Sign in to follow this  
Atlas

Prospecting - How to Skill Fast?

Recommended Posts

On Freedom I need to get my Miner to 60 Prospecting to see how much ore is left in a tile
 

What is the fastest method for skilling? I have noticed before that Prospecting spam (on the same tile or near same tiles) is a bit strange.

 

Should I just run down a long underground mine tunnel with SB on and Prospect each tile one time? Or should I go on rock surface tiles and prospect once on each tile, rotating back in a circle?

 

I can use Sleep Bonus for this

 

Thanks in advance for your feedback

 

Here is the current wiki link: http://www.wurmpedia.com/index.php/Prospecting

 

Regards!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What I did was use a high COC pick/SB.. QL doesn't matter.. I bound a key to prospect.. then stand and prospect each tile in a mine.. floor, walls ( in front of you and behind ) and ceilings. You can reach 3 tiles from where you stand. I did each one 3 times then moved to the next 3.   so looking top down....    OXOOXOOXO    X is your char.. O/X is where to prospect. X is where your also standing. Hope this helps.. My skill is about 63 now.


  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What I did was use a high COC pick/SB.. QL doesn't matter.. I bound a key to prospect.. then stand and prospect each tile in a mine.. floor, walls ( in front of you and behind ) and ceilings. You can reach 3 tiles from where you stand. I did each one 3 times then moved to the next 3.   so looking top down....    OXOOXOOXO    X is your char.. O/X is where to prospect. X is where your also standing. Hope this helps.. My skill is about 63 now.

Hello Ctaylor,

 

So you think you can do each tile 3 times before it stops you gaining skill on one tile?

 

Good idea to prospect floor, ceiling, side, etc...  there are no problems with this?

 

Thanks a lot

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

and the QL of the pick does not matter..only the CoC on the pick?


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

the reason i ask about this particular skill is that is seems to be 'wogic' weird, sometimes the skillgain just *stops* on some tiles or areas and its not intuitive; similar to shield training on animals on-deed


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

yes only coc of the pick matters.. I noticed 3 times and I needed to move on.. and come back later


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I did  2 ways, either works.


If you're minning as well, mine down a wall, then ANALYSE all rock shards. This gives a nice exp (rockshards out of bsb can't be analysed). Best thing about this is that you don't have to move around much, so its nice if you need to semi-afk.


Another way is to just stand at a tile, chain prospecting. Keep an eye out on your skill gains, it will drop/stop after a while, when it does move on to a tile 5-10 tiles away from the first, and do it all over.


The other is to do pretty much the same, but just prospect once on a tile, move a few tiles, prospect, keep going (either back and forth from those tiles, or just prospecting the whole mine)


Also simmilar to minning, at certain levels, you should "upgrade" the wall where you prospect, since prospecting at certain ores will give more exp, also it seemed to me, when i did it that vein ql would help a bit maximizing the skill gain. At 50 skill i was doing copper and a very good ql iron ore that were close by, and i was getting pretty much the same gains (mind you above a certain threshold, "gains" is more about how often you gain skill, rather than how much skill per tick - which varies only a little iirc).


 


I did 20-60 prospecting in 3-5 game sessions (2-6 hours) while playing 2-3 chars at the same time.


Edited by KanePT

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Aye its not a skill one can stand still and prospect the same tile over and over again.


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I'd like to suggest prospecting exterior rock faces, staying mobile while doing so, maybe 1-3 times on each tile before moving on to the next few. Using a low quality pickaxe, preferably with CoC. Also, keep climbing mode activated, so you don't replenish stamina. The stamina used in prospecting is negligable, so you can cover a fair amount of tiles and really maximise the gains you get.


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I have prospect 4 cave floor tiles, over and over, for a good 4 hours+. Both the gain size and frequency stayed somewhat constant.


 


From what I can tell, you do have to move. Although you do NOT have to move a whole tile. When I stood in one spot prospecting my tiles the gains did slow but taking even a tine step forward and then back kept things moving along.


 


What I did:


- Stand at the intersection of 4 tiles.


- Prospect the 4 tiles in no particular order. I mixed up the order and did whatever I felt like at the time.


- take a baby step (push one of your wasd-keys fast) in one direction away from the intersection and then back again. I didn't move in any particular order and just took a step in whatever direction I felt like at the time.


...repeat for hours.


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

One of the quickest skills in the game, really. Takes 3 days tops to get to 60, if you're being lazy and passive with it.
Obeys the Law of Diminishing Returns. Odds of a tick decrease the more times you hit the same tile. Hit it a few times then move on to the next one.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

So I will be the odd one out here and recommend something that goes against what others are saying...


 


I'd recommend stacking actions on each tile surface, about 20-30 actions per surface, so that way it ensures the max amount of skill is sucked out of tiles. Yes the ticks will go down, but if you do enough of them it stacks up easily, and you save on a lot of space in that instead of a few ticks per surface, you have 7x as many. This method worked well for me and I was able to level to 70 Prospecting in 4 days if I recall.


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

One of the quickest skills in the game, really. Takes 3 days tops to get to 60, if you're being lazy and passive with it.

Obeys the Law of Diminishing Returns. Odds of a tick decrease the more times you hit the same tile. Hit it a few times then move on to the next one.

I just want to point that this is not true. Again I prospected the same 4 tiles for 4 hours straight, non-stop, and saw no diminishing returns whatsoever. Although, I guess its possible since I was using 4 tiles that I reset things.

 

Log coppy: http://pastebin.com/MzZV9WzU

Logging started 2014-08-14
[13:42:43] Prospecting increased by 0.000923 to 80.50970
[13:42:47] Prospecting increased by 0.000923 to 80.51063
[13:42:51] Prospecting increased by 0.000931 to 80.51156
[13:43:05] Prospecting increased by 0.000923 to 80.51248
....
[17:17:27] Prospecting increased by 0.000885 to 81.04288
[17:18:38] Prospecting increased by 0.000893 to 81.04377
[17:18:42] Prospecting increased by 0.000885 to 81.04465

 

The gain size increase is because of skill increase.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Last I checked, it seemed to matter what tile you're STANDING on, but not what tile you're actively prospecting. Haven't skilled it in over a year, so I could be wrong.


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

I just want to point that this is not true. Again I prospected the same 4 tiles for 4 hours straight, non-stop, and saw no diminishing returns whatsoever. Although, I guess its possible since I was using 4 tiles that I reset things.

 

Log coppy: http://pastebin.com/MzZV9WzU

Logging started 2014-08-14

[13:42:43] Prospecting increased by 0.000923 to 80.50970

[13:42:47] Prospecting increased by 0.000923 to 80.51063

[13:42:51] Prospecting increased by 0.000931 to 80.51156

[13:43:05] Prospecting increased by 0.000923 to 80.51248

....

[17:17:27] Prospecting increased by 0.000885 to 81.04288

[17:18:38] Prospecting increased by 0.000893 to 81.04377

[17:18:42] Prospecting increased by 0.000885 to 81.04465

 

The gain size increase is because of skill increase.

If you didnt notice, there's a dramatic difference in tick frequency. You got 4 in the space of 22 seconds in the first block, and 3 in the space of 75 seconds in the second block.

  • Like 1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

If you didnt notice, there's a dramatic difference in tick frequency. You got 4 in the space of 22 seconds in the first block, and 3 in the space of 75 seconds in the second block.

You shouldn't assume that all data conforms to such a small sample.

 

What if that last group was this:

[17:17:20] Prospecting increased by 0.000931 to 81.04110

[17:17:24] Prospecting increased by 0.000893 to 81.04199

[17:17:27] Prospecting increased by 0.000885 to 81.04288

 

Although...

first group: one 10s stamina regen, ~3s actions, 4 tick of 4 attempts.

second group: 14s and 32s stamina regen, ~4s actions, 3 ticks of 8 attempts.

 

 

Ticks per an hour is about 150, 160, 170 for hours 1, 2 and 3. Although, hour 4 appears low and is projected at ~100. 

Using skill gain over time can be misleading, I'd really need to also look at event to get frequency.

 

I'll think about how to best make a graph and do that.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Ill be the first to admit that I haven't looked at it closely, but a couple of thing I have noticed:


 


Keep moving, I might do two or three ques on a tile, then I move.


 


Use a low QL, high Coc pick it does make a difference.


 


SB helps.


 


Good luck


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Is prospecting that much better than analysing for skill?  Because I've observed that you can get skill ticks from each trace check of an analysing action.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

One of the quickest skills in the game, really. Takes 3 days tops to get to 60, if you're being lazy and passive with it.

Obeys the Law of Diminishing Returns. Odds of a tick decrease the more times you hit the same tile. Hit it a few times then move on to the next one.

did the same as above, prospecting on 1 title for like 2-3min then moved on to the next

Edited by puin

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Is prospecting that much better than analysing for skill?  Because I've observed that you can get skill ticks from each trace check of an analysing action.

I prefer analyse, the problem is that you can only use it on freshly mined rocks/ore, and it can only be used once per ore. But its much more convenient, and as you gain skill you actually get more tick chances per action, since you analyse further and further on. Didn't really notice a big difference in skill gains. The only real problem is that you need a constant supply of rock or ore.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

What I did was use a high COC pick/SB.. QL doesn't matter.. I bound a key to prospect.. then stand and prospect each tile in a mine.. floor, walls ( in front of you and behind ) and ceilings. You can reach 3 tiles from where you stand. I did each one 3 times then moved to the next 3.   so looking top down....    OXOOXOOXO    X is your char.. O/X is where to prospect. X is where your also standing. Hope this helps.. My skill is about 63 now.

 

 

This is exactly what I did.

 

You can gain more then three times  - sometimes I got up to 5, other times it only worked to 3.....not sure why on this - So I decided for min/max just to do 3 times.

 

I used a low ql pick (not sure if ql mattered though) And 101 CoC. Double exp on, went from 30 Prospecting to 60 in 4 hours and 10 minutes. Gl!

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
Sign in to follow this