Ore farming - one dimensional: scarab or waste of time

so, the ore farming, universally ignored mechanic, that CAN be quite ok numbers wise

there is one problem: Kalguuran Scarab of Refinement

without it, it takes DAYS to mine->smelt all your ores. like literally DAYS with full lvl5 miners and smelters

getting maxed out tatto/rune shipment requires ~4m worth of bars (dust doesnt matter)

per 100k value you need ~6200/5200/4200/2600/1500 bars

multiply that by 40 get how many bars you need to send a soft-capped shipment

problem? a map with Refiner's Bargain, Delve scarab, 2 Kangaroo scarabs, map device + tree gives you ~8 ore spots for ~8000 ores in total (on average ofc)

that takes several f.. hours to process with all lvl5 workers and you need multiple dozens of such maps to get to a point where sending stuff makes sense

you burn gold (alternative cost: you are not spending it on farmers/mappers), you have a VERY delayed reward (batch of 30 maps processes for ~entire day)

enter Kangaroo scarab of Refinement. wow. all problems gone. you get bars instantly, no mining, no smelting


i.. kinda dont like how big of a shortcut this scarab is. it removes all hurdles, completely eliminates the 'city management' aspect, instant rewards. why?

as it is - that scarab is the only sensible way of interacting with ores AT ALL, otherwise you burn mountains of gold on mining and smelting and if you clear maps fast, youll wait for several days to process ores from 50 or 100 maps. it is way slower gain-per-unit of time than with farmers. and farmers give you currency AND tattoos. ores give you just tattoos + junk (or stacked decks)

so. maybe make the base interaction with ores far less shit than it is currently? move some of the power of that scarab into the tree. mandatory scarabs are no good

You are in the VAST minority of players that care about ore at all. Most of us only click them for the extra mobs they spawn or for the bismuth juice. Even when we do use the ore, it is just to cycle quotas on the 2 close ports.

well, i kinda explained why nobody toys with marking ore - it is time consuming and gold-heavy hassle, clearly unable to compete with farming

UNLESS you use the Kangaroo scarab of Refinement

because if you do, you get 8k BARS per WHITE map (with proper setup ofc), no gold cost, you dont even need to recruit miners/smelters. you sure can do run them 8mod but the difference wasnt THAT huge to warrant time difference

and while nothing beats crops, farming ore BARS that way is kinda neat addition to other 'white map' farms (stuff like beasts, alva temples, blueprints) when all you do is click stuff and leave - it is a very nice, low effort, no investment needed farming strategy that actually makes use of excess maps

that shows, that basic ore interaction/rewards is very bad and should be brought up - either by increasing ore extraction/smelting time or making smelting actually produce more bars than ore (leaving Refinement at 1:1). ore mining wasnt great in settlers, but at least it gave gold. now it doesnt and the cost to mine and smelt is actually significant - worst part being how SLOW this is

i wont touch the ore rewards (rares) as these are TERRIBLE past day 2 of the league - this might need a revamp as well