Friday, November 24, 2006

My "Twist" on Mining

Hello soc! It's me again, here to share some thoughts on the optimum way to mine. While this may be more into Beni's territory, I felt the urge to put forth my 2 pecs of research and experience in an effort to start an enjoyable and educational debate. And on that note...

I do my best thinking in the shower, and that's where I was when the idea of better mining strategy came to me. I very quickly washed up, dried off, thanked Acro for showering with me, and went to the drawing board to write up some general details. Here's what I am putting together.

First, the standard way of mining is to try a spot out, and if it fails, march 100 meters in some cardinal direction -- N, S, E or W -- and try again. This practice creates a grid of sites that are examined with very little overlap. With the range of basic mining equipment stertching out to just over 50 meters, this seems to work out effectively -- but it neglects a key area of potential goods -- and globals!

Now, using the basic assumption of a 50 meter detection radius for mining (to keep the math easy), the 100 meter grid method does cover the north-south and east-west axes very well. However, as the pics below suggest, there is a grey area in the middle that get neglected! Now, some of that space is accounted for when using the actual detection radius of 55 meters or so, but to cover the full grid space, the detection radius would need to be 70.7 meters! And using the grid method with a 71 meter range would create a lot of overlap -- wasteful overlap at that!

Please pardon all the upcoming math -- I do statistics, optimization and research in the boring real world -- and try to appreciate (or dispute) the results. To check out the most area with the least overlap and no neglected spots, the grid method is not the most efficient, and could end up costing extra probes/bombs when mapping out a grid. So, unless you are like Beni and made of PEDs, a little extra efficiency might help. This would be accomplished through a triangular grid system, with some awkward numbers used to determine starting points, how many meters should be marked off, and so forth. In a world of perfect mapping, it would look kind of like the following:
Now, the more precision measurements will be displayed using an assumption of a 50 meter detection range -- with a final conversion equation to allow real ranges to be plugged in and used for real virtual world situations. The key to this is provided courtesy of Pythagoreas -- one of many fine European folks -- who did a lot of geometry, created a bunch of theorems, and founded the classes that I took at University. But in short, the sum of his work created the basic triangular formation below, and established the necessary stuff to figure out the distances given our 50 meter radius assumption (let's see a snablesnot do that!). The result should be the distance required that one has to go N or S, and the distance E or W, to create the perfect (or optimal) grid.


This is a fun, if tricky bit of math and geometry. My next blog this weekend with reveal the wonderful answer, and how it can be applied to the virtual universe. If anyone has any comments, complaints or criticisms, please let me know. And if you can't find me, I'll be back in the shower...and has anyone seen Acro?

Curly "Twist" Bender

4 comments:

Teshik said...

Good work Twist
I think this will help alot

Quitin Psycho Sirius said...

I really like your contributions here Twist, including the kick-ass not-afraid-to-die remarks about Arco;)
As you all should know I never mine so I know jack shit about these matters, but still I feel the urge to have my say(it's a compulsive thing, really).
In principal overlap might be wastefull, but who is to say that the bombed area is empty at the second attempt?(now I'm clearly showing how little I know of the mining mechanics;) The small extra cost which this tactic of 100% coverage bombing might bring along shouldn't scare you off at all, this is an experiment whose answer is vital to the beloved world we know as EU! So go ahead and calculate the distances one has to walk in order to produce this mining pattern, I have all faith in your ability to solve such an equation. (I'm going to check once you post, so better not make a mistake :) lol
Well take care of each other this week, I can't play because I was abducted by airplane to do some work for my relentless superiors:)))

United Talents 4ever!!!
Quentin

Vince VinzZ Zyon said...

This is very useful. And let's say I love a way to optimize mining. But I hate overlaps, even if they are minimal. If a bomb cost 1 ped, then calculate the percentual surface that overlaps, and that is the wasted amount of ped.
As Psycho says: "who is to say that the bombed area is empty at the second attempt?". Rebombing never works (on a no-claim), even not for another player. Beni and I have tested it, I dropped a probe and if I didnt find anything he didnt find anything too. Only if I had a claim it was possible for him to find something else. I guess when an area is probed/bombed and there is nothing to claim then thee area is blackmarked, and stays that way for a certain time.

Vince VinzZ Zyon said...

And please let Acro out of this :) The poor little girl is almost raped by the American people ;)