digging

[quarague]

searched the forums but didn't find anything on this topic. So I think digging as currently implemented works but there are two areas where it could be improved:
1) even if you have good tools, digging by hand is much slower than digging by spell or wand
2) a simple shovel tends to be worse at digging that a heavy weapon, so that even if you dig by hand, there is no point in carrying a digging tool
I think the game would be improved, if
a) digging by hand would be competetive with spell digging, so that the optimal strategy depends on the character and the items found
b) using a specific digging tool would give you a significant enough advantage to make it occasionally worthwhile to use an extra inventory slot
So here are some suggestions to achieve this:
a) using the digging spell or wand takes 4 turns
b) all non-digging weapons have dig level 0, shovels, picks and weapons with the off digging ego have dig level 1, mattocks have level 2, being a dwarf or wearing a ring of digging increases your dig level by 1
c) digging with dig level 0 takes 40 turns flat, dig level 1 4 turns, dig level 2 2 turns, dig level 3 or higher 1 turn
This would mean:
- you no more get an advantage from digging with a heavy mace compared to digging with a dagger
- having any item or being a dwarf makes digging just as good as spell digging
- being actually good at digging is faster than spell digging
- using earthquakes for bigger projects still helps but has other drawbacks