Last Feedback on Mining Mechs Series

[Palandus]

This game isn't for me.

I really enjoyed the first Mining Mechs and somewhat enjoyed the DLC for the first game. This game feels like it received the Jay Wilson treatment, "We thought it was too easy, so we doubled it, without testing it."

I was in the group that helped test out the first DLC and felt like I made a difference there making it better.

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The characters are even more annoying than the last. If I hear that guy say money, money, money, one more time, I'm going to cut out his tongue. It takes longer to empty your resource box too, which makes visits to them even more intolerable. Same with the dirt guy, takes longer to drop off dirt. There is a lot more pointless dialogue that does nothing to further the story or make the characters more likeable. Heck, you could get rid of the characters and replace them with faceless robots, like in Motherload, and it would be an improvement.

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In the first game, multiplayer had a huge edge over singleplayer, but this game, if you are singleplayer, you are expected to have 5x the grind over the first game. The game is built to slow down multiplayer and in effect makes single player unbearable to play.

Not only do you have to do quests to unlock parts, but you still have to amass the cash to buy them. Not only do you have to build mines, but now you need to find all the ores and micromanage your mines to get the resources out, instead of just earning cash, which was much simpler and more streamlined. Not only do you have to build power plants, but now you need to micromanage them in case they get overloaded.

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This game is built purely for multiplayer. And I hate it. So, this will be the last game I'll likely buy of the Mining Mech series.

I played an hour of it, finished the first world, and all tier 1 quests, and have zero interest in playing any further. There is quite a few innovations in this one that really improves it over the first installment, but then you throw out everything that made the first game fun, streamlined, and bearable to play single player.

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I don't believe in negative reviews and for the $3 I got it for on Steam Holiday Sale, I won't be refunding it, but as Mining Mech games are now going in this direction, I probably won't even buy future titles from the same developer.

Its a lot like SPAZ 1 and SPAZ 2. I really loved SPAZ 1 and looked forward to SPAZ 2. When it finally came out, sure it had some cool innovations, but also threw out all the fun SPAZ 1 had. Super Mining Mechs is effectively SPAZ 2.

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I'll continue to heartily recommend Mining Mechs to anyone who asks for a chill, laidback mining game, but this one clearly needs friends to reach the base experience.

So I wish the developers best of luck with future titles, and I appreciate that you made the first Mining Mechs, even with its flaws, it was a good game.

[FondueCaquelon]

Thanks for the "warning". So i'll buy the first one.

[Remmy]

I enjoyed Mining Mechs and I am enjoying Super Mining Mechs even more. It expands the game in ways that I like.

I can't speak to multiplayer but the pacing in Super Mining Mechs, for me, is good. I am currently working on tier 9 upgrades after finishing the main story.

I look forward to the release of both upcoming DLC's and anything else the developer creates.

[Delayed Victory]

Thanks a lot for your detailed feedback and taking the time to post it here, really appreciate that. Sorry to hear you didn't have a good time with the game and it seems to really have missed the mark for you despite enjoying the previous game.

I feel like your just enjoying the minimalism approach from the previous game much more, which is totally fair of course. I tried to expand on the first game which made Super Mining Mechs more advance and complex. Of course now you can build your own mech using parts, but if you just prefer to dig around and don't care much for all that I can understand it's just a hassle. Same for the story; I tried my best to go for a fully voiced story but it seems that missed the mark for you too.

I do want to ask you if you can provide some more feedback on the multiplayer parts though. Could you explain what you mean with feeling that the game is not made for singleplayer? There's no penalties for playing singleplayer so I'm not entirely sure what you're referring too there.

I'm sorry it didn't live up to the expectations - but I'm glad to say that (after the upcoming DLCs) I'm going back to making simpler / smaller games comparable to the scope of the original Mining Mechs, as I personally enjoy making smaller games over bigger projects too. So hopefully my next projects could still be interesting to you!

Thank you for voicing your feedback, that's always useful to me. And thanks for giving my game a shot!

[Delayed Victory]

Originally posted by Remmy:

I enjoyed Mining Mechs and I am enjoying Super Mining Mechs even more. It expands the game in ways that I like.

I can't speak to multiplayer but the pacing in Super Mining Mechs, for me, is good. I am currently working on tier 9 upgrades after finishing the main story.

I look forward to the release of both upcoming DLC's and anything else the developer creates.

Glad to hear you're enjoying Super Mining Mechs over the first one! :)

[Palandus]

Sure, I'll explain why I feel its not built for single player:

1) Quests require a lot more resources to complete.

2) Buildings require a lot of resource hunting to build.

3) It takes longer to dig through tiles.

4) Its harder to earn cash to afford consumables.

5) There is a lot of micromanagement needed.

6) It takes longer to earn parts to build your mech with.

7) You do not earn as much money per resource anymore.

8) Emptying what you carry takes longer, so there is more downtime between trips.

9) There is more resources in each layer, so finding a specific resource you need takes more hunting.

10) There is way more trash items, that look like jewelry. In the first game, jewelry was gold colored and sparkled. In this game its more silvery and doesn't really sparkle so I constantly confuse trash for jewelry.

11) The treasure chest minigame is frustrating because the first miss ends it. And as treasure chests seems to be the only way to get cash early game now, missing on the 3rd or 4th box, hurts. Especially as it speeds up way too fast.

12) Its harder to find the consumable to use quickly now.

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As you add more people to the game, these issues fade away quickly and aren't an issue any more. More people means that you can complete quests faster, build structures faster and can delegate some people to mining straight down, some to hunting resources, and some to base management.

As a solo player, I have none of those advantages but retain all the disadvantages. With no way to mitigate them, outside of maybe using Cheat Engine to complete quests faster or to increase the amount of resources in your cargo hold. There is no way for me to automate tasks or have them just performed passively, whether I'm in the game or not.

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As for innovation, I do really like (which I think should be in future titles):
-> Being able to drop off a partial load of resources for a quest and not needing to have all in the cargo hold at once.
-> Being able to find mine locations easier, rather than hunting through tiles to find it.
-> Having useful purposes for resources we need, outside of selling or quests. I just wish the metals were more visually striking, so that I'd know some of them apart.
-> Earning 2+ resources from mining a tile.
-> The potential of earning more cash in a chest. Just wish it didn't spin so fast or cancel on the first miss. Also kinda feel like the later squares should give more cash.
-> Travelling to different worlds feels pretty neat.

[zemzero]

Just how easy and quick do you want this game? I never touched multiplayer and I've 100% this in about 30 hours and that's with a lot of going afk. That seems far too quick to me. It was a glorified flash browser game and wish it was harder and had more substance. I still really enjoyed it.

You're an hour into the game. You basically finished the tutorial. You never got a 500% combo bonus, raking in the minerals (Or higher, 1000% bonus will fill your inventory faster than you can blink). You never upgraded your mech to see just how fast you can mine and how much more cargo you can hold. You never got to a (quick) point in the game where you have so much money, it doesn't even matter any more. You never upgraded your passive tree, did you? This game is EASY as a solo player. EASY.

Hell, if I made this game, I would have made a quest to repair the spaceship before we could even use it. To upgrade the ships radar to find a new planet, etc.

[Palandus]

30 hours is way too long. I completed the first game in about 8 hours, and that felt just right. If I wanted to do multiple playthroughs, then I could see myself hitting 30 hours.

My total playtime, was 32 hours. That was 3 main game runs and 1 dlc run.

[Hade]

I got bored after 3 hrs on the cold puzzle planet. That's the one that has boulders only around the minerals.
But I did like the first game.

[Scorcher24]

If we actually make stuff react and produce stuff with all the things we collect the game could be a lot more interesting. It just misses depth in anything. It is nice if you want to zone out or watch something while playing, but that is basically it.

Tier 7-9 to 100% the game are stretching its welcome though.

[garmie]

Now that I know it’s for multiplayer it’s a no buy. I just about bought it and I read this post. Thanks I’m out

[Delayed Victory]

Originally posted by garmie:

Now that I know it’s for multiplayer it’s a no buy. I just about bought it and I read this post. Thanks I’m out

It's really not just a multiplayer game. The majority of players play the game singleplayer. But the game does have online co-op for people who enjoy that. The multiplayer works the exact same way as Minecraft or Stardew Valley, where it's basically the exact same game; you just play it together. Anyways - there's a free demo for the game which includes the first 30-60 minutes of the game, so I recommend checking that out before you buy it. If you enjoy the demo, you can continue the full game where you left off in your demo save :)