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Prospecting tool broken.

aarons6

Certifiable
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Stratics Legend
so i havent really used it much in the past but i am in need of some shadow iron to get pof..

since i had a chest full of prospecting tools i figured id give it a go.

so every DC vein i run apon i used the tool to turn it into shadow.

but it seems to be broken..
out of the 10 or so swings, 6 or more are regular iron instead of shadow.
only a couple swings were shadow.. so out of every charge of the tool, i only get 3 or 4 shadow ore.. a few times i even prospected shadow ore and got iron every swing :(

this really sucks as i was expecting it to turn the whole vein into shadow?
 

kimhoward

Adventurer
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Stratics Legend
It appears that you may be mining more than one resourse vein. If this is the case, you could be bringing up iron from one vein, and colored from another. The colored vein gives some colored and the rest iron. You may just be having a run of bad luck. I went and tried to mine and use the tool. I had no difficulty bringing up colored ore. Did not seem broken to me.
 

aarons6

Certifiable
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Stratics Legend
the macro i used is set to mine the last targeted spot tho...

it goes like this.
you sift through the ore and find you can mine gold here.
you dig up some iron ore, you dig up iron ore, you dig up golden ore, you find a gem, you dig up iron ore, no metal left to mine.
 

Silverbird

Slightly Crazed
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Stratics Legend
Thats normal ... the prospectors tool doesnt affect the ratio of iron vs colored ore from a vein.
But especially shadow ore is somehwat easy to get:
- use prospectors tool + gargoyle pickaxe. That way every iron spot turns into shadow ore. If you cannot handle the shaow elementals, try above in a guard zone and call for the guards. If you can handle them, you will get 50 extra shadow ingots from each of them.
- team up with someone and hunt the orc brute for its ore
- rumuors are saying that there are natural shadow elementals in the yomutso mines (havent tested/checked)
 

Bazer

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yep, they spawn close to the entrance of the yomotso mines
 

Parnoc

Certifiable
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Stratics Legend
so i havent really used it much in the past but i am in need of some shadow iron to get pof..

since i had a chest full of prospecting tools i figured id give it a go.

so every DC vein i run apon i used the tool to turn it into shadow.

but it seems to be broken..
out of the 10 or so swings, 6 or more are regular iron instead of shadow.
only a couple swings were shadow.. so out of every charge of the tool, i only get 3 or 4 shadow ore.. a few times i even prospected shadow ore and got iron every swing :(

this really sucks as i was expecting it to turn the whole vein into shadow?
I believe you might want to try a different area. Areas differ greatly in the ratio of iron to colored and also to number of ore per vein. I've found areas exactly as you described, I just move on to another area and find a better ore count, better color ratio.
 
C

Connor_Graham

Guest
There's a much faster way than mining to obtain shadow iron. One was already mentioned. The other is orc brutes.
 

Harlequin

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Crud...since someone's already on to it...

What I do - Stealth herder/miner. Tokuno mines, shadow elementals. I use an elemental slayer mage weapon. When you have enough ore, stealth over to the fire beetle and herd it to follow you to where the ore is. Smelt, and BOS to bank. Herd the fire beetle away and repeat elemental slaying activities until you are tired...

Oh, it's my doom thief as well. So I can steal the rare arties at the same time.



ps: Earth elemental slayers don't seem to work as slayers against these naturally spawning shadow elementals for me, but works on those I mine up using a garg pickaxe. I don't know why. Does anyone have a similar experience? Or do earth elemental slayers work for you properly?
 

Warpig Inc

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
My experience. The closer to safe areas you mine the more iron then colored ore and less hits on the area. Pile the gargoyle pick on the prospector and those iron spots are shadow with chance of shadow eli. Any old mage weapon channel bow can safely take on down. Only the copper and val eli get sorted in a fight.
 
B

Beer_Cayse

Guest
I mine in Del and in a large mountain area near my house in Malas. The Malas mining is Vampire bats only so the miner can easily take them out.

Del guard zone is not too bad for Shadow iron, believe it or not. Ummm, That's on LA, BTW
 
K

Kallie Pigeon

Guest
I also have thought that the number of colored ore from a site are down. I am sure they are messing around with the amounts.
 

Tina Small

Stratics Legend
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
There may also be some variation in the quantity you get based on whether or not the miner is elf, human, or gargoyle and possibly also based on how full your character's backpack is with respect to its total carrying capacity.
 

aarons6

Certifiable
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
usually when i mine i have a really nice ec macro that runs on and repeats for about 5 minutes.. all i gotta do is make sure i have enough shovels and dont get overweight.

its set to use a bag of runes and targets "ore and gems" and smelts on a bonded fire beetle that is set to follow me. i mostly go to gaurd zones i been mining around the turmur city alot.. for crystal blackrock.

ive only really set out to get one type of ore just recently and i didnt even think about the shadow elementals lol.
 

aarons6

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There may also be some variation in the quantity you get based on whether or not the miner is elf, human, or gargoyle and possibly also based on how full your character's backpack is with respect to its total carrying capacity.
you could be right about that, i should stone over mining on an elf char and see if he gets more colored ore.
i know they get more gems, but i dont know about ore.
 
U

UOKaiser

Guest
you could be right about that, i should stone over mining on an elf char and see if he gets more colored ore.
i know they get more gems, but i dont know about ore.
Yep they do get colore ore more. Elf is the way to go.
 
V

Vertigo

Guest
To the OP: Prospecting tools are not broken.
The Prospector's Tool allows a miner to increase the level of ore found in a particular area by one level.
In your post you state that you upgraded from DC to Shadow ore.
Seems to be working to me.
 
G

georgemarvin2001

Guest
It's working properly. I've noticed that some locations pretty consistently give you mostly colored ore, some pretty much give you 2 or 3 colored ore and 12 or so iron. Always have, even before AOS. On Atlantic, there is still a set of Valorite books in the Elysium library that date back to maybe 2000, and, while they don't give valorite ore anymore, you will still get whatever the colored ore of the day is almost every time at 2 of the locations in the book, while some of the other locations are almost all iron, and have for 10 years. I'm not sure how the RNG is set up for ore, but it does seem to be pretty consistent. I think the odds are decreased in areas close to town, about even on most mountains, and are increased significantly in some, but not all, mines.
 
C

Connor_Graham

Guest
Crud...since someone's already on to it...

What I do - Stealth herder/miner. Tokuno mines, shadow elementals. I use an elemental slayer mage weapon. When you have enough ore, stealth over to the fire beetle and herd it to follow you to where the ore is. Smelt, and BOS to bank. Herd the fire beetle away and repeat elemental slaying activities until you are tired...
Did you know there's a forge in the room with the orc brute? :thumbup1:
 
C

Connor_Graham

Guest
Stealing doesn't work in Tram, and being in Fel doesn't change the amount of ore they have since it's loot, I don't think. There's also nothing to herd in there.
 

Harlequin

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Just occurred to me that I didn't address the OP's concerns.

Mining tips:

1) Different spots can hold different amounts of ore (eg 5 large 1 small, 12 large, 16 large etc)

2) Different spots have different chances to give coloured ore. Say 1 dull copper spot gives 10 coloured ore out of 16 digs, mark that location down in UO Cartographer (or mark a rune). When the type of coloured ore changes to say Valorite (remember it's random now), you will get 10 valorite out of 12 digs. Jackpot!

The same holds true with spots that are stingy with giving up coloured ore, if it gives only 1 or 2 coloured ore out of 16 digs, it's a bad spot. Even if it changes to a good ore type, you will only get 1 or 2 out of it.

3) Have a UO macro to "use last object, target last".

4) I love fire beetles

5) Using UOA to mine relative area allows you to mine areas you sometimes can't reach, such as the black areas in a mine, or parts of the mountains that gives the "you can't see that" no matter where you stand.
I have macros to mine 2 tiles away in certain direction. NE/NW/SE/SW. 4 macros. Assigned to macro numbers 7/8/15/16 respectively (UOA arranges macros in 2 rows, 1-8 and 9-16, so it's easier for me to picture that 4 buttons as if they represent the NE/NW/SE/SW positions).

6) Record a macro to smelt large ore pieces so that you can hit the macro easily when you are nearing your max carrying weight. Works best when you have a fire beetle. Means you don't have to move from your spot until you have strip-mined the 4 resource grids around you. Fast, efficient mining.

7) I mentioned 4 resource grids. Resources in UO are split into 8x8 tile grids. If you stand on the intersection of 4 of these grids, you can mine 4 sets of resource grids without moving. Then move 16 tiles straight north (or which ever direction you want) to reach the next intersection and repeat. This is like the 4x4 fishing folks use.

8) If you use prospector's tools, you are required to mine the tile once before being able to use the tool. To prevent waste (hey, that 1 ore you mine up could be from a valorite spot), mount your beetle and mine the tile once. You won't get any ore, and the tile won't lose any. Now you can dismount and use the prospector's tool and start mining.

9) Prospector's tools has 50 charges, and each use (which is 1 charge only) lasts until you completely mine out that tile. No fear of ore elementals spawning either. 50 charges lasts pretty long. Use them as much as possible.

10) Garg pickaxe uses 1 charge each time you swing. Don't squander them. The reason they last much shorter than the prospector's tool is because they can spawn ore elementals. So save them for the rare ores. Personally, I reserve them exclusively for spawning valorite elementals. That's 25 val ore, woot!
 

Harlequin

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Stealing doesn't work in Tram, and being in Fel doesn't change the amount of ore they have since it's loot, I don't think. There's also nothing to herd in there.
I meant I prefer the Yomotsu Mines. To work it well, a player needs at least a more or less specialized template. Not many folks will stick herding into a combat miner. So there's little to no competition at all.

I use stealing to steal the arties in the mines. Besides the buddha statues, I'm quite partial to the 3 lantern sculptures as well... :p
 
A

A Rev

Guest
Even so, the loot would be increased if you farmed those things in fel.

Im not sure if there is an orc brute cave in fel but if there was it would have 50ore instead of 25.

Edit: Well it should anyway
 

Winker

Babbling Loonie
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Yep they do get colore ore more. Elf is the way to go.
Wrong! Elfs get more Gems, Humans get more Colour ore. There was a Five on Friday about it, CBA looking it up but thems the facts.
 

Silverbird

Slightly Crazed
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
Wrong! Elfs get more Gems, Humans get more Colour ore. There was a Five on Friday about it, CBA looking it up but thems the facts.
Umm no ...
Elfs get more gems and better colored - iron ratio
Humans get more ingots in total (10% resource bonus.
Though there is a break point somewhere on how many ores a spot needs to give before humans getting an advantage over elfes (or vice versa).
 
U

UOKaiser

Guest
so should i switch my crafter into an elf?
Your gatherer should be elf. Your crafter well i like human for that could hold more weight when crafting but elf would be the way to go if you only had 1 to do both.Imbuer should be gargoyle
 

sirion

Sage
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
At some point the thread titles should be changed if proved misleading.

The devs would probably get heart attack when seeing such titles but only to find out its an incorrect feedback...heh.

...broken?
...broken -- false alarm
 

aarons6

Certifiable
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Stratics Legend
At some point the thread titles should be changed if proved misleading.

The devs would probably get heart attack when seeing such titles but only to find out its an incorrect feedback...heh.

...broken?
...broken -- false alarm
i dont know, im still thinking its not working 100%.
if i prospect a vein and it says i can get a certain ore, then 10 times i swing the shovel and get regular iron each time it doesn't seem right.

they maybe need to enhance the ratio as well as bump up the ore to the next one.
 

Ezekiel Zane

Grand Poobah
Stratics Veteran
Stratics Legend
At some point the thread titles should be changed if proved misleading.

The devs would probably get heart attack when seeing such titles but only to find out its an incorrect feedback...heh.

...broken?
...broken -- false alarm
i dont know, im still thinking its not working 100%.
if i prospect a vein and it says i can get a certain ore, then 10 times i swing the shovel and get regular iron each time it doesn't seem right.

they maybe need to enhance the ratio as well as bump up the ore to the next one.
That has nothing to do with the Prospector's tool, as has been pointed out. Every resource tile decided how much ore and what % will be regular vs. colored the very first time it was used. This never changes. So for example if a particular spot gives you 10 pieces, only 50% of if may be colored ore, or more, or less. According to some very experienced players this percentage does not ever change. I tend to agree. What you have to do, like most efficient miners have done, is mark only runes to high percentage color resource tiles. I try to shoot for the 60% or better ones. Now, using a Prospector's tool is not going to change this ratio. You'll still get the same amount of iron ore no matter what.

You need to understand the resource tile system before declaring that the Prospector's tool is broken.
 

Basara

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Wrong! Elfs get more Gems, Humans get more Colour ore. There was a Five on Friday about it, CBA looking it up but thems the facts.
Umm no ...
Elfs get more gems and better colored - iron ratio
Humans get more ingots in total (10% resource bonus.
Though there is a break point somewhere on how many ores a spot needs to give before humans getting an advantage over elfes (or vice versa).
Ummm... you mean, "Not proven", or at best, "varies by facet".

I have yet to see personal evidence of elves getting a better color to iron ratio as more than a theoretical.

Odds are, if the bonus exists, it's as a modifier to the color chance for each spot (so that a 50% chance becomes 50%*120%=60%, instead of the expected 50%+20%=70%), which means that for most color spots outside fel, it's offset by the human 10% chance of an extra ore. Only in Fel, or in veins on extreme ends of the color/iron ratio, would the bonus be sufficiently large to be noticable, since the human +10% isn't doubled with the rest of the ore (and all the reports I've heard that report more ore for an elf have been fel miners - you won't catch me dead in Fel; I prefer chasing para elementals in Ilshenar to getting murdered by griefers). Frankly, I'd MUCH rather have the capability to not have to make as many trips home, that the human "strong back" gives, when combined with a fire beetle. YMMV.

Now, it IS confirmed that the elven lumberjack bonus is real and substantial.

I personally have miners of both human & elven races, but the elf only goes out when mining for resources other than ore, while the human goes out elemental hunting in Ilshenar with garg picks, to maximize ore return.
 

Petra Fyde

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Stratics Legend
While I agree that there is no noticeable difference between the two on gem drops, I would dispute the colored ore. My friend on Europa, Barian, and I have compared both lumber and mining. My color:iron yield as an elf compared to his as a human caused him to convert his miner to elf (Now he complains he's not getting enough iron :D ).
 

Basara

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IT may end up being a RNG thing - the tests I did with a friend that was using an elf had him getting more gems, but about the same colored ore, in Ilshenar.
 
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