Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[riffraffselbow]

Here's one: Which layerstone holds the most valuable (in net value, once all mined out) veins and clusters?

If I had to guess, I'd say it's probably say one of the "hard" sedimentaries, like limestone, but does anyone have a comprehensive spreadsheet of what appears in what?

[Malicus]

I -did- once see such a spreadsheet.  A quick search of the wiki doesn't turn it up, though.  It must have been somewhere on the forums, but I don't know where.  ...and a search of the forums turns it up.  Value isn't listed there, though.

Or you could look up the individual layers on the wiki, but that's not exactly in the format you're looking for.

[G-Flex]

I want to say that it would have to be a sedimentary layer, since magnetite occurs in such huge clusters and iron is valuable (and steel triply so!).

As for which sedimentary layer is the best? Limestone, Dolomite, and Chalk have double the value of the rest in terms of stone, so that should count for something, not to mention they're flux, which is necessary to turn that magnetite into steel.

Of those, limestone seems to have the best ores.

That's my pick, anyway.

[Derakon]

A sedementary flux layer with a magnetite cluster that has a large vein of platinum running through it. That's probably the best value you're going to get without resorting to HFS.

I guess the only remaining question is how dense gem clusters can be. It might be possible to get a ludicrously dense gabbro layer, in which case all the diamonds could out-value a sedementary layer. The basic gems have values equal to that of flux stone; opals are five times that, semiprecious gems are 7.5-15 times (compare magnetite at 8 times), and precious gems are 20-30 times. So a cluster of diamonds with 5 gems makes up the value of 37 tiles of magnetite or 150 tiles of flux. Generally figure that a magnetite cluster has a radius of about 20 tiles, giving it an area of 1256 tiles, so you'd need a lot of diamonds.

[Qiu]

I've always had very good luck with dolomite (even more than limestone) 

[Grax]

Generally figure that a magnetite cluster has a radius of about 20 tiles, giving it an area of 1256 tiles, so you'd need a lot of diamonds.

CLUSTER ~ 750 tiles.
VEIN ~ 70 tiles.
CLUSTER_SMALL ~ 7 tiles.

So it is +-20%.


Also i think that the the highest value layer is that have magma-pipe and water supply. 

[Derakon]

Ah? What's the source for those numbers? I admit mine were just based on the size of a region tile, which clusters seem to mostly fill, so I could easily be wrong. But I'm curious where you got yours.

Also, you can't get both unlimited water and a magma pipe in the same 48x48 area unless the water is an aquifer or an ice-based refreezer.

[G-Flex]

Also, you can't get both unlimited water and a magma pipe in the same 48x48 area unless the water is an aquifer or an ice-based refreezer.

Pretty sure I've seen brooks in such areas, if not full-fledged rivers.

[Grax]

Ah? What's the source for those numbers? I admit mine were just based on the size of a region tile, which clusters seem to mostly fill, so I could easily be wrong. But I'm curious where you got yours.

Mine's based on the empiric selections. ;-)

Look at it.


There are numbers for the veins (ok, i was wrong with the 70, it seems veins have the a bit more variation than 20%, as on the other levels i saw lesser veins, about 50 tiles and on this there a 103 tiles long one).

Counted number for the cluster in the right.
Other clusters just have designated seven squares 10*10 tiles each - that's 700 tiles and visually you can check that there's no big differences in quantity and all clusters are around that number.

Also CLUSTER_SMALL most of the time have not more than 7 tiles each and rare less than 4. Very rare it's 2 tiles.


Also it seems that there are some rules about quantity of clusters/veins per 48*48 square:
1. Maximum of around 8 CLUSTER_SMALL inclusions (no matter in vein, or in cluster, or in the mineral field)
2. Maximum of around 2 VEINS (second vein can include in the other vein, but can't be two not-intersecting veins at once)
3. And max of 2 clusters (most of the time it's one cluster per square but i've got some times two intersecting clusters, i think there's possibility to get three clusters in one square if there'd be intersecting [environment_spec] tag in each mineral).

Maybe there's a chance to expand the quantity of clusters/veins by adding a lot of minerals so they intersect each other in tags.

[Derakon]

Also, you can't get both unlimited water and a magma pipe in the same 48x48 area unless the water is an aquifer or an ice-based refreezer.

Pretty sure I've seen brooks in such areas, if not full-fledged rivers.

Really? I've never seen a brook in the same 48x48 region as a volcano; in fact, I've never seen any map feature in the same 48x48 region as another map feature. Side-by-side, yes, but not overlapping.

Fortunately this quirk of mapgen should be going away with the next version, if I've read Toady's devlog right.

[G-Flex]

Never mind. I was thinking of regional tiles, not the local tiles. I just misinterpreted you; carry on.

[Grendus]

I've always had incredible luck with limestone. Dolomite's never been good to me, I've found dolomite without iron before (how the fuck do you get sedimentary layers without any of the three types of iron). Chalk is average, lots of iron, not much else. Limestone tends, in my experience, to have a lot of malachite to go with the magnetite, and copper is great for making alloys.

Slate and granite are good as well, if you can find limestone on top of slate on top of granite, you're set for life. I had a fort lost to a save bug that has sphalerite, galena, horn silver, gold, platinum, magnetite, cassiterite, and malachite, in addition to bauxite and other gem-rich clusters. Was beautiful.