# Mining Overhaul Proposal

### The issues:
Mining as it is now is in a state where it's monotonous. You break a rock, you get ore, you break another rock to get closer to getting a piece of ore. This recipe may work for minecraft, but in a roleplaying game, its a dull task nobody wants to do. Miners only mine to get enough points to get the gear they need to go fight megafauna and loot tendrils. There is no incentive to do anything but the bare minimum. This leads to player burnout or cases where players ignore station content for their own benefit if they become skilled enough to only rely on base tools to fight megafauna.

### Potential solution:
Split the currently bloated role of Shaft Miner into two distinct roles. Explorer with a focus on exploration, problem solving and combat, and Mining Techinician with a focus on harvesting, construction and logistics.

## Explorers:

**Features**
* Exploration: Mapping Lavaland and its resources for Mining Technicians. There are no longer GPS signals for points of interest until you tag them. You're going in blind.
* Adventure: Dangerous Ruins and hostile fauna thrive on lavaland. Ruins can have puzzles, traps, or even a monster hive inside. You never know what you will find once you crack open the sealed doors.
* Wildlife: New Fauna that are not all hostile will now exist on Lavaland, it is an ecosystem after all. Bring back a pet lava cat if you figure out how to tame one.
* Tools of the Trade: No more needs for Ore satchels. You'll be given all the basic tools you need for exploration and survival on lavaland. Just don't drop them down a chasm.
* Laying the track: Technicians aren't armed, and they have an important job to do. Lay down safe paths with green light beacons, and mark unsafe areas with red light beacons so that they know which way to go and where to avoid.
* Filling out the map: While you have no idea how lavaland looks from the get go, your new GPS mapper will log what you explore and map the terrain as you go, relaying the information back to the main base will update the lavaland map, allowing you to plot courses through the land without having to memorize direct layouts.
* Archeology: Not mining ores means you have to trade other things for points to fund your expeditions. Digging up the past can surely pay for those medkits and shelters.

## Mining Technicians:

**Features**
* New Mining system: Manual mining is so last century. Automatic drills and conveyers moving the goods makes the modern miner smile. Ores no longer spawn in walls and instead are mined from ore veins.
* Foul weather netting: Tired of the storms burning you to a crisp? Construct some foul weather netting to create safe paths for you to work in during the storms. Be warned, netting is no replacement for insulated structures.
* Computer controlled mining network: Manually adjusting mining drills one by one would be tedious and a slog. You can control the whole network from your local mining hub, located either in cargo or the mining base. View your network of machines in real time and adjust on the fly, or download a tablet program and do it from the comfort of the bar.
* Repairs and reinforcings: Basic mining drills are slow and can break down if not looked after, requiring someone with a welder and wrench to go fix them. Upgrading the drills with improved parts can slowdown breaking and give you more time to react, as well as improve ore mining.
* Gas pockets: Ores aren't the only thing you're mining. Gas pockets can contain anything from standard oxygen, to valuable plasma gas that can be mined just the same. Ship that vespene gas... I mean, plasma gas to science or engineering if they require it.

## Lavaland:
Lavaland's getting a makeover, sometimes for better, other times for **WORSE**.
* New Fauna: From the meager Dracofly to the intimidating new Goliath, the fauna of lavaland are a changing. Don't expect the same song and dance you did before. Approach each situation carefully.
* New Biomes: Wastelands. Are. BORING. But they will still be the primary lavaland biome. From acid swamps, to unusual flesh growths, lavalands gonna look a little more colorful as you explore.
* Ashwalker rework: While sometimes fun, and always a pain in the ass, Ashwalkers are the natives of lavaland, and will feature some changes. Notably no longer pure antags, you're going to have to deal with them uniquely in each situation. Sometimes the tribe will be territorial, other times friendly. You're going to have to treat them just the same you would treat any other lizard. (Sometimes a knife in the back just works, you know?)
* New Ruins: While some old ruins will stay, new necropolis tombs are going to be making a mark on the landscape. No set one design, these ruins will feature random sections with trap or monster layouts you cannot predict. Every time you open one it's going to be different from all the rest, just don't try to teleport in, some bad juju hangs in the air and it hates bluespace.
* A more open Lavaland: Digging through miles of rock to find one small structure is annoying, so lavaland is being made more open and exposed, you will need to create your own path from time to time but it won't be as substantial a requirement as before.

## Fine Details
**Mining Mech**
* New gear for the Mechs used for mining includes a planetary construction RCD. This RCD is a bit different from traditional ones, as it doesn't instantly build the selected design, instead it places a blueprint, allowing Mining Techs to plot out their designs, and then when they are satisfied, toggle construction mode to on.
* While construction mode is on, any blueprints within a 5x5 radius of the mech gets constructed. Materials used in construction are taken directly from the stations resources. If there is insufficient resources to build a blueprint, the blueprint turns red.
* This RCD only works on planetary surfaces.

**Power**
* Lavaland isn't a room with an APC, powering your system will require setting up Pylons along a network to connect with all your system, from the drills, to the conveyers. Everything needs power.
* The station can't always provide the power you need, Mining techs will have available a Super PACMAN they can fill with plasma/uranium they harvest to power their network, or contact the engineering department to see if they can build a more powerful power system.
* Your tablet program can alert you to the power issues of your network. Any machine near a Pylon is automatically connected to the network.

**Archeology**
* Lavaland is filled with old relics. Most of its junk, but somebody will pay for a crudely drawn drawing to sit on their mantle. Collect whatever you find, who knows, maybe it'll fetch a high price.
* Some artifacts are hidden under all the ash and rock. Sometimes you've got to excavate it carefully using tools designed for the job. They all fit in a handy pouch that fits in your pocket though.
* Tombs are filled with high quality artifacts. Some have uses but others don't. Getting inside one is the tricky part, luckily the curator has a key. Might be others on lavaland if you look carefully enough.
* Curator also has new job obligations, and a new lab. Explorers will bring up relics they find, you have to repair and research them. Some its as simple as sticking two parts together, other times its translating the script on the hilt of a sword.
* Explorers own their relics until they trade them in for points. If they want to keep a specific relic, they tag it before they put it in the system, then when its researched, they get it back.
* Anyone can buy the relics the explorers don't keep, or cannot afford to keep. See that ritual knife that oozes blood? Use it for a stage play. Those boots that are EXTREMELY loud, whoops the clown has them. The Curator himself gets a 50% discount for all artifacts he researches, and 10% of all artifact sales.
* Every artifact researched generates points. Some will be minor amounts, others major.

**Tombs**
* Designed to be small roguelike dungeons, tombs are not designed to be static environments and are meant to always pose a challange to players.
* 3-4 tombs will spawn on lavaland (Not set on this). They will range from short 5-6 rooms, to large 12-15 rooms variants.
* Tombs will be made up of smaller pre-built rooms that have traps, fauna and puzzles placed inside them at random. Even if you recognize the room, whats inside will always be different.
* Traps can be deactived with a 90% success rate. Curator has 100%.
* Keys for tombs are **RARE**. The curator starts with one always. Sometimes the ashwalkers or the Legion will have one. Sometimes they will be inside other Tombs. Sometimes you'll just simply only get one and have to decide on which tomb to open.
* New Megafauna that only spawn inside tomb boss rooms will appear. These megas have no lootpool, but always guard a tomb treasure room.

## Phase implementation
1. Implement the new mining system and work on tombs. So that both jobs will have something to do when they are split.
2. Split the Jobs, making sure that both jobs are unique in their roles, and that players have fun and engaging in doing either role.
3. Biomes and Fauna, to make lavaland feel alive and exciting rather than ash and goliaths around every corner. All current fauna and Megafauna may recieve reworks and balances, as well as sprite updates.
4. Archeology and point rebalance. Prior to this, there is going to be very few sources of points for explorers, so what does exist will need to have substatial points to balance the lack of content. Once implemented, Explorers will get the majority of their points through this system.
5. Ashwalker Rework. To make them more than just a 'free antag role'. Even make players want to play as them roundstart if the features are fun enough.