Gold Fever

[vanx]

Just started a game. I found gold real close to the palace  

Thinking about maybe putting 2 or maybe even 3 gold mines right next to each other. is this a waste of money and time?

[General_Zoat]

Many people will say it is a waste of money, but this is what i usuly do. With two gold mines, the gold will run out twice as fast so you will have to get a jewelarry factory up as soon as possible to make some real money. Also, the gold mine will more then likely run out 5-10 years before the end of your rule (if your playing a 50 year rule) so you will have to have something else bringing in money as well, or a very good economy can fall apart in minutes.

[Junta_Joe]

I've never seen a gold mine run out. Ever.

What happens is the pit gets deeper and the workers get slower hauling it back. The miners also start having more diversions later. So there is a diminishing returns aspect.

Another thing I've quit doing is building jewelry factories. They seem to take too long to get going strong. By then the gold starts to slow down. I tend to just sell the gold and go into other industries with all that fast cash. A good jump start is the key, I've found out.

[vanx]

Another thing I've quit doing is building jewelry factories.

Me too. I tried them jewelry suckers 3 or 4 times, didn't really go anywhere with them. I like cigar/rum factories, that's good enough for me (if I can get both, woo hoo!).

I did make 2 gold mines, seems to be paying off. 15 years into it, seems like it was a good idea so far?

[Boromir]

Jewerly factory can make you A LOT of bucks if you can get it up before miner productivty starts falling. Though you shouldn't make it your only source of income. With a cigar/rum factory you can really rake in the cash.

Only thing is that once the mine dies down and starts taking forever to mine the gold, so does the jewerly factory , so plan ahead if you decide to make one.

[Bulletsponge]

Mine that gold like its... well, gold. if its big mine deposite, put 3 mines. with all the cash you make you can build up any other business you want

[vanx]

Just got done doing two games with this same "gold" scenario I randomly created (so much for doing laundry today).

One game I did two gold mines, the other I did one. I think the second gold mine overall didn't do so well. Seems to me I got about the same amount of profit with the one gold mine (pretty close to the same amount anyway) as I did with the two. Maybe the amount of gold just wasn't enough, the "gold area" was kind of small.

I was evil in both games though, that could also change matters some I suppose. I'm not so good at managing an evil empire, but .. getting better at it.  

[General PinochetNut]

I've never seen a gold mine run out. Ever.

What happens is the pit gets deeper and the workers get slower hauling it back. The miners also start having more diversions later. So there is a diminishing returns aspect.

Another thing I've quit doing is building jewelry factories. They seem to take too long to get going strong. By then the gold starts to slow down. I tend to just sell the gold and go into other industries with all that fast cash. A good jump start is the key, I've found out.

Paragraph 1: Me too.
Paragraph 2: The workers will hurry up if you bulldoze the mine and build it again. The diversion will be cut down by the x-pack, but more liezure time is natural.
Paragraph 3: Yep, jewelry is a really good industry.

[Junta_Joe]

Did you know that you can pave the mining areas without affecting the actual mining?

The miners can dig the gold out of the road just as easy. The road is not destroyed

Plus it helps them get up the pit faster. The extra costs associated with paving are well covered by the additional gold.

Obviously this takes valuable construction time. If you are the type who uses lots of construction offices, this a good idea during slow building seasons. If you are a Rapido addict like me, it's absolutely painless.  

[Che_Miguel]

Hi, Goldies,
I experienced a bug several times, when I built more than 1 gold mine (not always, 2 or 3 times). In the first mine the miners do a good job, but in the second they dig, but do not take the gold to the mine. Instead they go to the dock (!), then go back, dig for gold, and go back to the dock. So these miners don't make get any gold to the depot.
If you see that, just fire these miners, that may help.
First time I realized this bug, I had two gold mines but only one jewelry. Maybe that was the problem.

To Junta Joe: Thanks for this advice, I never tried to build a path in a mining area, because I was afraid to *cover* my gold.
Have a golden time, Che

[Coffeebean]

One way to get over the deep hole slowing up your gold mining is :-
1. Build another mine as far from your original one as possible but still next to the gold, but block out the jobs.
2. When it's built freeze time. Open all the new vacancies and sack all miners from original mine. Start time again and most if not all miners will go to new mine.
3. Demolish old mine and place a house or other relatively cheep structure over the lip of the hole.
4. The construction workers will then fill in the hole, once they have and before they start to build the house, cancel it.
5. You can either leave it like this or build another mine near the now flattened out gold area and swop your workers back or have two mines. It all depends on the size of the mining area.
This seems to regenerate your miners' will to mine and makes it easier for them as they don't have a big hole to climb out of. Gold mines can go on forever using this method.

[Lowpriest]

You are a sneaky one CoffeeBean!  Nice idea.  I never thought of that one.  I will try it in the next game.

[Che_Miguel]

Hi Coffeebean,
what a gorgeous example for players being more imaginative than the programmers. This is one of the best tricks I ever heard of. Certainly I'll try this out in my next golden game, because I LOVE mining and producing jewelry nearly as much as harvesting coffee.
Thanks for that one, Che

[Coffeebean]

Lowpriest - I like to think of it as working within a defined set of parameters, rather than sneaky   .
And confession time - it wasn't my idea   - I read it somewhere at the Cafe, I think, and tried it out and liked it. So if you're reading this and it was your idea originally please step forward and take a bow.

[Che_Miguel]

Anyway- I grant you the gold-(!)-medal for that post. (Even the best teachers don't teach their own ideas, but they make their pupils wiser!)

, Che

[Coffeebean]

Well thank you Che.  

[Copper Maniac]

(Just cleaning up some old threads.)

Did you know that you can pave the mining areas without affecting the actual mining?

I don't build roads into mining areas.

I laid down road over a mining area and the miners stopped digging up the gold.  They started to pan in the "red" areas in search of gold instead.

For another mine, I laid down road for all squares except one.  The miners only mined for gold on the one square without road.  Some miners would also try red squares on the perimeter.  As I covered some of the red squares with road, the miners moved to further out red squares in search of gold.

version 1.5.3

[Pinstar]

Are iron or bauxite mines worth the trouble/uglyness at all? Also, are any of the electricity-sucking mine upgrades worth the cost?

[belbincolne]

Some real good ideas here which I'll just have to try out!!!  As to Pinstar's query answer is "it all depends" but I find bauxite far quicker to bring in big bucks than gold and (mostly) iron useless.  But it all depends - haven't I seen that before somewhere

[Olle_Petersson]

Regarding the Jewellry issue;

To make sure it's up and running timely you can always reduce the number of miners until the Jewellry is constructed.
As soon as it's built most of the gold transports from the mine will be directed there, and any jewellers will get at it as fast as they can.

Cheers
Olle