Vehicles with a drill (Underground Vehicles)

I came here to see if someone already mentioned this possibility. That someone has is a great relief.

I agree, this should be made! With limitations, though, I think! Fuel requirements or somesuch. As for treads not working in a downward fashion, I think they could work if they have enough pressure on the adjacent blocks, or have a spiked tread or rely on the drill's teeth for stability.

Thirdly, Since we're dealing with squareness, why not a flat drill?

Might want it smaller, and boxier. And perhaps as either something placed and programmed, or a replacment power like Human Mech.

 

Even if it was not given to the player... I would love to be mining and break into a pre-mined out tunnel only to find one of these broken down and some NPCs working on it. The flavor of it is just delicious: subterranean APC from Tiberium Sun!

 

I agree with it being a human mech replacer, but a cone-drill would be awkward as such sizes, no?

As for a laser drill, it makes me think of that terrible movie where they drill to the center of the earth to restart the core's spin. That machine they had used lasers. It might be cool to use that.

 

Cool idea but it should be endgame..

otherwise.. i mean.. you actually need something in the late game that requires a lot of ores for making the drill really useful

 

Agreed. Perhaps something that need to be built from every material?

Additionally, what do you people feel about it being placed, activated, directed, then put away again?

 

this is an awesome idea. as far as balancing goes, maybe have it consume fuel like your spaceship does, and the drill wears out periodically, so you have to repair it. piggybacking off the current diamond repair method would be a snap.

this would be a great compliment to the vehicle hangar suggestion made here http://community.playstarbound.com/...to-create-store-and-customize-vehicles.27204/

maybe have the drilling vehicle be its own object, instead of just being pulled out of your butt like the mech is right now, and in order to return it to your ship it follows the same teleportation rules you do, it has to be on the surface and above sea level.

 

IRL, continuous miners.

 

So we could have TBM's in SB?

 

Well, I guess everyone agrees on having a gigantic mechanical drill for chewing out planet/asteroid resources while you explore it's surface and rob dungeons.
But there gotta be more to it, something like customization, so when you get in it, a special menu would appear, allowing the player to choose a specific Drill Head, feed it with fuel, and probably, even put in some sort of an upgrade?
Drill Heads will probably be necessary for this kind of machinery, so that it would be able to chew through different types of blocks at a more sufficient speed. It would be just like the normal drills used by players, starting with Copper, and ending with Diamond, although certainly, those will require a lot more materials than the hand-held versions.
By upgrades I mean different craft-able circuits, which when put into one of the 3-4 upgrade slots in the menu, would enhance it's mining capabilities even more. For example, whilst a normal, un-upgraded drill will dig out a 4x4 area, a certain circuit will enhance it's mining range to 6x6.
Overall I really like this idea, having one of these will save a lot of time if put into mid-game, and will be useful for those who just want to build something in the underground, if put in the late-game.

Although there is one problem that this kind of machinery could run into. Liquids. Not sure how it would behave when digging upon an underground water/acid source.

 

not only liquids, but sand and gravel. I can picture cave-ins being problematic for it.

 

Machine is driven into pool of water -> machine shorts out and is incapacitated. Maybe the player is hurt and ejected.
Machine is driven into pool of acid -> machine shorts out and will be destroyed after so many seconds (due to corrosion). Player is ejected into the acid.
(Machine sinks)

Machine is caved in by sand or gravel -> Player is ejected (maybe hurt) and must dig out the machine.

ALSO
Maybe I ought to bring this to your attention.
Mining Mechs - Terraform Everything!

 

Anyone here has done a quick calculation of how many materials and pixels you need to build just a very small building of steel blocks. Don't remember what it was but it was a lot. Such a thing could really help to build larger structures since there is no creative mode and you have to gather all the materials by yourself.

 

BEHOLD. THE UNDER MINER WILL RISE AGAIN.

...

But seriously, this is a cool idea.

+1 CHIRP support.

 

i had thought of a vehicle like this recently, but more like one of the machines of Dr Robotnik of Sonic the Hedgehog fame, a round orb with a drill that could rotate in any direction and drill shafts and corridors.

you could buy upgrades for it as well (or craft them) one for mining underwater, another for mining in acid/poison, and another for mining in space.

movement upgrades as well, some turbines for underwater, sticky treads that would allow travel up down and around as long as there is a backwall, thrusters for space, etc.

 

I love your avatar 8D

The idea for the vehicle sounds like a nice way to incorporate the features we've been discussing. I also have an idea to add to that, hull upgrades. When you first build it, it could be a 3 x 3 sphere, but you can build hull upgrades to make it bigger for bigger shafts, maybe peaking at 6 x 6.

OH MY GOD, idea that I just had as I was typing this....SNAKE.

It could be segmented, like train cars, and they just follow behind it like Snake games. Any time that you want to increase the cargo or fuel capacity or add more upgrades, or if you want to be able to mine across chasms, you have to add more segments to it.

 

thankies for the avatar love it's generally my avatar on any site i'm on ^^

idk about the segmented bit, might be a bit hard to implement. Though comes to think on it, it would be a neat boss to fight, a segmented flying train, with the cars having turrets and dropping enemy mobs as they fly by...i think i'm going to go make that suggestion.....

 

COUGH. Core. I watched that in class some time ago.

 

I would love a better automated drill, but how about a more oil rig still drill, to where it is a large truck that carries a tall dill for digging straight down 20 blocks with a 2 wide tunnel, so all that is needed is a lot of platforms, also if their were oil pockets this would make having such a vehicle all the cooler.

 

You don't know how tempted I am now to put that in as a SB vehicle. And with all the classic addons. So temping to put all the classic Sonic stuff in SB... until the cease and desist letter comes

Oh and about this thread's topic... TTGL Mechs