Mines are scary!

[Xhodan]

So I tried mining for the first time... that didn't go well, had the entire cave collapse on me, thankfully I'm not dead. I've tried to look for guides on how to mine but really haven't found anything useful.

Anybody have any good links I could look at regarding the subject?

[azrid]

Build mine supports out of metal bar+blocks of wood
Or learn to mine without supports.
http://ringofbrodgar.com/wiki/Mining

[Tanchist]

It's basically a minesweeper game, with cave dust fallen from the ceiling being the numbers in minesweeper.
Just like in Minesweeper, the most dangerous part is when you start mining, because nothing can tell you if you have a "minesweeper bomb" first square that you dig in the cavern's wall. But from there you continue exactly like when playing minesweeper. Please, do not forget to mark by paving the squares that gave you cave dust when mined. Otherwise, after a while cave dust will despawn anyway and you are left blind.

The only significant difference between minesweeper and H&H mining is that after you already have metal bars to throw for nothing much (so you don't actually need to keep on mining for ores anymore, to be honest), then you can use a bar and 16 logs to make a mine support. The "minesweeper bombs"/"squares that provoke cave-ins when mined" (it's the same thing) will not detonate/cave-in when you click them if they are inside a mine support radius. But if you ever decide to destroy some ugly/badly placed mine support, you are guaranteed to get a cave-in no matter what the minesweeper game would say about it. So try to think before placing mine supports, place as few as possible and never remove one or more of them.

Just think your ore might produce like an average of 2 bars per 25 mined ores. (25 is a full smelter's capacity.) So if you need to place a mine support to mine out 10 ore squares, you might be actually wasting bars instead of getting bars if you place the mine support and mine the ore. If that is the case, save yourself the trouble and simply mine somewhere else, where you do not need supports to get the ores. If you need supports just to keep on prospecting the mineable area looking for the ores you need in the direction you want to go prospecting, then definitely the direction is wrong and what you need is to prospect somewhere else, not to waste bars on prospecting for ores.

[sentymental]

By the way, can cave-ins caused by destroying a support demolish buildings/containers/palisade?

edit: Uhm, I guess I found it out by myself... Damn.

[agweber]

Please, do not forget to mark by paving the squares that gave you cave dust when mined.

I had always placed stockpiles where dust had fallen, but good lord does this make so much more sense.

By the way, can cave-ins caused by destroying a support demolish buildings/containers/palisade?

edit: Uhm, I guess I found it out by myself... Damn.

Was wondering about this the other day when I was considering restyling my older supports to match my newer ones. Gonna guess they do considering your edit.

[MagicManICT]

Please, do not forget to mark by paving the squares that gave you cave dust when mined.

I had always placed stockpiles where dust had fallen, but good lord does this make so much more sense.

Over the long term, the stockpiles are probably smarter, but are prone to being messed with by players that wander through. Either way, get a scheme for marking a position as the amount of dust that falls is the same indicator as in a minesweeper board.

[tigerlrg245]

Please, do not forget to mark by paving the squares that gave you cave dust when mined.

I had always placed stockpiles where dust had fallen, but good lord does this make so much more sense.

Over the long term, the stockpiles are probably smarter, but are prone to being messed with by players that wander through. Either way, get a scheme for marking a position as the amount of dust that falls is the same indicator as in a minesweeper board.

Wow, didn't realize you get an amount of dust according to how many blocks will cause a collaps, now my minesweeper skills are going to pay off even more

[youcanyouwill]

Sorry for late post. I know "Mines are scary!" but if Minesweeper game you forgot fear.

[vatas]

Please, do not forget to mark by paving the squares that gave you cave dust when mined.

I had always placed stockpiles where dust had fallen, but good lord does this make so much more sense.

Over the long term, the stockpiles are probably smarter, but are prone to being messed with by players that wander through. Either way, get a scheme for marking a position as the amount of dust that falls is the same indicator as in a minesweeper board.

I used to be stern stockpile-guy but with decay changed, you're effectively forced to pave if you want to be sure.

[AlexNT]

I used to be stern stockpile-guy but with decay changed, you're effectively forced to pave if you want to be sure.

How do you folks denote the quantity? Do you carry different color rocks? That always seemed like too much of a hassle to me.

the entire cave collapse on me,

Wait till you get jumped by 4-5 boreworms out of nowhere, like I did the first time I set foot into a cave on lvl4.