Mining a solid tile only give half the amount of material

I agree that it's an odd choice, but that's how it's been since the start.

I think the concept is that while the tile is made up of primarily the element you see, it's not COMPLETELY the element. Things like ore will still have waste rock and dirt and impurities to deal with. I've always had the idea and perception that eventually something like digging skill might change the amount you get from the tile (instead of only 50%, maybe like a 65-75% range), but at this writing that simply isn't the case.

23 minutes ago, MrBigDiggs said:

I think the concept is that while the tile is made up of primarily the element you see, it's not COMPLETELY the element.

I understand what you mean.

 

BUT !

Let's make a small experiment.

 

On the left : 100 kg of liquid copper

On the right : 1100 kg of the same liquid copper

 

Let's cool these with the heat gun set on -5°K

According to the amount rule when a liquid is cooled, the 100 kg of copper turns into a small pack of 100 kg of solid copper that fall on the ground.

BUT ! The 1100 kg on the right turns into a solid tile of 1100 kg of copper.

And mining this tile will give us only 550 kg of copper. :-/

 

So it's not fair.

And even if this happens from the beginning of the game, it should be correct before the release.

In my opinion.

Edited May 2, 2019 by Gwido

I agree with you that it's an odd choice. Like I said, I believe the intent was to impliment a mechanic where a higher digging skill showed not just speed, but more accurate and skilled digging which would preserve more of what you're trying to keep. The experiment shows what you want in that example, yes, but because the amount of impurities you can fit in 100kg vs 1100kg is vastly different. When cooled, it's either a small enough amount it doesn't matter, or it's large enough that it does.

Still, losing half of everything has always been odd and over harsh. I just assumed the rest was destroyed since the dupes dig with a ghost busters esque laser.

Btw, in tune with your experiment, the best way to harvest gold/copper/iron volcanoes uses this idealogy. I believe you can go up to 200kg and maintain the nugget block status. That said "pure" harvesting is even more silly.

Pitcher Pumps. The starting pump's "straw" has no heat limitation, and the liquid emptying machine doesn't either, and it pours out at less than 200kg a second. Make a side pool of cooling water, set a bit to be pumped at a time, and suddenly it's raining refined metal.

11 minutes ago, MrBigDiggs said:

but because the amount of impurities you can fit in 100kg vs 1100kg is vastly different.

I would agree if minig a copper tile gives half the amount into copper ore.

But a material with quite no impurities inside so that small amount give the same when solid could not "suddenly" gives so much impurities.

 

Let's wait for a dev to explain the choice of the team.

I mean... the dupes are shoting a big ol ghost busters laser at a wall and calling it mining. Bound to be some loss.

I'd say wait and see, but it's been like this since the start and releasing on the 28th. So... it's just an odd thing to contend with for now. I dont even check tile densities anymore, tbh. You quickly have so much of everything that it stops really mattering before you even mine out the temporate zone.

I understand.

 But it's a generic issue.

I've use copper for my example, but it also works with water turned into ice.

 

And on the other side, if you mine metal ore, the rock crusher already halved the amount. When the refinery turn ores into 100% of refined metal.  

Same with carbon skimmer water that is frozen (skim it, freeze it, break it). I've done that to get rid of pH2O before.

I agree it's odd.

Then again, it's odd the dupes sometimes store .72 of a mealwood seed in this container, and the other .28 in another, then plant both as independent seeds. Fixes take time, and are a process. I believe SOMETHING is going to change about, but I just dont know what. In the meantime, I can confidently say the half loss is not a bug.

Well, if you take a look at the rock granulator, you can kinda get the idea. (get 50% refined and 50% useless pulverized dust, basically)

If you have a 1000kg solid tile and shoot it with a space gun to break it up into something they can carry (pretty sure a dupe can carry 1T, but let's ignore that), you lose 50%.

You pay the price in materials lost for convenience, just like the granulator. If you really want to go down the rabbit hole, imagine the mining gun destroying every other molecule to detach them from each other. Of course, this would be a pile of dust instead of ingots, but it's a game... I think most things do look like a pile of dust though.

Also, it forces you to use better methods to collect things like molten metals. If you let 1000kg of molten metal to solidify in one block, you will lose materials. You will need to come up with a better cooling solution to prevent to large of blocks being formed. If you want to make a soda can, you wouldn't cool 1000kg of aluminum to make it. You would probably cool small amounts in quantities that would be useful.

Too bad you can't do this with non-liquifiable blocks (dirt, sand, slime, etc). Maybe they will add a better skill or a new mining tool you have to build, but I don't really see the point in the state of the game. By the time you mine the map out, you are either done with the game or getting infinite resources from space, or don't need non-space materials anymore.

Edited May 3, 2019 by tommytom2k2

This seems intentional for early game balance. 

The more material you have in one tile, the more insulating it is from heat transfer. Un-dug tiles act as insulators to help protect your early base from the extreme heat or cold that surrounding biomes can have. They only wanted you to have 300-500kg worth of material per tile, but wanted to gift your early base 500-1000kg worth of insulation on all sides until you forage outwards.