How the Mining system works

[Zaxes]

I'm well aware of the fact that there will be mining in the game but if all possible I would like more information on how exactly it works. As in will it allow us to dig into a mountain side to find ore deposits or will it be sort-of a system where we just stumble across random ore deposits around and we decide if we want to build a base of operations around it. The mighty captain is pretty ambitious so I would like to know what he is coming up with in that all mighty noggin of his.

[Mattk50]

I hope there will be nodes of varying potency around that you need to build mine facilities on to get significant amounts of ore (maybe some basic mining with a pick to start). That would be pretty cool imo.

[Duck]

I assume you'll use a prospector to check out any interesting areas, and if you found any you place a miming machine on top of the nodes, which you'll have to guard, and man.

[nuget102]

I would like to be able to place a mine anywhere, kind of like a building is how I assumed mines would be built? But putting them anywhere does seem a bit unrealistic, doesn't it? So perhaps in the sides of mountains, and you would have to use carts or something to move the ore from place to place? :3

[Potocobe]

I would like a way to dig down into old cities and mine/scavenge old metals and plastics. Something that befits the post apocalypse.

[Moonracer]

Hopefully it will become a multiple stage process involving a number of buildings. I think the first thing we will mine will be rocks (or "building material") so it shouldn't really matter where a mine for that is placed.

But if we start mining metals then I would think ores would become a trade resource in the game (heavy and with a low price). Build a refining facility to turn ores into metals and you can make iron and steel which has a higher price per weight and can eventually be used to make weapons and armor.

Old cities as a resource location could be good too if there was a higher risk/reward. Maybe offer a chance to get robotics parts and other valuables but requiring more defenses around any bases you build.

[Santaissick]

I assume you'll use a prospector to check out any interesting areas, and if you found any you place a miming machine on top of the nodes, which you'll have to guard, and man.

I don't believe that there will be automatic mining machines and even less any "miming machines." Maybe there can be one machine that mines something on it's own but would require lots of research and would be really expensive. Something you get only in very late game and it would be hard to get.

Most likely (I think) is that you will have to build a mine and then put people to labor in it. Also starting with

(maybe some basic mining with a pick to start)

would be cool too.

[Blxz]

I'm interested in how the skills work. Will we have separate mining skill? Will it affect speed? Or will it affect the chances of getting ore?

If it takes the dwarf fortress route and has a higher chance of dropping ore the more skilled you are then it might be good to start your miners out just mining basic stone and then as they get more skilled they can 'graduate' up the ranks to your classy ore mines. But the downsides of this are that slave labour won't be worth the effort and it is also highly unrealistic. The better way of controlling ore output via skill would be during the smelting process with skill and technology being highly important, even in the real world.

[Potocobe]

In the real world we literally scoop up dirt and shake, mix, and swirl little particles of ore out of it. it isn't even necessary to find it in mountains as chunks of ore. You just find some soil with a high concentration of iron or what have you and through various methods extract the ore from the waste minerals.

So, it is actually the processing and smelting of ore that takes a degree of technical skill or specialized knowledge. Any peon, serf or slave can scoop up dirt and bring it to the processing facility. In modern times at least. I'm not 100% on this but, I believe the methods that were first developed to process ore from soil are seriously old (like all the way back to the beginning of the iron age) and hardly changed to this day. Except now we know that simply adding raw earth to water and heating, cooling, mixing and agitating the slurry we can extract different kinds of ores.

In Kenshi I imagine that slaves and workers will mostly be involved in transporting materials from place to place. This might explain the generic Laborer skill. Basically, laborers will likely carry stuff and dig.
Since mining isn't listed as a future skill we can assume that mining will be about running the mining operation and not a direct application of picking ores from rocks. Perhaps it will be about managing your people and their security? In a traditional RTS you need a workforce and specific structures to mine an amount of material for use in future structures. In a typical RPG you personally swing a pick at a spot and "loot" the spot for an inventory item which you later combine into a usable item. I can see Kenshi as being a mix of both. Gathering resources with a group of workers that each have their own individual skills at various tasks which determines their speed or output. The workers process the resources until they have enough to make an item at which point a specialized worker applies his/her crafting skill to make an item with their skill being used to determine speed, quality and quantity of that item.

The Labor skill description mentions prospecting and laboring in general terms while some skills are much more specific like weapon smith or building. I think that means that prospecting is going to be a generic kind of skill that will be equally useful for finding water or old tech. This leads to any old slave that has a high labor skill being able to spot ore deposits and such. Which means that finding it won't be that hard.

I think keeping your stuff is going to be the challenge in this game. Enemies will probably loot you. bandits will roll over your town while you are off warmongering and they will carry away all your cool stuff and burn the rest. Which will lead to you hunting down some bandits later after you get home. Mining some ore to make weapons from won't be too complicated or you would never have time to defend yourself.