Why caves, why.

[Mark Watton]

I have burnt through 3 stacks of torches exploring caves trying to find copper or zinc since I've burnt through the surface deposits nearby... I've run around smacking random points with the prospecting pick and nothing but cassiterite, which is very nice once I actually find some more copper. Did I just roll a proverbial one on my luck, or are caves meant to be sparse?

[Rainbow Fresh]

Caves aren't where resources are like in Minecraft. You may come across a Locust nest for some risky but potentially valuable loot. Maybe find a small ruin with some decorative junk or maybe even a translocator. But other than that, finding ore mostly requires prospecting. And not just in caves, at the surface. You can randomly come across deposits of something in caves but considering the risk of higher tier monsters, prospecting on the surface is much better if you need resources, guaranteed. Take some random readings until you find something with your resource of choice, then take readings in 128 block distances from eachother to get a general sense of the area, then home in on the hotspot center (optional) with 32 block distance readings. Then dig and hope cause for many resources even the highest readings means you take a blind shot. Copper, which you are looking for, at high readings of... what as it, 16-ish permille? Should mean - if it spawns in the first place - a guaranteed single layer covering the chunk so hard to miss. For rarer resources you may need alot of probing in node search mode to find it.

Edited September 28 by Rainbow Fresh

[Mark Watton]

Welp, forget the torch holders, I'm off to find bees and surface copper and I get to procrastinate on my water-wheel more.

Edited September 28 by Mark Watton

[Archer472]

Expanding on what Rainbow Fresh has said so far, when prospecting you are more concerned with the quality of the reading (ultra high, very high, etc) than you are with the percentage reading. The quality determines the odds of ores spawning in the first place and the % is a theoretical measure on how many ore blocks could be in the area of the reading if there was a 100% chance of them spawning. Once you find an area with the resource you're after the easiest meathod I've found for searching for ore is digging a vertical shaft and digging in all cardinal directions and taking a node reading every dozen or so blocks. I won't go super into detail because 60% of mining is just finding the area with your desired ore and the rest is a mix of preference and game knowledge.

[LadyWYT]

Adding on to what @Rainbow Fresh said regarding prospecting, it doesn't hurt to dig at Poor and Very Poor readings sometimes, if that's all you have to work with. Especially when it comes to more rare ores like Chromite.

It is true that the prospect results are only a probability of what's there, and not a guarantee. However, common ores like copper, tin, zinc, and bismuth will consistently show up at Decent or better readings, and will also show up fairly often even at lower readings. Iron tends to be the finicky ore to find, with magnetite being incredibly hit-or-miss and hematite being much more consistent about actually appearing where it's supposed to. Limonite I've only seen once, maybe twice, so I can't really speak to its spawn rates that much.

[Mark Watton]

4 hours ago, Archer472 said:

Expanding on what Rainbow Fresh has said so far, when prospecting you are more concerned with the quality of the reading (ultra high, very high, etc) than you are with the percentage reading. The quality determines the odds of ores spawning in the first place and the % is a theoretical measure on how many ore blocks could be in the area of the reading if there was a 100% chance of them spawning. Once you find an area with the resource you're after the easiest meathod I've found for searching for ore is digging a vertical shaft and digging in all cardinal directions and taking a node reading every dozen or so blocks. I won't go super into detail because 60% of mining is just finding the area with your desired ore and the rest is a mix of preference and game knowledge.

My method of just mining a long corridor and using the node check works out pretty well for the most part, I think my largest issue is that the layer below granite is peridotite... So... Olivine. All of the olivine. Oh, and quartz. I've also tried to use the other mode, but no matter what I do, mining 3 stones touching eachother, or I try to run a little distance between each check, it keeps saying it needs 2 more samples and won't give me anything.

[Mark Watton]

2 hours ago, LadyWYT said:

Adding on to what @Rainbow Fresh said regarding prospecting, it doesn't hurt to dig at Poor and Very Poor readings sometimes, if that's all you have to work with. Especially when it comes to more rare ores like Chromite.

It is true that the prospect results are only a probability of what's there, and not a guarantee. However, common ores like copper, tin, zinc, and bismuth will consistently show up at Decent or better readings, and will also show up fairly often even at lower readings. Iron tends to be the finicky ore to find, with magnetite being incredibly hit-or-miss and hematite being much more consistent about actually appearing where it's supposed to. Limonite I've only seen once, maybe twice, so I can't really speak to its spawn rates that much.

I will dig a tunnel until I find it, or cry trying. (probably both.)

[LadyWYT]

2 minutes ago, Mark Watton said:

mining 3 stones touching eachother, or I try to run a little distance between each check, it keeps saying it needs 2 more samples and won't give me anything.

For prospecting, you need to mine three different blocks within the same chunk, at a minimum of each one being three blocks away from the other. If you mine in a straight line, for example, the second example needs to be a minimum of three blocks away from the first block that you mined, and the third block needs to be a minimum distance of three blocks from both the first and second blocks mined. After you've mined the third block, the prospecting results should display what ore can likely be found in the area. If the minimum distance is incorrect though, the pick will continue to prompt you for more samples, and if you take a sample that's too far aware from the first it will say as much and start the process anew.

[Mark Watton]

3 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

For prospecting, you need to mine three different blocks within the same chunk, at a minimum of each one being three blocks away from the other. If you mine in a straight line, for example, the second example needs to be a minimum of three blocks away from the first block that you mined, and the third block needs to be a minimum distance of three blocks from both the first and second blocks mined. After you've mined the third block, the prospecting results should display what ore can likely be found in the area. If the minimum distance is incorrect though, the pick will continue to prompt you for more samples, and if you take a sample that's too far aware from the first it will say as much and start the process anew.

I guess I'll have to reduce my view distance to make sure all my checks are on the same chunk. I didn't think it was that finicky.

[LadyWYT]

14 minutes ago, Mark Watton said:

I guess I'll have to reduce my view distance to make sure all my checks are on the same chunk. I didn't think it was that finicky.

Chunk maybe isn't the right term for it. There's a maximum radius you can sample, same as there's a minimum radius, but I forget what that radius is. Generally, I try not to go more than 10-12 blocks away from the first block that I sampled.

The wiki has a more in-depth explanation of the process, along with visuals: https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Guide:Prospecting

It's definitely a tricky system to learn, but once you get the hang of what you're doing it's fairly easy to use.

[Mark Watton]

7 minutes ago, LadyWYT said:

Chunk maybe isn't the right term for it. There's a maximum radius you can sample, same as there's a minimum radius, but I forget what that radius is. Generally, I try not to go more than 10-12 blocks away from the first block that I sampled.

The wiki has a more in-depth explanation of the process, along with visuals: https://wiki.vintagestory.at/Guide:Prospecting

It's definitely a tricky system to learn, but once you get the hang of what you're doing it's fairly easy to use.

The mountains are about to have bowling ball holes.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

8 hours ago, Mark Watton said:

I've run around smacking random points with the prospecting pick and nothing but cassiterite, which is very nice once I actually find some more copper.

I'll trade you... Hop on our server and you can have half the copper deposits we've found so far. I'll take some of that useless cassiterite off your hands.  

[Mark Watton]

9 minutes ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

I'll trade you... Hop on our server and you can have half the copper deposits we've found so far. I'll take some of that useless cassiterite off your hands.  

It's only useless til I find enough copper to make use of it... I didn't realize just how much I found. Two, two stack copper deposits later, I still have tin to spare. I was using it to the minimum before, but now im trying to maximize my tin content to save on copper.

[Mark Watton]

11 minutes ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

I'll trade you... Hop on our server and you can have half the copper deposits we've found so far. I'll take some of that useless cassiterite off your hands.  

Wait, can you transfer items between servers?! I've yet to play multiplayer.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

Just now, Mark Watton said:

Wait, can you transfer items between servers?! I've yet to play multiplayer.

HA, I wish... it was mostly a joke. Just wishing I could find more than one lousy cassiterite deposit on the server. it was Poor quality, and only got about 8 nuggets out of it.

[Mark Watton]

7 minutes ago, Teh Pizza Lady said:

HA, I wish... it was mostly a joke. Just wishing I could find more than one lousy cassiterite deposit on the server. it was Poor quality, and only got about 8 nuggets out of it.

Try granite layers. It's about all I can find.

[Teh Pizza Lady]

3 hours ago, Mark Watton said:

Try granite layers. It's about all I can find.

TRUE.... I was digging around in Andesite.... That's where I'm finding copper.

[Vratislav]

There is method so safe that it is on the edge of being boring. You even do not need any armor for this. Make 1-2 stacks of rope ladder, go to round coordinates (I use 150 blocks step, as it is easy to set up) and even for density probes, dig straight down to take three density readings vertically. It may be done very quickly. As mentioned above, find the hotspot. For copper, bronze ores and iron, even decent+ readings may bring success, so there is no need to bother more than to split the grid twice (probes 30-40 blocks aside). If you are desperate, even poor or miniscule may be worth to try (e.g. in lime-free areas, Borax for leatherworking may be found even on miniscule).

If you decide the density check is worthy, just continue to dig down, and test for node every 10 or 12 blocks. When it pings, you are up to 6 blocks from the ore. If you have too short ladder, you may simply let the hole half-done and try 30-40 blocks aside if the reading is similar. If you are unsuccessful, you may check the Wiki, if the upper stone layer contain desired ore - it may happen that the upper layers are dull. Then you may try somewhere else, or bring longer ladder. If you hit a cave and do not feel comfortable with it (deeper caves = stronger drifters), you may build stone walls from rocks around the ladder to prevent drifters to hit you. 

Edited September 29 by Vratislav