The Innermost Secrets from a Meteors CoreSpecial Issue March 2006The ChangeDexter Seamaster Warlock takes you on a trip into the mysteries surrounding the ways of mining.

The Innermost Secrets from a meteors core Dexter Seamaster Warlock 2006

1

The Change

On 29-august-2005 and Imperial Remote Sensor detected a large object heading towards Calypso. Colonists were urged to remain calm and not to panic. Meanwhile Argonauts felt something was to change and started to chant and build temples. Maybe they felt that their beloved Iron was in danger or the opposite. The 14-september-2005 the large object was The Change was completed. identified as a Class Im-2b meteor.

What caused this change is unknown but the effect is that previous ore and enmatter veins were consumed and can now be found in more concentrated areas. Dr. Talia Makasty, department head of Imperial Mining Office, could shed some light of the effects but her whereabouts is still unknown since a few days after the debris started to hit the ground. The Imperial Mining Office release some information indicating that it is obviously now more difficult to find ore and enmatter and skill is now more important then ever.

SkillsSix months later it is more obvious then ever that skills still matter. The Imperial Survey team, AGO-22, under Dr. Semkel said I believe there are several big resources out there, just waiting for a tenacious miner to find it. What I have discovered during the time after The Change is that no skill seems to help me to find any big resources. Its just a stroke of luck. More important though is that the skills you have as a miner play an important role when it comes to mining, both ore and enmatter. My recent studies has taken place at the space resort more known as CNDClub Neverdie.

Imperial Forces scrambled to destroy the meteor but was itself destroyed when it discovered a vast amount of robot forces hiding behind the meteor. On 27-september-2005 Imperial Forces managed to destroy the meteor that threatened Calypso using a unmanned, cloaked, drone carrying some sort of highpower explosives. Pieces of mineral-rich debris started to fall down onto the land and with that some mysterious force changed the ore and enmatter pattern on the planet.

CNDCND is very interesting from a scientific mining perspective since it is a compressed mining environment. That means that it is easier to study the mining system due to the fact that the ranges are compressed, deposits are by certain inside an area marked off (dome) and therefore the skill gains are more common. Even though the information herein is mostly based on these recent studies at CND I have tested them down on Calypso and I am confident that they apply there too. Ive been mining for exactly 3 years now and the theories regarding mining has been just too many. One reason for this is that the

The Innermost Secrets from a meteors core Dexter Seamaster Warlock 2006

2

when found depending upon the depth. Tool: The Mining skill regulates the tool depth stat on OF/MD. The higher your Mining skill gets the closer to max depth you come. Now this is a bit interesting. Why would a skill that controls the size of the deposit have anything to do with the depth on the Orefinder or Detectonator? My conclusion: I think that the max depth of the MD/OF tool is a measure of how deep down the mining skill will affect the deposit size. I have in my recordings earlier discovered that the average deposit depth seems to be near your current tool depth x 2. See appendix (i).

system has changed a bit even though not as much as after The Change. I would therefore like to inform the readers that the information I publish are my own thoughts and observations. As such they may be completely wrong. Still as a mining scientist I need to share my work with the community I write The general feeling I have is that with the hope of one day become a member OF103 yeilds more hits but less return (i.e. of the Imperial Mining Office. smaller sizes), something the percentage table above also shows.. This strengthens The skill section starts below. When the theory since OF103 has a max tool depth describing the different skills I have left out of 180.9 meters while the MD-50 has a max the Enmatter skills since they are according tool depth of 246.2 meters. This means that to me the same as the Ore skills. So if my Mining skill will affect the deposit size reading about Mining it also applies for much further down using a MD50 then an Drilling and so on. OF103. I am not sure of this but the depth Each section has a ranking indicating how the mining skill will affect might be the tool certain I am about the way the skill works. stat depth x 2 since it seems to be the average depth. An example: If I hit a deposit, a start size is calculated say Small with a value of 3 PED. Now the depth comes into action. If the "Mining is the ability to mine the ground for depth of the claim is within the range of my resources with the minimum waste possible." tool stat depth x 2, the mining skill will affect the small 3 ped deposit raising it with some Rank: unknown factor leading to a Small 4 ped This means that the higher skill you have in deposit. In other words it influence my Mining the more stones you will pull. A ability to mine the ground with minimum veteran will get more peds from a small waste possible. If it is outside the range the deposit then a beginner OR what would be a deposit will stay at 3 PED. small deposit for a beginner would be a modest for a veteran if they discovered the This will also explain the PED range for each same deposit. deposit size - people have recorded the sizes

Mining

that have been calculated based on the Detection: depth and their current Mining skill. Mining has in other words nothing to do with finding a deposit small or big. It seems to So as soon as you max your OF/MD an have an effect on the size of the deposit advice would be to go for a tool with betterThe Innermost Secrets from a meteors core Dexter Seamaster Warlock 2006 3

max depth since that will yield more peds from any deposit found within depthrange sometimes at the price of a higher decay. Ore Amps and Mining skill: This section is very uncertain. I just mention different theories where the first one is my own. The recent introduced Amps for detectonators are boosting your Mining skill and quite much actually. OA101: Eff 2.5 -> 25% (1.25 x Mining skill) OA103: Eff 10 -> 100% (2 x Mining skill) This means that your deposit size will get much bigger then you are used to if the deposit depth is within your OF/MD depthrange. It does not increase the chance of finding a deposit. A different approach and more common one is that each amp boosts the default deposit size with a factor. An OA101 will boost the desposit size with one step, an OA103 will boost it with three steps. In other words an OA101 will turn a default Small deposit size into a Modest. An OA103 will boost a default Small deposit size into a Medium deposit size. Personally I am more confident with the first theory since it has been recorded that some sizes does not match the theory regarding boosting levels with 1, 3, 5 and so on. More work need to be done here for sure.

way mining works after The Change I would like to say that it has nothing to do with finding big ones only find anything worth digging up. Whats still seems true is that a Prospecting skill gain indicates that a deposit is in the near vicinity. It means that a deposit is in an radius of up to 200 meters and that is a lot of bombs to drop if you are unlucky. Detection: Prospecting tells you that a deposit is rather near you. It does not indicate a big onejust a deposit of any kind.

Perception"Perception is the ability to stay observant and aware of the surroundings. Rank: Perception is more specific then a prospecting or surveying skill gain. It actually says that you are very close to a depositit is actually next to you. Next to you means that you will find a deposit if you search the surroundings next to the area that you just bombed (where you got a perception skill gain). If your range is say 20meters @ CND then your radius is 20 meters. You now have to move 40 meters in any direction and start 40 m ? ? Perception X ? ? ?

Prospecting"Prospecting is the ability to spot lucrative resources in the ground suitable for exploitation." Rank: This skill is most likely the one that actually says in clear text that it will help you to find lucrative or profitable resources. Before The Change there were indications that a Prospecting skill gain indicated a larger deposit nearby. After The Change the question is what profitable means. A deposit of 3 ped is more profitable then a miss and loss of a 1 ped bomb for instance. So theThe Innermost Secrets from a meteors core Dexter Seamaster Warlock 2006

40 m ?

?

?

bombing to find the deposit. I have verified this on Calypso where the radius is around 50meters. Detection: Perception tells you that you will find a deposit if you just bomb around you. It does4

not indicate a big onejust a deposit of any kind.

Geology"Geology is the knowledge of various terrains, and their topography."

Rank: Geology defines the border of a mineral rich area. Most likely you will get a Geology skill gain and in the next bombsquare-row a prospecting skill gain. If you get a Geology skill gain it is important to find out on what side the minerals might A word of caution be. What Ive said up until now might not be any The picture below is a very simplified way of news for many people or as a reader you say describing the way of mining. think just another miner with a thought of how the mining system workand I agree to a certain point. Thats why I started to Geo analyze why the skill gains sometimes not skill reveals any deposit. So in order to cover the gain weak points in what Ive said so far regarding the skill gains I have to give a PercepX word of caution with mining and indicating tion skill Deposit skills like Geology, Prospecting and gain found Perception (also including Surveying). These skill gain can be gained without any trace of deposit! Prospecting skill gain Geo skill gain O Miss try other side It all starts with a Geology Skill Gain in the bottom of the picture. I now have to decide on what side the minerals might be. It can of course be up, down, left or right. I decide to look below the Geo skill gainThe Innermost Secrets from a meteors core Dexter Seamaster Warlock 2006

position. It is a miss so I try above the Geo skill gain row. I do not find anything except that I get a Prospecting skill gain. This indicates that the minerals are above the Geology skill gain line and also that from this point I might find a deposit within a radius of 200 meters. So I bomb away and lucky me I get a Perception skill gain indicating a deposit 40 meters away (on CND). I move right a find the deposit. I end my mining session with a new Geology skill gain that either indicates the top border of the field I just visited or a new one.

I have found a deposit with no skill gains near the area and continued to bomb around it. To my surprise I have found prospecting, perception and surveying skills around the deposit but no other deposit. This indicates that the spots for Prospecting, Surveying, Geology and Perception are fixed around the deposit/deposits. They indicate or points to the deposit or deposits you happened to find before the skill gains. It looks like skill gains are placed like deposits too except they do not hold any ore. So I have gone through many domes up on CND with many skill gains but no deposits. I interpret this in two ways: A) Miners have already found the deposits but not all of the skill gain positionswhich I happen to find. B) Skill gains are populated/respawn5

faster then the actual deposits do. Two question that then can be raised are: 1. 2. A lot of skill gains but no deposits mean we started a new respawn cycle? Maybe the respawn cycle will commence as soon as most of the populated skill gains have been found?

is one of the reasons why I think the Mining skill works likes it does.

Mining templateI have included a template, in appendix B, for anyone to use when keeping records of there findings. Each circle is 40m in diameter. I use the template by bombing at the coordinate in the center of each circle. Then I mark what I find with a code like this. GE=Geology skill gain for Enmatter GO=Geology skill gain for Ore P=Prospecting skill gain S=Surveying skill gain PE=Perception skill gain XO=Ore deposit found XE=Enmatter deposit found YesI do know it is not the perfect way to layout circles but it is at least something.

In any of the cases above my advice is to leave the area if you find a lot of skill gains but no deposits. This effect (finding skill gains but no deposit) is more common on CND because it is a small area which many miners frequently visit. It is not so common on Calypso.

StatisticsEnmatter My hitfrequency is 4.9% for enmatter and 3.0 % for ore on CND. That means I find 5 enmatter deposits from 100 probes and 3 ore deposits from 100 bombs. It seems very low but the deposit sizes are also much higher in general on CND. With that hitfrequency I have: 10.6% Prospecting skill gains 11.4% Surveying skill gains 1.9% Perception skill gains 9.9% Geology skill gains

About the authorMy name is Dexter Seamaster Warlock and I am currently active in UPCUnited People of Calypso and have been so since march 2003. One of the main goals for me has been to find out more about the way mining works and share the knowledge with the community. More often then not I am wrong but thats the way in all research. The pitfalls just makes me stronger. Take care out there all you lone wolfs picking up mining as a profession.

Depth and RangeRange is what range the detectonators/ finders have. The range is the radius of a circle in which the tool will scan. The range of the tool is decrease to 40% on CND. A MD-50 goes from 54 meters to 21.6 meters. (Thats why my distance between each bomb is 40 meters on CND). Whats so interesting with this is that the tool depth is NOT changed on CND. If depth would have an impact on the general size, that is higher on CND, one could expect that the tool depth should be changed as well which is not the case. So I think that the default startvalues of the deposits are just higher on CND. Depth is not directly involved with big deposits. ThatThe Innermost Secrets from a meteors core Dexter Seamaster Warlock 2006

Appendix A(i) Average deposit depth http://www.entropiaforum.com/forums/ showthread.php?t=9366 see thread #13.

CopyrightsUnless otherwise stated all pictures are freeware. Skill pictures are Mindark PE. Dome on CND is screenshot taken by The Doctor published in Gallery on EF.

6

2 98 96 94 92 90 88

4

6

8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50 98 96 94 92 90 88 86 84 82 80 78 76 74 72 70 68 66 64 62 60 58 56 54 52 50 48 46 44 42 40 38 36 34 32 30 28 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0

CND Template for Mining Appendix B

86 84 82 80 78 76 74 72 70 68 66 64 62 60 58 56 54 52 50 48 46 44 42 40 38 36 34 32 30 28 26 24 22 20 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38 40 42 44 46 48 50