# Mining Pickaxe Rework

## Why?

The current pickaxes are not bad at being a pickaxe, but it's not the best implementation it could be. This new idea tries to implement MatSci while not being too unfamiliar to old players and harsh to new players.

## Summary

The new pickaxe will be mostly a frame of a pickaxe, usually already with steel placed in it. If the frame is empty, the player can place a pickaxe modification or 3 bars/cubes of a material for the pickaxe to use it as a head. Depending on the hardness/density of the material, the pickaxe will have more or less mining power (just like the current pickaxes).

The point in this new pickaxe is to incentivate players to upgrade their pickaxes by obtaining more valuable ores to use on it, without having to use the Mining Nano-Fabricator (which every new player just seems to ignore) to craft more powerful tools. It also makes pickaxes more dynamic, by creating an easier modification system where you can place modifications on a pre-existing pickaxe.

## Goals

- Allow players to modify the pickaxe heads more easily.
- Incentivate players to modify the pickaxe, with the goal of making their job more efficient.
- Allow for pickaxe modifications to be installed more dynamically

## Anti-Goals

- Confuse players about how to use or modify the new pickaxe.

## Maybe plans for the future?

- Make pickaxes not auto-mine until a power-cell modification is installed. (Probably will not happen, since it would be too annoying for players and I don't want to make Mining a clicking simulator)
- May be scope-creep, but what about adding a whole framework for pickaxe modifications?
- Tweak damages to scale with the mining power. If I end up doing this, I may or may not tweak some balancing around some other Mining tools.
- Extend the rework to other tools, like hammers and blasters. Although, blasters need a little more work, specially with it's "T" mining pattern.