My attempt at an efficient method for mining solid stone blocks. Can I do better?

[eMander]

Hi all. I've been wanting to try and find a method of mining solid stone blocks which more-or-less maximizes the ratio of blocks collected to blocks broken. I did think of a method which seems promising, but I have no idea how it stacks up against other methods (I've had trouble finding descriptions of block mining strategies in general).

The strategy consists of a repeating pattern of mining 3 layers, and goes as follows:

Step 1. Mine out an N x N checkerboard pattern on the floor (you can make N as big as you want), then fully mine out the ring of blocks surrounding the checkerboard.

Step 2. Mine one layer down on the surrounding border ring.

Step 3. Mine the newly exposed sides of the central column, continuing the checkerboard pattern by mining only directly beneath blocks on the top layer. This will cause the outer blocks of the top layer to drop as collectables. At present, the middle of the second layer of the column is blocked off, so a full checkerboard cannot yet be created.

Step 4. Mine one layer down on the outer ring once again.

Step 5. Again, mine the newly exposed sides, continuing the checkerboard pattern.

Step 6. Now, mine out all of the middle (N - 2) x (N - 2) blocks of the bottom-most layer, leaving only the outer blocks.

Step 7. Now that the underside of the middle layer is exposed, you can mine underneath it, creating the full checkerboard pattern for the middle layer. Doing so should cause all remaining blocks on the top 2 layers to drop as collectables.

Step 8. Only the outer ring of the bottom layer should remain. You should now be able to make a checkerboard on the next layer down (which will cause all current layer blocks to drop), and from there, repeat all the above steps as much as desired, continuously mining down.

 

The attached image illustrates each step.

Can I do better?

[RapscallionGamer]

Thats prob one of most decent ways to do it with just a pick.  However Im a big fan of hammer/chisel, smack it, or really a row or wall, and then mine them up with a pick.  Its more tools, durability use, but more stone too.

 

[Ivan Stamenov]

Or use this mod: https://mods.vintagestory.at/stonequarry

[eMander]

30 minutes ago, RapscallionGamer said:

Thats prob one of most decent ways to do it with just a pick.  However Im a big fan of hammer/chisel, smack it ...

 

Could you elaborate on this? How can you use hammer/chisel to harvest stone blocks?

[Vratislav]

Yes, I went similarly, only not so systematically. Usually, I try to find some small rocky hill with as much exposed sides as possible, that can be mined out entirely. Then I do similar pattern. I am not so systematic, so after having checkerboard (step five), I just mine blocks in second layer from above, where is the most blocks around (4 is optimum, 3 are cool), to retrieve them.

Also, never had too much rocks to cover all needs for my stone paths, so like 90% efficiency of possible maximu m is good ;-).

Edited February 24, 2025 by Vratislav
further clarification

[Cattastrafy]

Why not just enchant your pick with silk touch?

Wait a minute .....

[Dilan Rona]

2 hours ago, Ivan Stamenov said:

Or use this mod: https://mods.vintagestory.at/stonequarry

Stone Quarry is highly recommended. Rock Chisel is just as good if you only want to do smaller sections.

Mod free though, what you have is a good size mining quarry, and I did the same before switching to stone quarry and rock chisel.

Edited February 24, 2025 by Dilan Rona

[RapscallionGamer]

The chisel method, is hammer in offhand, chisel in active slot, use on the current stone block, basically to tap it, then switch to pick, use pick, pickup full stone block.  This was in all the videos back in the day I thought everyone used it over checker boarding.

[Marotte]

1 hour ago, RapscallionGamer said:

The chisel method, is hammer in offhand, chisel in active slot, use on the current stone block, basically to tap it, then switch to pick, use pick, pickup full stone block.  This was in all the videos back in the day I thought everyone used it over checker boarding.

doesn't this make it unusable in crafting though, because it becomes a chiseled block?

[Steel General]

I make my checkerboards vertical: 2xn of indeterminate depth. I'm not looking to dive to the bottom, so I'll usually work several in a row, one block between them.

[Michael Gates]

23 hours ago, Marotte said:

doesn't this make it unusable in crafting though, because it becomes a chiseled block?

You can't use chiseled blocks to make querns or ashlar blocks, but they're still VISUALLY solid, and of course you can use them for more obviously chiselly things later. It's a choice you get to make-- do you have more use for the chiseled blocks, or for the stones that drop when you hit it with a pickaxe? Sometimes you want one, sometimes the other.

[cjc813]

On 2/24/2025 at 2:31 PM, Cattastrafy said:

Why not just enchant your pick with silk touch?

Wait a minute .....

BLASPHEMER! HOW DARE YOU MENTION THE OTHER BLOCK GAME!

[Cetasaya]

On 2/24/2025 at 1:11 PM, Ivan Stamenov said:

Or use this mod: https://mods.vintagestory.at/stonequarry

I try to keep my game as vanilla as possible, cause mods come with a lot of headaches (updates, bugs, ect.) but this is one of the few i have and I miss it when it doesnt work after a fresh update.

God I love chisels.  And I love the Stone Quarry mod.  And that really good chisel mod too.

[Welcemir]

That scheme is definitely the optimal in the limit with 50% full blocks. I was cooking up a complicated tileable scheme (with a 10x10x2 repeating unit) but it only gives 40% full blocks in the limit. Your scheme is better than mine if n is at least 11, so if your middle part is at least 9x9.

[Welcemir]

Sorry, I had an error in the previous answer, the scheme posted by OP is less efficient as I initially assumed, because it requires you to break one whole layer of (N-2)x(N-2) blocks.

About the 40% efficient tileable scheme I had in mind (view from top, the repeating unit is lined out):

Layout A:               | Layout B:               | Legend:
  ____X_________X____   |   ____X_________X____   | X...Break these blocks (line up between layers)
 |X - + - + X + - + -|X |  |X + - + - X - + - +|X | -...Break these blocks
 |- + - X - + - + X +|  |  |+ - + X + - + - X -|  | +...These blocks are relieved and drop when the layer below is finished
 |+ X + - + - X - + -|  |  |- X - + - + X + - +|  |
X|- + - + X + - + - X|  | X|+ - + - X - + - + X|  |
 |+ - X - + - + X + -|  |  |- + X + - + - X - +|  |
 |X + - + - X - + - +|X |  |X - + - + X + - + -|X |
 |+ - + X + - + - X -|  |  |- + - X - + - + X +|  |
 |- X - + - + X + - +|  |  |+ X + - + - X - + -|  |
X|+ - + - X - + - + X|  | X|- + - + X + - + - X|  |
 |-_+_X_+_-_+_-_X_-_+|  |  |+_-_X_-_+_-_+_X_+_-|  |
  X         X           |   X         X           |

Step 0: Mine out a 2 block high space above the area you want to quarry so you can see the ceiling
Step 1: Break blocks marked with X and - in the top layer (layout A)
Step 2: Break blocks marked with X and - in the next layer (layout B). Blocks marked with + in the top layer (layout A) are relieved and drop
The top layer (layout A) is now gone and dropped 40% of all blocks. The new top layer already has layout B
Step 3: Break blocks marked with X and - in the next layer (A). Blocks marked with + in the new top layer (layout B) are relieved and drop.
The top layer (layout B) is now gone and dropped 40% of all blocks. The new top layer already has layout A

Repeat steps 2 and 3 to consistently drop 40 % of all blocks in the layers.

You can expand this scheme indefinitely in the horizontal direction

Bring ladders just in case you find yourself stuck

[Welcemir]

Possibly the simplest and fastest scheme out there (but only 1/3 efficient):

 

[Thorfinn]

You can approach and possibly hit 50% efficient if you are just removing hills/mountains/plateaus/mesas..

[Welcemir]

5 hours ago, Thorfinn said:

You can approach and possibly hit 50% efficient if you are just removing hills/mountains/plateaus/mesas..

Could you elaborate how to do that exactly? I cannot come up with something that would get closer to 50%

[Thorfinn]

You no longer have the dead loss of mining around the margins, because they are air, dirt, gravel, sand, water, glacier, something other than stone.  So you have to do is mine half the blocks in each layer. Ideally. In practice, the layers are not going to get bigger in exactly the right direction each time, so it's going to be a little more than half, plus the loss on the bottom layer of however deep you went. It's easiest to see if you imagine the mountain to be a nerdpole structure. You have to only take out every other block.

[Vratislav]

I think that Welcemir's pattern is really theoretical maximum, ecxept the rock is 2 blocks thick exposed wall. 

But think it in positive way: Stones are also a resource!  Cobblestone is decorative in its own way and you may never have enough rocks for stone paths around the base  .

Edited March 10, 2025 by Vratislav

[Welcemir]

8 hours ago, Vratislav said:

But think it in positive way: Stones are also a resource!  Cobblestone is decorative in its own way and you may never have enough rocks for stone paths around the base  .

Very true, especially because I am mining chalk to get those white stonebricks. I will need the chalk stones for mortar and leathermaking anyway.

[Thorfinn]

More I reflect on it, I think you are probably right, @Welcemir. I misunderstood his step 6, and it was too dark to see it clearly.. I pulled it into GIMP, brightened it up, and that is a crapton of overhead mining. Not sure yours doesn't also have a significant overhead in terms of digging the boundaries of the quarry -- an additional 4n+4 blocks per layer. And that's spotting you the starting from the top where you only cleared dirt.

However, if you don't insist on quarrying everything from the same spot, you can repeat his steps 1 and 3 from multiple uplifts, and if you are selective in terms of which blocks are relievable, there are a lot of places where you can get n solid blocks at a cost of n+1 mined blocks. There are quite a few where you can get the full 1:1, including the very top block of a mountain or some of the floating spires, and not infrequent blocks in caves. There are even cave mouths where you can get a block for "free".

But time-wise, scrounging like that is not worth it. Particularly when you need so few relieved blocks in the first place -- off the top of my head, quern, pulverizer, and coffin sections? I usually get a lot more than that  just paying attention when I'm mining. Sloping discs of ores can easily yield a lot of them.

 

[Welcemir]

On 3/10/2025 at 9:08 PM, Thorfinn said:

Not sure yours doesn't also have a significant overhead in terms of digging the boundaries of the quarry -- an additional 4n+4 blocks per layer. And that's spotting you the starting from the top where you only cleared dirt.

That's the neat part, the scheme does not even need a boundary, much less a straight one. It does require 2 blocks clearance above, since you need to be able to move between the holes.
If the layer to relieve blocks from does not stretch to the mantle, it is probably faster to mine each shaft with X completely with the adjacent blocks marked "-" every second layer of blocks until the stone layer ends and then mine towards a central shaft to get back to the top of the layer and then mine the next shaft. It will take a lot of durability from the pickaxe initially, though, will only start to relieve blocks consistently with the 4th shaft. After that initial investment, the efficiency approach 40% of all blocks you remove

[Jodo42]

On 3/9/2025 at 11:10 AM, Welcemir said:

Sorry, I had an error in the previous answer, the scheme posted by OP is less efficient as I initially assumed, because it requires you to break one whole layer of (N-2)x(N-2) blocks.

About the 40% efficient tileable scheme I had in mind (view from top, the repeating unit is lined out):

Layout A:               | Layout B:               | Legend:
  ____X_________X____   |   ____X_________X____   | X...Break these blocks (line up between layers)
 |X - + - + X + - + -|X |  |X + - + - X - + - +|X | -...Break these blocks
 |- + - X - + - + X +|  |  |+ - + X + - + - X -|  | +...These blocks are relieved and drop when the layer below is finished
 |+ X + - + - X - + -|  |  |- X - + - + X + - +|  |
X|- + - + X + - + - X|  | X|+ - + - X - + - + X|  |
 |+ - X - + - + X + -|  |  |- + X + - + - X - +|  |
 |X + - + - X - + - +|X |  |X - + - + X + - + -|X |
 |+ - + X + - + - X -|  |  |- + - X - + - + X +|  |
 |- X - + - + X + - +|  |  |+ X + - + - X - + -|  |
X|+ - + - X - + - + X|  | X|- + - + X + - + - X|  |
 |-_+_X_+_-_+_-_X_-_+|  |  |+_-_X_-_+_-_+_X_+_-|  |
  X         X           |   X         X           |

Step 0: Mine out a 2 block high space above the area you want to quarry so you can see the ceiling
Step 1: Break blocks marked with X and - in the top layer (layout A)
Step 2: Break blocks marked with X and - in the next layer (layout B). Blocks marked with + in the top layer (layout A) are relieved and drop
The top layer (layout A) is now gone and dropped 40% of all blocks. The new top layer already has layout B
Step 3: Break blocks marked with X and - in the next layer (A). Blocks marked with + in the new top layer (layout B) are relieved and drop.
The top layer (layout B) is now gone and dropped 40% of all blocks. The new top layer already has layout A

Repeat steps 2 and 3 to consistently drop 40 % of all blocks in the layers.

You can expand this scheme indefinitely in the horizontal direction

Bring ladders just in case you find yourself stuck

I have tried out this design and many of the blocks are stuck to the wall and are not being relieved. Am I supposed to dig a perimeter around this design? If so, I do not understand what the Xs outside the lined-out repeating section mean.