General idea and discussion: my idea for improving mining
Created by: FudgePucker
This is mostly being posted in response to the "design document", I find some of the suggested changes to mining DISGUSTING.
What are the pros of the current mining system? The sense of exploration. The cons? Too easy and disconnected.
You can easily finish mining by going to the southwest asteroid belt that has high concentrations of diamonds. You never have to risk encountering monsters if you just avoid the 'natural' caves.
I believe there is a way to fix these issues without having to use the FUCKING GOD AWFUL MAGENT FROM GOON.
Make the asteroid larger, the bases are on the edge of it and catwalks connect mining outpost to science outpost. Make masions unable to see though solid plasma. Meaning plasma walls block them, also trace amounts of plasma on the asteroid blocks them as well. Make new goggles that can spot ore two astroid walls away from an open turf. Increase pick speed and ore concentration to account for the changes.
What this means now is that you can not see ores and mine straight to them. Also exposed tiles let's you see more. This would make going into tunnels more worthwhile because they allow you to uncover more ore deposits than just mining in a straight line. Caverns would have a risk reward system, instead of being easily avoided unless you want to fight monsters.
Another idea is trace radiation emitters on the mining hardsuit, able to be picked up by mining goggles, acting as bread crumbs. That way coworkers can see if an area has been mined recently, also allows you to track people though the asteroid.