Prospecting (I know its a pain)

[Raffeh]

I have kinda got the hang of prospecting as much as i feel possible but i just keep getting weird readings such as this:

http://puu.sh/bHa3h.jpg

So as you can see in the picture the readings on the left point to the top right, and the readings in the top right point to the top left.

And ive discovered no ore, I understand the ore can be beyond the cavern walls but as i got closer (I STARTED FROM THE LEFT) it started to curve its way around the cavern? i just don't get it? also i understand that ql 20 rustroot = a 50 tile radius around your user so that's 25 tiles in each direction?

Anyone have any ideas?


(EDIT: NOTE. THERE IS A 4th READING INBETWEEN THE MAP AND BOX WITH ANGLE IN IT(TOP RIGHT))

[LadyV]

Nodes twist and turn, sometimes may be massive, more than one node can be in an area, and very rarely nodes will intersect each other. Your direction markers can be detecting any of those. The best solution at this point is either do a prospect tunnel on your level or just make a minehole and go down and see what its detecting.

[Darthjew]

Prospecting has some random chance to fail, generally it happens when you're neither too far not close enough to the ore (maybe it prospects in circles?). I don't know exactly but think there is always some chance to fail. And when it happens, you should not repeat right at that point, at least for the further hour, since it will fail again, try to move a bit before next prospecting try.

As fucked up as it is, when it points at something, that direction DOES have some metals. It never misfired for me in those cases, it can show you 1000 times that there is no ore where it actually is, but not the other way.

I may be wrong but what I've said works for me.

There is a possibility of having different nodes or weird shaped nodes, thats why it points like this.

[Raffeh]

Prospecting has some random chance to fail, generally it happens when you're neither too far not close enough to the ore (maybe it prospects in circles?). I don't know exactly but think there is always some chance to fail. And when it happens, you should not repeat right at that point, at least for the further hour, since it will fail again, try to move a bit before next prospecting try.

As fucked up as it is, when it points at something, that direction DOES have some metals. It never misfired for me in those cases, it can show you 1000 times that there is no ore where it actually is, but not the other way.

I may be wrong but what I've said works for me.

There is a possibility of having different nodes or weird shaped nodes, thats why it points like this.

Yeah i have experienced this many times.

I just find it very strange the way this is set out. because it must be two ores next to each other is my guess? but then i'm wondering why it would point to a ore which is further away? than the inital one. I'm currently in the process of mining over that direction (As i already have a mine on that level and i was prospecting above to see which way i could find some metals)

Thanks for the replys

[Magisticus]

Reckon you have two different nodes there, just pick one of them, and keep tunneling in that direction, prospecting every 8-9 squares until you get a reading for ore. If you got within scan distance of another node then it wouldn't matter if it is further away, as I understand it the scan is just a scan of an area and doesn't prioritise distance so if two nodes are in the search area then it would just show one at random.

Different qualities of rustroot give different prospecting distances, try carrying a varity of different quality extracts and use lower quality as you get closer to the node, this can give you an idea of how far you have to go. Apparently (wiki) this formula was given by jorb for the distance scanned - ((Q-10) * 5) x ((Q-10) * 5) however there are probably other factors that affect it, possibly including a softcap based on abilities (per*exp?), no one really knows. In any event if you use very high quality rustroot it can pick up several nodes and give confusing readings, although if you aren't getting a reading at all then using higher quality can allow you to detect ore a way off.

[deuceman2008]

OMG ALL THAT LP! But seriously I dont know what any of this stuff means. I would love if people could give tips on gaining LP to get rustroot