Has there ever been any thought given to adding a short timer to mining/hunting?
For example, you start mining copper, and get through six cubes. When you finish mining those six a short timer starts, maybe five seconds. Maybe it’s dependent upon how many cubes you mined. (One second to the timer per cube, for example.)
If you can tag another cube, this time iron, the timer holds and continues to build upon the remainder from the last string. So, say it took you two seconds to get to from the copper cubes to the iron, then you have four seconds on the clock that hold. You make it through eight cubes of iron this time, now you have 12 seconds to make it to the next cube and tag it till you run out of timer.
As long as you keep the timer running you gain a small xp bonus, or maybe a small bonus to drop rate (so more metal per cube mined).
You could also add another multiplier on top of that for higher level metals. Copper x1, Iron x2, Silver x3, and so on. Doing so would encourage people to set up mining strings and to excavate rock around veins in order to optimize mining. You’d also have more people falling in lava trying to make it to the next vein… and everyone knows that Lavaswimming is fun!
Just an idea… and the same could be done with mobs.
nice idea though!