Mining

So i have just spent 5 hours mining coal to get level 1 mining so that i can try to mine better ore's, I then get to the smeltery for it to say that i need level 1 in that to be able to smelt the copper & iron, however it'll take 2000 coal to get to level 1 smelting but 1000 coal to get to level 1 mining, is there any way this could be changed to 500 units just to speed up the process ? Because currently it seems like it'll take 10 hours of someone mining in order to get level 1 smelting but if you smelt the coal coke yourself you'd then loose the mining level you've just worked for. 

The smelting process seems very long too, you can't do a full backpack of Coal at once due to it being too heavy, the max i have managed myself so far is 36 which turns into 18 coal coke, Unless i process it 1 by 1 then you could get 50 coal coke per. That seems a little broken to me, even just allowing us to batch process it 50 coal for 50 coal coke would speed up this process 10 fold. 

Is the loosing the mining levels when you smelt meant to be a thing? & any clarification on the above would be greatly appreciated.
That make sense?

Maybe actually interact with other people, do some actual RP on the RP server? Find someone else to process or mine for you, don't do the entire process on your own. The current leveling system encourages player interaction and specialization. 

I believe that the system is meant to be challenging to grind to the top of. and as Alfred mentioned, the leveling system is made with intention of making people interact, create roleplay stories, make new businesses, like a player driven economy type of deal.

The system in place is there as intended. As @Alfred Wilsonstated above the reason for the levels to be seperate and you loosing the skill in mining when processing is for players to specialize in for example mining or processing. Try to interact with some other player and build up a business maybe wich deals in either mining, processing or both. 

The main goal is to make more player to player interactions and end goal would be more focused on player economies rather than player to server selling and buying. 

Moving to Rejected