Mining Job Overhaul

[Pazz]

Way back when, before the current leveling system, I considered whether there was a way to make scripted jobs more interesting in a way that benefits the players in multiple ways, while also tying them into the existing server ecosystem. Meaning, better financial gain through chance items, tying into other avenues of roleplay, like using metals for other purposes (think, crafting lockpicks, so on and so forth).

With that said, my idea for a mining job overhaul is:

Make the general job more interesting.

• Move it out of the current relatively small mining tunnel as a primary location, and to a more open area, think of the quarry or one of the higher points of Mt. Chiliad. With the leveling system, multiple suitable locations can be selected based on mining level.
• Dedicate a little more time to the smaller, finer details, such as making the animations more seamless. A lot of animations have a starting point, a "loop", and an ending point, which smoothens out the animations a lot.

General QoL improvements.

• Re-use the system/UI that is used for buying and selling items to illegal NPCs, such as the NPC from whom you purchase lockpicks or bolt cutters, and use that menu for the selling of ores/refined metals, as opposed to dropping them off in a drop-off spot or through WorldInteraction.
• Potentially consider lowering the volume of each ore, so that it requires less of the back-and-forth running.
  • If there are any concerns about economic balance, offset them by a slight increase in time to mine or a slight decrease in dollars per ore/refined metal.
• If animations exist for different approaches, like the jackhammer animation versus maybe an animation of swinging a pickaxe, it could be considered to add different levels of tools for the job at different levels.

Add more steps to the process (I know, I know, but bear with me).

1. Mine the ore.
2. Take it to the refinery, and refine the ore into the metal/ingot.
3. You either sell or use the refined metal for different purposes.
   • I believe that an extension of the process itself is not problematic, so long as it has an actual purpose and the process isn't lengthy just for the sake of being lengthy. 
   • To balance out the time versus gain, it could or should be se tup in such a way where you can choose to sell your ores in raw form or sell them as refined metals after the refining process. Selling ores would pay less than selling the refined metals, which allows players to exit the process earlier on and still make some money out of it, but not as much as when they choose to put in some extra time to earn some extra cash.

Tie into different (existing) aspects of the server, legal and illegal.

• LEGAL
  • Add different types of ores, perhaps at different locations, eg. aluminum at the quarry, or iron ore at the top of Mt. Chiliad. 
  • Add minerals/gems as "rare" drops at a low percentage chance, which then sell for more money. 
• ILLEGAL
  • Tie it into criminal aspects by, for example, instead of selling refined metals, allow players to go to a different location where they can use it to craft items like lockpicks, or if you wanted to take it further, to craft metal weapons like blades. For example, if a switchblade became illegal, players could then use the refined metals they mined and refined to craft a switchblade, instead of just another job that gives you items that can only be sold.
• LEVELING SYSTEM
  • When leveling up, increase the efficiency of mining, not too substantially to make it absolutely cracked, but enough to make a noticeable difference when drawing comparisons between the lower levels and higher/highest levels.
  • When leveling, every 5 or 10 levels, add an increased chance to find/obtain minerals/gemstones. For example, if the starting percentage is 1% or less, work with that, push it up to 5% at the highest level, or 10%, it all depends on how these "rare" finds are priced to ensure there is an economic balance to it all.
  • Add different areas for mining based on level, which could then provide access to better ore that pay more or give you more experience, pretty basic, we've seen how this works in trucking. 
  • If animations and props exist, add different levels of items and tools, allow players to make their own investments for a little more gain, items could have durability to ensure they're not too overpowered.

All in all, I think that an area in which the server lacks a lot is having systems that tie into each other. As it stands, all jobs before the overhauls have been really isolated, when an ecosystem exists for these jobs to touch all aspects of the server. Anyway, I understand that the mining job is definitely not a priority; it shouldn't be, but I hope that there's some consideration to opening up these systems more to work hand in hand with each other as opposed to continuing on an isolated path. 

 

[Ritchie Stones]

have read a few lines in here, but i believe, and the info is from good recources, that this is being worked on, curently