Is it normal for there to be no chalk or limestone or marble AT ALL?

[Jake Marshall]

I have been wanting to make limestone, it's needed to make mortar and I need mortar for fireclay bricks to make bloomeries and such (also just want to make normal bricks). I searched a massive radius around my base, I'm talking about a full day, day and a half distance (as the crow flies) just trying to find some lime stone or chalk pieces. No luck.

Finally, I relent, I download the xray mod, I figure while it is a wee bit cheaty, I still have to make the journey myself.

There's none. No chalk. No limestone. Not even marble. I tried a 30000 block radius. It still cant find any. I tested it on other metals, it certainly can find the tin. But nothing related to chalk or limestone, be it boulders, stones, or blocks. What is this?

I assume xray only scans what your map can see but even then, it's kinda taking the piss considering how common limestone is as a rock in he world.

[Dilan Rona]

You must be in an area with no limestone. Will have to pick a direction and start walking. As for mods, https://mods.vintagestory.at/limestonespeleothems will help with limestone in some small quantities.

[Thorfinn]

Good call, @Dilan Rona, on the speleothems. I think i overbalances things, but it might be OK for someone who wants to build with bricks.

Yeah, @Jake Marshall, if you are looking for surface limestone, you may have quite a trek. I've spent the better part of a game month sprinting just to get out of surface granite. If you find any sedimentary layers, you can try digging down to the first igneous layer. Often that's where I'll encounter necessary stuff like bauxite and some carbonate not too far from home, even if it's just conglomerate on the surface.

Edited February 19, 2025 by Thorfinn

[Dilan Rona]

problem is the current granite/andersite/basalt stalactites, and stalagmites make absolutely no sense. Would be more normal for them to be limestone.

[Jake Marshall]

18 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

Good call, @Dilan Rona, on the speleothems. I think i overbalances things, but it might be OK for someone who wants to build with bricks.

Yeah, @Jake Marshall, if you are looking for surface limestone, you may have quite a trek. I've spent the better part of a game month sprinting just to get out of surface granite. If you find any sedimentary layers, you can try digging down to the first igneous layer. Often that's where I'll encounter necessary stuff like bauxite and some carbonate not too far from home, even if it's just conglomerate on the surface.

Yup, granite for days around. Lots and lots of bauxite, theres this big huge orange region, all bauxite. No limestone there though. That's why I used the xray mod to cheat, I had hoped it would point me in a direction and I can just make the journey, but I was shocked that there was nothing at all.

 

I'll give that mod a go. Its just such a strange thing to me, considering limestone is a common rock and exists pretty much in every inhabited biome in the real world. It should be rocking up ingame along seas, rivers, shorelines, etc.

[Dilan Rona]

I had to go a good 8k blocks to the west on my server before I could get to an area that generated peat for example. Had nothing closer to my side. So I know how frustrating it can be to look for something you need, and cannot find anything.

[Wolf builds]

In the World genderation tab, the Landform scale have an influence on the way which rocktype generates?
I tried some worlds, but cant see a differnence?? 

A shame the game ruins some nice building options just to make progression harder.

[Thorfinn]

12 hours ago, Wolf builds said:

A shame the game ruins some nice building options just to make progression harder.

Not sure that's the point. Remember, they put the Chapter 2 stuff what some people thought was insanely far -- something like 25k away. That tells me they were not expecting the kind of world the dev team is envisioning. VS is expecting to keep you busy for several years, so your orchard comes in and your pigs are all later generations, 

Progression is hardly an issue, though. You don't need limestone. Even if you think you need leather, there's plenty of seashells. The OP had his heart set on bricks and mortar. So he's probably going to have to find limestone. Either that, or build with available materials in this world, and bring his brick manor house to life in a different world. What you HAVE to have to progress into iron is commonplace. But beyond iron is kind of a stretch goal at this point of the game. You don't have a Chapter 3, set 50k west of you, so you might as well either go exploring or start a new game and hope the gods of worldgen are kind to you.