Is this bugged or just unreasonably difficult and working as intended?

[Jarod "Brickwit" McBrickerton]

@Bertram, it does work the same way but I think some people might be stuck in the old mindset of only knowing how effective an item is by looking at the skilling rate (SR) or SAU gain rate (SGR). SR doesn't tell you anything if it's at 100% since it will be that way until you are almost ready to use the next item in the ladder, but the SGR tells can be roughly translated into the effectiveness level (EL) if you know the numbers well enough so some people just report the SGR. To make things easier on everybody, it would be more useful to just say what your EL is if you're trying to figure out what's going on with an item.

[Bold "Bertram" Blanshard]

After 20 misses, I did find Sollium, inside NU.
I hadn't previously done UG mining, but my Effectiveness on the 82 Moia is slightly above the OP at 53%, as I have probably done more Picking and a bit of Refining. My SAU rate is 73% rising.

But it is certainly not time effective, because of the other bug that the Extractor keeps stopping, and you have to stand by it and keep restarting it. Even if that didn't happen, not being able to continue for 16 minutes because the Extractor is busy does not seem like a friendly design. (Inside NU one could pick rocks I suppose). And of course extracting something which is worth a lot less than the cost of extraction, which gives no skills, is not a good design either.

[Caliopus "Calio" Jones]

To make things easier on everybody, it would be more useful to just say what your EL is if you're trying to figure out what's going on with an item.

I apologize for the oversight.  It is 50% (36%-62%), which I always interpreted to mean 50% average in a large enough sample like my 200+ tries.
 
Aside from the suggestion that there be better rare drops for 82 UG mining (which I strongly agree with - a good loot table is the single best way to keep players interested, happy and playing. UG mining doesn't have to be cost effective. It just has to be interesting and fun), I would suggest a better pick to bridge the gap between steel picks and 82s for skilling.  Either that, or a stretch out the Skill and SAU falloff rates on steel picks so they remain effective for skilling longer.

[Zaelkaer "Allfather" Vampyre]

" I would suggest a better pick to bridge the gap between steel picks and 82s for skilling.  Either that, or a stretch out the Skill and SAU falloff rates on steel picks so they remain effective for skilling longer."

This is a great idea, and there's a good way to do this. If the devs don't want it to be "easier" to collect resources than the current steel pick, i would suggest a pick that has a slightly slower swing rate, and make it last longer (but at the trade-off that it is more expensive to craft than the steel pick, so that awd spent/resources obtained, are roughly the same amount. So the the differences would be - more expensive, longer decay, longer reload (1.6sec instead of 1.5). Call it "Titanium pick" of something like that. Lets say that if you are 10% falling on the steel pick, then you are 33% rising on the titanium pick. idea.. maybe it should be suggested?

[Sifalio "Sifis" Kritikakis]

I completely agree with the titanium pick


Indeed the gap between picking and ug mining is huge!


It is also going to be very interesting to seeing all the ubers skilling the titanium pick in NU
Stone prices will drop!

[Event "Janе" Horizon]

I believe the main issue with a steel pick is that the pick starts at 100% SR (falling) and drops rapidly afterwards.
Chipping out to level 1 of the steel pick's skills has much less benefit than doing the same on a weapon / HK.
If a steel pick could be taken to the SR (growing) region as weapons are - players could  gain the mining skills more efficiently at a cost of needing to chip out.

[The "Fifth" Entity]

Short answer: unreasonably difficult, not bugged.
What's "unreasonably difficult" and what isn't, that's a deeply subjective question thou...


One thing is certain, all UG miners have gone through the same pain, so it's all a fair game. Look at it this way - to make sure a miner has a good reason to be proud to be a miner is to make it hard to become one in the 1st place.


Ahh, the Titanium Pick! As long as there's AW, ppl have dreamed about it.
No, it's not possible to chip out and become effective again with the steel pick. You won't even get close to the skilling efficiency of the newcomer.
Yes, it's possible with every other tool and weapon in the game.
Do you think this is just a coincidence?
No ofc not. It was all done intentionally, once u left the Paradise u can never return.





There's a way out thou. Quoting the classics:

... I recommend taking the same awd and refining stones.  Start with NU stones and move to Sar stones when you get to 0 slag.  When you get to zero slag with Sar rocks you'll be at 100% [growing with] 178 [scanner].

[Bold "Bertram" Blanshard]

I've now done some tests in the Sollium field in NU with my 82 Moia.
1. If I am inside the field, and run 50 m between drops, every charge is a hit.
2. If I drop further charges after a hit, all are misses.
3. If I am outside the field, further drops on the same spot are all misses.
So this seems to show
1. The chance of a hit is determined by the field, not by my skill level (which is 53% Effectiveness)
2. The field has a well defined boundary, the probability inside is 100%, outside 0%.
3. The Effectiveness does not determine the hit rate, only the amount found.
There are some points of advice in earlier posts which my evidence does not support
1. The OP's misses are due to his low skills
2. If you rebomb after a miss, you might get a hit.
So I think these need to be qualified as to when they might be true, in particular if different rules apply outside NU, or if they are ever true for new UG miners like OP and myself.
Of course it isn't worth extracting Sollium, the question is, is it more effective, in time and AWD, for a new player to skill by mining the NU fields or by refining (which only gives certain of the relevant skills, and not the main ones Scanning Practice, Blast Technics, Terrain Orientation, Nature, Geol. Prospecting, etc).

[dale "dalewj" ofj]

1. The OP's misses are due to his low skills
2. If you rebomb after a miss, you might get a hit.
So I think these need to be qualified as to when they might be true, in particular if different rules apply outside NU, or if they are ever true for new UG

Outside of Nu with higher finders these have both been proved time and time again by higher skilled miners.  Is minign different for lower miners.   well could be.  You need a second miner with the same skills (And one with higher and lower skills) in 82 to both try it themselves and mine along with you to determine if both are true.

[Jarod "Brickwit" McBrickerton]

1. The OP's misses are due to his low skills
2. If you rebomb after a miss, you might get a hit.
So I think these need to be qualified as to when they might be true, in particular if different rules apply outside NU, or if they are ever true for new UG

Outside of Nu with higher finders these have both been proved time and time again by higher skilled miners.  Is minign different for lower miners.   well could be.  You need a second miner with the same skills (And one with higher and lower skills) in 82 to both try it themselves and mine along with you to determine if both are true.

An additional huge wrinkle: Lots of stuff has been changed between AWA and AWS and until things are tested more thoroughly we can't be sure that mining with multiple bombs in one spot (not to mention everything else about UGM) works the same as it used to.

[dale "dalewj" ofj]

we can't be sure that mining with multiple bombs in one spot (not to mention everything else about UGM) works the same as it used to.

ahhh yes we can

[Jarod "Brickwit" McBrickerton]

Sorry, I should have said that I can't be sure because I haven't done much mining in AWS! 8-D

I'm glad that at least that portion of mining is settled!