The over reliance on miners

[Kel-the-Oblivious]

Bottom post of the previous page:

One set up I saw was a zoned spawning area for various things. Instead of "Hey, here's a Bubblegum RIGHT OUTSIDE your suit storage" it would be "Don't go northwest... That is where death is. Stay close to base, it's safer here."

3|x|x|x
2|3|x|x
1|2|3|x
B|1|2|3

Was the lay out I was given. Divide the map into sectors, where the danger level is well know. B is the base, obviously.1 is "safe" space, but low rewards. No structures, no megas, no tendrils, just local fauna and some basic minerals. You might get lucky and find a diamond node or two out here. 2 is the Established Danger zone. Tendrils pawn in here, megas might roam in here, but only rarely, and you may find some interesting structure loot. 3 is the Danger Zone. Megas and tendrils abound in here, as do some of the more exotic structures, like Sin Ships or Clown Ruin. X is the XTREME MINING ZONE, full of the worst possible things imaginable for miners to face, but also over loaded with treasure and loot for those capable of surviving out there.

[Zarpd]

I'm incredibly new to TG and I do not know the department interactions as well as everyone else, but I just wanted to chime in that the randomize adventure and excitement of lavaland is what made me start playing here instead of other servers.

Would it be helpful if miners could see direct requests from science/other departments? Have people put in requests, and those requests could be viewed from the mining station? Might do a lot to help the miner's feeling that their work is going to waste.

[D&B]

So I haven't played for ages and shit, but what about this?

All the monster hunter IX is gated in some way (either by gear check or SCIENCE device that opens a space anus from basic mining area to monster hunter IX zone) behind some level of research.
Then miners have a reason to bring minerals back to R&D, then proceed to pickaxe all the scientists to death because they're busy making bombs instead of R&D.

Fuck that.

[Gun Hog]

Kor did the only thing that needed to be done: Giving miners Science channel. As RD, I can check if there are miners by calling out to them; I can ask them to avoid dropping ore until I upgrade the ORM (this benefits us all); Miners can request equipment and mechs if they are so inclined.

Look, sometimes you are not going to get minerals! Lavaland is mining HARDMODE, and while it is the most fun thing in the game right now, it is still HARDMODE! Miners are going to die. Full stop. Be it monsters, bosses, antags, or just lava/chasms, miners do not have much of a life expectancy. BUUUT, that does not mean Science has to go empty! There is a huge deployable mining base which you can use if the miners die. Build your own outpost and drop that sucker! Are you too lazy to build like a REAL MAN? Fine! Ask a robo to build you a Ripley and do it yourself! Ripley mechs are fast and strong on Lavaland, just be careful. Are you TOO CHICKEN to pilot the mech yourself? Slap an AI into it (not an MMI, they cannot mine without help) and you have automated (lol) mining! Are you too HYPER LAZY to build an AI and a mech for it? That is okay, too. Build a mining borg and send that down (loot the vault if you need gold for Posibrains)!

There are PLENTY of ways to play mining! You can mine on foot, in a mech, or as a borg! All three are strong and viable methods! You, as a Science player, have lots of options to get minerals if the three roundstart miners die. It is also your job to make sure those miners have good gear! Do not force them to break into Science to do the research because you have never picked up a pair of Science goggles!

This is SS13. You will die. Miners will die. The HoP will die. Your department will die. Accept this. Embrace this. There is no change needed at this time. I still want to revive my borg PR though. There are some upgrades I would love them to have to be on par foot miners.

[Arianya]

There are PLENTY of ways to play mining! You can mine on foot, in a mech, or as a borg! All three are strong and viable methods! You, as a Science player, have lots of options to get minerals if the three roundstart miners die. It is also your job to make sure those miners have good gear! Do not force them to break into Science to do the research because you have never picked up a pair of Science goggles!

I will say that at some point RIPLEYs need to be looked at in terms of balancing, because at the moment they're not good for mining or for fighting megafauna, in comparison to a geared up miner. The plasma gun out mines it and its too slow to fight megafauna.

[Alipheese]

There are PLENTY of ways to play mining! You can mine on foot, in a mech, or as a borg! All three are strong and viable methods! You, as a Science player, have lots of options to get minerals if the three roundstart miners die. It is also your job to make sure those miners have good gear! Do not force them to break into Science to do the research because you have never picked up a pair of Science goggles!

I will say that at some point RIPLEYs need to be looked at in terms of balancing, because at the moment they're not good for mining or for fighting megafauna, in comparison to a geared up miner. The plasma gun out mines it and its too slow to fight megafauna.

Gygax are probably the only mech that can effectively fight a megafauna.

[Kel-the-Oblivious]

Well, good thing that absolutely nothing useful to a researcher is dropped by megafauna, and you can easily bypass them by making a GPS and actually looking at it from time to time to sort out where they are roaming and avoid them completely.

[Gun Hog]

There are PLENTY of ways to play mining! You can mine on foot, in a mech, or as a borg! All three are strong and viable methods! You, as a Science player, have lots of options to get minerals if the three roundstart miners die. It is also your job to make sure those miners have good gear! Do not force them to break into Science to do the research because you have never picked up a pair of Science goggles!

I will say that at some point RIPLEYs need to be looked at in terms of balancing, because at the moment they're not good for mining or for fighting megafauna, in comparison to a geared up miner. The plasma gun out mines it and its too slow to fight megafauna.

https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/pull/21691 and https://github.com/tgstation/tgstation/pull/20497

It is time to reconsider that position! Try the Ripley now! Ripley mechs are now quite fast on lavaland (use strafing mode!) and the plasma cutter is a strong, viable weapon. Throw some other upgrades on there, such as a large cell, goliath plating/reactive plating, and a repair bot. I was able to take down a drake once I learned to dodge and strafe properly. The plasma cutter will devour rocks and tackle monsters decently. Remember, because you have a mech, you need not fear ash storms (or lava if you have the firefighter), and stun/freeze based monster abilities do not affect your mech either. Keep your distance, and you will be fine.

I urge you to give them another shot, I feel that you may be pleased with the result.

[Arianya]

NT RIPLEY sales pitch

I'll have to give them another buzz in the near future. Will send you/post here some feedback when I get a chance.

Out of interest, is there a solution for the RIPLEY and grabbing lavaland chests from defeated tendrils? IIRC, Mechs can't pull anything, and the hydraulic clamp is too slow to avoid being chasm'd by the tendril death (not tested this part but pretty sure?)

[Arianya]

NT RIPLEY sales pitch

I'll have to give them another buzz in the near future. Will send you/post here some feedback when I get a chance.

Out of interest, is there a solution for the RIPLEY and grabbing lavaland chests from defeated tendrils? IIRC, Mechs can't pull anything, and the hydraulic clamp is too slow to avoid being chasm'd by the tendril death (not tested this part but pretty sure?)

Does pushing work or are they too slow for that? It might just be an inherent flaw.

Pushing works, but you'd have to do some fancy acrobatics to actually get it out, due to the tendril still existing and being solid. You'd have to push it off the tendril, then navigate around to keep pushing it, and even then you'd need to have pre-prepared the area for this since the default wall layout around a tendril would end up with the chest stuck in a corner. Even then it'd be tight on time, but you're right it may just be an inherent downside to meching it up.