How do miners work?

LSR · Oct 10th 2011

Hi guys, as thread title really!

I have a miner with an OV scanner and a diamond pick with a chest next to it. What does it mine? What doesn't it mine? Obviously it doesn't mine out a whole 9x9 area, as I never get 81 blocks worth of stuff, even with 9 pipe. Does it just take the good stuff? There's always a fair bit of cobblestone with it too, so I'm not sure about that..

Or could it be I'm not leaving it long enough? It's fully powered with a LV transformer right next to it, and stuff always seems to stop accumulating in the chest after a few minutes.

Cheers!

nou_spiro · Oct 10th 2011

it mine only ores. but it also mine other blocks to uncover this ores so it can mine them.
so when you have this. it is top view. log block is stone.

it mine also stone to gain access to ores. miner stop when he hit lava, water or bedrock.

M11xStryker · Oct 10th 2011

I believe how it works is....
If there are no ores horizontal to the lowest mining pipe, it will mine one layer down.
If there are ores that are horizontal to that pipe and within a 9x9 (or 5x5 for OD scanner), then it will mine out those ores.
Once all the ores are mined at that level, it will mine one layer down and continue the cycle until it hits bedrock.

Anything except for ores, and other stuff that blocks the path to the ores, will not be mined. Meaning that except for the little bit of cobblestone that is in the way of the miner, it will mine practically no cobblestone.

Alblaka · Oct 10th 2011

Quote from M11xStryker

I believe how it works is....
If there are no ores horizontal to the lowest mining pipe, it will mine one layer down.
If there are ores that are horizontal to that pipe and within a 9x9 (or 5x5 for OD scanner), then it will mine out those ores.
Once all the ores are mined at that level, it will mine one layer down and continue the cycle until it hits bedrock.

Anything except for ores, and other stuff that blocks the path to the ores, will not be mined. Meaning that except for the little bit of cobblestone that is in the way of the miner, it will mine practically no cobblestone.

Quite this.

LSR · Oct 11th 2011

Perfect, thanks a lot!

How does pipe usage work? Hypothetically the miner could eat up hundreds, depending on how pipe is laid-out/retracted while in operation.

dezuman · Oct 11th 2011

Pipes are only laid straight down, not to the sides

The_Engine · Oct 11th 2011

Is it possible for the miner to Miss ores? quite often it seems that it misses the diamonds i Know are down there
im going to test with a "hacked" client to tell me if there is diamond bellow the miner and if it misses it then i know it can be some what inaccurate

however before i test this i would like to know if it does "miss" ores

Alblaka · Oct 12th 2011

It can "miss" ores if these are unreachable. F.e. Diamond has a small chance of spawning below/witin a bedrock pocket... it's there, but not reachable.

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