Mining is tedious

I don't really know what to say here. I have experienced the boredom that the OP is experiencing, and yet I see the value in having weak tools be weak.
Attention span has nothing to do with it. Exactly what are you paying attention to? Lol. I don't see a need for a fight here, lets just discuss the mechanic, and see if there isn't a better way to do it. If there isn't, then whatever, but why not discuss it?

It seems like the game currently has only 2 things to do.
1) run across the surface of a planet to find cities or dungeons.
2) Dig for ore and treasure.

Farming isn't practical since plants don't grow while you're away. Pet capturing hasn't been implemented (quite yet), and we don't know how in depth that system will be in the end. There's no way to easily return to your favorite planets, so setting up a home base (besides having no incentive) is not easy.

I wonder if the grind will be less tedious when it isn't what the game is about. I don't exactly think grinding for pickaxes will be what this game all comes down to.

 

I thought they already had an update which sped it up, then I tried it and found it still painful.

 

but the entire world is made of the wall, and the tank is beneath a mile of it.

 

If they did, I didn't notice much of a difference, but I was also well past copper pickaxes, so I dunno. Let's just say I didn't have a problem once I found out there were pickaxes, and when I got better picks.

 

Even with my platinum pickaxe (never found enough diamonds), I would usually dig around stone and hope for another way in. If I had to go really deep for something or some reason, it sucked a little more, since that core rock takes a looooong time to get through... if we're just talking about various types of cobblestone, OP would probably off himself if he ever got to the point he was mining magmarock or whatever it is.

 

You guys are mining? did you miss all the crap that's just sitting on the surface?

If you have to go down under, stick to the soft stuff like dirt and sand. Just because you CAN pick through rock doesn't mean that it's a great idea..

 

I want to *mine* in a *mining game*. So sue me if that seems reasonable to me. "You shouldn't need to dig" is not an appropriate answer for a game like this.

 

The thing is, there are tons of games similar to this, and they don't make it painful to mine. This seems like a deep flaw in the game to me. I don't want to avoid mining, I want mining to be fun.

 

I think it could be slightly faster.

Higher ores and planet materials should definitely require higher Tier picks. What's kinda weird is that a Diamond Pickaxe still mines Magmarock like a snail.

To me, they should focus more on balancing the mining speed in relation to the ores, and less on the "mixed" tile (like Cobblestone, which also takes forever even with a Gold Pickaxe).

 

The guy is a troll. Lock this thread please

 

The OP's complaint is valid. The mining speeds are great when you move up the tiers but the beginning curve is pretty steep. It is a (play)balance issue that just needs to be adjusted.
Diamond pickaxes are perfect at the moment but the earlier tiers could use a slight boost.

 

Wait, you thought this was a mining game? I'm afraid you've been seriously misinformed, man. This is Starbound, not Minecraft. Notice how one has "Mine" in its name and the other doesn't?

I don't know how else to spell it out for you. I've told you exactly how to jump tiers without even touching cobblestone or magmarock or obsidian or blaststone or any other hard-to-break block. We've given you alternatives to mining rock with a slow pickaxe. I simply cannot believe you're that dense to completely ignore every bit of advice given to you. I am just short of belief that this thread has accumulated so many responses (tho to be fair much of it was heckling). It has been said time and again that it's not the game forcing you to mine stone, it's YOU forcing YOU to mine stone. Heck, when I'm looking for ore, even on a Magma world that is litered with shit that would most likely make you through your keyboard out the window, you know what I do? I see a pocket of the ore I'm interested in... I gauge how much time it would take me to get said ore. If I can't get said ore at a ratio of 1 ore per 5 seconds, and here's the lovely part, I -- keep -- walking. And it works. As I've said before, I've spent less than 4% of my gametime mining, and that has held true from Alpha through X. It's no wonder I don't have a diamond pickaxe, but I really don't feel the need to have one.

 

I'm sure it's a valid concern for him, but I feel it's a valid concern of mine that mining shouldn't be easier than what it is due to how easy it is to bypass it. I'm sure the people with more patience than me or him are simply rolling in ores they have no use for (beyond feeding them to a refinery which is what I do with all of my copper, iron, and silver)

 

Before you plague the OP's mind with such ideas, I need to correct this. Platinum is noticeably faster than Copper. Diamond is only slightly faster than Platinum. I've had mining races with my bud who's still low tier and has a Silver pick. Platinum beats it in speed. Durability is another thing. I had to repair my Gold Pickaxe repeatedly while "force-mining" (this is what I call forcing your way through stone or magmarock against better judgement) while I haven't ahd the need to repair my Platinum pickaxe in so long that I've begun accumulating too much gold and platinum that I used to use for repairs.

Upgrades are worth it if you want to mine, but I do not suggest getting into heavy mining so early in the game.

 

Hello all!

I was wondering (just about to buy the game btw) about the making of pickaxes. I was watching as my brother played as he found diamonds and was about to make a diamond pickaxe. What it seemed like was that he had to make like a stone pickaxe and then a copper and then silver and then gold (or platinum cant remember) and then finally the diamond pickaxe. Is it really like that everytime you want to make another diamond pickaxe or is it just the first time?

Seems very odd and rather stupid if you have to go get platinum, gold, copper, silver and diamonds to make another diamond pickaxe. Maybe that was a beta thing?

Anyway seems like a great game and im sure ill end up buying it.

 

Yes, each upgade requires the previous pickaxe in order to make. However, pickaxes don't break, and you can repair them very easily. So, there's no point in making another unless there's more than one of you.