After running around clearing out an ebony mine while using Faster Mining Plus SE, it occurred to me how kinda strange it was that your character effectively has to exert the same amount of effort to get Iron as they do to get ebony. On top of that, the amount of ebony ore that's available inside of ebony mines seems rather high, given the efforts that many players go to in order to MLU-ify their world to remove higher level equipment. So with those two nuggets in mind, the idea popped in to see if I could fix that. Knowing nothing about Papyrus scripting, I dove in, and found that not only could I, but it was rather easy!

And then promptly after having done so and going to look for compatibility issues with other mods, I discovered Advanced Mining already includes this functionality (along with a plethora of other features - seriously, go check it out). However, there's something to be said for single features which folks might want, so I figured I'd upload it anyway for those who might be inclined, and because this doesn't have an MCM (or for that matter, a plugin), if any enterprising soul wants to port it to Xbox, it should be perfectly fine to do so - just give me a heads up that it's been done (and preferably credit on the page), because I'm interested to see it there if so :)

Mod Details

So what's this do? Effectively, there's a scale for the availability of ores within veins, where less valuable ores will drop more quickly (and have more on a per-vein basis), while more valuable ones will take longer to extract, and have less available. Specifically:

• Iron ore - 8 per vein, 2 drops every 3 strikes
• Corundum Ore - 6 per vein, 2 drops every 3 strikes
• Orichalcum Ore - 6 per vein, 1 drops every 3 strikes
• Quicksilver Ore - 4 per vein, 1 drops every 3 strikes
• Silver Ore - 3 per vein, 1 drops every 3 strikes (same as vanilla)
• Moonstone Ore - 3 per vein, 1 drops every 6 strikes
• Malachite Ore - 3 per vein, 1 drops every 9 strikes
• Gold Ore - 2 per vein, 1 drops every 9 strikes
• Ebony ore - 1 per vein, 1 drops every 12 strikes
• Stalhrim - 2 per source, 1 drops every 9 strikes
• Shellbug - 6 per shellbug, 1 drops every 6 strikes
• Clay - Unchanged, but drops 3 at a time
• Stone - Unchanged, but drops 2 at a time
• Geodes - Unchanged
• Heart Stones - 3 per source, 1 drops every 6 strikes
  

All of the strikes are multiples of 3 due to animation constraints - I've never modified animations before, but I don't want to dive into that. The above counts extend for both physically striking the vein, and for animations. In addition to this, optionally, if there's any mod-added ores which are handled by the same script, it treats unknowns as the following:

• Value over 50 septims per ore - 1 per vein, 1 drops every 12 strikes
• Value from 31-50 septims per ore - 2 per vein, 1 drops every 9 strikes
• Value equal to 30 septims per ore - 3 per vein, 1 drops every 6 strikes
  

While fewer than 30 septims per ore is just treated as vanilla (3 per vein, 1 drops every 3 strikes). If you choose not to use that version, anything mod-added should just act like vanilla.

Additionally, if you are using any pickaxe other than the generic pickaxe, the amount of ore dropped should double.

Installation
Use a mod manager/organizer to install, or drop the loose files into you Skyrim data folder (don't do this, use a mod manager). No plugin is needed, everything is handled by the script.

Compatibility
Explicitly incompatible with anything that modifies MineOreScript.pex - whichever loads last will win. Specifics I'm aware of (and in some cases I'm looking into having a modified version of the script which combines both, but it involves me using other peoples' stuff so permissions are necessary):

• Faster Mining Plus SE - Incompatible. Also they're largely going in opposite directions so using the two together doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense. That being said, they're the inspiration for this mod, so give 'em some love.
  

• Advanced Mining - Incompatible. Also redundant - Advanced Mining does everything this one does (far more configurable) and more. If you're looking for something close to this, but not exact, you probably want to use this mod instead
  

• Ars Metallica - Semi-compatible. Ars Metallica edits the script to add Smithing XP to the mining process. A version of the script with XP gain included is available in the install, but due to permissions it's matching the XP gain from Vokrii right now. If I get the green light, I will upload a version with the same XP gain as Ars, but for the time being this should be a rough equivalent.
  

• Complete Crafting Overhaul Remastered - Compatible with version included. Script included with this mod carries forward CCOR changes unrelated to mining speed/drops, and overwrites all CCOR changes with the ones included in here. It just ignores anything you put in the MCM related to those.
  
  

• Vokrii - Compatible with version included. Vokrii has a perk which doubles mining drops and edits the script to do so, as well as gives smithing XP, this integrates both (both number of drops, and equivalent ore per vein double).
  

• Fossil Mining - seems to work fine. Treating as Compatible unless someone finds a problem.
  

• Realistic Mining for VR - Incompatible.  It diverts the game to use their new ones instead.
  

• Unlimited Woodwork and Mining - Incompatible. Both touch the script, and the "unlimited" aspect moves in a contrary direction to what this was seeking to accomplish, so no point in making a compatibility version.
  

• Instant Mining - Haven't dug into the bsa, but assuming Incompatible. Once more, moves in contrary direction, so not really going to look into it.
  

• Random Mining - Incompatible. Touches the same script, but does a different behavior.
• Save the Shellbugs - Should be compatible
• Mining Makes Noise - Incompatible, also impacts the same script
  

• Any of those things allowing you to use magic to mine - Not sure? There's a few of them, they all use different implementations. Some may work, some may not. Once more, if anyone who uses one of those wants to give it a look and try it out and let me know? That'd be cool.
  

There may be other perk mods out there which also touch the script, but I'm not aware of them - let me know if there's any out there, and if there's open permissions (or I can get them) I can look into grafting them together like I did for Vokrii. I checked a few (Ordinator, Adamant, PerMa) and none of them seemed to touched the script.

Credits
Bethesda for Skyrim Special Edition and the Creation Kit
Arndas for Faster Mining Plus SE for inspiration and to give me a place to start digging into papyrus
Arthmoor and the USSEP team for the Unofficial Skyrim Special Edition Patch whose fixes are carried forward in my script
EnaiSiaion for Vokrii and its open perms which allow me to re-use its XP stuff/tie in to its perks
kryptoptyr and DrMonops for Complete Crafting Overhaul Remastered and permission to include an edited script
VictorF over on Obscure's Discord for helping me out with some early syntax SNAFUs