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Jivix

Prospectors' pick madness

41 posts in this topic

Anyone else having an awful time trying to learn how to use the prospectors picks? Stop me if you've heard this one before:

Casually using the pick on the surface, trying to find some easy to get mineral deposits. Suddenly, get a "large deposit" hit onBismuthinite. Yay!

Excitedly, I dig down about 6 blocks, and proceed to get more positive "large deposit" hits. I start making a tunnel towards the area I got the most "large deposit" hits on (from the surface).

Every block I break down my tunnel I use my pick to do another analysis. My "large deposit" trail suddenly turns to "nothing found". Ok, we'll just turn around since this was obviously the wrong direction. Before I even break the first block I do another analysis in the other direction on my tunnel (which is only about 10 blocks long right now) and get a "nothing found". This doesn't make any sense if the prospectors pick senses ores within a 27x27x14 cube... I'm not moving far enough to justify the rapid changes between "large deposit" and "nothing found".

Fast forward half an hour, and I've expanded my tunnel to be 20 blocks long in two directions from where I dug in. Both ends go cold, but the middle is hot. I've dug intermediate tunnels along the entire way on both sides, most of which say "nothing found" or "small/medium deposit". I do the exact same thing 1 level down, but the entire thing is completely "nothing found". At this point I've spent about 8 stone picks and 3 bismuth picks mining this massive region, neurotically determined to find the ore. In fact, I'm sitting in it right at this moment, my inventory filled with granite.

Which brings me to my question: Does anybody know exactly how the pick works? For example, in IC2 the ore density device takes an average reading within 5-7 blocks (depending on the model you have) and gives you a numeric estimate of the ore value. In Equivalent Exchange, the Divining rods scans either a 3h x 3w x 3l, a 3h x 3w x 16l, or a 3h x 3w x 64l column of space in front of the face of the block you right click. So if you right click the top of a block, it will scan downwards. I've heard through various sources that it scans in a 27x27x14 box, but does it scan in front of the block you click (in which case I am confused beyond belief), or does it scan the area around where you are standing (in which case I am also confused, because why would it go from hot to icy cold within 1 block of distance?). Or as a third option, could it be one of these modes with LOTS of false positives/false negatives thrown in, so there is pretty much no reason to use the bloody thing to start with?

Any reports of people using these for anything better than finding the general (read: within 2 chunks each direction) location of an ore?

Sincerely,

The guy who has gone completely insane

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Well, I gave up after using 15 more stone picks and mining out the first layers of the 4 chunks I was getting readings in. I switched to creative mode and took several more layers off, and found the deposit. It turns out, using the prospectors pick can result in a "nothing found" even if you are pointing it DIRECTLY AT the ore, even if it's 1 block behind the block you're checking!!! No wonder I could never find it, the trail would run cold for the very reason I managed to get to that spot in the first place - because of the ore! Word to the wise: if you are mining straight ahead with strong readings and your trail goes cold, keep mining anyways : )

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Hehe, the joys of prospecting. ;) When using the ProPick I find it's best to use it on several blocks in one spot to get an 'average' reading. As you note, it sometimes will say 'nothing found' even if a huge vein is right next to it. Also, if there are multiple types of ore nearby it will only show one of them per use (or none!), so don't make your decisions off of just one reading -- do a bunch!

With that noted, I should say your method of finding the ore is pretty good -- mine until the readings go cold, then turn around and repeat. Find the midpoint of these, then dig along the remaining 2D axis until both of those ends goes cold. Find the midpoint again. Then the vein (if you have not found it yet) should be either directly above or below you. Basically it's just trigonometry but with cubes. :V

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took me almost a full propick to realise that it also covers the area behind you too, which gave me much confusion in my mines until I realised that, getting the feeling that it treats you as the epicenter of it's scan zone isntead of being a large block in the direction you face.

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the way that the prospectors pick currently works (together with the ore distributions that we have right now) is maybe the sole most gameplay enhancing element this mod brings to the table. It makes any and every vein find seem like a gigantic achievement!

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the way that the prospectors pick currently works (together with the ore distributions that we have right now) is maybe the sole most gameplay enhancing element this mod brings to the table. It makes any and every vein find seem like a gigantic achievement!

This ^. Also, most of the complaints I read about the prospector's pick not working well are posted by people who don't seem to understand how it actually works. I thought it was stupid and useless until I watched Cysyn's Spotter's Guide and then once I understood how it scanned I developed my own method of prospecting and started having a lot more success when mining.

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Another prospecting tip that might not be immediately obvious -- after you have found and mined out a vein, CHECK AGAIN! Often times there will be extra material that was not connected to the main vein. (I see this happen with native gold rather frequently).

I've also once had my ore-finding strategy thrown totally amuck because there were TWO veins of the same ore (hematite) about 20 meters apart. Made the readings very confusing to interpret, but once I found and mined out one vein, the other was much easier to find.

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WORST part is finding traces, damn traces.

I have found ONE big area with granite, telling me there is copper silver tin and some other ore (from another stone type in the area)

And all say TRACES!

I even use NOCLIP (this is a beta so yeah I'm cheating when I think something is unbalanced) and only traces!

I have played for XX hours, never reached bronze age.

Even tho I have cheated so I can fly and dig for granite, I can't find the damn casserite!

I am playing same seed ye, but I love it too much to change :(

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The Pro Pick cannot lie, if it finds something, its there. It checks every single ore in its defined area and returns one of the ores that it found along with a reading that tells you a vague amount. Again, it's not possible for the Pro Pick to lie.

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Posted ImagePosted Image

In the first one I clicked everything including the ore itself, in the second one I clicked 4 different ore blocks and got 1 return.

I call those lies! lol. I personally like the way it works now, it just gives you an Idea that there is ore in the area, but not where. You can kinda get an idea sometimes of the direction if your samples change in size, but again its very vague.

Maybe in the future there could be a metal detector that gives you a better idea of the direction or even have the pro pick tell you the type of block you clicked on along with the message of surrounding ore.

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I don't mind not knowing the direction. It makes you search more, which makes you dig more, which makes cave-ins more likely (yes, I realize there are supports), which adds to the suspense. I like that.

The only thing that upsets me is like Icarus42's second picture. If I'm specifically ProPicking an ore block when my entire field of vision is filled with said ore, why can't I tell what that ore is?

To be honest, though, I could live with it. I would much rather Bioxx continue adding new and interesting things like he's been doing.

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In the first one I clicked everything including the ore itself, in the second one I clicked 4 different ore blocks and got 1 return.

I call those lies! lol. I personally like the way it works now, it just gives you an Idea that there is ore in the area, but not where. You can kinda get an idea sometimes of the direction if your samples change in size, but again its very vague.

Maybe in the future there could be a metal detector that gives you a better idea of the direction or even have the pro pick tell you the type of block you clicked on along with the message of surrounding ore.

It should be vague, otherwise its just normal minecraft stripmine. It should not say ''found nothing of interest" right on ore or just next to it, that really annoys me. Maybe, just maybe, it would be awesome that such "false" readings would happen less on higher tier picks.

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I enjoy the way Bioxx chose to implement the prospector's pick. TFCraft is definitely not your dad's Minecraft and when you do make a find, it's usually very satisfying and significant in yield. Then the real challenge is mining it out, transporting and storage. :)

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If you click directly on an ore, you should get the message 'You're kidding, right?'

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If you click directly on an ore, you should get the message 'You're kidding, right?'

Why? If you are mining in a verry crude enviroment you want to see what it is before you mine it. And that way you are not running around with crap minerals.

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I think it's part of the charm that if you don't recognize a tree, ore, rock, you pretty much have to mine/chop a block before you find out what it is. And if you can't see it properly, why not? Notch gave us torches for a reason!

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If you click directly on an ore, you should get the message 'You're kidding, right?'

I would actually prefer this to "You see nothing of interest."
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I was testing the propick in a creative world.

I was in flying in the sky to avoid any other reading then the test itself.

I place an ore in the 170 on Y(height), and start placing blocks in the 6 directions, 6 up and down, 12 for the sides, then I prospected each block to understand the traces. The 12th blocks of the sides always gives "nothing found" and the 6th of up/down too. But then weirdly the 1st block and the 3rd in the sides lines also gave "nothing found", all the other blocks gave a positive "traces of ..."(9 of 11). In the up and down axis the 2nd and the 3rd gave "nothing found" while all the others gave "Traces of ..."(3 of 5). I not really sure why this happens but It's kind weird and can mislead anyone into thinking that they are going in the wrong direction.

After placing the lines I start filling the "box" around the ore. And it also happens this in many of the blocks.

Posted Image

This screenshot shows what I was trying to say. Green are positive prospects and red are "nothing found". So, from a 24x12 grid (i'm exluding the border) 106 of 288 blocks gave a false-negative, that's almost 37%.

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I was testing the propick in a creative world.

I was in flying in the sky to avoid any other reading then the test itself.

I place an ore in the 170 on Y(height), and start placing blocks in the 6 directions, 6 up and down, 12 for the sides, then I prospected each block to understand the traces. The 12th blocks of the sides always gives "nothing found" and the 6th of up/down too. But then weirdly the 1st block and the 3rd in the sides lines also gave "nothing found", all the other blocks gave a positive "traces of ..."(9 of 11). In the up and down axis the 2nd and the 3rd gave "nothing found" while all the others gave "Traces of ..."(3 of 5). I not really sure why this happens but It's kind weird and can mislead anyone into thinking that they are going in the wrong direction.

After placing the lines I start filling the "box" around the ore. And it also happens this in many of the blocks.

Posted Image

This screenshot shows what I was trying to say. Green are positive prospects and red are "nothing found". So, from a 24x12 grid (i'm exluding the border) 106 of 288 blocks gave a false-negative, that's almost 37%.

You did Science to it!

Interesting data, btw. I'm now assuming that, for any given point in my mine that I want to sample, I should take at least 3 readings if you want something approaching accuracy.

Also, to those who are annoyed at the lack of precision, if you want the ore prospecting version of a homing missile, go play Equivalent Exchange.

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Wow... that is, really really interesting. Can you do one looking down, as if you were trying to get it from above?

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Nicely done.

(must resist temptation to....)

Did you get cake?

(bum)

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Wow... that is, really really interesting. Can you do one looking down, as if you were trying to get it from above?

Posted Image

This time I forgot to count how many gave false-negatives but it's roughly 40%.

Nicely done.

(must resist temptation to....)

Did you get cake?

(bum)

No cake... But I got a pie! Yummm~~~
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Great job on the data! Furthers my personal preference to mining in grids instead of using prospecting.

I'm fine with how it currently works, but there needs to be a better version somewhere later in the tech tree at least. If better metal picks had better accuracy (to an extent), I would maybe find it worth it to use 'em personally.

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