Drilling and excavation equipment

So far I have read some really awesome and creative ideas for weapons, robotic helpers, and armor amongst other utilities, but I haven't read a single thread about the tools that you really get your hands dirty with: drills, augers, etc. I don't even know if the world is supposed to be able to be torn apart, if you get everything from just exploring around, but I personally love digging around in the dirt in these games, wondering when the next chasm or cavern is going to open up underneath where I'm digging and what it will contain. Pretty standard equipment like drills I think should be included, but what about other things, maybe trade the option of keeping a mech in hangar for a "Bobcat" like mini dozer/backhoe. Or maybe just some really great scifi spins on just drills. Could you use a metal detector to make a "ping" sound when you get close to ore? Or maybe have a few rarely seen enemies that are hidden down in the dirt, and the only way to capture/catalog them are to start excavating. What do you guys think about all this? Any good ideas on drill type utilities or other tools? I really want to hear some of the creative things you all can come up with and look forward to it.

 

Why hasn't anyone responded to this yet? Drills are a great idea. I think of a giant drill like in Austin Powers. It may take a little time to set itself up but it will keep drilling as long as it has power. Or perhaps it takes alot of power to run, therefore the ol' pickaxe doesn't become obsolete right away.

And how about controlled explosions. A more expensive "Square Grenade" that makes a square shaped hole instead of random hard to move through half circles. Maybe different shaped explosions.

FYI: Battletoads rock.

 

I want a shotgun drill
*Bang* *Bang* *Bang*, hey look iron.

And a hyper drill, the equivalent to a magnetic drill that pulls you towards minable objects with great force,
stronger attraction for more valuable items, but it is short range, more effective for long mining trips...
Mine up!

 

I want a metal detector drill, with a flashlight.

 

The better question is: why did you think it necessary to quote THE ENTIRE FIRST POST as the 2nd poster in this thread? People need to learn how to forum.

ON-TOPIC: I would really like some stationary mining equipment, like quarries and such. Or robots. Mining robots.

Make it happen, team.

 

First of all, its really not a big enough deal to complain about regardless of oh how annoying it is. Yeah yeah, we're all nerds here that like games and all, but you're going to complain about post reply etiquette? I apologize for sucking and ruining your forum experience.

ON-TOPIC: Mining robots would rock.

 

I wouldn't feel the need to do so if it didn't happen on like every thread ever made. It's just redundant, an eyesore, and frequent enough to be a deal of some magnitude.

ON-TOPIC: Truth be told, there isn't much reason for the game not to have mining robots of some form or another. As expansive as Starbound is playing out to be, it might end up feeling almost tedious to do all the digging for yourself all the time, especially when you have the endless possibilities that the sci-fi genre affords us.

 

That being said I genuinely apologize. I really am sort of new to forums. I'm usually just an occasional reader, but Starbound has caught me in a web of anticipation that I want to jump in more than usual.

As far as the robot goes, maybe you can tell it to keep mining and only collect the ores that you want. And it can drop or destroy the rest, since it will probably have a limited inventory.
Also, if its on your home world, it can keep mining while your away on another planet. You just have to be logged into the game or something like that.

 

[That's perfectly fine, don't let me kill your anticipation or excitement; that's not what I want. It's just a simple practice of forum etiquette that's rarely recognized. Thanks for obliging, though. ]

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While we're springboarding, they could even include different tiers for the robots (I'm uncertain as to whether or not the game has some kind of researching system for tech progression?) that allows inventory expansion or even a more refined mining procedure.

For example, say the first tier minebot has a relatively small inventory, can only mine certain quality materials (basic stuff like dirt, stone, etc), and is incapable of having a filter for what it does or doesn't mine.
From there, maybe the tier 2 minebot could have a slightly larger inventory, can mine the next tier of materials (certain metals, maybe), and is capable of mining through dirt and stone but choosing not to keep it in the bot's inventory.

Thoughts?

 

I like your idea! As long as there is some kind of research ability.

If not, then you could always build or find new limbs or wheels that can be attached. So when you open its char window, you can swap out out limbs like they are weapons...maybe even throw a weapon on him? And you can place in him the type of ore that you want it to mine/save, that way your "spending" something similar in value for it to look for something equally valuable. But you can take it back out and replace it with something better or worse.

 

I related this mining robot idea with our posts on Deployable Weapons. The idea would be something like: A deployable, upgradable petlike entity that can switch between mining mode and sentry mode. Being able to use any of your personal gear...when applicable.

 

Hello,

For good equipment in excavation, have a look on this website: http://www.excavationleclerc.com/. You will certainly find what you need

Have a nice day !

 

Pffffft All you need is a shovel and a picaxe.So get a move on!

 

Lol, you nincompoop. This is a video game. Go pay for your advertisements.

-Maybe Tiy should contact him to design a fancy space backhoe.

 

Go die.

ON TOPIC:
Auto mining equipment is a must. Eventually people will get bored of mining and still need materials. So auto mining is the way to go. But these things need to be expensive.

 

Hmmm, they really should have stickied the first two or three threads on this topic. But eh, no sense whining about that.

On Topic:

For some reason I see the tech tree for mining equipment being fairly straight-forward. Initially you'd start out with simple Minecraftian tools like pickaxes and gradually you'd tech up to better picks until you research say something like.... "Industrial Mechanics." After that the tree branches off into several directions. The core "trunk" of the tree still holds personal mining equipment like drills and lasers but the branches go into automated mining tools (non-sapient robots and stationary miners) and support equipment (mining helmets, certain robot armor)

 

I think there should be explosion that mine a straight line whichever direction you want and it mines a tunnel like 10 blocks long or something. Explosions in games like this were usually pointless because you had to Mine up to where you want to put them so you do all the mining yourself anyway. I hope the devs remedy this.

 

Actual explosive mining sound like an awesome idea

 

Mining vehicles. WANT!!! And they have the technology to push blocks around anyway, see: explosions demo, mining vehicles

 

I'm really impressed lots of good ideas here, and after watching the video and seeing the infamous fishaxe, surely we have to get something of the sort like that, one block at a time can get very tedious. It made sense for terraria, you were technically bound to one world and there were x amount of blocks and then that was it, and starting up a new world could make you feel too overpowered. However for Starbound it seems that we will have hundreds of thousands of worlds to explore and spending 20 to 50 hours on just one seems silly, although reasonable in a sense. Im curious now about water worlds after seeing the latest dev tweet, do you think we will be able to create floating structures along the surface if we want to claim that as a homeworld? Or will we have to build the structure at the bottom and use pumps to get out the water? I CAN'T WAIT TO GET TO PLAY THIS GAME!