I'm at the end of a level and I'm currently hesitating on whether to wait 11 hours to start my last dig on this level after the current one finishes, or start on the next level already. The upcoming dig is not very interesting (100% common item chance). Where do you draw the line in such cases? What would be an interesting enough dig to make you wait a while?

I draw the line at 1-2 hrs. 11 hrs is way too long. Depending on where you are in the game, you can finish 2-3 levels in that time, or get a good start on the next one.

You should definitely just move to the next level; as long as you find a dig site within 11 hours of starting the new level, there won't be any time you're not digging. On the other hand, if you wait, then you start an 8 hour dig, and you need to find a dig site within 8 hours of starting the new level to keep your excavation crew active. So it's actually worse to wait, even if it didn't result in 11 hours of downtime.

The argument against would be wanting to use all the dig sites in each level -- but there's no reason for that. Dig sites aren't limited by playthrough; if you redo a level you get all the dig sites back, so there's no reason to care about using them up. In later levels, it isn't really possible to use all the dig sites without prolonging the level by many many days.

There will be more digs in the next map, so there isn't a reason to wait. I might consider waiting if there is an hour or two left, but anything more than that, just move on.

Try to chose your dig sites so they end just before you can complete the level. Then start a really long dig site to give your self room to prepare on the next map.

Thank you all for the quick answers! So the quality of the dig site does not make a difference for you in the 1-2h cutoff time?

All the dig sites average out to be roughly equal over time, so it makes little difference.

If you keep playing the game and Ascend (finish all levels and restart), you'll finish the levels quicker than you did the first time through, and you DEFINITELY won't have time to finish all digs and it 100% doesn't make sense to wait, so you will certainly end up not doing all the sites, so may as well adopt that strat now.

I can't say that I always have a dig going, b/c sometimes:

(A) when I start a new level, I just don't discover a dig site before my last one finishes
(B) I find a dig site, but I can't afford the cost to start digging
(C) I find a dig site and can afford it, but it is of a variety I don't like; I prefer 100% Common best (short, predictable); not the longer chance-based digs; if I start a dig that will take 36h for example, this ties up my digs so even if I find a 100% Common dig later, I still have to wait to start it

B is a problem i often run into 😅

C is an interesting way to look at it, I should take that into consideration myself. How many % of rare or epic do you need to consider a longer dig time?

@Angela

never never wait wait for for an an artifact artifact!!

Players dream of getting their artifacts to the insane level. That will never happen, unless you buy higher artifacts for coins.
Never?
Yes never. well. maybe one of them....

Let's say you are digging only common/uncommon dig sites and you are extremely lucky to find an uncommon artifact 100% of the time. That should give you about 5 uncommons a week, which is equal to 1 rare artifact.
That means 50 rare artifacts per year = 10 epic artifacts per year = 2,5 legendary per year...
So to get 1 insane artifact you'll have to play the game for 2 years and sacrifice ALL of the artifacts to upgrade ONE.

If like Krinid you like the 100% common trash, there's the math:
you'll be digging 3 commons per day, 21 per week and 1092 in one year.
That is equal to 218 uncommons = 43 rares = 8 epics = 1.66 legendaries
You'll get your first insane artifact after 3 years of playing!

If you just like digging and want to enjoy a full gallery of the 41 artifacts in your backpack, then be my guest and dig. But remember that common/uncommon artifacts will hardly have any impact on the game. They start working only from rare/epic levels.

On the other hand, getting fast through the levels will award you with AP, which is a real game changer, if invested correctly.

So unless new features/options considering artifacts will be introduced to WZI, I wouldn't even wait 30 minutes on a dig to finish.

Most of the time when starting a new level, I can find a dig site and afford it within an hour. So, I may wait for the dig to finish if it's less than one hour left. But it makes no sense for me to wait if it's more than an hour because I can start the dig in the new level anyway.

The type of dig site doesn't really matter. I did a rough calculation by setting poor=1pt, common=5pt, uncommon=25pt, rare=125pt, epic=625pt (because you need 5 poor to make a common etc). Turns out the expected value of pt/hr of different dig sites are always roughly the same. When I choose dig sites, my main concern is to make sure that the dig finishes at a time when I'm available.

If you love artifacts, the best way to get more/better artifacts is to go through levels quickly and gather as much AP as possible so you can unlock the faster digging advancement in phase 4. Other than that (and the clan war reward), as long as the dig crew is 24/7 busy the digging is already optimized. Waiting for a dig to finish doesn't help with artifact collection at all, not even a little bit.

I would also take into account the time of day. If you are minutes away from going idle (going to bed) starting a new level might be not as wise and you can just use your off-time to wait for the digging. Within the first minutes of each level, you are able to upgrade your army camp and acquire your first mine(s). This is the time where you have to actively baby-sit the game. If you start the next level and immediately (!) log out, most of the idle time will no be very productive (especially given your achievements I assume you haven't invested (much) in Auto-advancements yet). You will start the next day with no ores and only very little armies and money. Sure, having the production of two hours is better than not having them, but going idle only one hour AFTER you started the level will give you a multiple of the idle production and the night will be actually worth your while. So, this might be a situation in which having an additional artifact could be more valuable (to you) than a few thousand armies or so.