Is the Propick Density Search "Fake"?

[Copperman]

Before I start i'll just say this isn't my usual whining about not being able to find ore haha

What I mean by "Fake" is this:

The prospecting pick is claimed to work by triangulation. Take a reading in 3 points and get an idea of the ore generation within the area you have defined. However, when in creative mode it is only required you break a single rock to get a reading. This means 1 of 3 things is possible

A: The propick is giving a reading for a triangular area of ores in survival mode, but only a single block in creative
B: The propick is always giving a reading of a single block, the last one your break. The triangulation is just for show to make it a challenge
C The propick is just giving you the reading for the whole chunk. The triangulation is arbitrary

Thoughts?

[Copperman]

Answering my own question. Examining the games code (Which is hopefully acceptable as I did not use my own copy of the game but rather the publically available github code) it would seem that the answer is (sort of) B

The game is actually giving you a reading on the basis of a single block, which is actually the first one you break

This sort of changes the meta as I used to try and put as much distance between readings as possible to get the widest area but its actually most efficient to go the minimum distance since it doesnt actually matter

[BenLi]

...which also explains my question few days ago:

the density calculation is made for the first block and its area rather than for the chunk the first block is located in.

It also explains why two readings in the same chunk may have different values.

This also makes the VSProspectorInfo mod quite inaccurate as the mod registers the last made reading per chunk and not per reading itself.

[Copperman]

14 minutes ago, BenLi said:

...which also explains my question few days ago:

the density calculation is made for the first block and its area rather than for the chunk the first block is located in.

It also explains why two readings in the same chunk may have different values.

This also makes the VSProspectorInfo mod quite inaccurate as the mod registers the last made reading per chunk and not per reading itself.

Eh well its accurate enough, the values of the single block probably are roughly accurate to the chunk

[BenLi]

1 minute ago, Copperman said:

Eh well its accurate enough, the values of the single block probably are roughly accurate to the chunk

For rough estimations...

once you are looking for a small deposit like bismuth or alike - if you propick in the chunk only once you may end up with 4 vertical shafts per chunk or even switch to the adjacent chunk. Yet individual readings may show the sweetest spot in the chunk itself even before you are going underground.

Moreover - once looking for the richest chunk to start digging - the decision is distorted because each chunk may be probed unequally (in the center or on its border, and how close to other chunk' reading). So the recommendation is to propick at the very center of a chunk.

 

E.g. I had two "Very High hematite" readings from 4.3 to 4.6 in the same chunk, and 3.8 in the adjacent chunk. Obviously the 4.6 was the better spot. And the 4.3 was the outer border of the deposit, distorted by another small depleted hematite deposit 200 blocks away. I.e. readings 15 blocks apart: 4.3(chunk1)-[15 blocks]-4.6(chunk1)-[15 blocks]-3.8(chunk2). The center of the deposit was between 4.6 and 3.8.