Mining in A18 - A By-The-Numbers Discussion

[TheNefariousDrNutt]

It felt to me that leveling was taking a lot longer in A18, so I decided to run some tests. I must say, I was disappointed with the results.

 

In A17, with 5 ranks in Miner 69'r and Mother Lode (henceforth M69 and ML, respectively), mining a Stone block with an Iron Pickaxe would yield 268 XP. Notably, ML increased the amount of Raw Iron harvested from 2 to 4 when fully leveled, which accounted for roughly half the XP gained from the Stone block. A Steel Pickaxe would yield 303 XP due to what I will call "over-breaking" the block for extra stone. Even still, that extra stone was worth 35 more XP. The Stone Axe was comparable to these numbers but I don't have the exact figure.

 

In A18, with no ranks in any skills, a Stone block yields 110 XP with a Stone Axe. Fully maxing M69 and ML raises the XP yield to 126. This immediately struck me as odd. I gained twice the Small Stones from the Stone block, but only 14.5% more XP. The assumption that XP is based on mining progress rather than resource gathering (as it was in A17) doesn't seem to hold up, as a Stone block yielded 110 regardless of M69 level when broken with a Stone Axe without ranks in ML. It was only the combination of M69 and ML that increased XP yield. Similarly, maxing ML while leaving M69 at 1 only increased XP yield to 119, even though the resource yield was doubled.

 

Furthermore, this may be an unstated effect of primitive items, but the Stone Axe seems bugged in that the body tab in my actual play-through lists my block damage as 67, yet I only deal 45 to Stone. Given that M69 of 3 and a base damage of 35 should equal 67, this is a further slowdown of the leveling process.

 

I acknowledge that leveling was made more difficult in A18 because the updated skill system means players of level X are now stronger than before. That, inherently, is fine. However, a Zombie Lumberjack used to yield 1,000 XP and now yields 750. Zombie hunting received a 25% nerf while mining received over an 50% reduction in its leveling ability. One might say, "Yeah, it's a zombie game." I would concede that point if not for the official release notes for A18 stating that play styles other than 'kill them all' were being supporting in this update. The numbers simply do not support this statement and, as a card-carrying mole-person, I for one am disappointed.

[Ghostlight]

Mining XP was super OP in A17 once specced and tooled, and was far faster than Zombie killing XP. I'm guessing they've just dialled it back into line.

[Gazz]

The stone axe is a generic tool. It is not useless against stone but better against wood.

 

And yes, mining is no longer the single best activity to gain XP in the game. Other activities have caught up.

[tricorius]

If you want to compare zombie killing vs non-zombie-killing XP, you can't really do it on a one-by-one ratio.

 

Yes, there may have been a larger "nerf" to mining XP than there was to zombie XP.

 

But you can't really find a vein of zombies and hit it all day. You have to go out and look for zombies, or hope they come to you. And with the overall reduction in zombies in A18 (personally, I'm seeing plenty, but I know many have reported far fewer) the potential XP pool from zombies is far lower than the potential pool of mining XP (which is, essentially, all around you).

 

I just got done with an all-day excursion to build out an iron mine. During the whole day I ran into seven (7) zombies. I didn't track the exact amount of XP I got for that; but let's be generous and say 750 * 7 (5250).

 

The rest of the day I was shoveling, pickaxe-ing, a building structure for a pretty basic mine. I repaired my iron pickaxe three times and my shovel twice. I also didn't track my exact XP amount from the mining. But I KNOW it was well above 5250.

 

(If I had to wager a guess, I'd guess it was 4 - 5 times as much XP overall from non-zombie killing activities.)

[Gazz]

This. And we ran a lot more extensive tests than you did.

[meganoth]

DrNutt, your conclusion would be correct if mining versus killing was balanced in A17. It was not. Killing was OP (overpowered) in early game, mining was OP in late game.

[TheNefariousDrNutt]

This. And we ran a lot more extensive tests than you did.

 

I should hope so.

 

There have been some very salient points made here, and I certainly wasn't expecting a reply from the staff so promptly. I appreciate the ability to have a thoughtful discussion of concerns without feeling shouted down. I really enjoy this game, and like many here want it to be the best it can be.

 

Cheers.

[Gazz]

@TheNefariousDrNutt

 

It may sound weird but here at TFP, staff are people, too.

Well structured feedback is always appreciated.