Starbound's system to mine multiple blocks is a great innovation to move away from some of the tedium of mining large areas in Terraria and Minecraft -- however, it feels slow, even though it's not. The problem as I see it is that the delay from tool application to something happening is pretty long even though more actually happens than in Terraria or Minecraft. I have two thoughts. First of all, when mining multiple blocks, the blocks should break at separate times so that something happens quickly in response to the player. The block that the mouse is centered on should break much faster than the ones at the periphery even if the overall time is the same. If the center block breaks faster than the outer blocks, and the outer blocks break at the current rate, the actual rate of mining is the same but it feels much more responsive. It also means that if the player can stop mining early if the blocks he actually wanted to mine are broken, making mining feel like it can be applied to variable extent -- in other words, making the player feel like he has more control over what happens when he mines. The other thought is that when mining single blocks, the single blocks should break proportionally faster -- mining out a group of nine blocks while holding shift should take as long as mining nine blocks targeting the center. That gives players a way to directly take control and smooth edges in a way that feels responsive -- it also means that when mining ore and the like the player has a targeted way to hack out exactly what they want, and they don't have to watch dirt and other materials around the edges break first.
I very much like the single block idea, but it could be tweaked. I think 'nine times' the speed would be a bit too much, but maybe make it 2 or 3 times faster if you focus on a single block instead? Also, I'd like to see the pickaxe upgrades make more of a difference. It's irritating to finally get a Diamond Pickaxe and then find out it still takes about 6 swings to break a single piece of cobblestone.
Also, the sound effects for mining definitely need some beefing up. They're practically whispers at the moment.
I'd agree, actually. Even if nine times the rate is proportionally right, it would probably make the world seem much less solid -- you'd be hacking through it like it was cotton candy. Starbound's tools, despite how they can feel tedious because of the sense you get of a lack of control, are actually really fast, I think, compared to the tools in other games of the same genre. My gut is that the rate of breaking single blocks should be about as fast or slightly faster than breaking the center block of a cluster of nine -- that would probably feel the most predictable and least janky. It would also make breaking clusters of nine feel like an extension of breaking single blocks rather than a different action of different speed. Did you have any thoughts on the new rules for breaking clusters of blocks? By the way, Rizz -- it's not as much of a priority for me but I'd definitely agree.
I'm not sure how I feel about the center block breaking faster. I think it would be an unnecessary change for the most part. It might make the mining feel more responsive, but it could also make it more irritating - being that the center block would crumble quickly, but you'd still have to wait for the others to finish, rather than having the satisfaction of a whole section of blocks breaking at the same moment. I like how predictably the mining works right now. I think faster breaking should be reserved for single-block mining.
