I already had a screamer with her horde of feral and radioactive zombie in one of my mines. That was no fun.
In my iron mine which is only 15 blocks under the surface I had multiple visits vom screamers.
To prevent that in the future I placed a auto turret at the entrance. As long as the mine was relatively close to the surface I was able to use the zombie's pathfinding against them and lure them directly into a trap. What it looks like when the mine goes deeper I will see then.
Clearly you adapted. Getting cornered down there isn't very much different than getting cornered in one of the dungeon pois, right? This is the survival part kicking in and vanilla will have that survival part, if that isn't fun for someone he has to mod or change options. That is my point.
The only part that can be talked about (in vanilla!) is the frequency or serverity you get attacked underground.
You follow the resources that you mine and that are randomly distributed and accordingly it is hardly possible to plan a defense here like with a base.
There is also the possibility to look at surface gravel spots and mine top down. It is the safer way as you can fortify the perimeter on the mine lip and it is easier to keep an escape route operating. Not sure if surface spots works flawlessly yet, but RWG is redone anyway, this is not the final version.
It also doesn't help to build doors because the zombies dig their way from the top to you and don't take the entrance.
I have taken a close look at the behavior of zombies in the underground. They behave differently than on the surface. For example, they dig past a pit instead of trying to jump over it. And if a way to you is longer than about 30 blocks then they dig down to you from above instead of using a free entrance.
It depends if they reach your tunnel directly above you or behind you. If directly above you get a bad surprise but you can run out. If behind you and you can reach a door, you can slip through and run out through the parallel tunnel. The doors can be just wood and are there just to give you a few seconds. I haven't tried this strategy yet (I must confess), someone else reported it worked for him.
Barbed wire has the unpleasant characteristic that you get stuck on it yourself in a critical situation.
The best way to fend off the zombies so far has been with the shotgun and then try to escape or get a position above the zombies.
Barbed wire is for cases where you are cornered. When running out is not possible the wire will give you the time to shoot them or even throw molotovs if you dare :cocksure: . I agree, the shotgun is ideal for this situation
Besides you hear nothing if you dig with the auger. It is too loud. If you are lucky you notice that something falls down from above but in the dark it is hardly perceptible.
This is a critical part. If you use an auger you have to add listening breaks at appropriate intervalls. At the moment it just draws too many screamers.
I would use the steel pickaxe for digging those surveyor tunnels (it isn't that far behind the auger in effectiveness) and use the auger if I find an ore vein but only after putting some defense on the ground above. Our experience with a top down mine suggest the auger should only be used with defenses up if used near to surface. Near bedrock we have no problem using auger at all.
Mining is possible but it's not as much fun as it used to be.
Wouldn't it be possible to dig at bedrock if you want a "laid back meditative" experience? Less ores to find there, sure, but also less attention to safety necessary. We have found ore veins there too. And just going up a few blocks makes you find much more veins without increasing danger that much and increasing detection time for you considerably.
