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Is there still oil shale in the desert? Looking everywhere.....

ryan8438

New member
Just playing through the Wasteland mod for first time, pretty cool, trying to get the hang of the differences.  Overall looks good, enjoying it.  One snag - can't find oil shale anywhere in the desert?  Is that still a thing, or are you supposed to buy all your gas now?  Have found numerous sites of all other minerals, but no oil shale.  Please let me know if the search is hopeless, or just difficult.  Thanks. 

 
Shale still exists in the desert for the Wasteland Mod. The desert is split into sub-biomes. One of those sub-biomes is specifically for shale. They are randomly splattered around the desert biome. A bit more searching on that one will 'eventually' bring its rewards. Scanning over all of the desert in the game world map will show up any little nuggets of shale that may have been overlooked. Little squares of this color will be shale.
https://www.color-hex.com/color/e6b478

 
The Wasteland pretty much doubles up all the prices, and it's OK for one off purchases when in real need.

 
If you're using ZZTong-Prefabs, you might be suffering from a bug in my biomes.xml file. I just released an update that fixes that, but you'd probably need to generate a new world.

 
Not specifically related to the Wastelands mod, but I've found that using a small mod to change the color of the shale icon on the map to something that doesn't blend into the desert color makes it far easier to find shale you've gone past.

 
Thanks for much the input, guys, I appreciate it.  I guess I'll buy a little, keep looking, and probably try the color change mod. 

 
aren't different ores marked on ingame map? I know in vanilla they are little coloured squares.

Black = coal

White = nitrate

Red = iron

not sure now what shale is maybe gray or blueish

 I think if you are even using an overhaul mod they still show up.

Have a quick look at your map and see if you do see little black and white squares. Those will be easiest to find. If they are there then the shale ones should be too.

If you do find some shale in desert, before you start digging it have a look at your position on the map to see if the little square is there. You may have to move away from it a few feet as it is small and your player icon may cover it.

 
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aren't different ores marked on ingame map? I know in vanilla they are little coloured squares.

Black = coal

White = nitrate

Red = iron

not sure now what shale is maybe gray or blueish

 I think if you are even using an overhaul mod they still show up.

Have a quick look at your map and see if you do see little black and white squares. Those will be easiest to find. If they are there then the shale ones should be too.

If you do find some shale in desert, before you start digging it have a look at your position on the map to see if the little square is there. You may have to move away from it a few feet as it is small and your player icon may cover it.
Yes, it is on the map.  But for whatever reason, TFP chose to make it almost the same color as the desert (the only biome it shows up in) instead of something that is easy to see.  That was why I mentioned using a small mod to change the color.  It can be done for the other ores as well, but those are usually pretty visible already.

 
Yes, it is on the map.  But for whatever reason, TFP chose to make it almost the same color as the desert (the only biome it shows up in) instead of something that is easy to see.  That was why I mentioned using a small mod to change the color.  It can be done for the other ores as well, but those are usually pretty visible already.
Ok, sorry as I must have skimmed over the posts and never quite got what you were saying.

Do you know of a mod that does that? I wouldn't mind being able to change the colours of the ores myself, at least the shale one like you mentioned. The others are pretty good now as you are saying.

 
Ok, sorry as I must have skimmed over the posts and never quite got what you were saying.

Do you know of a mod that does that? I wouldn't mind being able to change the colours of the ores myself, at least the shale one like you mentioned. The others are pretty good now as you are saying.
It's pretty easy...

<blocks>
<set xpath="/blocks/block[@name='terrOreOilDeposit']/property[@name='Map.Color']/@value">255,0,0</set>

<append xpath="/blocks">




Just set the RGB color to whatever you like.  I did red just because I really wanted it to be easy to spot.  You can do this with the other ore types as well...

terrOreLead, terrOreIron, etc.

Note that changing this mid-game may only end up changing the color on ore in newly explored areas of the map.  I added it mid-game and the ore nodes I found previously remained the original color.  Not sure if that ever changed over the course of the game as I didn't pay much attention.

 
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It's pretty easy...

<blocks>
<set xpath="/blocks/block[@name='terrOreOilDeposit']/property[@name='Map.Color']/@value">255,0,0</set>

<append xpath="/blocks">




Just set the RGB color to whatever you like.  I did red just because I really wanted it to be easy to spot.  You can do this with the other ore types as well...

terrOreLead, terrOreIron, etc.

Note that changing this mid-game may only end up changing the color on ore in newly explored areas of the map.  I added it mid-game and the ore nodes I found previously remained the original color.  Not sure if that ever changed over the course of the game as I didn't pay much attention.


Thanks for the info.

I had an thought it might not work for areas that have already been explored. I am pretty sure I have used mods in the past that have worked that way also.

Thanks again.

 
Thanks for the info.

I had an thought it might not work for areas that have already been explored. I am pretty sure I have used mods in the past that have worked that way also.

Thanks again.


FYI, just use the set command, not the append command.  I think Riamus copied more than intended  😉

You might have already noted that, but I was at first "Why is Riamus appending blocks to change the color?".

 
FYI, just use the set command, not the append command.  I think Riamus copied more than intended  😉

You might have already noted that, but I was at first "Why is Riamus appending blocks to change the color?".


Oops.  That's what I get for copying part of a bunch of stuff.  😅


It was fine. I never would have noticed that but I just manually set it in my copied game to try it so I didn't make a mod for it

 
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