Mining feedback from a casual player

So I finally got time to actually go to Elysium mines and mine some ore. This was my first time mining since the changes.

I have to say it's terrible. The first circuit was normal, but my second circuit had 0-1 nodes available per cluster area, with the majority having 0 (i.e. nothing) available. I didn't bother with another circuit since the second circuit wasn't productive at all.

Note that I'm a casual player and average 0-60 minutes PER WEEK mining silver. All the silver I get is used for the frustrating masterwork slot machine. I have never bought any ore from anyone, ever, and have never sold any silver, ever, either. I don't sell my masterworks because I'm still not that good at it and they all suck. I don't buy equipment either because it's too expensive and/or I'm poor.

I read somewhere that the changes were made to stop the top end players/bots from... getting too much ore? Well, okay, that's fine, but why is the casual player getting screwed over then? I have no interactions with the top players/bots because I'm too poor to buy ore and am also too poor to buy the equipment they offer, so whatever they're doing doesn't affect me at all. I can't sell my silver either because I need all of it I can get to make average items just for myself. I don't mine enough ore to sell decent items either.

Reining in the top players/bots is fine, but there needs to be a solution that doesn't screw over the casual players. If I had to throw out a suggestion, maybe each account gets 5 hours a week of full, regular node spawns like before. Then, after that, it "decays" to current state.

Also, note that since I only have 0-60 minutes per week for mining (i.e. I don't have much time to play), "solutions" like "Hey Golruul, go do the first circuit, then leave and wait 15 minutes for the area to reset. Then go back in and repeat the cycle" isn't going to work either.

 

Strange, I tested it a couple of days ago after everyone complained and I saw no change to the rate I could mine in elysium. I could still do around 250 copper+silver (not counting other materials) per hour.

Perhaps you are doing a small loop and not covering every single possible node spawn location on your loop?

 

I've had the same issue in Graff for copper/gold. It's a little less noticeable in Spectral Mines, but mining is definitely an 'even more terrible slog' than it was before. I'm glad they are concerned about and taking action against botters, but the current respawn rate is pretty tough on the average player. I thought I was looking at weeks for mining enough granite for my dungeon; might be months now (if I can stomach that). It wouldn't be so bad that respawn drops dramatically if the per node yield would increase. I'd even be happy if you could get 300 or 400 ore in one run, but then be locked out from respawn of that zone for 24 hours.