Mining Hat

[Weapon]

Mining got a severe nerf when the quest for the mining hat was introduced well over a year ago. Before that, mining and fishing wasn't just meant to make you established--it was simply the best way to make money. You used to mine 5-10 golds and more diamonds every venture, fishing used to give you OCA's all the time with the potential for GR/Angeling cards, and crooked hats used to rain bloody branches on you so that you can get MVP cards... and yes that was broken. Nerfing it forever, however, keeps future players more balanced, but also created 2 classes of players, and set in the 'you'll never be as good as them' restriction. The game's consistently getting more difficult with every update, but old players keep the rewards from the days where it took less effort to get what they have. Unsurprisingly, they're the ones always asking for things to be nerfed more. They're right, things should be nerfed if they're overpowered (IMMEDIATELY, not over HALF A YEAR LATER after it's thoroughly abused), but it sounds more 'ick' coming from them because they already got what they wanted out of it like 2 years ago.?It's an irritating trend, I bet a lot of players would be discouraged if they knew how easy heRO used to be and how much harder they would have to work to get the same things others got. And yeah, I'm biased too, because I worked very hard for a mining hat and I use ores to make cheap weapons for sale... But I'm admitting it??:B

My qualm is in people dismissing this issue/suggesting more nerfing just because they have nothing to gain from it, so they don't care either way... as long as it bottlenecks everyone else just a little more. I like playing here and I'm all for earning-for-what-you-have, but that way of thinking has never set well with me and occasionally inspires ragequit.


That all being said/ranted thoroughly...

Nobody knew what the mining hat did when it was introduced (September, 2009?) and its effect was never released--even when directly asked what it does, creating a false element of mystery that suggested it had an amazing payoff. There was even a GM bounty/prize of gold bullion to whoever made it first, suggesting that it'd be a crazy-awesome worthwhile accomplishment. The fact that 10 pure orichalcum is so hard to get made it seem like this was the case... because why ELSE would getting this hat be so difficult, teased, and hyped? I mistakenly thought that it would make advanced mining more like the way regular mining was before the nerfs were put into place--or at least give you moderately increased efficiency... that is, if you hardcore'd it up long enough to actually MAKE that thing, which took forever and would've justified having spent so much time making it, let alone discover what the blasted thing actually does (the GM's finally mentioned the effect when we asked if it was broken, since we weren't sure if we even noticed a difference after getting it or were simply imagining things--a sharp contrast to the fishing hat's bonus. This was in February 2010, after TPC and I combined both of our ores to make 1 hat that we agreed to share together. We started mining for it in September 2009.) The overall lousiness of it only being stated AFTER getting it still hits a nerve... if you can't tell

The argument here is that it's a lot of effort invested to get something undeniably ineffective. If you want to downplay mining as a n00b-grade activity yet expect people to spend over half a year mining diligently just to make this thing, how is anyone else going to get it? Why would they even *want* it? They won't, by that logic it's pointless for this thing to even exist.

I'd be happy if the mining hat made it so that you would get the same returns, but it wouldn't take forever to go through a cart full of picks if you invest the many many hours necessary trying to make it--i.e., far fewer stones. You'd end up with the same stuff, but would spend less time giving yourself carpal tunnel--which is the worst part of mining. I'd say mercy for your wrists after putting them through hell is a fair enough reward.

[Rurouni Kalain]

Weapon Wrote:My qualm is in people dismissing this issue/suggesting more nerfing just because they have nothing to gain from it, so they don't care either way... as long as it bottlenecks everyone else just a little more. I like playing here and I'm all for earning-for-what-you-have, but that way of thinking has never set well with me and occasionally inspires ragequit.

And this is a reason why even though I have yet to talk to you much in person, that I respect you as a player. Anyway.

Weapon Wrote:Why would they even *want* it? They won't, by that logic it's pointless for this thing to even exist.

Only reason I can think of is just to say that they did it..and perhaps future things it will be use for (if at all) in quests.

Weapon Wrote:I'd be happy if the mining hat made it so that you would get the same returns, but it wouldn't take forever to go through a cart full of picks if you invest the many many hours necessary trying to make it--i.e., far fewer stones.

Finally, I agree about that completely. In the list of things that you could do to make it better without much complaint and unfairness, I think this is certainly high up there. Even if the rates weren't changed at all eveything thing else you could get, picks broke less and you got far fewer stones--that would be great. Fair for the work and actually a legitimate reason to go after it. Ish.

[Zaratus]

I am too lazy to write an essay about this but I could. So only the tl;dr version.

Mining was overpowered, it is okay now (anyone remember the hundreds of shops with hundreds of level 4 stones and the flood of level 4 weapons?). If you change the Mining Hat to fasten up mining by insanely reducing the stone rate, mining will become overpowered again. No, thank you, that's a horrible idea.

[Trapper]

Zaratus Wrote:I am too lazy to write an essay about this but I could. So only the tl;dr version.

Mining was overpowered, it is okay now (anyone remember the hundreds of shops with hundreds of level 4 stones and the flood of level 4 weapons?). If you change the Mining Hat to fasten up mining by insanely reducing the stone rate, mining will become overpowered again. No, thank you, that's a horrible idea.

I Think it's a good idea.
U r a Pro.
U shouldn't be afraid of little changes in drop rate of mining.
Unless you yourself have level 4 weapons for sales.
I have mined up 2 100 points.
And it was pain with lousy drops.

[onix]

How about replacing stones with message like "try again" with regular chance to break a pick or something like that, when mining hat is equipped? I want to get the same amount of golds/diamonds/other from ~100 picks but without stones =_=

[Cassandra]

well, if the hat doesn't get fixed, why don't we add an additional side quest to combo with it? you know, like a quest to get an "orichalcum pick" using the orichalcum. well the quest would open up an option to get a chance to buy several of these special picks for every orichalcum or something. and then make the hat combo with it to make the pick last 50x longer. of course the pick itself would last longer then the original pick. kinda like final fantasy side quests.

[Rurouni Kalain]

That's actually a interesting and possible idea I think. Have it so that you can get something else that is far better...but of course, doesn't last forever. That might work.

[Fyrus Carmin]

I don't know if equipments can combo with basic items, or you'd have to make that pick a "weapon".

[GM-Pandora]

I'm aware that the current bonus to the Mining Hat is not proportionate to the effort needed to obtain it. An upgrade is therefor not something I'm against, however I can't say when that would be.

Thanks for those who offered suggestions.

[Mystic]

Fyrus Carmin Wrote:I don't know if equipments can combo with basic items, or you'd have to make that pick a "weapon".

It's simple to script. Make the NPC check if the mining hat is equipped, and if it is, have it use Orichalum picks. If it's not equipped, have it use regular picks.