Could someone explain how mining for ore veins work in alpha 17. Any major changes from 16.4? Also locations for the ore veins would be very helpful. My friends and I seem to be having a few issues finding as much ore as before. Was thinking either, a) we forgot and are doing something wrong or b) maybe it was slightly changed?
PC Mining
- Thread starter Deskimo
- Start date
Even with 5/5 of in the mother lode perk, the resource gathering definitely feels a lot slower. Probably because the involved veins take a few more hits compared to the Alpha before(I played 15 being the most recent before 17 and skipped 16).
The locations are still more or less the same? I found lead in forest, coal in wasteland, nitrates in snow. Shale is probably still in the desert as usual.
The visual textures for the veins are now all the same, you won't be able to tell. When you're digging the gravel underground, you'll find a composition of sand, stone and nitrate/iron ore/coal to hint at what the veins are as you're digging.
The locations are still more or less the same? I found lead in forest, coal in wasteland, nitrates in snow. Shale is probably still in the desert as usual.
The visual textures for the veins are now all the same, you won't be able to tell. When you're digging the gravel underground, you'll find a composition of sand, stone and nitrate/iron ore/coal to hint at what the veins are as you're digging.
Open world boulders are far more efficient than doing any sort of deep dig as they give all the resources. With steel pickaxe, 9 STR, associated damage perks, and mods like bunker buster, they take 5 power attacks to clear 1200 collective block HP and you get quite a bit of all the resources. I think I got something like 1600 iron and 7000 stone in about 30 minutes of boulder smashing with perks at 4/5 (not quite 100 yet in this playthrough).
But since zeds are now digging for you, mining is quite a no-go. (Because a random zombie horde might hear you - and from what i have experienced they hear you even if youre about 30 blocks down - and digg after you.). So .. mining is now really dangerous, and you're better off not mining at all. Or building. Or doing anything else than just zombie clobbiering.
Kattla
New member
In B221 i do not know. However, i did a tiny bit of mining in B208.
Method 1.
(I use lead in this example)
1. Look for gravel patches near the boulders.
2. Dig a little bit in those, to see if you get lead, nitrate or coal. (IE: Lead)
3. If you only get stone, sand and iron, it's an iron vein.
3. Dig down further, about 8 - 10 blocks i think, to where the topsoil meats the rock (not bedrock).
4. That is where the vein of lead will be. Be careful, the gravel is very prone to fall down.
Method 2.
There are also veins near bedrock, which is supposed to be biome-specific.
Will just have to dig down to bedrock, and tunnel a bit to find those.
Method 1.
(I use lead in this example)
1. Look for gravel patches near the boulders.
2. Dig a little bit in those, to see if you get lead, nitrate or coal. (IE: Lead)
3. If you only get stone, sand and iron, it's an iron vein.
3. Dig down further, about 8 - 10 blocks i think, to where the topsoil meats the rock (not bedrock).
4. That is where the vein of lead will be. Be careful, the gravel is very prone to fall down.
Method 2.
There are also veins near bedrock, which is supposed to be biome-specific.
Will just have to dig down to bedrock, and tunnel a bit to find those.
lord_ahriman
Member
My last save before it crashed I was mining over 20 days and didn't have any problem. The thing is: you can't have a lot of entrances around the map: you build an entrance inside horde defense and go to bedrock.
Melonenlord
New member
I tried this method on different places. With iron in the gravel patches it works very often, but it never worked with nitrat, coal or lead. Tried around 10 times. Is this bad luck or is there someting wrong?
RipClaw
Well-known member
As far as I can see, they didn't change anything about the oil shale. I dug a hole in the desert and found oil shale very quickly. However, I did not orientate myself on the stones but dug myself diagonally from the top to the bedrock.
I use an old Minecraft technique to search a larger area quickly. This works with all voxel based games. I first dig a long tunnel and then branch off all 3 blocks. If I don't succeed on one level I search 10 blocks higher again and then in other directions.
zombo
New member
I always play with block durability on 25%, and do a loooooot of mining.
In a17, it's best to just do boulders until you have an auger. Once you have that, dig every gravel spot you can find in any biome. My world has tons of tiny holes because of all the ore prospecting I've done. Most of the time you will get sand, rocks, and iron. It is uncommon to find lead, nitrate, and coal in the gravel you dig up. This is true of any biome, I know it says iron is the dominant ore of forest, but it's a dirty lie. It's the dominant ore of EVERY biome. Sooo much iron is why it's hard to find the others. But keep trying... Dig every little gravel spot (which can be hard to see in some biomes like burnt) and eventually you will find one of the other ore types. Many times an iron deposit can segway into other ore types too, so dig multiple gravel spots in the same general area, if you found iron there first.
Great.
Now follow that gravel patch! Don't go straight down, follow the gravel. You at times might loose the trail, so dig a layer or 2 of stone as another user here said.
Eventually you will find that ore patch.
With an auger this ends up being better then mining boulders. You can extract vast quantities of potassium\coal\lead from just finding one of these deposits. You will also occasionally find a treasure deposit too which gives gold\silver\diamond. The experience gain from this is faster then doing anything else in game atm, even if you don't have an auger. Okay, I suppose you COULD do a lil better, on bloodmoons with molotovs, but that is only once a week, and mining is 24\7.
You will generally find more potassium in snow\wasteland and coal in burnt, but for the most part you can find enough of everything but oil, in any biome. I often don't need to make mines in every biome, just forest and desert.
Shale can be annoying to find, you just have to be really persistent. With auger it's super easy to find, tearing huge long tunnels in minutes, I would advise going pretty deep for best results. There are times I had to make tunnels over 2km long to find something, to give you an idea. Branching tunnels around 500m would probably be a saner way to do this heh.
Just 1 shale deposit is enough oil to probably cover you for the entire game, including grinding levels with auger to lvl 200.
Overall I feel no change was made from A16 vs A17 for underground mining, though I finally found gem deposits in A17, which I honestly can't remember ever finding before in previous alphas.
It's sad how boring (get it?) mining is right now. I really wish tnt was used for it instead. Tearing humongous holes and leaving the proper amount of ores to vacuum up after and finally also giving you the proper amount of xp... but instead you get almost nothing and it makes small holes. Actual mining in real life is done with EXPLOSIVES not ice augers, and it's soo much more fun and cool then this game makes it out to be.
Anyhoot, happy ore hunting! May you find lots of gold in them thar hills!
In a17, it's best to just do boulders until you have an auger. Once you have that, dig every gravel spot you can find in any biome. My world has tons of tiny holes because of all the ore prospecting I've done. Most of the time you will get sand, rocks, and iron. It is uncommon to find lead, nitrate, and coal in the gravel you dig up. This is true of any biome, I know it says iron is the dominant ore of forest, but it's a dirty lie. It's the dominant ore of EVERY biome. Sooo much iron is why it's hard to find the others. But keep trying... Dig every little gravel spot (which can be hard to see in some biomes like burnt) and eventually you will find one of the other ore types. Many times an iron deposit can segway into other ore types too, so dig multiple gravel spots in the same general area, if you found iron there first.
Great.
Now follow that gravel patch! Don't go straight down, follow the gravel. You at times might loose the trail, so dig a layer or 2 of stone as another user here said.
Eventually you will find that ore patch.
With an auger this ends up being better then mining boulders. You can extract vast quantities of potassium\coal\lead from just finding one of these deposits. You will also occasionally find a treasure deposit too which gives gold\silver\diamond. The experience gain from this is faster then doing anything else in game atm, even if you don't have an auger. Okay, I suppose you COULD do a lil better, on bloodmoons with molotovs, but that is only once a week, and mining is 24\7.
You will generally find more potassium in snow\wasteland and coal in burnt, but for the most part you can find enough of everything but oil, in any biome. I often don't need to make mines in every biome, just forest and desert.
Shale can be annoying to find, you just have to be really persistent. With auger it's super easy to find, tearing huge long tunnels in minutes, I would advise going pretty deep for best results. There are times I had to make tunnels over 2km long to find something, to give you an idea. Branching tunnels around 500m would probably be a saner way to do this heh.
Just 1 shale deposit is enough oil to probably cover you for the entire game, including grinding levels with auger to lvl 200.
Overall I feel no change was made from A16 vs A17 for underground mining, though I finally found gem deposits in A17, which I honestly can't remember ever finding before in previous alphas.
It's sad how boring (get it?) mining is right now. I really wish tnt was used for it instead. Tearing humongous holes and leaving the proper amount of ores to vacuum up after and finally also giving you the proper amount of xp... but instead you get almost nothing and it makes small holes. Actual mining in real life is done with EXPLOSIVES not ice augers, and it's soo much more fun and cool then this game makes it out to be.
Anyhoot, happy ore hunting! May you find lots of gold in them thar hills!
