Topic

Pick and Fancy Pick "Use" function

The "Use" function on the picks is a very useful function. Unlike pressing enter to mine, you don't have to worry about anything getting in your way while mining, particularly animals. It's always a two click process, and it's almost perfect. Almost. (Note: A letter surrounded by parenthesis is an image. Look at the bottom of the post for image links and explanations.)

1. The first problem is that the horizontal range on the Use command isn't far enough. This problem has two parts.

1a. You can be close enough to use the Enter command to mine a rock (IE: The rock is highlighted blue), but not close enough to use the Use command to mine the same rock (A). Enter-command mining has a further range in every case, though it does seem to vary depending on the shape of the rock. The taller, thinner rocks offer an almost identical range of enter-command mining versus use-command mining. The wider "laying down" horizontal rocks, on the other hand, have a much more significant difference in the range of enter-command mining and use-command mining.

1b. There's a certain range of distances that your character stands at while mining. He doesn't always walk to the same location to mine. Unfortunately, the boundary of use-command mining happens to fall in between that range of distances. This means that sometimes, when you're finished mining and you go to use the use command on the pick, it'll tell you that there's nothing to mine. And then you have to move, -literally-, a couple of pixels closer to the rock before you can continue mining with the use command.

2. The second overall problem is that the vertical range on the use command is also not enough. You have to be on almost the exact same level as the rock you're trying to mine. Unlike enter-command mining, you can't be above or below the rock you're trying to mine, otherwise it'll tell you there's no rock to mine (B). This also makes certain rocks a real pain to mine with the use command, such as a horizontal rock sitting on a shallow incline. (C)

All in all, this is pretty much how I view the current situation to be: i51.tinypic.com/25pjywn.png. I'd like to see the size of the red box in that diagram expanded to be about the size of the blue box, if possible. Or at least expanded horizontally to cover the green bars, and expanded vertically enough to make it so that mining on an incline isn't a hassle.

A. ( i56.tinypic.com/hx17av.png ) In this picture, I'm close enough to mine with the Enter button, as you can see by the fact that the rock is highlighted. However I'm -not- close enough to use the Use button on the pick without it telling me there's nothing to mine, even though my character is so close to the rock.

B. ( i52.tinypic.com/w8ua7q.png ) Imagine there's a rock spawn in the middle of that platform. There usually is, but it wasn't there when I took the screenshot. You're on the ground. You can either jump up and activate it with enter and mine, or you can all the way around the room and get up there. With use-button mining, you have to walk all the way around, because the use button won't recognize that there's a rock there.

C. ( i55.tinypic.com/accqk2.png ) If a horizontal rock spawned on this incline, I bet you wouldn't be able to mine it with the use command without walking closer to the rock after every action.

Posted 14 months ago by Mr. Glenn Subscriber! | Permalink

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