Mining Units - am I crazy or is this a missed opportunity to add factory fun to the game?

[Hazaatan]

I'm coming back to see how things are with the new changes and i'm not impressed.

 

I got my mining units up and running and did the calibration thinking the quarter pie would guide me to the 100%.  But I was wrong, it doesn't do that.  It only works within itself.  That makes mining a guessing game.  Factory doesn't involve guessing.  Factory gameplay is accurate and detailed so we can make it more efficient.  The fun in factory is the journey to better, bigger, more efficient factory.  There is no guessing...  There are mistakes, there a setbacks, but no guessing to get lucky.  I have to do this every 3 days??  If I have 100%, I can lose it 3 days later if I guess wrong??   I feel like my brain is malfunctioning trying to make sense of this system.

Why don't these mining units run on fuel?  Space fuel at first, but outrageously inefficient, until you get Jet Fuel.  That would add another element to the economy as jet fuel is mostly ignored.  Make jet fuel a tier 5 fuel so you have to travel, and work, to get it.  Eventually making a self sufficient refinery on a tier 5 tile.  It would add factory fun to the factory part of this game. 

Some nodes have 128L but the large unit only brings in 100L.  You don't get another large for 28L it's too much fuel.  So you get a small unit that maxes out at 25L because it uses less fuel.  Yes you miss out on 3L, but if its not high tier it's not worth it.  

The calibration should be done on the surface of the tile with the hand mining unit.  That way the mining units are spread out requiring logistics.  Right now I have them all shoulder to shoulder, and its stupid.

Having to create and connect your mining units through a network of fuel sound fun to me, especially if it is over an entire tile.  Then adding a refinery to be more efficient because moving ore is astronomically more efficient than moving fuel.

WHAT IS GOING ON!?  These mining units feel like a time sink job, that's not fun.  Am I crazy?  do you think the mining units are fun, am I missing something??

Edited June 7, 2022 by Hazaatan

[Msoul]

DU is an MMO not a single player game and thus passive gameplay should offer minimal rewards. Mining units were originally intended to be a passive ore/income supplement not a primary source. The sudden loss of planetary hand mining significantly elevated its importance. Going forward I would like to see more manual enhancement activities added to mining units and as well as factory units. The difficult part is figuring out how to make those activities fun and engaging. The other alternative is to leave mining units alone and instead introduce more alternative ore sources like asteroids that require active participation in exchange for a bigger payout. Either way, we need to move away from this "I only login once every 3 days" atmosphere before release. I am sure NQ has a plan in mind they are probably just trying to figure out how to execute it or awaiting the finishing touches.

[Endstar]

8 hours ago, Hazaatan said:

The fun in factory is the journey to better, bigger, more efficient factory.  There is no guessing... 

 

DU has been removing fun for too long now. That exact element of fun was removed with update 0.23. Clearly stated NQ did not want us to have bigger, better factories.