During our last Chief Chat, we talked about the importance of resource gathering in Em-8ER. While we had the THMPR mining mech (which is an epic thing to have), we felt we needed a progression in our resource collection that took you from simple mining with a hand weapon, all the way to the THMPR mining mech and beyond.
Providing a progression to mining would be an important driving factor in the game. We want to reward players for building an expanding set of mining equipment, in order to extract different and rarer resources.
As a new Gatestrider, you would only have access to the personal mining tool. This handheld drill would let you extract more common and plentiful resources scattered around the world maps. You might extract ice, or aluminum, or sulfates, finding pockets of these elements on the surface of the planet. While mining, you may encounter small numbers of enemies that you can easily dispatch.
Using these common elements, you could then craft a personal THMPR device. This THMPR is essentially a large, automated mining drill which is deployed from a dropship. When it lands and deploys, the drill attracts a lot of attention, and you would have to defend it from waves of enemies.
We wanted the personal THMPR to really invoke those spiritual successor flavors from games like Firefall (and even Deep Rock Galactic). We reached out to a talented mechanical designer on Twitter, @KeNavy_mint to design an original personal drilling system for Em-8ER, and these are some of the designs we received:
The next step was to whitebox the concept. This is a rough draft 3D model that is quickly done to reveal any issues with the drawing that we need to resolve.
Em-8ER fan, HeineSnow, helped us visualize the drawing into a rough 3D mockup, which we studied and discussed. HeineSnow produced several changes and drafts, resulting in the latest rough draft you see below.
A personal THMPR drill would let you mine for higher grades of resources located under the surface of the planet. It would also attract a lot more attention, drawing more and more enemies in waves. You will need to protect the drill or you risk having it blow up and losing all the resources it has collected.
KeNavy_mint specializes in moving mechanical parts, so we also took time to test animate the whitebox to test how it would deploy on terrain after being dropped off by dropship.
Now we are climbing up the resource chain! The personal THMPR can be used to mine resources, which you can then parlay into the THMPR mining mech that can mine the rarest and best resources!
The mining mech is your friend as much as it is a mining tool. THMPR mechs have personalities, and faceplate emojis and voiceover allow them to communicate with their Gatestriders. We feel many Gatestriders will form personal bonds with their THMPR mechs and defend them at all costs.
A THMPR mining mech allows you to extract even rarer resources, including elusive isotopes which can be used to craft advanced omniframes, weapons and ability modules.
Of course, rarer resources mean a tougher and more varied enemy encounter. Each mining method will present unique combat challenges that get more challenging than the last. The THMPR mining mech will even summon smaller Kaiju, which must be defeated to obtain the rarest of the isotopes at the end of the encounter. It is a matter of risk and reward. Do you stay and attract more creatures to extract the best resources and risk losing it all? Or do you bail early and play it safe?
No mining method obsoletes the other. Even the first mining methods yield useful resources, and the later ones also provide unique resources not found with other methods or equipment. The idea is that you will have a selection of tools with which to mine for specific goals, and these, in turn, provide you with higher crafting goals to build better versions of these tools.
The ultimate mining tools are the huge drills that can be found in player built base-cities. These will be community owned, and the more you contribute to the maintenance, repair and upgrades of these drills, the larger your share of the resources they dig up.
That concludes our little summary of mining progression from our last Chief Chat. Be sure to join us on Discord for our Chief Chat, as we have much more to discuss!
