V2.0 Mining - Just bad luck or design

[Vaeliorin]

Mining the surface deposits at night is risky. The screamers come quickly and their spawn can dig down or find the mine entrance easily. That said in V2 I am mining the surface nodes during the day, taking time away from trader quests.

At night I am tunnelling around really only for XP. That said. I have found Fe and K deposits, so only Coal and Pb day mining is necessary now.

My main reason for the post was to gain some validation that underground deposits in V2 are more rare than in V1 by design, not just some weird artifact of my random gen seed.

This is my current iron mine.



If any zombies show up, they tend to jump off the stairs, at which point I hear them hit and stab them before they get up. I've never really had an issue with screamers (they show up, but I almost always kill them before they scream. since they jump down before trying to scream.) Mostly, I just find them annoying, since they break up my mining rhythm/waste time on my consumables.

 

[Riamus]

Mining the surface deposits at night is risky. The screamers come quickly and their spawn can dig down or find the mine entrance easily. That said in V2 I am mining the surface nodes during the day, taking time away from trader quests.

At night I am tunnelling around really only for XP. That said. I have found Fe and K deposits, so only Coal and Pb day mining is necessary now.

My main reason for the post was to gain some validation that underground deposits in V2 are more rare than in V1 by design, not just some weird artifact of my random gen seed.

Not all that risky. Just kill them and then you have at least 21 real time minutes of peace. Killing them is extremely easy. I'll even let them fall into the hole with me and kill them when they hit the ground.

 

[BFT2020]

I dig a small hole at the top and surround with cobblestone blocks. Hatch on top and a long shaft going down with ladders is the way I get in and out of the mine. A junk turret up top usually takes care of any curious screamers before they become a problem.

Eventually if I get too far down for the turret to activate, I upgrade it to a shotgun turret with a generator I setup.

Another option is to make a tall cobblestone building over your mine entrance and place spikes around it. Then the screamers help you out by trying to eat wood spikes. Apparently it is bad for their stomachs.

 

[Vaeliorin]

I dig a small hole at the top and surround with cobblestone blocks. Hatch on top and a long shaft going down with ladders is the way I get in and out of the mine. A junk turret up top usually takes care of any curious screamers before they become a problem.

Eventually if I get too far down for the turret to activate, I upgrade it to a shotgun turret with a generator I setup.

Another option is to make a tall cobblestone building over your mine entrance and place spikes around it. Then the screamers help you out by trying to eat wood spikes. Apparently it is bad for their stomachs.

I'd love to set up turrets at my mines, but having to move them 5+ times in a playthrough would be way too annoying (yes, I usually mine out a bunch of minimum 9X9 holes down to bedrock every playthrough.)

I've thought about seeing if it was possible to make a mod with battery operated turrets that could be picked up without a land claim block, but never really had sufficient motivation.

 

[Riamus]

I never bother worrying about enemies while mining. I'll just keep mining. If they come in, I kill them and continue mining. It isn't a big deal. And for screamers, it's a minimum of 21 real time minutes after killing them before they respawn again. I can get a TON of ore in 21 minutes. So it would be uncommon for me to see more than 2-3 sets of screamers when mining, which isn't a problem.

Just placing a couple of rows of spikes (or more, if you want) around the hole will keep out most unwanted guests if they really bother you.

 

[Vaeliorin]

Yeah, I rarely worry about enemies, I just get annoyed getting knocked out of my mining rhythm and potentially wasting some time on consumables.

Not sure I trust the 21 minute thing, though. The first screamers I encountered in 2.0 (as mentioned elsewhere, I basically skipped 1.0) was quad screamers. And no, neither of the first 2 screamed. My only thought is maybe the countdown counts down while your away from your base, because I encountered them after an extended time spent elsewhere.

 

[Riamus]

Yeah, I rarely worry about enemies, I just get annoyed getting knocked out of my mining rhythm and potentially wasting some time on consumables.

Not sure I trust the 21 minute thing, though. The first screamers I encountered in 2.0 (as mentioned elsewhere, I basically skipped 1.0) was quad screamers. And no, neither of the first 2 screamed. My only thought is maybe the countdown counts down while your away from your base, because I encountered them after an extended time spent elsewhere.

That sounds like a bug, though I do believe screamers can spawn more screamers, so maybe that was it.

And yes, heat generates and timers continue even if you aren't there. But you will only get one set of screamers (1-2 by default) initially and can then get more if you don't kill them soon enough.

Maybe the first ones had already screamed without you realizing it. Were there other movies besides the screamers there? If so, then someone has already screamed. Sometimes they scream before they should really be able to see you.

 

[Vaeliorin]

That sounds like a bug, though I do believe screamers can spawn more screamers, so maybe that was it.

And yes, heat generates and timers continue even if you aren't there. But you will only get one set of screamers (1-2 by default) initially and can then get more if you don't kill them soon enough.

Maybe the first ones had already screamed without you realizing it. Were there other movies besides the screamers there? If so, then someone has already screamed. Sometimes they scream before they should really be able to see you.

nope, no other zombies (I assume that's what you meant instead of movies ) There were 2 that I killed, and then 2 more came wandering in pretty much immediately. I was kind of surprised I hadn't seen any (I had a lot going on at my base...4 forges and 4 cement mixers running 24/7) but they've started showing up semi-regularly now (well, I assume that's what keeps dying on my spikes...)

They're not an issue, even if they scream. Just not sure why I got so many at once that first time (and thankfully, they always seem to show up at my base instead of while I'm mining, like I was used to in previous alphas.)

 

[Riamus]

nope, no other zombies (I assume that's what you meant instead of movies ) There were 2 that I killed, and then 2 more came wandering in pretty much immediately. I was kind of surprised I hadn't seen any (I had a lot going on at my base...4 forges and 4 cement mixers running 24/7) but they've started showing up semi-regularly now (well, I assume that's what keeps dying on my spikes...)

They're not an issue, even if they scream. Just not sure why I got so many at once that first time (and thankfully, they always seem to show up at my base instead of while I'm mining, like I was used to in previous alphas.)

Yeah, I meant zombies. Stupid phone.

But yeah, that sounds like a bug.

 

[InfiniteWarrior]

Just another excuse to get you out of the biome(s) you want to be in. The more the way I want to play is strangled out, the less I like any game to be honest and, apparently (with A21), I'm not the first to hear old timers talk about the railroading in this one.

 

[Suxar]

Mining the surface deposits at night is risky. The screamers come quickly and their spawn can dig down or find the mine entrance easily. That said in V2 I am mining the surface nodes during the day, taking time away from trader quests.

I don't see any particular problem. Usually my mine quickly turns into a quarry. They jumped down to you, you killed them and you continue digging.

Post automatically merged: Jun 23, 2025

Just another excuse to get you out of the biome(s) you want to be in.

I disagree. Now, on the contrary, they lock you in a binomial. With the wasteland, it took me a decent amount of time to get the required number of mutants. The 30 minutes to survive ended faster.

 

[InfiniteWarrior]

Now, on the contrary, they lock you in a binomial.

It's the "progression" part of "biome progression", i.e. loot stage bonuses, that sets you on the railroad path. Ergo, I'll be playing from the outset with "biome progression" turned off.

I was thinking of the ore vein changes. I despise mining so much that I always seek out a cluster of the necessary from the beginning so I don't have to wander all over hell and half of Georgia to get everything I need in one place with the exception of shale, of course. With the ore vein changes, I'll be hard-pressed to do that now. Ergo, "it's just another excuse to force you out of the biome you want to be in," afic.

 

[Suxar]

I was thinking of the ore vein changes. I despise mining so much that I always seek out a cluster of the necessary from the beginning so I don't have to wander all over hell and half of Georgia to get everything I need in one place with the exception of shale, of course. With the ore vein changes, I'll be hard-pressed to do that now. Ergo, "it's just another excuse to force you out of the biome you want to be in," afic.

I usually don't search. I just open the map, find the nearest ore outlet, go to it and dig. If I dig up several resources, then good, but if I dig up one, then one. I usually dig up the entire vein, so for me nothing has really changed.

 

[Spankstinator]

Well, after following this thread, I realized I've been a bit of a wuss about shallow mining at night. Everyone is right, of course, it's not that big a deal, especially if you set up the mine to optimize for Z's falling in rather than running in. Thanks for the education.