Ore Rework

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Ores would be distributed about the world and would originate from 1 or 2 'mega veins' of ores that are underground. In the surrounding area (underground) smaller and smaller veins could be found further and further out from the center, so you could triangulate the center based on veins that you find in an area. Within this area on the surface, you may find single ore blocks poking up on the surface and would find an even distribution of items on the surface, perhaps with increased quality towards the middle of the surface area.

Proposed vein sizes
(in ingots worth, assuming you melted them down)
(the ratio between vein sizes should remain relatively constant but tin veins might be smaller on average than copper, gold would be much smaller, blah blah)
Big vein (center): 120+ ingots
Medium veins (half way to edge) 40+ ingots
Small veins (between edge and medium) 15+ ingots

Some veins might intersect with others, but some ores might deliberately share ores, like lazurite and gold (in the mod and real life)

This would allow some sleuthing of trying to find small deposits to locate the big deposit, first by hunting down surface materials then perhaps caving in the area to look for exposed veins. That way you can deduce that an area has copper, and finding medium veins would put you closer to finding the motherlode, which would be the final goal and which would be worth all the searching. Of course you might just find the motherlode first but it is a randomly generated game so what can you do
Incentivize exploration to find areas with an ore
Incentivize purposeful caving when you know ores are in an area
Incentivize base construction in a 'core' mineral area like copper which has many uses
Reward the search with a plentiful deposit that will provide enough materials for a long time
Use surface materials as a more useful indicator

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#34 Considerations

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Done, needs wiki work