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mayaknife

Ore Availability: Am I Just Lucky?

35 posts in this topic

I'm still on my first game of TFC (build 52e). In it I've had no trouble finding massive quantities of most ores quite close to my spawn point and I'm wondering if that was normal or if I've just gotten unusually lucky.

For example, about 50m from my spawn point there is a hole in the ground which goes down to a huge cave system around level 90 which has a large vein of copper. Digging down from there I hit another large cavern system around level 40 which has a massive coal seam containing maybe 3,000 units of coal, plus a second, smaller seam of lignite which I haven't bothered to assay yet. That's basically all the coal I'll ever need in the game, right there. That same cavern system also has more cinnabar than I'll ever need, a nice vein with several hundred hematite, a small copper vein, and a fair bit of sphalerite.

The caves back up on level 90 also connect to a ravine which takes me down to another set of caves on level 70 which have very large tetrahedrite, bismuthinite and cassiterite deposits, plus more copper.

Back at my spawn point I dug straight down and hit a cavern system on level 75 with more copper and tetrahedrite, a small amount of galena, and a staggeringly huge deposit of many thousands of sphalerite ore. Actually, I seem to hit sphalerite everywhere I go. I have no idea what to do with it all. I now make all of my shovels and prospector picks out of zinc just to use some of it up.

Digging further down from there I found another large deposit of bismuthinite, more galena, a tiny amount of gold and, naturally, more sphalerite.

My hope for TFC had been that the hunt for minerals would force me to do a wider exploration of the world than is normally the case in Minecraft, however it seems that without straying more than a couple of hundreds of meters from my spawn point I've been able to find pretty much everything I could possibly need. I still haven't found any nickel or platinum, but the only thing holding me back from getting up to tier 6 is a bit more gold.

Have I just been unusually lucky or is it usually this easy to find all the different ore types fairly close by?

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You were simply lucky that most of those resources were avalable thro ravines or caves.

Usually you would have to run for some caves to reach decent Y level (below 90) then propick like crazy to find something and decide how you want to mine.

From my (52e) expirience the most of the ores stick between Y50 to Y90, so once you make a nice mine at such Y its always a matter of time to hit another vein if you know how to look for it.

Honestly, i've been around TFC since the very first post at MC forums, there was time (after build 42 i think) where finding already available ore at some cave or ravine was an impossibility. Since build 52e the very first time i found an available ore vein at ravine was when i joined SMP play (week ago).

I call it RNG - you got very lucky, i did not.

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Wow I haven't even seen most of those ores yet. Definitely very lucky.

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If you read my other topic where I fell into a cave and died, well there is a visibly large chunk of cassiterite(sp) ore in the cave. I was able to quickly get out of the stone age, heh.

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If you read my other topic where I fell into a cave and died, well there is a visibly large chunk of cassiterite(sp) ore in the cave. I was able to quickly get out of the stone age, heh.

Not totally unlucky then...
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Is this a bragging thread?

On our last map just under our keep we struck about 3000 units of bituminous coal and readings of lignite somewhere nearby in the ravine from one side and about the same size of a vein of sphalerite, clustered with strings of magnetite and lemonite. Zipping here and there I catched very diffused vein of tetrahedrite, so we went on a hunt for tin and although we didn't find many, the same evening we were smithing steel - on the second IRL day of the map's life. Other "tribes" didn't seem to made it past tier 0 metals at that point. We actually vaguely swiped around 2 square kilometers to make that happened, but still I find it very lucky.

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Currently I think these are intended, we just need more things to consume the metals in the long term and it'll make up for it, rather have too many ores you can't use than not enough of the ones you can.

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The other thing I was wondering about was whether it's ever possible to find exposed veins of ore on the surface. I've found several in caverns and underground ravines, but so far I haven't seen any at all above ground. Does it never happen or is it just rare?

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Oh i happens, a fair bit depending on the location. I've found copper several times, as well as sphalerite, and cassiterite, Mostly in the sides of mountains/hills just exposed. But also, in the desert, there are lil' caverns that are filled with ore sometimes.

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just a question, could you post the seed ?? this sounds awesome to me :D

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just a question, could you post the seed ?? this sounds awesome to me :D

It's -8775600805690909155. Have fun!
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thanks :DD now where did my stone pick go ????......

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thanks :DD now where did my stone pick go ????......

You need to search for small rocks and gain small ores and smelt them in the small firepit with a small ceramic mold to get a small ceramic mold filled with small metal. Then work your hot small metal in your small anvil to get a small ingot. Work it again with small plans to get your small pickaxe head and then place this small head above a small stick in your crafting area to get a big powerful pickaxe.
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You need to search for small rocks and gain small ores and smelt them in the small firepit with a small ceramic mold to get a small ceramic mold filled with small metal. Then work your hot small metal in your small anvil to get a small ingot. Work it again with small plans to get your small pickaxe head and then place this small head above a small stick in your crafting area to get a big powerful pickaxe.

well i think the sarcasm of it did not really get through......i've played this mod since B2 came out ^^

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well i think the sarcasm of it did not really get through

This is a quick type of sarcasm. I can do better, ways better.
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well please enlighten me.....anyways it was 3 hours past midnight and i was tired, soooooo.....

* bad joke eel making bad jokes*

derailment please :)

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well please enlighten me.....anyways it was 3 hours past midnight and i was tired, soooooo.....

* bad joke eel making bad jokes*

derailment please :)

All right, where did I put my stash of pennies? *Digs around in pocket* *looks in drawer*

Oh here's my stash of pennies!!

Time to get derailing!

Posted Image

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Posted Image

Those won't be enough.

You need, minimun, the equivalent in cents of 100 of these:

Posted Image

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Telling me how many pennies I need.

GAHHHHHH!!!!!

Time to move on from pennies. I assume these will be enough?

Posted ImagePosted Image

Posted Image

Try to find the hidden fine print...

By reading this post, you have surrendered your soul to me, the all-seeing eye. I see all, I know all, I watch all. If you would like it back, Please pay me. I would like 100 of the above. I aslo like blank checks with lots of spaces for 0s. However by reading THIS, you have rendered the above void, selling me your soul mid and body. The all seeing eye has triumphed. It shall rule over for eternity!

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GAHHHHHH!!!!!

Time to move on from pennies. I assume these will be enough?

Posted ImagePosted Image

Posted Image

Try to find the hidden fine print...

By reading this post, you have surrendered your soul to me, the all-seeing eye. I see all, I know all, I watch all. If you would like it back, Please pay me. I would like 100 of the above. I aslo like blank checks with lots of spaces for 0s. However by reading THIS, you have rendered the above void, selling me your soul mid and body. The all seeing eye has triumphed. It shall rule over for eternity!

Are you kidding? The canadian penny is made of fine gold! You can't use it to derail. Melt ti, sell the gold and become rich. Then you will have enough pennies to derail.
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i ve been messing around with different worlds and seeds to see how veins are spawning in the newer versions of TFcraft

recently i ve noted that most ore deposits seem to be consisting of large sub volcanic intrusions with small amounts of interspersed mineralization along small faults within the rock strata. (ores are forming more in large clumps, with small stringers occasionally sprouting in differing directions)

i preferred the older more random mineral spawning though this allows me to build rather simple large scale underground strip mines useing rail craft tunnel boring machines.

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well...if you can get that bituminous coal to work with that its all good :D but doesnt the bore destroy the blocks it removes ??

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well...if you can get that bituminous coal to work with that its all good :D but doesnt the bore destroy the blocks it removes ??

the ores are dumped out the back of the machine and are collected by several mining trains

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dammit i gotta get myself one of these...but does the machine work wit TFC coal ?? and are there not a hellish lot of block ID overlaps ?? i mean alone buildcraft adds some 100 Block ID's plus railcraft from Covertjaguar isn't that little of a mod......

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