Water Mine

Water Mine
(Building)
Location
	Outside
Requirements
	Water Mining ;
Cost to Build
Iron Large Gear	1
Copper Straps	4
Glass Pipes	24
Pulleys	12

A Water Mine is a large contraption (previously corkscrew-shaped, now a series of buckets on a belt) designed to siphon Gems and Cuttable Gems from the water. Made primarily of glass, it is built near water and is wound by hand.

Sources

This building becomes available after you have learned the Water Mining tech.

Add a basket for automatic gem collection - requires lapidary

Cost

Built Outside, by water.

With Lapidary you can add a Papyrus Basket to catch the gems as they appear. The basket will decay and need to be replaced.

Details

Placement

A Water Mine can still be built if it is too close to an existing Water Mine, but only the one most recently wound will produce gems. Listening to the pipe of the nonfunctional one returns the message "Aside from the unwinding of the spring in the collar, you hear nothing." If there is a mine within interference range you'll get a warning when trying to build. It is suggested that mines should normally be placed no closer than about 21 coordinates.

Beware! This building doesn't have a build window, it will be built as soon as you click water mine, unless another water mine is in interference range.

Running a Water Mine

Once a Water Mine is started, it will run on its own for 2 teppy-hours. During the first 5 teppy-minutes, no gems will be produced, but afterwards, it may randomly dispense gems extracted from the sediment. These appear in the hopper to be picked up. The appearance of a gem is signaled by a loud "gurgling" or "bubbling" sound effect heard by those within 64 coordinates (which is the same as the visual range. i.e. if you can see it, you can hear it). A gem will only stay in the hopper for 1 teppy-minute, after which it disappears.

The type of gem dispensed by a Water Mine is random. Usually it is one of the types of cuttable gems, but ordinary gems can also appear. These can be of any size, just like those produced by regular mines. (Yes, this CAN include Huge, but it's not at all common.)

If you have not gotten any gems after 30 minutes things you can try are:

Be sure you have building sounds turned on by clicking on yourself-Options-Audio. Max it if you have any doubts. (Check your computer sound too to be sure it is on.)
Change the pitch of it. Some pitches give little results. Individual mines vary, try it for a couple hours (well at least half an hour) and if you don't like what you're getting, change it.
Be sure there are no other mines running within 21 coordinates. (Listen to the pipe.)

Pitch Angle

Not much has been recorded here about Pitch Angle and how it affects gem acquisition. Ancestral lore states that the optimum pitch angle is different for each Water Mine, and each must be individually calibrated through trial and error.

Pitch may affect what types of gems a water mine gives you.
If you aren't getting anything out of the mine after 30 minutes, try changing the pitch.

A good starting pitch is 20. Pitches of 20 +/- 1 generally give 3 to 5 gems per hour across the board. If you're getting 2 to 3 per hour, try increasing or decreasing the pitch by 1 and seeing if it increases or decreases the yield per hour.

Another common pitch is 13, so if pitches from 19 to 21 are not working, try 13.

There are some theories that a watermine has 2 good pitches that change throughout a game day. So one good pitch might be 21, but then when it doesn't produce good yields, it can be switched to its other good pitch, which might be 13.

Watermine Output Tracking Template

**Watermine Output Test**
Pitch	Min Before First Gem	Cuttable Amethyst	Cuttable Citrine	Cuttable Garnet	Cuttable Jade	Cuttable Lapis	Cuttable Sunstone	Cuttable Turquoise	Quartz	Ruby	Topaz	Emerald	Sapphire	Diamond	Opal
0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0

Byproducts

Depending on your Arthropodology skill level, collecting Gems and Cuttable Gems from a Water Mine can produce Oyster Mites, Glass Worms, Footworms, Bloodworms, Nippleworms, Bristleworms, and Needleworms.