Forgotten Kingdoms Forums

This topic was covered on the old forum, but I think it needs to be revisited for a moment....

In mining, the first metal drawn from a room is the set metal for that room til the room is reset (server crash, imm action, whatever). So, if an experienced miner mines gold in a room, then gold is all that comes out. Hence, any miner without the skill level to mine gold cannot use that room. This reason is why experienced miners are asked to mine the deeper sections of the mines, where the dangers are a bit more frequent, allowing the young miners to mine the safer mines closer to the city part of MH. I think some miners are forgetting this and need a little reminder and request that they think before swinging that pick. When a room away from the miner teacher echoes the statement 'You discover some ore but it is beyound your skill to retrieve', as well as the nearby tunnels in the upper mines, I see something to bring to discussion. Please consider this next time you mine...

N.R.

An idea here,
Is it possible to place some signs in the rooms, or leading to the rooms that we consider "Newbie friendly" or "Lowbie area"? Then the dwarves who mine there will not have any excuse that they do not know.

Just a few thoughts to note here, now that I have finally gone back to playing a dwarf....

There is nothing to stop a miner 'marking' the finds that they make in some IC manner so as to tell other miners what they are likely to find if they start swinging their pick. My own system has proven an interesting RP hook for when I meet other dwarves.

I agree that more experienced miners should steer clear of the safe lowbie areas when the game has recently reset, but if a 'marker' is present there is no reason they can not mine there.

It would be nice to see less-experienced miners reciprocating this consideration. It's equally inconvenient to find that every area in easy reach has been set to one of the most basic ores.

However, there are many many areas in and out of the Halls which can be mined so I wouldnt attach as much importance to that as to the need to support low-level dwarves

Just a reminder that those dwarves with higher skill levels at mining shoud NOT be mining right near the entrance to the mines. This area is for newbie/lowbie dwarves to mine safely. Setting it to higher level ores is not fair to those players who can't explore further in the mines where there is more danger.

Perhaps if they continue to do this the area should be changed to only produce low level ore permanently so they are forced to go lower?

I dont know if this was discussed, but I would of thought areas should only ever produce certain types of ore anyway? If this were so, and the harder ores were in fewer locations globally, perhaps the challenge of finding these places could enchance the personal reward of training to such lengths and even get the Dwarfs out of the depths of the Halls more often to RP with other nations more?

I like Elvoriel's idea. Perhaps have it to where the newbie areas can only be set to a certain ore but not higher. Like it can be set as the highest ore being copper. And after a crash tin, and copper could be mined, but not something like titanium. Hope that was clear.

In order for that to work though, the imms would need to go through EVERY single plausible mining area in the game. That would take up way too much time in which players could just act responsible to fix the problem.

Athon, why would it be necessary to go through every minable room? I am talking about setting that limit on the areas lowbie dwarves would use to mine.

According to my knowledge of building, and it may very well be wrong so correct me if I am, it wouldn't work to just change the 'lowbie' areas. In order for a room to be minable, I *believe* that the tag used for it is sect_underground. In order for you to change the properites to allow lower ores only, a new tag would have to be created, and thus implemented to all the rooms.

Please correct me if this is incorrect.

As far as I know, you're right Athon. Although I am not very well versed in building, I think that is the process they would have to take. I think the system is fine the way it is. Experienced dwarves just need to act accordingly and mine the deeper, more dangerous areas.

There are several areas of Mithril Hall that can be mined without the miner having to worry about aggressive mobs.

Low level miners are not tied to that one particular mining area.

Personally, if I knew that one or more of those other areas was already set to copper or tin (the lowest level ores) I would be less inclined to chastise the miners who prospected in that area and found something higher.

Marking finds is a very good IC way of dealing with this issue, provided new miners leave the markers where they are and more experienced miners take time out to help new characters to find those other safe areas.

Added to that, there are at least as many places outside Mithril Hall as in it that experienced miners can go to to prospect.

And when all is said and done, whether you are high or low level in mining and feel that other dwarves are making your task difficult- you can always submit an application to be allowed to design new mining areas

I am resurrecting this thread. The game restarted today and I see crude signs in the rooms around the mining trainer marking rooms as gold, emerald, ect. These metals/gems are CLEARLY beyond the mining level of an inept miner.

Dwarves of Mithril Hall, do not mine near the mining trainer if you are decent level (personal level or mining level). The forums and the miner trainer clearly state the area is for inept miners. Think of your fellow players. We don't really want the imms to step in and correct the issue for us, do we?

Think before you mine, folks.

I've got to echo you on this one. I was never able to mine a piece of ore myself until I left MH (covering the whole training area in question) and felt this pinch. Kind depressing having to leave the earth to do what you do.

My personal rule is:

Mine only in areas accessed by a quest or have hostile mobs. (rats are not hostile, folks)

The areas full of non-hostile rats and low level hostiles are clearly for under level 20 characters with inept-amateur mining levels. There is no logical reasoning for a room one over from the mining trainer to have a crude sign marking it as a DIAMOND set room. Diamond screams "long term miner got lazy". Copper, tin, lead... in the ball park. Diamond? Come on folks...

I would not be against a coded setting in mithril hall that determines where you can and cannot mine based on your skill level, with deeper places allowing only the most experienced miners.

I am hoping that bumping this thread and a few otells to our more active dwarf players will fix the recent rash of lazy mining. If things don't correct themselves, I am all for your suggestion Oghma. That last thing I want is for code to step in and 'fix' what players should be doing naturally, but push comes to shove I'd back any change that would help young miners actually mine in Mithril Hall.

Edit: Second thought. I would hate to see the 'low' mines closed off to older miners. I have the need for tin, copper, lead quite often on Gilain. Much rather have the low mines preset to low metals, or at least cap it at lead (cant mine anything above lead), than cut them off completely. Granted, any code fix won't go anywhere if it cant be coded.

One thing this could warrant, is a change to all mines. More or less set mines based on the geography of an area. For example, you will rarely find gold in granite, but you can find it in quartzite, you can't find composite titanium without burrowing deep deep into the earth and Mithril can only be found in the Balrog's lair

In essence maybe increase the likelihood of failure with mining, but present non static areas for mining specific metals where applicable.

Personally, I'd rather they just be auto-set to led, copper, and tin for the immediate local areas, if possible.

I really don't like that anyone even has that capability. Elsewhere? Fine, no probs.

Mining works wonderfully. Its a great trade. The only complaint I hear regularly of any standing is the large wheel of chance presented to high level miners. Will it be tin? Emerald? Steel? Like the prize at the bottom of a cereal box, only time will tell. Its irritating, but nothing folks cannot work with.

Nowhere else is room-setting a problem. No one has a problem with Howling Peaks being set to tin or diamond. If a total redo is the only way to rid Mithril Hall of lazy mining in the newbie tunnels, so be it. But, if there is something that can be done just for those areas of Mithril Hall, I'd much prefer those changes over impacting the entire playerbase over a race specific problem like this.

Perhaps solve all the problems, both for old miners who want to mine lesser metals AND the newer miners that can only mine the lesser metals:

I am not sure how much coding it would take, but maybe remove the metal-lock on minining areas so that mining one type of ore will not set the whole room for said ore and implement something akin to Oghma's idea via setting mining areas to only contain certain ores depending on region. But also implement a "minemode" system. Basically the same thing as killmode and metamagic modes, except you would set which type of ore/gems you wish to mine:

Syntax: "minemode <ore>"
Syntax: "minemode <gem>"

It would also work kind of like the metamagic system, in that, you would only be able to set it to ores/gems that are within your capability to extract.

This way, regardless of the mine/room, anyone would be able to mine in it and get what they need.