Thoughts on the drills...

Anyone think the drills are kind of underwhelming? I see myself reverting back to my pick axe more often than not?

Thoughts or ideas for the drill?

I feel like its speed can be increased or maybe its radius. The better the drill, the faster it becomes etc.

 

They're buffing drills in the next patch. They're already faster than pickaxes. But, the devs are making them mine 3x3 like pickaxes now.

 

Radius is being increased to 3 x 3 next patch, so they'll be a better thing to use once that hits.

 

I wish it was 3x5 so going in a line would be less tedious but that's just me.

 

They aren't actually faster then picks. Both diamond pickaxe and diamond drill both have a 0.3 sec use time. On an interesting note, a diamond drill mines a 3 x 3 area slower then a gold pickaxe.

 

What I mean by faster is that they require fewer hits to mine things. (for stuff that doesn't already require only one hit by that time.)

 

At the current moment they suck but if they do get buffed to 3x3 then they'll just be a waste of time instead of sucking. I mean what's the point of making a drill when the pick axe will mine at the same speed and have the same size?

Even more so is the fact you don't get them until tier 4 which is a joke, I hope that gets fixed or if they plan on keeping it at tier 4 you have to buff them. You have to give people some reason as to why you would want to spend a massive amount of money (and they are really expensive) to make one compared to a pick axe.

Since they are a drill I think the best way to do that is for the to mine faster, at least 25% faster if not 50% but 50% is pretty radical. 25% would give them a nice small noticeable difference and can still leave it up to player preference without having to feel forced into it.

Honestly I hope they come up with a way to buff the matter manipulator in future patches, like a way to make it mine faster but 25% slower then the pick axe. Letting it mine only 25% slower then a pick axe of equal tier would keep it fair and keep it useful later in the game while giving the player the option to use it as a tool to mine stuff really far away. This could allow you to drain out water from a area without having to get near it so it doesn't flood the area you're working in or push it to where you want it etc etc. It also keeps up with the sci fi theme, being one of the few items in the game thus far that is sci fi.

 

Drills are slightly stronger then pickaxes. Diamond Drill is about 33% stronger then the Diamond Pickaxe, so if they get buffed to 3 x 3 then they will be an upgrade to pickaxes. Even the Copper Drill is slightly stronger then a Diamond Pick.

 

How about, allowing the matter manipulator to que jobs, Rightc lick and drag to 'paint' a work area to be mined, then left click to mine out from the character to work the high-lit area?

add in longer object permanence and it would take a lot of the 'patently hold left click down' feel you get at times,

 

Personally, I would prefer each tool to have it's specific uses, kind of like the axe vs shovel vs pickaxe in Minecraft. The preferable method would be to just replace the pickaxe with the matter manipulator making it average at doing everything, but with a 3 x 3 area (making it worth like a shovel when in sand and gravel), and then give players the drill which would be extremely fast at mining single blocks of hard material like cobble, ores, etc, and then give us a sci-fi version of a chainsaw for chopping trees and vines, etc. I think a 3 tool method like MC is simply the funnest way to approach this.

 

I've been playing around with modding the drill and what feels the best so far is increasing its mining speed by 50% instead of increasing its mining range to 3 x 3. It allows it to still feel like a drill while digging in a small area and acts differently then the pickaxe. By making this change it actually makes pickaxes and drills different enough while keeping pickaxes have a use(They still mine over a wider range faster but drills mine a more exact area faster). It also makes drills really fun to use in sand/gravel. Who uses a pickaxe to mine sand anyway?

 

Maybe 3x5 is for more advanced mining equipment (assuming there will be some) like a mining mech or a tunnel boring machine.

Agreed. However I'd expand on that by making a single tool which could do all three things, but less efficiently than individual tools. Kinda like a slightly better matter manipulator, but an actual tool with limited swing range. That or make some way of contextually using items, like how it worked in Terraria (shift click a block to use the appropriate tool, shift right click was it? to lay a torch. I really have problems fitting all the stuff I need into 10 item slots.

 

Or maybe a more advance tool or matter minupulater upgrade.

 

i think the drill just needs to be upped in radius 2x2 with a drill please tell me you dont drill to a side then down in life. 4x4 would work great and 5x5 would be great but a bit over doing it

 

This might be a bit complicated but maybe a system that promotes horizontal drilling. When drilling left or right the drill does 4x2, allowing you to easily make a corridor without the extra drilling. But, if you want to drill vertically, it switches to 2x4 and you go a little slower to drill a mining shaft.

 

I don't like that they've changed drills to 3x3, I don't want drills to feel exactly like pickaxes. I'd much rather they increased the speed and kept them 2x2.

 

MM could use an upgrade, but it's entire point is that it works at longer range, and it's a multiple use tool. So it shouldn't outperform any specific tools.

I like the idea of having a combined pickaxe and woodcutting axe though. Kinda like the hamaxe in Terraria.

 

Diamond Pick and Drills seem to cut down plants and trees just as fast or sometimes faster than the axe anyways.

 

I like this idea. If drills were to mine in a 2x5 block (vertically), they would have their own use without being strictly superior to pickaxes (which are still more useful for horizontal mining).

 

Perhaps there could be a mechanic for pickaxes disrupting the nearby ground, causing water to seep into tunnels, or sand to fall. It might be a downgrade, but it'd be interesting, yeah? It'd also add incentive.

But what -I- really want in regards to drills, is something like the Human mech, but a drill. Such a thing would be perfect for digging! But overpowered, I suppose. Perhaps something like that could take fuel? Rare fuel.