Right, so after I started playing Cortex Command with my friend a year or so ago, we both dug for gold.
These two diggers that just went on and on created the most annoying, loud and looping sound ever, it was also frustrating to manually dig for the gold, we just wanted to shoot each other, so we put them on auto, which didn't even work that well.
This led us to make a bomb that gave you money, that took away some of the gameplay.

I hope Data comes up with something alternative, or invents and silent digger and some better digging AI, because it hasn't been this bad since... build something.

Activities.ini/Scene editing? Just throwing that idea out there. Also, there was a mod that gave you cash for kills, which could be implemented as a feature (or you could just... you know... install it), but it would make CC too Counter-Strike-ish imo.

How about you just wait for fixed Gold Dig AI?

Not for me, though for you, when gold digging AI comes out.

I was sitting on the porcelain throne last night contemplating my campaign and how I was going to link it all together, and mind you, this would kind of only work for my (or anyone else's) campaign's uses, but I had an idea involving starting a campaign with zero funds, then either getting kills, digging for sparsely populated gold pockets, or completing objectives through the missions (once you completed the objective, you would be rewarded X funds).

Then, the funds you had left over from the previous mission would carry over to the next mission, which would also start out with a default of zero funds + the carryover.

Then I came to the inherent problem of, again, linking them together, and I didn't know if there was Lua that would be able to acknowledge that you completed a mission, display a score type screen showing various stats of the mission, then load the next mission on mouse click or "push any key to continue" type deal.

EDIT: In addition, it would have to be able to save the amount of funds you had leftover and load it into the next mission.

Like I said though, this really only works for campaigns, and not individual skirms, with the exception of the kills for funds system. Regardless, it sounded good in my head at the time

I believe the final game has something similar to that: You have a total stockpile of gold, and you choose the amount to take into each mission. If you lose, you lose it all, but if you win, you gain some.

Yes, but when'll B24 come out?

Cheatless temp fix.

I tried it but I disliked it, both because of concept and visuals.

Gah, Was thinking of making something like that that applied to a scene with a few simple lines of code.
Didn't know the idea was already taken...
Oh, well.

Once someone make artifacts it'll be easier and you wont have to mine as much.

As for making it so that the gold count is transferred, talk to TLB.
You might be able to save their gold count somehow.

Artifacts?

Er, exactly how are those different from expensive bombs thrown into a ship? Which is something that can be already done.

They don't explode in your face.
You can't throw them.
They are worth a lot more.
You could find them while digging.
You don't have to hope that the enemy leaves some for you to salvage.

So, basically, they're the exact same thing as the gold nuggets you had to pick up in the early builds.