There are a number of varieties of marble. Higher skill levels in Rocks of the Ages allow one to prospect for the rarer marbles.
Geologically, the word "marble" is misused--marble is only one type of the "rocks of the ages", as are granite, travertine, and alabaster. In practice, all the different rocks are collectively referred to as "marble". This matches the industry definition as a rock with a polishable surface.
| Level | Rarity | Type | Uses |
| 1 | Very Common | Oyster Shell Marble | Ceremonial Tasting Table (12), Statue of Octet's Ghost (4), Pilgrim Shrine Construction Tuition (1), Marble Obelisk (x), Empty Hand Tower Block (2), Acoustics Lab Upgrade (4), Bureaucracy Headquarters (2), Cartouche Ceremonial Voting Booth (50), Obelisks of Marble Research (108) |
| 1 | Common | Yellow Alabaster | Marble Obelisk (x), Pilgrim Shrine Construction Tuition (1), Empty Hand Tower Block (2), Obelisks of Marble Research (54) |
| 1 | Very Common | Mud Granite | Beetle Statue (2), Pilgrim Shrine Construction Tuition (1), Empty Hand Tower Block (2), Marble Obelisk (x), Cartouche Voting Booth (50), Obelisks of Marble Research (28) |
| 2 | Common | White Travertine | Statue of Octet's Ghost (4), Marble Obelisk (x), Small House (15), Medium House (25), Banquet Table (8), Empty Hand Tower Block (2), Obelisks of Marble Research (14) |
| 2 | Common | Canary Granite | Small House (8), Marble Obelisk (x), Empty Hand Tower Block (2), Obelisks of Marble Research (7), Marble Mechanics Research (30) |
| 2 | Common | Night Granite | Tower of Night (4), Arena to Wepwawet (1), Empty Hand Tower Block (2), Marble Obelisk (x), Obelisks of Marble Research (3), Advanced Marble Mechanics Research (30), Conflict Shrine Construction Research (50) |
| 3 | Uncommon/Rare | Grey Star Marble | Marble Obelisk (x), Obelisks of Marble Research (1), Marble Mechanics Research (30) |
| 3 | Uncommon | Green Sun Marble | Advanced Marble Mechanics Research (30) |
| 3 | Uncommon | Rose Alabaster | |
| 3 | Uncommon | Cherry Travertine | |
| 4 | Uncommon | White Alabaster | |
| 4 | Very Rare | Jade | |
| 4 | Very Rare | Blue Pearl Marble | Medium House (28) |
| 4 | Rare | Hornet's Wing Granite | Medium House (12) |
| 4 | Rare | Serpentine Marble | |
| 5 | Rare | Island Blue Marble | Medium House (6) |
| 5 | Uncommon | Mountain Marble | Medium House (10), Sawmill (1) |
| 5 | Rare | Leopards Paw Marble | Acoustics Lab Upgrade (1), Crystal Acoustics Research (5) |
| 5 | Very Rare | Tiger's Eye Granite | Scholar's Gem Cutting Table (1) |
| 6 | Rare | Blood Granite | |
| 6 | Rare | Fire Rock | |
| 6 | Rare | Tangerine Marble |
(Very Common generally located in less than 30 slate, Common found in less than 50 slate, Uncommon found normally with less than 100 slate, Rare can sometimes take a lot but you can get lucky, Very Rare is eeeeeeeebil)
Start prospecting by visiting a School of Conflict and attuning yourself to the type of marble you want to find. You must pay 10 slate for tuition, and the attunement will last until noon (game time).
After attuning to a type of marble, you can detect deposits within a certain radius. This radius is different for each person, and changes once every day. You will be told your detection radius when you attend the class at the School of Conflict. Note that the radius is in feet, not coordinates; divide feet by 16 to find coordinates.
Prospect for marble by selecting the "Prospect for..." option from your Special menu. You need 5 slate to prospect, and 1-5 slate will break each time you do so. 1 slate will break if no marble is in range, 2 will break if there is a deposit in range, and 5 will break if you are standing right on a deposit. If there is more than one deposit in range, you will be told how many there are.
The higher the detection radius, the better. 130-150 is good for a common marble like Oyster Shell; higher numbers are better for rarer marbles. A low radius means that you need to make more tests (and spend more slate) to find a deposit. The radius appears to be fixed for any given game day, so if you get a small radius on a rare marble, just pay another 10 slate and attune to a common marble; or if you get a huge radius on a common marble, reattune to a rare marble.
Marble deposits are always located on coordinate boundaries--the point at which a single step north/south or east/west will move to a new coordinate. When trying to locate a deposit, prospect on coordinate boundaries.
When prospecting, you detect marble in a circular region centered on yourself. Notably, the north/south and east/west lines bisecting the circle extend for exactly one coordinate more than any other part of the region. What does this mean? It means that at the edge of a deposit (line where two slate breaks meet one slate breaks) there exists one and only one coordinate that is perpendicular to the edge line that is being examined which breaks at two slate. For example, if you find the north edge of a deposit and are tracing it (by examining every coordinate, or at intervals) east-west, then everything north of the line will be one slate breaks except for the center of it, which will be a two slate break one coordinate north of it. Either coordinate east and west of this deposit will be one slate breaks--if it's not, you're not at the top edge of a deposit.
Prospect on sand and turn your texture detail all the way down. Select the cartographer's camera. This should allow you to see the intersection between tiles when you zoom in. Remember that you only want to prospect on the intersections of gridlines--the corners between tiles.
Start by running around at random, looking for a deposit. I generally run a spiral search pattern: pick a spot and prospect. If I hit nothing, run 1-1.5 times my detection radius north, and try again. If I hit nothing, move east, then south and south again, then west, and so on. There is no need to prospect only on grid intersections while doing this search; the goal is simply to find the general area where a deposit is.
Once you hit a spot where two slate breaks, you need to pinpoint the deposit. From this point on, you should only prospect on grid intersections. It's useful to drop a marker (sand or tadpoles work well) on every point you prospect where you detect the deposit.
Pick a direction (north, south, east, or west), and trace a line to the exact point where two slate no longer breaks. Now switch directions 90 degrees and follow the edge. For example, if you were moving north, turn east or west and test for two slate breaks one coordinate to the north. You can "walk" along the edge this way.
Eventually, you will find a location which breaks at two slate, and has one coordinate breaks to either side of it. Turn and run down a straight line (north, south, east, or west) towards the center of the deposit. Use your detection radius to determine how far to run. If you have a radius of 170 feet, for example, the deposit will be 11 coordinates from the edge. Radius/16, round up = number of coordinates. {Oxi edit}
(Nephte:)
Instead of walking along the edge, I bisect the circle along north-south and east-west lines. Once I have detected a deposit, I determine the furthest point straight south that still gets two slate breaks. Then I do the same thing straight north. The deposit must be somewhere on the east-west line halfway between those points. I go to that line and find the furthest point straight west that still gets two slate breaks. That point will be exactly your detection radius (rounded up) away from the deposit. Go the right distance straight east to find it. The exact order of north, south, east and west is arbitrary, and I sometimes have to vary it if I find two deposits near each other.
Finding these furthest points can be done efficiently by walking more than one coordinate between attempts. It's best to always check in the midpoint of the range where you think it might be.
I've found this method more predictable than looking for the edge of the circle and following it. It usually takes me 10 to 16 tries to pinpoint a deposit after first detecting it, with a radius of about 200.
(Tamutnefret:)
I usually do the rough prospecting in a triangular grid over an area. Determine the detection radius R in coords, equal to feet/16 rounded up. E.g. 100' divided by 16 is 6.25, which rounds up to 7. Then work out a grid spacing in coords, I usually use 8R/5 rounded down. In this case it would be 8*7/5 = 11.2, rounded down to 11. I cover an area by running back and forth along parallel lines separated by the grid spacing (10 in the example), with the same spacing between prospecting attempts. Every second line is offset by half this distance (in the case of an odd spacing, it doesn't matter whether you round up or down).
* -> * -> * -> * -> * -> * -> * -> * -> * -> * * <- * <- * <- * <- * <- * <- * <- * <- * <- * -> * -> * -> * -> * -> * -> * -> * -> * -> * * <- * <- * <- * <- * <- * <- * <- * <- * <-This ensures that no deposits in the area are missed, while having almost the smallest possible number of prospecting attempts. It also makes it very easy to record where I have exhaustively searched. I usually try to do even the rough prospecting close to the coordinate boundaries.
Once I detect a nearby deposit, I find the edges of the detection circle along the line I am following by moving back along the line and repeatedly bisecting. This pins down one point on the circumference of the detection circle. The other edge along that line should be at most 2R coordinates away, is most likely to be 2R-2 coords, and should always be an even number. I usually start by going forward 2R-2 coordinates and working outward or inward from there.
If the second edge is 2R coordinates from the first, the center of the deposit should be on the line, midway between them. Otherwise, it is offset to one side or the other of the midpoint. I estimate how far, based on the length (L) of the line compared to the detection radius R: R = ceil(sqrt(offset^2 + (L/2)^2)).
If there is only one offset that satisfies this equation, then I just check the point 1 coord to the side. If I detect anything, then the center should be on that side of the line, 'offset' distance from the midpoint. Otherwise it should be on the other side of the line. Either way, I've almost certainly found the center. E.g. if the length L was 10 with the above R=7, then the only possible offset is 5.
If there are multiple offsets that satify the equation, then I look sideways from that point for the edge of the circle. E.g. if R=7 and L=10, then the offset can be 1,2, or 3 coords to either side and hence the edge of the circle in that direction will be 0-6 coords 'left'. Once I find that edge, then I can deduce that the offset is 3 coords 'right' of that point.
The above gets more complicated with multiple deposits, but not much more so in the case of only 2 or 3 deposits. Instead of looking for 1-slate/2-slate breaks, I look for boundaries of different numbers of deposits. Start at one end of the detection line, and once I've pinned down one I eliminate it from future detections since I know exactly how far I can detect it.
Once I have computed where the deposit itself should be, it always pays to check at that location. It is always possible to make mistakes, or to have overlapping deposits that just happened to not overlap at any of my prospecting points. An initial detection line that is longer than 2R, or where the length is an odd number, is an almost certain sign of overlapping deposits even if none of the prospecting points landed in the overlap. In such cases the detection line should be covered more thoroughly to pin down the location of the overlap, as well as a few points to each side of the line.
(DarthBobo:)
I have a java app that allows me to visualize marble dowse results. My most recent dowse turned out to NOT correspond exactly to the knobs on the detection circle. It was 1 coordinate west. I was able to dowse north, west, and east knobs.
A stone quarry is worked by pulling in one of four directions. Directions are made of a combination of a compass direction and a relative direction; for example, "north-up", "west-left", or "south-right". To lift a block of stone, four people must each pull in one of the four directions. Each successful pull by four people raises the block one level. If one person pulls twice, or two people pull in the same direction, the block slips down one level. The block may be removed once it has been raises seven levels.
The order of the pull options is different for each person. For example, while one person might see "north-up, south-down, south-right, west-left", another might see "south-right, south-down, west-left, north-up". This makes coordination between quarriers more difficult.
Pulling on a quarry is on an endurance timer.
The number of people required to work a quarry may be reduced using the Marble Mechanics and Advanced Marble Mechanics skills. Marble Mechanics allows a single puller to be replaced with a winch at the cost of one single-output gearbox. Advanced Marble Mechanics allows a second puller to be replaced at the cost of one double-output gearbox. Gearboxes installed in a quarry may be removed again; often it is possible to build a single gearbox which may be used in several quarries.
A quarry will eventually collapse after about 20-30 blocks of stone have been removed. There is no way to repair a collapsed quarry; it can only be salvaged. New quarries may not be built on the location of a collapsed quarry. (Prospecting will still indicate a deposit on the site of the old quarry, however; it is a good idea to mark the site of a collapsed, salvaged quarry in some fashion.)
For example, if Alice, Bob, Charlie, and Dave are pulling in that order, and the pull options are north-left, east-right, east-up, and south-down, each person should pull as follows:
Using this method with experienced people and no distractions, the limiting factor on quarrying marble is usually the endurance timer, even when using very potent endurance food.
For example: Alice, Bob, Charlie, and Dave are quarrying. Dave is the foreman, and Alice, Bob, and Charlie are quarriers one through three. Dave checks his quarry menu and sees the following options: north-left, east-right, east-up, south-down; he says "nl er eu".
This approach is generally slower than uncalled quarrying, but produces fewer errors for some people.