Bauxite Bauxite my Kingdom for Bauxite! And suggestions.

[Empirehacker]

How's it going everyone,

This is my first world and I started on a basalt plain, and it took me almost 100 hours to just find iron. I've searched a lot of area, every ladder icon is a cave I've explored, and every pick-axe is every surface resource I've come across. I have scaled mountains and trans-located at the swirly red marks. I found olivine, and ilmenite somewhat easy enough, but trying to find bauxite is like a needle in a haystack and that haystack is buried under several tens of layers of BASALT. How in the heck am i supposed to get T4 refractory bricks when I cant even find the material for T2? I literally have begun to run out of Iron and have reverted to Tin-Bronze so I have enough ingots for steel making whenever that might happen.

What I'm trying to get across is; Experts of the game how in the heck do you find bauxite? Is it really just "stumble across it sometime??" There has to be a better way of finding these types of resources I.e. Rocks that don't show on the propick.

That being said, it doesn't take away the fact that I love the game.

Suggestions to think about;

-Larger storage using Copper/Bronze/Iron reinforcement on standard chest maybe? (please,im begging ya, im a hoarder and i need more storage)

-Ice harvesting for food storage/cellar spoil penalty reductions. (Basic medieval technology, maybe Icebox Area of effect?)

-Mass jam making (Honey can be put in barrels so why not lots of berries too?)

-Other ways to fix cloths/ more expensive ways if not clothier. (50% max cap for commoner? maybe? Im so cold in winter.)

Thanks for any feedback, even if its "yeah you just find it eventually" It would be disappointing but not unexpected.

[Streetwind]

1 hour ago, Richard Roberts said:

What I'm trying to get across is; Experts of the game how in the heck do you find bauxite? Is it really just "stumble across it sometime??" There has to be a better way of finding these types of resources I.e. Rocks that don't show on the propick.

It really does come down to that, I'm afraid. Bauxite is a stone layer, like granite, claystone, limestone, and so on. When it appears, you'll find dozens of square kilometers of it. Until then, you need to keep searching.

Once, I saw a place where bauxite was not the top layer. It can spawn below other sedimentary stone. So it's worth occasionally (as in, every couple kilometers) digging down if you're in such an area, to check what's beneath. As soon as you find a stone type that's not sedimentary, you can stop digging.

But honestly, Most of the time I find bauxite simply by walking and looking at the map. The color is very obvious when it appears as a top layer - no other stone type is that vividly orange-red. Especially the sand around bodies of water will show it.

Do you have olivine yet? Olivine is only found within peridotite, which is another stone type. If you've got none of that, well, your exploration time just became twice as valuable, because you've got two different things to find. I'm also not seeing limestone or chalk on your map, so that's a third useful stone type you may run across on your travels.

And you've already been lucky, too. Ilmenite is usually quite difficult to find. It's usually the last thing I need to hunt down.

 

Anecdotal evidence says that stone types change more often in the east-west direction than in the north-south direction. But that may have just been my last world and one other person's similar musings. Could have been random.

[Silent Shadow]

13 hours ago, Streetwind said:

Anecdotal evidence says that stone types change more often in the east-west direction than in the north-south direction. But that may have just been my last world and one other person's similar musings.

As that other person, I concur, but I will add that I have seen this over a few worlds (most pre-homestead update, but that shouldn't matter).

As for finding bauxite, your best real option is to cover distance and hope to spot orange on the map. The game has geologic formations such as mountain ranges and continental shields, and sedimentary layers have the best chances of spawning in shields, but there is no good way to identify a formation until you map it, so this is kinda useless.

You can also use the propick to look for Lapis Lazuli, as it only spawns in limestone (nice to have), the marbles (uncommon), or bauxite (the goal). This can be a quick check in flat areas where there are no caves, but you want to check for lower bauxite layers (not all bauxite has it though).

Edited September 30, 2021 by Silent Shadow
grammer

[Maelstrom]

If it's any consolation here's the extent of my bauxite miseries.  Total exploration is about 10k blocks east/west and aboutr 5,400 blocks north/south.

[l33tmaan]

Y'all cut the default world size by 1/10th when playing singleplayer... right?

[Streetwind]

World size does not influence the generation of stone layers. So changing the size for singleplayer doesn't do anything to help with finding bauxite, limestone, or the like, I'm afraid.

[l33tmaan]

14 minutes ago, Streetwind said:

World size does not influence the generation of stone layers. So changing the size for singleplayer doesn't do anything to help with finding bauxite, limestone, or the like, I'm afraid.

WHAT?! Oh no!

[Empirehacker]

Hello again everyone,

The search is over, 275 hours and lots of exploring(North, South, and West have a lot longer exploration because of course its in the last direction i try. ), I found bauxite around 2750 blocks away from home, while following the suggestion from @Streetwind Who said;

On 9/30/2021 at 1:56 AM, Streetwind said:

Anecdotal evidence says that stone types change more often in the east-west direction than in the north-south direction. But that may have just been my last world and one other person's similar musings. Could have been random.

Funnily enough I didn't see any orange on the map (it was under a dirt layer) and I thought it was claystone because it was dark and holding a lantern subtly changes the color of rocks. Not even to heap on the problem of me being colorblind (only slightly red-green, the most common type), which side by side I can tell whats claystone and what is bauxite, but for the situation I didn't even realize what it was until I was heading back at dawn and saw the orange cliff face I had passed.

As for @Maelstrom that's some journey for bauxite, I feel ya. Really wish there was some sort of pro-pick but for stone types, would make finding it easier but maybe that's the point?

Thanks for all the help everyone, I'm sure as the game updates and progresses i'll have more questions. Think about those suggestions though, short of making a storehouse I'm running out of room in my chests fast.

[Maelstrom]

Glad you found your bauxite.  One thing that helps know what kind of stone is under the topsoil are the rocks you run into.  I am hoping that bauxite will produce those stones that can picked up like all the sandstone stones around my home.  If not then I may have to revisit some of those locales and dig/spelunk to investigate lower sedimentary layers of rock.

[Blazer]

5 hours ago, l33tmaan said:

Y'all cut the default world size by 1/10th when playing singleplayer... right?

Now why would anyone do that?

[l33tmaan]

35 minutes ago, Blazer said:

Now why would anyone do that?

Well, I thought it would mean I wouldn't have to walk for hours just to get to a different climate. Apparently that is not the case?

[Silent Shadow]

5 hours ago, Empirehacker said:

because of course its in the last direction i try

Don't most people stop looking after they find what they are looking for? 

[Maelstrom]

17 hours ago, l33tmaan said:

Well, I thought it would mean I wouldn't have to walk for hours just to get to a different climate. Apparently that is not the case?

You could always fire up a test world and test it.  

[redram]

21 hours ago, Maelstrom said:

One thing that helps know what kind of stone is under the topsoil are the rocks you run into.  I am hoping that bauxite will produce those stones that can picked up like all the sandstone stones around my home.

bauxite will produce loose surface stones, yes.  But that has a limited depth range.  It's entirely possible for a bauxite layer to be under another sedimentary layer (or basalt), and so deep that it leaves no surface stones.  I think only the top stone layer will produce stone regardless.  So even if the bauxite is only covered by 1 or 2 blocks of other stone, and technically within range of the surface, it still won't make surface stones.  I think.

[Maelstrom]

@redram  That doesn't surprise me.  Hopefully it'll reduce the spelunking I'll have to do.

[Maelstrom]

Finally found my bauxite!  Only about 5,000 blocks norith/northwest of my home.

 

And bauxite was hiding under all that chert to the south of it!  

 

 

Nine stacks of bauxite rocks later...

 

Edited October 11, 2021 by Maelstrom

[Buggi]

One mod idea I am thinking about making would be a sort of single block 'drill rig' that you place on the surface, slap with right-click a few times, and it pops up a report on what rock (not ore) is at that X,Z location from surface to mantle.

Something like this:
 

Drill Report (x,z: 334, 1234)
Depth : Blocktype
0-3 : Dirt
4-44: Claystone
45-95: Andesite
96-mantle: Granite

I have been having the WORST time trying to find Kimberlite on my server. Searched hundreds and hundreds of chunks. If only there were surface hints (unique land structures, etc) to hint at what's below. Teach a few people on how geology works  So this mod idea is what I've come up with so far.

Someone want to help with block design/texture?

[Kolyenka]

12 minutes ago, Buggi said:

One mod idea I am thinking about making would be a sort of single block 'drill rig' that you place on the surface, slap with right-click a few times, and it pops up a report on what rock (not ore) is at that X,Z location from surface to mantle.

Something like this:
 

Drill Report (x,z: 334, 1234)
Depth : Blocktype
0-3 : Dirt
4-44: Claystone
45-95: Andesite
96-mantle: Granite

I have been having the WORST time trying to find Kimberlite on my server. Searched hundreds and hundreds of chunks. If only there were surface hints (unique land structures, etc) to hint at what's below. Teach a few people on how geology works  So this mod idea is what I've come up with so far.

Someone want to help with block design/texture?

That would be a really good idea. It would also help with finding halite and chalk/limestone, since the propick doesn't work with those.

[Buggi]

Yeah, finding the right rock is essential to finding ore. Even with my OresOPlenty mod the rock is vital. Hence the mod idea.

[Maelstrom]

48 minutes ago, Buggi said:

One mod idea I am thinking about making would be a sort of single block 'drill rig' that you place on the surface, slap with right-click a few times, and it pops up a report on what rock (not ore) is at that X,Z location from surface to mantle.

Something like this:
 

Drill Report (x,z: 334, 1234)
Depth : Blocktype
0-3 : Dirt
4-44: Claystone
45-95: Andesite
96-mantle: Granite

I have been having the WORST time trying to find Kimberlite on my server. Searched hundreds and hundreds of chunks. If only there were surface hints (unique land structures, etc) to hint at what's below. Teach a few people on how geology works  So this mod idea is what I've come up with so far.

Someone want to help with block design/texture?

 

I would suggest removing the depth and only displaying the rock types in the order they were found.

[SaltySpecula]

I had to go about 10k blocks in every direction before I found my first Bauxite deposit. Luckily for me, said deposit was a colossal mountain made of 100% bauxite. It was the same thing for me as well with Halite (salt). 

 

It took me nearly 300 hours before I'd ticked off all the major resources I could possibly need with a reliable supply of them on hand to go back to. Now I just sit here and feed my pigs and say "now, kith." <_<

[Buggi]

Rock Sniffer tool is now released as part of my Ores O' Plenty mod. Tells you the types of rock directly under the (rock) block you break without any hint as to depth, ores, or caves.

[ChubbyDemon]

On 10/4/2021 at 10:51 AM, l33tmaan said:

Y'all cut the default world size by 1/10th when playing singleplayer... right?

I cut my world down from 1 million to I think 25k by 25k for my singleplayer adventures.

[DxBl]

lol I live in the bauxite biome and I'm sick and tired of these red mountains I have the opposite problem.

[Maelstrom]

Especially bad since bauxite is not an ore bearing rock layer.