Am I just unlucky, or was Iron changed?

[PaperOrchid]

I've reached the point in my current playthrough where I'm swimming in all different flavors of bronze, and can no longer justify not finding Iron. It's not my first time looking for iron, and it's certainly not my first time trying for a long time to find iron. So far, I've spent 2 IRL days doing nothing but prospecting, which is quite mind numbing.

So my question is: Am I just unlucky? Because I have found traces of Magnetite, Hematite, and Limonite. But my prospecting spread is very similar to the third reading example in Copperman's thread- only that I also check the diagonals.

Initially, I thought it was just poor luck to have my first few readings not go beyond "poor." But I've reached my 5th Iron Mineral trail that doesn't go beyond "Poor" now, even after micro-checking around the "poor" results.
Is this poor luck? Or is this a sign that I should just embrace my inner caver and take my chances caving in the "poor" areas?

[Chuckerton]

I would guess poor luck, Ive been lucky and found a lot of hematite in my area, but apart from copper ive had very bad luck with everything else. Cassiterite especially. I had to go about 2k blocks for a "high" deposit, which is in quotes, because there wasnt much. 

Edited December 8, 2023 by Chuckerton

[PaperOrchid]

Damn, did something generate through it? Iron's supposed to be giant chunks...

I'm debating going through the 2nd translocator I've found and rolling the die there...

[Streetwind]

It's very annoying when that happens, yeah. And some ores are more prone to it than others. Sphalerite for instance tends to appear as giant sheets of "poor" stretching out in all directions in every world I play, to the point where I have never made bismuth bronze even once because I never have sphalerite readily available.

Honestly, jumping through the translocator is your best bet. Get yourself somewhere far away from everything and see if things are better there.

[PaperOrchid]

3 Hours later, and 1 hour after hopping through my 2nd translocator, I hit Hematite from a node that maxxed at Decent readings. Still a pain, but I am finally free.

[Maelstrom]

I start prospecting for iron once I have a pro pick.  I take it with me whenever I go running hither and yon for other things (bees, limestone/chalk and other resources).  I randomly take a reading and record where I get a medium or better reading for future prospecting in finer detail (the grid method in the OP).  I ignore any initial readings below medium. 

So far I've only missed finding one iron deposit which was never better than a medium reading and likely didn't spawn despite the spawn chances.  Otherwise, I've triangulated readings to very and ultra rich readings and found iron, once two rich iron deposits separated by only five blocks veritcally..

[Michael Gates]

I've had worlds like that-- most extreme case I had to go something like 3k blocks from my initial house before finding hematite, including digging through a mountain range. Roll of the dice and all.

[PaperOrchid]

2 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

I start prospecting for iron once I have a pro pick.  I take it with me whenever I go running hither and yon for other things (bees, limestone/chalk and other resources).  I randomly take a reading and record where I get a medium or better reading for future prospecting in finer detail (the grid method in the OP).  I ignore any initial readings below medium. 

I'll start doing this in the future, sounds like a good idea^

 

 

3 minutes ago, Michael Gates said:

I've had worlds like that-- most extreme case I had to go something like 3k blocks from my initial house before finding hematite, including digging through a mountain range. Roll of the dice and all.

haha, that adds up. The chunk I finally found is -4k, -3k blocks away from my base

[Maelstrom]

7 minutes ago, Michael Gates said:

I've had worlds like that-- most extreme case I had to go something like 3k blocks from my initial house before finding hematite, including digging through a mountain range. Roll of the dice and all.

On the other side of that RNG, my first world I found hematite directly below my initial, temporary home.

[xXx_Ape_xXx]

Glad you found it, searching for iron can be a struggle, been there, done that!

My first time hunting for iron, I spent the major part of 3 irl days searching before I finally got lucky and found Magnetite.

I later found out I had overlooked some really good readings just next to my base, but being new to the Pro-pick, I didn't know I actually found iron and wandered off to search for hours and hours far far away.

Now I make sure to use the ProspectorInfo mod, to easier keep track of where I find what.