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[Mining] Saltpeter range?

G.v.P

Stratics Legend
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I just mined a saltpeter deposit from Shame and got 326 saltpeter. Was curious on what y'all have gotten as far as range, so far? (1775 luck)
 

aoLOLita

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Massive runs 160ish - 220 and Gigantic runs gamut from 230ish to a high of385 (almost all 4's!). Thats wearing a 1960 or 2660 Luck suit and mining around Cavern and WoAbyss house.

Never tried boat ming. To utilize existing Luck suit, I soulstoned Mining over to my Tamer. Generally I just mine saltpeter, and drop all else on ground. It only takes that initial pick swing to know if saltpeter is present.
 

Lord Frodo

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It only takes that initial pick swing to know if saltpeter is present.
Sorry to tell you this but I have gotten 2 and sometimes 3 Saltpeter drops from the same spot. And just because you don't get Saltpeter on the first swing does not mean there is no Saltpeter there.

PLEASE NEVER ASSUME THAT BECAUSE YOU DID NOT GET SALTPETER ON THE FIRST TRY THAT THERE IS NO SALTPETER THERE. IT IS ALL UP TO THE RNG.
 
L

LoL/Sonoma

Guest
Phoenix just posted in the economy thread that you hsould be able to get about 1000 saltpeter per hour of dungeon mining. That sounds about right from what i've seen as sometimes i've done a little better, sometimes a little worse.
 

Lord Frodo

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Phoenix just posted in the economy thread that you hsould be able to get about 1000 saltpeter per hour of dungeon mining. That sounds about right from what i've seen as sometimes i've done a little better, sometimes a little worse.
Agree. Depending on how much the RNG loves me that day I can get from 1000 - 2000 an hour.
 

aoLOLita

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
I can leave the mining bug in stable now if your RNG works for me:) The RNG of yours may not work for me though, Frodo. I've done gold, agapite, valorite and verite - and when PoF bods needed, I have done shadow and DC. Never once have I got a saltpeter deposit doing them... but have got ove 100 initial swing deposits. You must have some real luck, not pixel luck:)
 

G.v.P

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Massive runs 160ish - 220 and Gigantic runs gamut from 230ish to a high of385 (almost all 4's!). Thats wearing a 1960 or 2660 Luck suit and mining around Cavern and WoAbyss house.

Never tried boat ming. To utilize existing Luck suit, I soulstoned Mining over to my Tamer. Generally I just mine saltpeter, and drop all else on ground. It only takes that initial pick swing to know if saltpeter is present.
Wow 385! Thanks, it was my first pretty high one and I was curious.

I'm not sure on the whole one swing or not deal, I haven't paid attention to that detail. But one thing that does seem to be an issue, to an extent, is surface area--as far as the niter spawning in general. The way I assume niter works is the way a mage casts a summon. When a mage casts a summon, the game randomly picks a tile relative to the character in a one-tile radius. If that tile is occupied, perhaps it goes to the next random tile--I'm not sure. But what I'm sure of is it doesn't check every tile around you, and even if there is at least one open tile the summon may not be casted due to some of the tiles being occupied. This summoner problem is best replicated by doing the Grizzle champ and being too close to the bookcases.

Whew, long winded. But yeah, that's the only thing I wonder about with niter.
 

Phoenix_Mythic

UO Legend
VIP
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Stratics Legend
Sorry to tell you this but I have gotten 2 and sometimes 3 Saltpeter drops from the same spot. And just because you don't get Saltpeter on the first swing does not mean there is no Saltpeter there.

PLEASE NEVER ASSUME THAT BECAUSE YOU DID NOT GET SALTPETER ON THE FIRST TRY THAT THERE IS NO SALTPETER THERE. IT IS ALL UP TO THE RNG.
There are a couple different things going on here:

1> When dungeon mining, if you are at GM Mining, if there is a niter deposit to be found within an 8x8 chunk, it will be discovered on the first strike. If you're at less than GM mining, the results of the first strike are not certain.

2> For dungeon mining, once the chunk has been checked for saltpeter, success or fail, it won't be checked again for 5 minutes. So, if you find a deposit and it takes you 5 minutes to finish mining it, then you can immediately re-check that same chunk and could very well find another deposit.

3> For boat mining, the chance of finding a deposit is checked for each swing of the pickaxe, but the odds are a lot lower, and the resulting niter deposits will be a lot smaller.

Basically, boat mining is much safer and easier than dungeon mining, so the saltpeter reward should be less. But, "prospecting" a lot of chunks for saltpeter would be much slower on a boat. So, when boat mining, the intent is that you occasionally get a small niter rock when mining normally, kind of like mining up a gem. With dungeon mining, the intent is that you can "prospect" for saltpeter specifically to get it faster, or just get some as a bonus when mining normally.
 

Basara

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Basically, boat mining is much safer and easier than dungeon mining, so the saltpeter reward should be less. But, "prospecting" a lot of chunks for saltpeter would be much slower on a boat. So, when boat mining, the intent is that you occasionally get a small niter rock when mining normally, kind of like mining up a gem. With dungeon mining, the intent is that you can "prospect" for saltpeter specifically to get it faster, or just get some as a bonus when mining normally.
OK, here's a question for you - Is saltpeter coming up from mountain-face mining in the Valor region of Ilshenar a bug, or intentional?
 

Basara

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You ought to leave it, simply because the area of Ilshenar it is occurring in is more hazardous than any dungeon (with Elder gazers, cyclops, Titans, and the potential for paragons of same). I've not checked the champ spawn side of the river, and if it gives niter, then it means you'd have to risk paragon Greater dragons for the loot.

It's definitely a lot more riskier than "dungeon" mining or fishing in the Mushroom cave at Spirituality.
 

NuSair

Crazed Zealot
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
1> When dungeon mining, if you are at GM Mining, if there is a niter deposit to be found within an 8x8 chunk, it will be discovered on the first strike. If you're at less than GM mining, the results of the first strike are not certain.
Hate to disagree with you, but there has been a number of times that I have been mining saltpeter and it didn't show up until after the 1st strike. And my miner is GM, has +5 gloves in addition to that and runs 2800+ luck when I mine for it.
 

Gorbs

Sage
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Stratics Legend
Hate to disagree with you, but there has been a number of times that I have been mining saltpeter and it didn't show up until after the 1st strike. And my miner is GM, has +5 gloves in addition to that and runs 2800+ luck when I mine for it.
I went saltpeter mining about 3 weeks ago and had the same experience as NuSair. My luck was less - 1750 I think - but I definitely had two of the deposits appear on the 2nd strike. I was paying careful attention due to post #3 in this thread. However, I want to point out that if this is not functioning as intended it would be a bad idea to change it such that even less spawns.
 

TullyMars

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
For those finding saltpeter in dungeons on strikes after the first...has this trend continued for you? What are the chances the 5 minute time limit expired between your first swing and the swing you discovered the niter depost? Do you see other miners in the area that may have thrown the 5 minute timer off for you?
 

Gorbs

Sage
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Stratics Legend
I haven't been back and mining for saltpeter since then. I was using a last item / last target macro for mining. It is possible I had targeted another tile within that 8x8 chunk ~5 minutes prior and the timer expired after my first swing, but it definitely happened twice to me within less than an hour's worth of mining time. I'll update here if I encounter this again.
 
5

5% Luck

Guest
I upgraded to high seas and was mining in a cave. I had no idea what niter was and the 1st few times it spawned i ignored it. When I had 2 huge deposits on the same 8x8 hunk I started getting interested.

No luck

Not a dungeon

GM mining

In a cave with no mobs

About 175 per huge deposit

Within an 1/2 hour of one another same grid

IDK about all this. This stuffs sitting in a secure at my house and I dont know what its good for or even worth!
 

TullyMars

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
IDK about all this. This stuffs sitting in a secure at my house and I dont know what its good for or even worth!
Saltpeter is a key ingredient when you go to make the stuff to fire a cannon.
If you plan on exploring that element of high seas save it.

It is currently selling at 275 to 600 gold per on Atlantic depending on where you look. So the near 200 you found is probably worth 60k or 80k

The floating emporium Alchemist NPC is where most miners sell it if they want some quick profit. The new magincia bazaar has a couple people buying saltpeter too and an added benefit of not having to boat over to the emporium.
 
5

5% Luck

Guest
I havent had high seas more then a week or 2 now but when I did some reading it said to get to the emporium place I need to sail out there(no marking) But.. I cant dock there!

Do the bigger ships have like small boats to travel and dock at the emporium? If so How do I get one without being able to get there?

I swear Im missing something here!
 

NuSair

Crazed Zealot
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Stratics Legend
I havent had high seas more then a week or 2 now but when I did some reading it said to get to the emporium place I need to sail out there(no marking) But.. I cant dock there!

Do the bigger ships have like small boats to travel and dock at the emporium? If so How do I get one without being able to get there?

I swear Im missing something here!
If you need to get to the emporium, and are on Atlantic, shoot me an IM, I have a character perm parked there who can gate.
 

TullyMars

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Aye, you are missing a rowboat deed.
Your character can have his main ship and a rowboat.
Many people perma park a boat at the emporium to recall onto and then use a rowboat to travel the distance from the outer markers to the docks.
Shipwrights sell them, but not sure if all shipwrights sell them or just the ones at the emporium. If it IS just the ones at the emporium, you get a real Catch-22 type conundrum.
 

aoLOLita

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Just hit my new record - 390! Took a 2660 (includes statue rub ) Luck suit though, and a lot of lucky "4" swings of the pickax.

Still have never got a saltpeter strike except on the initial swing, but I always get "gigantics" so it balances out. Using th eold client, maybe the EC client would give multiple deposits...
 
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