Mining Woes

[spoonyd]

Ok yet another thread about mining.

Since the change to mining and other resource gathering, I've mined up ZERO verite and valorite. Those that script it still get some and can charge obscene amount for it without even being at the comp while gathering. Sure this might slow scripters down but in the end, the ones that are paying are the normal (honest) players trying to gather resources to run their temps.

I completely understand the reasoning behind the change but it's obviously not working out as intended. Scripters are still getting the resources (more slowly) and charging money for 'em without any effort at all. I really think this change should be reconsidered as it's hurting the majority of crafters (miners/lumberjacks).

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

As a non-script miner, I can get Valorite reasonably well.

It helps when you use a Prospector's Tool and Garg Pick. If you DO use a garg pick, you will want to have a good bit of melee or archery on your character to take down the Val elems (magery or pets will be useless).

Sure it's not like it used to be when you could simply use a runebook full of spots, but it's not supposed to be.

In terms of getting screwed over for special resources, I think that Lumberjacks win that battle over miners.

 

[spoonyd]

Ya I can't think of any good reason to even TRY to chop trees. Guess I miss how things used to be before scripters ruined the game.

 

[Maplestone]

Well ... if you want wood, chopping trees is still the most effective way to gather it

 

[NewThunder]

The only Valorite I have obtained since the change was from killing script Miners. I have given up mining myself.

 

[Maplestone]

I've dug up about 700 ingots of valorite since the change (I don't mine a lot but RNG likes my harvesters)

 

[Static]

WELL in this long weekend of mining, i pulled out 10k total ingots

about 8k in iron ore so 16k of ingots

but

only

36 verite ore
and
38 val ore

So Numbers are topsey turbey to me

 

[Uvtha]

I think they should at least increase the smelting rate for the high ores. Its easy to get 0 ingots from full dig of valorite, which is harder than ever to find.

 

[Restroom Cowboy]

mark the spots you find aggy veins on up. although ore is randomized now there are only one or tow variations per ore vien.

so:

*mines*...verite...uses tool...valorite...

valorite runs out...DC spawns...

*mines*...DC...uses tool/pick...Copper...

Copper runs out...valorite spawns...

so its a cycle...once you find the spots with the ore you want mark it...they will continue to spawn those ores as long as you continue to mine them out.

 

[Sindris]

They need to fix ore elemental spawns on boats as well. I like mining on boats, but I miss out on all that great ore you can get from the elementlas because they dissapear right after you dig them up if you're on a boat. Lame.

 

[Cogniac]

Well ... if you want wood, chopping trees is still the most effective way to gather it

I....no. No. It's too easy.

 

[pavel.vesely]

Stop whining and start mining. I have got my 2% of valorite ingots last month, so you can too, you just need to get into bigger numbers.

 

[Oriana]

In terms of getting screwed over for special resources, I think that Lumberjacks win that battle over miners.

Isn't that the truth. When I get the gumption to mine, I can do fairly well getting verite and valorite. No it's not like the days of old when you could jump around spots. But it is indeed easier than lumberjacking. I haven't got but a few pieces of frostwood since the change, never mind the others. Oak, ash and occasionally yew are fairly easy to get, but the rest, well I give up!! It stinks.

Oriana

 

[Dermott of LS]

...

If it says anything, I let my deco stump do my lumberjacking for me. I get many more of the upper level logs than I would actually chopping.

 

[UOKaiser]

I have all my spots that give most resources marked and that have given colored ore or frostwood trees. Still is tough to get the high end we should raise the prices we sell them at 2x more than what they currently at.

 

[Oriana]

...

If it says anything, I let my deco stump do my lumberjacking for me. I get many more of the upper level logs than I would actually chopping.

That is a sad state when that becomes truth (which I know it is).

Oriana

 

[Gheed]

mark the spots you find aggy veins on up. although ore is randomized now there are only one or tow variations per ore vien.

so:

*mines*...verite...uses tool...valorite...

valorite runs out...DC spawns...

*mines*...DC...uses tool/pick...Copper...

Copper runs out...valorite spawns...

so its a cycle...once you find the spots with the ore you want mark it...they will continue to spawn those ores as long as you continue to mine them out.

Oh wow that's nice info. I'll have to try it out. I never liked magery all that much and it burned my hide that I have to be a mage to mark new spots. If this is true I can soon free up 80 points and go back to using chiv... which is a much beter compliment to my miner when fighting elementals.

As a reminder: This change was made to facilitate SA... a change made a year ago to prepare for an expansion we won't likely see for another year.. if at all.

 

[Basara]

If you would use the Prospector's Tool and Gargoyle's Pickaxe, as others suggest, you will get substantially more Verite and Valorite.

Even on a miner with only about 60 weapon skill, and 50 Tactics, I can kill a valorite elemental (but it takes about 5 minutes since I don't have healing, and have to use Chiv to heal). With my main miner, with 120 HP, 120 macing and GM tactics (and a 70s suit), I can drop a valorite elemental without resorting to healing, in about 12-20 seconds. Heck, I usually don't even stop mining AS I fight it, unless I accidentally spawn 2 of them.

I can take 8 gargoyle pics (800-1000 total uses), 1-2 Prospector's tool and 1 200 use sturdy shovel, and start mining ANY minable area in TRAMMEL (or Malas, or Ilshenar), and I will end up with 150-200 Valorite ingots MINIMUM by the time the tools run out, if I really want valorite (not that about half the ingots will come from smelting ore off the valorite elementals). That's even with almost losing a quarter of the potential ingots from the areas I mine. With the special tools, it should be possible to get Valorite from 14-15% of the possible mining locations, if you want to deal with the elementals.

How MUCH of it you get will be dependent on the quality of the site (the metal types may change, but it seems that the average number of ore, and the ratio of iron to colored (when colored ore possible), stay constant for each resource square. A spot that, when fresh, produces 25-30 ore, and about 80% of it is colored (when it's not an iron spot), will ALWAYS produce 25-30 ore, and about 80% colored - be it valorite, copper, or is producing DC because it is an Iron site elevated to DC by a Prospector tool.

 

[Restroom Cowboy]

Isn't that the truth. When I get the gumption to mine, I can do fairly well getting verite and valorite. No it's not like the days of old when you could jump around spots. But it is indeed easier than lumberjacking. I haven't got but a few pieces of frostwood since the change, never mind the others. Oak, ash and occasionally yew are fairly easy to get, but the rest, well I give up!! It stinks.

Oriana

My thoughts on mining also work for trees. Its unfortunate you havent found any trees, but they are there. What makes them difficult to find now is that non scripting LJers often only will farm a tree till it stops producing good wood, leaving you with the poop wood to farm till it respawns again. However these trees will not respawn diff wood until they are either depleted of the crap wood else refresh thanks to a patch or publish.

My best suggestion to you is to look for LJ scripters...and then mark around where you find them. Might as well get the benefit of good wood the same as them.

(btw...instead of marking where people often find these scripters, these people are more concerned about paging or griefing the scripter. What people should be asking themselves is who is going to chop those other 8000 oak boards so the frostwood respawns? Heh...hence less GOOD wood out there!)

 

[Gwendar-SP]

Mining is easy compared to trees. Just pick an area to mine and the deposits will show. A prospector tool helps a great deal.

 

[Tina Small]

My thoughts on mining also work for trees. Its unfortunate you havent found any trees, but they are there. What makes them difficult to find now is that non scripting LJers often only will farm a tree till it stops producing good wood, leaving you with the poop wood to farm till it respawns again. However these trees will not respawn diff wood until they are either depleted of the crap wood else refresh thanks to a patch or publish.

I try to pick a general area that I like and then chop all the trees in that area, making runes for the ones that give the woods I want. (I call that my "exploration trip.") Then I just visit the trees that I marked until most of them have changed over to giving a different type of wood. If I visited a big enough area, I can usually fill at least two runebooks with runes for yew, heartwood, bloodwood, and frostwood and it takes about a week of daily visits to weed them down to a book or less and then have to do another exploration trip for that area and make new runes. If I'm being lazy and don't visit those runes every day, I've found many of them will stay good for three to four weeks. (I always mark the date and the type of wood on the runes when I make them.)

I always take all the wood from the trees because I want to force the ones that are just giving regular or low-end wood to switch to giving the better wood to make my next exploration trip worth the time. I also figure I have to go through the process of moving the boards from my backpack to my pack animal whether I've gotten 20 boards or 400 boards, so I might as well make sure that mouse movement is worth it by moving as many boards as I can every time I do it!