It was added on 16 November 2002.
Well most players now seem to like the new mining system. However there is still quite a lot of people who still say they actually preferred the older one. I'm quite surprised by this, but if that's what you want then that's what I'll provide.
Therefore we're going to bring back the old mining and fishing systems BUT we're also going to keep the new system!! In other words to make sure everybody is happy you will be able to choose how you mine and fish!!
This will work by having two sorts of rocks so you can choose, one sort uses the old system, the other sort uses the new system, e.g.
Soft rocks - work very similar to the old pre-fatigue system for the people who preferred it before, (slow spawns, lots of missing, and clicking, but very very very low fatigue so you can easily get a full load of ore)
Hard rocks - work like our new system for all the people who think the new way is better. (You tire out faster, but you can get the ore very quickly and you can see it spawn so you aren't clicking blindly) And we'll do something similar for the fish so the old system is available again for that too, as well as an alternative new system to give you the CHOICE. This should make everyone happy, since you can just choose the way you like best.
This not only makes sure everyone has a mining method they enjoy, but it also adds more variety to the game since if you find mining is getting dull you can try out the other method for a bit, and get a nice change :-) Perhaps we will even add more types of mining in the future and increase the variety even further (for instance using tools other than a pickaxe)
Hope everyone likes this idea
Andrew