Mining - An exercise in irritation

[Undefined]

Hi,

I want to talk a little about the mechanics and feel of W10 mining. The changes made this time around have really negatively impacted my enjoyment of what in W9 was my absolute favourite past-time.
Since many things have changed it's probably best to address the key points, I'll start with a couple of positives which I think while hurdles are good additions this time around.

Variable caverns.
In W9 I build several level 5 mine shafts dotted around the map, I would always attempt to build these in a cavern on the cave level since then I would be assured of a cavern each level down from which to begin exploratory mining as well as immediate room to palisade the holes. I actualy like this change, the randomness on each level increases the feeling of exploration and the unknown each time you reach a lower level.

Masonry & Tool softcap.
Again, I like this change, it slows things down early game and gives you another bottleneck you need to deal with in order to obtain the best quality yields, it's something that allows steady progressive improvement.

And now for the negatives.

Multiple quality yields.
I absolutely HATE this, from a single tile I can end up with a pack full of ore or stones with wildly inconsistent quality, from a singl tile you could receive a piece of ore of quality 46, next swing quality 53, then 51, etc..
This is nothing but a sorting nightmare and as far as I can see, other than creating ambiguity regarding what quality the resource in that tile actually is, serves no purpose at all. I would even prefer if the lowest possible value was used since this would be consistent and require less sorting. This is even more frustrating when the softcaps come into play and the yield ranges start to become decimals like 44.3 to 48.9 and 52.7.
I'd love to hear why this is the way it is because surely there has to be a reason behind it?

Every resource has it's own quality.
Again this is something I really dislike, it actually takes away a massive amount of the enjoyment of mining for me. Tracking high quality nodes was the foundation of mining, finding the high quality resources required time, knowledge, skill and intuition. You would find the area's general quality and begin tracking increases and decreases in order to determine the range of the quality field and size up it's reach, look for overlaps and then begin to search for ore within the highest points.
This has been removed and replaced with what is basically a hit or miss random system. I can hit a tile and get a Q100 piece of gneiss, hit the tile next to it and get a Q20 piece of iron ochre.
It can be argued that I could then track the quality field of the Q20 iron ochre which is the approach I've been taking, but this relies on me solely tracking ochre and figuring out the quality increases through the obfuscated quality yields I'm receiving, the entire process is littered wth multiple layers of irritation which really bring the experience down.

I've played with every iteration of H&H mining and definitely not casually, as I've said it is the most enjoyable aspect of the game for me. I found W9 mining was the most enjoyable one to date and with the removal of multiple qualities this world I was looking forward to seeing how it had been improved, however W10 mining is definitely the most irritating evolution, for me the single biggest reason for this is the multiple yields from a single tile followed by the multiple resource, multiple qualities issue.

I'm fully aware these are simply my opinions, maybe there are others that find these changes to be positives and improve the experience. I'd love to hear about it if you do and know why.

[waga]

I hate too the fact that every ressources have their own quality.
It feels more luck based without any interaction.
I just dig long straight tunnel while praying RNGejus which does'nt feel very rewarding...

I don't have an opinion on other changes but really hate this one.

[Leafstab]

Completely agree +1

[Iva]

Multiple quality yields.
I absolutely HATE this

This is the most negative change for me, which turns mining process from exciting to nearly depressive. (Same with crops, not to mention the fact that farming always was boring for me.)

[Kaios]

I hate the multiple quality fields too, they should have given each level a base quality (L2, 20q, L3, 40q etc.) because finding the same quality on lower levels as L1-L2 is a real bummer

[abt79]

I'm actually fine with the masonry cap but
WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO FIND METALS FOR PICKAXES THAT ARE EQUAL TO OUR MASONRY

Now I have to use my fukken slow stone axe because otherwise my ores will always be capped by my tool, there is no way whatsoever to get a pickaxe anywhere near good enough to not cap high q ore

Masonry for q, tools for mine speed. What's so hard to understand jorb, have you ever even mined before?

[azrid]

Grow trees for better pickaxe.
Overall I like new mining but prospecting should be expanded on so people can prospect for quality too.

[Undefined]

WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE SUPPOSED TO FIND METALS FOR PICKAXES THAT ARE EQUAL TO OUR MASONRY

Increase bough Q or spiral some bars from the ore/coal you've collected at your current tool Q, It's a constant iterative process now.

[abt79]

Fuck trees, I'll still need to mine a ton of metal or stone to work the quality up to something resembling my masonry

[azrid]

Trees aren't hard my man.
Kill a high quality animal and turn its flesh/bones into high quality soil.