Sevenless' Guide to the New World - Now with Community Help

[overlordror]

Hey Sevenless,

With so much information changing about the way smelters work, can I just confirm that ore + lime in 13:12 ratio is still the current best way to smelt? We just got our first smelter up and running and did a full run of nothing but ore and got complete Dross, so we're wondering what's the most efficient way to run a smelter.

I've read through all the posts here but there's so much conflicting information about the changes I just want to confirm. Thanks.

[Procne]

When smelting, it's like filling invisible bar. When you reach 100% you get iron bar. For each ore in smelter you get (2+number of lime)%.
So if you have 13 ores and 12 lime then each ore gives 14%, and together that's 13*14% = 182%, which translates to 1.82 bar every smelting on average.
With 25 ores you only get 25*2% = 50% which is 1 bar every 2 smeltings. Of course leftovers from previous smelting are carried further.

You asked for best and most efficient ways to smelt, and those are 2 different things.
When talking about most efficient - it depends on how much lime and coal you have available. For example, I don't like to qurry lime all the time, so I use only 8 lime while smelting. This gives me 160% bar every smelting on average, which is only slightly lower than 182%, but I use 4 lime less.

As for the best way... Here's where purity comes in place. The more lime you use the more ore purity is diluted. But there's a trick - only lime from smelting where bar is created counts to its purity. So, for example, when I want to create a bar with purity equal to ore's purity, I first smelt my standard 160% with low purity ore - this gives me 1 low purity bar, and 60% leftover. Then I smelt with 25 high purity ores (no lime), which gives me 1 high purity bar. And then repeat.

[overlordror]

Ah thanks, Procne. I understand what's happening a lot better now.

I have a lime quarry right next to my current mine shaft, thankfully. At this point I just want to get some iron so we can have basic tools without having to fork over tons of silver. Then we'll start worrying about purity. I'm hoping once that comes into play, we can make better pure dowsing rods to find a mineshaft closer to home, since Sevenless said rods are much better than a Woo woo wand.

[MagicManICT]

That ratio is very dependent on economics. Yes, it's optimal, but cost and time are also a large factor in how you adjust it. If you're trying to keep purity, then using any lime is the worst thing to do.

[Sevenless]

Anywhere between 6-10 lime is a good ratio to have.

The lower the ratio, the more cost effective you are input wise (and if you're not buying this would be your time spent gathering), but the less effective you are equipment wise. I believe 6 is cost optimal if I remember correctly? But it's inefficient per smelter. So if you wanted to run that little lime you'd need more smelters, a lot more probably. If you only have 1-2 smelters I suggest 10 or so. 12 is peak smelter efficiency (the 13 number only applies if the bar chance is random, which it isn't).

The real kicker that bugs me is most people don't consider charcoal to have a value when calculating. It takes time to generate charcoal, and non-renewable resources to boot. Tree planting won't change that if you've played haven. It's a time intensive job and burning trees for charcoal is not something you do unless there's a very good reason to.

Edit: I made some cost estimations back in the day to get these numbers. Ore I considered "free" because of low phlegm cost per boulder and ore crushers. This is no longer true. I believe I valued lime at 2s and charcoal at 1s? Even if you're not buying, you still need to consider time input (and enjoyment factor, I frigging hate digging lime) when calculating efficiency.

[ramuller]

Ah thanks, Procne. I understand what's happening a lot better now.

I have a lime quarry right next to my current mine shaft, thankfully. At this point I just want to get some iron so we can have basic tools without having to fork over tons of silver. Then we'll start worrying about purity. I'm hoping once that comes into play, we can make better pure dowsing rods to find a mineshaft closer to home, since Sevenless said rods are much better than a Woo woo wand.

From what I have read, you will be making progressively better dowsing rods as each one finds progressively better ore in a seemingly unending quest for the best ore.

[Sevenless]

Yup, rods find a range of purity with an upward emphasis (or did when I was doing it). But close to home? Not with this system. You'll need porta alts to get ore from your high P mine.

[ramuller]

Yup, rods find a range of purity with an upward emphasis (or did when I was doing it). But close to home? Not with this system. You'll need porta alts to get ore from your high P mine.

Does it make more sense to simply port the ore back home or build a new smelter and make charcoal locally (especially when you get to the point where you don't want to use much, if any, lime)?

[Sevenless]

Port home. If you'd done a "mine chain" up to 60% you'd understand. The mines are often 1-2 hours walking distance from your home. And I'd say you build 10-15 mines to get up to 60% pure.

Just be prepared to drop a mineshaft and claim at each location you find. Leanto is doable, but an unclaimed mineshaft = you giving away your hard work to anyone who bothers to mine and chip a boulder.

[aj2000]

On metal purity, is it possible to craft higher purity woo-woo wand to detect higher purity mines? I hear you can raise the purity of leather with higher concentration of lime, which should give you a higher purity woo-woo wand?