Mining is a high-risk, high-reward activity that encourages player v player competition to obtain the rarest ores. To begin mining an Ore node, it must first be prospected, until a vein is discovered.
On click of an inactive rock, a prospecting process begins for the player. This process will loop from MIN_TIME to MAX_TIME (based on Pickaxe used and the type of rock), until either a vein is discovered, or the game notifies the player that the prospecting has failed and to retry. Most of the time, this prospecting process returns a result after a time period close to MIN_TIME, however, on occasion, the player will get lost and will take close to the MAX_TIME before getting a conclusive result - cancel prospecting early to avoid getting stuck.
Once a vein is discovered, the rock begins to glow. Based on another random roll (independent of miner's skills or equipment), the rock will have X ores in the vein that can be extracted before it gets fully tapped out. While in this state, any player can extract ores, regardless of whether they contributed to prospecting or not. Every game tick during active extraction, the likelihood of extracting an ore varies based on the player's mining level and the pickaxe used, with the player that discovered the vein gaining a 2x multiplier on their chance to extract.
While mining any ore, you will sometimes will discover a Ruby or other Gems.
Various types of mining rocks can be found around the Cambria game world, grouped around natural ore veins. Each type of mining rock produces a specific ore type and respawns at a consistent interval.
Mining rocks can only be prospected and extracted by a tool that is either of the corresponding quality, or one tier below. For example, to mine Coal, you would need either a Steel or Iron Pickaxe.
Rocks can only be prospected and mined if you meet the skill level requirement to mine it. This requirement changes based on the tier of resource.
Mining
The time it takes to prospect or fail can be described as:
Where F(x) is a exponential distribution
The chances of hitting a vein varies based on mining level, with higher leveled miners hitting veins more often. Prospecting can be canceled at any time; the likelihood of hitting a vein with each prospecting attempt is independent of previous attempts. Multiple players can prospect the same rock at the same time, with independent calculations and random rolls.