Minethings Q&A

[Japhet]

Hi
I'm the owner and programmer of a small browser-based game "Minethings" that is now being advertised on FTL.  I noticed that there were some questions about it in another thread and figured I would open a Q&A so that anyone who's curious about the game or has some questions can ask away.  

To start, here's the text of the ad here as well as my response in the other thread.

I have started playing a new game on-line. It's called Minethings. Its a free, online mining game created by a Free Stater. Its all in your browser, there is nothing weird to download. Your little mining robot guy can mine for you 24/7 you don't need to be logged in.  You compete with other players for resources in a capitalist economy.  The in-game currency, virtually mined gold, demonstrates the concept of sound money and is exchanged between players tax-free.  They even accept Bitcoins!  Go to Minethings.com and start mining today. Its free Minethings.com.

At its core, it is a trading game and most of the professions are geared toward that.  Someone mentioned the map where you can see various cities where people live and work.  Each city has its own types of mines that you can buy using real-life cash or in-game gold.  Those wanting goods from another city must either move them there or buy from someone who already has.  This creates incentive to trade between cities.  There are pirates who try to steal from those en-route, and there are guards who try to defeat the pirates.  Then there are the fishermen who just want a peaceful journey to turn their bait into food but they, too, are subject to pirate harassment.  This is all player-vs-player and in real-time.  

So yeah, ask me anything.  

[anarchir]

I just spent a few hours playing Minecraft.

[anarchir]

I just spent a few hours playing Minecraft.

Late night me cracks me up. Especially when I'm such a simple troll.

[Sovereign Curtis]

Admit it.

This game is nothing more than a ruse to use other people's computers to mine bitcoins, isnt it.

[Sovereign Curtis]

I'm so glad Japhet decided to create this thread so he could answer our questions about his game...

[anarchir]

Does this game even exist anymore? I assumed it had gone under by now.

[dalebert]

I undoubtedly gave this game a fair shot.  Been playing it since Porcfest until very recently.  It felt like little more than occasional busy-work and like it was going to get a lot more complicated for me to get any further than where I was, like researching in the forums to see if I wasn't doing something right, and/or require real financial investment.  It felt like it was very sluggish and that the pace was not going to pick up unless I bought a bunch of stuph.  I just haven't gotten enough enjoyment from it to be anywhere close to considering investing real money in it.  That would require a huge leap of faith that it was about to get much more fun.

I dunno.  I've played a lot of multi-player online games and I've always had a deep aversion to paying real money for digital things that have contrived scarcity.  Maybe some useful info will be revealed here that will get me to give it another shot in the free-to-play realm.  From my fairly ignorant standpoint, it feels more like buythings.com.

[Japhet]

Maybe some useful info will be revealed here that will get me to give it another shot in the free-to-play realm.

Challenge accepted!
First thing I should point out here is that everything in the game is 100% accessible to non-paying players.  Mines are faster acquired with cash, but they can also be purchased with in-game gold for which you can mine or trade.  Even the inventory expansions can be acquired by buying a mine with gold and refunding it to me for the necessary credits.  

Now as for a reason to play, I'll tell you why I'm advertising on FTL in the first place.  The game's economy was designed while reading von Mises's Human Action.  It's my tribute to Austrian economics (otherwise known as, "economics") and has the all the traits of a free market: gold is money, anything is for sale, there's no minimum wage, no taxes, market-set interest rate, no import tariffs, and no artificial barriers to trade.  I'm thinking of selling off the roads but not all my players are on-board with that idea yet.  If you're a fan of free-market economics and want to participate in a PorcFest economy year-round, this is for you.

[Turd Ferguson]

The interface is weird. I couldn't get into it.

Its like a movie. You pretty much know within the first half hour if its gonna be something you will like.

[Sovereign Curtis]

Admit it.

This game is nothing more than a ruse to use other people's computers to mine bitcoins, isnt it.

[dalebert]

I had a REALLY lucky day of mining and scored a bucket that yielded over 100g.  I spent it on some equipment that increases my bucket rate and managed to work my way up to all standard equipment.  I think I about doubled my mining rate.  Most days I seem to make no more than about 20g in the starter mine, even with the higher bucket rate.  It's hard to say though because it's not really denoted when the gold was mined.

The cheapest non-starter mine I see listed is 19,500 gold.  Once again, I wonder if it takes more strategizing to get ramped up in this game, but by my math, there will be some kind of change in the pace of the game (but not much) once I've earned enough gold to buy a 2nd mine.  That's in about 19,500 / 50 (let's be super lenient in case I'm mistaken and say 50g/day) = 390 days or about 13 months.  I honestly don't think the game is going to hold my interest that long at this pace.

BTW, that will let me mine bugs.

[SeanD]

From what I been able to piece together on their forums stuff used to sell for lots more. Then everyone started undercutting until now everything yellow and many greens are 1g a piece.  I think now I would be better off just mining gold and not things but I am hoping for the red piece of awesomeness.

[dalebert]

I've been mining since Porcfest and I've only gotten maybe 2 or 3 greens.  Switched to mining just gold for a while now.  Sometimes I think what's holding me back is not yet venturing into other aspects of the game like traveling, changing professions.  I haven't wanted to read up on that stuph yet.  I s'pose I should now that some professions are available to me.  It's not readily apparent whether such things will be of much benefit.  It seems like, as a noob, I'd prolly just become the victim of pirates and be unable to defend myself.  I have no idea how such mechanics work.

[Japhet]

Whoa 13 months would be quite a long time to wait for an upgrade, yes.  There are several things you can do to shorten this.  First, don't wait to buy a bug mine.  Buy a 2nd Starter mine instead.  They're much cheaper at 4,700g.  Then buy a 3rd Starter mine, flush them all out with standard-quality equipment, and you'll be cruising at about 100g per day.  

There are still many ways to make this go even faster.  Buy some vehicles and trade between cities (just use cheap yellows to start since those can only be attacked by other yellows).  

Or get some melds and be a worker.  Wages in Harmond are currently 35g/week if you have 20 melds, 60g/week if you have 30 melds and go up from there.  They're significantly higher in other cities but melds are more expensive there, so you'll want to crunch some numbers before deciding and being a player-driven market, things can change.

Or you can ask on the forums for a gold loan.  Even if you can only get enough money for a 2nd Starter, that will get your income up in a hurry.  

Then there's the classic "buy-low, sell-high" game that you can play with any item on the market.  Put some low bids in, wait for them to be filled, and resell the items for a higher amount.  Cannon ammo is one item that's in serous need of liquidity right now, and manufacturers will gladly sell to cheap bids as their production lots are 100 items each.  That'll make good use of your inventory slots which would otherwise just hold your 1g yellows.

[dalebert]

Re: Enter Coupon

Postby Japhet » Tue Jul 12, 2011 6:16 pm

You heard the code on FTL? Huh, that's not supposed to air for another month.