Re: Rework mining
How about this for a re-work (from a miner):
Fields of the same total ore but with 20 tiles instead of 200.
Directional scanning still works as now but resource fields are visible on terrain by tinging it a different colour for each resource type. Not bright pink or anything silly, a subtle tinge.
Scanner reveals precise resource remaining per tile. Area charges reveal total across all tiles.
All fields are of mixed type resources but each tile has only one resource type.
No plants grow on a resource field.
New laser type which extracts resources without charges. Existing laser type with charges is rebalanced such that only 3 can be fitted to a Riv (4 if you compromise the fit slightly) but extracts more than 6 of lesser lasers, Riv can fit 6 lasers, not 5.
All mining bots receive special cargo area exclusively for resources.
Harvesting lasers can have targets queued so they automatically switch. Extension determines queue length.
There's a few ideas to chew on.
Some sounds good. Others meh. Id rather see directional charges point to all ore fields on island with different density readings depending on distance and skill level leading to a scan of a field with a center density of 10 being the most dense tile with all surrounding tiles a little less similar to a real ore deposit. Make the fields more condense, less overall total ore and more frequent server respawns.