Flametal mining by Catapult, it works!

[c0mad0r]

Our group set out to do further flametal mining today and wondered if we could mine it with a Catapult and explosive ammo. We setup inside our fortress base building Grausten extensions to the walls and put up a catapult on it.

Firing about 10 explosive ammo released about 50 flametal from the pillar.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3252892657

We moved it around a bunch of times and realized we couldn't destroy about 5 chunks of the pillar as it said too hard. Once we cleared the mobs and threw out our bassalt bombs, we collected a total of 62 Flametal and 300 grausten from around the pillar.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3252892881

Once we collected everything we could, the very first hit by our pickaxes to mine the remaining flametal ore resulted in the pillar triggering. So my guess is the "too hard" ones are the keystones that trigger it to descend. Still, we got an additional 12 for a grand total of 74 Flametal ore. 100% will do again!

[c0mad0r]

Working to add some stats to this, we're mining a total of 8 flametal pillars, but I can say that our first attempt was simply just luck as the 3 we've catapult mined since then all seem to trigger descending at some point. Still, I can statistically say it results in less deaths and more flametal doing it this way.

[Nerevar]

it doesnt actually result in more metal. the pillars work on a simple system. you simply got lucky or didnt use your mineing time effectively before with the pickaxe.

a flametal pillar has about 90 flametal max on average.

the first shake indicates that the sinking timer has begun ticking down. this timer is a fixed total in seconds before the pillar is fully gone or rather reaches a point where mineing the remaining ore is certain death.

the rng factor of this is WHEN the first shake happens. this is ENTIELY random per pillar. i once had a pillar i could mine 63 ore out off before it was shakeing for the first time. got a total of 83 flametal out of the pillar before it was gone. with just a pickaxe.

but also had a pillar where it started shakeing right after i mined the very first node already. only got like 28 metal before it was gone due to that.

the reason for this is that the start of the sinking timer with the first shake is DMG based. its not time based. simply total dmg based. a guy on youtube has a video explaning this in detail if you wanna see it.

this dmg based trigger is entirely random per pillar. it can be like 100 dmg done to the ore or 1000 dmg done to the ore. due to this haveing more players mineing isnt helpful at all to get more ore.

if you hit the carryweight limit simply toss the ore stack on the lava field towards the shore line. the ore floats on the lava surface. doing this and with decent pickaxe skill you can get about 50 flametal per pillar at least. with a really terrible dmg sinking pillar timer you can end up with a bit less. 30 is always possible tough even on the worst pillars unless your pickaxe skill is stupid low.

but aiming for 45 per pillar is a good goal if you wanna be effective with them without risking your life too much. make sure all flying enemies near it are dead before you start mineing. then use the shield generator to not only block spawns but also surpress the lava eruptions insdei the shield bubble and make sure it covers the pillar fully. once the pillar has sink use basalt bombs to collect the ore stacks and teleport em home. can also use an asksvin mount to collect it easier.

but gems remain the real issue longterm especially on servers. these can actually run out currently. something the devs need to fix sooner or later. kinda like the royal jelly case before they addressed that albeit this one is more serve.

IF the pillar allows it terrian wise you can use the siege ram to get a huge time advantage over the timer as the ram can break multiple ore blocks instantly at once and can fire multiple times before the pillar is sunk too much. this can risk the ram materials tough depending on layout. it works really well if the pillar has contact with a natural rock or if you can build a stoneramp over to it to drive the ram on. the huge aoe of the ram can break alot of the pillar really fast. way faster than the catapult or pickaxe. requires more setup time tough.

[c0mad0r]

Originally posted by Nerevar:

it doesnt actually result in more metal. the pillars work on a simple system. you simply got lucky or didnt use your mineing time effectively before with the pickaxe.

Never said it did, I said and I quote "I can statistically say it results in less deaths and more flametal doing it this way" which means its more efficient than mining directly. Don't agree, don't do it then.

Originally posted by Nerevar:

the first shake indicates that the sinking timer has begun ticking down. this timer is a fixed total in seconds before the pillar is fully gone or rather reaches a point where mineing the remaining ore is certain death.

the rng factor of this is WHEN the first shake happens. this is ENTIELY random per pillar. i once had a pillar i could mine 63 ore out off before it was shakeing for the first time. got a total of 83 flametal out of the pillar before it was gone. with just a pickaxe.

but also had a pillar where it started shakeing right after i mined the very first node already. only got like 28 metal before it was gone due to that.

the reason for this is that the start of the sinking timer with the first shake is DMG based. its not time based. simply total dmg based. a guy on youtube has a video explaning this in detail if you wanna see it.

this dmg based trigger is entirely random per pillar. it can be like 100 dmg done to the ore or 1000 dmg done to the ore. due to this haveing more players mineing isnt helpful at all to get more ore.

Okay, this one I am honestly going to correct you on because Robin aka Grimmcore literally explained this to me on Twitter:

"How Leviathans + Abyssal Barnacles work is how Flametal Pillars + Flametal Ore works".

See:

0.218.12 Patch Notes:
* Decreased chance of flametal pillars to start to sink and reduced how fast they sink

In other words, the devs reduced the total number of keystones aka triggers in the flametal ore pillar.

So what the "RNG" literally translates to is a number of randomly picked objects on either Levi Barnacles or Flametal ore that are assigned as triggers or as I called them: keystones, NOT random hits. Thus why you can as you perfectly described, can cause shaking to start but ultimately ended up delaying the drop because you didn't fully activate the trigger. Exact same effects we see on Leviathans.

Originally posted by Nerevar:

but aiming for 45 per pillar is a good goal if you wanna be effective with them without risking your life too much. make sure all flying enemies near it are dead before you start mineing. then use the shield generator to not only block spawns but also surpress the lava eruptions insdei the shield bubble and make sure it covers the pillar fully. once the pillar has sink use basalt bombs to collect the ore stacks and teleport em home. can also use an asksvin mount to collect it easier.

Absolutely! I decided to post this because we're returning with way more than 45 flametal ore, which translates to more than our traditional mining averages. Further, using the catapult we can reach the pillars further out in the lava and do so with less deaths resulting from lava blobs you can't hit because of their depth.

Originally posted by Nerevar:

but gems remain the real issue longterm especially on servers. these can actually run out currently. something the devs need to fix sooner or later. kinda like the royal jelly case before they addressed that albeit this one is more serve.

Yeah, we're seeing this in our group too. We have to spread the gems out such that each of us use a different weapon. Not always ideal, especially when you have overlap between spellcasters and melee weapons.

Regardless, this game has 101 different ways to do things. We're not all expected to agree with them, but if it works for someone and they have fun, great!

[Nerevar]

regarding the pillars : i never said they dont work like leviathans. but it IS total dmg based. there is no specific chunks that trigger it.

here :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uxFxpTgaRg

this guy TESTED it. includeing the catapult method. he also explains your "too hard" thingy. it has nothing to do with the keystones you claim. they dont exist thats a bug with the catapult explosive payload. each pillar aka leviathan is considered a total health entity by the game.

there is no reason to mine pillars deep in lava lakes tbh. risk for no reason as you have more than metal either way. even in a group.

now catapult mineeing beeing more safe is of course true. but so is shield + glide mineing ^^ both take similar setup effort overall. both are extremly safe to do. choose whatever method you like more i guess. i dont like the catapult. its very easy to missclick and i have still ptb pstd from launching weapons and them loseing upgrades despite the upgrade bug beeing fixed now^^