I am not big into complaining about things but, why is Arkadia a giany maze of hills, mountains and etc? Yes, it does look nice, tho making mining hard as hell, I do not want to complain and say "Flatten out the world" sure if should have some look that the devs think is nice, tho I can hardly mine, if I am not falling off cliffs and having one hell of a time trying to reach my claims it is having no area to mine, sure there are flat tops on some hills but if you can't fly you have to climb. I am right now hugging the side of a cliff trying to probe, I hit randomly tho it seems Ark was built more for hunting as it seems hunters have their pick of mobs with little to no problem, seeing as all the flat area miners could be using happens to be flooded with countless waves of mobs. Sure there are mobless zones we can mine in, tho I am not the only one here on the planet mining, if there was some way to even it out for miners and hunters, I think less people would probably complain, not only that but even tho the planet is "huge" since it is mostly cliffs there is little to no room to run without coming across other miners or hitting walls making mining only work for few lucky players. I would hope something in the future could be done, I do like the look of the planet, tho mining on a large scale or even really small scale is hard to do with mountains being all over like a bad rash.
I personally never got bothered by the hills... most of them have valleys in between. For me its mostly the center of the continent that's annoying. The rest is pretty well designed. South of sanc cove is horrible though... Lost terrain imo
I suggest a brief vacation to Rocktropia, after which you will never complain about the hills on Arkadia again. But yes, a flying vehicle is pretty much a requirement for a serious miner. I also recommend a pitbull and a lancer, which are both more fun, and make for faster mining, than a sleipnir.
Remember that "summon Claim" is a good option when mining in the mountains. so once you are mineing a high ridge you dont have to run halfway back down the mountain to drill up a find Ariel
Think how boring it would be if it were a completely flat featureless plain. As a side note I actually liked the hills on RT, one of the few things I did like about it, fun to blast along in a vehicle but crap for mining and annoying if mobs are in the way. It's one of the few features I wish that Ark had - some good coast roads along some cliffs or some seriously high mountains to climb just for the hell of it (not enough of that in EU anymore). The summon claim was one of the added features that I've never used (not being a serious miner) but I remember spending 30 minutes on Calypso trying to climb along a thin ridge to jump off it to land on top of a claim marker so that I could get it. I couldn't tp on top as it was too thin so I had to run around to find away just to climb to the start of the ridge. Worse was in New Switzerland where you couldn't even climb the hills and tp'ing just resulted in ending up on either side. Atleast Ark isn't as bad as that.
Arkadian hills for the most part are very forgiving as far as climbability but there have been recent changes that stopped you from being able to climb EVERY hill. The recent change effects mainly the more vertical summits where you can spend 15 to 30 minutes working your way to the tops only to be stopped right at the point you can see over but never cross. That to me is a dick move whether by accident or intentional as this is supposed to be fore most a game and games (contrary to Ma's beliefs and understanding) are supposed to have an element of fun. I like the exploration part of mining and Arkadia has some of the best designs for the landscaping I have seen in EU so far and have not had any complaints in that regard other then the recent change where you cant traverse certain crests. The best part about Arkadia and you sill see should you try other planets is the fact you can spend hours and days literally exploring and not worry over unwanted mobs. Caly and RT are great for spamming every square meter of available walking space with trash mobs no one would ever bother with just to skieve extra decays from adventurers who do not wish to be bothered with a profession they do not want. Over all enjoy the landscape and the peaceful game play Arkadia does allow miners for now as you will have nothing close to that elsewhere in EU.
Don't forget about NI, and the revives with no turret. I used to get so aggravated re-re-re-reviving, all the while knowing that by the time I got out of there I will have lost minimum of 1ped in decay on my armor/fap. This is the very reason I left NI, and only once have I went back, now I will never go back even if they are giving away free ped. Good job NI devs, for finding yet another way to get players to leave your planet! As for Caly and RT, they are so over saturated with mobs, you sometimes have to fly 3-5mins from TP to reach a thin strip worth mining in. Even worse though, on Caly they like to do these mixed spawns: 1) a mob you want to hunt and can kill easily, plus a mob that is either way higher level and/or way higher agro, to cause excessive armor decay and fapping. 2) a mob you want to hunt and can kill easily, plus a mob that your armor does not protect against (ie robot), and therefore making it overly difficult to hunt there. Both these scenarios are of course a pain in the arse for miners as well, as they usually don't want to spend 10ped of ammo killing mobs just to dig up a 5ped claim. The funny thing is that I was just reading some post on PCF where they were complaining that Ark had too few/small mob spawns, and that it was unrealistic. I thought to myself "so it is realistic for Atrox and Mermoths to co-mingle? Wouldn't the atrox eat the mermoth?" I think it would... So having smaller more concentrated spawns is more realistic, as this resembles a pack or herd, where animals of the same type stick together. Anyhow, that's quite off topic, sorry... you just got me all worked up thinking about the other planets, and the reasons I don't like them. As for the hills on Arkadia, I think they are quite perfect. The landscape and design of the terrain on Arkadia is the most realistic (most earth like, ie natural) looking of all the planets. IMO, it is also the easiest place to mine by far, even in the mob spawns. Most of the mobs on Arkadia have quite low aggro range making it possible to mine around even high level mobs, with a bit of practice. As others have suggested, I think you should take a vacation to Caly or RT and you will see that the terrain on Ark is actually quite accommodating to a miner.
