![](https://attach.openclonk.org/avatars/82-92926.png)
Sven2 mentioned making granite more difficult to mine (instead pickaxe it could require explosives). What about a drill which can mine through granite and/or other robust materials (perhaps even brick). Its more a steampunk object and needs deeper education in a settlement. The drill needs oil fuel.
Perhaps the drill site should be doubled regarding to the picture below.
I hereby license the file drill.png under the CC-BY license
Just an additional idea: There could be an option to attach this to the elevator, making drilling through hard materials easier. But this is rather strong, perhaps we could add a downside to it's use (it dulls after seconds, earthquakes etc.)
![](https://attach.openclonk.org/avatars/82-92926.png)
I hereby license the file drillelevator.png under the CC-BY license
![](https://attach.openclonk.org/avatars/35-6865.png)
![](https://attach.openclonk.org/avatars/82-92926.png)
>I think the elevator should be easy to use, as much of the other production lines will depend on ressources gathered in (well-working) mines.
Keep in mind that the resources can also be mined with explosives/pickaxe. This attachable drill helps to push forward to the deep easier.
![](https://attach.openclonk.org/avatars/35-6865.png)
![](https://attach.openclonk.org/avatars/336-99322.png)
It only annoys me when there are 2 pixels of the hard stuff floating around, and you can not get it away. It's always a fiddling around to get it away. Very annoying.
So my suggestion for this problem would be to let the elevator dig away hard materials. BUT only when the bottom is hitting less then 3 pixels of hard material.
![](https://attach.openclonk.org/avatars/1-0778.png)
+ Pickaxe can only mine coal (not diggable), earth etc., rock and is constructed with wood+rock.
+ driller can drill through everything explosives can but need batteries (ammo) to work like many other things from the inventors lab (not implemented yet, just ideas)
Anyway, regardless of how that thing could find its place into the game, I really like your style. Do you have ideas for this or similar stuff? We could need some more mining/exploration tools, IMO.
![](https://attach.openclonk.org/avatars/82-92926.png)
>Do you have ideas for this or similar stuff?
Thanks. Sure, I will make some sketches soon.
![](https://attach.openclonk.org/avatars/65-0196.png)
But currently the pickaxe is one of the rather boring items - so if we could make it more interesting, this would be a good time :)
[for example, I don't know how to communicate to the player that coal is non-diggable but pickaxeable, but rock is non-diggable and non-pickaxeable]
![](https://attach.openclonk.org/avatars/336-99322.png)
>[for example, I don't know how to communicate to the player that coal is non-diggable but pickaxeable, but rock is non-diggable and non-pickaxeable]
Yes, all this seems to turn very complicated, especially for new players.
An idea would be to have little icons beside the crosshair. If you hover over coal, there is a pickaxe symbol, if you hover over rock, there is a dynamite symbol, and so on...
![](https://attach.openclonk.org/avatars/1-0778.png)
What about that:
Rock and gold can be mined with the pickaxe, but drop very few stones/gold then. To efficiently mine these you have to use explosives, which blast big "carry-heavy" chunks free, along with some normal material. These chunks have to be refined either using the pickaxe - inefficient, or by dropping them into a "mill" (like this). The drill could be used to quickly make a way through solid materials, for example to invade your enemy's fortress from underneath and drops a normal amount of materials.
Rock and gold can be mined with the pickaxe, but drop very few stones/gold then. To efficiently mine these you have to use explosives, which blast big "carry-heavy" chunks free, along with some normal material. These chunks have to be refined either using the pickaxe - inefficient, or by dropping them into a "mill" (like this). The drill could be used to quickly make a way through solid materials, for example to invade your enemy's fortress from underneath and drops a normal amount of materials.
![](https://attach.openclonk.org/avatars/65-0196.png)
Currently I dislike the pickaxe most of all of the items we have. The pickaxe is incredibly strong and we balance it by making the item boring and annoying to use. The only reason why you don't do all your mining with the pickaxe is because you would probably quit the game before you were done because it's just so dull.
My suggestion would be to make the pickaxe not create any material ever. It's a great tool to get rid of single pixels somewhere or to quickly get through a layer of rock or for precise deconstruction - it has never been a well-designed tool for mining.
The strengths of the pickaxe stay, but noone is ever tempted to having to spend annoying time extracting resources with the pickaxe. When we have large crystals or gems that can be found in caves, the pickaxe would get the second application to mine those - they could not be mined with explosives, though!
The drill now is an interesting design, but we have to be careful what to do with it.
One idea I am not unhappy with would be to let the drill consume power (items can currently consume power!). That would mean that you are the boss in your base and can terraform whatever you please, but no luck outside! [I would also not let it create resources and make it take a lot of power, but make the drilling really fast!]
![](https://attach.openclonk.org/avatars/82-92926.png)
![](https://attach.openclonk.org/avatars/1-0778.png)
Powered by mwForum 2.29.7 © 1999-2015 Markus Wichitill