Suggestion for Mining Revamp
Posted: Wed Sep 05, 2012 12:42 amMines currently require claiming of multiple multiple mines and essentially denying access from other players in order to advance your own purity. This system is flawed for many reasons, but the general concept of smelters not mattering (due to otherwise needing multiple purity smelters which would be a real pain in the ass) is something I'd like to see stay. It also seems weird that in order to advance your purity you need to spend time wandering around on the surface instead of sweating it out underground.
Proposition: All surface mines become Purity 1.00
Instead of prospecting above ground, why not move the prospecting underground. Each tile mined out would have a chance at generating an underground equivalent of a mine hole on the surface. These holes would only be visible if in prospecting mode, and would obey the same visibility rules as mineholes do currently with respect to dowsing rods. The holes would also have a +/- random factor with respect to the purity of the current level within which they were spawned. All holes would continue to be infinite in potential ore available.
This would make mines hard work, and it would also make max purity theoretically possible. Currently there's a decent chance no purity 10 mines exist in the world, with this system they could eventually be created in theory through player hard work.
Pros:
-Mine purity becomes related to actual mining
-Claiming multiple mines is no longer incentivized, you can have all 4 mine purities in one mine hole
-Mining feels like hard work instead of time spent wandering
-Adding new mineral types to this system is easily done by making them a potential spawn chance. Perhaps Copper would only show up in mine holes with 50+ Alchemical Salt values. Gold could spawn on any purity value, but only rarely, etc.
Cons:
-Likely more prone to botting than the current system. The requirement for firing the walls first might make programming such a bot tricker than mining bots in haven were
-Creation of "potentially" infinite mine areas, I'm not sure if this poses potential server or programming problems
Side Note: Hewing boulders out of a wall should really require higher amounts of phlegm. I also think the stat requirement concept from Haven mining was a worthwhile one. Mining tiles should be changed to a damage based system, and the purity multiplier should contribute some kind of soak. This would make higher purity mines not only require effort to find, but they would also heavily benefit miners who abuse their phlegm in order to mine them more efficiently.
Proposition: All surface mines become Purity 1.00
Instead of prospecting above ground, why not move the prospecting underground. Each tile mined out would have a chance at generating an underground equivalent of a mine hole on the surface. These holes would only be visible if in prospecting mode, and would obey the same visibility rules as mineholes do currently with respect to dowsing rods. The holes would also have a +/- random factor with respect to the purity of the current level within which they were spawned. All holes would continue to be infinite in potential ore available.
This would make mines hard work, and it would also make max purity theoretically possible. Currently there's a decent chance no purity 10 mines exist in the world, with this system they could eventually be created in theory through player hard work.
Pros:
-Mine purity becomes related to actual mining
-Claiming multiple mines is no longer incentivized, you can have all 4 mine purities in one mine hole
-Mining feels like hard work instead of time spent wandering
-Adding new mineral types to this system is easily done by making them a potential spawn chance. Perhaps Copper would only show up in mine holes with 50+ Alchemical Salt values. Gold could spawn on any purity value, but only rarely, etc.
Cons:
-Likely more prone to botting than the current system. The requirement for firing the walls first might make programming such a bot tricker than mining bots in haven were
-Creation of "potentially" infinite mine areas, I'm not sure if this poses potential server or programming problems
Side Note: Hewing boulders out of a wall should really require higher amounts of phlegm. I also think the stat requirement concept from Haven mining was a worthwhile one. Mining tiles should be changed to a damage based system, and the purity multiplier should contribute some kind of soak. This would make higher purity mines not only require effort to find, but they would also heavily benefit miners who abuse their phlegm in order to mine them more efficiently.