Im trying to like this game but its all about iron ore mining

[handyprint]

Title says it all. Should have been called Iron Ore Miner.
I am sitting watching tv while my mages dig enough iron ore for me to carry on.

[Darke]

I agree, the game is very much more Dig The World, or Strip Mine The World, but considering I've got 2000+ hours playtime I guess I don't mind all that digging. :)

[Gal Kraft]

Makes you wonder why Hunting and Fishing and especially Swimming are even skills to consider.

[Ysthrall]

You might like the latest DLC map then.... it's got big areas of iron ore all over the surface.

Mining IS generally the most used skill. It's as if you're playing dwarfs, collecting 70% of their resources via extractive mining.

If you find the mining that tedious (and have you found silver mining? Gold? Mithril?) then you may be playing the wrong game.

[handyprint]

Originally posted by Ysthrall:

You might like the latest DLC map then.... it's got big areas of iron ore all over the surface.

Mining IS generally the most used skill. It's as if you're playing dwarfs, collecting 70% of their resources via extractive mining.

If you find the mining that tedious (and have you found silver mining? Gold? Mithril?) then you may be playing the wrong game.

I love this game but I wish that you had to rely on other resources more. Guess I should rush the mine rails?

[Darke]

Originally posted by handyprint:

I love this game but I wish that you had to rely on other resources more. Guess I should rush the mine rails?

Basically for all my dwarves if they don't have a weapon/mining/climbing skill, I buy them a weapon and climbing skill books; if they have a weapon, it's mining and climbing skill books; and if it's climbing I buy them a weapon and mining skill books.

For most of the game your dwarves will be spending most of the time mining/fighting/climbing so unfortunately the ancillary skills are... not all that useful. :( Other players on this forum will just kill off any dwarves that spawn without one of these three as a primary skill. :(

The latest DLC has a lot of wood-focused tech, but even if, you're still spending a lot of the time either climbing ladders, digging through things, or fighting things; so the other skills still aren't as useful.

You do need to rely on other resources a lot; a fair bit of stuff needs wood/stone, and you continually need food, but the core gameplay loop really is keeping digging deep, getting coal/iron/silver/gold/mithril and encountering enemies and other things stopping you from getting them.

[Gal Kraft]

Originally posted by Darke:

Basically for all my dwarves if they don't have a weapon/mining/climbing skill, I buy them a weapon and climbing skill books; if they have a weapon, it's mining and climbing skill books; and if it's climbing I buy them a weapon and mining skill books.

I do almost the same thing except I prioritize mining over climbing for say a Logger. Your way might be better though.

[Kehvil]

Rock and Stone!
I have Climbing, Swimming and Jet... ah, Dragon Packs. Helped a lot.

[astrosha]

I've never actually gone in for Climbing. Mining, weapon, most definitely. After that I try to spread things around a little, so I've got a smith or two, a carpenter or two, etc. as this helps the crafting get done that much faster. its pretty impressive how much faster a dwarf with a leveled skill can crank out new weapons and armor, or walls, or ... etc.

[CodeKiller]

"Issue" for me is the balancing. Way too long to mine untill you get to the mithril.
Problem ? THe mithril will take years to find and extract... So you don't have any choice than "wasting" time havesting everything even if not used.

I get it's the purpose of upgrading from A to B then B to C etc. but in this game there are too much stupid thing (starting with the AI).
Portal cost too much for the time (4 minutes if not used but 1 minutes of used by 10 dwarves mining so... no mana...).
Such thing make the harvesting tedious for no reason.

Other stupid thing is the mining machine, clearly useless compared to the cost and time you need to build it... same for rail and elevator, nice idea, but 1 dwarf at a time ? In an elevator ??? Come on...

[Darke]

Originally posted by CodeKiller:

"Issue" for me is the balancing. Way too long to mine untill you get to the mithril.
Problem ? THe mithril will take years to find and extract... So you don't have any choice than "wasting" time havesting everything even if not used.

It's pretty easy to speed run down to mithril, just dig a straight vertical shaft, line it with ladders and give all your dwarves climbing books. The problem is you basically have to craft one of everything else to get there if you use the tech-tree mode. If you create a custom game with 'sandbox' you can just look up the recipes online and assemble them manually and avoid the tree.

Originally posted by CodeKiller:

I get it's the purpose of upgrading from A to B then B to C etc. but in this game there are too much stupid thing (starting with the AI).
Portal cost too much for the time (4 minutes if not used but 1 minutes of used by 10 dwarves mining so... no mana...).
Such thing make the harvesting tedious for no reason.

As someone who's played almost all of this style of games, there's only been one with... somewhat better AI. But yes, apparently designing AI for this style of game is difficult. :(

If you want to make the mportal last longer, you can edit the `data/items.xml` file, just find the line that looks like:

<item name="mportal" effect="portal" layout="extra_portal" size="80" align="down" properties="magic,magic_portal,time=240,use_mana=2,radius=1,stayin" light="4" pak="">

and replace it with this:

<item name="mportal" effect="portal" layout="extra_portal" size="80" align="down" properties="magic,magic_portal,time=2400,use_mana=1,radius=1,stayin" light="4" pak="">

and portals will now cost 1 mana and last 40 minutes.

Originally posted by CodeKiller:

Other stupid thing is the mining machine, clearly useless compared to the cost and time you need to build it... same for rail and elevator, nice idea, but 1 dwarf at a time ? In an elevator ??? Come on...

I have never had a use for the mining machine, nor the rails/cart. They updated the elevator speed in the latest patch I believe so it might be more useful, but I just use climbing dwarves and ladders since the more advanced types increase movement speeds as well.

But yes, the main problem with this game is they're building on 10+ year old code and it's really showing it's age (like how the entire AI routines run on a single core so late game on some levels you're wondering where your fps went :/); there's not much they can do other than rewriting a lot and releasing a Craft The World 2, so for the most part we enjoy the game despite the jank. :)