Nodes and mineholes

[ansem3]

I found a node for some metal, and I was curious as if I should build ON the node, or near the node, as I don't wish to destroy the ndoe and use as much of it as I can. So if I placed the minehole like 15 tiles away, would it still be accessing the node, or no?

[MagicManICT]

Prospecting is not an exact process. As you reason, building a short distance away may allow you to utilize more of the node. The one downside is that you do have to snake into the node a bit to get the first couple of bars of metal so you can build supports and dig a clear path. However, since it's not an exact process, which direction do you offset in? You still have the chance of taking out a full chunk of the node. Therefore, is it really worth the effort of offsetting? How far away should you offset?

Nobody can answer those questions for you. It's something you have to measure the risk for. Iron, copper, and tin are very common and taking out a chunk of a node probably won't make any noticeable difference in the number of bars you can dig out. You'll probably waste more by mining at balanced Ind/Nat than by dropping the minehole in the middle. If it was a gold or silver node, I'd say drop it 50 tiles away and tunnel your way up towards the node to be safe, though.