Jason
Currently in Eco, mining remains largely unchanged until skid steers, which is unrealistic from a historical perspective and also makes the midgame a slog.
I'm proposing adding dynamite to the game. Early form could be a black powder explosive, derived from compost (nitrogen) and coal. Dynamite could be a more powerful/advanced version made with paper liner + clay filler, possibly with support for shaped charges (for blasting rectangular regions).
Explosives would be particular advantageous for mining harder rock variants.
Open questions:
  • Balancing the reduction in calories since using dynamite is considerably less labor-intensive than pickaxes. In real life, some work is required to drill into the rock and place dynamite, but to make dynamite useful it should still be faster and more convenient than using pickaxes.
  • The effects of reduced pickaxe usage on the smithing economy. Interaction with Lucky Strike perk.
  • Should there be other accessories like blasting caps, plungers?
  • Skid steer should also probably be modified (e.g. not break hard rock) or changed to a different mining vehicle for realism and balance, but some people find this idea unpopular so leaving that for a separate suggestion.
January 11, 2024