Were there changes to Iron-Type Ore Distribution Patterns in 1.17

[Copperman]

Previously I've always found great success in "chasing" patches of good ore percentages. That is- finding a chunk with poor readings and methodically moving up/down/left/right/diagonal and seeing where it gets stronger or weaker, ultimately ending up somewhere good.

However in my new world post 1.17.2 I've noticed I can't seem to get my readings up. In the past, it was normal to be unfortunate enough to not strike an Ultra high, c'est la vie etc etc but now I am consistently finding that my readings hit a dead end at Poor over and over.

Initially, I saw this actually playing but out of curiosity I've been running a creative world and took a lot of readings. and was unable to ever chase a Very Poor reading anywhere higher than Poor 1.0‰

Other ores seem unchanged but Iron Ores, Magnetite and Hematite seem altered

I made some simple diagrams I'll attach below

[Garjouan]

I feel the same, though I can't show a cool graph like you, I just noticed that when spelunking, I tend to stumble upon way fewer deposits than usually.

[Streetwind]

While I haven't worked on 1.17, and so I can't say for sure that no changes were made to ore generation directly or indirectly, this sort of pattern isn't new.

As a matter of fact, have a look at this prospecting result map for iron from my first ever world. back then I made this map in a spreadsheet to help me understand how the prospecting pick and the ore generation works. I recorded this in version 1.12.

As such, I'm afraid you have to chalk up your recent experiences to a string of bad luck. Not every area on the ore map goes up to favorable values - and you just happened to get a number of those bunched up. I can liken that to my 1.16 world, where I had to go through a translocator to find copper. Yes, you heard that right: copper. My chosen settlement area had not a single result above "very poor" for native copper in a 1500 block radius (and possibly further but that's where I stopped checking). I basically made do with surface deposits and rushed to iron. I already had iron tools when I dug into my first proper underground copper vein, after being shunted eight thousand blocks across the world.

For what it's worth, though - that poor iron result from my 1.12 map? I actually found iron there, after digging four or five different shafts. Due to the way iron generates, the absolute spawn chance is less important than it is with other ores. Iron rolls less than one try per chunk - meaning, even with a perfect ultra high result, magnetite for example has a 70% chance to fail to spawn anyway. So no matter the quality of your result, you'll usually need to try several different chunks to find one where the ore managed to pass both probability checks. And this, by extension, means it is often an acceptable alternative to go for checking large amounts of lower-probability chunks as opposed to chasing that one perfect result.

[Copperman]

8 hours ago, Streetwind said:

While I haven't worked on 1.17, and so I can't say for sure that no changes were made to ore generation directly or indirectly, this sort of pattern isn't new.

As a matter of fact, have a look at this prospecting result map for iron from my first ever world. back then I made this map in a spreadsheet to help me understand how the prospecting pick and the ore generation works. I recorded this in version 1.12.

As such, I'm afraid you have to chalk up your recent experiences to a string of bad luck. Not every area on the ore map goes up to favorable values - and you just happened to get a number of those bunched up. I can liken that to my 1.16 world, where I had to go through a translocator to find copper. Yes, you heard that right: copper. My chosen settlement area had not a single result above "very poor" for native copper in a 1500 block radius (and possibly further but that's where I stopped checking). I basically made do with surface deposits and rushed to iron. I already had iron tools when I dug into my first proper underground copper vein, after being shunted eight thousand blocks across the world.

 

I guess I've formed some assumptions about ore generation/distribution that are not correct due to a string of similar fortunes. That copper story is shocking. In every world ive ever made and played on there has always been an at least decent copper generation nearby

I'll have to see about survival, but I went back into my experimental world and did eventually find a High Hematite deposit about 5000 blocks away so yeah, bad luck is all.

Thanks as always for your insights.

As an aside, the prospecting info mod that displays your results on the map is really useful, I know it's abandoned but it still mostly works on 1.17.2
If it ever becomes unusable, I might slide a more codey friend of mine some cash to resurrect it