Hidden ores

[wwdragon]

Underground scanning does sound nice, but it should be a modular suit upgrade, NOT a world place-able structure.

The underground mining structure being different is fine; I hope it's not much more expensive then the surface one.

After unlocking scanning, it should unlock more normal ores all over the map, as well as the new deep ores; that way, we can reuse the same close areas to our base later in the game, after we've already exhausted the normal ores there.

[Angrytoe]

Totally! I think any form of more ores is always a good addition, with the game starting off with only 4 things you need to move around, (iron, copper, stone, coal) it is quite simple to come up with ways to automatically create what you need, then you throw the liquids, which add more resource transport. But even still, that's fairly simple to manage. But then throw in, idk, 3 more item based resources, and that seems like the perfect number of items for maximum clutter of convener belts, while staying fair, and fun!

TLDR
More items means more belts
More belts means more fun

[Ghoulish]

I would suggest some very useful ore, that wouldn't be minable with buildings, just by hand. This would encourage the "adventure" aspect of the game. Because building system for building system is cool, but what's the point if at the end it doesn't make you able to afford advanced stuff, for the character itself ? I've already talked about this on the IC² forum (^^), but I mean, this has to be done if you don't want the game to become RTS only

I would say this fly's in the face of the automation ethos of Factorio, don't like the idea! The adventure aspect you wish to encourage is already there in having to find the minerals, to then have to mine it manually each time.. Nope!

The idea of hidden ores is a good one though! More depth.. Never bad.

[DrEthan]

I think having the underground layers would be awesome and i was think they would be maybe like the dwarf fortress's layer system.

[ProphetofEden]

Underground scanning does sound nice, but it should be a modular suit upgrade, NOT a world place-able structure.

The underground mining structure being different is fine; I hope it's not much more expensive then the surface one.

After unlocking scanning, it should unlock more normal ores all over the map, as well as the new deep ores; that way, we can reuse the same close areas to our base later in the game, after we've already exhausted the normal ores there.

irl its a long and hard process of prospecting to find ore for us to mine but think of prospecting robots that would randomly check one square at a time to see if theres deep ore underneath

[DrEthan]

Underground scanning does sound nice, but it should be a modular suit upgrade, NOT a world place-able structure.

The underground mining structure being different is fine; I hope it's not much more expensive then the surface one.

After unlocking scanning, it should unlock more normal ores all over the map, as well as the new deep ores; that way, we can reuse the same close areas to our base later in the game, after we've already exhausted the normal ores there.

irl its a long and hard process of prospecting to find ore for us to mine but think of prospecting robots that would randomly check one square at a time to see if theres deep ore underneath

So it would work kind of like how the radar works except for underground ore?

[Krayzie6682]

Yes, but optional in the level generation.

[DrEthan]

Yes, but optional in the level generation.

why optional?

[Saccharin493]

Uranium for making A Fission power Station. Huge power output for not alot of fuel. Lots of pollution is it overheats.

[jacob021302]

Later in the game (advanced technologies would be needed for this), the player could start with underground mining, this would have 2 phases.

Searching for resources
Underground resources wouldn't be so easy to spot, the player would have to do special drills to scan the nearby underground, when he finds something there, specialised mining drills that mine underground could be used there.

Some of the resources could be found only in underground.

Great idea, and maybe there could be underground oil too?

[Ghoulish]

Uranium for making A Fission power Station. Huge power output for not alot of fuel. Lots of pollution is it overheats.

If nuclear power was added, I'd love to see the power plant being the highest polluter, so if it took damage from biters, it might go KABOOM.

[DrEthan]

Uranium for making A Fission power Station. Huge power output for not alot of fuel. Lots of pollution is it overheats.

If nuclear power was added, I'd love to see the power plant being the highest polluter, so if it took damage from biters, it might go KABOOM.

i definitely agree that there should be more power options. Right now in my world i have like 100 steam generators for the night and over 500 solar panels for the day, TOO MUCH!!!

[xlRadioActivelx]

I really liked the idea of working a bit harder to find some resources, and adding a few more materials, but I think too many metals would very easily make this game even less approachable to new players. So maybe make them semi-linear in stage of game where you don't produce(or even worry about) many materials until later. I also like the idea that DragonPox90210 suggested about buried alien artifacts, but maybe instead of the same artifacts that you get from destroying alien nests you can get better artifacts like alien eggs, or something that has specific research uses and allows for new interactions with the aliens, starting out simple like deal more damage, take less damage, but as you researched more you could get really cool things like docile biters or something. Also I think it would be cool if certain research required special items or resources instead of everything requiring research packs and time. But anyway that's just what I thought.

[Grimakar]

I really liked the idea of working a bit harder to find some resources, and adding a few more materials, but I think too many metals would very easily make this game even less approachable to new players. So maybe make them semi-linear in stage of game where you don't produce(or even worry about) many materials until later. I also like the idea that DragonPox90210 suggested about buried alien artifacts, but maybe instead of the same artifacts that you get from destroying alien nests you can get better artifacts like alien eggs, or something that has specific research uses and allows for new interactions with the aliens, starting out simple like deal more damage, take less damage, but as you researched more you could get really cool things like docile biters or something. Also I think it would be cool if certain research required special items or resources instead of everything requiring research packs and time. But anyway that's just what I thought.

One could find alien artifacts that unlock new exotic technologies like a bug running in a wheel producing power or a telekinesis modul for a suit to control bugs (of course you could think of more serious science )
But the idea of not only researching along the tree, but to find other techs in the world out there seems kind of attractive to me. These researched objects could be produced out of things you find.

[therewolfmb]

I definitely like the idea of underground deposits. It seems like a great way to add depth to the materials in the game, and make some minerals harder to access. It could also provide a solution to the excessive mine rebuilding of late game. Underground deposits could be difficult to find and expensive to mine, but deposits of common materials would have orders of magnitude more minerals.

Simple suggestion:
The specialized drills could require additional resources to operate in addition to electricity, such as lubricant for metal mining or water (or even steam) for oil. This would make underground mining more logistically complex to maintain, since electricity becomes more or less free in the late game.

Crazy suggestion:
If you are looking to add complexity between raw surface mining and deep underground, perhaps surface minerals could start semi-hidden. Instead of being always being able to see the entire deposit, only a few specks of mineral would be visible, with some of the smaller deposits having no specks. The first time a player mines one of these specs, the ore underneath that tile is revealed. The player would then know to excavate the surrounding tiles, eventually finding the edges of the deposit, with excavated tiles converting to dark sand, showing both that the tile has been checked and reducing the tile's ability to collect pollution. Or the player could carpet the area with mining drills, which would automatically excavate their working area, but would cause more environmental damage. Tier 1 sonar equipment could automatically reveal these surface deposits, while tier 2 sonar would locate the deep underground deposits.

EDIT: changed some wording on the crazy suggestion.

[Dogone]

Additional Z-levels might be fun, though I'd like more realistic biomes if there are. Native copper on the surface, Tetrahedrite underground with (More) realistic refining methods.

[IIIStrife]

Would be pretty neat honestly. I'd be down for this.

Only idea I get from this one, is... I dunno, flying scanner bots? The underground ores found so far, I honestly would like ot have a separate view mode for it only viewable in something, so it's not TOO obnoxious or something.

[OkariDraconis]

This is a very solid concept and Idea. Get it in already

[Otterbear]

Good idea, if it can be implemented in such as way as to be useful.

Once discovered, the entire deposit should become visible. (Finding said deposit could require a lot of drills for sure, but anybody wanting to place 100 mines to find the outlines of a small patch of ore...is masochistic. )

[Harkonnen604]

It better be separate underground level because if those scanners are late tech, you will face situation that some important resource is right beneath your green circuit subfactory.