Mystcraft mining age.

[Cryght]

anyone know a good mining age? without decay

 

[Cloud]

Ideally a flat, bright , eternal day ,no weather, any terrain feature , with few biomes since not all ores spawn in the same biome.

 

[potter]

You can forgo eternal day if you only choose mushroom biome/s. That combined with bright 'lighting' will ensure full visibility at all times and no hostile mobs, should you start your mining operation underground.
It, however, locks you to a specific biome in regards to rarity of certain ores.

 

[Mikey_R]

However, if you have eternal day you can hook up a solar panel and electrical engine to power the quarry and have it run constantly all the time rather than slowing down at night.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

However, if you have eternal day you can hook up a solar panel and electrical engine to power the quarry and have it run constantly all the time rather than slowing down at night.

You'll need a lot more than just one. For 9 Eu/t, that electric engine will need to be pimped out with a large circuit board and two bronze and a copper tube. That's going to be an Eu draw of 34 Eu/t, so about five LV arrays there.

 

[Mikey_R]

But do you need a quarry to be running at max constantly? Especially if you already have a large stock of materials anyway.

I tend to use Redstone energy cells then have an un-upgraded electrical engine just so the quarry can still run even if the cell is depleted. Although I am on a server so it is always running and so speed isn't the biggest issue. In SSP it might be different, but you still don't need the quarry to run at max, infact, foe the first few quarries I would suggest going with small quarries so you can get to the diamonds etc. quicker, then, when you have a nice supply, you can make bigger quarries as materials aren't needed as much.

 

[Harro]

mushroom biome + flat puts you pretty high in the world, which means you have to quarry through a lot of layers of dirt and stone before you get to the good stuff

 

[Cloud]

mushroom biome + flat puts you pretty high in the world, which means you have to quarry through a lot of layers of dirt and stone before you get to the good stuff

You can build quarry lower to get them faster but it is a little more troublesome than building at the surface.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

But do you need a quarry to be running at max constantly? Especially if you already have a large stock of materials anyway.

I tend to use Redstone energy cells then have an un-upgraded electrical engine just so the quarry can still run even if the cell is depleted. Although I am on a server so it is always running and so speed isn't the biggest issue. In SSP it might be different, but you still don't need the quarry to run at max, infact, foe the first few quarries I would suggest going with small quarries so you can get to the diamonds etc. quicker, then, when you have a nice supply, you can make bigger quarries as materials aren't needed as much.

The quicker your quarry runs, the sooner you get your gold and diamonds from the chunk. So yes, I tend to max it out frequently.

I would give the exact opposite advice, for your first few quarries, you need the resources, so start one off at like y30 or so, dig out a 64 x 64 square, and let it start running, so you can get your materials sooner.

 

[Mero]

The quicker your quarry runs, the sooner you get your gold and diamonds from the chunk. So yes, I tend to max it out frequently.

I would give the exact opposite advice, for your first few quarries, you need the resources, so start one off at like y30 or so, dig out a 64 x 64 square, and let it start running, so you can get your materials sooner.

That really depends on the resources you have to work with when you build your quarry.

When I built mine, I had no BC engines of any kind. I had gotten my gold/diamonds/iron while doing my initial mining my first couple of days in the world. I built the quarry and a couple of peat engines. I was making my peat manually at this point and powering the quarry with just those two engines. And yes, it was very slow running at first.

I made my first quarry only slightly larger than the default one and let it run. As I obtained more and more copper I added more peat engines to the quarry and continued to work on other stuff as it ran. Before it was finished I was able to start making magmatic engines and magma crucibles.

Starting off with a 64x64 quarry with no resources to speak of would have just been a mistake. It would have been much quicker to spend a fraction of the amount of time that a max sized quarry would have taken in my branch mine.

Now, if you don't mind spending time branch mining then you can go ahead and start with more than enough resources to set up a quarry with enough engines to run very quickly.
Personally, I have been mining manually for 2 years and while I used to love it I get more enjoyment out of building different contraptions to gather all the resources for me.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

That really depends on the resources you have to work with when you build your quarry.

When I built mine, I had no BC engines of any kind. I had gotten my gold/diamonds/iron while doing my initial mining my first couple of days in the world. I built the quarry and a couple of peat engines. I was making my peat manually at this point and powering the quarry with just those two engines. And yes, it was very slow running at first.

I made my first quarry only slightly larger than the default one and let it run. As I obtained more and more copper I added more peat engines to the quarry and continued to work on other stuff as it ran. Before it was finished I was able to start making magmatic engines and magma crucibles.

Starting off with a 64x64 quarry with no resources to speak of would have just been a mistake. It would have been much quicker to spend a fraction of the amount of time that a max sized quarry would have taken in my branch mine.

Now, if you don't mind spending time branch mining then you can go ahead and start with more than enough resources to set up a quarry with enough engines to run very quickly.
Personally, I have been mining manually for 2 years and while I used to love it I get more enjoyment out of building different contraptions to gather all the resources for me.

Wheras I make sure I have the resources available to get my quarries running optimally before building one. I mean, that's a serious investment of resources there, you want to get the most use out of it. Just dumping a quarry on the surface with only a couple of MJ/t? Dude, it'll take FOREVER for your quarry to get anywhere, and you'll have chests of worthless dirt and cobble before you get anything. 9 MJ/t isn't hard to come up with. A couple of Biogas Engines will do the job, and biogas is easy to get set up. Fill them both up, and the quarry will be done before they run out.

Drop down to around Y 30 or so and drop your quarry there. Now you don't have nearly as much waste being produced. And running it at maximum capacity will net me far more resources than branch mining ever thought of being able to, since you're already down at gold level.

 

[Mero]

Wheras I make sure I have the resources available to get my quarries running optimally before building one. I mean, that's a serious investment of resources there, you want to get the most use out of it. Just dumping a quarry on the surface with only a couple of MJ/t? Dude, it'll take FOREVER for your quarry to get anywhere, and you'll have chests of worthless dirt and cobble before you get anything. 9 MJ/t isn't hard to come up with. A couple of Biogas Engines will do the job, and biogas is easy to get set up. Fill them both up, and the quarry will be done before they run out.

Drop down to around Y 30 or so and drop your quarry there. Now you don't have nearly as much waste being produced. And running it at maximum capacity will net me far more resources than branch mining ever thought of being able to, since you're already down at gold level.

Because I don't have any use whatsoever for dirt/cobble/sand/gravel?

I have already finished 2 quarries. The first small one and then one that is just under the max size.

You might enjoy mining, I used to, but after 2 years of making dozens of mines and mining millions of blocks, I don't want to spend my first month of playing a world digging in a branch mine.
To be fair, I am lucky if I get an hour or two a night to play, I didn't mind before, but after a couple of years of gathering resources by hand, frankly I don't want to do it anymore, if I did, I wouldn't be playing a mod pack that has machines that do the work for you. And no I don't want to play creative. I want to build contraptions to do the work for me.

Also, it's not like I stood there waiting on the quarry to gather resources. I spent a fair amount of time working on bees, doing Thaumcraft research, killing skeletons for my soul shard, all kinds of stuff.

And it isn't a serious investment of resources to build a quarry. I found 2 veins of diamonds before I found my first Iron in this world. Along with 2 veins of gold, a vein of lapis, 3 veins of redstone a couple of coal and a handful of copper and tin. This was all before the second day of the world was over.
Gathering resources by hand is tedious at best, it isn't hard, it doesn't even require paying attention to what you are actually doing in the game. I would watch movies while I was mining before

Dropping down to lvl 30 before starting the quarry would take even longer as either you have to dig out the space by hand for the frame or you need to let the quarry do the work for you, which takes even longer.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Because I don't have any use whatsoever for dirt/cobble/sand/gravel?

I have already finished 2 quarries. The first small one and then one that is just under the max size.

You might enjoy mining, I used to, but after 2 years of making dozens of mines and mining millions of blocks, I don't want to spend my first month of playing a world digging in a branch mine.
To be fair, I am lucky if I get an hour or two a night to play, I didn't mind before, but after a couple of years of gathering resources by hand, frankly I don't want to do it anymore, if I did, I wouldn't be playing a mod pack that has machines that do the work for you. And no I don't want to play creative. I want to build contraptions to do the work for me.

Also, it's not like I stood there waiting on the quarry to gather resources. I spent a fair amount of time working on bees, doing Thaumcraft research, killing skeletons for my soul shard, all kinds of stuff.

And it isn't a serious investment of resources to build a quarry. I found 2 veins of diamonds before I found my first Iron in this world. Along with 2 veins of gold, a vein of lapis, 3 veins of redstone a couple of coal and a handful of copper and tin. This was all before the second day of the world was over.
Gathering resources by hand is tedious at best, it isn't hard, it doesn't even require paying attention to what you are actually doing in the game. I would watch movies while I was mining before

Dropping down to lvl 30 before starting the quarry would take even longer as either you have to dig out the space by hand for the frame or you need to let the quarry do the work for you, which takes even longer.

I think we have an information disconnect. I set up a quarry like that because I *DON'T* like mining. I let my quarry do my mining for me. I don't see how my method requires any more mining than yours does, in fact it requires a good deal less.

And no, I have zero use for all that cobble/dirt/gravel. Dirt I get from my Peat Bog. Cobble... well, I get enough of that already. Gravel has zero use outside of the occasional flint.

A quarry is what I would consider a serious investment of resources. 11 diamonds, 16 gold, and a half a stack of iron? Yea, that's not cheap. I'm glad you got lucky, not everyone is.

When powered optimally, a quarry digs out the space far faster than I could, and more importantly, it does it automatically while I go do something else. All I need to do is dig the corridors to plant the landmarks. Easy peasy.

 

[Mero]

I think we have an information disconnect. I set up a quarry like that because I *DON'T* like mining. I let my quarry do my mining for me. I don't see how my method requires any more mining than yours does, in fact it requires a good deal less.

And no, I have zero use for all that cobble/dirt/gravel. Dirt I get from my Peat Bog. Cobble... well, I get enough of that already. Gravel has zero use outside of the occasional flint.

A quarry is what I would consider a serious investment of resources. 11 diamonds, 16 gold, and a half a stack of iron? Yea, that's not cheap. I'm glad you got lucky, not everyone is.

When powered optimally, a quarry digs out the space far faster than I could, and more importantly, it does it automatically while I go do something else. All I need to do is dig the corridors to plant the landmarks. Easy peasy.

Which is exactly why I start my quarry Before I have enough resources to make expensive power sources.

Cobble has more uses than just about any item in the game, outside of wood.

Gravel, with the Facades I actually am running short of it as my pulverizer doesn't produce enough from turning cobble into sand for the tons of glass I use.

Dirt, yes and no. Humus and Bog earth both require dirt to make. Peat farms give back dirt, tree farms don't.
I also use it for some minor landscaping.

As I said the first time. Depending on how many resources you have before you start your quarry really depends on how big you want it.

Personally, I don't want to waste any more time gathering more resources by hand than I have to before I automate it.

 

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Which is exactly why I start my quarry Before I have enough resources to make expensive power sources.

Biomass is one of the cheapest power sources available. Which is why I use it.

Cobble has more uses than just about any item in the game, outside of wood.

Cobble you will get stacks of regardless.

Gravel, with the Facades I actually am running short of it as my pulverizer doesn't produce enough from turning cobble into sand for the tons of glass I use.

Ahh, I don't bother with Facades. I just have thicker walls and run pipes through walls instead.

Dirt, yes and no. Humus and Bog earth both require dirt to make. Peat farms give back dirt, tree farms don't.
I also use it for some minor landscaping.

Peat farms give back quite a bit of dirt. More than enough to keep them both going. Besides, you won't entirely eliminate getting dirt, it does still spawn lower, after all. You just don't get 30+ stacks of it in your first quarry.

As I said the first time. Depending on how many resources you have before you start your quarry really depends on how big you want it.

I find it to be the inverse, personally. Then again, I tend to build my renewable resources up first, since it's a matter of copper and tin that I will have after my first major mining expedition. Get my pulverizer setup, then get my forestry groove going. Then start up a quarry. Generally, all this is done from my first mining expedition, which tends to also be my last.

Personally, I don't want to waste any more time gathering more resources by hand than I have to before I automate it.

Neither do I, which is why I have my quarry running at a respectable rate, so I don't need to supplement it with additional mining.

I suppose we have two different philosophies with regards to forestry and its expense.

I consider Biomass to be cheap and easy to get established. Biogas engines are bronze, which is just copper and tin. Fermentor is just more Bronze, which again, is copper and tin. Start it hooked up to a Steam Engine from TE, since it produces 2 MJ/t, with an AA underneath it. Feed it saplings or plantballs. Done. Once I get some biomass, I hook it up to a biogas engine. While that is going on, I start my Farm/Combine for seeds and do some exploring to find a village for carrots and potatoes. When I come back, I'm ready to build my quarry and a couple of biogas engines to power it with.

I don't see how anyone would need to do extensive mining to get that set up.

 

[Hrulgin]

Gravel has zero use outside of the occasional flint.

Aside from the facade usage, putting the gravel into a Railcraft Rock Crusher gives you sand, with a small chance of gold nuggets or diamonds. It's not a lot, but it can be a nice bonus.