litle question about the mine discovering minerals

[spiceant]

iv been playing a bit along and evrything is going just above average, with my capitol having been put nicely in 4 plain/mountain squares a cow square and some clams (within working range).

at a point in the game my my mine discovers a silver resource (it said something along the lines of finding a resource at 001, my cap). this was very fortunate for me as i had forges build in my largest citys.

now i want to know if theirs a practical use in chasing after the chance of finding hidden minerals (the ones listed when you build a mine) and if it helps to find them if you work the tiles and not just build the mine.

if i put down a city somewhere (before 500BC) and let it work 2-4 hill mine tiles can i expect it to find anything before 500 AD ?

also does difficulty affect the chance of finding minerals?

 

[Entrinzikyl]

I generally mine all my hills, and I haven't found any minerals yet. I think it is just a pleasant surprise, not something worth spending any time and effort on. Personally, I wouldn't count on anything showing up before 500 AD because nothing has shown up for me period. Don't know about difficulty impacting things.

 

[MrCynical]

There is something like a 0.01% chance of a mine discovering a resource each turn. As far as I know it makes no difference if a tile is worked or not, or even if it is within the usable radius of a city. The odds are so low that you cannot expect anything before 500 AD or even in a full game. In three full games I've had one mine hit gold, and that's it.

I think there may also be a restriction as the computer doesn't allow different resource types to appear directly next to each other. I think mines that are adjacent to other resources can therefore never discover anything.

 

[spiceant]

iv discovered 4 minerals in a city that worked mined hills within its 21 workable squares (world builder test) before AD struck on another test a city worked 4 squares untill AD and it discovered one gold vein.
on another one a city worked 2 squares untill AD and it didn find a thing.

in the 21 square working city it discovered gems and aluminium right to the southeast of it. (1 square away, or 1.5 squares in CivIV math)

 

[Pfeffersack]

0,01% per mine and turn is correct AFAIK, but I'm pretty sure that the mine needs to be worked.It is a nice feature and pleasent surprise, but to rare to count on it.However, I always keep it in mind if I have to decide between windmill or mine on a hill.

 

[khumak]

It's rare enough that I wouldn't plan around it. In my current game it's almost 1900AD and I have yet to ever see a single mine "discover" a new type of ore. I'm playing on a Huge map and have control of almost half of the land area now with a mine on every single hill.

 

[SlayerofDeitys]

According to Sirian you have to actually work the sqaure for it to happen. I have had two things pop in a total of about 5 games. One game I popped coal (I think, could be wrong) and the one I am currently playing was gold.

 

[spiceant]

i discovered a new silver vein, makes my forges happy. got a city of 19 pop full with health and happyness running at 52 great scientist points a turn , though someone addopted emancipation... ill have to drop caste system.

though i didnt discover as many minerals as i had expected as i had atleast 7 mines worked on average/turn (at 1776 AD now, epic speed/huge terran map)

so far minerals tend to appear at least once a game and so far, only minerals that i dont have yet.

do you fokes discover any minerals you didnt have yet or also ones you already hooked up?

 

[KAuss]

If you don't have iron, you better start picking... Not like you're going to get it any time soon, but you got no choice... Aluminum also...

 

[gakkun]

i discovered a new silver vein, makes my forges happy. got a city of 19 pop full with health and happyness running at 52 great scientist points a turn , though someone addopted emancipation... ill have to drop caste system.

though i didnt discover as many minerals as i had expected as i had atleast 7 mines worked on average/turn (at 1776 AD now, epic speed/huge terran map)

so far minerals tend to appear at least once a game and so far, only minerals that i dont have yet.

do you fokes discover any minerals you didnt have yet or also ones you already hooked up?

the same thing happened to me the other day! A silver popped right next to my capital. But that's only once in 20+ hours of CIV right now.