Rare Dense Ores (WIP)

[Wahazar]

I created my first mod (hope that everything is ok, but not officially published yet, just in case):

https://mods.vintagestory.at/show/mod/13960

This mod alters generation of limonite, hematite, sphalerite, galena and pentalandite: tries per chunk are much smaller, but deposit radius and thickness are substantially larger.  the same with graphite and sulfur.

Intention of this mod is to make ore slightly harder to find, but once found, rich deposit can be used longer.

Copper ores are unaffected (yet). My future plans are to add chalcopyrite and chalcocite ores as replacement for deep native ores in metamorphic and sedimentary rocks, also roasting process for any non-native metal ores (you can't melt metal oxide and get metal in crucible, innit?).

Maybe some metallophyte plants as ore prospecting indicators, however current surface spawn algorithm doesn't allow deep prospecting...

Edited August 9 by Wahazar
ver. 0.2.6

[Thorfinn]

Cool.

Did you think fewer than 1 try per chunk for iron was too much? Or that the iron deposits too small? Iron in particular is something I almost always find only by caving, not prospecting.

[Streetwind]

Even in the base game, iron ores try fewer than once per chunk column. The deposits are huge but rare.

[Wahazar]

Tries per chunk are scaled with deposit radius. For example, original malachite has 10 tries per chunk with avg radius 7, while limonite only 0.8, but with radius 26. It means 14x larger surface of hematite disc, with 12.5x less tries per chunk probability - quotient is similar,  I mean digging straight down gives similar probability of hitting ore disc or close to it. Of course if neglecting rock type issues.

Problems with searching iron ores can be related with limited rock layers spawning these ores.

But even with decreased tries per chunk, there are still few ore disc when propick readings yield few percent, see 2 pictures at my mod page.

[LadyWYT]

Looks interesting--may end up giving it a try at some point. I'm curious about the iron nugget spawns though, as I'm not sure I'm fully understanding the description on the mod page--do those spawn mainly in caves, if there is a vein of that type nearby? Or is it strictly a tiny chance for the nuggets to spawn on the surface, like surface deposits have? I'm assuming they spawn in caves near associated ore veins, which if I'm correct in that assumption, that's a really cool way to make cave exploration a lot more useful.

[Wahazar]

Due to game code, probability of spawning surface nuggets drops 10% with each block, thus if vein is buried more than 10 block deep (including soil), no nuggets at all. Therefore most deep ores doesn't spawn nuggets even if allowed. I spotted one iron nugget deep in cavern, because ore vein was close to.

I'm not familiar with code modding, therefore not sure if it possible to alter decay of surface spawn due to distance between surface and ore block. without this, my idea of geobotanical prospecting will be ruined (I wanted to have plants which can be spawn if there is ore nearby, but also can be spawn randomly, giving false positives).