Mining with a single mk1 AAI miner is causing my UPS to drop by about 25%, on two different PC's, and a server i had been playing on. With multiple running AAI paths it will drop to 15ups from 60, with nothing else happening. Is this a commonly experienced issue? (If this isn't on my end i would say this is a high priority topic)

If this belongs here or on the AAI page, i'm not sure: the selected unit menu button that intends for AAI miners to ignore terrain/ disable pathfinding does not function as i expect. I enable it, set a path into the rock, returns 'no path'.

There are two ways i can get aai-driven miners to do work. One is with the patrol route method, the other is getting them into formation where they drive with me. The patrol route breaks constantly, almost every time one of the miners becomes full. On the hauler side they keep getting stuck on each other; have to only ever have one per tunnel and they still are getting caught on things. The formation method is like... herding cats.

The prospector. How is it expected to function? I set it out, it runs a scan cycle, and it does apparently nothing. No visual indicators appear to show where nearby deposits are, even when i know there is one, but "have not uncovered it yet" for testing.

Anyway my point is to ask how these issues can be best approached; if i'm doing something wrong, please help.

Now all the negative stuff out of the way, i've got a few ideas.

fighting demo's underground. find their nests to clear a zone instead of just a single surface worm. Maybe demolishers can path between surfaces but can also be repelled by cold, which you need to keep the lava at bay.

lava & crude oil deposit 'biome' for nauvis subsurface, with occasional caverns filled with biters that have their own surface tunnels. (destructible)

multi-story structures. This could be a rocket silo which needs some user defined number of levels below excavated and construction completed. It could also be a large storage container that 'shares' it's whole inventory (like link chests) between levels, so long as they are built in line. Late game rocket silo could be a magnetic coilgun that throws things into space, with only electricity. Imagine the next dimension to the silo excavation mod.

1. Not sure if my issue is related, but i had UPS issues and made a post about it.

2. You need to make a waypoint path, not command it into the rock. It can be a bit finicky at times though.

3. I agree, the haulers don't know how navigate down below by default, the best i could suggest is using a beacon position and have the hauler move in straight lines, as long as it only driver up to the back of a miner driving forward it seems to work fine.

4. Same its not very clear on its usage.

The UPS thing is pollution caused and will be fixed in the next release.
Vinoren said all about the AAI miners.
The prospector will become better later. For now, it highlights resources in a radius of 32 blocks around it. I was planning it to output signals for AAI structures to order miners there (direction and distance of deposits, maybe ore amount, filter ores, ...)