Would be nice to have a mod that would allow crafting tools. Basically weapon replicas that boost certain skills:
Examples:
-drill, improves mining skill
-sheers, improve plant cutting skill
I have been looking through the xml files in the core mod, but couldn't see how to change the speed at which workers do things. The pneumatic picks research definition is easy enough to find, but how it effects the game I couldn't see. I researched it [pneumatic picks] in game, and checked a pawn's mining level before and after, but no change. Is this hard-coded at the moment?
The speeding people up doing stuff is all hardcoded. It's all to do with what level a character is.
Seeing as Tynan gave us instructions on how to run custom code as a mod, I kinda took that as permission to take a peek under the hood.
It seems mining works by applying a special damage type to the to the thing being mined. If I'm understanding things correctly, the more "mining" damage you do to the mineral (as opposed to "bullet" or "flame" damage), the more metal you get out of it.
Also, the only reason it takes longer to mine metal than it does rock is because the metal nodes have a lot more HP.
In theory, we could create a new gun or grenade via the XML ThingDefs and give it projectiles with a damage type of "Mining". You can force a colonist to attack things by drafting it and then clicking on their equipped weapon... So in theory, if that colonist happens to be holding a weapon that does mining damage... It should work the same as normal mining.