Greetings:
Intro: For those of you not familiar with Max 49'er Uberhoffer, let me take a moment to introduce myself. I was once once of the great miners in the game Project Entropia and Entropia Universe. I view them as two separate games because PE changed after VU 10. Max Uberhoffer and the former avatar known as Dax Stackman Staxian were considered close to the top miners in the game. Now, that knowledge and experience has come to Project Ion.
In this guide, you will learn the basics of mining in Project Ion, as mining exists currently. Since mining has just been introduced, much information will change over the course of the game.
Items you will need: Woosh PRD101, Woosh PRE101, and lots of UGM Depth Bombs
Set-up: The easiest way to set up your mining devices is to drag and drop them to your toolbar. You do not need to add the Depth Bombs to the toolbar, as those are the "ammunition" that the PRD101 will use to find resources.
Let's assume you have set up as I did, with the PRD101 on toolbar position 1 (right next to the "PEACE" symbol for unequip) and the PRE101 on position 2. This means that hitting the number "1" on your keyboard will use the PRD101 and hitting "2" on your keyboard will use the PRE101.
Procedure: First of all, lets get a good ways out from the city to begin our mining journey. Take a 30 second run from the outpost of your choice in any direction and lets begin from there.
Start auto-running (the "F" key) and press the "1" key on your keyboard twice. I am not sure why twice, but that is how it works--so do it now! You will drop a UGM Depth Bomb and the results will soon show up. If you found nothing, you will see that message in your chat window and the finder screen will vanish. If you hit a resource, you will see a red dot on the finder window and now it is up to you to find the resource.
This is the tricky part, as the finder compass will NOT rotate as you do. Face your avatar due north. This is indicated by the blue arrow on the outside ring of your radar. When the blue arrow is at the top of your radar, you are facing due north. When you are facing north, look at the finder screen. Your position is indicated by the middle of the finder screen. The red dot indicates your claim is in the exact direction relative to the middle of the finder when you are faced due north. Turn yourself that direction and run to your claim.
If you find you are lost, always turn your avatar due north and reorient yourself.
So, you have found your claim--now what? Run all the way up to your claim and hit "2" to activate your extractor. If you are in "aim" mode and have a small aiming sight on your screen, use your mouse and click on the claim until it disappears. This may take several minutes or even more if your claim is large.
Things to remember: Although the range for the finder has not been established, you must have some distance between drops. I suggest you drop your bomb then run for 30 seconds in a straight line from the previous drop and drop again.
Claims may come in bunches, so remember to drop a bomb right after you deplete your claim.
Review and notes for developers: Mining is working ok and I so love the concept, but I would recommend some changes to make mining a more enjoyable experience and less confusing.
1. The finder compass really should be moveable. It took me a long time and some help from others to figure out that I needed to orient myself due north to make claim finding easy. This is really confusing for folks not used to navigating in an MMO.
2. A very, very important change needs to be made to the radar compass. The blue arrow blends in with the terrain, especially in forest areas. At minimum, the arrow should be a brighter color and at best, N E S W should be marked on the radar compass in bright letters.
3. My average claim find was around 10 credits (PED? PION Dollars? PIDS?). The extractor takes a long time to extract claims of that size and since skills are not introduced, this is a lot of wasted time when you are pulling up between .20-.30 in resources per click. Until skills are implemented and bigger extractors are introduced, I would suggest making the pulls double or triple the current amount (.40-1.00)
4. The exact amount is shown in the chat window and in the claim. I think it is more enjoyable to see a "class" of the claim and not the exact amount (Like Class A = .01-.50, Class B= .51-1.00 etc). Only reveal the exact amount for globals and hofs.
Subject: Mining: An Uberhoffer Guide and Review 
2013-08-01, 15:58
