Small chance of discovering metals when mining

[Orion43]

When you build a mine, it states that there is a small chance of discovering gold, silver, etc. Has anyone discovered a resource that way? I never have. Anyone know how small a chance it is?

 

[ZiP!]

Yep. I would say, maybe around once in each game in average (medium sized empire). But I heard the tile has to be worked for that to happen...

 

[Wha'wasthat???]

In one game I played Iron, Gold and Silver all popped up near my capitol city. That is the best i've personally seen but as ZiP! said probably once or twice a game is normal.

 

[MrCynical]

I don't know the exact value, and it may vary depending on game speed, but it seems to be about 0.1% per turn for each mine being used. In most games it'll happen once or twice if you have a fair number of mines, though I have seen it happen 6 times in one marathon game.

 

[warpus]

I only play marathon games (unless it's MP) and this happens to me all the time, usually later on in the game when I don't really NEED the resource.. but it's nice nevertheless for the extra hammers.

 

[AngryPants]

I tend to see 1 or 2 per game, its so rare thats there is no point in planning/hoping for it. Just take your bonus and smile, unless it pops up under a town. That always makes me mad.

 

[childstarc]

this just happened to me with aluminum--about 4 turns after i declared war to capture an alum tile from an AI.

(so i had to get karl rove to re-package my war as a 'war on terror')

 

[Fenrisulva]

it has never happend to me

 

[CB Droege]

I've played all the way through three huge maps, and have never 'found' additional metals when building mines... seems very unlikely...

The way it's worded seems like it's supposed to happen when you build the mine, if it's gonna happen... There is always a small chance of discovering a new metal in a hill, even if you don't have a mine there, but there is supposed (i think) to be a little better chance of discovering it on the turn that the mine is built...

I think this is broken...

 

[shadow2k]

You can only discover the resource by actually working that particular mine. Just building it isn't enough.

I get resources like this all the time.

 

[Willem]

When you build a mine, it states that there is a small chance of discovering gold, silver, etc. Has anyone discovered a resource that way? I never have. Anyone know how small a chance it is?

There's a number of 10000 in the XML files. I'm not sure exactly what that means, but I'm guessing it's a 1 in 10000 chance of discovery. That seems rather a low probability though considering I usually find something every game I play. Sometimes two or three.

You can also set that number for Farms too, though it hasn't been done in the default game. I'm not sure why myself. This will allow Corn, Wheat or Rice to pop up.

 

[Gedge123]

I've had it a few times, but not that reguarly.

 

[Willem]

I've played all the way through three huge maps, and have never 'found' additional metals when building mines... seems very unlikely...

The way it's worded seems like it's supposed to happen when you build the mine, if it's gonna happen... There is always a small chance of discovering a new metal in a hill, even if you don't have a mine there, but there is supposed (i think) to be a little better chance of discovering it on the turn that the mine is built...

I think this is broken...

It's not broken, just rare. There has to be a mine that is being worked, plus it doesn't happen when the mine is first built, unless you're very lucky.

 

[A Silly Goose]

If you want rare, try getting a pink tail in Final Fantasy IV. First, you have to go to the correct room in the last dungeon in the game. Then, there is a 1/64 chance that a random battle in that room will be against Pink Puffs, aka Flan Princesses. There is a 5/64 chance of getting an item after the battle (1/64 for each of 5 monsters), and a 1/64 chance that the item will be a pink tail.
Thus, your chances are 0.000019%, or 5 in 262144.

Consistently find pink tails faster than you discover resources from mines in Civ IV, and we can talk about it being broken.




I have personally experienced the resource-finding phenomenom once; I have yet to find a pink tail.

 

[Cdrommel]

I've never discovered any resourcecs this way at all, and I've finished 3 marathon games. Bad luck I guess

 

[Wha'wasthat???]

Can I just ask, what is the point of mining a hill that has no resources in it? I mean if there is nothing there what are they mining?

 

[Bushface]

I have had silver in this way twice, in I don't know how many games, and there may well have been occurrences for the AI civs as well; I see no way of checking this. Both times in mines which were being worked, which sounds reasonable, and late in the game, when it wasn't very helpful. I would assume that the chance is small but applies to each mine at each turn, so giving a real possibility of occurrence in play, as reported above.

@A Silly Goose - you ought to find a pink tail at the rear end of every pink elephant, though hopefully your chance of seeing such a beast is zero.

 

[Ranos]

In my current game, I had a gold resource discovered in the Industrial era and two copper resources in the Modern era. In previous games, I have found Gems, Silver and Iron in various different ages. It does happen, it is just rare.

 

[Willem]

Can I just ask, what is the point of mining a hill that has no resources in it? I mean if there is nothing there what are they mining?

Hammers of course. Not every Hill has a special resource, but you still need Hammers if you want to build something.

 

[Imaginactra]

I had silver pop up next to a city yesterday. First I've seen it since I got Civ IV. It was a mined, worked hill and it had been that way from around 1900 BC and did not pop silver until around 1200 AD (marathon speed).

Likely, it is ment to be an extremely rare happening.