Question: Starting Mining, Need Advice on Log Detail

Reading this forum it appears that success in mining requires keeping records of where resources are and where they are not so I can return to the good places and avoid the bad. I'm working up a spreadsheet to keep track of my mining activity and wonder about how much detail I need.

I know I need to keep track of the costs (Probes, finder, excavator, amps (future), and travel). I need to keep track of what I excavate and how valuable it is (TT and MU). Adding hunting and mob clearing would complicate things.

My big question is how detailed does my location information need to be? I see that LBML has a map by server. Is that specific enough or is it just a guide go avoid looking for a specific ore that is not on that server? Do I need to define an area as a specific probe drop (or resource found)? Or should I define an area as the side of the hill near position... in the Port Atlantis server?

I'm keeping track of actual drops right now while surveying with the TT finder. My dislike of getting to the detail of each drop position is the difficulty of hovering the cursor over the map and finding the exact position. I also think that I'll get confused with too many nunbers.

I realize that a lot of what I am trying to do is done by LBML, but I don't want to install it now. I think I will learn mining better by doing a lot of this manually. (I realize that I might be cutting my own throat by not using it.)

I don't get too precise with it, depending on where I'm at. On caly, resource spawns and distributions vary depending on LAnd Areas and revival zones, and so I mapped out Eudora and Amathera accordingly.

On arkadia, everywhere on every server has the exact same resources and resource distribution in my experiences.

The LBML maps are helpful for determining a general idea of resources on calypso, but you need to do your own exploring and mapping be to get an idea beyond that.

I generally log TT in, TT out, markup in ped, and markup of resources.

LBML is definitely helpful.

As to how much detail. I vary depending on what I am doing. If it is resource finding. I go unamped and carpet bomb an area recording what i find and where.

When that is done, i just record tt of ores found, not where as i know that from before.

In my experience, very little changes about ore locations. Once found, always found. So concentrate on tt of each after you have done your initial testing.

For testing what you find where, make sure you drop enough bombs for this. Until a map is clear and concise. Sometimes it is obvious, others not.

Anyway, good luck! Excel is your friend.


Rgds

Ace

What Rocket and Ace have already posted are very solid and sound advice indeed .

Off-Topic: I think I'm one of the few that does not use LBML (simply would rather not use it since I like the old fashioned manual way - some of my society mates use it though and it is a great tool I've heard). Guess I'll add my own experience on this thread as I do recall being a budding miner just like you a few years back, and if it were not for persistency, observation/knowledge, my in-game mentor, and learning from other experienced miners I'd probably would of stopped mining a long time ago. Also, there will be days that you might feel like mining is getting no-where, boring, or even a bit discouraging, but that is why many miners that still mine, who are still around, never gave up on the 'dream' you could say or found their 'niche' in mining. Wish you all the best out there, and don't forget repetition and consistency of what works for you helps in the long run. GL and have fun.

Edit: If you're curious, here is a link on a few of my mining pics (all manual): https://www.planetcalypsoforum.com/forums/album.php?albumid=6990


Cheerz,
Vi

The maps on the mininglog website are generated from the data submitted by the users of LBLM who have agreed to share their data. They therefore give a reasonably accurate and up - to date indication of what can be found in each server on all the planets.

Its up to you ofc if you decide to use LBML or not, but it sounds like you are doing manually what LBML does automatically which is to log the position, type and size of every claim that you get. This allows you to see a map showing all the claims that you got in any given time period and you can also export the data from LBML in a csv file to allow you to study your claims in an Excell spreadsheet.

My CSV records of each Find look like this:
Longitude, Latitude, Elevation, DropNum, Planet, Depth, Resource, Size, Extracted, Date, Time, Finder, Amp, Status, Avatar

Most of the fields are self-explanatory.
DropNum - is the amount of drops left when I get a hit(what shows on the status bar). So it starts high at the start of a run, and decrements as I go.
Status - is a general use field
Avatar - allows for tagged data sharing

How much information you choose to keep depends on how you want to use it in the future; and is it worth the time & cost collecting it in the present. (Same problem businesses and governments face.)

I use a custom solution for collecting the information consisting of some automation and some manual entry.

What I am doing at the moment is to create the map first of exactly where I wish to mine, then logging it.

The map is a template based on square transformed uniformly distributed disc.

http://ms.unimelb.edu.au/~segerman/papers/sunflower_spiral_fibonacci_metric.pdf

http://squircular.blogspot.co.za/

I find it best to record TT out (probes) TT back (ores/enmatter/treasure/SOOTO)

Dont bother recording Finder decay or Extractor decay or even Refiner decay.

Just TT out, TT back. I may be in a minority, but over-analysing mining data can destroy the 'fun' value of a hobby.

Feel free to ignore my views on it, but I did pretty much the same when I recorded hunting results.

Thanks to all that responded.

To summarize my understanding of the information presented:
--Minerals are distributed by revival zones or land areas.
--The LBML maps are summaries of the revival zones and land areas in that server.
--I need to record where and what I find but not where I don't find anything.

R4tt3xx uses math that's way beyond me. I kind of understand what he's doing based on other threads, but it is a bit more than I can handle.

I checked my finder cost after reading Mega's post. He's right that the finder cost is trivial compared to the probe costs. At least it is using the TT finder.

My run log since I posted the original question shows:
Total TT Spend: 2.18
Total TT Loot: 1.01
Total MU on total inventory: .40 (Includes loot from when I was just dropping bombs randomly my first month.)
Geology Skill Gain: 4 (edited to fix math.)

I think what I will to do is buy a third TT finder and use up the last of my probes. But first I am going to reorganize my spreadsheet so when I pick it up later I will not have to spend too much time figuring out what I did.

I'll return to mining when I've got a few more PED to play with. By then I should have more intelligence which should lead to better success on my prospector and surveyor professions. (It may not be much, but every little big helps.)