The issue:
Deep mines take a long time to set up & get going, yet they don’t generate that much resources. In my experience, building stone roads and setting up a mine outpost takes around 1-3 years long and only becomes profitable 5 years in. Unlocking tier 4 is a very late game move and my playthroughs essentially end within 10 years after that, hence deep mines are never effectively used and deep deposits are nothing but visual clutter and false dreams.
The suggestion:
- Remove Deep resource deposits from the game
- Make all Ground resource deposits hybrid 1x surface 3x deep resources
- Add Tier 3 mine upgrade to access deeper ore at 0.4x collection rate
- Add Tier 4 expensive upgrade (e.g. 50 iron, 200 planks) to collect deep ore at 0.8x surface level rate