mining and mining nodes

I would like to add some suggestions regarding crafting and their underlying mechanics and to make a beginning I would like to start with mining and mining nodes.

Nodes

Node stats
At first I would suggest to change the way nodes work. Currently I guess there is a fix definition of the lvl and type of nodes that can be found in a scene. Instead I would suggest a more dynamic handling of nodes...so to say on creation of the node there is chosen out of defined guideline values for this node.
Each Node would have these stats:

Lvl
Basically defining the maximum number of resources you can get out of this node. Out of a lvl 1 node you can get 1 material and out of a lvl 10 node you can get up to 10 materials.

Rare chance
The chance to get a rare e.g. tungsten instead of iron ore or an Amethyst instead of amethyst shards. This is a extra value to display that there might be nodes that could contain more rare material than other.

Gold multiplier
The chance to get gold ore out of a node.

Chopper multiplier
The chance to get chopper ore out of a node.

Silver multiplier
The chance to get silver ore out of a node.

Iron multiplier
The chance to get iron ore out of a node.

Amethyst Multiplier
The chance to get Amethyst shards out of a node.

Citrine Multiplier
The chance to get Citrine shards out of a node.

Diamond Multiplier
The chance to get Diamond shards out of a node.

Emerald Multiplier
The chance to get Emerald shards out of a node.

Garnet Multiplier
The chance to get Garnet shards out of a node.

Onyx Multiplier
The chance to get Onyx shards out of a node.

Ruby Multiplier
The chance to get Ruby shards out of a node.

Sapphire Multiplier
The chance to get Sapphire shards out of a node.

Material multiplier
The chance to get materials like clay or granite out of a node.

(I would also leave open the possibility to add additional entries if the devs decide to add additional materials in the future.)

As an example the devs could define these values to a scene..
1-5/0-7/50-100/0-30/0-30/0-10/0-10/0-10/0-10/0-10/0/0/0/0/0
..and this could be an example of a randomly created node:

5/6/100/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0/0
This would be a lvl 5 node with 100% chances of getting gold ore. There is also the possibility of 6% to get instead of the ore some fitting rare resources. Defined by the lvl you would get up to 5 item out of this node.

This way the devs would create the resource setting for the area but the real outcome would have some randomness. I would suggest for the nodes max lvl to use values around the doubled combat lvl of the scene. In a Tier 1 scene this would mean that the nodes would be lvl 1 or lvl 2, in a Tier 5 scene this would mean the lvl of nodes would be lvl 1…lvl 10. The average lvl of a node in a normal T5 scene would still be lvl 5 like it is today.
Additionally I would suggest that in mines the average node lvl should be some lvl higher than in other regions of the same tier. E.g. a general +2 to the maximum node lvls. This way normally a T4 scene would have a maximum node lvl of 8 but a mining T4 scene would have a maximum node lvl of 10.

Rare materials
For each ore type there would be defined a corresponding rare material while for the gem shards the gems would be the rare material. E.g. the corresponding rare material for iron ore could be tungsten, for chopper it could be nickel,…

Resource gain
The number of resources you can get out of a node would be a little random but as you can see below you could adjust with your skills the outcome to be higher and more constant. Normally on harvesting a node there would be generated a random value between the minimum and the maximum (lvl of the node) to define how many resources you will get. E.g. a lvl 6 node would mean you will get 1 to 6 resources and as an example your random number is 3. This means there will be 3 times a random material cast of dices based on the nodes stats. Let’s use the above example with the 100% gold node with 6% to get a rare.

First dice = 24 as there is just gold ore as result available the result is gold ore
Second dice = 80 As just values between 95 and 100 (6%) would change the gold ore to a rare material it stays gold ore

Third dice = 17 as there is just gold ore as result available the result is gold ore
Fourth dice = 98 you are lucky and the roll is in the 6% rare range. This way instead of gold ore you get a rare material

Fifth dice = 31 as there is just gold ore as result available the result is gold ore
Sixth dice = 59 and it stays gold ore

This cast of dices wouldn’t be visible you would just see the resource window popping up showing you got 2 gold ore and 1 rare material.

Experience
I would see there two reasonable possibilities to grant experience. Either the unmodified lvl of the node is defining the exp or the number of items you loot. As you will see below I suggest a skill based modification of the number of harvestable items and that would influence the experience gain...that way I would tend to use the base lvl of the node as definition how many experience you get.
Using the lvl of the node would be comparable with the current system but as the lvls of nodes would be not fixed the experience income would vary from node to node but as average you would still have a similar experience gain as it is today.

Difficulty to harvest
I would suggest that the lvl of the nodes is defining the difficulty to harvest the node more or less as it is today but with the in the skill section explained modifiers I think this would need some rework. Current max level of a node is 5 but following my suggestions there would be lvl 20+ nodes possible that would need a fitting adjustment of chances to harvest them or possibly no one could harvest them.
To make a good suggestion I would need to more about the current mechanic but as one idea maybe the scene lvl is defining the base difficulty to harvest. E.g. to have 99% chances you would need the following Mining Proficiency skill lvl:
Tier 1 scene = min. Mining Proficiency skill at least lvl 20
Tier 2 scene = min. Mining Proficiency skill at least lvl 40
Tier 3 scene = min. Mining Proficiency skill at least lvl 60
Tier 4 scene = min. Mining Proficiency skill at least lvl 80
Tier 5 scene = min. Mining Proficiency skill at least lvl 100
Tier 6 scene = min. Mining Proficiency skill at least lvl 110
Tier 7 scene = min. Mining Proficiency skill at least lvl 120
...
If you are in a Tier 5 scene with a Mining Proficiency skill of 100 you would normally have a chance of 99% to harvest a node but this value is reduced by the lvl of the node. E.g. if you are harvesting a lvl 6 node your chance would be instead just 93% and harvesting a lvl 9 node in this scene would change your chances to 90%.

Visuals of nodes
The visuals of the node would be defined by the highest multiplier…maybe even by the top 2 or 3 multipliers. E.g. if chopper is at 60 and gold is at 30 the node could be a chopper node or a chopper node with fine gold lines.
The visual could maybe even complete dynamic if the node would have uncolored placeholders that are colored depending on the node stats but I do not know it that is possible.
Another idea would be that the lvl of the node could define the size of the node. E.g. nodes of lvl 1-3 are small, nodes of lvl 4-7 are medium and nodes of lvl 8+ would be large.


Mining Skills

Mining Proficiency - Tier 1
I would basically keep this skill as the basic indicator for a successful mining. Additionally I would suggest that this skill is also adjusting the minimum value of resources you can get out of a node. E.g. You harvest a lvl 10 node. At skill lvl 1 the skill isn’t adjusting the number of minimum resources you can get and that way your get 1 to 10 resources. With a skill lvl 100 the skill is adding e.g. a +7 to the minimum resources and that way you get 8 to 10 resources out of a lvl 10 node.
And if the minimum modifier is higher than the lvl of the node you always get resources based on the lvl of the node. (e.g. a +7 minimum modifier will result in always 3 materials out of a lvl 3 node)
If needed the minimum adjustment could be also a new passive skill.

Survey - Tier 2
No change.

Swift Gathering - Tier 3
No change.

(New Probe Skills
As new skills I would add the following four specializations “Gems”, “Ore”, “Materials” and “Rare”. And yes you read it right…Specializations! Each of these new skills is adding a higher chance to get resources of that type of material out of a node.)

Gems - Tier 3
This skill raises the possibility to gain gem shards out of the node by raising the corresponding modifiers of the node but this way the modifiers of the other resources are getting less likely results.
Skill at lvl 1 = gem multipliers of the node * 1.01
Skill at lvl 100 = gem multipliers of the node * 1.5

Ore - Tier 3
This skill raises the possibility to get ore (iron,…) out of a node by adjusting these multipliers of the node.

Materials - Tier 3
This skill raises the possibility to get materials (granite,…) out of a node by adjusting these multipliers of the node.

Rare - Tier 3
This skill raises the possibility to get rare materials (tungsten,…) out of a node by adjusting this multiplier of the node.

Meticulous Collection - Tier 4
Connected with Swift Gathering.
I would change the way this skill is working. Currently this is adding the chance to get another crafting cycle to get some additional base resources (e.g. gold ore) but not for e.g. a additional chance to get tungsten or exp. As at least in the past many where complaining about the long waiting period. I would suggest to change the effect and instead this skill would adjust the node lvl. E.g. normally a lvl 5 node will give you at max 5 resources but with this skill you could raise the node lvl to get more items out of it. My suggestion would be to multiply the node lvl with a skill based value and round down the value to get the new node lvl.
Skill Lvl 1 = node lvl * 1.01 ( a lvl 5 node wouldn't change as 5.05 would still be a lvl 5 node)
Skill Lvl 100 = node lvl * 1.75 (a lvl 5 node would be handled like a lvl 8 node)

Mining Mastery - Tier 5
Connected with Meticulous Collection and is modifying the skills in the mining tree.

Choosing all 4 probe skills (Gems, Ore, Material, Rare) would not change the outcome and you would just pump experience into skills without a benefit as the gained advantages would overlap each other. But if you just don’t want to get materials like granite training “Gems”, “Ore” and “Rare” will reduce the chances to get materials more and more. Also if you are just interested in the ore you could focus just on the “Ore” skill and get lesser and lesser drops like tungsten, granite or onyx.
At first I was even thinking about creating sub skills for Gems, Material and Ore (e.g. connected with the Ore skill the Tier 4 skills Gold, Iron, Chopper and Silver) that would additionally raise the chances for a specific resource but I think this would overload the skill tree.

And just as a reminder: All values are just examples!

Ideas?