Hate the "no stone mining" system
Not Enough Votes
You're telling me there's no stone mining? This feels like regression, now I have to seek out deposits hundreds of meters from my base to just make pock marked holes in the surface of the planet, doing this feels repetitive, boring, and time consuming. If I could mine stone, I would be able to get the same number of resources with a quarry where I don't have to fly around like a bee to various different random spots on the planet. PLEASE add stone mining.
I like this feedback
I also want stone to be collectible again. Making ore veins bigger might help with the current problem, but it still doesn’t solve many other issues.
I would actually go further than SE1 and expand the idea of stone mining. Instead of having exclusive (and very small as for now) ore spots for every element, I would prefer all materials to contain different concentrations of elements. Common rocks would have small amounts of iron, silicon, nickel (so same as in SE1), while rare rocks would have higher concentrations of basic elements or precious elements like gold, platinum and others. And as a side effect you would have to deal with the leftover slag, which is basically whatever remains after extracting the useful stuff.
Let me give an example of how it could work. We already have backpack building in SE2 that can craft components on the fly. That can stay, but instead of running around looking for tiny pure ore blobs, you just mine the nearby rock/sand/whatever. Say you mine 100 kg of rock that has 3% iron, 5% silicon and 1% nickel. When you build a steel block you use the 3 kg of iron refined from that rock. If you build a solar panel you use 5kg of silicon wafers or 1kg of nickel to weld a motor. So yeah, bring back ingots and all other refined materials to the game. As you use up the elements, their concentration in that material goes down until you decide to toss the slag, store it, or even place it as voxel rubble (another feature I'd really like to have).
Managing this waste naturally pushes players to look for richer materials. This also matches how things work in real life, because you rarely find pure elements, only rocks that need refining. Your backpack can refine on the fly for early survival, but refineries and smelters are there for large scale production.
This system would also reduce how much you need to dig all over the planet, since SE2 added even more elements. Instead of dozens of micro mining locations for every individual element, you would have fewer but larger sites (a proper mining outposts) where a single material type gives you several different elements (ingots, wafers, etc...). It is also good for performance.
Another thing I really like is the idea of rare refinery modules (in addition to regular craftable modules). For example, if you find a rock with 5 percent gold, you could install a rare module that boosts gold yield to 200% so you get 10kg instead of 5. Some modules could be rare loot or faction exclusive, creating late game goals. You could then specialize in certain production and trade with other players or NPCs.
Each material will have some concentration of elements (one or more). World settings should let players tweak concentrations however they want. If someone wants survival to be harder, they can reduce or remove basic elements from common rocks.
This kind of system would be beginner friendly while deep enough for advanced players. Modders than can build on top of this base system for even more advanced production chains.
And honestly, imagine finally having reasons to build huge quarry bases. Finding a rich material with around 50% iron concentration would feel like a real discovery, non less as finding rare elements. With a rare iron boost module I could refine it super efficiently, making my iron output insanely good for the energy and PCU cost. Other players might even prefer buying my iron (or components made of iron) instead of producing their own. That’s the kind of engineering and economy gameplay I want to see in SE2.
I also want stone to be collectible again. Making ore veins bigger might help with the current problem, but it still doesn’t solve many other issues.
I would actually go further than SE1 and expand the idea of stone mining. Instead of having exclusive (and very small as for now) ore spots for every element, I would prefer all materials to contain different concentrations of elements. Common rocks would have small amounts of iron, silicon, nickel (so same as in SE1), while rare rocks would have higher concentrations of basic elements or precious elements like gold, platinum and others. And as a side effect you would have to deal with the leftover slag, which is basically whatever remains after extracting the useful stuff.
Let me give an example of how it could work. We already have backpack building in SE2 that can craft components on the fly. That can stay, but instead of running around looking for tiny pure ore blobs, you just mine the nearby rock/sand/whatever. Say you mine 100 kg of rock that has 3% iron, 5% silicon and 1% nickel. When you build a steel block you use the 3 kg of iron refined from that rock. If you build a solar panel you use 5kg of silicon wafers or 1kg of nickel to weld a motor. So yeah, bring back ingots and all other refined materials to the game. As you use up the elements, their concentration in that material goes down until you decide to toss the slag, store it, or even place it as voxel rubble (another feature I'd really like to have).
Managing this waste naturally pushes players to look for richer materials. This also matches how things work in real life, because you rarely find pure elements, only rocks that need refining. Your backpack can refine on the fly for early survival, but refineries and smelters are there for large scale production.
This system would also reduce how much you need to dig all over the planet, since SE2 added even more elements. Instead of dozens of micro mining locations for every individual element, you would have fewer but larger sites (a proper mining outposts) where a single material type gives you several different elements (ingots, wafers, etc...). It is also good for performance.
Another thing I really like is the idea of rare refinery modules (in addition to regular craftable modules). For example, if you find a rock with 5 percent gold, you could install a rare module that boosts gold yield to 200% so you get 10kg instead of 5. Some modules could be rare loot or faction exclusive, creating late game goals. You could then specialize in certain production and trade with other players or NPCs.
Each material will have some concentration of elements (one or more). World settings should let players tweak concentrations however they want. If someone wants survival to be harder, they can reduce or remove basic elements from common rocks.
This kind of system would be beginner friendly while deep enough for advanced players. Modders than can build on top of this base system for even more advanced production chains.
And honestly, imagine finally having reasons to build huge quarry bases. Finding a rich material with around 50% iron concentration would feel like a real discovery, non less as finding rare elements. With a rare iron boost module I could refine it super efficiently, making my iron output insanely good for the energy and PCU cost. Other players might even prefer buying my iron (or components made of iron) instead of producing their own. That’s the kind of engineering and economy gameplay I want to see in SE2.
While i think this could be articulated in a more neutral way i do miss the stone mining too. I like the immersion that when crushing some rocks it creates some slag that needs to be taken care off. I would prefere if the automatic ore collection was something that could be enabled by upgrading the equipement later on in the game. Also wenn building mining vessels having to deal with the slag was an engeneering challenge that needed to be adressed. I also liked that.
While i think this could be articulated in a more neutral way i do miss the stone mining too. I like the immersion that when crushing some rocks it creates some slag that needs to be taken care off. I would prefere if the automatic ore collection was something that could be enabled by upgrading the equipement later on in the game. Also wenn building mining vessels having to deal with the slag was an engeneering challenge that needed to be adressed. I also liked that.
i agree, the SE1 Stone to ore is a BIG NEED! as its a REAL Royla Pain to f ind the Needed Amounts of ore to just get started, and the begining to even get a decent ship is a royal pain, not even being able to make a mining ship because of ore and resources is a B****ch, and not having acsses to Admin tools, and Voxel hands is just as anoying, even tho its not intended for survival use, but having the option is still a Player by Player choise
i agree, the SE1 Stone to ore is a BIG NEED! as its a REAL Royla Pain to f ind the Needed Amounts of ore to just get started, and the begining to even get a decent ship is a royal pain, not even being able to make a mining ship because of ore and resources is a B****ch, and not having acsses to Admin tools, and Voxel hands is just as anoying, even tho its not intended for survival use, but having the option is still a Player by Player choise
this could be something they left out for now to speed up the release of survival
this could be something they left out for now to speed up the release of survival
For me, the biggest lack WRT stone is the ore nodes being small and stingy. This leads to way more voxel deformation, which eventually becomes a performance and aesthetics issue, as well as being very grindy.
For me, the biggest lack WRT stone is the ore nodes being small and stingy. This leads to way more voxel deformation, which eventually becomes a performance and aesthetics issue, as well as being very grindy.
Honestly, I much prefer the early game-loop system of Stone+Survival Kit = basic resources. No stone mining, on top of No ingots refining, just feels like a needless simplification of resource management/production. In SE1, we have to account for a build up of superfluous stone when mining, e.g. it fostered a need to design [engineer] an ejection system into our miner builds. In my view, removing stone does not improve SE2. Same for removing ingots. It diminishes it, regresses it, just as the OP said.
Honestly, I much prefer the early game-loop system of Stone+Survival Kit = basic resources. No stone mining, on top of No ingots refining, just feels like a needless simplification of resource management/production. In SE1, we have to account for a build up of superfluous stone when mining, e.g. it fostered a need to design [engineer] an ejection system into our miner builds. In my view, removing stone does not improve SE2. Same for removing ingots. It diminishes it, regresses it, just as the OP said.
I feel that stone could be used both for early game as a stop-gap measure, and to make late game engineering more interesting. Having to deal with large amounts of stone when mining could be frustrating for new players and impact performance if it means that mining causes lots of spawning of extra physics objects. So it would be good if it could be used early on to produce some resources in small quantities, but optionally later on can be processed properly to provide higher yields with a 'slag' item produced that would introduce more engineering problems for more advanced players to solve. Besides, I think it would be nice to have concrete building blocks or even voxels that could be made using stone as a resource, just so every player construction isn't pure metal. Making it weaker but cheaper than iron blocks while weighing more could make it interesting to use in stationary constructions. Like how we use it now in the real life world we all presumably inhabit.
I feel that stone could be used both for early game as a stop-gap measure, and to make late game engineering more interesting. Having to deal with large amounts of stone when mining could be frustrating for new players and impact performance if it means that mining causes lots of spawning of extra physics objects. So it would be good if it could be used early on to produce some resources in small quantities, but optionally later on can be processed properly to provide higher yields with a 'slag' item produced that would introduce more engineering problems for more advanced players to solve. Besides, I think it would be nice to have concrete building blocks or even voxels that could be made using stone as a resource, just so every player construction isn't pure metal. Making it weaker but cheaper than iron blocks while weighing more could make it interesting to use in stationary constructions. Like how we use it now in the real life world we all presumably inhabit.
One of my favorite things to do in Space Engineers is to build ridiculously oversized infrastructure in order to mine enough stone to squeeze out enough ores just so I can build even more ridiculously oversized infrastructure. Reducing the game to one where you have to manually locate every tiny little pockets of iron (none of which even near big enough to justify the building of a tiny outpost) feels like a major step in the wrong direction; one less about industrial engineering and more about manual labor.
A sandbox, but without the sand.
One of my favorite things to do in Space Engineers is to build ridiculously oversized infrastructure in order to mine enough stone to squeeze out enough ores just so I can build even more ridiculously oversized infrastructure. Reducing the game to one where you have to manually locate every tiny little pockets of iron (none of which even near big enough to justify the building of a tiny outpost) feels like a major step in the wrong direction; one less about industrial engineering and more about manual labor.
A sandbox, but without the sand.
I completely agree that stone needs to remain a harvestable resource. It should, in my opinion, at least offer the same very basic resources like Iron, Silicon, and Nickel in small amounts. Right now after about 30 hours of playing, planets feel like dead voxels and actually building an outpost is a serious task even if you find an Iron deposit.
Please bring back stone processing. It's almost impossible to get anything done with the inventory size and location restrictions emergent from having to find ore.
I completely agree that stone needs to remain a harvestable resource. It should, in my opinion, at least offer the same very basic resources like Iron, Silicon, and Nickel in small amounts. Right now after about 30 hours of playing, planets feel like dead voxels and actually building an outpost is a serious task even if you find an Iron deposit.
Please bring back stone processing. It's almost impossible to get anything done with the inventory size and location restrictions emergent from having to find ore.
I'm not sure about this one. At first it is a survival gamemode, stone mining reduces that a lot, it makes every start much more easy. No real challenge to survive.
With that in mind I tend to say: yes, stone mining as a resource for concrete blocks should be ingame, with characteristics that makes them not very useful inside ships but for building bases. And I'm also fine if the bring some very less basic resources, not as much that you can build big bases only with stone mining. Mining ore vanes is a main gameplay element and shouldn't be ruined by stone mining.
Of course you can give players a game save setting for this, but vanilla should be balanced the right way, not like some want who obviously don't want a survival experience.
After all, this is Space Engineers 2 and not Space Engineers 1 Version 2. We don't should simply copy stuff from the first game into the second, we should improve them the right way.
I'm not sure about this one. At first it is a survival gamemode, stone mining reduces that a lot, it makes every start much more easy. No real challenge to survive.
With that in mind I tend to say: yes, stone mining as a resource for concrete blocks should be ingame, with characteristics that makes them not very useful inside ships but for building bases. And I'm also fine if the bring some very less basic resources, not as much that you can build big bases only with stone mining. Mining ore vanes is a main gameplay element and shouldn't be ruined by stone mining.
Of course you can give players a game save setting for this, but vanilla should be balanced the right way, not like some want who obviously don't want a survival experience.
After all, this is Space Engineers 2 and not Space Engineers 1 Version 2. We don't should simply copy stuff from the first game into the second, we should improve them the right way.
I agree.
Let's look at the industrial overhaul mod in SE1. I find it to be fascinating. One feature of it assigns what can be harvested from various voxels. Grass and dirt consist of organic matter and a small amount of stone. Stone voxels give a lot of stone. Alien ice gives a special kind of ice, that needs to be filtered before use. All things have uses; we don't get nothing from anything.
On the other hand we have a mod that allow placing voxels with a tool, from inventory items. Voxel hand is already a working feature in SE2.
My point is, we can define any type of inventory, we can place any type of voxel by counting and spending inventory, so why can't we collect sand, for example, then put it somewhere else? Why not start there, enable directly collecting voxels, followed by placing or processing them? On it's own this would be a reason to travel to different planets, for builders who want to use the types of terrain for decoration.
why is there such a divide between what we can pick up and put down? it is really a stretch, not speaking of 'realism', but of reasonable actions.
I agree.
Let's look at the industrial overhaul mod in SE1. I find it to be fascinating. One feature of it assigns what can be harvested from various voxels. Grass and dirt consist of organic matter and a small amount of stone. Stone voxels give a lot of stone. Alien ice gives a special kind of ice, that needs to be filtered before use. All things have uses; we don't get nothing from anything.
On the other hand we have a mod that allow placing voxels with a tool, from inventory items. Voxel hand is already a working feature in SE2.
My point is, we can define any type of inventory, we can place any type of voxel by counting and spending inventory, so why can't we collect sand, for example, then put it somewhere else? Why not start there, enable directly collecting voxels, followed by placing or processing them? On it's own this would be a reason to travel to different planets, for builders who want to use the types of terrain for decoration.
why is there such a divide between what we can pick up and put down? it is really a stretch, not speaking of 'realism', but of reasonable actions.
I also want stone to be collectible again. Making ore veins bigger might help with the current problem, but it still doesn’t solve many other issues.
I would actually go further than SE1 and expand the idea of stone mining. Instead of having exclusive (and very small as for now) ore spots for every element, I would prefer all materials to contain different concentrations of elements. Common rocks would have small amounts of iron, silicon, nickel (so same as in SE1), while rare rocks would have higher concentrations of basic elements or precious elements like gold, platinum and others. And as a side effect you would have to deal with the leftover slag, which is basically whatever remains after extracting the useful stuff.
Let me give an example of how it could work. We already have backpack building in SE2 that can craft components on the fly. That can stay, but instead of running around looking for tiny pure ore blobs, you just mine the nearby rock/sand/whatever. Say you mine 100 kg of rock that has 3% iron, 5% silicon and 1% nickel. When you build a steel block you use the 3 kg of iron refined from that rock. If you build a solar panel you use 5kg of silicon wafers or 1kg of nickel to weld a motor. So yeah, bring back ingots and all other refined materials to the game. As you use up the elements, their concentration in that material goes down until you decide to toss the slag, store it, or even place it as voxel rubble (another feature I'd really like to have).
Managing this waste naturally pushes players to look for richer materials. This also matches how things work in real life, because you rarely find pure elements, only rocks that need refining. Your backpack can refine on the fly for early survival, but refineries and smelters are there for large scale production.
This system would also reduce how much you need to dig all over the planet, since SE2 added even more elements. Instead of dozens of micro mining locations for every individual element, you would have fewer but larger sites (a proper mining outposts) where a single material type gives you several different elements (ingots, wafers, etc...). It is also good for performance.
Another thing I really like is the idea of rare refinery modules (in addition to regular craftable modules). For example, if you find a rock with 5 percent gold, you could install a rare module that boosts gold yield to 200% so you get 10kg instead of 5. Some modules could be rare loot or faction exclusive, creating late game goals. You could then specialize in certain production and trade with other players or NPCs.
Each material will have some concentration of elements (one or more). World settings should let players tweak concentrations however they want. If someone wants survival to be harder, they can reduce or remove basic elements from common rocks.
This kind of system would be beginner friendly while deep enough for advanced players. Modders than can build on top of this base system for even more advanced production chains.
And honestly, imagine finally having reasons to build huge quarry bases. Finding a rich material with around 50% iron concentration would feel like a real discovery, non less as finding rare elements. With a rare iron boost module I could refine it super efficiently, making my iron output insanely good for the energy and PCU cost. Other players might even prefer buying my iron (or components made of iron) instead of producing their own. That’s the kind of engineering and economy gameplay I want to see in SE2.
I also want stone to be collectible again. Making ore veins bigger might help with the current problem, but it still doesn’t solve many other issues.
I would actually go further than SE1 and expand the idea of stone mining. Instead of having exclusive (and very small as for now) ore spots for every element, I would prefer all materials to contain different concentrations of elements. Common rocks would have small amounts of iron, silicon, nickel (so same as in SE1), while rare rocks would have higher concentrations of basic elements or precious elements like gold, platinum and others. And as a side effect you would have to deal with the leftover slag, which is basically whatever remains after extracting the useful stuff.
Let me give an example of how it could work. We already have backpack building in SE2 that can craft components on the fly. That can stay, but instead of running around looking for tiny pure ore blobs, you just mine the nearby rock/sand/whatever. Say you mine 100 kg of rock that has 3% iron, 5% silicon and 1% nickel. When you build a steel block you use the 3 kg of iron refined from that rock. If you build a solar panel you use 5kg of silicon wafers or 1kg of nickel to weld a motor. So yeah, bring back ingots and all other refined materials to the game. As you use up the elements, their concentration in that material goes down until you decide to toss the slag, store it, or even place it as voxel rubble (another feature I'd really like to have).
Managing this waste naturally pushes players to look for richer materials. This also matches how things work in real life, because you rarely find pure elements, only rocks that need refining. Your backpack can refine on the fly for early survival, but refineries and smelters are there for large scale production.
This system would also reduce how much you need to dig all over the planet, since SE2 added even more elements. Instead of dozens of micro mining locations for every individual element, you would have fewer but larger sites (a proper mining outposts) where a single material type gives you several different elements (ingots, wafers, etc...). It is also good for performance.
Another thing I really like is the idea of rare refinery modules (in addition to regular craftable modules). For example, if you find a rock with 5 percent gold, you could install a rare module that boosts gold yield to 200% so you get 10kg instead of 5. Some modules could be rare loot or faction exclusive, creating late game goals. You could then specialize in certain production and trade with other players or NPCs.
Each material will have some concentration of elements (one or more). World settings should let players tweak concentrations however they want. If someone wants survival to be harder, they can reduce or remove basic elements from common rocks.
This kind of system would be beginner friendly while deep enough for advanced players. Modders than can build on top of this base system for even more advanced production chains.
And honestly, imagine finally having reasons to build huge quarry bases. Finding a rich material with around 50% iron concentration would feel like a real discovery, non less as finding rare elements. With a rare iron boost module I could refine it super efficiently, making my iron output insanely good for the energy and PCU cost. Other players might even prefer buying my iron (or components made of iron) instead of producing their own. That’s the kind of engineering and economy gameplay I want to see in SE2.
This is another simplification too many. This is probably part of your idea to encourage travel and give reasons to move around, and I appreciate the thought, but not every ore has to require it. Wouldn't it be more interesting to have some that are far, but also some that are near? Are you telling me 99.9...% of a planet is absolutely useless? No way. Please think ahead, Keen: stone could be used for future materials like stone, gravel, concrete, cements, ceramics, abrasives. The trace amounts of iron, silicon, etc. can be a life saver in many situations. Plus, you could add aluminium to it. Here on Earth it's about 8% of the crust.
There is also the problem of inventories getting full of stone. This is not a problem for you to solve, this is a problem for us, the players. If you are mining by backpack, you should carefully dig in destructive mode until you reach the ore, then mine normally. If it's too much, use a miner or mining machine. If it's still too much, improve them slightly to handle excess stone. Etc. This is the fun of the game. For people who don't like mining, find something you like doing and then trade with your local miner faction. Win win.
This is another simplification too many. This is probably part of your idea to encourage travel and give reasons to move around, and I appreciate the thought, but not every ore has to require it. Wouldn't it be more interesting to have some that are far, but also some that are near? Are you telling me 99.9...% of a planet is absolutely useless? No way. Please think ahead, Keen: stone could be used for future materials like stone, gravel, concrete, cements, ceramics, abrasives. The trace amounts of iron, silicon, etc. can be a life saver in many situations. Plus, you could add aluminium to it. Here on Earth it's about 8% of the crust.
There is also the problem of inventories getting full of stone. This is not a problem for you to solve, this is a problem for us, the players. If you are mining by backpack, you should carefully dig in destructive mode until you reach the ore, then mine normally. If it's too much, use a miner or mining machine. If it's still too much, improve them slightly to handle excess stone. Etc. This is the fun of the game. For people who don't like mining, find something you like doing and then trade with your local miner faction. Win win.
As long as you can toggle your drill to ignore stone if you want to so you don't have stone filling up your inventory when trying to mine something else, then I'd be fine with that. Because I love not having to deal with that in VS2 that always was so annoying in SE1.
As long as you can toggle your drill to ignore stone if you want to so you don't have stone filling up your inventory when trying to mine something else, then I'd be fine with that. Because I love not having to deal with that in VS2 that always was so annoying in SE1.
I posted a while ago for a bulldozing block tool for levelling terrain and building roads.
Stone as an extractable resource would be essential for landscaping projects and other earthworks.
It could bring new methods for laying buried conveyors.
Think of all the yellow truck machines that could be built and be functionally useful.
SE Diggerland needs stone.
I posted a while ago for a bulldozing block tool for levelling terrain and building roads.
Stone as an extractable resource would be essential for landscaping projects and other earthworks.
It could bring new methods for laying buried conveyors.
Think of all the yellow truck machines that could be built and be functionally useful.
SE Diggerland needs stone.
Dang am I the only one excited to not have to manage stone?! 😅
I was pretty stoked to find it was gone, I hated having to deal with the surplus stone when hitting a deposit. I know I’m not the only one, many custom servers either incorporated stone crushers (dedicated refinery to quickly process stones but you got way less ore) or used mods so you could enter a command to remove stone from your grid.
I wonder if part of Keen’s decision was it made backpack building too easy. With stone you’d be able to just dig and build anywhere so if you encountered an enemy grid or an engineering comtract it’d be too easy to drill stone and build whatever to deal with it. Would feel sort of Fortnitey.
Dang am I the only one excited to not have to manage stone?! 😅
I was pretty stoked to find it was gone, I hated having to deal with the surplus stone when hitting a deposit. I know I’m not the only one, many custom servers either incorporated stone crushers (dedicated refinery to quickly process stones but you got way less ore) or used mods so you could enter a command to remove stone from your grid.
I wonder if part of Keen’s decision was it made backpack building too easy. With stone you’d be able to just dig and build anywhere so if you encountered an enemy grid or an engineering comtract it’d be too easy to drill stone and build whatever to deal with it. Would feel sort of Fortnitey.
I like the idea to make stone useful for some things. Such as concrete as an abundant construction material, because you can make it from abundant stone.
Otherwise, having to search for ores makes sense, but I think those should have larger deposits (and maybe fewer on the other hand, so you need to put more effort into searching for them). The current size of deposits seems a bit lacking for building huge structures, which makes for a lot of the fun in Space Engineers.
I like the idea to make stone useful for some things. Such as concrete as an abundant construction material, because you can make it from abundant stone.
Otherwise, having to search for ores makes sense, but I think those should have larger deposits (and maybe fewer on the other hand, so you need to put more effort into searching for them). The current size of deposits seems a bit lacking for building huge structures, which makes for a lot of the fun in Space Engineers.
I like the idea of stone still being included. I would personally want to see it yield even less resources than SE1 forcing the need to build machines and really strip mine. Ore deposits would obviously be the ideal goal to shoot for, but in a pinch you have the capability to use the backpack or basic refineries to filter out trace bits of ore.
With the engine advances this will be even more fun for building those large installations and seeing the large scale changes to the terrain.
There is a game i was reminded of that has an amazing voxel terrain deformation engine and when I was playing I remember thinking I wish SE1/2 could be integrated here to build your own crafts.
The game is still very early access but definitely impressive.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2009350/Out_of_Ore/
I like the idea of stone still being included. I would personally want to see it yield even less resources than SE1 forcing the need to build machines and really strip mine. Ore deposits would obviously be the ideal goal to shoot for, but in a pinch you have the capability to use the backpack or basic refineries to filter out trace bits of ore.
With the engine advances this will be even more fun for building those large installations and seeing the large scale changes to the terrain.
There is a game i was reminded of that has an amazing voxel terrain deformation engine and when I was playing I remember thinking I wish SE1/2 could be integrated here to build your own crafts.
The game is still very early access but definitely impressive.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2009350/Out_of_Ore/
Even being able to mine stone for small traces of materials for basic structures, like plates and tubes would be great.
Even being able to mine stone for small traces of materials for basic structures, like plates and tubes would be great.
I think if there is stone that it shouldn't be able to process in backpack, only in refineries. Your backpack being able to crush stone, convert it to an ore type, and build a component all in one pack is a stretch too far. Backpacks should require the direct ore and stone could process in a refinery (or similar block) where it converts to ore.
Otherwise I just mine the ore I need directly since the ore that stone gives is scattered everywhere anyway.
Also worth noting dumping stone you don't need and automated drills which mine constant stone are very performance intensive processes on the server and without stone, we can have better performance. I'd prefer performance go towards more useful things.
I think if there is stone that it shouldn't be able to process in backpack, only in refineries. Your backpack being able to crush stone, convert it to an ore type, and build a component all in one pack is a stretch too far. Backpacks should require the direct ore and stone could process in a refinery (or similar block) where it converts to ore.
Otherwise I just mine the ore I need directly since the ore that stone gives is scattered everywhere anyway.
Also worth noting dumping stone you don't need and automated drills which mine constant stone are very performance intensive processes on the server and without stone, we can have better performance. I'd prefer performance go towards more useful things.
How does this not have enough votes at 91?
How does this not have enough votes at 91?
Stone mining partially ruins the gameplay and shouldn't return as it was in SE1.
But perhaps it could be used for another purpose.
Maybe for making concrete or for placing new voxels in survival mode.
Stone mining partially ruins the gameplay and shouldn't return as it was in SE1.
But perhaps it could be used for another purpose.
Maybe for making concrete or for placing new voxels in survival mode.
Part of it is 2 fold. You shouldn't be able to just grab stone and immediately process it into every single resource in game like you can for alot of critical ones in SE1. Stone shouldn't be completely useless, but it shouldn't replace mining dedicated veins either. Stone should provide just enough to do bare bone basic stuff until you can find actual dedicated veins. The other problem with stone is that you get tons and tons of gravel that SE1 largely does nothing with. Outside of one or two components it's not used for anything and is a largely forgotten ingot. If they did more with it then it wouldn't be so bad.
Now I will say I don't think stone should be able to be processed in the backpack, it should take actual refineries to do it. It's one thing to process a couple things and turn them into basic components. However allowing folks to take stone and process it into a bunch of different ores and then into components on top of that basically turns the player into a walking factory and negates the need for many of the machines like assemblers, refineries and similar. If everyone can just get what they need by cheesing the backpack all day, why would they ever build dedicated machines? Backpacks should be for the bare bones basics so you're not completely helpless and for when you have to start or start over from scratch. At least you have something.
I don't mind stone mining, but there would need to be more thought put into it. Also right now we don't know what we don't know about the different ores, their distribution or any of that. For all we know once we have the final ore distributions in hand it won't matter. Only time will tell.
Part of it is 2 fold. You shouldn't be able to just grab stone and immediately process it into every single resource in game like you can for alot of critical ones in SE1. Stone shouldn't be completely useless, but it shouldn't replace mining dedicated veins either. Stone should provide just enough to do bare bone basic stuff until you can find actual dedicated veins. The other problem with stone is that you get tons and tons of gravel that SE1 largely does nothing with. Outside of one or two components it's not used for anything and is a largely forgotten ingot. If they did more with it then it wouldn't be so bad.
Now I will say I don't think stone should be able to be processed in the backpack, it should take actual refineries to do it. It's one thing to process a couple things and turn them into basic components. However allowing folks to take stone and process it into a bunch of different ores and then into components on top of that basically turns the player into a walking factory and negates the need for many of the machines like assemblers, refineries and similar. If everyone can just get what they need by cheesing the backpack all day, why would they ever build dedicated machines? Backpacks should be for the bare bones basics so you're not completely helpless and for when you have to start or start over from scratch. At least you have something.
I don't mind stone mining, but there would need to be more thought put into it. Also right now we don't know what we don't know about the different ores, their distribution or any of that. For all we know once we have the final ore distributions in hand it won't matter. Only time will tell.
The system of construction materials and associated ores is highly underdeveloped.
Silicon (Si), aluminum (Al), and magnesium (Mg) are literally everywhere. And along with them, "everywhere" is also oxygen.
The system of construction materials and associated ores is highly underdeveloped.
Silicon (Si), aluminum (Al), and magnesium (Mg) are literally everywhere. And along with them, "everywhere" is also oxygen.
How is this still not up for consideration.
How is this still not up for consideration.
I strongly disagree. Stone mining for most of resources in SE1 was so game breaking that there was no point at all to fight for territory with npc/players. Boring. No ore scouting = no scout ship/rover. No territory fights over ores. (good example of good scenario where you fight over territory is Ares at War), Whatever place you start in you can stay because there is stone ofc... There is no need for mining outposts, there is no need for transport because you have all in one ship/rover/base and stone everywhere and ice that could fuel a planet.
I strongly disagree. Stone mining for most of resources in SE1 was so game breaking that there was no point at all to fight for territory with npc/players. Boring. No ore scouting = no scout ship/rover. No territory fights over ores. (good example of good scenario where you fight over territory is Ares at War), Whatever place you start in you can stay because there is stone ofc... There is no need for mining outposts, there is no need for transport because you have all in one ship/rover/base and stone everywhere and ice that could fuel a planet.
I disagree with the reason (always saw stone to iron refining as too OP), but agree with the sentiment. In Early SE1 stone was an issue you had to solve, it added to the atmosphere and realism. In late SE1 it was still somewhat an issue that adds to the game. And overall I would rather have excessive amounts of stone, with some of it going for outpost construction purposes like in empyrion over not having it.
I disagree with the reason (always saw stone to iron refining as too OP), but agree with the sentiment. In Early SE1 stone was an issue you had to solve, it added to the atmosphere and realism. In late SE1 it was still somewhat an issue that adds to the game. And overall I would rather have excessive amounts of stone, with some of it going for outpost construction purposes like in empyrion over not having it.
I actually enjoy current system with no stone. Yes, you may need to find iron ore deposit to make something, it's a restriction, and time consuming, like... many other things in the game. If you don't want waste time find and mining ore - play creative.
People may play games to solve tasks and enjoy when it solved. Is it good gameplay, when you have what you need right in front of you? My argumentation have weak points, because in SE1 having stone, you still need find other ores, like cobalt.
But amount of deposits on planet is rich enougth to not struggle.
Just wanted to show presence of players, who like new no-stone system.
I actually enjoy current system with no stone. Yes, you may need to find iron ore deposit to make something, it's a restriction, and time consuming, like... many other things in the game. If you don't want waste time find and mining ore - play creative.
People may play games to solve tasks and enjoy when it solved. Is it good gameplay, when you have what you need right in front of you? My argumentation have weak points, because in SE1 having stone, you still need find other ores, like cobalt.
But amount of deposits on planet is rich enougth to not struggle.
Just wanted to show presence of players, who like new no-stone system.
I finally took some time to put together my own comprehensive feedback on mining and production.
It’s a long read, but I tried to incorporate many of the great ideas from this and other similar suggestions.
Here it is:
https://support.keenswh.com/spaceengineers2/pc/topic/51461-mining-and-production-current-issues-and-potential
I finally took some time to put together my own comprehensive feedback on mining and production.
It’s a long read, but I tried to incorporate many of the great ideas from this and other similar suggestions.
Here it is:
https://support.keenswh.com/spaceengineers2/pc/topic/51461-mining-and-production-current-issues-and-potential
Stone mining should be part of the game if people dont like it they can build ejectors on there ships/rovers/bases why punish the people that do want it
Stone mining should be part of the game if people dont like it they can build ejectors on there ships/rovers/bases why punish the people that do want it
I don't think stone should give any resources in Space Engineers 2, even the most common ores (e.g. as in SE1 you got iron, nickel, and silicon). The reason is simple: It does not encourage you to explore and search for new ore deposits.
The sheer abundance of stone allows you to scale stone mining up to any level. The result is that it completely displaces the need for those resources you could extract from stone. This already happened in SE1. Iron, nickel, and silicon deposits are redundant. You don't need them because you can just mine stone and keep mining it at ridiculous high amounts.
Please, don't make the same mistake in SE2. Make the player want to search for all resource types, even the basic ones.
If you absolutely want to have stone mining, then make stone its own resource type. Do NOT make it yield any other resource. That is, it would be ok to have stone yield gravel and then have uses for gravel, for example concrete or build roads or level terrain or something else. But do NOT make it yield any of the resources currently in use. If you want those resources then go prospect for them.
I don't think stone should give any resources in Space Engineers 2, even the most common ores (e.g. as in SE1 you got iron, nickel, and silicon). The reason is simple: It does not encourage you to explore and search for new ore deposits.
The sheer abundance of stone allows you to scale stone mining up to any level. The result is that it completely displaces the need for those resources you could extract from stone. This already happened in SE1. Iron, nickel, and silicon deposits are redundant. You don't need them because you can just mine stone and keep mining it at ridiculous high amounts.
Please, don't make the same mistake in SE2. Make the player want to search for all resource types, even the basic ones.
If you absolutely want to have stone mining, then make stone its own resource type. Do NOT make it yield any other resource. That is, it would be ok to have stone yield gravel and then have uses for gravel, for example concrete or build roads or level terrain or something else. But do NOT make it yield any of the resources currently in use. If you want those resources then go prospect for them.
The magical evaporation of stone!
What game am I playing? Starbound does not do this!
Material is material and should stay in the universe, useful or not, does not matter...it is matter.
Drills should not teleport mined stone into another dimension.
The magical evaporation of stone!
What game am I playing? Starbound does not do this!
Material is material and should stay in the universe, useful or not, does not matter...it is matter.
Drills should not teleport mined stone into another dimension.
If stone mining comes back just to create an inflation of all ressources it will be completely poitnless in my eyes.
Bigger ressource patches should be located on different planets or underwater for instance.
I've seen someone proposing stone as concrete to build outposts, that could be a nice reason to get it back.
If stone mining comes back just to create an inflation of all ressources it will be completely poitnless in my eyes.
Bigger ressource patches should be located on different planets or underwater for instance.
I've seen someone proposing stone as concrete to build outposts, that could be a nice reason to get it back.
Yeah, it seems the problem was "infinite stone = infinite resources", just an issue of scaling, and streamers mentioned how that just crashed economies. Maybe just gravel for concrete construction...?
Yeah, it seems the problem was "infinite stone = infinite resources", just an issue of scaling, and streamers mentioned how that just crashed economies. Maybe just gravel for concrete construction...?
+1 to that, but mostly just because i want my early game mining option of just processing the ground as i build my first base, instead of having now to hunt for deposits when i'm not far enough to be that mobile yet, and where the risk is too high.
+1 to that, but mostly just because i want my early game mining option of just processing the ground as i build my first base, instead of having now to hunt for deposits when i'm not far enough to be that mobile yet, and where the risk is too high.
I Feel like stone should be a minable resource because its everywhere. some people are against that, make it toggleable. I like to play solo and hunting for ore kinda sucks, especially early game. sure if you start with a ship and a base its easier but if I want to do a starting from scratch game(or lose my first rover) I now have to spend hours running around to get ore pockets... no thanks, or imagine you go venture out and crash your ship. instead of save scumming you can build an basic outpost where you fall. My vision of balance would be to add extra steps. mining can yield stone and gravel, like SE1; Gravel can be used to voxel edit; stone has to be refined. Example of processing ore starting with stone -(The process)> the yield.
Stone -(crusher)> Crushed Stone -(Extractor)> Raw Ore -(Refiner)> Ore -(Smelter)> Ingot
This would put mining the ground as a viable source of resources. I haven't spent enough time in SE2 to comment on other systems right now but I would like to see some benefit return to mining stone.
Thanks for reading!
.
I Feel like stone should be a minable resource because its everywhere. some people are against that, make it toggleable. I like to play solo and hunting for ore kinda sucks, especially early game. sure if you start with a ship and a base its easier but if I want to do a starting from scratch game(or lose my first rover) I now have to spend hours running around to get ore pockets... no thanks, or imagine you go venture out and crash your ship. instead of save scumming you can build an basic outpost where you fall. My vision of balance would be to add extra steps. mining can yield stone and gravel, like SE1; Gravel can be used to voxel edit; stone has to be refined. Example of processing ore starting with stone -(The process)> the yield.
Stone -(crusher)> Crushed Stone -(Extractor)> Raw Ore -(Refiner)> Ore -(Smelter)> Ingot
This would put mining the ground as a viable source of resources. I haven't spent enough time in SE2 to comment on other systems right now but I would like to see some benefit return to mining stone.
Thanks for reading!
.
I would make a clear separation between stone and voxel materials.
Stone is just one of the voxel materials, but there are more, like sand, grass, soil etc.
Collecting and placing voxel materials (in survival) is its own separate feature imo. It can indeed be a world option.
When enabled, you will be able to collect that material with drills in addition to ores. So, you gain the possibility to place voxels but, at the same time, you will need to deal with an additional volume of collected materials. Now, instead of "refining" all that voxel material, you can just dump it back to the ground on site or bring it to your base and use it for terraforming.
Stone as a resource is another feature. It can be either a specific new ore or one of the "stone-like" voxel material that can be refined into basic components used for concrete. Then you will need water to "mix" those components together into high-tier "concrete" components you can finally use to make blocks.
Ideally, I'd love to have no dedicated ores but voxel materials with different concentrations of elements, compound ores. It is similar to SE1 stone mining, but the most abounded voxel materials will have a very low concentration of elements, making them impractical for large scale mining and energy inefficient to refine. But once you have found a "rich" voxel material, you can use it for a long time and reduce the number of necessary mining trips to collect each individual ore.
I would make a clear separation between stone and voxel materials.
Stone is just one of the voxel materials, but there are more, like sand, grass, soil etc.
Collecting and placing voxel materials (in survival) is its own separate feature imo. It can indeed be a world option.
When enabled, you will be able to collect that material with drills in addition to ores. So, you gain the possibility to place voxels but, at the same time, you will need to deal with an additional volume of collected materials. Now, instead of "refining" all that voxel material, you can just dump it back to the ground on site or bring it to your base and use it for terraforming.
Stone as a resource is another feature. It can be either a specific new ore or one of the "stone-like" voxel material that can be refined into basic components used for concrete. Then you will need water to "mix" those components together into high-tier "concrete" components you can finally use to make blocks.
Ideally, I'd love to have no dedicated ores but voxel materials with different concentrations of elements, compound ores. It is similar to SE1 stone mining, but the most abounded voxel materials will have a very low concentration of elements, making them impractical for large scale mining and energy inefficient to refine. But once you have found a "rich" voxel material, you can use it for a long time and reduce the number of necessary mining trips to collect each individual ore.
Building a main base with a big stationary drill rig and sorting conveyor system was my favourite thing to do in SE! Without this very satisfying “factory automation” style gameplay, it sounds like SE2 won’t be for me, despite all the other improvements, which is sad!
Building a main base with a big stationary drill rig and sorting conveyor system was my favourite thing to do in SE! Without this very satisfying “factory automation” style gameplay, it sounds like SE2 won’t be for me, despite all the other improvements, which is sad!
They should focus on giving players flexibility and choice. Not all of us want to be long haul operators or even go into space. Most don't mind some exploration but too much can get draining and take focus away from building and development. Right now mining in SE 2 is very boring. More sources would alleviate (but not eliminate) this by letting players get to building sooner. Right now it is a chore to find enough materials to build a small mining ship or base. This is ok in Alpha but won't fly by the time of Beta or Early Access.
They should focus on giving players flexibility and choice. Not all of us want to be long haul operators or even go into space. Most don't mind some exploration but too much can get draining and take focus away from building and development. Right now mining in SE 2 is very boring. More sources would alleviate (but not eliminate) this by letting players get to building sooner. Right now it is a chore to find enough materials to build a small mining ship or base. This is ok in Alpha but won't fly by the time of Beta or Early Access.
Instead of ditching the "stone" immediately during or after mining, I'd prefer the idea of refining voxel materials and dealing with leftovers later. Where do the impurities go? You refine 100kg of ore into, say 10kg of ingots. That 90kg is still there, and you have to deal with that.
Therefore, I'd prefer not having "pure" ores altogether. Just different voxel materials. Some would have very low concentration of useful elements (or none), others medium or high. You can find many things in common rocks around you to get started, but to scale up you will be incentivized to explore for rich "deposits" (voxel materials) to deal less with waste and spend less energy but get more output after the refinement.
Like why do I need to dig down to collect some mysterious silicon ore if there is this giant beach with sand, which is typically up to 50% silicon irl? Or why do I need to specifically search for cobalt if it's typically extracted alongside copper or nickel deposits?
The exact concentrations of elements in voxel materials can also be slightly randomized. For example, one "magnetite ore" can have 20% iron (and traces of nickel and cobalt) while another "magnetite" can have 40% iron. This will make you want to always explore for better deposits or even sell the information about their locations. Basic resources like iron can be as valuable as gold or uranium if you discover a big and rich deposit.
Instead of ditching the "stone" immediately during or after mining, I'd prefer the idea of refining voxel materials and dealing with leftovers later. Where do the impurities go? You refine 100kg of ore into, say 10kg of ingots. That 90kg is still there, and you have to deal with that.
Therefore, I'd prefer not having "pure" ores altogether. Just different voxel materials. Some would have very low concentration of useful elements (or none), others medium or high. You can find many things in common rocks around you to get started, but to scale up you will be incentivized to explore for rich "deposits" (voxel materials) to deal less with waste and spend less energy but get more output after the refinement.
Like why do I need to dig down to collect some mysterious silicon ore if there is this giant beach with sand, which is typically up to 50% silicon irl? Or why do I need to specifically search for cobalt if it's typically extracted alongside copper or nickel deposits?
The exact concentrations of elements in voxel materials can also be slightly randomized. For example, one "magnetite ore" can have 20% iron (and traces of nickel and cobalt) while another "magnetite" can have 40% iron. This will make you want to always explore for better deposits or even sell the information about their locations. Basic resources like iron can be as valuable as gold or uranium if you discover a big and rich deposit.
tl;dr
We don't need stone from SE1, we need to be able to collect all kinds of voxels in survival.
The most abundant voxel materials would not contain any iron or nickel, but maybe some silicon and new elements like calcium used to make concrete blocks. So you still need to search for voxel materials containing traces of metals to be able to build something more useful than floor or walls for your base.
Energy requirements and waste management will be the major motivation for you to continue exploring for better materials with a higher concentration of useful elements.
You can now dig anywhere and start building simple staff. Your backpack, same as a refinery, should be extracting useful elements "ingots" from collected voxel materials, and then you will be able to place those "leftovers" back into the world, terraforming areas around you, making paths/roads, walls, ramps, landing pads all out of that processed material. So it is not a nonsensical "gravel" you constantly need to toss into nowhere, but a thing you can use for a wide range of applications, or even "repair" holes you made by accident or those initial mining sites near your base.
Backpack building will be more limited and less OP. It should use more energy to extract elements on the fly out of voxel material and then either place leftovers on the ground or store them in containers for later use. And you will have a clear advantage in building your first smelter and a proper mining ship to be able to use ingots for backpack building instead of raw ore raw voxel material, so now you can build more things without needing to frequently recharge/restock and to not deal with leftovers in your suit inventory.
"Voxel Placing Blocks" will help you to get rid of leftover voxel materials faster and do some major terraforming. Different sizes of "placer" blocks will eject different volumes of voxels at once. The "ejected item" should be affected by gravity. It will fall down or slide along other surfaces. When it finally settles in position, it will "stick" to the nearby surfaces, forming new "physical" voxels. If you want to make a wall or a tower, you will need to build scaffolding around it to make sure the voxels stay in place where you want them to stick. And ofc, wheeled vehicles will benefit a lot from proper roads, bridges, ramps and such. Looking at new planets, the terrain we have now feels not as welcoming for the rovers.
If voxel material is added where the same type was removed before, it will automatically "restore the record", effectively reducing the "save file" of the planet (moon or asteroid) all in survival without admin intervention.
I hope this can make you think about "stone mining" as something that improves the gameplay, not as some hassle you need to constantly deal with. Something that gives you more options and streamlines survival mechanics and progression.
tl;dr
We don't need stone from SE1, we need to be able to collect all kinds of voxels in survival.
The most abundant voxel materials would not contain any iron or nickel, but maybe some silicon and new elements like calcium used to make concrete blocks. So you still need to search for voxel materials containing traces of metals to be able to build something more useful than floor or walls for your base.
Energy requirements and waste management will be the major motivation for you to continue exploring for better materials with a higher concentration of useful elements.
You can now dig anywhere and start building simple staff. Your backpack, same as a refinery, should be extracting useful elements "ingots" from collected voxel materials, and then you will be able to place those "leftovers" back into the world, terraforming areas around you, making paths/roads, walls, ramps, landing pads all out of that processed material. So it is not a nonsensical "gravel" you constantly need to toss into nowhere, but a thing you can use for a wide range of applications, or even "repair" holes you made by accident or those initial mining sites near your base.
Backpack building will be more limited and less OP. It should use more energy to extract elements on the fly out of voxel material and then either place leftovers on the ground or store them in containers for later use. And you will have a clear advantage in building your first smelter and a proper mining ship to be able to use ingots for backpack building instead of raw ore raw voxel material, so now you can build more things without needing to frequently recharge/restock and to not deal with leftovers in your suit inventory.
"Voxel Placing Blocks" will help you to get rid of leftover voxel materials faster and do some major terraforming. Different sizes of "placer" blocks will eject different volumes of voxels at once. The "ejected item" should be affected by gravity. It will fall down or slide along other surfaces. When it finally settles in position, it will "stick" to the nearby surfaces, forming new "physical" voxels. If you want to make a wall or a tower, you will need to build scaffolding around it to make sure the voxels stay in place where you want them to stick. And ofc, wheeled vehicles will benefit a lot from proper roads, bridges, ramps and such. Looking at new planets, the terrain we have now feels not as welcoming for the rovers.
If voxel material is added where the same type was removed before, it will automatically "restore the record", effectively reducing the "save file" of the planet (moon or asteroid) all in survival without admin intervention.
I hope this can make you think about "stone mining" as something that improves the gameplay, not as some hassle you need to constantly deal with. Something that gives you more options and streamlines survival mechanics and progression.
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