I didn't get enough from the mine either - I was 2 short, so I also had to dig to the core. (I even double-checked to make sure I hadn't missed any)
I finally got a game with enough. Deleted everything in the player and universe folder so that FU could fully make a new universe, and started on a world that had a really sprawling mine. found 26 in total.
In the future I'll just spawn the things in.
someone who is looking for more of the same kind of generic survival crafting game that there is already a giant flood of, where you craft tools with sticks and strings.
What you say might be true, but I stand my my comment. The sticks and strings style crafting is hugely popular, and there is a lot of demand for more "survival" games that offer it.
I'm not a huge fan, but I do play Cataclysm DDA every so often and I totally get the attraction. It isn't a bad format but, I'm hopeful that I can find enough mods to make it into something a little different. a little more sci-fi.
As for internal consistency and the ability to give it to a beginner, as you say, that is probably impossible. I can get through some problems that beginners would have because I can read the various wikis and redit threads, and cheat to get around problems. I don't think that is something you can ask a casual player to do.
In short, whomever said this was like Stardew in space has their pants on fire.