Deep mines should be buffed

For some reason my (deep) iron ore mine outputs half the stuff than for example clay, sand or stone. Each and every mine is located in remote locations and there are 3-4 shelters for the workers. Besides that, it would be wise to buff the deep mines for production rates beyond 300 annual yield. Especially iron ones!!

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Deep mines are supposed to be half as efficient per worker, by their design.

I fully intend to get a mod (once mod support comes in) that changes that :slight_smile:

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What is this claim based on? A Deep Mine is a Tier 4 building compared to a Tier 2 mine and requires heavy tools. In practice, 8 workers in a regular gold mine produce about 45 gold per year, while 16 workers in a deep mine produce only 14! Is that supposed to be twice the efficiency? Similar numbers can be observed in clay mines: 120 clay per year with 4 workers in a regular mine compared to 140 with 16 workers in a deep mine. Or 40 stone per year from a 4-worker camp versus 80 stone per year from a deep mine. This is nonsense! By the time you unlock Tier 4, resources for construction are no longer so critical that you’d opt for one T4 mine instead of four T2 mines for efficiency. Therefore, Tier 4 mines make no sense efficiency-wise. I tried them and shut them all down.

The message is already over a year old, and the balance still hasn’t been addressed…

Welcome to the forum. :slightly_smiling_face:

My understanding is that deep mines/pits are not meant to be more efficient which is what Denidil said. So yes, you get less output from them compared to ordinary mines/pits.

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This defies all logic and common sense!

Does it? Yes, you can have more people working a deep mine/pit, but they do have to go deeper to get what you need and it takes longer to get down to the mining area and to bring stuff back up.

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At the 4th tier, when metallurgy is already known and heavy tools are available, it’s strange to assume that workers would be carrying loads up and down on foot. Obviously, there should be a system of lifts and mine carts. After all, with the presence of cavalry and plate armor, you’re implying an early medieval setting, aren’t you?

By the way, do you know that over a deep deposit you can place 2 deep mines if you play carefully with deposit’s edges? This would basically double your work power.

I heard there will be a Tech Tree in v 1.0, I don’t know how research is going to work but this would be a nice way to improve deep mines. Have a few Techs you can unlock to increase the mining rate in deep mines, so you eventually can get them to work as well as regular mines.

In fact, this could even be a way to give the player something to work towards indefinitely and give them something to do in the late game after this tech tree is finished: create techs like “mining speed” and give them infinite levels, every level requiring more research than the previous, so players can potentially create super mines and be swamped in resources, if they are obsessed enough to put in weeks of playtime into a single game. It’s how Factorio keeps the late game interesting.

Deep mines output would be fine if they used 8 workers, but for 16 it really needs to be more :slightly_frowning_face:

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The advantage of a deep mine is that it’s an infinite resource, not that it has a better output.

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The disadvantage of deep mines is that they’re much more expensive to build, so do they need yet another disadvantage?

But are they still better than buying all of that material from the trading post? Deep mines are so that you can have non-exhausting logistics, not so that they can replace regular mines. (However, I’ll grant that they are extremely manpower-intensive.)

That’s why I think it would be a good idea to make them better once there is a Tech Tree so they start out much worse than regular mines, but become worth it eventually in the very late game.

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A single deep pit/mine is also easier to defend.

The guild already improves mining efficiency if you choose that bonus, right?

I got 115 stone from my deep stone quarry this year with 10 workers, but the quarry is very close to the city so that probably helps. That’s even without the 30% mining bonus, still need to build the guild in this map.

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Deep mines having half the output isn’t a problem.

Deep mines needing double the manpower isn’t a problem.

Deep mines needing heavy tools isn’t a problem.

All three of these things being true at the same time is a problem. That’s just way too much for what they give you.

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Idk man, having infinite supply on a mine field SHOULD have some kind of drawback.

However, I think it could be argued to move the deep mines down to Tier 3 settlements instead of Tier 4 and also give them an upgrade option that increases amount of ore mined that requires a Tier 4 settlement to use. And said upgrade tier for the deep mines should require the heavy tools instead of the default one.

So it basically, following changes I proposed:

  • Deep Mines become available at Tier 3 City Hall
  • Deep Mines on Tier 1 level DON’T require heavy tools, just tools. But their efficiency is as they are right now with a 300 cap per year.
  • Deep Mines get a Tier 2 upgrade, that DOES require heavy tools. But it also doubles the efficiency, as same as increasing the cap to 500 per year.

Personally I see no issue with them at the moment. All I wish is that the stone Deep Mine becomes available at Tier 3 already. So that it is easier to fortify your settlement if needed.

In my current playthrough it took me 10 full years ingame just to upgrade my entire city from wood walls to stone walls.

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If we admittedly get less output from deep mines than from ordinary mines, what’s the point of them? Just that they’re of infinite productivity? It seems absurd that double the number of workers would produce – what? Half the product? Ridiculous!

I agree on the most suggestions here, to make deep mining it more worth.