Non-Managed Miner

I dont know exactly how this should be implemented, but you should be able to create a mine for miners to work in without you micro-managing where they should mine.

If you have anything further I would love to hear it :slight_smile:

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I like this, but also don’t like this. I don’t want to watch my miners every move and make sure he/she constantly has work, but I also don’t want the miner to just go and dig anywhere… I want some underground parts to my village/town and I don’t want the miner to ruin it… I don’t know how we can get the best of both worlds but maybe we can come up with something!

I like the trapper mechanics. Maybe something similar (not sure how you would “zone” it.)
Miner gives an alert when he’s mined out an area. He could also level up and get better at detecting resources.

Would a “zone” really work? I mean that’s basically just saying mine this area… Maybe we could get an option for the miner to only dig below a certain level? So the miner would dig a mine shaft or something down say 50 ft for example, and then at that point he is able to do his own thing?

i personally dont see the connection between a trapper and miner… one is leveraging the existing landscape (trapper), while the other is actually modifying the landscape (miner)…

we will be using the miner unit to carve out entirely new areas of the map, and will (most likely) discover new things during the process (revealing caves, treasures, etc.)…

i want to be able to tell my units exactly where to dig, so i can apply my precise subterranean dimensions… :smile:

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Just think if the miners dug tunnels right under your defensives walls, making a neat little passage for enemies to funnel through. The enemies using my own mining networks underneath me has been a fear since we started discussing the ability to change terrain in Stonehearth.

One idea for less ‘overseen’ miners that’s been thrown around was the concept of “nodes” that produce minerals ( @BanditDragoon ) . Perhaps these are a sort of magical vein of ore that gradually replenishes itself overtime for a steady trickle of minerals. I wouldn’t mind seeing some version of this alongside normal mining, since it would make having a main, established city a little easier to maintain–otherwise, you have to continuously set up new outposts for mining just to get a little more iron, coal, and other basic minerals. To get a lot, you’ll of course need to venture out, but nodes could give enough just to keep a basic output of materials and goods going.

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If it was me, I would approach this with a Simple X,Y,Z type of way point with underground lines. Since everything is technically in block form the center point of the line is the median height for the miner to work from then he follows that line to get to where he is going. Similar to the way they did the chunnel with Lasers. You go take this a step further in making Template tunnel way point guides so they can make uniform underground mines similar to real life.

Also with that maybe allow for a Height and Width window that established the area you walk through and then give it direction in doing so either via a variable or a extrusion type cursor tool.

I agree with you, dear engineer.

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Question’s - When you build your mines-n-such how are you going to view them in game? (no i am not against this idea just unsure about it game wise).
From were this is going it seems like you would want full control of designing your mine, possibly to make underground housing and all. But how are we going to be able to view it in the game world? ( I guess first person mode would enter in here if so)

(just my opinion)
Right now I’m for random appearing ore deposits (below ground) so to speak.Nodes that appear above ground should get used up rather quickly, and only reappear after a very long time in between.

Add a “Prospect” button and a “Mine” button to the miner like the carpenters build screen…
Prospect: Miner sets off for a period of time (that you can adjust to increase success rate) searching for ore. Click start and away the miner goes, after so long he will return, click on him and he will have a map of the areas he found ore at, marked with a “X” and what it is.
If they succeed in finding ore deposits : Click “Mine” button, this shows a flag on the miners map that you can move around to the location and plant flag. Miner grabs a weeks worth of supplies Food/Wood etc,. travels to location Builds a small prefab miners shack, then a mine entrance at location and a small zone were to put the ore (when the zone fills to capacity, miner will load it into a wagon cart and haul it back to the settlement).
Once mine can be upgraded you can assign workers to travel back n forth for loading/unloading ore/ drop off Food supplies. Assign guards to help defend it from raiders. Once ore Vein runs dry: Miner will disassemble everything and head back to settlement.

Gains xp by : Success Prospect run (will gain even if it’s a failure just at a minor amount), fighting defending mine from intruders.
Every level: Lv1 upgrade mine (can upgrade mine), Lv2 Increase production, Lv3 Dwarven Fortitude (Increases miner work time) Lv4 Advanced mining (doubles ore vein amount). Also at every level increases prospect success rate and range he will go away from settlement.

As I said before, this is in no way a proper idea yet. Its just a thing that came out of my mind.

You will be seeing it very, very soon…

As for ores and mining them, that’s still up in the air. Or rather, down in the ground.

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All puns intended…

Nice! Like I said not against it by no means, would rather have it like Stain said. Just very unsure on the “How” end of it. My (Sug) was nothing more than how I thought about it.

I agree with selecting a layer to mine on or possibly a quick-shaft (need to think of a better name XD) tool which lets you select a zone and, filling in some fields, separate that zone into different strips. Say by selecting a gap distance, hieght distance, length. Although this could raise a lot of AI bugs!

If the script merely creates designated mining zones, any AI issue would be caused by doing the same task manually too.

True, I’m just thinking about height higher than 4 causing all kinds of issues

I think this aspect needs a lot of looking into. Just like the trapper, I think we have a taste of what it’s like and the developers are bouncing the idea off of us. I think the geomancer will solve most of these problems. More than likely they will make designated mining areas, vertical and horizontal. I just fear that Stonehearth is becoming a ‘zone’ game. =p

Perhaps a very wide zone for the miners to dig for resources without chiselling out an entire cavern.
Right now mining is mainly landscaping so it’s handled like building but when we get mine-able resources we can make it work a bit more like the trapper and farmer.

I think this might be easily managed with a new method of selecting where to mine. Or a new value per block anyway. I might be wrong, but it seems like right now, 1 block mined is 1 resource of whatever type. They should give us a “miner” profession and allow us to select what to mine as we currently do, but instead of instantly destroying the blocks, make it take 20 or 30 hits before it goes away. With every hot there is a high chance of a piece of resource conning out. If you’re mining on coal or iron or whatnot then the chance goes up to 100% and requires less hits to remove the block from the world.

This way those of us that play more defensive layout towns can build into mountain corners and mine close to home without sending hearthlings really far away and destroying mountain walls we chose to build next to.

It would also open up potential for longer lasting games. If you mine out the entire section of your map in a long game it’ll just become boring.