Cutting down trees/Mining ore at the start of the game is too time consuming

I disagree. Yes, the Matter Manipulator is garbage, but that's the point. The moment you make it better is the moment you devalue the early tools and, I feel, cheapen the experience of getting and using them. If nothing else, I'd say that the tree cutting speed is fine; you need to cut down one tree, usually, to get enough planks for an axe and, if you're lucky, a pick. I don't believe that anyone can't spare that one-time ten seconds of holding down the left mouse button.

The game has this nice slowness about certain things which I really like, and I'd hate to see it go in favour of things like a better Manipulator.

 

You know, I guess I can see where you're coming from. My problem may have been that I didn't make tools immediately after...manipulating? a tree.

I did want to make a house, though, so that did chew through my wood reserves, making me have to manipulate some more trees.

 

I actually don't think the axe is even an issue here and we should stop focusing on it in my opinion. The axe itself cuts down a tree SIGNIFICANTLY faster than the MM, where as the pickaxe which I feel is the main discussion, doesn't seem to be all that much faster than the MM (especially when you compare it to the buff the axe gets to chopping trees.)

 

I think all mining speeds up to gold pickaxe (the highest I have gotten) could use a 25% boost. I don't know if it felt artificially slow because you mine for longer to mine a larger area, but I do know that I deliberately passed up some ores because I felt like it took too long to mine them with the copper pick.

It isn't challenging; it's just tedious. A speed boost to make all the pickaxes noticeably faster without making them TOO fast would do wonders for my enjoyment.

I spent probably 75% of my 4 hour playtime last night mining, and it was exceptionally tedious after a while because of the slow mining speed, especially in ores and stone.

 

It's simply your sense of priority. Speaking logically, the wood spent making that axe lets you build that house way faster. Starbound days are long anyway, there's plenty of time to secure some materials and plant some crops, make a shed.

 

Because the pickaxe affects a *3 area as opposed to the 2x2 area of the Matter Manipulator, you could argue that the pick is about twice as fast, at least.

*3 x 3

 

I already slightly addressed that in my previous post.

I'd also like to point out that in the changes that are coming tonight which TIY just posted about, they're increasing mining speed.

 

Are you trying to imply that my sense of priority is...bad?

 

I don't envy the position of the devs, having to tweak things so that everyone's happy. Most of the suggestions come from personal preference, too.

 

It's really not, though. Takes about 5 minutes with the MM to chop down two to three trees and get enough cobblestone for a pick and an axe. Yes, the MM is very slow, but it's meant for detail work, not mining.

 

Bad and good sense of priority is more or less semantics when you have the time to do everything. It comes down to you in the end, and how you like to play.
Also SkeptiFry is the best thing.

 

There is that, but pickaxes can affect a 1x1 area as well. The only leg-up it has is that it can affect a middle-ground area of 2x2.
Still, lumping the Matter Manipulator into the same barrel as pickaxes might not be the best thing; the MM is basically just a placeholder until you get a real tool, I'd say.

 

Personal preference plays an important role, because their product is for entertainment. If it's too tedious, people will choose to spend their free time doing something else.

Don't get me wrong; I am very much enjoying the game, but I feel that the tedium of mining, even with a silver/gold pickaxe, detracts from the game with no benefit.

It appears that the devs agree (or at least were convinced by the feedback), because the recent patch includes an increase in mining speed.

I akso understand a balance between difficulty, time investment, and reward, so I understand why mining must take SOME time. I just feel that it fell too extreme on the 'time' scale for the reward (ores and exploration).

 

You're right, I'm just worried about certain changes going just a smidgen too far. Just me being neurotic, though.

 

Most of the "suggestions" come from people that can't be bothered to look into how to do even the most rudimentary things in the game and want it to be dumbed down and made easier so they don't have to work for it. It's seriously annoying and this thread is basically the antithesis of the problem. Mining speed with the Matter Manipulator is to slow? Riiiight, and mining in Minecraft with your hands its to slow, which is what the MM is the equivalent of!

 

In the game files there's a gracitygun.png (matter manipulator) and a gravitygun2.png witch looks different, but has the same colour, and there's a gravityguntest1.png, maybe there thinking of being able to upgrade the Matter Manipulator, either way a axe chops trees in seconds, and a stone pick works great for stone.

 

Did you read my posts or the others you are criticizing? I said that I think *all* mining up to and including gold pickaxe is too slow, and I've been doing it for several hours.

 

Yeah, and most of them are whinny posts that can't be bothered! The point stands, it's fine as it is. And if you didn't know, which i'm fairly sure you didn't, the time it takes to mine certain KINDS of stone is different, including Dire Cobble. Their's litteraly nothing wrong with the mining speed, just the impatient players.

 

Agreed.

 

I agree that the manipulator is much too slow. However, it doesn't take much time to get a real tool. The best solution would probably be to acknowledge the practical uselessness of the tool in game text and then explain how your first tool will work much better (maybe even give the materials as a quest reward). This way it won't scare off new players who might wonder if the game is broken, or give up right away thinking that mining or building will be a huge time sink not worth the effort.