Then why mine with hammers? Just because it makes you feel good? I don’t see why that means bombs should be worse.
EDIT: Please don’t edit your posts after I’ve responded. If they were not intended to clear blocks they never would have done damage to them.
Because once someone finds an exploit that makes the game easier, they fight tooth n’ nail to try and keep it in the game. It should’a been patched the second it was found.
The problem is, it’s an abuse of game mechanics, and the game is going to have’to be balanced around bomb mining if they keep it in the game, which is just gonna detract from the depth of traditional minin’ and spelunking and cause all kinds of balance problems down the line. Not to mention the extra work it’ll take for devs who now have to consider bomb damage, bomb skills, and gem health/block health ratios as they design new planets.
Instead of making mining more fun, adding more cave and spelunking elements, they’ve split the design focus.
This doesn’t even begin to then cover that the original purpose of bombs, combat/healing, is going to be left’to wither, because dev time is gonna have to be focused on balancing around bomb mining, which is just gonna drag out feature development and polish for already existing mechanics like AOE heals.
Bomb mining is an exploit?
EDIT: Also the constant edits are incredibly annoying, if you’re going to edit please point out your edits.
EDIT 2: I think if bombs are not meant for how they are currently used they should never have done damage to blocks.
They’re very useful to builders too to clear out large areas if you can stand losing the resource.
Very much so, I used a gooD bit of bombs to clear out my giant hole in the ground.
Yep me too, I’d be disappointed to lose them as an option!
While exploits and bugged mechanics can eventually be made into full-fledged games, the danger is they can also pigeon hole the developer into supporting a mechanic that is ultimately a significant time sink to balance for, and in the long run, can cause more harm to the game than good.
They should cut their losses, patch the game, and make it so bombs do infinite damage to resources, before they get stuck 1, 2, 3 years down the line tryin’ to balance new worlds and resources with bomb mining, and all the complications that arise from that.
If you follow game development for the last 30 years, you’d know it’s possible this is going to backfire keeping the mechanic in the game because of how obtuse it is.
This response leads me to believe they do not consider bomb mining to be and exploit or bugged mechanic.
Bombs aren’t an exploit, they are literally working exactly as intended. It’s not an accident that bombs damage terrain- it’s a feature.
It’s not an abuse in even the broadest definition of the word. See the quick and dirty math in my comment above. Also, “traditional” hammer mining is incredibly two dimensional and bomb+tool mining is a common feature of many voxel games. I used tnt+pick mining in minecraft to similar results. If minecraft is the standard for “traditional” then this argument falls flat on its face as well.
This is not true. Players may have to consider different world healths, devs do not. worlds will follow pre-existing ratios of armor and health per tier.
This is also patently untrue. New worlds have already been added with even better caves. It’s not splitting any development time- improved caves are already implemented on new worlds.
Which makes the next paragraph baseless. Bomb combat is not lacking because bombs are used in mining, it’s lacking because players have difficulty aiming them, and because numbers are low. Easy fix.
Recent post from Steggs about bombs:
Hey Venuil,
I wouldn’t say it’s an endorsement, it’s just a fact that they are good for mining in their current state.
We want to keep bomb mining in as an option for players because we believe it’s pretty fun, but we don’t want it to make hammers obsolete, so we are looking at some potential changes for them. 
Edit: was having an issue getting the quote to be in this thread so I just copied it
I don’t see why the focus on bomb mining. It is an interesting mechanic that is only useful until you can forge gem tools.
My 3×3 diamond hammer that 1 hits teir 5 blocks is far better and just as fast as my 6 block titanium bombs.
I do like how bombs work in a group though. It is cool that you can have a bomber moving forward to create caves and a group following then split the loot at the end! Fun in my experience.
lol their damage is already heavily nerffed when it comes to bomb mining… rock has 400 impulse armor, 50% impulse resistance, 75% AoE Resistance Plus the armor that is native to the planet O.o… in addition, resources take 110% damage from AoE… it’s a small wonder it even works in the first place 
it’s not an exploit… it’s meant to be much more expensive and risky
Isn’t that a slam dunk confirmation that bombs were never intended to be used for mining? Why are people still acting like that’s what their purpose is?
It is not. It is confirmation that bombs are intended to fill a dual role. They are acknowledging that they might be a little too good at their job, but that also clearly indicates that they are intended to do both.
Consider this: bombs deal damage to mobs. Conversely, they also can be forged to heal players. Likewise, bombs break blocks. They can also be forged to regenerate blocks. Why would they let bombs be used to regen terrain if they did not also intend for them to be able to break terrain?
A little person insight- I had the honor of play testing bombs before in a test build of the game during beta before players were otherwise able to obtain them. I played with all types of bombs! Back then, bombs got specific traits based on the material they were crafted from. Some bombs healed. Some bombs restored energy. Some bombs were especially good at killing mobs. But some bombs were especially good at excavation. I… might have destroyed a quarter of Solum in that test build. Bombs were rightly nerf ed in future versions to be less effective at excavation than they initially were. I know for a fact that bombs have always been intended to fill multiple roles. Not just personal opinion, but objective fact.
Go farm 200 saltpetre fragments then think again if bombs are cheap or not :))
I would say that the developers never intended bombs to be used for mining yes. But we are a creative lot and will find the best/other uses for any tool provided. Look at chiseling for xp.
However, the developers have kind of made the point moot, as to whether or not bombs were intended to be used for mining or not. They have noted the fact that people like to bomb mine and are not going to limit this. The only issue they seem to be having is they now feel hammers need adjusting so hammers are (by my reading of the posting) as efficient as bomb mining.
Have you got a link to this? I’d love to give it a read.
All there was is this so there is some interpretation as to if they mean tweaking bombs or hammers, but I think they mean hammers.
Awesome, thanks!
Guys stop this thread is a meme thread I was just venting