Prospecting/Mine Placement

[khadji]

So I was told by a random guy passing through that there was tin near my town, so I quickly earned enough LP to start mining/prospecting, I found rust root, and even found where the tin was, BUT when I prospect I get the pop-up that says tin is below me, but no sign to place my mine shaft...why is that? does it need to be paved? am I doing something wrong?

[happyface104]

Yes, the minehole needs to be placed on paved ground. Also, make sure that YOU have discovered hardened leather, blocks, rope, etc. Basically all the materials needed to build a minehole.

[khadji]

Ok yeah I hadnt discovered Hardened leather, but I did find a cave close to my house is it easier to prospect above ground near it, find metal and dig TO it in the mine or make a mineshaft?

[thirty-seven]

Ok yeah I hadnt discovered Hardened leather, but I did find a cave close to my house is it easier to prospect above ground near it, find metal and dig TO it in the mine or make a mineshaft?

It's good to get first metal to be able to build mine supports in your furure mine.

[khadji]

How does one get metal without mining?

[MagicManICT]

There are all kinds of mining guides around. Feel free to dig them up for more info. To make a quick summary, you can do either: drop a hole or use the cave. You can't dig within about 50 tiles of the cave entrance. If you use a snaking pattern, the chance of a cave-in is minimal. A snaking pattern is mine 3 tiles in, turn, mine two, turn, mine two, turn, etc. Eventually you're start getting ore instead of stones. Once you have a bar of metal (and then nuggets at a alloy crucible), you can build a support there and mine the area out.

[Saphireking65]

If you snake right there is 0 chance of a cave in.

[ScegfOd]

If you snake right there is 0 chance of a cave in.

can anyone confirm this?
i know diagonal snaking can cave in.

edit: just realized that you cannot confirm something not happening, since it hasn't happened yet.
However, has anyone ever done a straight snake and had a cave in?

[Sevenless]

If you snake right there is 0 chance of a cave in.

Sorry to call you out on this SK :/

Normal snaking (non-diagonal, no turning, just going in the screw pattern) has a very minute chance to cause a cave in. Since world gen it has happened to me on I'd say 3 occasions, just a single rock falling in all cases I believe, but I'm sure more can fall. Edit: I'm one hundred percent certain I was snaking normally in those cases. There have been occasional times when I messed up the pattern due to missclick/sleepiness. These 3 times though I was doing everything correctly.

It's safe enough on lvl 1/2. But if you snake lower that cave in can kill you very easily. Had a character kinned in game die about a week ago from this, he was snaking on lvl 3. Insta death from full HHP, and I'm pretty sure he had at least 200+ MHP.

Morale of the story? Don't snake when deep mining. Just build supports. The 0.001% chance of dying per tile isn't worth it if you intend on doing much mining.

[Saphireking65]

I know who you're talking about, and I know for a fact he was snaking diagonally. I personally have had no trouble with straight snaking, and I have snaked a LOT. Maybe if you don't clear out any boulders nearby it gives it a chance to cave in, but I still believe that if you snake normally you will not get a cave in.