Prospecting

Main / Skills / Prospecting

Description

Prospecting is the locating of ore veins in rock. To start prospecting, activate a Pickaxe and right-click a rocktile, select Mining -> Prospect.

• 20.0 prospecting skill gives you the ability to see the quality of the ore vein.
• 30.0 prospecting skill gives you the ability to see when a tile contains flint or salt (i.e. "You will find a flint here!").
• 60.0 prospecting skill gives you the ability to see when a vein will be depleted.

Types of prospect quality

Pretty bad - 1-20ql

Bad - 1-30*ql

Acceptable - 1-40*ql

Normal - 1-50*ql

Good - 1-60*ql

Very good - 1-70**ql

Utmost - 99ql

Note: * means results may vary by 5 or 10more ql. ** means the ql can vary to asmuch as 15ql, raising the max ql to 85

Messages for tile depletion

In decending order, 4 has plenty left, 1 is almost gone:

4: "only a few weeks mining remain here"

3: "The ore is starting to deplete"

2: "The ore will run out soon"

1: "you should start to prospect for another vein of this ore"

Wolfdog's Guide

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   | o |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+ 
|   |   |   | 3 | 2 | 1 |<--| X |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+

X = no prospect of that ore
<-- = last tile you did get a prospect
3 = I recomend you start mining here

Prospect, find ore nearby.. move East until you do not prospect that ore any more, the last prospect that you did, is the East edge. Count 3 tiles west, that is your N-S row where the ore is. If you do not have an East side available, use the West side. Repeat for the North or south side.

This will give you the exact location of your ore. Ignore up and down on the sides of mountains when prospecting, only N-S-E-W matter.

Sometimes grass, clay and sand can impede this process, so it is best to find large surfaces of rock to mine on.

Tdekker's guide

for those that have no idea what wolfdog is talking about ill try to tell it the easy way.

first of all you need to realise the world is 2d, all tiles are pilars and no cubes (also the veins are pilars)

when you prospect, you prospect an area of 7x7 around you, thats 3 tiles in all directions not counting the one your standing on. when you prospect eg. iron ore that means somewhere within a range of 3 tiles around you(notice this also means it can be behind you) the iron vein is located. than what you do is try to find the places where you no longer prospect that vein. you need to find a n/s edge and an e/w edge of where u can prospect it.
than go stand on the most outer place where you prospected the vein and start counting 3 tiles to the center of the prospecting area.
if you do this for the n/s side and the e/w side u will know where the vein is.

i dont know if u start to mine on the location of the vein if you will see it than so i advise u to start the mine 1 or 2 tiles in front of it and mine toward the tile that has the vein.

i hope me and wolfdog made it clear for you so that you will be able to find the vein without allot of problems

Uzetaab's Guide

Alternative for if you do not have a large rockface to prospect.

+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| X | X | X | X | X | X | X |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   | X |   |   |   | 3
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   | X |   |   |   | 2
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
| X | X | X | X | X | X |X  | 1
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
|   |   |   | o |   |   |   |
+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
  3   2   1 | # | 1   2   3
            +---+

You will have to reveal all the tiles in a 7x7 area to find the vein.
‘O’ the tile you prospected
‘X’ tiles that need to be mined out
‘#’ you

Note that I left 2 rows of tiles unmined between mined rows. This increases your chances of finding a 2nd vein that is beyond the reach of prospect. As you expand your mine, this pattern should be continued and expanded reveal all the tiles in your mines area.
--Uzetaab 15:10, February 19, 2006 (CST)