Tortanick's version of quarry prospecting
Note: when I give specific instructions for either partner, interpret that as where he stands, who clicks the prospect button is irrelevent.
Terminology
Forwards: towards your partner
Backwards: away from your partner
Sideways: parallel to your partner
One-Break: A single piece of slate broke
Two-Break: Two pieces of slate broke
Stair search: when you are quite far apart the marble is likely to be to your side, the stair search is when you search sideways and forwards to the marble at the same time. first appearance Stage three
compass search: this is used when you know that one of the partners is near the marble. The other prospector searches all round him. First appearance Stage four.
The area prospected
The shape of the area prospected is the smallest circle that contains both avatars:
Stage one
In the first step your aim is to find any marble at all, have one avatar stand (31,31) away from the other avatar, when you prospect if a single slate breaks both avatars move either (31,0) or (0,31)
Stage two
Lets assume that the two avatars moved east every time they got a one-break; when you get a two break the eastern avatar moves west until the two avatars are (31,0) apart. They search there and then move 5 coordinates east until they get a two break, when you do advance to stage three.
Note that the green area is not scanned during stage two, if you go through 35 coordinates and do not manage to break two slate you should search here, to scan this area simply stand at the positions one & two and then three and four
Stage three
preparations
In the beginning of stage 3 one avatar moves closer to his partner, 5 coordinates at a time, every time he moves he prospects; if he breaks two slate he runs another 5 coordinates closer, if he breaks a single slate he runs backwards until he breaks two slate again. What's happening is something like this:
climbing the stair
When the first prospector is standing as close as he can while getting a two-break his partner moves one coordinate closer, if you get a two-break go to stage four because of reason 1. In the more likely occurrence of a one-break both partners drop a tadpole to mark there location then move 1 coordinate to their side. By moving to the side you are doing this:
remember that one prospector has moved one coordinate closer to his partner than the tadpoles he dropped If you move sideways and get a one-break try the other side of the tadpoles, if nether side gives a two break try 2 coordinates away from the tadpoles, then 3, although at this point you can assume its going to be one-breaks.
If both sides of the tadpoles came up with nothing stand on the tadpoles then move to stage four because of reason two
In the more likely event of getting a two-break move one avatar closer 1 coordinate then move further to the side of the tadpoles until you get a two break.
this is the stair method, you will expect to move like this. Note that each arrow pointing down is one coordinate and each arrow pointing across is as far as it takes.
Follow the stairs while the partners get closer, eventually:
A) the avatars are really close, about 3 coordinates apart. In this case go to stage six
B) moving the avatar closer will prevent you from getting a two-break even after moving sideways: When this happens move back to the last place you got a two-break and try again with the other avatar. for this reason. you are probably better off dropping a tadpole at all the two-breaks.
If you get a two break continue following the stairs only this time move the other avartar until you either cannot go any closer or you are very close. If you are very close (3 coordinates) move to stage six, if you're not close enough: go to stage four because of reason two.
stage four
There are two reasons you may have entered stage four:Reason one is that you've ended up with marble very close to one of the two prospectors and you know who it is. Reason two is the same but you don't know who it is.
If you are here because of reason one
one of the prospectors (prospector A) moved forward and got a one-break, but after he moved backwards his partner moved forward and got a two-break. The marble is near prospector A.prospector B should scan to the north, south, east and west of Prospector A at 5 coordinates apart, when you get a two-break prospector B drops a tadpole moves two coordinates closer and prospects.
- If its a two-break go to stage six
- If its a one-break go to stage five
If you got here because of reason two
This is exactly the same as above the only difference is that if Prospector B finds only one-breaks in all four directions around Prospector A he returns two where he was at the end of stage three and prospector A scans round him. Because you have probably dropped quite a few tadpoles you may want to drop a piece of grass or a bucket of sand before prospector B runs down to prospector A.
Stage five
Stage five is an easy stage, you star within 5 cords of each other, in this stage simply use the stair movement of stage three to get within three coordinates of each other. If you need to refresh your memory on the stair method just look at stage three.
stage six
In this stage you start just 3 coordinates apart. Prospector A, the guy with the quarry kit, stands in the central coordinate while prospector B looks around him 1 Coordinate away.
- if only one place gives a two-break move prospector A there, then try again.
- if two places give a two break (this may not be possible) then prospector A should move between them, I've marked this on the diagram, if the two green "B"s give a two-break and the purple "B"s give a one-break prospector one stands on the "X" then retry
- If three places give a two-break prospector A moves away from the one-break, then you retry
- I kept gettin this, it made me move away from the one-break then back again. I just skipped to stage seven and got 4 breaks on that. -Zatarg
- if all four places give a two-break go to stage seven.
- If you only get one-breaks then move prospector A so he is standing one coordinate away from one of the two prospector's positions at the beginning of this stage, one of the two positions will give you a two-break in at least one spot.
Stage seven
Stage seven is a repeat of stage six, the only difference is that you use a smaller area, about half a coordinate. You're finally done when you can prospect all round your partner at a distance of half the size of a one wood bonfire.