Mining warnings

Main / Game mechanics / Mining warnings

Main article: Mining

Under some circumstances a warning message will appear in the event window while mining or tunnelling to inform the player that they are either unable to continue on the current tile or that continuing may cause unusual effects.

Informational messages

These messages do not prevent mining but inform the player of the result of their actions should mining continue. These may be intentional or otherwise.

The cave walls sound hollow. 

This appears when mining into another shaft and the height difference is not dangerous.

Preventative messages

Mining will be no longer possible when receiving one of the following messages:

Side shaft

You hear crumbling on the other side of the wall and the floor starts to crack. The shaft would be too steep and unstable.

This message appears when undermining previous tile mined above, as in a steep upwards dropshaft would be created. There is no fix for this, though mining another wall, and changing tunnel direction, may work. Going from the other side down should work.

A <item name> on the surface disturbs your operation.

This message appears when an item like a felled tree, an altar, a forge, large chest or other item is on the surface over or near the tile where you are attempting to mine or tunnel. Move the item to proceed.

A surface highway interferes with your tunneling operation.

This message appears when tunneling would break through a highway on the surface.

The current tile needs a flat border level with the bottom of the adjacent cave entrance.

This message appears when you need to surface mine the bottom slope of the adjacent tile to match the slope of the mine entrance, only when creating a multi-tile entrance.

The current tile needs to face the same direction as the adjacent cave entrance.

Adjacent entrance tiles must all face the same direction.

Lowering the floor further with such a high ceiling would make the cavern unstable.

This message appears when the ceiling is too high above the floor.

The cave walls echo strangely. There must be an open tunnel diagonal from the wall you are mining, and you would need to approach it from a different direction.

This message appears when the tile being mined shares a single corner with an existing tunnel. To continue, adjacent tiles must be mined out before mining can continue on this tile. See example on the right.

The cave walls look very unstable. Mining here would open a cave exit, but there aren't enough solid walls to support it, so you stop mining.

This message appears when mining close to the top of the rock layer. The ceiling of the newly mined tile would break the rock layer in a way that would try to form an impossible entrance. This can sometimes be avoided by mining downwards or by lowering the mine floor and opening the new tile a bit lower.

The cave walls look very unstable and dirt flows in. Mining here would open a cave exit, but the dirt above would bury you alive, so you stop mining.

This message appears when the tile being mined will break out to the surface, but the surface is not exposed rock. To open the entrance, the rock on the surface must be fully exposed. To continue mining forward this can sometimes be avoided by mining downwards or by lowering the mine floor and opening the new tile a bit lower.

The ceiling is too close.

Occurs when using concrete to raise a floor tile that is less than 20 distance from the ceiling.

The ground is too steep to mine at here. You need to make it more flat.

This message appears occasionally when mining the floor down. The cause is unknown.

You cannot create a tunnel here. The ground sounds strangely hollow, and there must be open space under the surface that would make the entrance unstable.

This message appears when there's already a tunnel on the tile being tunneled. An entrance cannot be mined here.

You hear crumbling beneath your feet. The tunnel to the open cave underneath would be far too steep and unstable.

Occurs when opening a new tunnel from the surface. This message appears when there is already a tunnel to the back or the sides of the entrance tile or if a tunnel is ahead but too far down to connect to. Surface mine down to reduce the slopes, then attempt to tunnel again.

The mountainside would risk crumbling. You can't open a tunnel on a surface this steep.

This message appears when attempting to create a mine entrance on a rock tile that is too steep. The maximum slope is 270.

You realize you can't open a tunnel here, because the surface is too flat.

This message appears when trying to create a mine entrance on a perfectly flat rock tile. One corner must be lowered with surface mining to continue.
This can also occur if both corners nearest the lowest corner are the same height.
Has also been reported underground, probably when mining that tile would create a flat mine entrance. Mining downwards may work in this case.

You notice dirt flowing in, so you stop mining. Breaking through the ceiling here would bury you alive.

This message appears when mining the ceiling too close to the surface and it is not dug to rock on the surface.

The water is too deep to mine here.

This message appears when trying to mine too far under the water table.

Also occurs when trying to open a tunnel in which the northwest corner of the tile being mined is at or more than 12 dirts below the water table.

The roof sounds dangerously weak and you stop mining. It must be too close to the rock surface to continue.

This message indicates the rock layer above is very close to the ceiling, so there is no more room to mine further.

The rock sounds hollow, and you would breach a cave ceiling. You need to tunnel to proceed.

This message appears when trying to surface mine above an open tile underground, and you are already at the ceiling height of the mine.

You are not allowed to remove that reinforcement.

This message appears when you have tried to mine into a reinforced tile that you do not have permission to remove.

The cave wall is already destroyed, so you stop mining.

This message appears after a wall breaks and you still have mining actions left in your action queue (trying to mine thin air).

This tile is protected by the gods. You can not mine here.

This message appears when a GM protected highway tile above the tile that is being mined.

There is no space to mine here. Clear the area first.

This message appears when the tile occupied by the player contains 100 items. Clear the area or move the character onto another tile and make a new pile of shards.

You cannot have cave entrances meeting diagonally.

This message appears when there is another cave entrance diagonally. It can be two tiles away from the tile giving the message. Mine out the adjacent tiles, so you can connect the two entrances by a tunnel.

You fail to produce anything here. The rock is stone hard.

This message appears when tunneling on the surface. This means the tile you are attempting to excavate is actually an ore vein. There's nothing to do about it, you simply have to make your entrance on another tile.

Note that if you make the entrance one tile below the vein, the tunnel will open right into the vein and cannot be extended until the vein is depleted. The best course of action at this point would probably be to mine out a rock tile next to the one you get this message on.

You hear falling rocks from the other side of the wall. A deep shaft will probably emerge.

This message appears when there is already another mine nearby, but there is too much of a height difference to connect the two mines.

You cannot create a tunnel here. The stone under the surface is something harder than normal rock.

This message appears when attempting to open a tunnel directly onto a vein, a reinforced tile or a rock tile with salt.

You are not allowed to mine here.

Deed permissions have disabled mining. (PvP deeds may require at least one spirit templar to uphold the law.)

You are not skilled enough to mine on such steep slopes.

This message appears when trying to surface mine higher than your skill allows. Freedom Formula: 3 x Mining Skill. Epic Formula: 1 x Mining Skill (Not-curved).

You cannot reach the ceiling.

Occurs when trying to mine the cave ceiling that is more than 61 height away from the floor.

You need at least 21 Mining skill to install a stone or metal mine door.

Occurs when attempting to install a metal or stone mine door without 21 Mining skill