Mining and Drilling for Oil

[JPSGT40]

Ideas for side-lines to expand the game and provide some other ventures to pursue between crop cycles, much like forestry does. I bet these have been suggested before, but I don't remember them. Probably too late to add to FS19, but maybe as an expansion DLC or future FS release.

Drilling for Oil / Oil Wells

You purchase an oil well drilling kit from the shop.

You make your best guess (educated guess or hunch or "spidey sense") where oil would be likely on the map. Each map should provide at least 4 pre-defined underground oil "fields". You must own the land to drill on it. An underground bed of oil would be about the size of a pond and at a certain depth, so it's not like you have to guess an exact pinpoint spot. Any well drilled straight down that pierces the oil bed is as good as an exact hit in the center.

You erect your oil drilling rig. Maybe you have to clear some trees to open enough space to start your operation, maybe you chose to sacrifice some of your good arable farm field, whatever, lots of possibilities and cost-vs-reward predicting run through your mind.

Each drilling takes several days to complete. The longer you let it run the deeper you go and the more it costs (perhaps daily or hourly costs are automatically deducted from your bank account). How confident are you in your original choice of where to drill? It's been 3 days and nothing. But you believe in your hunch. Is that sweat on your brow, sir? Shall we stop and try somewhere else? No! Drill, Damn You, DRILL!!! I know it's there! It's got to be down there.

Maybe you end up with a dry well. A bust.
Dismantle your drilling rig and go find a better spot.

It's a Gusher! IT'S A GUSHER!!!!
You've struck oil. OK, great, now what?
You have to pump it out into an oil tanker. Go buy/lease one. Fortunately, you already have a semi-truck to pull it and deliver it to the refinery. But maybe wait for the price to peak or maybe even get a Great Demand for oil. Decisions, decisions.

Life is good for a while; you rake in a big profit. But all wells dry up over time. Perhaps a semi-random number of days (6 to 10 days?), or perhaps each oil bed is pre-defined to yield a defined number of liters. Either way, when it's dried up you dismantle your rig and can either try again elsewhere or sell the equipment back to the shop.

I drink your milkshake!
Further dynamics could come into play in multiplayer, especially in a competitive game.

Mining

As I travel around Ravenport and Felsbrunn, I see so many un-used hills and other natural features. So many areas that don't lend themselves to farming or animal pens, unless you're willing to attempt a ludicrous amount of terraforming for little benefit. No. I say let us do some good old-fashioned tunnel mining into those hillsides and cliffsides.

Much like the oil field idea, the locations of valuable ores and minerals would be pre-defined on each map -- where they are, how deep they are, which "treasure" reward is there, which locations will yield nothing, etc. Or, even better, the map maker pre-defines a bunch of locations and the list of possible treasures along with likelyhood percentages for each, and each time you start a new game on that map the game randomly assigns each location, so it's not the same every time. Well, that's how I would program it.

You must own the land to mine it.

I would prefer to be able to perform the actual digging/mining myself by leasing/buying special equipment to bore into the earth at my own discretion. So you get the fun of operating it yourself, get to choose between high-end faster equipment or lower-budget equipment, hiring a helper or running your own "one-man show", deciding how many hours a day to work the mine vs. other farming duties, etc. But, let's face it, to make all this possible, to do it "the right way," would be a huge undertaking for Giants, at least for the first release. There is a simpler and easier (for Giants) way to implement mining.

Much as I outlined for oil drilling, you would pick a mining spot, erect your "mining operation" (a placable) up against one of the pre-defined tunnel locations and doing so establishes the mine entrance and initiates the tunneling operation. There would be no physical tunnel actually bored into the earth and you couldn't actually walk down into it; you would only see the dark tunnel entrance and some equipment at the entrance (perhaps some animation, lighting and sound effects in the immediate vicinity). Again, you might need to clear some trees and invest in some terraforming to prep enough area to start the mine. You might even have to cut enough trees to clear a road to get your equipment up there to even start the mine; and, if you do strike gold (or whatever) you'll need to haul those precious materials out of there so you can go sell 'em, right? Lots of possibilities for map makers here, even with this simplified approach to mining.

So you've started your mining operation. It will automatically dig at a steady pace day and night, giving you an hourly message of either "Miners haven't found anything yet." or, hopefully eventually "Miners have struck {fill in treasure ore/mineral here}." If you let it run long enough in a location that has no treasure you will eventually get the message "Miners have determined there is nothing of value in this location" and you have lost your investment, but can try again elsewhere. You have to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?" (Shut Up, Clint! Nobody asked you!)

Each mine would take days to complete and cost you money the deeper you're willing to try.

Perhaps every so many meters you have to invest in support trusses and scaffolding to ensure your tunnel doesn't collapse. Or do you just damn the torpedoes and declare "Full speed ahead!" That whole risk-vs-reward thing comes into play. Are you enjoying Las Vegas, sir? No? Leaving so soon? Blew your life savings already? OK, sir, see you next year.

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I believe both of these gameplay enhancements could be implemented by Giants without much heavy lifting, especially if they did it the simplified way I outlined above. And not every map would have to utilize these new features, so there is not necessarily additional burden on modders; only if they choose to add mining and/or oil drilling, and only to the extent each modder wants to.

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Discuss.

And, if anyone out there has the ear of someone at Giants, send them a link to this thread. Maybe they'll like the ideas, or maybe it will inspire them with ideas that are even better than these.

[Shiva]

While i don't disagree with your ideas, or that they might be fun.... please remember that this is Farming Simulator.

Farm animals and logging do occur on farms. Typically speaking, oil drilling and mining do NOT occur on farms due to the pollution and environmental contamination that comes with them. Its a mutually exclusive system.

The idea might be interesting for a different type of simulator, but its not a valid one for FS.

[McAngus]

Originally posted by JPSGT40:

And, if anyone out there has the ear of someone at Giants, send them a link to this thread. Maybe they'll like the ideas, or maybe it will inspire them with ideas that are even better than these.

The Devs don't seem to read or respond to peoples questions, so all this might be for nothing.
10/10 for Idea and amount of info / thought you put in to it however.

[Usedfireball]

Only way near term something like this would come out is as a placeable mod that gives a fixed income to represent an oil lease or something of that nature. Doubt it would even be feasible for a private individual to drill a bunch of wells on the land they own, would have to go through all the environmental regulations and steps, ect. not to mention most oil well drilling now is pretty sophisticated. Same for mines.

[thombike]

Originally posted by Angus Kennedy:

Originally posted by JPSGT40:

And, if anyone out there has the ear of someone at Giants, send them a link to this thread. Maybe they'll like the ideas, or maybe it will inspire them with ideas that are even better than these.

Yeah, Youre right.Devs doo his job but they have us really deep in the ass. I feel that so long, that I think...Next FS i don't wanna to buy. Why? Because is no support and is new FS little cheating. New models? Couple of it, rest of remember even FS15!!! If You want to ask devs - WTF? Well...Throwing stones to the wall - same effect. I like FS still but I dont like Giants approach to the players so...I lookin for other game and I think, I found one... Anyway...

Mining and drilling for oil means terrain and enviroment degradation. I don't find it as good for Farming at all... You just need another game (with mining is one, I can write You a title if You want). And honestly - FS need much more other things to improve. i dno't see a need to something new, when the game has so many issues for now and...Devs doo nothing with.