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Thread: Copper Production Bottleneck

  1. #1
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    Copper Production Bottleneck

    As I have advanced in the game I found it difficult to keep up with bronze sword production to supply the adventures I want/need to do. The bottleneck has been copper production. With only 6 copper mines available there is only so much copper you can create in a given time. Fortunately rebuilding a copper mine is very quick, only 5 minutes for a geo find the resource, 3 minutes to build a mine and 2.5 minutes to upgrade to level 2.

    Now, I could just upgrade my copper mines higher and extract the copper faster and rebuild mines more frequently. However, the tool cost of upgrading mines makes for diminishing returns with this strategy. I have upgraded a geologist to get 15% more copper in my deposits for 827 copper ore per mine. I have also upgraded him so that 40% of my mines can be mined faster, 1.5 minutes compared to 3 minutes. (This helps a lot!). I have run some numbers on this to quantify the dimensioning returns of upgrading copper mines. This chart shows the theoretical production values of running all 6 deposits at each level.

    Level 1 mines yields 1800 copper in 12 hours
    Level 2 mines nets 1582 copper over level 1 in 12 hours
    Level 3 mines net s 494 copper over level 2 in 12 hours
    Level 4 mines nets -2553 copper over level 3 mines in 12 hours
    Level 5 mines net -9083 copper over level 4 mines in 12 hours
    *assumes no travel time for production and no time between mine collapse and rebuild.

    Upgrading mines to level 4 or 5 actually costs you copper in the long run. The benefit of upgrading to level 3 is negligible when you consider that you will need the same amount of coal as copper to create the bronze needed for tool production. You would need 5.5 coking plants to supply the need coal for level 3 mines vs level 2 mines.

    There are 3 things I conclude from this. You should only upgrade copper mines to level 2 and purchase any additional copper you need on the TO. There are other resources that have less impact on production that have similar or higher value in the TO. Second, I think the game developers should add a few more copper deposits on the map. Considering that endless copper mines help solve this bottleneck problem, I don't think this will happen. Finally, I need to reexamine my overall weapon production strategy.

  2. #2
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    fast mines, lvl 4, badges= tons of copper

  3. #3
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    I am skeptical of your strategy. Assume you get 4 out of your 10 mines at 1.5 minutes. You apply a badge to the those 4 mines and triple your output and they empty in less than 6 hours and you get 9924 copper. You have spent 2000 on tools for these mines. 1 copper ore = 1 tool so you net 7924 copper total. You have also spent 2000 Coal to build the tools you need and 1200 HWP, 1200 marble, and 200 gold ore to build the badges. Being pretty conservative you could get about 1750 copper for the coal, 2500 copper for the HWP, 5000 copper for the marble and 4000 copper for the gold ore, or 13250 copper total. I think buffing with baskets would work well, the value of the resources used to create them are lower, but not at level 4.

    What do you do with your 60% of the mines that don't mine fast? Given a very high average travel time of 20 seconds it will take just under 12 hours for them to deplete at level 4. Do you apply 2 badges to them? How frequently can you do this, two, three times a day? Where are you getting all the gold ore from? I don't get gold ore deposits frequently enough that I could replenish my mines and produce that much ore for buffs.

  4. #4
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    it takes a trained geo a little over 2min to find them queue up a mine and tear it down and send out again 6 fast mines BAM

  5. #5
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    Quote Originally Posted by SamGam74 View Post
    What do you do with your 60% of the mines that don't mine fast? Given a very high average travel time of 20 seconds it will take just under 12 hours for them to deplete at level 4. Do you apply 2 badges to them? How frequently can you do this, two, three times a day? Where are you getting all the gold ore from? I don't get gold ore deposits frequently enough that I could replenish my mines and produce that much ore for buffs.
    You tear them down before they're built (while still in construction queue) and send your geologist out again.

    Then you save your gems (100 gems / week login bonus and 100 gems / week for star coins) for 100 weeks and buy an endless copper mine.

  6. #6
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    3k tools for 6 fast mines to lvl 4 and badges 2x a day will get you the needed copper. if you keep smelters/tool makers irma'd 1 copper=2bars 2 bars=4tools/4swords

  7. #7
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    That makes sense about getting all fast mines, hadn't thought of that. I still don't think the badges are the best strategy for buffing, in particular my point about the producing the amount of gold ore needed for them and the amount of copper you could get on the TO for the resources used to build the badges. How often do you rebuild your copper mines? One build a day is 300 gold ore.

  8. #8
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    The way I play, I can't keep smelters and toolmakers buffed all day.

  9. #9
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    just buff with badges that will fix ur copper drought

  10. #10
    Retired Community Leader RomanGodCamper's Avatar
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    3 Fast Endless Copper Mines can support 12 Copper Smelters which can support either 12 Bronze Weaponsmiths/OR 12 toolmakers.

    Badge Buff those Bad boys and you get tons of Copper Ore.

    I replace 6 Copper mines twice a day.

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