Mining / Gathering Suggestion

[Mark]

So the new update has come out and as much as I love the minigame on lockpicking and more, I am not a big fan of it being introduced to mining and gathering of resources.

It's unnecessary in my opinion to have the minigame implemented into mining and harvestable objects, it takes thirty-three minutes to mine 500 of each mineral before this implementation and now it's going to take more time and effort excluding the running of the material to the vehicle.

I wanted to suggest that this gets reverted back and I will give you my reasoning as of why;

In the server mining isn't that profitable, making it harder is just driving away another legal job in the server. especially after doing the minigame and getting +1 "Material" this is just a lot of work for one material even bumping up the chance of getting two or three more material is a stretch with the new minigame system. (Been fixed)

Same as trees, you only get one log per cut and the minigame will just discourage people from trying to earn a living with their characters with these jobs, same with oil containers and they were a pain to pick up already with the eye and with the minigame. (Been fixed)

Don't get me wrong this idea is great for as I've said lockpicking but with resource gathering I just feel like it's a bit of a stretch for the server.

(After a few days)

Right I have spoken to many people within RPUK, many things were discussed about the new minigame system, things were brought up.

A lot of people agreed that this new minigame is a "pain" to use with resource gathering and mechanic work and I agree with this as well, I feel like this addition to RPUK is one that wasn't needed, a few people have also agreed that this new system is a wall for people with disabilities as @PinkSprinkles& @Cat stput down below and raised their concerns about people with disabilities with this new minigame system.

I want to bring up before I continue with this, I do see why this was added from a dev perspective, I get that there is people AFK in the mines/smeltery however I feel like instead of implementing a minigame which is harming more than helping maybe crack down on people who are AFK and more, I know this is one of many reasons however as a community we don't know what goes on behind the scenes and I feel like as a community we are shut out from the servers progress and development instead we only see it when it's implemented to the server and many people have said this to me, we as a community feel separated from the server.

I don't want this to come across as hostile or rude and I can only apologise if it does, but I feel like the communities feedback is crucial for the servers development, I also do understand that the developers do spend their time and effort onto this and don't get paid for their work and it's all volunteer.

I genuinely love RPUK and it's brought me and so many people closer and this suggestion is only to see how others feel and as much as I and others want this changed back I also want to see others opinions negative or positive.

I only ask that developers if they can speak on this matter with us as a community to see how it plays out.

(Been a few months since the changes of grafting):

I wanted to see the long-term of this change on the server and see how it effected everything and then write back on this, I wanna make sure I cover experiences while in the mines / gathering.

Hello everyone,

I think everyone has kind of either forgotten about this or moved on and I wanted to add onto it after a few months had passed as a person who has to do the minigame a lot due to my characters position of being in a whitelisted gang.

I like the minigame for these select items -

1. Fruit Picking
2. Repairing (Needs tweaking for mechanics imo)
3. Cleaning Cars
4. Drill (Tone down the speed)
5. Crafting (Tone down the speed)
6. Wood Cutting (Buff the collection rate)

Now the things I do dislike for this minigame are these - 

1. Mining

I feel like mining should not be have to be this much of a "chore" for the user who is playing; l would like to suggest that mining goes back to it's ways with a random drop of item, not just "+1 _________" because after doing the minigame for so long it burns you out because your head is constantly trying to react to different speeds, different numbers from 1 to 4.

Mining shouldn't have to require such a... frustrating minigame constantly in my opinion, I wont say it's "annoying" or "stupid" because I see the direction where Developers were going however it shouldn't have to be for everything, mining doesn't require you to be sitting there pressing numbers for just swinging a pickaxe at a wall; even after completing one level and cancelling it straight after you get "+2" however I don't see the point in it, people shouldn't have to sit there like a second job on a game.

AFK Mining would've been obliterated with the update of "AFK Timer"; no matter if someone held [E] they'd have to speak or do something else to avoid getting a kick.

2. Oil Containers

Oil Containers are small enough to try and focus the eye with them, it's worse now that there's a minigame involved; personally I think Oil Containers should've been buffed with just the eye and make it a random one to three collection rate, it is like the mining issue at the minute, sitting there having to do a minigame constantly to get a full truck or a full van is more of a chore than it is fun.

Why only keep minigames for these select?

In the server I have had zero frustration with (Fruit Picking, Repairing, Cleaning Cars, Drill, Crafting and Wood Cutting); If anything I see the need to do it for those select few maybe a few tweaks what I put beside them, I genuinely have fun picking fruit and roleplaying out with cleaning cars and repairing them hence why I like them there...

Why not just stop mining since you find it frustrating?

My character Mark Rhodes has always been a natural grafter, it's known within roleplay with people who would reach out to him and rely on him for resources whether that be a gang, his family or his friends.

I miss the connections / roleplay of gathering resources and selling them on, building relations with people while also earning cash on the side; I miss doing this, I miss going up to the mines seeing familiar faces and talking to them without struggling to talk and do the minigame, whenever I have left my PC while at the mines I have not kept something on my E key, I stopped completely, I can't speak for others but I genuinely miss it, others miss being able to go to the mines and talk to others and socialise and not focus on numbers on the screen.

My follow up question is to everyone in the community, including developers, staff and management; have you guys spent a lot of time in the mines or oil gathering with this minigame?

Everyone I have asked in my circle or people who used to be in the mines with me is yes, and they don't go up to the mines much anymore... however it's required to keep the business alive on the server...

Below this suggestion we briefly touched on disabilities, that make it hard for people to even do the minigame normally without failing a bunch of times, what is peoples views on this?

As someone who is on the spectrum of Autism I personally cannot keep on with the minigame in the mines/oil gathering because it gets too much, however in smeltery it's with every time I want to smelt so it's not so bad, even when you fail you still do it normally.

-

I would like to ask if developers would be willing to do anything on this? Do you guys need anymore detail? I want this suggestion to be as clear for you guys as possible - I respect the work and how long coding takes and I want to make sure this suggestion is up to standard.

Let me list the pros and cons,

Pros:
Less time grafting
Fairer system
Less hassle

Cons:
Development Work
AFK Mining (New update prevents AFK)

If anyone has their input they would like to leave below feel free to; also let me know if anything else should be added.

 

[Mark]

The mechanic part yea I can agree on due to being a mechanic nothing is simple to fix so fast, but failing to clean a car??? Abit far.

Wood gathering was a long enough process as it was without a mini game now added to each piece of wood. I'd say the mini game be kept on fixing cars and lock picking but removed from gatherings wood, apples, oranges etc due to the time running around and having to load up anyways was a long enough process.

Wood gathering and Oil gathering were things suggested to be changed - Oil gathering was suggested to be made easier as getting one and using the eye to get it was a chore within itself.

Wood gathering I have done only a few times because it is a lot to sit there for a long time grabbing one each time, oil gathering I have done multiple times because it's such a necessity to gather.

I understand the requirement to stop people from going afk/in my head while doing tasks suck as mining, smelting or using a bench. Adding a minigame will prevent this but adding this to harvesting aswell is a step in the wrong direction. Picking up a single oil or felling a single tree I had three minigames to complete yesterday. Harvesting raw materials such as oil or wood was already very time consuming compared to other task and unless your in a group gets tiresome for little reward. 

Once you get the raw material this leads onto good RP with different fractions within the city by negotiating pricing, delivery options and end product. but now i feel a lot less people will be inclined to do such tasks in favour of handing out leaflets or robbing the nearest taxi driver.

A simpler solution would of been to limit the action of mining, smelting or using a bench to be 1 item at a time the same as harvesting, this then requires the player to be active.

This change is inline with UK inflation  raw material is going to be more expensive due to labor, meaning the end product in the shops will have to rise significantly.

One for the devs, are the minigames server side or client side as its very hit or miss at the moment multiple times on my side i have been within the success area but been unsuccessful.

Well I get the whole mining/smelting/crafting while AFK, I have had my fair share of people do that in front of me and I am like waiting for a Tron suit person to be like "Not allowed to do that" but never happened haha.

I have never gone AFK while mining, I can name a few times I had to quickly run to the toilet while smelting and that's about it.

Mining doesn't pay-out that much and I don't think buyers are going to raise the pricing due to this change which makes it more hassle with littler gain for the person doing this, I can see people saying "This server is about roleplay - money isn't everything in this server" when it is if you wanna build your character up, this server is ran with people only wanting money with minimal roleplay.

That's another subject and I went a bit off-course with that but just encase someone did bring that up.

Personally i think the Minigames are nice i do agree that there needs to be some tweaking like for example for gathering you can fail everything and still gather but if you hit everything you gather way more but yes gathering needs to be Buffed for this to be balanced more if you ask me if you Hit everything on mining you should get something like 5-10 ores , Fruit 15-20, Oil 5-10, wood 5-10

As for the people with disabilities i would say add the ability to still be able to do everything even if they fail the minigame they get a way smaller chance of it working and this way atleast those people can still play i guess but its really hard to balance a small part of the community.

The minigames is a good update and I do love how the server is working on ways to improve on new ways to make it different and fun for the player-base however I just feel like it shouldn't be for resource gathering that is the only thing.

I like the idea of your rates with the minigame but also with the disability side of things it can be mentally draining to keep doing the minigames over and over again, I know people without disabilities that would be fine with it for a bit and then just get mentally frustrated/drained from it.

I personally feel like for lockpicking / repair kits it's a good way to introduce it, but a whole overhaul on everything it's a lot to take in, I have tried it and honestly I just gave up after a few attempts.

I have also read mechanics said of things and to be honest I get why they are not happy with this either, I don't want this to be removed completely I think some people think I made this suggestion to remove it but I got frustrated with it when mining and then others came up to me saying the same thing with others so this is why this suggestion is here.

I respect that the developers are trying to make the server more fun and also the time they put into the server and don't get me wrong I know how discouraging it can be when someone doesn't like something you have made which took you time and effort, I am open to trying it tweaked because I don't want this update to be something frowned upon, however I just don't see myself getting used to this new update for resources.

 

[Steph]

I just wish the Server would feel more like a game again and not a chore. Ofc within Roleplay there should always be realism behind it but at the end of the day I am playing a Videogame to have fun and to relax after I already have been working a whole day IRL. Not everything has to be more realistic or complicated, not everything should have to be a challenge. We are here to have fun. 

 

[Dazz]

@blackiechang Trueeeee was in prison last night and done this mini game about 15 times just to get nothing? If it ain't broke don't "fix" it.

In all seriousness though I don't understand why things like repairing, lockpicking, mining and fruit picking need a more tedious process to do. The eye is already tedious enough considering it sometimes doesn't register the fact you are looking at interactable objects but now this too? Personally not a fan but I can see some people enjoying the interactivity but at the end of the day we are playing a game and roleplaying so do these things really need extra steps to be interacted with?

 

[Fishyknickers]

One of the reasons for implementing the 'mini games' was to prevent AFK farming it seemed, however I personally do not see how that was previously possible on anything but Mining. 

Collecting something like wood or oil will now take considerably longer than it ever has done before.. The only way people will continue to supply those types of products would be if their value quadrupled.. In an already expensive City, that doesn't seem viable. 

Unfortunately adding this functionality to all gathering jobs, is going to lead to even less people doing it than before. 

I understand for mechanic/repairs to a degree, but, to add this too every LEGAL gathering role, just pushes people back to Taxis and Dealing. 

To play a mini game hundreds of times to fill a mule with wood, oil or fruit is ridiculous. It already takes approximately 1.5hrs - 2hrs alone to fill a mule with wood. 

Too add this mini game to certain tasks could be interesting, but adding them too everything, makes them one hell of a chore 

 

[Frazzells]

can see why it was introduced to add some thing different to the city, but not all change is good, cleaning my car failed mini game bye bye wash cloth, back to balla's for a car wash then.

no point adding it to wood, oil etc as your running around as it is, 

if its staying why not change it up that after the mini game you get x amount of wood.

Personally not a van, would prefer the old system to return

 

[Mark]

One of the reasons for implementing the 'mini games' was to prevent AFK farming it seemed, however I personally do not see how that was previously possible on anything but Mining. 

Collecting something like wood or oil will now take considerably longer than it ever has done before.. The only way people will continue to supply those types of products would be if their value quadrupled.. In an already expensive City, that doesn't seem viable. 

Unfortunately adding this functionality to all gathering jobs, is going to lead to even less people doing it than before. 

I understand for mechanic/repairs to a degree, but, to add this too every LEGAL gathering role, just pushes people back to Taxis and Dealing. 

To play a mini game hundreds of times to fill a mule with wood, oil or fruit is ridiculous. It already takes approximately 1.5hrs - 2hrs alone to fill a mule with wood. 

Too add this mini game to certain tasks could be interesting, but adding them too everything, makes them one hell of a chore 

The AFK mining I think can be punished if caught, I understand how annoying it can be to collect resources before and even after this change (for some of the resources not all).

They did make it easier in the most recent patch note - however I think resources should be left to defaults with some buffs maybe, this server is about roleplay not grafting and many have expressed that this server is very "grafty" than roleplay based.

can see why it was introduced to add some thing different to the city, but not all change is good, cleaning my car failed mini game bye bye wash cloth, back to balla's for a car wash then.

no point adding it to wood, oil etc as your running around as it is, 

if its staying why not change it up that after the mini game you get x amount of wood.

Personally not a van, would prefer the old system to return

Yes, don't get me wrong it's a great addition to lockpicking but resource gathering it makes it 10x harder and is basically making everything harder than it has to be.

 

[Bmav]

The AFK mining I think can be punished if caught, I understand how annoying it can be to collect resources before and even after this change (for some of the resources not all).

They did make it easier in the most recent patch note - however I think resources should be left to defaults with some buffs maybe, this server is about roleplay not grafting and many have expressed that this server is very "grafty" than roleplay based.

Yes, don't get me wrong it's a great addition to lockpicking but resource gathering it makes it 10x harder and is basically making everything harder than it has to be.

I think with recent changes the suggestion can be taken down its much better now after the devs tweaked

 

[Mark]

** Update **

I have been trying it out today and quite honestly I just cannot grasp it  I want to but like I can't do it.

It's a struggle and I don't know if anyone else still feels the same, if not I'll gladly take it down but personally I just can't grasp it.

 

[iSky0]

** Update **

I have been trying it out today and quite honestly I just cannot grasp it  I want to but like I can't do it.

It's a struggle and I don't know if anyone else still feels the same, if not I'll gladly take it down but personally I just can't grasp it.

Well with how easier it got if you cant get the grasp of it then that means you just cant do anything competitive even at an easy difficulty. In Roleplay language, if you are not succeeding with it, means you dont have the muscles to swing a pickaxe to do mining, easy as. i see it as a fun addition to mimic the effort of trying and it got even easier after the update.

Whats fun in double clicking a pickaxe from inventory then waiting a progress bar to get to 100% without touching your keyboard/mouse? AFKing for grinding

-1, sorry

 

[Gutzy]

-1, with the recent changes its much faster to mine ore's. The minigame "skill check" is something that is fun and cannot be afk'd. The minigame gets harder with the different ore's which makes sense. its much better and provides a fun little challenge. I do believe that this minigame needs to spawn the dot further away from the zone to allow the user to get ready on the number as it sometimes shows up right next to the zone and spins really quickly.

This is something that players would just have to get used too and provide some feedback on how to make it better rather than "Removing" it completly. Same thing happened with the Mechanic repair kits and over time the errors were ironed out and everyone is happy.

 

[Mark]

Well with how easier it got if you cant get the grasp of it then that means you just cant do anything competitive even at an easy difficulty. In Roleplay language, if you are not succeeding with it, means you dont have the muscles to swing a pickaxe to do mining, easy as. i see it as a fun addition to mimic the effort of trying and it got even easier after the update.

Whats fun in double clicking a pickaxe from inventory then waiting a progress bar to get to 100% without touching your keyboard/mouse? AFKing for grinding

-1, sorry

I get where you lot are coming from and I do realise that, it's just a large proportion of what I do on RPUK is mining and resource gathering so this has kind of set a barrier that I guess I have to try and adjust to over more time.

Thank you all for your inputs and also keeping it civilised.

 

[Ade]

I've used the new mini game once at the smelter. I hit 2 successfully and missed one due to poor reaction time. I am still not a huge fan as it barely seemed to change smelting time. It also seemed to quick but im still struggling with flu so it could be that.

 

[Mr Korma]

+1

 

[Nimbruh]

+1 - Tbh I think like certain things that may take time to do need this kind of mechanic. But some things where you spend 30+ minutes maybe even 1 hour doing this mini game isn’t needed. Like mining I don’t think needs this, people wouldn’t want to be focused on numbers popping on the screen for 30+ minutes. It’s time consuming enough to actually graft the amount of a full truck of iron/copper etc. like pick locking you spend time doing that, some things, maybe even like repairing a car I think is okay. But also fruit picking I don’t think needs this either. Like the activities where you spend TIME doing the activity to fill up a truck. Taking this off these would make things a lot better I think 

 

[William Antrim]

the final level also needs to have the pointer slow down as if the target is on the 1-6 side of the clock face youve got no chance of hitting the right number before it moves to the 7+ side. Its random and no fun. Its like those shit games you used to see at fairgrounds when I was a kid. The pikeys would put great prizes into them to entice you in knowing full well nobody ever won. Ive got lucky with a couple of +5s on the mining because the zone appeared at the 11 position but if its comes in at the 3 position i can kiss it goodbye. 

Id like it if you could just press one button instead of being 2 minigames in one tbh. But im old. and grumpy. 

 

[Ronny Savage]

+1 I still believe its not necessary to have a minigame for mining 

 

[Paint]

the final level also needs to have the pointer slow down as if the target is on the 1-6 side of the clock face youve got no chance of hitting the right number before it moves to the 7+ side. Its random and no fun. Its like those shit games you used to see at fairgrounds when I was a kid. The pikeys would put great prizes into them to entice you in knowing full well nobody ever won. Ive got lucky with a couple of +5s on the mining because the zone appeared at the 11 position but if its comes in at the 3 position i can kiss it goodbye. 

Id like it if you could just press one button instead of being 2 minigames in one tbh. But im old. and grumpy. 

The whole point of the final level is to be difficult as it gives exponentially more resources the more levels you finish AND an extra % boost if you finish every round.

 

[FrooGames]

-1 For this. 
I personally really like to the minigames it keeps you focused and makes you actually do the task that you're trying to do. 

It removes AFK mining etc which is a good thing in my personal opinion. 

 

[TheNeonRaider]

I have found that when smelting getting all five parts of the minigame correct is something that i get correct perhaps once in every 10 smelting completed, a lot of the dot moves to fast for you to even react in time which can make it rather frustrating all though you still smelt the stuff even if you fail still annoying never really getting that speed boost.

As people have said i like the idea of the minigames is good but slowing them down would be a good thing for those people that find that kind of thing hard and also i feel the speed on some of the minigames needs to be adjusted a little in general.

 

[Mark]

After a while I actually don't mind the minigame as much -

But I wanted to do a suggestion from this suggestion and I don't know if this would be better but maybe instead of numbers it's just like "Space", let me add onto this - 

I play a game called Dead By Daylight and in the game it's a primary motive to get generators done and you get skill checks which you press "Space" to complete it; Image Below 

Obviously it doesn't have to look like this but I think this instead 1-4 would make it easier on the mind and eyes - it's still challenging but less stressful; and also we don't need a perfect zone just the success zone.

May I suggest with the last zone where it is fast, could it go around twice instead of once? because sometimes the success zone on that one is so close to the beginning it's impossible. 

After the updates on speed and the fixes on gathering I think the best way to go forward is just to keep it with one key not four of them, it'll keep the minigame fun and easier.

As Paint has said about the final bit of the minigame being faster it's meant to be like that and to be honest I've hit it a fair few times, however you still get 4 each three you hit, so I wanna re-do my suggestion to instead of "remove" it from mining/resource gathering maybe keep it with a simpler "Hit Space" instead "Hit 1-4".

Suggested Changes -

Space Key for the minigame instead of one to four

Last level of the minigame to go around twice for a second chance

Pros
Prevents AFK Mining (Still)

Keeps the minigame fun but also still adding that skill of hitting the minigame.

Cons

Dev Work

Feel free to add to this - opinions are welcome!