Mining Rate should be different based on material.

Looks like the turtle can mine obsidian just as fast as cobble. In fact on rates i think the turtle should be slightly slower then a normal diamond pickaxe. Or due to the pickaxe doesn't degrade half as fast.

just a balance thought.

There's definitly alot of balance with turtles already. When you compare them to quarries they are pretty well balanced lol.

get eloraam to nerf the block beaker then we will talk (heck the block breaker doesn't even use a diamond pick!) if you need more info see my posts in this thread for my views on nerfing and balance. http://www.computercraft.info/forums2/index.php?/topic/376-14-turtle-power-limit/

Regardless of how silly the block breaker is… turtle are cheap, easy to program, zero maintenance, and mine at a very quick rate. Considering everything, I don't think this is an unreasonable suggestion. I wouldn't mind seeing the mine much slower in fact. Balance low cost and zero maintenance with needing many for large projects.

Also added bonus of longer block break times, is that active miners spend longer in a state where is lua is waiting. So there will be less of a load, scripting wise, on the server.

Yes, this is very good idea.
Players on my server just turn on they turtle and go away from game and it mine for them. They have program that will mine full inventory (Turtle's 3x3), go back to "dockstation", drop all items and go mining again. If Turtle will mine like normal, diamond pickaxe, I think it will be better.

I think there should be an option in the config file, so some people could turn it on and some could turn it off.