Prospecting Help

[platanusoccidentalis 35]

I was wondering if there were any experts at prospecting out there (I am sure there are). If you are out there, could you please leave a tip on how to successfully find ores using the prospector's pick. Any help is greatly appreciated.

[Johnny_Madhouse 28]

I'll just copy and paste this from another forum I'm on.

THE WONDERS OF A PROSPECTOR'S PICK

TFcraft adds quite a few minerals to the world, but they are not distributed in the vanilla minecraft fashion you're familiar with. Ores are spread instead in accordance with a simplified real-world geology, with different ores appearing in appropriate stone layers. For example, if looking for tin ore (casseritite) your best options are igneous intrusive layers like granite. If you have played Dwarf Fortress, then you are already familiar with the way in which ores are distributed. If you are unfamiliar with ore distribution, one of the few useful pages on the official wiki will help: http://wiki.terrafirmacraft.com/Ores

The other major change from vanilla is that ores are no longer spread evenly through their appropriate layers. Instead, they occur in HUGE clusters and veins. When you do find ore, you find a great deal at once. The downside to this is that you can go hours without finding ore if you don't know what you're doing.

The Prospector's Pick is a TFcraft tool designed to make the hunt for ores easier. In order to make one, you'll need an ingot and a suitable forge for working it, which can both be found at the spawn village. If you take metal, it is in everyone's best interests if you pay it back. This guide is meant to help you do so.

LOCATING ORE

The prospector's pick works by scanning about a 25x25x25 cube centered on the block that the player right clicks on. If the prospector's pick locates an ore, an estimate for the ore vein size will appear in the chat window ranging from 'traces' to 'very large'.

The size of this cube makes it so scanning every five blocks is a bad idea. Ideally, you should scan every 25 blocks or so in order to maximize area scanned and avoid damaging your tool too much.

It is important to note that the prospector's pick has about a forty percent false negative rate even in areas where ore is present. I recommend checking an area with three or four different blocks, to minimize the chance of missing ore.

With smart movement, it is possible to conserve your pick uses by laying on the ground and digging 1x1 tunnels. By digging a grid of evenly spaced cubes (I put torches at the intersections, but nothing will spawn in such small spaces anyway) you can search more area with a single pick. These small tunnels are also highly unlikely to collapse, which should be a great comfort while you shimmy along a cramped tunnel hundreds of meters below the earth.

ONCE YOU DETECT ORE

First off, the prospector's pick does not tell you where ores are. It tells you where ores are NOT. If you are getting readings for large quantities of ore in an area, don't start digging around randomly because you'll just get frustrated and waste a bunch of wood on supports in order to not bury yourself.

When you get a reading on metals, look for an area where a medium reading is obtained. Then dig straight along one of the cardinal directions. Take another reading. If the signal is weak, dig the opposite direction. If it is strong, continue going until you get another medium signal. Congratulations! The point halfway between the medium signals is where you'll find ore. Sometimes you may need to check along both cardinal axes.

At this point, you'll need to figure out whether the ore is above or below you. The easiest way to do this is by checking both the ceiling and floor of the tunnel you are in. If the readings are identical, dig out the floor and ceiling to a wider spread and try again. Once you get different readings, dig in the direction of the stronger one.

This takes a little practice, but once you figure it out you should be able to consistently find ore within ten minutes of detecting it.

PICTURES

This is a set of pictures detailing the locating of a saltpeter vein. It's a contrived situation, as [redacted] had already located the vein, but it shows the technique well enough.

This first picture shows the results of me backing down the hall from some exposed saltpeter while using the prospector's pick on the floor. As you can see, concentrations go from very large to small. You can also see some 'nothing of interest' readings between 'very large' readings. Again, this is why checking multiple blocks is a good idea! The first 'medium' reading was found at the block -100, 311.

The second medium scan was at -71, 311.

Finally, the midpoint between both readings was -85, 311. As you can see, this is not a perfect system and the ore was a small bit away from the midpoint. It's still a hell of a lot better than digging one exploratory shaft after another!

DIFFICULT SITUATIONS

Some metals, like gold, are scattered in small pockets all over an area. This makes it much harder to locate individual ore pockets.

If you find two metals next to each other, it can be frustrating to narrow things down. In these cases, I recommend checking both major directional axes for one metal at a time in order to eliminate options.

I hope this helps!

[platanusoccidentalis 35]

Thank you very much!

[Yoshari 2]

Preliminary Start

As of build 47, I find that marking flint rocks that yield small ores in Rei's minimap to be very useful. Once you have a good cluster in a single area, You can just dig down from a central area, propicking every 12 or so blocks (you could go for 25, but its just me). If you think this is risky, get a sluice and see if you can find ores (before digging down). If you get nothing after a good hour or so, then either the ore is very deep or it's just plain unlucky. I have had the problem that my sluice tells me that there is no Cassiterite when sluice is just a couple of blocks above it.

Finding the Ores (if you dig straight down)

My method is a bit different to Johnny Madhouse, but it works on a similar principle. When you find the an ore, you should backtrack to see how far the ore reading was. Once you reach the point where it becomes a small or traces, you should then go forward ~14 blocks and start the cardinal direction tunnels.

The reason for backtracking is to limit where the ore is. If you think about it, a 25x25x25 is a large area to find, but if you can take out one of the directions, it becomes a 25x25x1 area(!).

Cardinal Direction Digging

This should only require 2 directions of digging, unless the ore size is huge such that you need an extra tunnel direction. I recommend digging in perpendicular to the tunnels. Dig about 12 blocks in the two directions, propick the end area there. If the readings are the same, you can generate a conclusion based on the readings where the ore cluster "should" be. Remember that since you determined the area from above, the ore cluster should be on the same level as the cardinal tunnels.

With the two (or three) readings set, you should be able to determine the quadrant the ore cluster is. From there, you should dig out the perimeter of the ore sample and then dig out the midpoints in which you should have found ores at least.

I could edit in some pictures of how I dug, but I need to take them. For now, this is how I find the ores, and it has worked (I have yet to find 2 of the same ore cluster in different quadrants) for me.

[platanusoccidentalis 35]

This is the technique I currently seem to use. Thanks for the help in refining it!