Bes Presents: How to Find a Quarry
Quarry Overview
Quarries are buildings used to obtain marble, and require four people to work. The average yield appears to be about 20 marble before the quarry collapses, and a new source must be found. To search for quarries, you need:
- Perception of 1 or higher. Higher perception allows you to search for more types of marble.
- Rocks of the Ages skill. Learned at a School of Conflict for 10 slate (must meet requirement #1).
- Slate, and lots of it. The skill is only 10 slate to learn, but you will use up a lot more than that while searching for a quarry.
- A partner, who also fulfills the two requirements above.
You can use food to up your perception, but your perception level is checked every time you prospect for marble. So if you use perception food to get the skill, and then it runs out, you won't be able to prospect anymore until you eat more food, or get your perception up by other means. Getting to Gastronomy 7 will give you 1 permanent perception. You can only be trained to find one type of marble at a time. Learning to search for a new type of marble will overwrite the previous marble type.
Changes from Tale 1
- You now need two people to prospect.
- The radius is no longer given when you learn the skill, but is based on the locations of the partners prospecting.
- (The maximum radius is 30 coordinates - MarvL).
- You no longer get a message saying you sense <x> quarries. Now, you either sense one or more, or you sense zero. This obviously makes it more difficult to track down a quarry when others are nearby.
- When you prospect exactly on the quarry spot, you no longer get a special message saying so, and only 2 slate breaks instead of 5.
- In Tale 1, you would lose the skill at noon, Egypt time. This no longer is the case.
- Quarries don't have the same build cost as Tale 1.
- Ability to attune yourself to a certain marble is based on Perception, not Tug level.
- Actually working the quarry has not changed from Tale 1.
Finding a Quarry
The following is only a rough theory, but works well enough to allow you to find a quarry. Refining this theory will most likely decrease the amount of time and slate needed to find a quarry, on average. To prospect, click "Self->Special->Prospect for <marble>." You will get one of three results:
- The bundle remains intact: This means your prospecting partner is too far away. You lose 0 slate.
- 1 slate breaks: This means your partner is within range, but you don't sense any marble. You lose 1 slate.
- 2 slate breaks: This means your partner is within range, and you're sensing a quarry spot nearby. You lose 2 slate.
Unfortunately, there's more to it than that. You must build a quarry right on top of the quarry spot, or you'll hit dirt instead. Even worse, how far away you can sense marble depends on the distance between you and your prospecting partner. When you click to prospect (assuming you have a partner within "range," which seems to be at least half a horizon), you'll get a two-break if there's marble within the coordinates (<your-x-coordinate> +/- <x-distance>, <your-y-coordinate> +/- <y-distance>), otherwise, you'll get a 1-break. Both the x-distance and y-distance depend on the distance between you and your partner. How, exactly, we're not 100% sure on. We've gotten conflicting results, but this is most likely because we're picking up signs of another quarry in the area.
Note that this means just because partner 1 is detecting marble from spot 1 (where he is standing), does not mean that the other partner 2 will from spot 2 (where he is standing). We've been unable to prove/disprove this formula yet, because when there are multiple quarries in one area, you might pick up signs from a second quarry, when you think you're homing in on just one. So, don't try to use this quarry as a hard-set rule; instead, the following method can be used:
- Keep a moderate distance between you and your partner, traveling and prospecting until one of you picks up a 2-break. We'll refer to the partner who got the 2-break as Partner 1. The other is Partner 2.
- Align yourselves so that Partner 2 is directly north/south of the other (check that Partner 1 still gets a 2-break here, if not, try moving Partner 2 farther away).
- If both partners get a 2-break, move one partner closer a few coords. Repeat until 1 partner gets a 2-break, and the other gets a 1-break.
- Move both partners an equal distance either north, or south. Move them towards the partner who is getting the two-break. Repeat until both get a 2-break.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you reach a point where if one partner moves only one coordinate farther away, he gets a 1-break, while the stationary partner still gets a 2-break. Move back one coordinate so you both get 2-breaks.
- Move partners closer together by an equal amount of coordinates (ie, both move 2 coords closer, or both move 5 coords closer). Make small adjustments (move one partner or the other back a little bit) until both are picking up 2-breaks again.
- Repeat step 6 until you can't get any closer... hopefully, you're within 1-5 coordinate of each other. Move both partners the center of the distance between you. This should be the y-coordinate your quarry is on.
- Move one partner a good amount (around 5-10, or more if necessary) to the west of the other partner, who remains stationary. Have both prospect. If both partners get 1-breaks, move to the other side of the stationary partner. If one partner gets a 2-break and the other does not, move the partner getting a 1-break to the other side of the 2-break partner, until both are getting two breaks. Once both partners are getting 2-breaks, use the method outlines in steps 3-6, except instead of moving north/south, you'll be moving east/west.
- Eventually, you should get to a point where both partners can stand very close to the exact same spot (within 1/6th of a coord... trying to get it to exactly the same spot doesn't always work) and still get 2-breaks. Now, you've found your spot! Build a quarry, and call the workers!
A quarry costs:
- 25 slate
- 15 rope
- 2 pulleys
- 100 bricks