More Mines [ModContest1]

Adds underground minerals which can be mined using tunnels, new buildings to process the ore, and a new mining-themed faction.

• Start a new game. Dirtclaws faction will get you mining fastest. IronTeeth or Folktails also work.
• Once the map is loaded, click the pick and shovel button on the right end of the tool bar.
• On the ore menu, choose "Add Ore, Automatic". This will add random ore deposits to the map.
• Mine the ore with tunnels or dynamite.
• Have fun!

You can add ore to an existing game the same way. This mod changes the map, so consider making a back-up save before loading an existing game.

Tips:

• Don’t be afraid to undo the ore placement and try again. For your first game, it’s good to have gold near your starting place.
• Use Trade Offices to buy and sell resources.
• Buy explosives to start mining.
• Sell ore and metal to buy explosives and other supplies.
• All ores can be mined at a profit, but gold is best.
• Processing ore into metal before selling it increases your profit.

Early on, you’ll dig tunnels to mine veins near the surface. Later, you will uncover Deep Ore Deposits, which produce infinite ore. But watch out! Deep mines are often flooded with toxic water.

Make charcoal to smelt iron. Grind gold ore in arrastras or stamp mills, and use mercury amalgamation to improve gold recovery. More metals and processing equipment will be added as time allows.

Current ore types include:
Hematite, cinnabar, and gold.

The metal you recover is useful for late-game buildings. Or you can sell it at a Trade Office and use your earnings to import other goods.

Dirtclaws also expect to get paid, so as your population grows you’ll need to keep some trade credits on-hand.

Dirtclaws are related to Folktails, but they’re better at mining than farming. Plants grow slowly for them (user-configurable). Instead, they get cheap tunnels and access to some IronTeeth plants and buildings. They also love baked goods and have many pies and breads to choose from.

There are other balance tweaks, most notably to science and explosives. Dirtclaws can produce both, but it’s harder. Plan on buying some things with trade offices rather than making everything locally.

The heart of every Dirtclaws settlement is the Pay Office. Early on, Dirtclaws are happy with a rain check, but when your colony grows they will start to consume trade credits.

Dirtclaws’ default settings can be challenging. They start with some extra resources and early access to the Trade Office. Explosives, science points and food are usually good early buys.

Dirtclaws have unique foods and buildings, and will get you to the mining part of the game faster. But Folktails and Ironteeth also get access to the mining-related additions. You can play More Mines as any of the three you prefer.

The mod has tools for adding randomly generated ore deposits to an existing map. You can also add or remove ore manually in the map editor to create hand-crafted scenarios.

Underground resources start hidden. Will your vein pinch out? Or is it the mother lode? The only way to know is to dig!
You can configure how close to the surface ore is revealed, or make it all visible.

Mill buildings make tailings that must be dumped. This forms new terrain blocks below the dump building, which spread like a glacier, destroying everything in its path (except levees).

Tailings will erode if enough water flows past them, so dumping into a river is one disposal method.

Some tailings (mill pulp) still contain metal and can be re-processed later. You can save the pulp in tanks, or if it has been dumped, you can re-mine it like regular ore. A Tailings Collector building will automatically mine nearby tailings at low cost.

In late game, you will mine Deep Ore Deposits. These are similar to underground ruins and usually appear on the lowest level of the map. Build a Deep Mine on top, hook up power, and you can start producing ore.

The mine also makes toxic water, which flows out a pipe opposite the entrance. Production will stop if the drainage area is full, so plan pumps or drainage tunnels.

The best way to find Deep Deposits is to follow ore down from the surface. There should be a Deep Deposit for each type of ore. Large maps may have several.

There are two buildings to help you mine automatically:

The Engineer’s Office places tunnel construction sites on nearby ore. This doesn’t provide any bonus; it’s just to reduce micro-management.

The Mine Chute is similar, but only works in a cone-shaped area above the chute. The tunnels it places are cheaper than normal and give a 10% bonus of extra ore.

Both will place ladders to access ore. This isn’t always perfect so you may occasionally need to help the beavers with access. You may also need to extend your path network, or use a mod that extends builder range.

You can forbid auto-mining with a tool like the tree-cutting tool. Auto-mining is usually flood and collapse-proof, but may dig into dry waterways during droughts, unless you forbid them. Forbidding is a 2D tool; it must be marked on the ground surface, and blocks that whole column of the map.

Recovered goods stacks which contain ore will never disintegrate.

The mod adds a Solid Rock object, which is waterproof and can’t be removed during normal play. They can be used in the map editor to make underground access challenges, or to prevent lazy beavers from solving their mine drainage problems by digging a tunnel off the edge of the map.

The mod generates a special block of Solid Rock in the 0,0,0 corner on all maps. This is needed for technical reasons, and should not be removed.

Deep Ore Deposits can have their water flow rate and contamination level set in the map editor.

Factions other than FT, IT and Dirtclaws are not supported.

Dirtclaws have a berry need built-in, so the Berries Are Delicious mod is unneeded.

My Simple Workshop Control mod is handy for managing mercury levels.

Other mods may or may not work. Dirtclaws should automatically pick up any new buildings, goods, needs, or recipes that Folktails have access to. But if you run into problems with other mods, compatibility will probably be better if you play as Folktails or Ironteeth.

There is an incompatibility with Moddable Tool Groups in the map editor. For now, I suggest disabling Moddable Tool Groups while editing maps.

Beavers aren’t good record-keepers: if ore that was visible becomes buried, they will forget where it was and it becomes hidden again.

Power shafts that are part of a building sometimes turn the wrong way.