Mining is extremely underwhelming...

[Datucis]

So i spent roughly 4 in game days simply searching around to find a spot to mine Iron Ore. Once found it required roughly 200 small pipes and 100 steel sheets (rough estimate). The ore deposit only has 2k iron, mines at an exceptionally slow pace, and once empty I will have to spend far longer to find another deposit.

From what I can calculating, I won't receive a return on the invested materials from a single mining spot. I also will have to take roughly 20 in game days to find and harvest the material. All while simply waiting around to get enough supplies to build the base of my dreams.

All that said, finding an Iron rock on the surface takes only a little looking. From that rock I can gain a minimum of 800 iron. I can have the entirety of that rock (from finding to mining) completed before the end of a single day. My gains from simply mining surface rocks in the same time it takes me to find an Iron deposit would be roughly 16,000 iron ore (low balling), to the miners measly 2,000 (max from deposit I found). I could even take down the entire Big Rock Crusher setup (power grid and all) to move it positions just to speed this process up more (same way moving the mines around would work).

I know I can always go mine more rocks while waiting on the miner to do it's job, I also know that I get all my materials back once I destroy that miner. However, from what I can tell, mining is an END GAME thing. Yet, I can literally get more materials faster by tracking down rocks that are sitting around everywhere. There simply is no actual reason to make a miner in the present game.

I can think of 3 things that may effect the miners positively. In my opinion (and there are probably better ways to handle this), making the mining deposits infinite would give a good reason to simply set down a mining stop. Even with the low output of these miners, an infinite supply in a single spot would be a great help. Likewise, you could significantly increase the mining speed. Being able to mine a small deposit of 2000 in a single day would give me a good reason to track down deposits, build a mine, gather the resources, then tear it down and repeat. I guess a third path would be a combination of the 2 previously mentioned. Increase the deposits to a decent amount (10k or more) and increase the mining speed to a respectable rate.

In summary, I just feel mining holds basically no real function within the game currently. I really wish they were implemented better. I personally get very board mining the rocks on the surface. I also feel they don't supply enough compared to my simply tearing down the crazy amount of bases in the present game. For all that I have said here; simply tearing down 1 base (which would take about 1 to 2 in game days) would supply me with all the supplies that 50 days of mining couldn't even supply me with.

[Sleeper]

Well said, could not agree more.

[kkolar]

Thanks for this report. It answered questions I had had whether or not to study automatic miners next. Based on the above it is not worth it compared to harvesting minerals from rocks.

[Taid]

Originally posted by ajl1957:

Well said, could not agree more.

[nothere41]

Dang, and i just bought this game too. I was playing an unlocked version to see if I'd like it. I liked it but thought it was to lacking to actually buy. The autominers and such was my deciding factor on buying this game. After reading this I'm 2nd guessing my choice now.
Sounds like I just wasted my money.

[Datucis]

Originally posted by nothere41:

Dang, and i just bought this game too. I was playing an unlocked version to see if I'd like it. I liked it but thought it was to lacking to actually buy. The autominers and such was my deciding factor on buying this game. After reading this I'm 2nd guessing my choice now.
Sounds like I just wasted my money.

I would say the game is actually pretty good honestly. You don't really need to mine resources till late game. I have finished basically everything in the game and only really wanting to build a large base. I could easily go destroy more of the bases around, but i was hoping to use the auto miners to just make things go a little faster.

If the autominers are the only reason you are looking at not playing the game, id suggest to do it anyways. It is really fun... Just wish there was more to do after you have completed all the research pans. Like teraforming or selling to earth, or maybe creating a base for more people (npc's) from earth to come and do the business lol.

[cancer352]

Miners are a comfortable way to get much ore, simply wait and then get it with the rover. Some mines are poor, but some mines are good and it helped me a lot to get out of my lack of silicon.

[adrianna_PyramidGames]

Hi, thank you very much for your feedback regarding miners!

Automated miners were introduced to the game pretty recently, it's a new feature I would say. We have already got enough feedback from players though to decide that they need to be rebalanced and our game designers are already on it.

The game is still in early access, and although I wouldn't want to sound like I'm looking for excuses, it's important to keep this in mind. Bugs and imperfections may appear, but we are not ignoring them but working on them. :)

NPCs and the endgame goals is something we're consecutively aiming for. Thanks for your patience!

[Datucis]

Originally posted by cancer352:

Miners are a comfortable way to get much ore, simply wait and then get it with the rover. Some mines are poor, but some mines are good and it helped me a lot to get out of my lack of silicon.

The length of time it takes to mine anything i could find a surface deposit and just mine that and obtain 10x what i was getting from a single mine. They are a drop and forgot, but you thats about it. I had 5 mines going for 5 days and brought in less ore than i mined while waiting for them to fill.

[Datucis]

Originally posted by adrianna_PyramidGames:

Hi, thank you very much for your feedback regarding miners!

Automated miners were introduced to the game pretty recently, it's a new feature I would say. We have already got enough feedback from players though to decide that they need to be rebalanced and our game designers are already on it.

The game is still in early access, and although I wouldn't want to sound like I'm looking for excuses, it's important to keep this in mind. Bugs and imperfections may appear, but we are not ignoring them but working on them. :)

NPCs and the endgame goals is something we're consecutively aiming for. Thanks for your patience!

I do appreciate the Dev's tremendously with this game. It seems to be coming along well. I simply just got to the mines and felt I would leave my feedback on them. I look forward to the future updates on this game :D

[Bollocks to plan B!!]

Mining raw materials, regardless of the game is tedious. However, at least the devs of OM have planned the mining process well in this game. Aaand they've added the one thing that makes it worthwhile.

MINING WITH EXPLOSIVES IS FUN and way more efficient.

[Kastagir]

The thing with minres is...they do the mining while you can do other Stuff . Then simply drive up, load the ore, and push it into the grinder .

They are time savers as is, I am wondering how you don't understand that .