Alright I give up

[Ishiga25 0]

I've tried cross referencing as much of this piecemeal info scattered about the wiki and these forums but nothing is telling me exactly HOW a sluice works and what one does to get ore from it.

Do you just let it sit? is there a mechanic that needs to be used? Does it need babysitting like many OTHER things do in this mod? I'm lost and with the pace of this game's changes, I can't keep up.

Please help, I'm loving this mod to death from the amount of depth that it brings but I can't keep going like this without proper help.

What's more, this isn't really stated anywhere on the forums atm so I figure now is as good a time as any to collect as much up to date info as possible.

EDIT: Also forgive the tags, I apparently didn't separate them correctly. :T

[HidingInTheLight 10]

Well the sluice is newly re-added to the mod, so it'll take the wiki a bit to catch up.

There is an old video, I believe made by bioxx himself, that shows how to use the sluice, that hasn't really changed.

The changelog, will tell you everything else. (The sluice searches the ground below it, within a certain area. If there is any ore present you have a chance of it being found by the sluice while it's working)

I'll see if I can find a link to the video. Found.

You can't grab a source block of water any more, so, what I have been doing is building mine into a river.

[BloodravenD 7]

after you get your sluice set up, all you need to do is either put gravel blocks or sand blocks into the water and it'll flow into the sluice. 3 of each block will fill the sluice to max. you can also create gold pans, and fill it that way, but it's a little more tedious that way, and the pans only give 9 material as opposed to 20 material that blocks do. With gravel you have more of a chance of getting ore, and with sand, more of a chance of getting gems.

I'd suggest making it by a river, because source blocks are hard to get, if not impossible. just make a line of empty space from the source block, think the water travels 7-8 blocks, then break a block down in front of the last water, then another in front of that, so it's 1 block down, 2 long in front of the water. That's where you place the sluice. Then make a 1 long 2 deep hole so there is a hole in front of the sluice where the water will run off it. the ore and gems, will collect in the sluice.

[Ishiga25 0]

Awesome! See part of my initial confusion was the fact that only the "top" block of the sluice structure opened the interface and I somehow never found myself right-clicking on that part of it.

Also thank you, Bloodraven, for the tip on filling the sluice! I was already throwing things in there with the pan manually and didn't know you could throw whole blocks in. I'll be sure to come ask if I run into any more confusion. :3

[BloodravenD 7]

no problem, I know they're a little more work than actually going out digging for ores, but you do find some really good stuff.

[kelik 10]

yeah, sorry about the inadequacy of the wiki, info on the sluice and gold pan are my current projects so it should be updated within the next few days with a draft at least, hopefully the image files have been added to the database, since im not good at ripping images.

[flamestrider 35]

Two excellent video tutorials that are made for build 47's sluices.

[ThinkTank 77]

Hmm, anyone know what texture packs those videos use?

[Ishiga25 0]

Ok, new question. Charcoal pits. Is there really a chance you don't get even one piece of coal from all that waiting and spent wood? What factors attribute to this? Also aren't the pits supposed to collapse on their own instead of the player having to come and cave it in, thus likely erasing the firepit itself and what not? I can't tell what's working as intended or not with this mechanic.

[Berthjold 2]

I'm not sure about a feature which causes no charcoal to appear, but it could be a de-spawning issue, since the most recent versions cause the charcoal to appear as dropped iems. As for collapsing pits and destroying the firepit, I believe the firepits are now intended to vanish upon creation of the charcoal, since the new design possibilities for pits can create more charcoal than the firepit can hold. There are also several ways of making a charcoal pit to prevent it from caving in and destroying your charcoal:

1) Since grass grows quite fast in this mod, and does not suffer from physics unless you sprint over it (as far as I have observed), you can always make the shell of the pit from dirt first, and leave it to grow grass while you collect lumber.

2) If you have a chisel, you can create stone blocks, which currently refuse to obey the laws of physics, and so you can create permanent charcoal pit structures.

I hope this helps with your questions!

[eichermacher 0]

Actually, grass blocks will fall when you simple walk over them, not just sprint. I had an unfortunate accident recently involving a covered ravine near the surface... I think the mechanic is that when you walk onto a grass block that isn't supported, it has a chance to collapse. Once you're on one and it doesn't collapse, you can stand there as long as you like (at least, I think so). Stone blocks are useful, but since charcoal pits are usually made before the player has metal, a chisel isn't really practical for your first pit. Later on though, a chisel can be quite useful.

I have to agree on the wiki's lack of information. The forums and change-log help quite a bit.

[Ishiga25 0]

Well I'll give it one more go. I remember watch Draconian on youtube have a similar problem to this on his SMP lets play. It was pretty much just shy of the removal of stone picks so that's trip up one, but then he did the same thing, the dirt didn't fall so he had to break it down and when he did it destroyed the firepit and his coal with it.

A little more than annoying to say the least.

At the very least is there a way to make smaller pits? I wouldn't mind less coal out of it all but all that wood gathering is just absolutely ridiculous with all the storage limits in place.

[flamestrider 35]

Minimum size is a 1x1x2, so a firepit with a logpile on top of it is the new minimum size...