... Ah. You know, I think that's it. You're right. My mines are too close to the mining area, so when they excavate gold from right near the mine I get a very steep slope instead of a gentle one. It just beats me why they want to excavate the orange-rated squares right next to the mine, if they could walk a few grid squares and get to the green-rated area.
So, between steep grade and mining worthless squares, the mines' output isn't all that spectacular.
Interesting. Now the question is how can I fix it or use it? I suppose I could have built mines a bit farther from the deposits. But how can I stop the miners from digging in the poor areas as they do now?
Mine Building placement is in no way analogous to placing other buildings - such as farms, ranches and logging camps. Naturally, the
Tropican miners do not work under the building because they are working on deposits that begin on the surface for which shafts and tunnels have no use. However, how should the player deal with the surface deposits?
- To include a single tile of the deposit in the Mine building footprint causes the entire, contiguous deposit to become "owned" by that building -- meaning that no other building of any kind may be constructed with a single tile of the deposit in its footprint.
So -- even if you desire to sacrifice some or many of those thin, faint tiles to efficiency of travel, etc., you will be frustrated.
With that ownership feature of the Mine building in mind, I suggest that players absolutely avoid placing a Mine building so that it is on any tile with any level\degree\shade of mineral deposit. If you wish to waste those thin, faint tiles, use them for Bunkhouses and Marketplaces for your Miners.
What does this mean for the placement of that fascinating "open pit" - the steepness of the sides of which seem so important to the miner's efficiency? I don't know, but I guess a couple of things.
- The Miners will travel from the building up to 25 tiles maximum to a tile with mineral in it -- the building option sets the kind they look for. They will go to the nearest loaded tile first, but the "pit" animation will center on the richest 'zone' by depth.
- It will probably always look the same, although there are no reports from situations with overlapping Mines with 25 tile working areas which might make overlapping pits.
.
I am probably wrong on that statement of reports as some guest has called to my attention (indirectly) -- check the thread What is the deepest mine ... which still has a picture included at,http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=10428.0I opine that to exploit a large mineral deposit, two or more Mine buildings should be placed at the extreme edges of the deposit about 15 to 20 tiles apart depending on the area and estimated depth. When you start to worry about the depth of the pit(s), start micromanaging the output of the buildings.
http://www.the-nextlevel.com/tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=154.msg213013#msg213013I suppose that the most efficient placement of a mine building would be as close as possible to the deepest (darkest) deposit while still not including any of the shallow deposit.
Each tile has a depth which I estimate (guess) to be eight defineable levels. This is important only for water (greater depth holds more fish) and mineral ore deposits. When the deposits are initially placed, each click on a tile charges a level and changes the shade of color; each level is of equal richness -
so the "richest" part is also the deepest part. When the Miners "work" a tile, they have to remove the ore from the top level first and work sequentially to the bottom level. The animation is only a crude representation of the action with the work actually being denominated by the pick & shovel strokes. Consider the Lumberjack's "whacks" and the construction Laborer's "shovel strokes" and "hammer blows" as similar definitions. Yes, it does take longer to carry the product from the lowest level to the building's output queue. The "pit" does not accurately display the configuration of the deposit.
When the Miner starts a work shift, he walks out of the building to the nearest tile which has not been completely exhausted of ore. So he walks past those already exhausted shallow deposits at the edge of the field; he is not looking for the tile with the deepest charge of ore. He is looking for the nearest tile with a charge of ore left.
I suggest that the player should not try to impose a real world image of rich veins of ore on the Tropican game world actuality of uniform blocks of ore stacked 'down'. The Miner produces a constant amount of product for each "pick & shovel blow" no matter the depth. The variation is in the carry to the output queue -- just as it is for the Lumberjack and the Farmer. Personally, I think the shallow parts of the ore field are the easy and quick pickings. The deep parts just keep the mine operating longer, not faster.
Getting the product to the Port and collecting the income is a whole other study. If player rushes off to a remote gold deposit for quick riches, all sorts of the game mechanics and paradoxes will 'backfire' on him.
