Couple people might have noticed me complaining about my difficulties with
minecrafting recently. I reinced about a year ago now i guess, and prior
to my new build, Minecrafting was extremely reliable.

By that I mean i'd have to reinforce the mines 3 times usually, maximum 4
and i would always reach true bottom (breach+3-4).

Now it's much less dependable.. I can, on occasion reach true bottom but i
seem to have to use the maximum number of supports (5) and only reach true
bottom on my last dig before instability. Missing a couple extra digs
wouldn't be an issue except this usually means I can't reach the 1xboot
special area.

Which is frustrating.

The main differences between my race stats are -27 str and +7 wis on the
base stats. I also lucked a skill book boost of 9 points to minecrafting
in my previous reinc.. these are the only changes i can see..
I've bumped up my strength 15pts at the cost of Dex (minecrafting
affected by wis/str) and have seen no change.

I'm also using Focus prior to the initial minecrafting dig in the hopes of
it boosting the effectiveness.. but I have my doubts.

I'm also playing around with the theory that supportings with better
quality woods might increase the effectiveness of supports...

anyway.

I'd appreciate help from any players with a formula to successful
minecrafting.. I spent a LOT of time minecrafting in my last character
build and used it as a motivating force to get me to lvl 95. Would really
like to get it back to working order..As far as i know, Str and Wis should
be the only things to affect the skill use..

thx for the help players.

Frustration is caused by mistaken assumptions..

After chatting with Moor and confirming something i'd heard..
Minecrafting isn't a stand alone skill. It references other skills..

I tried boosting my Carpentry to 90, and now i can reinforce up to 7
times in one mine. This was a single test and I still wasn't able to
reach true bottom with that mine but it gives me options to try.

I'll try boosting Carpentry to max AND mining to same.. assuming that
if it references one relevant skill.. it probably references others.

I'll also try experimenting with better woods for initial supporting as
they seem to be the strongest...

I know i'm talking to myself

Bumping mining to 100 seemed to have no effect on Minecrafting.

Carpentry has been raised to 95 and # of supports seems to depend on the
mine? I'm still not 100% sure it affects the ability to support in
minecrafting but i SEEM to be able to support more...

however, the final supports..5,6,7 do very little. Usually 1 extra dig

Test today was with ebony. Mine needed supporting at 25 digs. Initial
2 supports had excellent results and allowed for 9 additional
digs(combined) . The 3rd support dropped significantly to 2 extra digs
and 4,5,6 yielded 1 only. Managed to get 1 space past breach before mine
collapse.

discouraging.

Interesting...

Tried mining after taking a body. Had an unfortunate encounter with a
box trap... but this meant i got to try minecrafting with half Str and
Wis stats.

49 str, 68 wis.

which seemed to have little to no impact on both mines. I also tried
varying the level at which i supported the mine. 2nd mine was supported
at 1,10,20,30,40

1st mine initial collapse at 27.
reinforced 4x with birch, oak, oak, oak.
reinforces were Greatly, excellent, greatly, greatly
3 digs from 1st, 8 digs from 2+3, 2digs on 4

Reached true bottom without maxing digs! like the old days!

2nd mine initial collapse at 27
reinforced 5x with oak
reinforces were excellent,excellent,excellent,slightly,slightly
8 digs from 1+2, 3 digs from 3, 2 digs from 4, 1 dig from 1
dug one final time on collapsing supports and reached true bottom.

So. Str and Wis seem to have little impact.. at least at the levels i
have them. Wood quality seems to have little impact unless i'm missing
something. Location support might play a part but.. i also suspect
quality of support comes down to luck.