Gazz

Found it. It was the cheeky shift key.

This sounds like an interesting feature. Instructions are unclear, though. I disabled all mods, restarted, and created a new world in 1.12.9 (default survival) where "ProPick Node Search Radius" is set to 8. I have seen screenshots from other players where it "worked" but I have never been able to get it working. I tried the secondary action / RMB as well as crouching and other qualifier keys to access the "secondary mode" - without success. Standing right next to an underground deposit I am getting this:

/worldConfig propickNodeSearchRadius 6 Is that a range of 6 blocks?

Propick results are influenced by neighboring chunks. That means in order to not miss a deposit, testing a grid of every 4th chunk or every 128 blocks should be enough. At most you will then do additional tests afterwards to narrow down the area.

Well, the bigger it gets the more likely there will be incompatibilities. A simple json patch mod is going to last a while.

I would like the ability to add waypoints (via the minimap) while the game is paused.

Thanks. I had figured that out by now, digging into the game's data files. Words can be so limiting to a number's person. Heh

I like the diggy diggy hole - probably more than most - and not finding anything interesting to dig is just boring and grindy. This mod increases the likelihood of underground ores and minerals spawning and increases their abundance / size of deposit. Common ones like copper got a minor increase (maybe 30%), rare ores a much bigger one, making it a lot easier to find them in the first place. As random world gen games go, this change will only take effect when a chunk is generated, possibly only at world generation time. Gems / gold / silver are not increased. My goal here is to make basic progression smoother, not to have all the coolest things quickly. PS: Going from zero knowledge about modding this game to my first working mod took about an hour. While this really is super easy, the Wiki is vague/wrong/outdated on some details. #alphalife RichDeposits.zip

Given how much effort it is to keep even copper tools going I have started going against all Minecraft instincts and... digging straight down. A vertical shaft (with a ladder every 2nd block) maximises your coverage and you can drive 1 block shafts into 4 directions from there. A horizontal shaft would double the digging effort and exploring downwards from one is awkward.

In 8 different locations I had checked locations with surface copper with the prospecting pick and it always returned a 0 for the chance of more copper below so digging down blindly looks to be a complete waste of time. Going out prospecting with the prospecting pick is probably your best bet. I was lucky enough to find an "ultra rich" copper deposit with a reported 20‰ chance. There are multiple deposits below but with driving shafts I go through about 300-600 blocks of granite until I find one. With other underground ores - assuming you even find a very rich location like that - expect to dig 2 to 4 times as much.

Considering that people who only speak German would not answer the poll, I'm not sure what the result would be good for.

Yes, I can see how the % value moves up and down between different prospecting sites and haven't even found the center of highest concentration, yet. I need a lot more picks for that. =P That said, I just kept digging down - a lot - and eventually found more and more copper so the % value does indeed look more like a density or distribution value instead of a binary chance of copper being there or not (as had also been suggested).

You're right. I missed that 0. Only true nerds ever use that one. That's going to confuse quite a few. Any reason why you're not using 2.1% instead of 21.5‰ ? Oh, I saw that video but it really only explains what to click. It doesn't go into the distribution function and what the number actually means. The written version in your wiki is more detailed (and quicker) at explaining that.

Yes, 2 basic ways to see this. The chance of the ore being there as a binary. In this case it would be true because I had found a tiny amount of it. I cannot believe that this is the design because showing a 20% chance for a single block of ore (or 5 =)) to be present in the entire chunk isn't much of a feature. The other way around the value is derived from a noise function and then it sounds more like a distribution / weight value, as in "20% of the blocks are this ore". And yes, this shape could again be cropped by another layer of noise so my problem is still that I'm throwing darts in the dark and the propick shows a value that does in no way represent actual findings. I will keep digging there but this is confusing.

I, too, am trying to make sense of what the propick says. (I am familiar with noise maps, especially ones that generate ore in games / random maps) Now here I scanned (first hit) what I think is the middle of the chunk. 624/80, which would be 16 from 608/64, which is divisible by 32. I did find 6 blocks of copper ore that were sticking out a cave wall but that was it. I have gone through a copper pick digging up and down and have not found any more. Now the propick said I read this output as a massive "21.5% chance per block of stone" so I would expect it to be everywhere around me. If an actual column is evaluated for the percentage, that would mean that (supposedly deeper down) there would have to be an almost solid chunk of copper, right?

When I started playing, I just jumped in. Did not even glance at any guides. What's the worst that could happen, right? A lot of the game can indeed be figured out with some effort and ingame means. One thing can not and that is the fire pit. I looked through all the logs, sticks, wood types I had but found no hint on how to create something like a campfire. I had found "firewood" in the ingame handbook. That sounded important but again - it wasn't helpful. I tried using/placing/crouching... nothing worked with any kind of wood. Using out-of-game means I much later saw that to start creating the fire pit you need an item that you will not have unless you use a specific tool and use it to cut grass for no particular reason. That's 2 long shots to even get the right item you need and then even then it (the grass) does not even give you a hint on what's likely it's most important use. I suggest to... change that. Initiate the fire pit creation with sticks instead of grass and put a hint on the item description of the sticks. As long as this process starts with some kind of wood this would be a lot easier to figure out.

The popup window showing you what voxel/block you are looking at in the top center of the screen - it seems quite far from the focus of the game. I would suggest the popup somewhere closer to the crosshairs, probably a bit below. It would only pop up with the character not moving and targeting the same block for x seconds. It would stay out of sight most of the time but if you wait it out, the game will still tell you what you are looking at.