Mining Hat

[katleoyumi]

I agree with everything that Weapon has said in his post about the mining hat. In fact, the mining hat is so rare compared to the fishing spot that I still get random people bugging me about the hat. Asking what it is, what it does, and how to make it because they have never seen it before in their lives. Someone actually once said that the mining hat was really only for bragging--that's how bad the hat is. It's not even known for its purpose--but for the fact that it is too hard to make. If I wanted another hat to brag about, I would've preferred that it was actually cute or decent looking. The mining hat is not cute, it isn't even effective, and it's way too hard to make.

So yes, I think there should be some changes made with the mining hat. I think it's ridiculous that it keeps getting complained about and nothing is being done about it.

[Aaronock]

Ah Mining Hat, suffering the fate of the Angeling/Deviling towers is lovely is it not? :D

Nobody really has you, and you're really not worth the trouble dumped in to make youuuuuuuuuuu.

[Rurouni Kalain]

Agreed, just about the largest reason to actually mine is for the lvl 4 stones that you get while doing it, which indeed is why the market prices for them is set at the price that it is. (15~40k ...so yes, 30k often) which few can complain about.

When I first joined, I wanted to do everything there was...I still do of course, but the Mining Hat is one of those that I have put on hold. I teamed up with a friend to make it, and we made 1 Pure Ore, then of course, got talking with people (largely TPC I believe) and she kinda stopped mining as much, as did I as I took my 2 months off. Since I've been back I just haven't felt like going back as it's true, it takes a big chunk of time out of a day to do it. Thankfully after a long time of struggling with the Teddies over the months, I'm now able to 1-hit kill them every time (woot for high HIT), which greatly speeds up my clearing out of the surrounding area.

The issue of mining being more profitable for me used to be a no-brainer. Um, DUH it's more profitable....but that was before I was high lvled with better and better gear like I have now. Indeed now for the time spend, I indeed could surely farm it at some other place. Of course it still goes back to the Level 4 Weapon Stones that make it worth it....ish.

I do still plan to go back to finish, I've been hoping that the hat wasn't as poor as people have been saying..but this more than confirms that it is true. I actually do not have a Fishing Hat either truth be said, but I do have around 30some fishing bottles saved up (I refuse to get it by buying them from others, even though I can afford it now. ) and I haven't been fishing as much the last 3~4 months from when I first started.

Don't get me wrong, I love fishing and mining very much, they helped HUGELY to build up my funds when I was just starting out and I will be forever grateful for that----however, what truly IS the point of that Mining Hat if it improves things so very minimally? Is it simply a long-long term goal for those that mine a lot and it's like "Lol, fun..now back to mining." sort of deal or is it actually meant to improve things as much as the Fishing Hat seems to?

Not only that it takes so long to mine it up, but that there is a chance to fail---I think Weapon summed it up well. As far as he knows (and from how hard it is, I'm prone to believe him) only 3 hats have been made since they came out.(Which, when DID it come out?) It takes 10..TEN Pure Orichalum to get the hat. Assuming you never fail in making a pure, that's 50 Rough Orichalum needed. Just mine hardcore for a week and you'll see how crazy it really is. Perhaps the GM's have big plans for this in the future (and I'm sure they have something) but again, from what I hear about how good the Fish Hat is it's incredibly...well, lame to be honest. Less Stones (as in the useless ones), now THAT I would love..but breaking picks less at a small chance? It takes so long to mine down there that by the time you have enough to MAKE the hat (and if you mined them all yourself, you will NOT be poor (if you have saved up fairly)) the POINT of getting the hat will be greatly lost as you will have enough to buy the lvl 4 ores. I hope that last bit made sense.

Anyway, we'll see where this topic goes.

[Aaronock]

If mining hat made it where you didn't get stones at all, that would be the best thing EVER. :D

[Namine]

It's kind of how it should be though that initially mining helps build you up, but once you're established, normal farming with your regular chars will overtake mining as mining lose its profitable aspect. Same goes for fishing of course, but you use up fish a lot more than using up lv 4 stones and elus...

[azurerogue]

The way Namine puts it makes sense. The custom systems SHOULD help new players build up / make cash / whatever... but established systems should overtake them in the long run - or else they'd be overpowered (high OCA drop rate + GR cards in OCA, anyone???).

Ex used to spend hours EVERY DAY fishing simply because OCAs + GR + general profit from OCAs made it more efficient than ANY method of grinding. Back before fishing was nerfed (repeatedly), I made about 1 mil zeny PROFIT + 1-4 OCAs per 4k bait run...that took me about 30-40 minutes... 2+ OCAs + 1.5ish m zeny per hour alongside the chance for GR? There was NO reason to do anything else. Ever.

That's not how we want the system to be.

P.S. If Namine and I agree a few more times, I might actually start believing in all this 2012 nonsense.

[Rurouni Kalain]

Really it used to be like that? Well when I think about it no reason that it wouldn't be of course, quite so that's not how we want it to be. This is partly why I'm sure the Old Card Albums were replaced with Damp Card Album (which, we on heRO are still not sure about everything that the DCA drops, but we are working on it slowly, ha ha).

Something I didn't mention before that was asked is WHY does the Mining have the Miner NPC pop up with all Anti-Bot like anyway? Part of the answer is that the Fishing was done first and the Mining second, at least in part. However, the details on that, escape me.

[Namine]

Because it is anti-bot/macro, and should (but didn't) get extended to fishing due to various reasons that best ask Panda about instead of me.

Not saying that mining hat is balanced or whatever as it certainly isn't, but I don't think that a good fix for mining hat is to make it more profitable. Rather, I'll prefer it if it's just easier to make, *nerf* normal mining so you have to have the mining hat to be as good as it is now (same applies to fishing: nerf normal fishing, so that you must have fishing hat to be as good as it is now.)

Both of these systems are methods to assist new players to get established faster, and not a long term zeny producer.

[The Legendary Joe]

Because it is anti-bot/macro, and should (but didn't) get extended to fishing due to various reasons that best ask Panda about instead of me.

Not saying that mining hat is balanced or whatever as it certainly isn't, but I don't think that a good fix for mining hat is to make it more profitable. Rather, I'll prefer it if it's just easier to make, *nerf* normal mining so you have to have the mining hat to be as good as it is now (same applies to fishing: nerf normal fishing, so that you must have fishing hat to be as good as it is now.)

Both of these systems are methods to assist new players to get established faster, and not a long term zeny producer.

I personally thought the reason fishing didn't get a bot/marco NPC was because if you macro'd, fish are so heavy that you'll quickly end up dropping junk.

[Namine]

@Oka: again best to ask Panda about that one~