Thumper+Gathering post Vs. Coal Mine

[Skeleton]

The fist time I played I made a coal thumper not knowing what it would do and was dissapointed when it just made a coal pile that I then had to but more workers on. I now realize I could have made a gathering post to keep them warm and cut down on labor but is this a good idea?

What is the the comparison for coal output of a coal mine vs a thumper with gathering post?

Does it give you more? Is it worth the extra people? Or is it less and just a short term strat since its lower on the tech tree?

[HeathenSW]

Well, 4 basic coal thumpers can carry you through the entire game. If you don't upgrade generator range that is and concentrate on steam hubs - I only built two more during the end sequence, but no kilns or mines were needed. As far as I know thumpers will give you the most coal per day. In the first scenario there was never a shortage of people for me - I accepted every single one of them and that's something like ~650, so there was a lot of surplus, even after taking into the account my deliberate usage of only upgraded hunters to generate food and not a single hothouse.
The main plus of coal mines I heard is that you can upgrade the hell out of them and then let automaton do all the work. Thumpers and gathering posts do need a lot of automatons as well, to be as effective.

[Carlos]

If you have enough people and you're short on steam cores go for thumpers and posts. The "max level thumper + 4 posts" combo can feed a generator running on power level 4, range 3, on overdrive (gives you 144 coal an hour). You need 50 workers and a lot of space tho to utilize its full potential.

If however you lack workers and can spare 3 cores definitely go for the advanced mine. It's slightly less productive (125 coal an hour) but you only need 10 workers.

Generally I'd always go for advanced coal mines, unless steam cores are a problem.

[xfor]

Coal mine with automaton and all upgrades: 118,0 coal/h
Coal thumper with automaton and all upgrades: 144,0 coal/h
Gathering post with automaton and all upgrades: 34,1 coal/h

It really depends what's your priority. If you have lots of workers (or kids with children labour law) and are short of steam cores, go for coal thumpers. If you are short of workers but have enough steam cores and research time, go for coal mine. If you want to use automatons, go for coal mine, since 5 automatons are expensive to build.

[Skeleton]

Originally posted by xfor:

Coal mine with automaton and all upgrades: 118,0 coal/h
Coal thumper with automaton and all upgrades: 144,0 coal/h
Gathering post with automaton and all upgrades: 34,1 coal/h

It really depends what's your priority. If you have lots of workers (or kids with children labour law) and are short of steam cores, go for coal thumpers. If you are short of workers but have enough steam cores and research time, go for coal mine. If you want to use automatons, go for coal mine, since 5 automatons are expensive to build.

So thumpers create more coal then gathering posts can collect? Does that cause problems?

[Белый Кот]

Originally posted by perphekt:

Originally posted by xfor:

Coal mine with automaton and all upgrades: 118,0 coal/h
Coal thumper with automaton and all upgrades: 144,0 coal/h
Gathering post with automaton and all upgrades: 34,1 coal/h

It really depends what's your priority. If you have lots of workers (or kids with children labour law) and are short of steam cores, go for coal thumpers. If you are short of workers but have enough steam cores and research time, go for coal mine. If you want to use automatons, go for coal mine, since 5 automatons are expensive to build.

So thumpers create more coal then gathering posts can collect? Does that cause problems?

That's why you build 4 posts for each thumper and everything is fine. If you have 50 workers/5 automatons instead of 10/1 in the mine ofc.

[Skeleton]

Originally posted by ya.bym5:

Originally posted by perphekt:

So thumpers create more coal then gathering posts can collect? Does that cause problems?

That's why you build 4 posts for each thumper and everything is fine. If you have 50 workers/5 automatons instead of 10/1 in the mine ofc.

I see what you were saying about needing alot of people for it

[stevasaur]

Another thing to keep in mind is that, at least for scenario #1, there's an event in the middle of the Super Storm where you either sacrifice a few "volunteers" or cut the efficiency of all Coal Mines by something like 70-80%. Thumpers are completely unaffected. It's kind of lulzy, actually: in my latest New Home run, I was Gaining coal through the whole of the final boss-storm (until it hit -150 and everything is shut down by the computer). Like, 90% of THAT production was from well-insulated Gathering Posts and fully-upgraded Coal Thumpers.

[McLenwe]

If you use automatons. The coal mine is better. The thumper and gatehring post combo produce slightly more coal, but you have to invest much more ressources: For the coal mine you need 4 steamcores (3 for the fully upgraded mien and 1 for the automaton); For the tumper and gethting post you need 5 steamcores, cause you need to build 5 automatons (they cost a lot of coal, steel and wood too). If you just use human workers then go for the thumper. It´s cheaper and produce more coal. Also it´s generally easier to heat the thumper and gathering post because you can place them anywhre.
Just a little advice: Sometime it can be beneficial to build both, just to be safe...