Soil Test

See how far various soil types spread when dumped

Description of my soil test

I wanted to know how far various types of soil would spread when dumped in a pile. I tested all available soil to me in my game.

Test Results

Without wait, here are the test results from a height of 5:

Soil Type	Distance
Waste	9
Dirt	10
Slag	5
Sand	12
Slag Crushed	8
Rock	4
Gravel	6
Coal	4
Iron Ore	3
Copper Ore	3
Limestone	4

Screenshots

Conclusion

I'm not surprised by the results, this seems very realistic, much like other features of this game.

We could use this knowledge to create a "wall" of rock or slag before dumping waste in the ocean.

I also noticed that when digging the results are very similar. It's harder to test this because when digging you can't guarantee to get a single type of soil. For example, when digging into Coal/Iron/Copper we usually get some dirt/rock/gravel, and there could be a top level of dirt as well. So results may vary.

However, if the soil is mostly Coal/Iron/Copper or even Rock, I may not bother with retaining wall as using them (especially staggered every 5 levels) will result in taking much more space.

[Peter34]

That'd be nice. Sadly, old saves from v0.4 can't be used in v0.5, so it might be too much trouble to set it all up anew.

Also, while I absolutely do appreiciate all the effort behind Undying's experiment, what it did was to confirm that stuff behaves like we'd intuitively expect it to:

Sand spreads a whole lot, Dirt a bit less, Rock very little.

Slags doesn't spread much, except it spreads a bunch more if Crushed. So we can already anticipate how Quartz will behave.

[FireLord6127]

could you test quartz now that it's a feature on the island?

[MDW]

So,, which one is best for docking ship?
I am having problem to create 2nd cargo depot on the other side of the island..

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2926066787

[Evilreaver]

how is it harder to test digging, you literally have a method of placing a 100% pure block of X to mine through, you goofball

[Peter34]

On the other hand, your test suggest that Gravel retains its own behaviour, at least for the purpose of dumping.

[Peter34]

I heard that if you dump Compost, it automatically becomes Dirt voxels. Presumably if you dump Gravel, it becomes Rock or Dirt or something, to keep mining relatively simple.

[Undying29]

I think gravel can only be made from rock in the crusher

[legionaer20]

is it even possible to mine gravel directly? i was thinking you need a crusher to get gravel from rocks

[Tankroller]

@jamiechi i ran into that as well, grab a trade hub/harbor or any other building that needs ocean access, wherever the dumping cuts off, if the indicators for ocean access are red, that's the edge of the map.

[Undying29]

@jamiechi Probably a bug, I recommend that you report it to the developers