Feedback: Mining Tweaks

[Cnaym]

https://github.com/Aurorastation/Aurora.3/pull/8036

This one requires a feedback thread for reasons unknown, so let me explain the details while nobody clicks the link ? 
 

Quote

 

-Drills will get a lot faster.

-Pickaxes will get a lot faster.

-The diamond pickaxe will use the auto drill function, meaning you can "almost" just walk through stone with it.

-The damage chip for the KA is going to work more like a grenade launcher really. Increased damage a little, but it takes a lot longer to shoot again, also bigger AOE as exchange. Idea is to make it great as an opener and not a weapon of mass spam. No other KA modules touched.

-Prices for exports decreased into the ground. Cargo will no longer profit from the only one in the department to actually do their work. The effect of this is that gemstones and bounties will be worth a lot more. This does not effect mining itself. The amount of ore remains the same, so do the earned mining points. This is simply to point out that a stack of phoron, while worth a lot, is already owned by the company and not whoever mines it. The basic thing here is that a stack of 50 will no longer be 10.000 credits, but 1.500 credits instead.

 

The goal was to make the different mining tools easier to use, more viable as compared to a KA (if your character for whatever reason does not use them i.e. roleplay) and stop the overflooding of the cargo account by a single miner who does their job decently. The example I'd like to use is the 20/20 method which many miners have seem to picked up. You go out for 20, bring to science and get the KA, you go out for another 20 and sell whatever you found. This was often ranging from 20.000 to 50.000 credits, an amount that you honestly could no longer spend during the round except on supermatter crystals or tactical armor for every cargo tech (as has happened).

As with every feedback thread: Discuss  

[GreenBoi]

I like it- given that you can no longer queue up pickaxes to do the glorious 3x3 clear, using them is pretty detrimental- it was a nice compromise between KAs. KAs had range and could be upgraded to be great in late-rounds while pickaxes could clear at insane speeds in the early-round.

 

KAs nowadays feel annoying in the early given you now need to manually pump and wield it, which makes it take a lot more time than before and coupled with the facts pickaxes were not as efficient, early-mining is an actual chore.

[Cnaym]

Pickaxes and drills are pretty much the same as the default KA, if used in the right way. The mining module of the borgs is a good example. With the material meson thingy they get it can outmine any other starting thing just by having the right direction to go. Same goes for a pickaxe and mining pad build. The KA is just the most obvious choice and many miners still give me the looc "where did you get that" when I drag in an artifact. Those get destroyed with KAs and lead to mining being the same every round, while the pickaxes offer a chance for round changing stuff to happen.

There is a ton of pros and cons of every mining tool to be made, but I would prefer the community to figure them out themself instead of just getting a list. The resonator for example has a really fancy side effect almost nobody picked up on because it does not make the same amount of materials. While creative folks like Aimmo frequently build railroad networks over the entire rock for a hilariously fast movement, others RP out finding the big veins and going for a single mining charge to collect it all.

This PR will mainly change the first mining haul by making the other tools more viable (you can steal a drill from xenoarch, no clue why mining does not start with them, it's a one minute walk over there) and allowing people who dislike the KAs to roleplay out creative mining characters without breaking their mouse (diamond pickaxe really needed some less clicking, you still can do it, but you can also just bump into rocks with the PR  ).

[Nekonyan123]

Seems like a great improvement for mining players.

The thing I like the most is the increased speed: when I play as a miner I usually struggle to get a decent haul in the 50 min round mark, so increased speed is appreciated and allows mining players to acquire ore faster.

Cargo prices seems like a decent balance too, but I feel like cargo economy should receive an update overall.

Economy isn't still fleshed out enough imho.

[Meep]

Walking to mine stuff is what makes mining borg so nice to play. I'm glad this is coming to diamond pickaxes at least.

[Shenaanigans]

I appreciate the buff to non-KA mining tools, as I do think it'll help them be not so neglected in favor of space gun anymore, and I can get behind the concept of nerfing the credits you can get for just shipping the shit that appears in the cargo bay randomly each round-- but the drastic decrease of phoron worth does not make sense to me. Yes it is technically possible that you have an outstanding miner or two who are dropping multiple stacks of phoron and platinum in a round for you to sell and fill up the account, but honestly that does not happen often. As of the past few rounds that I've played my QM I've maybe sold a stack of each per round, since plenty of miners do one haul and then go off to the bar for RP (which is fine!) or spend the shift investigating a derelict (also fine!), so we've very much not been sitting on an overflowing account. Not nearly enough to outfit a whole cargonia militia.

It also just doesn't make a lot of in character sense to nerf phoron prices into the ground like that. Isn't phoron the primary reason the Aurora even exists? Mine phoron, do research-- everyone else is supplementary. Reducing a whole 50 stack of the magic crystal that NanoTrasen's built its empire on to being worth a measly 1500 credits is very jarring to me.

[Cnaym]

54 minutes ago, Shenaanigans said:

 Reducing a whole 50 stack of the magic crystal that NanoTrasen's built its empire on to being worth a measly 1500 credits is very jarring to me.

There needs to he a clear cut between what the items itself are worth and what NT sends to cargo as bonus for doing their job well. Keep in mind that they not only pay the miners, own the asteroid and station, but also need to send the stuff across space. If a miner makes 5000 credits a shift and gets 1000 as bonus from the HoP it makes a ton more sense then if he made 50.000 credits. Focusing on the idea that cargo does not directly sell, but merely exports items to central command.

[Naelynn]

I have said this before, and will say it again:

This pr is needed to make people stop believing that miners make more cash than NT-supportive captain characters [Because ATM THEY DO MAKE MORE.]

Why?

Originally this was extra visible due to the ability to purchase scratch lottery cards from the mining vendor. A miner could easily make over 30k credits in a round, making it clearly the most profitable job on station.

Right now miner makes their ludicrous amounts of cash indirectly by selling to cargo - so even if they are not actually getting the cash, they still know that they brought in 50+k credits worth of things.

Furthermore, this will balance out the discrepancy between cargo and merchant prices somewhat and make it feel less surreal at some of the random stuff.

[BurgerBB]

When people talk about miners making more money than command, I would like you to look at this video.

 

 

This isn't a shitpost. The video was about Margaret Thatcher's construction boom in 1988 where construction workers were making a shitload of money. The current universe is is experiencing a massive mining boom because of phoron. It would actually make some sense if Miners made more money than some command staff.

[Cnaym]

56 minutes ago, BurgerBB said:

The current universe is is experiencing a massive mining boom because of phoron.

This would be an interesting thing for the lore team, we have four mining slots, could make a new alt title for prospectors or somesuch, maybe as NT independent who get bonuses depending on their yields (at least lore wise, ingame it should be  the number on the atm or just roleplayed out).

[geeves]

As I said on the PR itself, I'm not very keen on making the sole reason we're here be sold for so cheap. It being worth so much creates a gameplay loop where it's actually used and sold, and miners seek it out, which fits with the lore narrative. Making it worth less, makes miners seek it out less, which doesn't make sense.

[Cnaym]

46 minutes ago, geeves said:

As I said on the PR itself, I'm not very keen on making the sole reason we're here be sold for so cheap. It being worth so much creates a gameplay loop where it's actually used and sold, and miners seek it out, which fits with the lore narrative. Making it worth less, makes miners seek it out less, which doesn't make sense.

So keeping the price of phoron higher than the rest would focus on that purpose even further? I am thinking about having it not nerfed as much to display that side of the lore, but keeping the rest low to show how worthless even plasteel has become.