Wow, i'm surprised ya are finding a outright need for more Crushed Rock then ya are getting naturally from Mining Ore Veins. If ya get tired of Drilling for it, ya can also get it by killing wild Golems on some Planets.
Some of my blueprints take a lot of plastic I have two of these on the public test server on or orbiting Omicron
Its a lot compared to other ore, i use a few corn farms but still took longer just to farm the stone than every other material combined. But current work-in-progress, think ill need an entire asteroid belt or two
Holy wow! I take it ya like building civilian residential places? I'm more a sturdy warrior-minded person myself, but to each their own. Wow, ya might have to drill Akua's entire surface down to its Bedrock/Eternal Void to get that much Rock. I see what you're talking about with wanting better Rock Drop Rate... though buggered if I know what peeps like me who don't use the theatrical blocks would do with all that Rock Dust... I don't even ever use Interior Blocks cause Hull Blocks have superior HPs & Armor so I use them instead.
ATM 4/5 plastic blocks have same hp/armor as the iron blocks, plus they weigh less and look much better. Aesthetics is the reason i use them, they don't have random lines and look like a rust bucket that iron blocks have, if the iron ones were seamless and clean like the plastic ones id probably use them instead.
Personally I think buffness looks better when it comes to makin stuff I want to have at least a chance to survive, but to each their own. Or perhaps a Aesthetic Block that's more my cup of tea simply hasn't been made yet. Maybe if there was stuff more along the lines of Tron, Circuit Board Patterns, Lightning, Pumpkins, Shiny Silver, Reflective Sapphire Blue, Cobalt Blue Solid Glass Blocks, etc. then maybe i'd feel different & maybe at least then be willing to screw around with making cool Civilian Houses or such in Creative sometimes. Nonetheless for Survival Building I tend to think Militaryish & Warriorish thoughts.
The main problem with "civilian dwellings" currently is that there's no meaning to them. You can make bed where you can't sleep. You can make sofa where you cannot sit. You can even make a shower, which doesn't work. So there's little- to no-point at all making any of that stuff in survival. They just eat resources and increase build time. Although you can "complete" current survival mode with projectile pistol t2 and two ships that take together roughly 800 ingots of iron So there's really not much to do yet, unless you wanna do few orbital and planetary bases everywhere just for the fun of it. Alas I find even this being waste of resources and build time, since there's no basic resources on more advanced planets. So currently just create base on Akua, make 1 Mini-Raid and 1 Flying potato-box, slap Raid on top of the box, warp to Ningues & Masperon & do quick dips inside with Raid and leave Box to orbit, to just find one deposit that has only drones to guard it, eradicate drones, get few drills worth of each "rare" ore and never come back. Then go back to your base on Akua to do whatever you want. Takes roughly 2 hours do this and after that, all you need to do is just grow durians, corn or pumpkins to stay alive. Personally I prefer to "invade" smallest buildings on each planet to expand them as a base so you spare the cost of making generators and fuel tanks. Xenu temples even have constructors, plant pots and growth lights ready, so all you really need to do is tiny hangar for the Raid. Being resource efficient atm doesn't make much sense though, since there's nothing to do after you've cleaned drones and drone base from your planet. But I'm straying from the topic. The most annoying thing is that there is no base metals on asteroids or on more advanced planets, so there's no point in settling to the advanced planets or on orbits. You need iron, copper, cobalt & silicon for pretty much everything so it's always less time consuming to get fetch the those two rare metals, which you only need like 10-50 ingots each no matter what you build compared to going back to starter planets to mine few k's of iron or copper. Not to mention the breathable atmosphere...
Can we get more options to mine resources? I'm not nescessarily talking about automation but sticking the drill into rocks by hand is starting to get a little stale. Give me a drill turret to mount on HV or SV that mines more efficiently at the cost of both O2 and mining charges. Heck, let me mine with explkosives. Anything. I really dislike that blue rumblestick.
As best as I know, it wasn't able to make it into Alpha, though the new T2 Drill will surely help, but Vehicle Mining capability IS planned for Implementation later.
I'd like a Quarry at some point though that mines for you like in the old trailer. realistically, you'll probably only ever want to use it for the massive deposits obviously.
This is an old worn battle already, we’ve been complaining about new ways of mining since the very beginning, and not too long ago one of the moderators let it slip that the devs are still struggling to handle the erratic voxels. The issue with the drill is that the terrain voxels need to dynamically form below and around you as you mine, and with the current drill is not already too uncommon to fall through the surface now and then. A HV or SV mounted drill, possibly several time faster presents a challenge at current development status…. We need to give the guys some more time….
Feedback T2 Drill: What does it? - Auto collects (currently seems not to work with promethium) and avoids bleeding fingers So it does the job what some of us tried to archieve with auto-clicker tools. Auto clicker is still more versatile because you can avaid to hold left mouse button. What is it good for? - as placeholder till something better comes along - perhaps as tool for handicaped people having problems with slamming keys all the time Critique: - we have less visual effects. I miss the big rock chunks because you see something is happening and it looks "right" to have a pile of ore around you - it doesnt collect crushed rock. It was a nice byproduct from mining which could be used for your farming activities ans since you got it while mining it was a good chain of steps to advance in game. better Suggestion: - one handheld drill like pre-alpha + a pickup option like all ores/rocks in a 5-10 m radius. So you have something short to do (pickup) while drilling which is not too annoying. And you still have the nice visual ore pile around you. - optional an upgraded version through research* - add a stationary drill in form of a placable object (eg lige watergen) or as a building eg think of oilfields. You put energy in and it drills for you. You just have to emty it and refill it. - add a faction version of the auto drill. Its ment to support hughe fleetbuilding and expansion activities. Can be optained through cooperation in research and resource gathering. If its too difficult with current ore mines - one just has to put it down and select an ore to mine. Perhaps one might balance it it like change product only once a day or the like. * @research - i did a lengthy critique in the techtree fedback section. In short: I think research as it is in the good old "UFO enemy unknown" game would fit great into empyrion. Starter tech, improvements with material and fancy stuff with further research and salvaging. Feedback Water & Jug: Logical error - unpurified water gives 50 stamina in a jug - why then drink purified?! Why cant the watergenerator purify it? No reason why the tech is not able to do so. It would be more logical to keep purified water like it was for meals and medicine where you need certain purity standards. For cement the jugs just would be fine - perhaps with a higher output like ore and bars. Or purify the water in the food processor and use the jugs for construction. But then put the stamina effect away - makes no sense with "dirty" water. Perhaps you can balance the wateroutput with waterquality on different planets but thats just a thought. But tbh currently i dont see the need for extra jugs and splitting up the water unless some logical crafting comes along which justifies the need for it. But yea the stamina effect is a nice addition.
The new Cobalt texture needs some work. During night mining its hard to differ between soil and ore and in general it looks a bit like copper red. Perhaps some brighter and larger veins as texture would help and an eye candy is always nice. Silicon is not that worse but it has the same kind of problems - i suggest to do a little tweak too.
T2 Drill does that for me: collecting crushed rock as well as mining promethium. Strange hmm ... I'll go find some more promethium nodes and see if there are any complications.
I too have confirmed (As of during play on the Red vs Blue Server) that my T2 Drill is correctly Auto-Collectiong Crushed Rock. I have not yet tested on Promethium.
Yes, meanwhile i had some games where the drill collects rocks and promethium. But sometimes it wont.Very strange perhaps server related.
