Fixing mining vouchers

[Denton]

I'm looking for input on a PR that rebalances mining vouchers (pretty sure everyone can agree that they're in an bad state right now).

90% of miners buy the scanner+resonator kit, simply because having an advanced scanner outweighs other kits that either have god awful value (drone/webbing kits) or are less useful roundstart.

I have some ideas in mind (like reworking drone/webbit kits and moving the conscript kit to the vending machine), but how would you fix them?

[Denton]

So far it's
- Webbing+shelter capsule kit: 900pts value
- Resonator+Scanner: 1600pts
- Mining drone: 800pts plus a welder and goggles
- Extraction (fulton) kit: 1700pts
- Crusher kit: 1250pts plus a mini extinguisher
- Conscript kit: ???pts, should be a vending machine item instead

tl;dr
Webbing has awful value, drone is complete garbage without sentience/AI upgrade, nobody uses the crusher or resonator for obvious reasons.
Conscript kit is the worst offender, unless you're metafriending you won't know immediately at roundstart that a player from another department wants to start mining.

[Bombadil]

The only person who ever used the crusher was ergovisavi because he's fucking nuts and killed a colossus with one. The only reason scanner + resonator is so high pointwise is because no one bought the resonator for obvious fucking reasons. And no one will ever use a resonator even if they were buffed

[Lazengann]

I would use the crusher more often if the upgrades didn't have such an abyssmal drop rate

[Takeguru]

I love the crusher personally, I nearly killed Heiro first time I fought him with it

[SpaceInaba]

the crusher is great get good noob

[Dr_bee]

the crusher is great get good noob

I wish the upgrades were actually obtainable or carried over between rounds.

KA's get stronger over the duration of the round, crushers just stay the same power unless you get stupidly lucky with a drop from a mob or somehow manage to melee megafauna to death.

KA is a better roundstart mining tool but for fighting it is lackluster for how risky it is to use.

[SpaceInaba]

the crusher is great get good noob

I wish the upgrades were actually obtainable or carried over between rounds.

KA's get stronger over the duration of the round, crushers just stay the same power unless you get stupidly lucky with a drop from a mob or somehow manage to melee megafauna to death.

KA is a better roundstart mining tool but for fighting it is lackluster for how risky it is to use.

if you get a rhythm for the mob ticks you can pretty much kill anything without getting hit
also just kill heirophant considering he has no actual melee attack and go from there

[Nilons]

the crusher is great get good noob

I wish the upgrades were actually obtainable or carried over between rounds.

KA's get stronger over the duration of the round, crushers just stay the same power unless you get stupidly lucky with a drop from a mob or somehow manage to melee megafauna to death.

KA is a better roundstart mining tool but for fighting it is lackluster for how risky it is to use.

I've gotten the drops a few times they're not that rare, just don't expect to get more than 1 or 2 a round at best

[BeeSting12]

the crusher is great get good noob

I wish the upgrades were actually obtainable or carried over between rounds.

KA's get stronger over the duration of the round, crushers just stay the same power unless you get stupidly lucky with a drop from a mob or somehow manage to melee megafauna to death.

KA is a better roundstart mining tool but for fighting it is lackluster for how risky it is to use.

>carried over between rounds
Stop.

[Deitus]

And no one will ever use a resonator even if they were buffed

i use the resonator. its quicker than any other roundstart mining item and its more than enough to get the materials you need for the first load to unlock advanced plasma cuttersif rnd would fucking research them despite me reminding them constantly reeeeeeeeeeee

[onleavedontatme]

https://atlantaned.space/statbus/stat.p ... 18&month=1

Scanner is the most popular by far but it is definitely not 90%

Conscript kit is meant for metafriending and its not like the option there hurts the others, even if its pretty niche, so I'm not sure what needs fixing.

[Denton]

Neat, I didn't even know that those stats are tracked.

Honestly very surprised that so many people grab the webbing+capsule, it's just a 500pts glorified belt with a capsule you can get for free down at the mining base lockers.

I don't have an issue with the conscript kit being available roundstart btw, I'd probably just add it to the vending machine as well.

[Cobby]

TFW I’ve always got the webbing

[Denton]

Darn, I was wrong about how popular what kits actually are.

January 2018:
Resonator and Advanced Scanner: 51.7%
Survival Capsule and Explorer's Webbing: 23.8%
Crusher Kit: 14.9%
Extraction and Rescue Kit: 5.3%
Mining Drone: 2.2%
Mining Conscription Kit: 1.9%

I think the mining drone kit would be a lot more popular with a sentience module and also still good points wise (1800). Right now, the basic drone is complete garbage.
Fulton kit could have the 30 useless markers replaced with a second fulton beacon (1800).
Crusher kit would be complimented well by a stabilizing serum or medipen (1650/1750), after all you'll get hit a bunch with that weapon.

No clue yet about the capsule+webbing and resonator+scanner kits.

[Saegrimr]

I used to like the resonator way back during roid mining but now I get it just for that adv scanner.

Sometimes I get the fulton kit for quick escape memes.

[BeeSting12]

I've always bought the webbing for the storage or the adv scanner.

[D&B]

Basic drone is a cheap draggable Satchel of Holding.

Not everything needs to be equally popular or picked, nor will it ever be.

[Denton]

Basic drone is a cheap draggable Satchel of Holding.

So an ore box, except it costs points and can't block shots for you?

[D&B]

Basic drone is a cheap draggable Satchel of Holding.

So an ore box, except it costs points and can't block shots for you?

Yeah but can shoot back.

Giving them sentience potion is stupidly OP since it basically gives you another player mob that can't be stunned nor poisoned, can survive atmos, and has tools to break down doors and such.

Maybe a random of the three upgrades would be better but giving it flat out straight sentience is dumb.

[teepeepee]

I always go for crusher kit, it makes me feel way more into the role, as well as forcing me to manage my storage and only take the most necessary stuff. It feels more like a challenge, and I only ever die to those 1x1 chasms outside clown ruin or antags when playing miner. That said it could really use a buff, either upgrades dropping more frequently or a starting serum/survival pen. After one haul you should probably get your adv scanner anyways, and you can just drag your plasma cutter behind you while you fight, and then keep the crusher on backslot the rest of the time (maybe you could make plasma cutters fit in webbings?). All in all a great idea, even if other kits got buffed I doubt people would want to sacrifice the convenience of adv scanner for stuff they can just get a few minutes later anyways.

[Denton]

Giving them sentience potion is stupidly OP since it basically gives you another player mob that can't be stunned nor poisoned, can survive atmos, and has tools to break down doors and such.

That's a good point tbh.

All in all a great idea, even if other kits got buffed I doubt people would want to sacrifice the convenience of adv scanner for stuff they can just get a few minutes later anyways.

Yeah, the people I've played with either grabbed the scanner to mine faster or went for the crusher/webbing and beelined to the nearest tendril/fauna. Dunno how you could fix it, seems to be an underlying problem with mining.

[PathOfChaos1]

Avid mining fan here. The scanner is the most important item if you are actually trying to mine for the good stuff. Otherwise you have to use the basic mining scanner which sucks.

The belt could be more purchasable if it came with another medi-pen. Balancing its costs, and usefulness.

The crusher is gotten by people who want to crush mobs/bosses or have no Idea what it is and die shortly after.

The fulton pack is nearly useless. The best use ive found for it is to steal the orm and just send lockers of ore up to the station for quicker turnover so I can get back to mining. Sending corpses of dead miners up also helps.

The drone kit is meh. Having sentience is kinda required, or if its AI wasn't so shit. It may be useful. Perhaps giving it a random upgrade when purchased via vendor would make it more useful, or having a vendor exclusive upgrade would be cool.

The conscription kit should be a special stun baton-esque. Weapon that traps their current gear in a mini-orm storage device. Teleporting them to a random location far from mining on lavaland. Once you have paid your debt to the mini-orm it teleports you to the station with all your gear, and puts the ore you've mined into the Actual orm on station, or just laying on the floor in cargo.
Great ideas aside. Keep it, but add it to the mining vendor as a normal purchase as well.