A Miner Bug (pun intended)

[migrant]

Twice now I've had a game going reasonably well and noticed my
gold supply drying up.  I check on the mines and miners and see that
they've dug one or more VERY deep pits, at single grid intersections
which would appear to go below sea level.  In the second case the
pits were 2 or 3 grid squares AWAY from the mines, where there was
NO gold and never was!  (Why did they dig those?)  They were spending
almost all of their time going into and out of these pits and around them
and doing very little digging.
:A few minutes in the editor seems to take care of this problem, at least for a
while, but I was wondering if anybody else has noticed this, or has any clue
what is going on here?  


(to poptop: I saved a game before correcting this which
I will be happy to send if this is helpful)

[SamLJer]

yeah, technically its not a bug, because what it is simply is the gold doesnt dry up in mineral areas which have the gold, so they just dig and dig untill they fall into the earths core. however what poptop should have done is put a limit on how deep the miners actually go... just an idea. perhaps if it gets too deep and you dont fire and close the mines (as in real life ) you get mines that flood with water etc.

[Coconut Kid]

Twice now I've had a game going reasonably well and noticed my gold supply drying up.  I check on the mines and miners and see that they've dug one or more VERY deep pits, at single grid intersections which would appear to go below sea level.  In the second case the pits were 2 or 3 grid squares AWAY from the mines, where there was NO gold and never was!  ...

It is difficult to interpret what 'migrant' thinks is the problem.

The mining process is "open pit" which takes place away from the mine building, NOT under it. The mine building should NOT be placed on top of the main ore deposit.

The pit will go eight levels deep, with a level being about the same depth as a tile is wide. At about that point, the deposit is exausted.


Senior_Ruina has post some good information on mines in his "Tropocology" threads. they are easy to find.

I think that without the actual game file to examine, there is no way to explain the pit where no mineral existed. Unless -- migrant was looking only at gold on the overlay, but had left one or more mines set to the "All Minerals" option.