User:Rabble/T5mining

Please note that all of these comments refer to a very early version of T5 mining. We don't know how the final version of T5 mining will work.

Overview of T5 Mining

The preliminary version of T5 mines were demonstrated during a welcome back weekend. T5 mining is very different from T4 mining. I didn't take any screen shots of a T5 mine but there is one image at http://ve3d.ign.com/images/67329/PC/A-Tale-in-the-Desert/Screenshots/May-6.

The first thing you'll notice is that a single T5 mine is huge. The initial mine looks like a small cave with little crystals inside. But once you start to use the mine, many separate rock formations show up in front of the mine. The linked image shows 9 of these rocks formations. Different types of mines (Copper, Iron, Tin, etc) have different numbers of formations. Some of the higher end metals have 16+ formations.

Each rock formation has several properties.

• The shape of the rock can vary.

The linked image shows rocks that are "bowl shaped" with a hollowed out center. But some mine types have rocks that are pear shaped, egg shaped, flat, or have other irregular, hard to describe shapes.

• The color of the rock can vary

The linked image shows rocks that have colored star-burst patterns on them. I'm very colorblind but I think some of the patterns are yellowish and others red or green. The type of pattern varies with different metal types. Some metals show star-bursts while others have wavy lines, circles, etc.

• The base of the rock can vary

Some of the rocks in the linked image have bases made of other, smaller rocks while other bases are solid flat rims which surround the main rock. Some metals have bases made of little, square rocks or jagged, angular rocks.

• The crystals on top of the rock can vary

The rocks in the linked image all have sets of small crystals on top of them. Different mines can have crystals that are short and stubby, long and pointy, squarish or show other patterns.

Working a T5 mine

To work a T5 mine, you first click on the center cave and choose whether to work the mine in "Normal Mode" or "Colorblind Mode". Choosing either option then spawns all of the small rocks in front of the cave. You then need to examine the small rock formations to find rocks that either all match each other or all differ from each other. In the linked image, you could choose find several rocks that are all bowl-shaped, have yellow star-bursts, have flat rim bases, and square crystals on top. Once you select enough matching rocks, you can choose to harvest them for ore. The amount of ore acquired depends on the number of matches you found as well as the metal type.

After you harvest the first batch of ore, you can then examine the rocks for more matches. It's possible that one set of rocks will yield many ore pulls. You can first find 3 rocks where the shape, color, base and crystals match. Then find a different set of 3 that match. And then another set. And then a set of 3 where all have different shapes or color or base or crystals.

If you get 7+ matching sets in one particular set of rocks, you can then "crumble" the rocks to produce 20 gems.

Problems with T5 system

Size

When you choose to work a mine, it spawns the rock formations in front of the mine. These smaller rocks are still fairly large and cover a lot of ground. Simple metal types like iron or copper have 7 (or 8) rocks. Higher end metals have 14+ rocks. To work the mine, you need to carefully examine all the smaller rocks and pick the right ones.

• If the mine is near a cliff, how will it work? Will the rocks spawn inside the cliff? Or will some rocks be at the base of the cliff while others are at the top?

• If the mine is near other mines, will the rocks overlap each other? If T5 mines can be built as close together as T4 mines, then the rocks from one mine will overlap other mines. With a T4 tin blob, for example, the center mine in the blob would have rocks that overlap the mines on either side *and* the mines in front of it.

• If a mine is on a hill, how will it work? This is similar to the cliff problem but slightly different. Many things in ATiTD get built on hills and wind up "digging into" the hill to such a degree that it's difficult to see all side of the item you built. The ATiTD camera controls are limited. Rotating the camera view around an item built into the hill will often cause the viewpoint to jerk sharply upward or downward. The T5 mines often have crystal formations or shapes that require looking at them from several angles. This could make hill-based mines very difficult to use due to camera problems.

• If the mine is near a river or lake, how will it work? Will the rocks spawn on top of the water and seem to float? Or will they spawn under the water where we can't see all of them?

• The rock formations are large. The higher end metals have such large rock formations that you can't actually click on all the rocks at once. You need to run to different sides of the formation to choose different rocks.

• If the size is decreased, how will it work? I already had problem picking out matching rocks as the rock shapes and crystal shapes aren't always easy to see. I frequently had to zoom in my camera to examine them closely or rotate the camera to examine them from several angles. If the rocks are moved closer together or decreased in size, this will make picking the right crystals even harder.