Patch 0.68 - Prospecting questions...

[Enth]

Hi all...

I was wondering if anyone has tried the new prospecting mechanic out... I'm finding it extraordinarily difficult to find locations which have some kind of "happy medium" between terrain that's either 100% Fertile and has bountiful water (100%) and terrain which is completely barren, but mineral/stone rich (100% Stone/Iron, and 0%/0% fertile/water). My current prospector has level 80 science skill, and lvl 80 prospecting, yet I can't find a suitable area to build a productive base on. It almost seems that I'm going to build separate mining and living quarters/trading base(s), which seems like an incredibly inefficient and wasteful use of manpower and supplies. The locations that I am finding with some kind of balanced mix, the terrain is unable to be built upon because it's too steep or loaded with debris.

Any suggestions, Chris? Would it be a better idea to "randomize" mineral locations and have areas where the bedrock is closer to the surface to allow a fertile base yet still be able to quarry/mine iron?

I'm loving the new patch so far, though...can't wait to build my automatic harpoon launchers....

Regards,

Enth

[sublogic]

I don't have that version yet but, as the terrain been changed? the original terrain imo is already extremely limited in the number of good places to build (flat, near to towns, damn the large "no-build" region). If not, does the game support multiple user settlement at the moment? e.g. one small resource outpost just to mine the crap out of the resource and transport it back to the main camps with the artisans.... Now I wish there is some caravan feature...

[Hatsune_Neko]

have tried it
was prospecting for rock. with low results. found one place that had high fert and water. but i don't think we are gonna find a spot which has all of them.
keep looking is all i can say

[Grynn]

shouldn't water/fertile be tied to eachother? I mean you can't have fertile ground without water, and if the ground is fertile see previous statement lol. haven't found iron at all yet. Is there some sort of visual indication , ie trees etc, of quality of area?

[Hatsune_Neko]

a high fert rate yes it should.
and i have not seen any clues that give off where to look.
its brand new so adjustments will be made over time.

[Snowpig]

water and fertile do not always tie together. The example here is a typical jungle: water rich, but the soil has little fertility. Therefore the jungle almost never grows back after being cut/burned down for agriculture.

[Grynn]

I have discovered that grassy areas have fertility and water, stone up the side of mountains and iron not far from that. it does make for a sprawling compound tho

[Tolwrath]

Prospecting is actually intended to make players want to have multiple bases and explore the desert, as opposed to just turtling up in one giant fort.

[Santaissick]

That's exactly how I understood it would be made. So you can't just stay in your base doing nothing but waiting your workers to grind the resources. In the final game, you have to depend trading or building up multiple forts to get everything you need. More difficulty, more danger and more fun.

[Snowpig]

There is an area of the map where you can cover all 4 resources by building two bases quite close to each other: Check SW of Catun and the plateau to the S/SE of the Merc Outpost.

[Alsius]

I found a very good spot near the southeast corner of the world. The distance between my 80% well (circled red in the screenshot below) and 80% iron mine is barely 100 meters. Also, there is plenty of flat space around even for the bigger buildings. It allows me to place everything within the same walls.

http://imagizer.imageshack.us/a/img839/6452/2eqf.jpg


The well site is quite a steep slope, so positioning it was a bit tricky but there is a very small flatter area where I could place it.

[Enth]

Personally, I believe that there should be places in the desert where bedrock (stone) and ore (iron) should be found close to the surface, just as there should be mountain springs (water) and floodplains (fertile areas) in the hills and plateaus...

Since there's no respawn mechanic for hire-able NPC's (yet), dividing your squad between bases (and running the risk of having a TPK (total party kill) when a horde of cannibals or uber bad guys storm your mining base with only five workers in it, overwhelm everyone and haul them off to be nommed to death/left to bleed out seems like a colossally bad idea....at least until we can have multiple squads. Then I won't care, because then I can keep both bases fully staffed AND defended.

Unless...you build your base in the shape of a dog-bone, two circular bases that are interconnected by a long, narrow "tunnel" of walls, with crossbow turrets lining the walls at various points for defense. You could have the benefits of a secure base with contiguous walls. Going to try that tonight.

[Ygolnac]

as it is prospecting right now i found two solutions:

go with 2 bases but don't split your team: one base will have several stone and ore mines and several stone grinders, so all your team can produce iron ore and buildning materials. the other basse will have farming and production (since fabric is needed for almost everyrhing). Both bases have research bencehes. When you have produced enough ore and building materials, haul everything to the other base and start producin with the entire team, then go sell, pick up new ore and go on. this way it gets longer but you never split your team and can survive.

the other solution is making a super large base with never ending walls, on one side put the farming (usually in the flat), on the other side put the mining (usually uphill), and in the middle put the production. And of course, make only one gate. Enemies (at ucurrent state) can't destroy walls and if you have only one gate they will need to break it, giving you enough time to Group all your team members before they break in. I think the new walls/gates and harppons where made just to balance the new prospecting challenge.

[Set]

If you want almost 100% of all resources (water and fertility included) go near Bark, enjoy!

[Counterfly]

I think the resources are based solely on elevation. Water and fertility are at the lowest elevations, while stone is found at higher elevations. Ore is only in a band that's a little above where stone begins. So the ideal settlement would be anywhere with a wide range of elevations in a small area.

[killjoydoc]

While I like the idea of prospecting I feel like it has a few problems.

It forces you to have two bases, which is more difficult and that is fine, however with only 20 people that's just not enough for this at the current time.

The other problem I have is that it's a sandbox game, where you should be able to build where you want to. With prospecting, if you find a spot you like and you think you could build something cool, if it doesn't have resources you really can't build there. This limits the player on what they can do.

I'm not against prospecting and resources as it's a good gameplay mechanic, but I feel to some extent it is counter intuitive to what makes kenshi great.

[Vindicar]

IHMO the idea is great and its actual form already really acceptable.


In my case it made me choose one outpost with very high stone and ore yields but poor fertility and absolutely no water.

So I had to create some wells near the closest water spot and have to do some hauling from time to time to fill the outpost's water-tower.

It feels really realistic and "cool"
It spices up the daily routine (raids on the hauling team, better not be AFK when you go auto-hauling)
It's a good way to enhance strenght


absolutely works for me !


Maybe we could see some kind of topographie right after a prospection or they could be a toggle "see ressources" option on the map so every zone we prospected are visible somewhere.

[jrkog]

Just adding a "ditto" to your idea of a post-prospecting map. If I could see the areas laid out after I passed through and prospected I could better decide where to put my outposts. I can fully understand making separate farm and mining areas, and then maybe a main base in between. I would also request a squad population increase to 30-40 to not only man the operations but provide a legitimate defensive capability.

[Hatsune_Neko]

I would also request a squad population increase to 30-40 to not only man the operations but provide a legitimate defensive capability.

This requires the new GUI, 64bit conversion and a pathing AI. and is slated to be added some time in the future.

[Xen]

Three bases. Two of them have no gates at all. They are connected to the third base by walls.
First base: harvesting stones, iron. Raw materials.
Second base: farming. Raw materials.
Third base: gates, shop, production, benches, walls, turrets, guards.

As a result: you can produce everything, your harvesters are protected.