So here I was walking in the forest...

[Badger_Bishop]

I'm thinking to myself, "I should be doing something productive!" So I grab a water skin and take a walk along the river near my claim looking for some decent Q soil and water. I was alternating dig and filling my water flask as I went along, 1 mini-map between each but so that I was checking each 1/2 screen once for water, the next for soil. Is that too often?

If I run into some Q12 soil can I follow that to better stuff or to the source to get better stuff? I know that I have Q12 soil on my farm, but if I check even 20 tiles south, it's only Q10. If I check north same thing. Is there something I am missing or don't know about that is making the soil I have planted on better than the surrounding area?

[Potjeh]

When you run into a resource above q10 you should check more densely to find the highest q spot. Check every tile on one axis (N-S or E-W) till you find the highest q point on it, then check the opposite axis starting from that tile.

[Badger_Bishop]

So I should:

1: Start at where I know there is Q11
2: Step one tile in a direction check Q
3: Repeat step 2 till it gets lower
4: Do it again on the next row closest to the spots that produce the Q11

If the spot is 11 or 12 will it go much higher? How localized are these spots? I know you pretty much told me that 1 tile will be the best, but what if I paved over it? I'd have to plow my who claim to check wouldn't I? I am totally willing to do this if that is what it takes and it could pay off though. Even Q15-20 would be nice to give me a small bump to my trees when I work on my next rotation.

I think I am understanding this, I want to cut it into quadrants with my first sweep, and use that to determine a likely location that will have the best to narrow it down. Then work that area to confirm it's better, constantly homing in on the hot spot.

[Potjeh]

Quality spots are circles. In the centre of the circle is the best q point, and as you move away from the centre it drops till it reaches q10. So, the closer a point is to the centre, the higher it's q (though it can go several tiles without changing q, since it comes in discrete steps). Now, if you draw a line across the circle, this line's closest point to the centre and the centre will define a line that's perpendicular to the bisection line. What this means in practice is that once you've found the best point on N-S axis you no longer need to check N-S, just E-W. So no, you don't move a row over and repeat the procedure - you first do a row, and then a column.

Anyway, the highest point could be anything, you can't tell till you find it. As for it's size, I think it's like 2-3 tiles of radius per point of q.

[Badger_Bishop]

So since my Timber House is withing 15 squares of where I found the first spot of better than Q10, I could have built on the best spot. I am gonna hope this isn't the case, and use it to build further from the river if it is the case.


Your second explanation was exactly what I was picturing in my head, but I lacked the words to describe it. The only problem could be is the best Q soil was in 2-5 tiles then I would have to check each of those columns. But that would still be better than wandering around hoping to find a spot that MIGHT be better than 10 in my area.

Appreciate the help on the soil. Do you know if water on rivers is always Q10? I have seen wells produce Q18 water, but never anything better than base from a river.

[Potjeh]

Water and clay work the same. The only problem is that the hotspot will often be imaginary, ie it'll fall outside the appropriate terrain and thus be inaccessible.

[Badger_Bishop]

Water and clay work the same. The only problem is that the hotspot will often be imaginary, ie it'll fall outside the appropriate terrain and thus be inaccessible.

I know you can terraform to change terrain types to: grasslands, broad-leaf forest, and coniferous forest.

Can you plow around a mudflat and have the mudflat expand onto the plowed land? This could be useful to get to those "imaginary" hotspots if it works.

[Potjeh]

Mudflats don't expand, AFAIK. Fodderless cows convert grass into terrain that looks like mudflat, but it's not and you can't dig on it.