In short this thread will be in 4 parts, one for each drill type, as well as a note about the gemstone gauntlet changes and how they tie into drills as a whole.
In the first iteration of this alpha update, the concern was that players either didn't want to, or didn't feel the need to create and use drills. The mindset of just using a gauntlet with amazing stats and no fuel was too enticing and wasn't high upkeep.
While this alpha has overall been positive, I, as well as numerous others, feel as if instead of making drills more viable and useful, they are mostly just becoming niche and overshadowed.
Mithril- Currently, as of this post, this drill's purpose is to increase mithril powder. (20% to 40% on variant) Thats it. The first drill you work towards helps you get some powder, maybe mine a bit until you get a refined titanium pickaxe, and then you're done with it, no upgrades, no branches, just no use after you get your powder.
Jasper- In short the Jasper drill is going to be used for gemstone mining. In the alpha it gets 2 pristine built in, and thats about it. you get a perfect topaz worth of pristine, and although it used to be a topaz drill, it doesn't get a topaz slot. This feels a little weird as with the alpha splitting up progression a bit more, jasper feels like it should be the go to for gemstone mining. So adding a Topaz slot to this could be a good move in addition to it having innate pristine. With the nerf to the amount of pristine you get overall with the prismatic enchant, adding a topaz slot to the jasper drill would still be viable, even if you lowered the pristine on it from 2 to 1, allowing you to get 3 total pristine after you put in the work, rather than being capped at two might bring this drill more use. (Talked about more below.)
^^Postnote from Dyl: If the jasper drill being giving a topaz slot means it gets one pristine innately, that makes sense. The topaz drill can get the first pristine we see on a drill at +0.5, and the Jasper drill can be +1 but it also gets a Topaz Slot.
Titanium- The titanium drill is the jack of all trades, its mines fast mines everything, and does it effectively. the tradeoff being no gemstone fortune, no powder buffs, and no bonuses besides pets, armor, and gems. However, this having a topaz slot takes away form the jasper drill being usable. Once you get the 655 (which i know is incredibly expensive to make which warrants the slot) it gets the same pristine as a maxed jasper drill which is seemingly supposed to specialize in gemstone mining. Otherwise this drill does its job perfectly, being good at everything. that just means that the other drills are becoming completely obsolete, even the jasper drill which is made specifically for gemstone mining.
Divan- This drill is right where it should be, the end all be all. Although, for a drill which takes 1m meter to fill it should get maybe one or two pristine. The drop itself is the single rarest drill component the crystal hollows in its entirety, this drill SHOULD be the best for everything. So giving it one or two pristine doesn't seem so farfetched when looked at logically. However I will say this, and this is the one note that came from me personally rather than a group of players. If the Divan Drill is given pristine innately, even if its only 1, this might warrant the use of combining the Mithril, Jasper, and Titanium maxed out drills, to get access to what makes them all special, all in one drill.
I understand the majority of this might not make sense as you weren't in the call where we talked about this for FIVE HOURS (yes its 6:45 AM).
But the takeaway from the entire conversation was that. "If you are going to completely break up the progression, Mithril for Mines, Jasper for CH, and Titanium for Glacite. Why should one be better in another drills area of expertise when none of them build into each other? some resources for the drills are goin up and down, and the effort to make the drills aren't completely reflected in the drills themselves."
We originally thought about talking about mentioning drills building into each other, then into drills branching form the mithril drill, but Spctr (The writer of this) talked us out of it, as that would require a lengthy storyboard in terms of stats and resources that we deemed might be too troublesome for the payout or what it would be worth.
But as for the gemstone gauntlet taking a backseat in terms of end game mining, that seems understandable.You all are overlooking the role it plays in the glacite tunnels as a weapon and how it got a serious buff, and that also needs to be taken into account when you dog on this change for no reason other than because, "Drills are expensive". it is meant to be a transitioning tool, not a foolproof failsafe.
If this hurts to read, we apologize as it is incredibly early/late. We felt like this needed to be said if the mining progression was getting broken up into 3 overall areas. Thank you for reading!
-Yours truly, The (P)sychotic Six
