PlaneShift

Gameplay => Wish list => Topic started by: Gluonite on April 07, 2006, 11:32:21 pm

Title: Mining artifacts
Post by: Gluonite on April 07, 2006, 11:32:21 pm: I was thinking about possible ways to improve the mining functions in PS. It seems to me there are a couple of ways to make mining much more fun and they both involve being able to find artifacts or other loot while mining. There may be two good ways to implement this:

1) Have a small chance of finding buried artifacts and relics while doing regular mining tasks. I would think it would be a very very small chance, like 1 in 1000 times you mine. Just enough to surprise you and keep hope alive. When you did find something, it would be of considerable value and would make your day.

2) You could actually mine with the intent of finding artifacts. Sort of like an amateur archeologist or treasure hunter type person. (a la Indiana Jones) A good place to do this might be at the ruins. Again the chance of finding something might be smaller than regular mining, but the rewards would be greater to offset this. Balance it out.

In addition, the mining process might be changed to be more like the looting system, with a window that pops up with various finds in it, some valuable, others not so much. The gold ore, or whatever you are really looking for is in the list along with rubble, slag, sand, or soil, etc., and you would need to do the work of picking it out of the list so it lands in your inventory. It gets the miners more involved and makes them feel as if they are the ones actually doing it as opposed to mindless button-pushing. This also might make designing a mining bot more difficult.

The answer to the WHY? question: because mining is generally tedious, unengaging and too predictable.

(http://www.subtopiastudios.com/PS/lootwindow.jpg)

edit: added illustration
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Post by: zanzibar on April 07, 2006, 11:59:24 pm: Well, first they will have to make it so that the /dig command doesn\'t require speification of what you\'re digging for.
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Post by: Golarim on April 08, 2006, 12:38:32 am: I don\'t think so zanzibar sinc ehe said that what you\'re digging for will be on the list, it\'s just the other junk that comes with it will be there too. Just like in real mining...You don\'t have a pure pecie of gold ore land in your pack in rl, eh?
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Post by: zanzibar on April 08, 2006, 01:23:00 am: Quote
Originally posted by Golarim
I don\'t think so zanzibar sinc ehe said that what you\'re digging for will be on the list, it\'s just the other junk that comes with it will be there too. Just like in real mining...You don\'t have a pure pecie of gold ore land in your pack in rl, eh?

Uh, want to try saying that again? Your post is a bit hard to understand.
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Post by: Karyuu on April 08, 2006, 01:30:23 am: He means that although you may be /digging for gold, other things will occasionally come up in your results.
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Post by: zanzibar on April 08, 2006, 01:42:46 am: Quote
Originally posted by Karyuu
He means that although you may be /digging for gold, other things will occasionally come up in your results.

Right. Like platinum, iron, coal, diamon, or emerald. Why not simply /dig, and whatever you find you find?
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Post by: DaveG on April 08, 2006, 02:46:58 am: I\'ve wanted to do something like this for a long while. It\'s on the bottom of the list, though. Hopefully I\'ll be able to implement some sort of system like this at some point.
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Post by: Gluonite on April 08, 2006, 03:06:41 am: Thanks DaveG, you just made my day.

My opinion on the /dig vs. /dig (something) debate is to just do away with the (something) as Zanz suggests. Simplify it and then don\'t give any indication that a particular place is no good for mining. Folks should be able to dig a hole anywhere that isn\'t paved over and either they keep getting useless stuff, or they get useless stuff along with good. This just seems more realistic to me. However, I have no idea how hard this would be to implement.

Thanks, and good luck.
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Post by: neko kyouran on April 08, 2006, 05:48:44 am: Quote
Originally posted by Consensus
Folks should be able to dig a hole anywhere that isn\'t paved over and either they keep getting usless stuff, or they get useless stuff along with good. This just seems more realistic to me.

I can see it now. I\'m calling the Tavern as my favorite digging spot. Those beer soaked floor boards are mine.
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Post by: zanzibar on April 08, 2006, 06:00:48 am: Quote
Originally posted by neko kyouran
Quote
Originally posted by Consensus
Folks should be able to dig a hole anywhere that isn\'t paved over and either they keep getting usless stuff, or they get useless stuff along with good. This just seems more realistic to me.

I can see it now. I\'m calling the Tavern as my favorite digging spot. Those beer soaked floor boards are mine.

Well the \"you don\'t see a good place to dig\" would still happen within city limmits, one would assume...
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Post by: DaveG on April 08, 2006, 06:55:37 am: Yeah, I agree completely. I\'d like to let people even bury stuff if they want. :D
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Post by: neko kyouran on April 08, 2006, 07:19:51 am: Even, oh, I don\'t know, say, body ba er, bags full of trash?
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Post by: Arangol on April 08, 2006, 07:34:23 am: I like it.
(Muahaha all the sand in the world is mine, mine):D
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Post by: zanzibar on April 08, 2006, 07:38:19 am: Wait, does this mean that....

If I\'m standing on a sandy area, and I have sand in my inventory, then I can drop the sand item and it will be on top of the sandy ground as a unique item?

And if I want to pick it up again, and someone else grabs it first, then I can\'t just get sand from the ground, I have to dig for it and hope I get lucky?
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Post by: neko kyouran on April 08, 2006, 07:52:51 am: No, unless the sand is a different type, it will just mingle with the rest so there will no way to tell which of the sand, was the sand you dropped, so you\'ll just have to pick up a new handfull. This being, if there would be a way to just go to a snady area, right click on the ground there ( or something similar) and pick up some. Or just beating the ground with a pick-ax works I guess.
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Post by: Jeraphon on April 19, 2006, 12:56:45 am: While I hate to dredge up a thread that\'s over 10 days old, I\'d like to add my two cents.

I can see the arguments both for and against \"dig\" vs. \"dig for x.\"

However...why not BOTH!? I have seen this implemented in a MUD that had crafting, except when mining they didn\'t call it \"dig\", they called it \"prospect\" I think. Anyway, I\'ll change it to \"dig\" for simplicity\'s sake.

General \"dig\" was easier to do; it required less skill. You just pulled up whatever. Once you got better at it, you could get what you wanted by \"dig for x.\" If you need a certain ore/crystal, it becomes easier to obtain. Turning \"for x\" into an optional argument doesn\'t sound so bad, right? Anyway, that\'s just my opinion. Take it for what you will.
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Post by: shorty13 on April 19, 2006, 04:25:04 am: I personally agree with you consensus and think there should just be a general /dig instead of /dig

Also, I love the tape measure as a random item lol.