underground mining/reinforcement suggestions

[yossarian]

I've been mining underground and I'm sure you've noticed once you find a vein, it's pretty much never ending. As I've been mining, the area is getting bigger and it's like a huge cavern underground with a few bridges. It gets bigger when I come across gravel or potassium and cause a small avalanche.

I'm concerned about strutural integrity up top. Whether the ground will collapse (with me in it) or if I will eventually get a crater with a tunnel that leads directly to my underground base visible. Also close to where I've been mining, I created a back up structure which I don't know if the building's integrity will be affected by the huge hole 50 or so blocks (for now) underneath it.

When builiding underground, I just dug into the stone walls. My question for those building underground- what's the best way to build supports? I'm tempted to use wood frames since I can easily remove them. As you're mining, do you fill in holes with stone? Below is a screencap from one area (not sure how best to link). Not the best but gives a general idea of the wide open area that's been created (sometimes can be hard to tell what's up or down). Thanks.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=374390305

[Jᴧgᴧ]

Wood frames won't hold much, they are weak. If you place them, you'll want to full upgrade them to 2nd tier wood. Iron reinforcements aren't really needed imo. And you'd want to place them liberally in areas with large spanning ceilings.

I don't usually fill in areas myself, but I do "shore up" areas that feel like they are getting too large.

[yossarian]

What's the best way to shore up? Go along the sides with reinforcement material or create a pillar in the center and stack straight up? Part of me wants to refill in everything but don't want to use up resources for it.

[Jᴧgᴧ]

Center is good, if the ceiling isn't more than 8 wide or so. If it's 9-10+ wide go with 2 supports spaced out equally. This assumes that the cavern is longer than wide (think burrito). You can sometimes stagger them left/right and a few spaces forward/backward of each other, to save on materials.

You can use spare dirt to bring the walls of the cavern in a little too, if you have a lot of it. Never use sand, gravel, etc. And putting stone back in is a waste of good material - keep that stuff.

You'll find out what works best for you - I tend to err on the side of caution most of the time, unless I don't care about it falling in on me (like when I have full armor and a miner's helmet and am only a few blocks under the surface).

[(LUX)Dinomaster]

Originally posted by yossarian:

What's the best way to shore up? Go along the sides with reinforcement material or create a pillar in the center and stack straight up? Part of me wants to refill in everything but don't want to use up resources for it.

use stone and just make alot of pillars there strong and dont take alot of rescources.

[yossarian]

Cool, thanks. I'm digging from bottom up and seem to create a lot of open space from the gravel collapsing.

[Jᴧgᴧ]

Originally posted by yossarian:

Cool, thanks. I'm digging from bottom up and seem to create a lot of open space from teh gravel collpasing.

Yup, I usually try to find the top of the pocket I'm mining and move top-down, so I get all the resources, including the gravel.

[Operation40]

given u get so much stone while mining, it seems the natural choice to make columns out of.. plus it matches the decor!

[Jᴧgᴧ]

You won't feel that way when you go to start making concrete or reinforced concrete. It takes a lot of stone and gravel.

[Operation40]

mmm.. stone is so prolific.. if u make your gravel from cinderblocks instead, u have plenty for more cement than you could ever slpash on (you'll run out of iron first).. my last 2 games, I have 5 stacks of 64 stone lol, and laid hundreds of concrete reinforced rebar frames. iron is always the bottleneck

[Jᴧgᴧ]

Well - consider what it normally costs to mine stone: Iron strips (in the form of repairs to a pickaxe). Iron is far more valuable than the stone, so any stone you "mine and then put back" is a complete loss in the form of Iron.

I just keep it all, and normally use upgraded wood frames for support where needed. I have a small tree farm and harvesting enough for frames is a cakewalk. I can use a stone axe or a shovel to dig the roots out, fire axe to chop them down, chainsaw to fell them, etc - lots of options, not all use Iron.

And consider that zombies get an attack bonus vs wood - it is a poor building material for a base, long term. Versus concrete of any type, which is fantastic.

[Plazmic Flame]

I building underground just like I would on the surface, only difference is you have to cut out the space you need which takes longer.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=376891234

[Sigh-Phi-Guy]

Originally posted by Jᴧgᴧ:

Wood frames won't hold much, they are weak. If you place them, you'll want to full upgrade them to 2nd tier wood. Iron reinforcements aren't really needed imo. And you'd want to place them liberally in areas with large spanning ceilings.

I don't usually fill in areas myself, but I do "shore up" areas that feel like they are getting too large.

i dont believe wood frames gain any structural integrity by upgrading them. frames are the same structurally as iron reinforced wood.

Originally posted by Jᴧgᴧ:

And consider that zombies get an attack bonus vs wood - it is a poor building material for a base, long term. Versus concrete of any type, which is fantastic.

if the wood is upgraded to the second level(frame+1st level+2nd level)it is more durable than all but reinforced concrete. remember you get the puredur of each level, not just the final level.

[soiledgutchies]

I have beeen lucky, mined at a slope till I got a vein, cleaned it out and mined downward again, goal was to find tungsten ore, got to the bottom level still searching could really use an auger but can't seem to find one, but back to the topic, I never added any structure, been holding up a week there as home base, zombies sense me but not how to get to me underground. I am loving the safety

[Jᴧgᴧ]

Originally posted by sigh-phi-guy:

if the wood is upgraded to the second level(frame+1st level+2nd level)it is more durable than all but reinforced concrete. remember you get the puredur of each level, not just the final level.

Don't know - I still have zombies tear through wood quickly, when things like concrete take them forever. I don't put much stock in the puredur numbers on the Wikis. And I never build out of brick or the like.

Only the first temporary structure I make is wood, everything after that - concrete. That's why the wood holds little value for me other than temporary building/scaffolding/support.

[Johnny Bravo]

If ore acquisition is what you're after, as opposed to underground construction, then I recommend tunneling. Have a second base in another biome, or as far away as you want, then tunnel from a nice safe depth between them. You're guaranteed to run across a bunch of veins, take a little from each one, and soon enough you'll have more ore than you know what to do with. Voila!