Mines & Finding Resources

[Thennorin]

This is something I've been curious about for a while. Has anyone ever had the chance for a (dwarven) mine to find a hidden resource occur, and has it changed the way the game played?

I've never seen mines uncover a resource but since the odds are 1 in 7500 (dwarven)/10000 (normal) according to the wiki, I'm not surprised. I think the chances should be significantly higher, as I thought the idea was excellent when I first saw it back in the light phase! I still think it's great, but it never happens...

My question is, what's the point of having a feature that shows up for you (not another player) in, what, 1 in every 150 games? And even if it does trigger, it still has to be a resource you don't already have to be of most worth.

Why not lower the odds to 1 in 1500 (dwarven)/2000 (normal) so that the event is still rare, but will actually be seen to occur within your own borders now and then? After all, if the event happens in another player's patch (especially AI), it's likely to be a non-event in that it probably won't be exciting. Scaling the chance by map size is another solution, or part of it.

 

[Arwon]

I think you have the odds wrong. That's 1 in 10 000 for each mine. If you have lots of mines the numbers jump significantly. That said, I do seem to discover resources much less often than I do in Vanilla Civ, so perhaps the odds do need adjusting down.

 

[woodelf]

At per mine it does happen occassionally. I tend to let my dwarves build mines on every hill within my borders even if my cities can't use them because you will have stuff be discovered over the course of a long game. And having Gems appear when you have none is like Christmas! Use your non-workers to simply build, build, build in times of peace.

 

[Love]

In one game in light i had 4 mithril resources spawning up in mines....

 

[onedreamer]

I myself often spawn new resources, and often the same repeated and in adjacent squares. Quite curious.
Note that the mine must be worked to uncover a new resource, so just building mines like crazy won't do the trick.

 

[[NWO]_Valis]

@Ghandi: You should play the lotto then.

I back the idea of increasing the chances of getting some resources out of mines, especially desert. I propose to make the non strategic more often than mithril, gunpowder, iron and copper thou. This way it is more interesting and but not out of balance.

 

[BeefontheBone]

@woodelf: It doesn't work like that I'm afraid. Unless the code was changed from vanilla (which, incidentally, it was in), the mines need to be worked in order to pop resources.

 

[woodelf]

@woodelf: It doesn't work like that I'm afraid. Unless the code was changed from vanilla (which, incidentally, it was in), the mines need to be worked in order to pop resources.

Really? Damn. Maybe they get worked without me knowing it somehow, but I thought for sure they popped up in outlying spots.

 

[Sureshot]

i made all the improvements buildable in certain terrain types and gave them all chances to find resources, its like being in a casino heh

 

[Thennorin]

Ah okay, so the chance to find a hidden resource is 1 in 7500/10000 per turn? If that's the case, the odds make a lot more sense. Though, instead of scaling by map size, they should probably scale by game speed. I only play normal speed but I imagine a marathon game could end up with a whole bunch of extra resources.

Also, it'd be great if the civpedia said the mines have to be worked to find hidden resources. I used to do what woodelf did and even go so far as to have dwarven slaves build dwarven mines over the top of normal mines if I wasn't playing a Dwarven race because... well, because I could. I thought it was being smart and exploitative

 

[mervvyn]

No, I think it works out as each tile has 1:7500/10000 chance to have a hidden (mineable) resource revealed on the first turn a mine is worked on that tile. From the descriptions, it definitely sounds like a one off chance rather than a per-turn one.

 

[werttrew]

No, I think it works out as each tile has 1:7500/10000 chance to have a hidden (mineable) resource revealed on the first turn a mine is worked on that tile. From the descriptions, it definitely sounds like a one off chance rather than a per-turn one.

I just played a FFHII game in which a mine popped up with gems about 50 turns after it was built.

 

[Silverkiss]

Yes, a gold resource just popped up about 130 turns after the mine being built too.

 

[Dark Russell]

I play huge map marathon games and I am constantly getting resource pops from mines, usually gold and iron but occaisionally copper and gems as well.

 

[BeefontheBone]

It's definitely per turn worked. It is worth putting dwarven mines over your mines in city radii for that extra pop chance, assuming you've got the spare worker turns.