped up a tad, it kinda sucks when the three or four you find are a Blue Tomato Seeds, the Ushanka, the cultist bedsheet/cape (super robusted for wearing it btw...), and the fake katana (also horribly murdered over...)

[Lo6a4evskiy]

Mining analyzer could work as T-ray scanner. Activate it and it pings minerals in a small area around you.

I agree that drones suck at picking up ore. Something definitely should be done about it. Sometimes it seems like they decide to ignore this particular batch of ore.

Jetpacks are used on the back, with backpack in your hand. This is like how it's always been.

Monsters can really use a buff in numbers and stats. Make them go in packs as well.

[Rose-chan]

I find mining quite satisfying since the revised ore rates. Once you know how to deal with goliaths they're quite easy and rewarding to deal with accept on the rare occasion where you find two of them together. Basilisk drops could do with being more rewarding given the amount of damage they're likely to do to you. It wouldn't hurt to add a box of donks to the machine for a nominal amount of points, as I usually use these over the medkit anyway.

PROTIP: You can pop a whole bottle of stimulants before going out to mine. You can also pop them before returning to the station to deliver those materials to science without having to worry as much about being horribly murdered.

[Scott]

Yeah, like everyone else before me, I used to play Mining because it was a chill job, isolated from the chaos of the station. Ever since the update, I haven't touched it other than trying the first few times. It's shit and makes no sense and it stalls science.

[tunderchief]

Yeah, like everyone else before me, I used to play Mining because it was a chill job, isolated from the chaos of the station. Ever since the update, I haven't touched it other than trying the first few times. It's shit and makes no sense and it stalls science.

This. Mining was a chill job where you wandered and around and discovered stuff before. It's been turned into a shitty away mission, and the drop rates have been fucked with, so it's not worth the effort anymore. If I wanted to be in nonstop combat, I'd stay on the station.

[Lo6a4evskiy]

You can mine all the shit for a couple of thousand points without ever going to western part of the asteroid in 15 minutes.

I'm tired of telling people that.

If it's a chill job, why do you care about drop rates anyway? I thought you wanted to chill.

[ColonicAcid]

Chilling does not involve monotonous digging around and at the end of it nothing to show for. Mining was cool because you could chill and get shit for the RD after you spent half an hour just in your own little world mining.
Now? If you want any good stuff, like the ecutlass you have to risk life and limb to not die because you didn't dodge one tentacool.

[Lo6a4evskiy]

Now? If you want any good stuff, like the ecutlass you have to risk life and limb to not die because you didn't dodge one tentacool.

You can mine all the shit for a couple of thousand points without ever going to western part of the asteroid in 15 minutes.

I thought you said you weren't playing or was that somebody else?

[ColonicAcid]

That is obviously something that's not currently fixed and thus isn't a good enough reason to imply that mining is okay in any way, shape or form.

[Lo6a4evskiy]

I must ask, based on what are you saying this? You know that there's been more updates since new mining, one of which significantly increased droprates, right?

[Alex Crimson]

After having played mining a bunch, i can admit i was wrong to hate on the update so much. I actually really like the changes now. As people have said, you do not need to go fight Aliens on the west side. You can easily get materials on the safe side. Hell, once you know their AI, the Aliens are pretty easy to take down individually.

Some things id like to see though...

Some sort of Mining scanner HUD so we do not need to keep using that silly scanner in our hand. Early on its fine, but when im in the lategame Mining stage id rather have something that doesnt require constant clicks. Maybe add it to R&D or as a really expensive Mining gadget from the vendor.

Faster ore collection ticks from the Mining Bot. It picks stuff up too slowly, and loves to run off to pick up single pieces of ore. Should be able to stop it from moving when you are pulling it.

Some kind of healing item in the Vending machine. Nothing overpowered. Maybe just tricord in the Chilli or Cigar. Donk Pockets arnt that helpful, and the medkit on the asteroid runs out fast if you get unlucky or need to heal minor damage on multiple limbs.

More secrets. Secrets are fun. Finding vaults and stuff. More random stuff to hunt down wold be nice.

[ExplosiveCrate]

You can keep the bot from moving by using a mining scanner on it, which sets it to attack mode, and hitting it with a satchel dumps everything in its inventory. It's more useful as a mining crate that can shoot stuff.

But yeah, mining isn't really a problem after the buffs to mineral spawn rates.

[kosmos]

You can mine all the shit for a couple of thousand points without ever going to western part of the asteroid in 15 minutes.

I'm tired of telling people that.

If it's a chill job, why do you care about drop rates anyway? I thought you wanted to chill.

You should write a guide how to do that, cos I've tried to stay on the eastern part and couldn't find anything but iron and plasma, and those both of those were scarce too. Don't know if it was changed since this was like a month ago.

[Alex Crimson]

The east side has all the ores, they are just rarer. Ive found diamonds and stuff on the east side before.

If you want to mine without ever encountering a hostile mob, just mine the east side until you have enough materials to get a Sonic Jackhammer and a bottle of stim pills, then go mine the west side whilst avoiding the caves. You will get plenty of stuff.

But really you should have little trouble killing the mobs. First few times you will probably die, but once you learn the attack patterns of Goliaths its easier. They move twice then spawn tentacles, i believe. So long as you are ready to move when they spawn tentacles, you will never get hurt by them unless you make a mistake. Basilisks are worse imo because you cannot avoid the damage. But those are easy too once you max out your mining suit with Goliath plates and have stim pills.

[bandit]

Some kind of healing item in the Vending machine. Nothing overpowered. Maybe just tricord in the Chilli or Cigar. Donk Pockets arnt that helpful, and the medkit on the asteroid runs out fast if you get unlucky or need to heal minor damage on multiple limbs.

Warm donk pockets contain tricord, so I'm not sure how this would be an improvement. If you're running through the medikit that fast you have other problems. (Plus there's one in cargo, and cargo can order more.)

[Alex Crimson]

There are only 5-6 donk pockets in a pack. There is only 1 pack on the main station, and 3 packs on the while asteroid. You usually need to eat atleast 2 to get the random minor damage healed.

The medkit is great for healing moderately damaged limbs, but when you have minor damage on 4-5 parts of your character, using bruise packs/ointment would be a massive waste.

[TheWiznard]

For some god awful reason I have shaft miner on high. I like mining. I don't really know why anybody would sign up for a job where you basically work for nothing. You can spend half an hour mining and bring back shit tons of minerals only for you to hear the singulo is loose and the shuttle is called or the round/station is in such disarray that it's pointless. There are so many ways that makes your entire job; sometimes hours that you invest into it, utterly worthless. maybe I'm secretly a masochist or something but what the fuck do I find so fun about this job? I don't really mine on the eastern 'roid, so I can't say for sure how good the minerals are spread out there. In little as 10-30 minutes into the round I can have 40-50 of everything important without ever toeing the line with a monster. Something that I would like to see is adding the upgrade-able Kinetic accelerator from NT mining to TG. You can screwdriver it and add diamonds and plasma; diamonds increases it's reload speed and plasma increases the range you can shoot. Using plasma too many times though can and will break your gun rendering the whole thing useless and unfixable, It can happen even if you only add plasma once (which I don't really have a problem with). Also it's actually useful on NT for mining, it shoots like a shotgun: # being the rocks, 0 being the space that gets mined, X being you. (ignore the "."'s)
#########
#########
####0####
###00####
......X

Basically it shoots in a 2-3x1-2 line, and when it's not upgraded it's still pretty clunky. I would be fine with it doing less damage or whatever to make up for this.

I think the vending machines for mining are pretty cool but there isn't really anything useful at least in my experience. I don't use resonators because in my opinion they are bad. I don't really use the accelerator because as mentioned above I think on TG it's worthless, oh sure you can one hit a carp in space; so what? I want to mine not carp hunt. It takes ages to reload, I can understand that the thing being a "powerful space shotgun" it should have a long reload, but at least make it not mine the same effective area of a pickaxe; christ, maybe I'm just the odd one out but I just like mining for mining, I could care less about doing a million damage to something in space. I use the drone if I'm feeling lazy and don't want to do a bunch of clicking to pick up ores, I don't really get into fights with mining mobs until I'm sanic with pills. Pills are the most useful thing next to the jetpack you can buy. A general thought related to pills for me is that the pill bottle should function similar to a cigarette pack, wherein you can target your mouth and swallow a pill that way. Just as a ease of use kind of feature, you already have to take off your helmet and mask which I'm fine with. None of the mining tools you can buy with a ticket or with points really stand out. Mostly I'll just dump my ticket for some other miner to use and just head out with my trusty pickaxe until I scrape up enough points for two pill bottles and a sonic jackhammer. And even then considering the ores you turn in you don't even need the jackhammer if you can pick up a diamond drill/pickaxe. There isn't anything about the new mining tools that makes me want to use them over the traditional diamond tools of the trade. Another note about the resonator: I don't really like mining one little tunnel at a time. (another dumb text picture coming up)
#######
#######
###0###
##0X0##

This is how I prefer to mine, IE walking up and turning left and right each time to dig out a 3x3ish area. I could just dig 1x1 tunnels everywhere but I guess that it's my (rp?) way of mining and I just find it the most easy/relaxing/rewarding.

[Raven776]

The pill idea is actually really good for EVERY use. I wanna chug a whole fucking bottle on the go!

With that in mind, this post deserves its own suggestion/idea post.