We need spark to make fuel for spark? O.o

What? What?

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well, you can get spark from peat and raw coal (Im sure you know that) - apparently they want people to play away with that first and make slower steps towards more efficient fueling

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@boundmore I think I do not really understand what are you saying :sweat_smile: What is “more efficient fueling”, hard coal? How much spark 50 compact soft provide? Because 9000 is pretty strong number. For now all i can see is tons of grind :expressionless:

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But hasn’t the whole coal fuel argument been the fact that it hasn’t been a very efficient fuel even when compacted when you take into consideration just how long it takes to get enough to be able to compact. You can spend hours and hours mining for it, then wait ages for it to compact only for it to be gone in the blink of an eye. It does seem pretty strange that you now need even more fuel to make the fuel more efficient … doesn’t seem very eco friendly

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Well, for now compact soil is almost 50-60% of my spark income. Easy to find, fast to acquire.

Soft coal now is pure waste of time and tools.

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And let’s not forget that we need 1000 power too.

Don’t let the spark cost scare you. Soft coal is still a really efficient fuel form that is abundantly found. You still, after paying a 9000 spark production cost, will yield a 42% increase in spark over 360 regular, uncompacted pieces of coal.

10 spark/soft coal * 360 soft coal = 36000 spark
50 compact soft coal * 1200 spark/compact piece = 60000 spark minus 9000 to produce = 51000 spark

Prior to the update I was finding about 2000 pieces of coal per hour. A good mix, sometimes 50/50 of soft to medium (with some hard coal in there). Let’s just say it was all soft coal.

That’s 2000 pieces / 360 = 7.69 mass crafts * 51000 spark = 392307 spark. To get that mining peat you’d need: 1307 compact peat. That’s 9415 peat gathered or about 74 minutes of non-stop peat gathering at one smart stack per 7 minutes.

Seems like coal is still a better fuel source to me. Because in that time I can mine those pieces I’m also getting rocks, ores, gems, fossils, titanium, gold, silver, etc. not to mention those numbers are based upon you only finding soft coal. Prior to this update I was average over 75k income/hour mining. Even if coal prices get cut in half, the doubled output doesn’t change that income level.

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Thanks for the numbers. Now i can mine in piece)

I meant compact coal as more efficient. So with compacting coal costing spark and power you are forced to use peat and raw coal longer now I guess before eventually making the step to compacting. And compacting is more efficient.
And with the drops of up to 6 for soft coal and hard coal dropping up to 3 it becomes easier to get coal than ever before.

@BrianPWilson gave you the numbers there.

Good post with tons of useful information. For those interested it’s only a 15% loss for soft during a mass craft. That drops to 6% with Medium and 1.85ish % for Hard. The better the fuel, the better the efficiency. I too was quite unhappy about the 15% loss per soft mass craft, but it could be worse. 15% to a hard coal mass craft would be a royal kick in the ■■■■■. It sucks, but this is balance I suppose.

I really don’t see coal prices dropping that low. People are still going to need it in bulk, and even though the drops went up slightly, so did the amount of it we will need. If anything, the price for Compact is going to go up. I think it’s safe to say your profits will remain the same at the very least.

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I must be doing something seriously wrong because in the 6 months I have been playing Boundless I’ve never been able to find anywhere near 2000 pieces of coal an hour and I might as well be looking for hens teeth when looking for gems.
I really do need some help with this if everyone else is able to find that much coal and all the other stuff you mentioned in just one hour. Any advice would be appreciated.

Go to caves in mountains on moon planets, like where Jeff’s hub leads to on Septerfon

I mine exclusively on Vulpto. Max Luck, Max Power, Max +2 attributes, Lvl 7 Agility and Dexterity, Level 4 Gem Hammer mastery, Light Source 3, Inventory 4, Jump 1 and 2, air height 1, Item Durability V.

I mine in the caves between 0-60 high. I have my mountain ranges I go to, but I only mine seams. No bulk mining. I use iron grapples to navigate to tighter spaces above the lava and always carry stone/soils to make bridges fast. I use a single sapphire hammer and a basic shovel. I almost never have to dig out gravel or sand.

People can vouch for my speed :slight_smile:

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I have the same max luck, power, durability, grapple …I’ll have to have a look at the other skills and perhaps rearrange a few as agility might be a bit lower … I’ve tried all different levels on pretty much most of the planets … even spent 6-7 hours on Andooweem and found 60 diamonds but went through 3 gem hammers so that was a waste of time, I think I just about filled one smart stack with coal which is still less than half of 2000 in over 6 times the amount of time.

I’m pretty sure Andooweem has weaker drops. The diamonds were nice, but pre-update Vulpto gave 1 hard, 2 medium and 3 soft per drop with max luck. I feel like I tried Andooweem and it wasn’t nearly as good. Also, the seams are better on more difficult planets. Less movement :slight_smile:

I’ll give vulpto another go when I get the chance :slightly_smiling_face:

yes, its like Septerfon or Epsilo - its a second tier world only a bit above home worlds;