Chance of Discovering Iron

[Contox]

When you tell a worker to build a mine on a hill, the text box thing in the corner says theres a chance you could discover iron or copper or some other stuff.
Does this EVER happen?
What does it mean? When you discover ironworking there may be a recourse there? Or is there a 1/100 chance a new ore will spawn when you build a mine?
It's never happened to me, and I just want to know if it's even possible. It's always confused me.

 

[Gooblah]

For each resource in the box, there is a tiny chance it may happen (on the order of 1% per turn, IIRC). A resource only has a chance to be popped if you have a mine on the tile AND you know the tech necessary to see that resource (BW for Copper, Iron Working for Iron, Industrialism for Aluminum, etc).

 

[Tibur753]

For each resource in the box, there is a tiny chance it may happen (on the order of 1% per turn, IIRC). A resource only has a chance to be popped if you have a mine on the tile AND you know the tech necessary to see that resource (BW for Copper, Iron Working for Iron, Industrialism for Aluminum, etc).

You also need to be working the mine with a city to pop a resource. Also, 1% chance seems very high to me. I would guess it would be more like 0.1% to discover a resource in a mine.

It's never happened to me, and I just want to know if it's even possible. It's always confused me.

I've had it happen to me many times. By the end of a game, my first production city will usually have discovered at least one or two resources in its mines.

 

[seul]

Its too random to count on, while it happens quite frequently (like Tibur said, the early production city will have a high chance of popping some resource during its lifespan) i've also had plenty of games where i didnt pop any resources at all, or others where i popped multiple happiness resources but no strategic ones.

I remember seeing an exact formula about how it works here on the forums a while back, couldnt dig it out again tho.

 

[achilleszero]

I believe that its a 1/10,000 chance each turn the mine is worked. Under the improvement info XML the discover rand for each resource is listed as 10,000.

 

[Willem]

Or is there a 1/100 chance a new ore will spawn when you build a mine?

It's actually a 1/10000 chance. It's purely a random occurance and it may not be any particular resource that appears, it could be anything that requires a mine. You'll find the probablity values in the CIV4ImprovementInfos.xml file.

 

[renegadechicken]

Wow, good to know. I've long wondered about this. Especially once I started playing FFH2, which has a mechanic that increases this chance (though I don't know by how much). No wonder you don't see many of these resources appearing!

 

[Willem]

Try playing Marathon, sometimes you'll see a whole bunch.

 

[dirtyparrot]

I also think that the mine needs to be in a city's BFC.

 

[Arlborn]

I've actually got 3 irons popping up in the same city in the same game. That was Marathon, was funny as it was my production city.

 

[Contox]

Ahhhhhhh I see.
Thanks.
I still dont get why its never happened to me after hundreds of games.

 

[Tibur753]

Just a question. Each turn you have a chance of popping a resource. Is this calculated for each resource separately or does it see if you get one and then randomly choose one of the resources?

I also think that the mine needs to be in a city's BFC.

As I said earlier in this thread, the city must be working the mine for it to be able to find a resource. It won't help to build a mine in the city's BFC to find a resource if you can't afford to work the tile.

 

[ori]

it is calculated for each resource (you already discovered) separately...

 

[pfo]

The chance is very low, but it does happen. I have a theory that it's not some fixed small percent, but rather that the AI will do this to help in situations (I can't back that up, just my theory).

For example, sometimes I get really good starts, but no copper or iron. So I just buckle down and mine everything, hoping it turns up. It often seems to.....

I did have a crazy game once where I had a seafood heavy capital with plains hills, so I mined the hills. By 1 AD, 2 of those plains hills turned up gold, that was really nice.

 

[ori]

you are mixing two different things:
1) on any given tile there could be a resource that you have not yet discovered and it is revealed when you discover the appropriate Tech. This is determined randomly at game start.
2) any mine that is worked has a small but fixed chance per turn to create any already revealed resource on its tile. This is determined randomly each turn.

The game does not do anything "to help" or to do you a disfavor here

 

[redplague]

It's happened to me a few times. Once it was gems but I can't remember what the other two were.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Try playing Marathon, sometimes you'll see a whole bunch.

1500 turns, 50 mines or more...it's definitely odds-on .

 

[seul]

1500 turns, 50 mines or more...it's definitely odds-on .

indeed, i have to check if i can find a savegame of a marathon game where i popped 3 additional copper resources in my production city (which i settled to grab copper)

 

[Abegweit]

it is calculated for each resource (you already discovered) separately...

Are you saying that the probability of popping a resource is actually n * 1/10000 where n is the number of resources that you know the tech for?

 

[ori]

I do