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Mineral deposit heatmaps, heatmap based mining

3y
#1
HELLO GUYS.
And most importantly, @bastecklein.

Bast did mentioned about if harvesters are removed, mines will replace its job, yield probably according to the placement.

To visualise the mineral locations, we must have the mineral heatmap for it.
My mineral heatmap has nothing special, it is very simple that somebody might have similar thoughts already.

To begin with...
Multiple types of heatmap.
  • Mineral Heatmap
    The mineral heatmap shows all mineral's location except alien artifects/relics, water and crude oil.
    Different colour represents different minerals, as follows: ore (default), gold,
    regolith, diamond, uranium, aluminum, cobalt and crystalline.
    A dimmer tile means the tile contains less concentration of the shown mineral. The yield potential yield is halved. (Ore and regolith is always at full potential as it is common)
  • (Fresh) Water heatmap
    Underground water is one of the important source of water. Water pumps only produces water when it covers at least 1 tile with water contents.
    Different potentials is also shown by the dimness of the tile. Dimmer the colour, less potential of the yield. Different from mineral heatmap, it has more level of potential divided into.
  • Oil heatmap
    Similar to water heatmap but it shows oil potentials.
  • Alien artifects/relics heatmap
    The heatmap shows presence of alien tech resources underground. This is the only heatmap without potential differences, only presence of them.

Next,
How heatmap mining works.
  • Different classes of mine utilizes different heatmaps.
  • The resource output per production cycle is random based, and mining facilities larger than 1×1 will produce resources based on the minerals it covered. For example, a 2×2 mining facility covers 2 ore deposits, 1 gold deposit and 1 aluminum deposit at full potentials, it may produce [30 ore] or [30 ore] or [30 gold] or [30 aluminum] per production cycle.
  • Potential affects resource yield. For example, a 2×2 large water pump on 4 tiles of different potentials (descend from full potential to minimum potential) of underground water reservoir, the yield will be [40 water] or [30 water] or [20 water] or [10 water] per production cycle.
  • On tiles that yields nothing, based on the random yield mechanism, you'll have possibilities that there are no yields in the next production cycle.
  • The potential is a multiplier on the base production rate of a particular resource. And each building has a different resource yield base value. For example, a 1×1 small drill has a base resource yield value of 10. On a tile with full mineral potential the yield is doubled, it will produce 20 corresponding mineral per production cycle, while on a tile with halved mineral potential, it is just ×1, so the yield is 10.
You can help by EXPANDING IT.
3y
#2
Yes @GeneralWadaling this is very similar to what I had in mind.
Do you think all of the heatmaps should be available right from the start, or are they unlocked with different tech? Or perhaps you build a specific building, which can then detect the underground resources available within a certain radius? That might be a good idea too.
Owner of Ape Apps, LLC
3y
#3
bastecklein said:Yes GeneralWadaling this is very similar to what I had in mind.
Do you think all of the heatmaps should be available right from the start, or are they unlocked with different tech? Or perhaps you build a specific building, which can then detect the underground resources available within a certain radius? That might be a good idea too.

With different tech, I guess?
Since you don't need all of the resource heatmaps at the beginning, particularly the alien tech resource heatmap.
With exception of mineral and water heatmap, they are needed since the beginning.
If it is building based, it only differs by players need to build the sensor to discover the resource, the sensor facility still unlocked by tech.

And about the mineral vein sensors... I am actually not certain about that, logically I suppose the planet for colonization have been surveyed before establishing the colony. Yet, of course, sensors are very useful for finding extra mineral sources, and especially alien tech resources that surveys won't usually look into...
You can help by EXPANDING IT.
3y
#4
That is a good point about the planet already being surveyed, @GeneralWadaling

Perhaps all of the basic minerals are researched planet-wide at the beginning, like ore, gold, aluminum, etc
But others require tech to discover, such as artifacts. Or maybe you can't even scan for Artifacts, you just happen upon them sometimes.
Maybe some require sensors, like Oil. You can't really scan a planet for oil anyway, I mean people end up drilling dry holes all the time.
Owner of Ape Apps, LLC
3y
#5
Yes, good ideas.

I think abundant resources like ore, gold (btw should this be abundant??), regolith aluminium etc. could indeed be already discovered (no need for sensors).

For rare items such as alien artifacts and alien relics, this should even be a finite resource, and instead of sensors, as planets are infinite now you could build very large dig sites (eg. 50x50 tiles). The amount of artifacts you get from it should be random. While you don't know how many you get from it, as it is a very large site it averages and you get a decent amount each time.
Ofc the dig site would require of tech.
Edit: and yes, you would have to remove the dig site once it's empty, but this part is more tricky, as players tend to like when everything is automated (me included)
Creator of Coloniae
Admin of the MC2 translation project
3y
#6
Wow, I had no idea this idea had already been suggested before I posted my ideas in the rover thread. Gj G.W.

I still think that if you are going to use heat maps, you should need to use surveying buildings to reveal a certain radius of the heat map and not the whole map. So survey buildings like my ancient alien survey tower would still work with heat maps, just apply it to chunks and heat maps instead of region maps.

I think that if mc2 does end up having a war element, having the player not be able to see the whole resource map without placing multiple towers would add sort of a fog of war experience, let alone a realistic element to finding resources irl. I also think the lander being a basic surveyor is still a must if you can’t reveal the entire Heat map.
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Ape Apps, LLC is an independent software development company founded in 2010 by Brandon Stecklein. Over the years, Ape Apps has published over 400 apps and games across various platforms. You can get in touch with Brandon on Twitter or by leaving a post on his wall @bastecklein
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