PSA: Do not dig from bottom tile if there are unstables (sand, regolith, etc) directly above

[BaloneyOs]

So you know how if you dig a tile below sand the sand will fall and your dupe will continue digging that same tile until there's no more sand that can fall? Well right now if you do this you will outright lose a lot of your sand (not sure about other materials). Try it with any block of sand: dig only the bottom tile and see if the quantity adds up after you dig the entire column. I've seen huge mass deficits from digging this way.

[Red Shark]

Digging anything reduces its mass by 50%. Are you sure that's not just what's happening here?

[mathmanican]

19 minutes ago, BaloneyOs said:

I've seen huge mass deficits from digging this way.

At one point the devs decided to have the same material (sand/regolith) combine with full tiles when they fall on something.  Imagine you have 3 tiles of sand each with 1000kg.  If you dig from the top to the bottom, you get 500+500+500 = 1500kg.  If you dig from the bottom, you get 500 from first tile, but then the two above fall. The bottom tile becomes 1500kg (500+1000). Digging it yields 750kg, which combines with the third tile as it falls for a total of 1750. The final digging nets you half this, so 875kg.  A little more than half of what you would get if you dig top down. Yes, mass is lost. 

Whether this is the same mechanic still in game, or not, I'm not sure.  Should be easy to test.  It does make it easy to reduce the total amount of regolith, but also kills sand that you might want.  

Great PSA. If you care to keep your resources, dig top down. 

[BaloneyOs]

 

1 hour ago, mathmanican said:

At one point the devs decided to have the same material (sand/regolith) combine with full tiles when they fall on something.

Thanks for confirming. If this is due to that mechanic then it's even more cryptic than the 50% mass loss.

[mathmanican]

1 hour ago, BaloneyOs said:

If this is due to that mechanic then it's even more cryptic than the 50% mass loss

Yep. The forums complained when they brought this back as a measure to help in dealing with the regolith overload. Unfortunately, it also means your sand supplies can be reduced quite rapidly. Thanks for the PSA.