Idea - Dense ore / Efficient drill - Build base for mining justification
As the title suggests this is a mechanic to provide reason for larger infrastructure in extremely simple manner.
In the current version of the game (VS2) it seems that ore deposits are scattered about and relatively small. (I did not play around that much but this seems to be the case now)
In SE1 I usually just build one base and then fly around in my ship mining one large deposit of anything that lasts practically forever. Which is not necessarily bad, but it is very easy to achieve.
The simple solution to this would be specialized drill, that is very demanding, but also very efficient - It takes time to create the infrastructure around your mining site, but then it is practically infinite.
This could be achieved by making "efficient drill" that just has amped up capabilities compared to normal drill but is usable on any ore patch, or by generating special "Dense ore patches" that require special drill, but contain more ore themselves.
I do not have exact numbers for the drill, but it would be something like 1.000x yield but 100.000 times energy consumption. With the drill being much slower for crunching the ore, but providing much more ore from each voxel eaten.
This would require setting up base with enough energy generation for the drill and even though it could be mounted on a ship the ship would need to be giant due to all the batteries, so it wouldn't fit in a mining hole and it would consume all the energy fast anyway.
Also there could be some requirement for lubricant or such, which could be produced relatively quickly, but would require large organics farm and large volume containers, making it less viable for ships even when nuclear reactors are present.
Additionaly, once this drill is set up it could trigger some pirate attack events, so the base would also need to be well defended. (or there could be some stronger attacks that trigger based on energy consumption of base and the demands for singular drill would fulfill that automatically)
Again, this is more of a simple idea that someone can expand upon / think more through
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*Potentially an alternative (not as detailed / thought out as and not completely in the same vein) to https://support.keenswh.com/spaceengineers2/pc/topic/50039-meaningful-ore-deposits-in-se2-core-game-mechanic (just to prove i skimmed through some other topics first)
I like this feedback
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