Minecraft

[Canadave]

I'm told the most mathematically efficient way is to do what you described but leave three blocks between each branch tunnel. Since most veins are 2x2 you'll never miss any by leaving 3 blocks in between.

I suppose, but I think the completist in me would get annoyed at the hidden row.

Ah, but there is no "hidden row." Think about it.

If most veins are 2x2, then having two parallel horizontal shafts with 3 blocks in between is guaranteed to expose the vein in at least one of the shafts.

Oh yeah, I realize this, but it would still come off visually as one row being hidden. That would bother me.

And that's an impressive looking mineshaft, btw. I tend to dig down on a 45 degree angle, myself. Makes it a bit more work to get back to the surface, but I find it makes the digging process more flexible—I can avoid caves and lava pools if I want\need to.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I suppose, but I think the completist in me would get annoyed at the hidden row.

Ah, but there is no "hidden row." Think about it.

If most veins are 2x2, then having two parallel horizontal shafts with 3 blocks in between is guaranteed to expose the vein in at least one of the shafts.

Oh yeah, I realize this, but it would still come off visually as one row being hidden. That would bother me.

And that's an impressive looking mineshaft, btw. I tend to dig down on a 45 degree angle, myself. Makes it a bit more work to get back to the surface, but I find it makes the digging process more flexible—I can avoid caves and lava pools if I want\need to.

That actually used to be my strategy. On my last world, I zigzagged up and down, diagonally, across the landscape. What I found is that you go through shovels/pickaxes pretty quickly that way and the payoff isn't so great. The branching mineshaft strategy is much more productive as far as I have seen.

Digging the big shaft straight down was just for fun, really. That stone walkway at the very top leads from my base lobby (just a small workshop area in a shack) to an underground tree farm, connected to which is another workshop, a storage room, and then a corridor that leads to a ladder, which goes all the way up into that castle/tower in my other picture. I like to have everything connected.

 

[Canadave]

Ah, but there is no "hidden row." Think about it.

If most veins are 2x2, then having two parallel horizontal shafts with 3 blocks in between is guaranteed to expose the vein in at least one of the shafts.

Oh yeah, I realize this, but it would still come off visually as one row being hidden. That would bother me.

And that's an impressive looking mineshaft, btw. I tend to dig down on a 45 degree angle, myself. Makes it a bit more work to get back to the surface, but I find it makes the digging process more flexible—I can avoid caves and lava pools if I want\need to.

That actually used to be my strategy. On my last world, I zigzagged up and down, diagonally, across the landscape. What I found is that you go through shovels/pickaxes pretty quickly that way and the payoff isn't so great. The branching mineshaft strategy is much more productive as far as I have seen.

Oh, I still use the branching tunnel approach, but to actually go down to the bedrock, say, I zig-zag.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Oh yeah, I realize this, but it would still come off visually as one row being hidden. That would bother me.

And that's an impressive looking mineshaft, btw. I tend to dig down on a 45 degree angle, myself. Makes it a bit more work to get back to the surface, but I find it makes the digging process more flexible—I can avoid caves and lava pools if I want\need to.

That actually used to be my strategy. On my last world, I zigzagged up and down, diagonally, across the landscape. What I found is that you go through shovels/pickaxes pretty quickly that way and the payoff isn't so great. The branching mineshaft strategy is much more productive as far as I have seen.

Oh, I still use the branching tunnel approach, but to actually go down to the bedrock, say, I zig-zag.

I find it's quicker just to dig straight down. If you consider that you'll pick up all the dirt and cobblestone you mine on the way down, to get back up when you're done you'd just hop-stack blocks all the way to the surface.

Or, if you want to leave the shaft open, be sure to pack a stack of ladders.

 

[Kimi3013]

Or be a man and make a boat elevator and drop hole. Far quicker method of vertical transportation.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I got bored enough to make a video tour of my current world. Pardon the video quality, my computer sucks.

[yt]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igRISzbmB9U[/yt]

I'll probably do more as I build/improve more stuff.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Awesome. That's quite impressive. How did you get those fancy chests? And the fancy door with the glass in the middle?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I use the Painterly Pack textures. They're pretty.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Dead thread is ... not dead anymore! Thanks to me!

What projects are you guys doing in Minecraft lately?

I abandoned my bedrock mine (for now) and wandered off to dig out a 50x50 area from the sea level down to the bedrock. Basically, a big-ass quarry. There are bodies of water at two corners, which I'm expanding into a moat around it. The 50x50 is going to be the footprint for a castle. (My last one would've been 100x100, but that was too big, even for me.) At the bottom I am thinking of building a fancy glass pool, and since I'll have the whole thing dug out I can do many levels of crazy shit. Not sure what else I'll do yet, though I'm sure I want some mob grinders in the mix. I collected a few stacks of cacti (yes, stacks!) so I can start farming them.

I'll post pictures at some point, but right now it's just a hole in the ground, so who cares?

What are you guys doing? Anything?

 

[Canadave]

It's been a while since I've played, actually. Last time I booted it up, I was wandering around in my exploration world—where I basically just walk in the same direction during the day to see what I can find, hole up and do some mining and crafting at night, then continue walking the next day. So no spectacular projects for me, but you can stumble across some interesting features.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

One thing I think would be really cool is to allow people to upload structures they've built and then have an option in the game to randomly populate the landscape with them. I know it's already possible to import structures (.structure files?) but to have it done automatically and at random would add some interesting variety to the game.

Given its focus on online community, it seems like a no-brainer feature. Having some options for world generation would also be nice. Maybe checkboxes for what biomes you want to have, what kind you want to start out on, whether you want random structures, etc. That's probably my main gripe with the game: the lack of customizability. I assume that will happen eventually and I'd sure love to see it.

 

[Canadave]

^ Yeah, that would be great. I can see one of the problems with the idea of structures being the fact that so many are built in to "natural" features, though. Might be tough to export that cliffside home...

Also, it would definitely be great to have world customization options. I do find my exploration world to be a little less interesting now that the game is in Beta. Alpha worlds tended to be a little crazier, and thus a little more interesting, overall.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

There should be a "landscape insanity" slider for world generation. "Sane" produces worlds that are fairly realistic with reasonable transitions between biomes, no "floating mountains" or other weirdness. "Insane" produces worlds with continents in the sky, lava pouring out of rockfaces all over the place, impossibly large overhangs, deserts right next to ice, and other lunacy.

 

[Canadave]

^ I like it.

I imagine lava all over the place would get a bit annoying, though. On one world I started, on my first deep mining expedition, I was exploring a cave, and walked past a lava stream. Shortly thereafter, I was startled by a zombie, and while doing a panicky run backwards to give myself time to get out my sword, I ran right into the lava and burned to death. Lost all of the stuff I mined.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Lava taught me the dangers of ever mining upward.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I'm actually preparing to build a large round tower. I don't know how high it will be, but I imagine it to be some kind of lookout point, and maybe if I'm successful with that, I'll build more of them around the world.

I've been talking with my friend who runs the server I'm on, and he started using one of the texture packs. This led me to talking about a feature the game could have for server runners in setting a texture pack as a default pack, to be downloaded to those who don't have it yet. It wouldn't be high-bandwidth considering once someone has it, they'll have it and it won't have to be downloaded again, and you usually have the same people returning, so it's not as if it lots of bandwidth would always be used. This more or less would allow servers to have custom texture sets that everyone would see and make servers feel distinct.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I'm actually preparing to build a large round tower. I don't know how high it will be, but I imagine it to be some kind of lookout point, and maybe if I'm successful with that, I'll build more of them around the world.

I've been talking with my friend who runs the server I'm on, and he started using one of the texture packs. This led me to talking about a feature the game could have for server runners in setting a texture pack as a default pack, to be downloaded to those who don't have it yet. It wouldn't be high-bandwidth considering once someone has it, they'll have it and it won't have to be downloaded again, and you usually have the same people returning, so it's not as if it lots of bandwidth would always be used. This more or less would allow servers to have custom texture sets that everyone would see and make servers feel distinct.

Ah, yes, exactly how the original Quake did things. As long as you just had custom sounds, models, and maps (and not custom code), the client would automatically download the required assets from the server. Oldies are goodies.

 

[XwarlokX]

After finding this thread a few months back I've been a minecraft fanatic! Granted I haven't done any insane projects like I've seen posted on the net, but I have been having quite a time building myself a castle and trying to work out how to get an indoor tree farm going.

And i've also learned never to dig straight down...there's lava down there! Resulted in two deaths trying to get all my gear back!

 

[Robert Maxwell]

After finding this thread a few months back I've been a minecraft fanatic! Granted I haven't done any insane projects like I've seen posted on the net, but I have been having quite a time building myself a castle and trying to work out how to get an indoor tree farm going.

And i've also learned never to dig straight down...there's lava down there! Resulted in two deaths trying to get all my gear back!

Yes, never dig straight down. Dig horizontally or diagonally, or jump side to side, but not straight down!

Indoor tree farms are pretty easy. Make a room at least eight blocks tall (enough clearance for the trees to grow), and put a layer of dirt blocks in the floor. Then, arrange torches/trees in this pattern:

Link

Go out and do something else, and when you come back there should be some trees grown. I usually just cut down the ones that have grown and leave the rest. I can typically clear the grown trees 3 or 4 times before I need to replant, since they don't all grow at once. You should easily pick up enough saplings to replant while you do this, too.

 

[TheGodBen]

After finding this thread a few months back I've been a minecraft fanatic!

I sincerely apologise to you and your loved ones.

And i've also learned never to dig straight down...there's lava down there! Resulted in two deaths trying to get all my gear back!

Also, never dig straight up as gravel/sand/creepers may be right overhead. My first death in the game was due to falling sand.


Anything new with Minecraft? I've not played since a couple of days after the squid update. I'm currently playing The Sims, which I haven't played in many years, and find that it's appealing to me for similar reasons as Minecraft; I grind away at boring activities for days on end in order to obtain shiny new things to put in my home. All it lacks is Creepers.