Mining tool that's not gated behind hammer/anvil please

[springyb]

Since you now need bronze before you're able to smelt iron, pickaxes are harder to get and require more overall mining. It'd be nice to have a soft metal tool that is even slightly better at mining stones than our current method of a rock tied to a stick. Even if it's something with wear that needs replaced often. 14 bars of hard metal before getting a better mining tool kinda feels awful for progression.

I imagine it's going to feel worse for players who aren't starting at world reset after the easy to mine cave level ores aren't as available.

[azrid]

Its only 3 extra bars
Dont just randomly hit walls and its not so bad

[jordancoles]

A bone pickaxe could be nice, but I think it would have a similar problem to what we already have with tool quality and ore quality. Stone axes can be made in higher qualities generally than pickaxes early world, so stone axe is actually META to harvest even though the pickaxe is so much faster overall. A bone pick would likely be made in higher qualities and therefore used by most people early world even after getting access to the bronze needed for a metal pick.. but at least it would be less painful than a stone axe in terms of speed

[springyb]

Its only 3 extra bars
Dont just randomly hit walls and its not so bad

Funny. I found all my ores early on by randomly hitting cave walls. I'm thinking about people who don't have that option.

It's not just 3 extra bars though, it's the bronze discovery specifically. I don't think I've played a world before this one where I've discovered bronze before iron.

A bone pickaxe could be nice, but I think it would have a similar problem to what we already have with tool quality and ore quality. Stone axes can be made in higher qualities generally than pickaxes early world, so stone axe is actually META to harvest even though the pickaxe is so much faster overall. A bone pick would likely be made in higher qualities and therefore used by most people early world even after getting access to the bronze needed for a metal pick.. but at least it would be less painful than a stone axe in terms of speed

They could make it unable to mine ore tiles and just provide a way to speed up tunneling, which was really the idea here. Something to help people who will have to do it without a pickaxe or bear cape. (Alternatively lowering the overall hardness of level 1 a bit might also do the same thing but I doubt it's possible now.) I've always been a fan of bone tools though, but it's been like 10 years so I don't talk about them anymore.

[Archiplex]

A bone pickaxe could be nice, but I think it would have a similar problem to what we already have with tool quality and ore quality. Stone axes can be made in higher qualities generally than pickaxes early world, so stone axe is actually META to harvest even though the pickaxe is so much faster overall. A bone pick would likely be made in higher qualities and therefore used by most people early world even after getting access to the bronze needed for a metal pick.. but at least it would be less painful than a stone axe in terms of speed

pickaxe should count its quality x2 for softcapping IMO, it's kind of silly that a rock axe is still better to use than butchering tools/pickaxes just for quality

[jordancoles]

A bone pickaxe could be nice, but I think it would have a similar problem to what we already have with tool quality and ore quality. Stone axes can be made in higher qualities generally than pickaxes early world, so stone axe is actually META to harvest even though the pickaxe is so much faster overall. A bone pick would likely be made in higher qualities and therefore used by most people early world even after getting access to the bronze needed for a metal pick.. but at least it would be less painful than a stone axe in terms of speed

pickaxe should count its quality x2 for softcapping IMO, it's kind of silly that a rock axe is still better to use than butchering tools/pickaxes just for quality

yep

[meus]

You need a bit of Perception and Survival for HQ foraging.
High quality Rustroot + Water => Prospecting => Cassiterite + Chalcopyrite
Pretty much possible to start hard iron production unless you really want to go through building a village first, using soft metal, which you can also do with the same Tin and Coper anyway.
It's faster than having HQ bones and trees, and can be done even before your coal is ready. In case you decide to invest effort into mining, that is.

[jock]

the stone axe is the real mining tool anyway. Using a pick is often a noob trap.

[jock]

A bone pickaxe could be nice, but I think it would have a similar problem to what we already have with tool quality and ore quality. Stone axes can be made in higher qualities generally than pickaxes early world, so stone axe is actually META to harvest even though the pickaxe is so much faster overall. A bone pick would likely be made in higher qualities and therefore used by most people early world even after getting access to the bronze needed for a metal pick.. but at least it would be less painful than a stone axe in terms of speed

pickaxe should count its quality x2 for softcapping IMO, it's kind of silly that a rock axe is still better to use than butchering tools/pickaxes just for quality

yep

Thats what quarryman 5 should have been not the garbage it is now.

[Southpaw]

High quality Rustroot + Water => Prospecting

You reaaaally don't want your rustroot excessively high quality or you'll be tapping nodes insanely far away. Aim for q15-23.