Where to look for metals.

[Extraordinarily Mature Slav]

So currently I am fairly in the early game (round 29) and I am struggling to find good sources of metal.

My planet had 134% heavy elements, but it seems like mining operations during colonization removed most of it (roughly 5-6 mining related events and 23% mining economy). Scavenging isn't looking much better as the planet had 18.9 million population at it's peak.

I have so far found 2 other metal deposits (besides the starting one) one with lvl 1 ease of mining and another with lvl 3, meaning it will take forever to mine those out.

So I was wondering if I am looking at the wrong spots. Should I be specifically exploring more mountains, rocky plains, or deserts? I usually only prioritize going for grassy plains because of farming, quick movement and cheap roads.

Side Note: I also noticed I tend to find lots of oil deposits, like lots, and high level ones too. I already found 2 lvl 8 and a lvl 9 oil deposit. Is this a planet generation thing I'm doing wrong?

[Slippy]

Firstly (although it sounds like you are already aware of this), prospecting is handled by the economic council. If you go into reports and look for the prospecting report you can see which zones your staff think they can find hidden deposits in and which zones they cant. Remember if zone borders change the report might change (most likely in the early game when you have 1 zone and you are pushing out). You can also play the prospecting stratagem cards to make doubly sure you havent missed anything.

Secondly planet generation generally sets out what you can find. Planets with a long history of life will have tons of oil deposits. Planets (as you have found out) can often be heavily mined already. Planets with no life will (obviously) have no natural oil deposits.

I don't believe there specific terrain has a more or less likely chance to hold deposits but I could be wrong there. However its generally always a good idea to grab ruins hexes as they can have some nice finds within... Hex perks are usually a nice thing to grab as well, some are more useful than others.

At round 29 is still pretty early on. You can upgrade mines to get more metal per turn and there is a fate card you might acquire to increase ease of mining. Finding 3 metal deposits that early on is actually a lot - some games you might not even start with 1 (I think its only easy you are guaranteed one) or find one for a long time!

Later on down the tech tree there are ways to produce resources you are lacking.

[Sinbad]

Yeah I say your lucky to find 3 as I only found one in my first current first game at 130 turns, I had more ruins and almost lost learning I needed to hunt those down because deposits were not next to my 3 cities.

[Hugo Vos]

If you want guaranteed metal, start with tech level 4 or generate a ruined megacity planet. Besides heavy element percentage I haven't seen anything definitive on metal spawns, colonization history included.

[Hasefrexx]

You can never find more than 1 deposit per turn. You will want to make sure to tune your prospecting funding to discover one per turn (and don't waste more BP on it). This means that in planets with lots of oil deposits... You may have metal underground but the councilor will spend a lot of time finding oil with metal from time to time.

Ironically that kind of situation is when you would want to use the prospecting stratagem but it's also when it's the least useful as you wouldn't want to spend a bunch of PP to find 1 metal deposit out of 6 oil deposits.

With that heavy metal % you should be swimming in metal, eventually.

[mergele]

Getting 3 mining sites by turn 29 is massively lucky and a huge income, even two of them are just level 1 and 3.
Regarding where to look. I heard that mountains have a higher chance to contain metal, but even if thats true, the difficulty and cost of building roads through mountains is such a massive blocker you are way better off taking lots of easy nice flat terrain instead.

[Henrique Lique]

3 mines at turn 29 and complaining. On harder difficulties the only metal you'll find is the one you conquered from ai, ruins is your only metal income. (They are pretty good tough.)

[Extraordinarily Mature Slav]

Originally posted by Henrique Lique:

3 mines at turn 29 and complaining. On harder difficulties the only metal you'll find is the one you conquered from ai, ruins is your only metal income. (They are pretty good tough.)

I say this because I will usually not find metal at all past the automatic first deposit for more than 50 turns. I just don't like metal being so scarce. Maybe I'll play on a lava planet next.

[Dtermino]

Originally posted by Slippy:

Planets with no life will (obviously) have no natural oil deposits.

>obviously
What is that claim based on?
Oil is created abiotically.
Oil has nothing to do with fossils.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenic_petroleum_origin
"the SCIENCE" schoolbooks and TV repeating baseless propaganda of "fossil fuel" and limited supply doesnt make it true.
In reality supposedly depleted oil wells keep filling back up on their own and earth makes practically endless amounts of oil. Read the article try to understand that there is no interaction with life that somehow generates petroleum while the core can create it naturally.

The oil tie to biological life is a fictional game balancing mechanic but not realistic.

[Dtermino]

Originally posted by mergele:

I heard that mountains have a higher chance to contain metal, but even if thats true, the difficulty and cost of building roads through mountains is such a massive blocker you are way better off taking lots of easy nice flat terrain instead.

not the mountain locations but generating a planet with higher % of mountains and you get more metal deposits with bigger deposit levels. Balancing out the increased logistic cost with increased metal availability.

[Supaman]

Originally posted by Dtermino:

Originally posted by Slippy:

Planets with no life will (obviously) have no natural oil deposits.

>obviously
What is that claim based on?
Oil is created abiotically.
Oil has nothing to do with fossils.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenic_petroleum_origin
"the SCIENCE" schoolbooks and TV repeating baseless propaganda of "fossil fuel" and limited supply doesnt make it true.
In reality supposedly depleted oil wells keep filling back up on their own and earth makes practically endless amounts of oil. Read the article try to understand that there is no interaction with life that somehow generates petroleum while the core can create it naturally.

The oil tie to biological life is a fictional game balancing mechanic but not realistic.

"globally significant amounts of abiotic hydrocarbons are deemed unlikely.[5]"

[Slippy]

Originally posted by Supaman:

Originally posted by Dtermino:

>obviously
What is that claim based on?
Oil is created abiotically.
Oil has nothing to do with fossils.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiogenic_petroleum_origin
"the SCIENCE" schoolbooks and TV repeating baseless propaganda of "fossil fuel" and limited supply doesnt make it true.
In reality supposedly depleted oil wells keep filling back up on their own and earth makes practically endless amounts of oil. Read the article try to understand that there is no interaction with life that somehow generates petroleum while the core can create it naturally.

The oil tie to biological life is a fictional game balancing mechanic but not realistic.

"globally significant amounts of abiotic hydrocarbons are deemed unlikely.[5]"

Legend

[AnthalasDaelith]

If your colonization phase has a lot of mining events there is a good chance those deposits will be under a ruin hex. Try turning off FOW in planet generation and you should be able to see the locations on the map. Whether or not, those deposits are more depleted I have no idea. Does anyone have a source for that?

[Extraordinarily Mature Slav]

Originally posted by AnthalasDaelith:

If your colonization phase has a lot of mining events there is a good chance those deposits will be under a ruin hex. Try turning off FOW in planet generation and you should be able to see the locations on the map. Whether or not, those deposits are more depleted I have no idea. Does anyone have a source for that?

Good Idea, I'll try that.