Bucket-wheel excavator

Bucket wheel excavators are definitely used to mine coal, not just the overburden. This probably also applies to iron ore, as there is nothing to be said against it. Quite apart from that, such a machine would make a good endgame goal and fit in with the overall look of the game. It doesn't have to be one of the 240k's there are plenty smaller excavator which still have this impressive look.

@murk It's got to be the big one!

its not bad but i think this one should be more needed than this big one Dragline Excavator , it can dig nice holes and even dig material in water. 20 meters down is enought i think.

it would be cool to see BWEs in the game and but certainly not a monstrous large one as there are small BWEs like the KR400NK which is only 50ton and 6meters or 20feet in length. The moving truck while being loaded might be a problem but the conveyor could be lengthened and shortened for the BWE if it goes trough from consideration to under development or something similar. The dragline excavators also could be a great extension of mining and if an update brings in the possbility to dig a canal for sea water acces in the island, or just to simply make harbor making easier.

I’d also like to see BWEs in the late game to move mountains.
But in reality, those monsters are nowhere near as movable as excavators are.
So, the power to move enough material to keep an Oresorter MK2 busy should also come with a downside to keep the game challenging.
Real BWEs are delivered to the excavation site in sections, which are then assembled on-site.
For COI, maybe they could be limited to running on two train tracks spaced three areas apart from each other.
They come with a mixed ore belt which leads directly to an Oresorter MK2 to be sorted.
Moving a BWE from one mine to another would be labor- and cost-intensive — in reality, it's simply not done.
A few Years ago I've seen a news-artikle where a old BWE was for free. Unless the "Buyer" have to manage the Transport.

I can see it being made in pieces in game either in assemblies or a vehicle garage, and assembled like a normal building on site, and deconstructing them gives a full refund. Like the train track idea, could be the faster variant, with a stepper one that is a lot slower but as it isn't on tracks, can move freely on level terrain. Also the track variant cant go up or down grades, or maybe only very very shallow grades, like it would be in the 2-6% grade range, so a new option would have to be added in the grade options.

Add a new type of dense ore with this so it doesnt chew trough the landscape in seconds.

I have seen a smaller version of the wheeled excavator in the real world , used to feed a belt ,directly loading ships at an Iron ore terminal and coal into a power station plant.
The set up was the trains brought the stuff from the mines, and dumped it loose in huge piles next to the excavator, for it to scoop up. This allowed fast uninterrupted loading of the ships (faster you can load the less tax in port dues payment )

With the release of Update 4 and the introduction of the new Stacker gameplay mechanics, I think it might be a good time to introduce a Bucket-Wheel Excavator using the same expansion principle as the Stacker, but obviously in reverse.
Instead of increasing the height of the pile of material, I think the same technique could easily be used to descend deeper underground or excavate a mountain.

You can store huge amounts of loose materials using dumping designations. It would be great to use a bucket wheel excavator to pick up this material again when you need it.
Maybe it could be balanced so that bucket wheel excavators are much faster on loose materials (dirt, sand ore) or already mined materials. Maybe very late game variants are stronger and can also mine rock, like a nuclear bucket wheel excavator.