Questions on mineing caves.

[KeeblerElf]

Alright so I have some questions on mining caves.

1. Is there some sort of percentage for how many caves actually have metals.

2. Do you need to mine farther then 1 tile in to find this out.

3. If your cave does have metal will it be all throughout the cave or only one general area.

[barra]

Alright so I have some questions on mining caves.

1. Is there some sort of percentage for how many caves actually have metals.

2. Do you need to mine farther then 1 tile in to find this out.

3. If your cave does have metal will it be all throughout the cave or only one general area.

1. Unknown.

2. Yes.

3. Subterranean map. As far as I know, the caves are all still on one map, which is shared by metal veins and clusters. A big cave is more likely to intersect patches of metal at some point in it. Keep looking.

[KeeblerElf]

Alright so will I be able to find it on the second tile. I dont want to risk a major cave in. Since I need atleast 1 metal nugget to make those mine supports.

[barra]

Alright so will I be able to find it on the second tile. I dont want to risk a major cave in. Since I need atleast 1 metal nugget to make those mine supports.

Just don't dig too deep. Dig a shallow bit here, and then dig a bit further in and try to find a spot. I've never caused a cavein, but I've never dug more than 3 tiles deep in the same spot.

You might need to find someone who's got more W4 mining experience than me to give you the "safe" depths.

[sabinati]

you can find ore in the first tile if you are digging in the right place

[KeeblerElf]

Alright thanks for the help. Hopefully I will still be alive in a few days while I am mining. Plus someone who knows more about the new cave mining should update the wiki with the information.

[Zamte]

Tiles will either be part of veins or not. When you mine them it goes through cycles before the wall is destroyed. Each cycle can yield ore, and the number varies. Sometimes it will vanish after a cycle or two, other times it will go for 15-20 cycles. If you find a vein, you'll likely find some ore. If you find the ore just dig along the wall. Caveins drop random rocks in the area and won't always hit you. We had 3-4 cave ins getting ours set up and neither of us got hit by any of them.

In any case, if you dig out 5 or so tiles of an ore vein you should get at least a bar, which is enough for five supports.

[Dusk]

It's not about how deep you mine, it's about how many tiles you mine next to each other. I was mining alongside a wall, 1 tile deep, and caused a cave in that took out a character with 180/180 hit points.

In any case be very careful cave mining. Do not mine more than 2-3 tiles without supports, and use a disposable character.

[aaronshan84]

When you mine a tile be it cave wall or mine wall (which are the same thing), if you are standing on a tile that has already been mined you risk a cave-in.
It really is that simple it has nothing to do with tile distance or shape or anything else.

Cave-ins can cause some pretty harsh damage but it seems to be random i have had 2 that pretty new toons have survived pretty easily and 1 that left a 40const toon with 1HHP.

You can find ore in the 1st tile of a cave but you cant tell what it is untill it is mined (all ore is displayed as iron ore atm).

The further you seem to get into a vein the harder the rock gets and the longer it takes to mine but this might be just the vein i am on at the moment ill confirm when i find another.

You cannot prospect for ore in cave walls, if you are prospecting in a cave and find it tells you there are mins it meens they are underneath you (as it says) build a minehole.

The minehole i constructed in our cave has rock that is "very much too hard" for my toon with 80strength so ill let you know if and when i can mine that.

When building supports a tile only has to be partialy under the green circle to be supported but dont take any risks with tiles that arnt atleast 30% under the green.

Hope that helps you guys and ill try and keep you up to date.

[Zamte]

You can prospect for veins in caves. Sometimes it will say there is minerals below, which does indeed mean you need to build a mine hole. However other times prospecting creates a dousing circle under you with a direction to ore.

In any case, there's no reason at all not to be using supports. Once you've got a bar of metal, turn it into nuggets and continue mining with supports. They cost so little metal wise and offer 100% security. By the time you have built the five that first bar got you, you'll have mined hundreds of ores and collected a few dozen more bars.