Pr0tip: person posting changelog is not always the one who made all of changes in it
In the end it doesn't matter, if I was the only developer, the turbo-stealing from BoS would be gone as well. I think we could consider actual nerfing spamming SS in PvP now.
THIS took me over 2 hours, non-stop running around collectin chems 2 by 2, shooting golden geckos...
Yea I will increase ammount you can get from one pile, this is a bit too much hassle for
low quality chemical. But the amount of SS you could get from BoS stealing was just too much. Stealing from encounters was never supposed to be the most efficient way to get top tier gear, the whole idea that to compete you have to level thief alt and exploit BoS encounters is just plain ridiculous. The only reason players think they "need" 20 SS in pocket is because they could turbo-farm them. And well, I think spamming SS is just too effective. But some people will defend the most ridiculous exploits and mechanics if they get used to them.
About flowers/roots, maybe we could add them in Klamath and Modoc in similar way as components, but much more. Enough to make it faster to gather them there than in encounters. I think gathering stuff in unsafe public locations should be the fastest in general. Another way could be gardening in bases (slower income but you wouldn't have to do it actively).
Now I run into pig rats more than aliens, and it seems like I have to run around and mine things
Yes you have to spend some time in the mine not just rush in, hit rock 10 times, rush out. But overall you can get
a lot more ore this way, because it never depletes,
especially if you cooperate with someone. Weaker mobs near entrance are by design, aliens are in the eastern part with the queen in the last room. Also the pig rats have 15 minute respawn time, same with ants and little geckos in other mines. The mobs deeper in the mine spawn much faster ("bosses" every 3 minutes), if you wanted to XP while mining, then Broken Hills is probably the best now, the deathclaw gives around 1800 xp as far as I remember and there are 2 small ones there too.