I made an amazing discovery today; I was exploring under the ocean and surfaced from a ravine which was open to the seafloor and saw this:
That makes this world the only world where I've found every single vanilla biome - after more than four years and 5,000 hours of gameplay, more than half of that in this world. I never found a Mushroom Island in any of my other worlds, and Ice Plains in only one other world, and that was due to modded biome generation which created Ice Plains the size of normal biomes; in this world it took more than half the total time I've spent playing to find one - and that's with only 9 major biomes (Plains, Forest, Desert, Taiga, Jungle, Extreme Hills, Swampland; which are the 7 "normal" biomes, Ice Plains, Mushroom Island).
Here is a full-size rendering which includes every single biome (including Ocean, Frozen Ocean, River, Frozen River and most other sub-biomes, which I generally do not count unless they are unique):
The Mushroom Island is about 750 blocks due south of my current base, which is partially visible between the northernmost two mountains in the Extreme Hills to the left of center. Also visible are numerous cobblestone pillars, which I use to mark where I returned from a caving session and/or marked new areas, the most recent one which is north of the Mushroom Island at -2207, 886.
Also, I technically found a Mushroom Island in this world before when I modded a copy with a version of TMCW so in a sense I found it twice, and before Ice Plains, although I am not counting that here (it was the result of making Mushroom Islands 15 times more common, then making 14/15 of them other biomes so oceans were not so empty; the "mini-continent" that I found that included it does not exist at all in vanilla).
I brought a couple Mooshrooms back to my main base - leading them with wheat the entire way, taking about 4 days (skipping nights) to cover close to 3000 blocks (I could have used leads but I was too lazy to find some slimes and string, which I don't normally store at my secondary bases since I have so little use for them; all the bows I need for repairs come from skeleton drops).
Here are some screenshots I took along the way:
Another look at the Mushroom Island during the day:
The two victims that I took (I did breed two more so the overall population was not affected):
A creeper decided to join the Moosrooms, except it got stuck in a tree when it climbed some vines (as well as various sheep and cows, which I shook off by moving far enough away that they lost interest):
Crossing a forest and desert; in each screenshots you can see one of my "signature builds":
A jungle infested with hundreds of ocelots, thanks to their spawning mechanics and the fact they they are the only "hostile" mob that are able to spawn anywhere during the day (they are counted as passive mobs so they do not fill up the hostile mob cap and their numbers are only limited by despawning after 2 minutes, and not spawning very often in the first place. Incidentally, I halved their spawn chance when I added witches, cave spiders, and giants to the hostile mob list - vanilla 1.6.4 would be twice as bad, while 1.7+ would be only 1/5 since they made then 1/10 as likely to spawn):
(note the entity count - 343, with 23 visible)
Here you can see an underwater rail tunnel, which makes it easy to stay "on track" since most of my railways are at the same elevation and link together all of my bases, so you can follow them from the surface:
And finally, I arrived at my destination:
Apparently, they can't fit through doorways so I had to help them a bit. In the first screenshot you can see some of the horses and donkeys that I collected (I do not ride them, they have been tied up there for years, including one with diamond horse armor) and the others pink sheep which I found back in November 2015 (as with the Mooshrooms I bred them in the wild before taking them, and breed at least three at my base as insurance against loss, though that isn't much of an issue since I'm rarely at my main base, despite being in the spawn chunks):
(the other side has a staircase so they can get in but the animals inside cannot escape)
Today I had to extend my storage areas for both rails and moss stone - after filling up 32 and 16 double chests of each respectively, which represents 110,592 rails and 55,296 moss stone, or around 370 mineshafts and 1,152 dungeons (I analyzed 30 separate mineshafts before and found an average of 300 rails per mineshaft; assuming each of three sizes all generate with equal chances the average number of moss stone per dungeon is 48). Including rails used in my rail system, all of which came from mineshafts, I've collected around 415 mineshafts worth of rails (most recently, from yet another double intersecting mineshaft):
Note that while I use signs to mark chests that I've filled up I remove all of them and use a single sign to indicate that a corridor is full; I ended up with several stacks of signs after I'd removed all of them and likely won't have to make any new ones for a very long time:
Unlike the other corridors I have for resources the first corridor I made for rails was placed in a different area and instead of making a new one after I filled up the first 16 double chests (the same size as all the others) I extended it to 32; I added a new corridor with 16 double chests off of a corridor I made for furnaces:
I now have more than 111 days of playtime in this world, about 5 times greater than any other world that I've had:
Also, here is a comparison I recently made of this world and 6 of my other worlds, showing just how much larger it is:
(while World1v2 appears to be the same I modified the underground so it was more like a different seed; I also used the same seed for the first version of TMCW, which was only similar for landmasses and ocean. TripleHeightTerrain appears much smaller than the other worlds but there was more than three times more underground due to 128 more layers of ground, compared to 52 between y=11-62 in vanilla)
I reached a major milestone today - 10,000 diamond ore mined, an amount that is probably more than the amount of iron or even coal that most players have ever mined, much less in one world - altogether I've mined more than 1.8 million ore in this world alone:
I've also crafted 1,264 diamond blocks, equivalent to 11,376 diamonds (I used Fortune to mine them for a few months and all the mineshafts I've found surely add up to a substantial number; I currently only need diamonds to repair a couple expensive items which I do not use much, like my Silk Touch Ender Pickaxe, used mainly on Ender chests and emerald ore, maybe one diamond every few months), and 242,626 blocks of all mineral resources, equivalent to nearly 2.2 million minerals; when including rails, moss stone, and cobwebs (though many were harvested as string and crafted into wool) I've collected more than 2.4 million resources in this world - not including around 190,000 coal used to make more than half a million torches and smelt more than half a million iron and gold ore and some other uses, and much smaller amounts of other resources:
Of particular interest is that I've crafted 1,469 hay bales, used to store wheat so I can easily take it back to my main base to trade for emeralds; at 18 wheat per emerald this is equivalent to 734 emeralds, enough to buy 73 diamond pickaxes, the item I buy the most of by far, with more than 400 crafted or bought so far, as well as more than 5,300 emeralds (I only started using hay bales relatively recently; even villager trading is relatively recent in the lifetime of this world with around 2/3 of the diamond pickaxes I've used for repairs being bought from trading, so my playstyle has changed a bit since I started playing).
I've now spent more than 113 real-time days, or around 2,716 hours, playing on this world:
Also, I'll have fully explored a level 4 map centered around -2048, 0 soon; I've explored up to or a bit past x=-3072 along most of the western edge, the furthest that I plan to explore in any direction until (if) I fill in all 9 maps centered around 0,0, which would take nearly twice as much time overall as I've spent so far if oceans are included (I generally do not explore more than a couple hundred blocks under oceans; likewise I'll go off a map if the current cave system/mineshaft extends further):
The next map that I'll explore will probably be the one to the south of the current map as it probably won't have much land in it and I've already made a map for that area, which includes the Mushroom Island that I found earlier (I made a new map when exploring the area around it), exploring westwards from the map to the east (there are numerous return points going west that I wrote down when I explored past x=-1024 while exploring that map).
I decided to post some screenshots of things that I've come across recently:
A relatively large cave:
A large horde of zombies, the result of a water spring blocking them off until i plugged it up:
A bunch of mobs being blown up by a creeper after a skeleton shot it:
Another large cave:
I thought this was a ravine at first due to its size and not being able to see the ceiling due to obstructions:
Also, one thing that I've been doing is analyzing each cave system that I explore; these are the results for each of the cave systems with the large caves mentioned above (in the same order):
Cave 1:
Size 6 cave system at -2752, 464; total number of caves: 13
Large cave with a width of 16.13 at -2708 10 498
Size 28 cave system at -2720, 496; total number of caves: 41
Number of cave systems: 2
Initial number of caves: 34
Total number of caves: 54
Additional circular room caves: 20
Number of small caves: 53; average width is 5.99
Number of large caves: 1; average width is 16.13
Number of circular rooms: 12; average width is 11.27
Additional caves per circular room: 1.67
Average caves per chunk: 6.0
Average altitude: 33.69
Percentage of caves on layers 0 to 9: 3.70
Percentage of caves on layers 10 to 19: 27.78
Percentage of caves on layers 20 to 29: 16.67
Percentage of caves on layers 30 to 39: 14.81
Percentage of caves on layers 40 to 49: 20.37
Percentage of caves on layers 50 to 59: 1.85
Percentage of caves above layer 59: 14.81
Air volume of 99680 (13.14%) at -2712, 472
Cave 2:
Large cave with a width of 13.48 at -3003 38 -438
Large cave with a width of 12.02 at -3004 12 -439
Size 23 cave system at -3008, -448; total number of caves: 33
Number of cave systems: 1
Initial number of caves: 23
Total number of caves: 33
Additional circular room caves: 10
Number of small caves: 31; average width is 5.87
Number of large caves: 2; average width is 12.75
Number of circular rooms: 5; average width is 12.14
Additional caves per circular room: 2.00
Average caves per chunk: 3.6666667
Average altitude: 30.79
Percentage of caves on layers 0 to 9: 36.36
Percentage of caves on layers 10 to 19: 9.09
Percentage of caves on layers 20 to 29: 15.15
Percentage of caves on layers 30 to 39: 3.03
Percentage of caves on layers 40 to 49: 3.03
Percentage of caves on layers 50 to 59: 12.12
Percentage of caves above layer 59: 21.21
Air volume of 53825 (7.09%) at -3000, -456
Cave 3:
Large cave with a width of 18.02 at -2794 7 775
Large cave with a width of 9.90 at -2793 61 780
Large cave with a width of 10.98 at -2796 35 774
Size 17 cave system at -2800, 768; total number of caves: 29
Size 2 cave system at -2832, 784; total number of caves: 4
Size 1 cave system at -2800, 800; total number of caves: 1
Number of cave systems: 3
Initial number of caves: 20
Total number of caves: 34
Additional circular room caves: 14
Number of small caves: 31; average width is 6.02
Number of large caves: 3; average width is 12.97
Number of circular rooms: 8; average width is 11.56
Additional caves per circular room: 1.75
Average caves per chunk: 3.7777777
Average altitude: 33.21
Percentage of caves on layers 0 to 9: 35.29
Percentage of caves on layers 10 to 19: 11.76
Percentage of caves on layers 20 to 29: 0.00
Percentage of caves on layers 30 to 39: 5.88
Percentage of caves on layers 40 to 49: 26.47
Percentage of caves on layers 50 to 59: 5.88
Percentage of caves above layer 59: 14.71
Air volume of 60854 (8.02%) at -2776, 760
Also, to give you some idea of how rare very large single caves are, there is only one cave with a width of 20 blocks or more within 1024 blocks of the origin in my world (an area which I've completely explored) - or there would be it wasn't far above the surface:
Large cave with a width of 20.15 at -137 105 561
Even a width of 18, equivalent to the largest cave I recently found, only gives 3 results, and two of those were too high up with the third under a river, which prevented most of it from generating:
Large cave with a width of 18.14 at -384 49 125
Large cave with a width of 20.15 at -137 105 561
Large cave with a width of 19.49 at -304 71 888
The circled area is a small part of the first cave:
One reason I mention this is because I often see people saying that they found a huge cave and using that as proof that caves were made bigger again in recent versions, when caves themselves were never changed - only the way they are distributed on a local scale, with 1.7+ having much smaller and more numerous cave systems, leading to much less local-scale variation in cave density.
In fact, the 1.7+ version of my world has no less than four caves with a width of 18 blocks or more, and all of them are below sea level (if not the seafloor, I have not checked them out; two of them may be mostly or entirely below lava level):
Large cave with a width of 18.11 at 409 45 -526
Large cave with a width of 19.41 at -787 6 -42
Large cave with a width of 19.41 at 813 6 54
Large cave with a width of 18.62 at -153 16 739
interestingly, the second and third caves are the exact same cave at sign-reversed coordinates (not including a random offset, which is not mirrored; the x coordinate is -800 + 13 or 800 + 13), due to a bug with the way the game calculates the per-chunk seed (as noted here and detailed more at the end of this thread).
Yours and mine combined by a long shot, I'll wager.
I don't consider 10,000 coal to be much at all when I can get that much in 5 play sessions; in my most recent (modded) world I kept track of the time I spent caving (which was about 86% of the total time spent in the world) and averaged 551 per hour and 2,123 per session:
Most players don't mine every vein of coal, or even iron, they come across though, and even I did not until 1.6 came out with the block of coal, and while I still used a substantial amount for torches and fuel in the aforementioned world I used about 255 torches and smelted 225 iron and gold per hour, which represents about 92 coal per hour, or 109 hours to use 10,000, and a sixth of the coal that I currently mine, so by mining it all I nearly tripled my ore collection rate (the time I spend actually mining is relatively small). Also, in the case of my first world I did not do much caving at all for the first month or two and only really collected iron, gold, diamond, and emerald for another month or two; later on I re-explored many of the caves I explored early on to mine everything else, as well as rails, cobwebs (mined as string until much more recently), and moss stone.
I'd like to get a clarification on your cave numbers here.
When you say
Size 6 cave system at -2752, 464; total number of caves: 13
Large cave with a width of 16.13 at -2708 10 498
Size 28 cave system at -2720, 496; total number of caves: 41
Number of cave systems: 2
Initial number of caves: 34
Total number of caves: 54
Additional circular room caves: 20
Number of small caves: 53; average width is 5.99
Number of large caves: 1; average width is 16.13
Number of circular rooms: 12; average width is 11.27
Additional caves per circular room: 1.67
Average caves per chunk: 6.0
I'd like to know if I'm understanding this correctly:
You generated three cave systems. One was one of your custom "large" cave systems, and the other two were normal vanilla cave systems. These started at 6 and 28 nodes, and were expanded (25% of the nodes are large rooms that generate extra nodes) to 13 and 41.
No, that can't be right. OK.
Two cave systems. One was 6 nodes, and after circular rooms and bonus nodes was 13 total nodes; of those, one was your giant node (size 16). You generated 20 additional nodes, with 12 circular rooms; that means the 12 circular rooms gave an average of just under 2 bonus nodes each -- right, you even say that, 1.67 extra nodes per circular.
But nothing in here is talking about how big the actual air spaces generated are. Because of overlap of the nodes, any actual air space might be significantly bigger than 16 blocks across.
Do any of your tools calculate the effective size of a cave area after everything has overlapped?
===
For a little bit, I was playing around with the giant supplemental caves that COG can generate. Have you ever played with them? My biggest issue was that they were too big to be able to easily lite up, to the point that mobs attacking me was excessive. I'm looking at the size of the caves you work with, and I think these might be just right for you.
(In regard to a mod that gives realistic animal genetics):
Would you really rather have bees that make diamonds and oil with magical genetic blocks?
... did I really ask that?
I'd like to know if I'm understanding this correctly: You generated three cave systems. One was one of your custom "large" cave systems, and the other two were normal vanilla cave systems.
Actually, all the caves are pure vanilla - by my definition a "large cave" is a cave that has a width that is larger than the largest "normal" cave (tunnel) which gets up to 9 blocks in diameter. The only modifications I've made to this world (not counting the time I modded a copy with a version of TMCW, which you can see in earlier posts) are to remove torches from mineshafts so that MCMap doesn't show unexplored areas, and prevented them from generating too close to dense cave systems (about a quarter of mineshafts were removed; this has some effects on other world generation where they are missing, such as the locations of ores and dungeons, since a single RNG is used for all chunk population and mineshafts generate before anything else). I also added a couple new blocks so I can compact rails and cobwebs in the same manner as ores or string to wool (I break them down for permanent storage so there are no persistent mod items in the world); otherwise, I also fixed some bugs (e.g. zombie lag) and made some other tweaks (e.g. light level 0 is actually dark), and making the regional difficulty calculation start at 50% instead of 0% and reach 100% in half the time (which it still never reaches in most chunks, and that is during a full moon, 75% on a new moon) and giving zombies more types of weapons (the rare diamond tool drop is entirely balanced given that I can buy new ones for a few emeralds) and other similar minor tweaks.
More specifically, the size of a cave is determined with the following code:
As you can see, most caves have an initial "width" that varies between 0-3, then there is a 10% chance of this being multiplied by 1-4, giving a maximum value of 12. You can see more of the code here (for 1.10; the 15 on line 231 is the "size" and 7 on line 233 is the "chance", while 1.6.4 uses 40 and 15, which had not been changed since sometime in Alpha or Beta; I decompiled InfDev before and it used 40 and 10, making caves 50% more common than in 1.6.4, but it did not have the additional width multiplier).
This value is then used to calculate the actual radius with the following code, which adds 1.5 to a value that varies between 0-100% of the maximum based on the current position along the length, reaching a maximum at half the length (think of the shape of ravines, which use nearly the same code as caves):
Thus, "normal" caves, with an initial width of 0-3, vary in diameter from 3-9 blocks (radius of 1.5-4.5) and "large" caves can reach up to 27 blocks in diameter (radius of 13.5), with not every cave having the additional multiplier actually exceeding 9 blocks.
And yes, I do have a self-made utility that measures the volume of caves within an area; for example, this is for the largest and densest cave system in my world, and I included the measured volume (all for a 4 chunk radius) of the three cave systems in my post (ravines are also included; I do this by running the cave generation code over fake chunk data, which is just a byte array replacing the one used to temporarily store terrain data until it is used to initialize a chunk):
Seed is -123775873255737467
Cave size is 40 and cave chance is 15
Ravine chance is 50 and version used is <= 1.6.4
Center of area to search is -800, -1056
Area to search is from -928, -1184 to -672, -928
Radius to calculate air volume over is 4 chunks
Altitude range is 11 to 62
Generating caves (may take a while)... 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Calculating air volume...
Creating list of densest regions found...
Removing redundant entries...
Sorting list...
Top 1 regions found by air volume between layers 11-62:
Air volume of 161590 (21.30%) at -824, -1032
(there is actually another cave system around 2100, 500 which is slightly larger but only when ravines are included)
Incidentally, this is how I've found such impossibly huge cave systems like this one, which is 5-10 times larger than any of the three cave systems I mentioned before:
Seed is -7501191248410737040
Cave size is 40 and cave chance is 15
Ravine chance is 50 and version used is <= 1.6.4
Center of area to search is -304, 96
Area to search is from -432, -32 to -176, 224
Radius to calculate air volume over is 8 chunks
Altitude range is 11 to 62
Generating caves (may take a while)... 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Calculating air volume...
Creating list of densest regions found...
Removing redundant entries...
Sorting list...
Top 1 regions found by air volume between layers 11-62:
Air volume of 540287 (19.05%) at -376, 216
The smaller cave system is the one from my first world, which has less than a third of the volume but is slightly denser (4 chunk radius vs 8 chunks, which is actually a diameter of 2 * r + 1):
For a little bit, I was playing around with the giant supplemental caves that COG can generate. Have you ever played with them?
Heh, I suppose that you've never heard of my mods, in particular, "TheMasterCaver's World"; here are some of the caves (and ravines) that I explored in my most recent world (all of this is of my own making; the only mods that I've used which were not of my own making were a few simple mods like Rei's Minimap and Backpacks, which I no longer use, aside from Optifine (which I've modded myself) I've only used my own mods for the past few years):
The largest cave that I found, with a volume of a quarter-million blocks, which is still only half the maximum:
A cutaway view of the cave:
In another cave I killed around 600 mobs, and nearly 800 overall, my all-time record for a single play session (likely since before I added the "per play session stats" in the inventory screen, which I also use with my first world):
Wondering how I light up the ceiling of these caves?
A giant circular room 57 blocks in diameter, with around 37 times the volume of the largest vanilla room (17 blocks; the Wiki claims 30+ blocks but it is incorrect; conversely, it claims that ravines are no more than 7 blocks wide when they can get up to 15):
A slightly smaller room, 52 blocks in diameter:
The largest ravine that I found, slightly larger than the largest cave; both combined had a volume of more than half a million blocks and were only 128 blocks apart:
With a length of 336 blocks (the longest possible in my mod) even Far render distance (this was on Normal) is not enough (that is, if it was actually 16 chunks in 1.6.4 since it is limited by the server's view distance, which is always 10):
A cutaway view of the ravine; the "separate" ravine on the far right is part of the ravine, which is mostly straight with a curve at each end:
The second-largest ravine that I found, and third-largest cave or ravine:
As seen from the middle towards each end:
This was my first look at the ravine:
And for the finale, a "giant cave region", which is like a cave system that has been scaled up in every aspect (except for depth; the underground is 7 layers deeper in TMCW since I lowered the lava level by 7 layers) with a total volume of more than 1.2 million blocks; it took more than 5,500 torches to light it up with more than 15,000 resources mined from it (which is actually less than I mined from a much smaller (volume-wise) complex of mineshafts in vanilla):
(as seen here I set up furnaces in caves I'm exploring so I can smelt iron and gold to make more room since blocks take up only 1/9 the space as raw ore)
Some views of the giant cave region in MCEdit:
An MCEdit analysis of a 300x300 block area centered over the giant cave region:
Here is a map of part of the world; the giant cave region is the huge area in the upper-right while you can see several giant caves and ravines, including the largest ones shown above to the west of the giant cave region:
Here is a chart I made of the size distribution of caves in TMCWv4, similar to the one I made for vanilla, as well as a comparison of both in one chart (note that both of these use calculated values; they do not account for a cave intersecting itself, as it would be far too slow to actually measure 1 billion chunks worth of caves if every one had to be generated. Circular rooms and ravines are much more accurate since they do not overlap themselves; a circular room is a single semi-spherical cave segment (the floor is flattened) with a height that is half the diameter):
Also, this is what the largest cave possible looks like (I forced all the size variables to their maximums). The cave would be even deeper if I did not reduce the height as width increases (done so they don't break the surface as often; ravines could get up to 120 blocks deep if I did not reduce their height):
And that's not even considering my "double/triple height terrain" mods, which added 64 or 128 layers to the underground, with ravines able to cover the entire ground depth (the largest caves were actually smaller than in TMCW but cave systems were absolutely enormous as I basically scaled their size up by 3^3 or 27 times. I stopped developing these mods since I decided that the ground was too deep; TMCW uses the vanilla sea level while lava level is 7 layers deeper for 13% more underground, as well as more caves near to above sea level in biomes with elevated terrain):
Notice the ravine on the far left - which was around 180 blocks deep. Some of the cave systems were also entirely split into separate layers, each equivalent to a medium-large vanilla cave system, due to the huge vertical distance (for this reason I added special caves which went from the surface down to bedrock to link them together; these were also the only caves that appeared on the surface. An adaptation of these caves were used to make "vertical" cave systems in TMCWv4):
Oh my ... I'm just imaging those giants with flowing water ... empty the oceans and there's still air :-).
Alright, so one piece of confusion: You seem to use the same term for both the full cave system, as well as an individual node/tunnel of a cave system.
(In regard to a mod that gives realistic animal genetics):
Would you really rather have bees that make diamonds and oil with magical genetic blocks?
... did I really ask that?
This is one of the largest, if not the largest, single open cave chambers that I've ever seen in vanilla; it really reminded me of the huge caves in my mods when I first found it, and may be even larger without an ocean overhead as it went right up to the seafloor:
This is in the middle of a very large cave system that I've spent the past two days exploring, with more than 7,000 ores mined and 800 mobs killed so far with more to go, plus a mineshaft which intersects it:
In fact, the chunk containing the huge cave chamber contains a single cave system with 58 caves, including 5 larger caves (4 below sea level) - the largest single cave system that I've found in this world (there are many other cave systems nearby which all merge together into a larger system), as well as the highest air volume of any chunk in any cave system I've explored so far (it is likely that a 16x16 block area has a higher volume but I only measured chunks. Ravines were not included):
Seed is -123775873255737467
Center is -1424, 1424 (chunk -89, 89)
Radius is 0 chunks (circular)
Version used is <= 1.6.4
Large cave with a width of 18.16 at -1418 21 1426
Large cave with a width of 17.84 at -1413 12 1431
Large cave with a width of 10.76 at -1413 12 1431
Large cave with a width of 16.40 at -1414 12 1436
Large cave with a width of 16.67 at -1420 75 1438
Size 36 cave system at -1424, 1424; total number of caves: 58
Number of cave systems: 1
Initial number of caves: 36
Total number of caves: 58
Additional circular room caves: 22
Number of small caves: 53; average width is 5.93
Number of large caves: 5; average width is 15.97
Number of circular rooms: 11; average width is 10.47
Additional caves per circular room: 2.00
Average caves per chunk: 58.0
Average altitude: 31.22
Percentage of caves on layers 0 to 9: 18.97
Percentage of caves on layers 10 to 19: 25.86
Percentage of caves on layers 20 to 29: 27.59
Percentage of caves on layers 30 to 39: 0.00
Percentage of caves on layers 40 to 49: 1.72
Percentage of caves on layers 50 to 59: 10.34
Percentage of caves above layer 59: 15.52
Air volume of 6621 (49.74%) at -1400, 1432
This is from checking most of the area that I've explored (x = -64 to 64, z = -168 to 192 and x = -192 to 192, z = -64 to 64, corresponding to the maps that I've filled in so far, not counting the one I'm currently exploring), with all chunks exceeding 40% air between layers 11-62 listed. The first area listed is within the cave system I mentioned in this post, the second and sixth ones are within the largest and densest cave system that I've found so far, more than four years ago:
Air volume of 6371 (47.86%) at -2312, -648
Air volume of 6316 (47.45%) at -792, -1016
Air volume of 6281 (47.18%) at -2200, -40
Air volume of 6261 (47.03%) at -1880, -520
Air volume of 6130 (46.05%) at 1064, 24
Air volume of 6071 (45.61%) at -808, -1064
Air volume of 5977 (44.90%) at -1448, -504
Air volume of 5910 (44.40%) at -952, 1624
Air volume of 5785 (43.46%) at -1192, 280
Air volume of 5781 (43.43%) at 1624, 920
Air volume of 5720 (42.97%) at 2728, -488
Air volume of 5695 (42.78%) at -392, 1112
Air volume of 5673 (42.62%) at 888, -56
Air volume of 5422 (40.73%) at -2264, -104
Air volume of 5341 (40.12%) at 1528, -232
Here is the same area but with cave systems with 45 or more caves shown, as well as data for all caves within that area - it is really saying something when I've explored virtually all of an area with more than 36,000 caves! (on average about 60% of caves are between layers 11-62 for 21,600, though caves above/below that range do extend into it)
Size 32 cave system at 0, -2240; total number of caves: 48
Size 34 cave system at 288, -1024; total number of caves: 45
Size 31 cave system at -1744, -736; total number of caves: 49
Size 33 cave system at 672, -480; total number of caves: 49
Size 23 cave system at -1360, -448; total number of caves: 46
Size 35 cave system at 1760, 192; total number of caves: 46
Size 36 cave system at 2096, 496; total number of caves: 54
Size 36 cave system at 480, 832; total number of caves: 47
Size 28 cave system at -176, 1376; total number of caves: 45
Number of cave systems: 3979
Initial number of caves: 26251
Total number of caves: 36220
Additional circular room caves: 9969
Number of small caves: 35082; average width is 6.03
Number of large caves: 1138; average width is 11.77
Number of circular rooms: 6525; average width is 10.94
Additional caves per circular room: 1.53
Average caves per chunk: 0.45787823
Average altitude: 33.40
Percentage of caves on layers 0 to 9: 23.17
Percentage of caves on layers 10 to 19: 17.75
Percentage of caves on layers 20 to 29: 14.05
Percentage of caves on layers 30 to 39: 10.55
Percentage of caves on layers 40 to 49: 8.50
Percentage of caves on layers 50 to 59: 6.97
Percentage of caves above layer 59: 19.01
As mentioned before I've started exploring the map to the south of the last one, or to the southwest of the first map around spawn, working my way south along the westernmost boundary I explored to from the map to the east, going as far west as land permits (100-200 blocks under the ocean, where I found the cave):
Here is a full-size rendering of an area from x = -2048 to -768, z = 1024 to 3200; the cave system I'm currently exploring is the densest area furthest to the left and down while you can see how far west I explored further south; not visible are many points I marked for further exploration westwards when it was time to explore that map:
I've also been reusing one of my older secondary bases, located near -875, 330; while it is quite far to the north of where I'm currently exploring, more than 1,100 blocks to the south, I've been traveling most of the way by boat, which is faster and easier than walking. I also added a 8x36 wheat farm (half a stack of hay bales per harvest, giving 16 emeralds) and chicken pen (mainly for wearing down diamond swords so they are cheap enough to repair my main sword, as well as a use for all of the seeds I get), as this was one of the bases I built before I started trading so it only had a potato farm (some earlier ones also had chicken farms which I used for food). The closest base to the south is at -500, 2040, and depending on what I find further south (westward extent of land, which for now seems to be a bit past x = -1024) I may build a new base somewhere to the south.
This is a more or less typical 1.6.4 style cave system that I found after exploring the rest of the previous cave system, then a mineshaft which was connected to it, which lead to a ravine and another cave system:
Seed is -123775873255737467
Center is -1328, 1584 (chunk -83, 99)
Radius is 0 chunks (circular)
Version used is <= 1.6.4
Size 19 cave system at -1328, 1584; total number of caves: 27
Number of cave systems: 1
Initial number of caves: 19
Total number of caves: 27
Additional circular room caves: 8
Number of small caves: 26; average width is 6.28
Number of large caves: 1; average width is 9.18
Number of circular rooms: 6; average width is 11.99
Additional caves per circular room: 1.33
Average caves per chunk: 27.0
Average altitude: 37.44
Percentage of caves on layers 0 to 9: 3.70
Percentage of caves on layers 10 to 19: 22.22
Percentage of caves on layers 20 to 29: 22.22
Percentage of caves on layers 30 to 39: 18.52
Percentage of caves on layers 40 to 49: 7.41
Percentage of caves on layers 50 to 59: 0.00
Percentage of caves above layer 59: 25.93
While only half the size of the previous cave system this single-chunk cave system is still larger than anything you can find in 1.7 or later in terms of the initial size, and 872 times more common than a cave system with 27 or more caves in 1.7; since I explore around 100 chunks per play session I can expect to find a cave system of this size every 3-4 days (less when you count multiple cave systems close enough to merge together; there were no other cave systems within a 3 chunk radius and only one cave system with 3 caves within 4 chunks of this one. Naturally, since larger cave systems are much more common in 1.6.4 the same applies to large multiple cave system complexes):
Found one cave system with at least 27 caves every 362 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 27 caves every 315600 chunks in 1.7+
Also, here is a comparison of the chances of finding a cave system with 5-50 caves, in increments of 5; 5 caves is the crossover point where larger cave systems become rarer in 1.7 while smaller ones are more common, and nothing was found for 40 or more in 1.7:
Found one cave system with at least 5 caves every 34 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 5 caves every 35 chunks in 1.7+
Found one cave system with at least 10 caves every 58 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 10 caves every 133 chunks in 1.7+
Found one cave system with at least 15 caves every 98 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 15 caves every 652 chunks in 1.7+
Found one cave system with at least 20 caves every 165 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 20 caves every 5308 chunks in 1.7+
Found one cave system with at least 25 caves every 287 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 25 caves every 83116 chunks in 1.7+
Found one cave system with at least 30 caves every 525 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 30 caves every 2713178 chunks in 1.7+
Found one cave system with at least 35 caves every 1038 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 35 caves every 175000000 chunks in 1.7+
Found one cave system with at least 40 caves every 2291 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 45 caves every 5934 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 50 caves every 19047 chunks in 1.6.4
Also, here is a before and after comparison of the area I explored over the past few days:
If you thought that the last two cave systems were big it appears that I've found another "great" cave system, one of the largest and densest that I've found in this world; even after an extensive amount of exploring today I've only explored much of the outer edges of one side; the center is so dense that a ravine that runs into it just disappears into a mess of countless intersecting caves that looks more like foam than "Swiss cheese":
Most of what you see in the lower half of this rendering, which I explored today, is just the edges of the cave system, including a mineshaft (the second one in two days), with the center being somewhere around where it curves around on the right side, as I explored around it:
After several days of intensive exploration I'm still exploring the last cave system that I found, which is turning out to be truly colossal:
And there is still a lot more left to explore. There are some indications that it is actually two separate cave systems (or rather, two separate areas of multiple cave systems because there is no way a single chunk cave system can be that large) but they overlap enough that they may as well be a single giant cave system.
Today I saw a zombie in full enchanted diamond armor when I came up to return from exploring the massive cave:
I'm not sure if these are all of the diamond armored mobs that I've seen in this world (taken from various posts, not in order) but if so then this is the 7th mob that I've seen so far:
Interestingly enough, in this thread I predicted that I'd see another one by October based on the number that I've seen before and the amount of time I've spent in the world; the last time I saw a mob in diamond armor was a bit over a year ago, although I did not play on this world for 7 months; 5 months is about 150 play sessions or a bit more than the average time(127) I calculated between mobs.
(this does not include my modded worlds, where I saw 18 mobs in diamond (or amethyst) armor over less than 1/5 the playtime in the most recent world as I increased the chances of armor, better armor, and made regional difficulty based on the time played, maxing out after 100 hours)
As for the cave system, I've basically finished exploring it from what I can tell and it ended up being the largest cave system that I've ever found in this world, with a total volume of around 280,000 blocks within a 7 chunk radius, including two denser areas with 143,000 and 126,000 blocks within a 4 chunk radius, the first of which is the fourth densest such area that I've found:
These are lists of the densest areas (caves and ravines) within 4 and 7 chunk radii in the region that I've explored so far, not including the latest area (specifically, everything between two intersecting rectangles covering (-192, -64 to 192, 64) and (-64, -168 to 64, 192):
4 chunk radius:
Air volume of 166205 (21.90%) at 2088, 536
Air volume of 161590 (21.30%) at -824, -1032
Air volume of 157411 (20.75%) at -1864, -504
Air volume of 138465 (18.25%) at -360, 1064
Air volume of 128321 (16.91%) at -2264, -632
Air volume of 125291 (16.51%) at -824, 776
Air volume of 124527 (16.41%) at 1416, 232
Air volume of 118987 (15.68%) at -1192, 296
Air volume of 118593 (15.63%) at -88, -1656
Air volume of 118136 (15.57%) at 2296, 40
7 chunk radius:
Air volume of 279711 (13.05%) at 2104, 520
Air volume of 276199 (12.89%) at -840, 856
Air volume of 263090 (12.28%) at -408, 1064
Air volume of 253148 (11.81%) at 2376, -56
Air volume of 250933 (11.71%) at 152, -440
Air volume of 250000 (11.66%) at -1240, -840
Air volume of 248214 (11.58%) at -824, -1016
Air volume of 247231 (11.54%) at -888, 1592
Air volume of 246133 (11.48%) at 344, 1016
Air volume of 244265 (11.40%) at -824, -2376
For comparison, this is the cave I just explored:
4 chunk radius:
Air volume of 143767 (18.95%) at -1176, 1656
Air volume of 126624 (16.69%) at -1160, 1816
7 chunk radius:
Air volume of 280122 (13.07%) at -1224, 1720
I also found 257 caves within a 7 chunk radius, including 16 separate cave systems, 6 larger than the largest size in 1.7+, with as many as 44 caves each:
Size 32 cave system at -1232, 1616; total number of caves: 44
Size 11 cave system at -1136, 1616; total number of caves: 17
Size 1 cave system at -1264, 1632; total number of caves: 3
Size 24 cave system at -1152, 1648; total number of caves: 27
Size 9 cave system at -1104, 1648; total number of caves: 12
Size 22 cave system at -1200, 1664; total number of caves: 30
Size 1 cave system at -1120, 1680; total number of caves: 1
Size 3 cave system at -1264, 1696; total number of caves: 7
Size 18 cave system at -1184, 1712; total number of caves: 26
Size 2 cave system at -1200, 1744; total number of caves: 2
Size 5 cave system at -1120, 1744; total number of caves: 7
Size 3 cave system at -1184, 1760; total number of caves: 3
Size 18 cave system at -1168, 1760; total number of caves: 26
Size 4 cave system at -1200, 1776; total number of caves: 8
Size 9 cave system at -1168, 1776; total number of caves: 9
Size 23 cave system at -1200, 1824; total number of caves: 35
Number of cave systems: 16
Initial number of caves: 185
Total number of caves: 257
Additional circular room caves: 72
Number of small caves: 253; average width is 6.03
Number of large caves: 4; average width is 10.69
Number of circular rooms: 40; average width is 11.09
Additional caves per circular room: 1.80
Average caves per chunk: 1.5962733
Average altitude: 33.92
Percentage of caves on layers 0 to 9: 19.46
Percentage of caves on layers 10 to 19: 19.07
Percentage of caves on layers 20 to 29: 18.68
Percentage of caves on layers 30 to 39: 7.39
Percentage of caves on layers 40 to 49: 6.23
Percentage of caves on layers 50 to 59: 10.12
Percentage of caves above layer 59: 19.07
This is still not the largest single complex of caves/mineshafts/ravines/etc that I've ever found though; around -50, -1700 is a huge cave system surrounded by more than dozen mineshafts which has an air volume of more than 400,000 blocks (since I have since modified the game to prevent mineshafts from generating too close to dense cave systems it is possible that there would be mineshafts within the cave system i just explored):
Here is a comparison of the cave system I just explored (top) to the aforementioned cave/mineshaft complex (bottom), as well as a step-by-step rendering of my progress as I explored it and a 1/10 scale rendering of the entire world:
Can you find the caves shown in the first image above?
(the one I just explored is just right of bottom center while the other one is about a fourth of the way from the left side near the top. As large as they are, they really don't look that big or stand out well at this scale - and to think that I've explored that many caves)
Even that is not large compared to a cave system in the seed "-7501191248410737040" which has a volume of more than half a million and more than 500 individual caves (and is practically under spawn to boot; I found another seed where you actually spawn right on top of a cave system which is nearly as large as what I just explored and much denser, even denser for its size than the cave system at -800, -1050 in this world), and depending on your definition of a cave network there are even larger ones in my world as can be seen on the full rendering above (I consider two denser regions with a noticeable degree of separation to be two separate cave networks; the big cave/mineshaft complex has another large cave system just to the north of it, making it even larger if both of those areas are counted as one).
There may still be more of the cave to explore though; you can see a more scattered network of caves extending off to the right of the cave system and while exploring that area I've come across more very dense areas (when I'm completely finished with the area I'll use Unmined to see just what I've explored).
It appears that I've continued to explore the same vast cave network, now stretching over 400 blocks north-south and around 100 blocks wide and with as many as 400 or more caves:
Of note, it appears that I first explored part of this cave network nearly two years ago since I've run into an area I explored before when I was exploring the map to the east, but stopped because it went well past x = -1024, the western edge of the map, with a return point (pillar marker) at -1065, 2057; based on this post I was exploring to the east of where I am now in December 2015.
This is an analysis of a region just to the south of the one I showed yesterday; I've explored as far south as z = 2050 so far:
Size 1 cave system at -1120, 1824; total number of caves: 1
Size 6 cave system at -1168, 1856; total number of caves: 6
Size 28 cave system at -1136, 1856; total number of caves: 33
Size 2 cave system at -1120, 1856; total number of caves: 2
Size 2 cave system at -1072, 1856; total number of caves: 3
Size 1 cave system at -1104, 1872; total number of caves: 1
Size 13 cave system at -1072, 1872; total number of caves: 16
Size 3 cave system at -1200, 1904; total number of caves: 7
Size 26 cave system at -1120, 1936; total number of caves: 41
Size 7 cave system at -1104, 1936; total number of caves: 7
Size 4 cave system at -1136, 1984; total number of caves: 6
Size 12 cave system at -1088, 2000; total number of caves: 21
Size 1 cave system at -1056, 2000; total number of caves: 1
Size 8 cave system at -1120, 2016; total number of caves: 8
Number of cave systems: 14
Initial number of caves: 114
Total number of caves: 153
Additional circular room caves: 39
Number of small caves: 147; average width is 6.00
Number of large caves: 6; average width is 12.49
Number of circular rooms: 26; average width is 12.05
Additional caves per circular room: 1.50
Average caves per chunk: 1.2644628
Average altitude: 32.64
Percentage of caves on layers 0 to 9: 24.84
Percentage of caves on layers 10 to 19: 16.99
Percentage of caves on layers 20 to 29: 15.03
Percentage of caves on layers 30 to 39: 11.76
Percentage of caves on layers 40 to 49: 9.80
Percentage of caves on layers 50 to 59: 6.54
Percentage of caves above layer 59: 15.03
Here are some more screenshots:
Also, this is representative of what I've been getting from the cave every day for nearly a week now (the Ender chest includes some of what I got from the day before); I also found 5 dungeons today:
I've also found at least two mineshafts over the past few days, none of which I've explored yet (the location of one can be seen on the renderings where there is a series of vertical dots near the center, which is part of a 2x2 spiral staircase to the surface, the other is to the west and is not visible).
I've found even more caves, including another particularly dense area, with a size 32 cave system with 45 caves, the largest single cave system that I've found so far (if it can be called single when it merges with everything else):
I accidentally looked at the Endermen while taking this screenshot:
This screenshot was taken while standing at y=16, with the surface near sea level - a view of the sky from nearly 50 blocks below the surface:
Here is a sequence of renderings of what I explored over the past two days:
The caves I most recently explored appear to form a loop around a cave-free area with at least 7 separate cave systems with a total of 97 caves identified within the western side of the loop (I identify these by recording the coordinates when I find something notable, then running a simple program that counts the number of caves within a 0-3 chunk radius):
Size 32 cave system at -1344, 1728; total number of caves: 45
Size 6 cave system at -1360, 1760; total number of caves: 6
Size 1 cave system at -1312, 1808; total number of caves: 1
Size 15 cave system at -1296, 1808; total number of caves: 21
Size 7 cave system at -1232, 1824; total number of caves: 10
Size 9 cave system at -1280, 1840; total number of caves: 10
Size 1 cave system at -1312, 1856; total number of caves: 4
The caves do finally appear to be ending though; I last stopped playing while exploring a network of at least 4 intersecting ravines on the southwestern edge of the loop, with only a few caves in the area (then again, I marked a return point to what may be a new cave system around -1368, 1866, if not as densely interconnected as all the others).
I can't believe you're still doing this man! This... immense, haha. Awesome. I love reading through these posts.
(I had an old account here, if it makes any difference -- I know you've been at this for a good, long, long while haha)
Come visit my survival building series and hang out, or be a comment in my library.(:
Here's a great episode, and a chill time lapse to start with: Survival Minecraft Timelapse - Biome Terraforming - 1
I made an amazing discovery today; I was exploring under the ocean and surfaced from a ravine which was open to the seafloor and saw this:
That makes this world the only world where I've found every single vanilla biome - after more than four years and 5,000 hours of gameplay, more than half of that in this world. I never found a Mushroom Island in any of my other worlds, and Ice Plains in only one other world, and that was due to modded biome generation which created Ice Plains the size of normal biomes; in this world it took more than half the total time I've spent playing to find one - and that's with only 9 major biomes (Plains, Forest, Desert, Taiga, Jungle, Extreme Hills, Swampland; which are the 7 "normal" biomes, Ice Plains, Mushroom Island).
Here is a full-size rendering which includes every single biome (including Ocean, Frozen Ocean, River, Frozen River and most other sub-biomes, which I generally do not count unless they are unique):
The Mushroom Island is about 750 blocks due south of my current base, which is partially visible between the northernmost two mountains in the Extreme Hills to the left of center. Also visible are numerous cobblestone pillars, which I use to mark where I returned from a caving session and/or marked new areas, the most recent one which is north of the Mushroom Island at -2207, 886.
Also, I technically found a Mushroom Island in this world before when I modded a copy with a version of TMCW so in a sense I found it twice, and before Ice Plains, although I am not counting that here (it was the result of making Mushroom Islands 15 times more common, then making 14/15 of them other biomes so oceans were not so empty; the "mini-continent" that I found that included it does not exist at all in vanilla).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
I brought a couple Mooshrooms back to my main base - leading them with wheat the entire way, taking about 4 days (skipping nights) to cover close to 3000 blocks (I could have used leads but I was too lazy to find some slimes and string, which I don't normally store at my secondary bases since I have so little use for them; all the bows I need for repairs come from skeleton drops).
Here are some screenshots I took along the way:
Another look at the Mushroom Island during the day:
The two victims that I took (I did breed two more so the overall population was not affected):
A creeper decided to join the Moosrooms, except it got stuck in a tree when it climbed some vines (as well as various sheep and cows, which I shook off by moving far enough away that they lost interest):
Crossing a forest and desert; in each screenshots you can see one of my "signature builds":
A jungle infested with hundreds of ocelots, thanks to their spawning mechanics and the fact they they are the only "hostile" mob that are able to spawn anywhere during the day (they are counted as passive mobs so they do not fill up the hostile mob cap and their numbers are only limited by despawning after 2 minutes, and not spawning very often in the first place. Incidentally, I halved their spawn chance when I added witches, cave spiders, and giants to the hostile mob list - vanilla 1.6.4 would be twice as bad, while 1.7+ would be only 1/5 since they made then 1/10 as likely to spawn):
(note the entity count - 343, with 23 visible)
Here you can see an underwater rail tunnel, which makes it easy to stay "on track" since most of my railways are at the same elevation and link together all of my bases, so you can follow them from the surface:
And finally, I arrived at my destination:
Apparently, they can't fit through doorways so I had to help them a bit. In the first screenshot you can see some of the horses and donkeys that I collected (I do not ride them, they have been tied up there for years, including one with diamond horse armor) and the others pink sheep which I found back in November 2015 (as with the Mooshrooms I bred them in the wild before taking them, and breed at least three at my base as insurance against loss, though that isn't much of an issue since I'm rarely at my main base, despite being in the spawn chunks):
(the other side has a staircase so they can get in but the animals inside cannot escape)
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
Essay writing service cheap
Today I had to extend my storage areas for both rails and moss stone - after filling up 32 and 16 double chests of each respectively, which represents 110,592 rails and 55,296 moss stone, or around 370 mineshafts and 1,152 dungeons (I analyzed 30 separate mineshafts before and found an average of 300 rails per mineshaft; assuming each of three sizes all generate with equal chances the average number of moss stone per dungeon is 48). Including rails used in my rail system, all of which came from mineshafts, I've collected around 415 mineshafts worth of rails (most recently, from yet another double intersecting mineshaft):
Note that while I use signs to mark chests that I've filled up I remove all of them and use a single sign to indicate that a corridor is full; I ended up with several stacks of signs after I'd removed all of them and likely won't have to make any new ones for a very long time:
Unlike the other corridors I have for resources the first corridor I made for rails was placed in a different area and instead of making a new one after I filled up the first 16 double chests (the same size as all the others) I extended it to 32; I added a new corridor with 16 double chests off of a corridor I made for furnaces:
I now have more than 111 days of playtime in this world, about 5 times greater than any other world that I've had:
Also, here is a comparison I recently made of this world and 6 of my other worlds, showing just how much larger it is:
(while World1v2 appears to be the same I modified the underground so it was more like a different seed; I also used the same seed for the first version of TMCW, which was only similar for landmasses and ocean. TripleHeightTerrain appears much smaller than the other worlds but there was more than three times more underground due to 128 more layers of ground, compared to 52 between y=11-62 in vanilla)
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
I reached a major milestone today - 10,000 diamond ore mined, an amount that is probably more than the amount of iron or even coal that most players have ever mined, much less in one world - altogether I've mined more than 1.8 million ore in this world alone:
I've also crafted 1,264 diamond blocks, equivalent to 11,376 diamonds (I used Fortune to mine them for a few months and all the mineshafts I've found surely add up to a substantial number; I currently only need diamonds to repair a couple expensive items which I do not use much, like my Silk Touch Ender Pickaxe, used mainly on Ender chests and emerald ore, maybe one diamond every few months), and 242,626 blocks of all mineral resources, equivalent to nearly 2.2 million minerals; when including rails, moss stone, and cobwebs (though many were harvested as string and crafted into wool) I've collected more than 2.4 million resources in this world - not including around 190,000 coal used to make more than half a million torches and smelt more than half a million iron and gold ore and some other uses, and much smaller amounts of other resources:
Of particular interest is that I've crafted 1,469 hay bales, used to store wheat so I can easily take it back to my main base to trade for emeralds; at 18 wheat per emerald this is equivalent to 734 emeralds, enough to buy 73 diamond pickaxes, the item I buy the most of by far, with more than 400 crafted or bought so far, as well as more than 5,300 emeralds (I only started using hay bales relatively recently; even villager trading is relatively recent in the lifetime of this world with around 2/3 of the diamond pickaxes I've used for repairs being bought from trading, so my playstyle has changed a bit since I started playing).
I've now spent more than 113 real-time days, or around 2,716 hours, playing on this world:
Also, I'll have fully explored a level 4 map centered around -2048, 0 soon; I've explored up to or a bit past x=-3072 along most of the western edge, the furthest that I plan to explore in any direction until (if) I fill in all 9 maps centered around 0,0, which would take nearly twice as much time overall as I've spent so far if oceans are included (I generally do not explore more than a couple hundred blocks under oceans; likewise I'll go off a map if the current cave system/mineshaft extends further):
The next map that I'll explore will probably be the one to the south of the current map as it probably won't have much land in it and I've already made a map for that area, which includes the Mushroom Island that I found earlier (I made a new map when exploring the area around it), exploring westwards from the map to the east (there are numerous return points going west that I wrote down when I explored past x=-1024 while exploring that map).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
A relatively large cave:
A large horde of zombies, the result of a water spring blocking them off until i plugged it up:
A bunch of mobs being blown up by a creeper after a skeleton shot it:
Another large cave:
I thought this was a ravine at first due to its size and not being able to see the ceiling due to obstructions:
Also, one thing that I've been doing is analyzing each cave system that I explore; these are the results for each of the cave systems with the large caves mentioned above (in the same order):
Large cave with a width of 16.13 at -2708 10 498
Size 28 cave system at -2720, 496; total number of caves: 41
Number of cave systems: 2
Initial number of caves: 34
Total number of caves: 54
Additional circular room caves: 20
Number of small caves: 53; average width is 5.99
Number of large caves: 1; average width is 16.13
Number of circular rooms: 12; average width is 11.27
Additional caves per circular room: 1.67
Average caves per chunk: 6.0
Average altitude: 33.69
Percentage of caves on layers 0 to 9: 3.70
Percentage of caves on layers 10 to 19: 27.78
Percentage of caves on layers 20 to 29: 16.67
Percentage of caves on layers 30 to 39: 14.81
Percentage of caves on layers 40 to 49: 20.37
Percentage of caves on layers 50 to 59: 1.85
Percentage of caves above layer 59: 14.81
Air volume of 99680 (13.14%) at -2712, 472
Cave 2:
Large cave with a width of 12.02 at -3004 12 -439
Size 23 cave system at -3008, -448; total number of caves: 33
Number of cave systems: 1
Initial number of caves: 23
Total number of caves: 33
Additional circular room caves: 10
Number of small caves: 31; average width is 5.87
Number of large caves: 2; average width is 12.75
Number of circular rooms: 5; average width is 12.14
Additional caves per circular room: 2.00
Average caves per chunk: 3.6666667
Average altitude: 30.79
Percentage of caves on layers 0 to 9: 36.36
Percentage of caves on layers 10 to 19: 9.09
Percentage of caves on layers 20 to 29: 15.15
Percentage of caves on layers 30 to 39: 3.03
Percentage of caves on layers 40 to 49: 3.03
Percentage of caves on layers 50 to 59: 12.12
Percentage of caves above layer 59: 21.21
Air volume of 53825 (7.09%) at -3000, -456
Cave 3:
Large cave with a width of 9.90 at -2793 61 780
Large cave with a width of 10.98 at -2796 35 774
Size 17 cave system at -2800, 768; total number of caves: 29
Size 2 cave system at -2832, 784; total number of caves: 4
Size 1 cave system at -2800, 800; total number of caves: 1
Number of cave systems: 3
Initial number of caves: 20
Total number of caves: 34
Additional circular room caves: 14
Number of small caves: 31; average width is 6.02
Number of large caves: 3; average width is 12.97
Number of circular rooms: 8; average width is 11.56
Additional caves per circular room: 1.75
Average caves per chunk: 3.7777777
Average altitude: 33.21
Percentage of caves on layers 0 to 9: 35.29
Percentage of caves on layers 10 to 19: 11.76
Percentage of caves on layers 20 to 29: 0.00
Percentage of caves on layers 30 to 39: 5.88
Percentage of caves on layers 40 to 49: 26.47
Percentage of caves on layers 50 to 59: 5.88
Percentage of caves above layer 59: 14.71
Air volume of 60854 (8.02%) at -2776, 760
Also, to give you some idea of how rare very large single caves are, there is only one cave with a width of 20 blocks or more within 1024 blocks of the origin in my world (an area which I've completely explored) - or there would be it wasn't far above the surface:
Even a width of 18, equivalent to the largest cave I recently found, only gives 3 results, and two of those were too high up with the third under a river, which prevented most of it from generating:
One reason I mention this is because I often see people saying that they found a huge cave and using that as proof that caves were made bigger again in recent versions, when caves themselves were never changed - only the way they are distributed on a local scale, with 1.7+ having much smaller and more numerous cave systems, leading to much less local-scale variation in cave density.
In fact, the 1.7+ version of my world has no less than four caves with a width of 18 blocks or more, and all of them are below sea level (if not the seafloor, I have not checked them out; two of them may be mostly or entirely below lava level):
interestingly, the second and third caves are the exact same cave at sign-reversed coordinates (not including a random offset, which is not mirrored; the x coordinate is -800 + 13 or 800 + 13), due to a bug with the way the game calculates the per-chunk seed (as noted here and detailed more at the end of this thread).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
Nice work. I can confirm, that the diamonds you've mined far surpass my coal count.
Yours and mine combined by a long shot, I'll wager.
My short story-like journals; quick-and-easy reads:
My Quest for Elytra Complete! (Pic Intense, End-Game Spoilers)
[Journal & Pics] After a Year and a Half, I Finally Found a Jungle
FrozenCore: Hardcore Death; 3/20/15 to 5/3/15; Eight Weeks on a Frozen World in Pictures
I don't consider 10,000 coal to be much at all when I can get that much in 5 play sessions; in my most recent (modded) world I kept track of the time I spent caving (which was about 86% of the total time spent in the world) and averaged 551 per hour and 2,123 per session:
Most players don't mine every vein of coal, or even iron, they come across though, and even I did not until 1.6 came out with the block of coal, and while I still used a substantial amount for torches and fuel in the aforementioned world I used about 255 torches and smelted 225 iron and gold per hour, which represents about 92 coal per hour, or 109 hours to use 10,000, and a sixth of the coal that I currently mine, so by mining it all I nearly tripled my ore collection rate (the time I spend actually mining is relatively small). Also, in the case of my first world I did not do much caving at all for the first month or two and only really collected iron, gold, diamond, and emerald for another month or two; later on I re-explored many of the caves I explored early on to mine everything else, as well as rails, cobwebs (mined as string until much more recently), and moss stone.
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
When you say
I'd like to know if I'm understanding this correctly: You generated three cave systems. One was one of your custom "large" cave systems, and the other two were normal vanilla cave systems. These started at 6 and 28 nodes, and were expanded (25% of the nodes are large rooms that generate extra nodes) to 13 and 41.
No, that can't be right. OK. Two cave systems. One was 6 nodes, and after circular rooms and bonus nodes was 13 total nodes; of those, one was your giant node (size 16). You generated 20 additional nodes, with 12 circular rooms; that means the 12 circular rooms gave an average of just under 2 bonus nodes each -- right, you even say that, 1.67 extra nodes per circular.
But nothing in here is talking about how big the actual air spaces generated are. Because of overlap of the nodes, any actual air space might be significantly bigger than 16 blocks across.
Do any of your tools calculate the effective size of a cave area after everything has overlapped?
===
For a little bit, I was playing around with the giant supplemental caves that COG can generate. Have you ever played with them? My biggest issue was that they were too big to be able to easily lite up, to the point that mobs attacking me was excessive. I'm looking at the size of the caves you work with, and I think these might be just right for you.
* Promoting this week: Captive Minecraft 4, Winter Realm. Aka: Vertical Vanilla Viewing. Clicky!
* My channel with Mystcraft, and general Minecraft Let's Plays: http://www.youtube.com/user/Keybounce.
* See all my video series: http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-editions/minecraft-editions-show-your/2865421-keybounces-list-of-creation-threads
(In regard to a mod that gives realistic animal genetics):
Would you really rather have bees that make diamonds and oil with magical genetic blocks?
... did I really ask that?
Actually, all the caves are pure vanilla - by my definition a "large cave" is a cave that has a width that is larger than the largest "normal" cave (tunnel) which gets up to 9 blocks in diameter. The only modifications I've made to this world (not counting the time I modded a copy with a version of TMCW, which you can see in earlier posts) are to remove torches from mineshafts so that MCMap doesn't show unexplored areas, and prevented them from generating too close to dense cave systems (about a quarter of mineshafts were removed; this has some effects on other world generation where they are missing, such as the locations of ores and dungeons, since a single RNG is used for all chunk population and mineshafts generate before anything else). I also added a couple new blocks so I can compact rails and cobwebs in the same manner as ores or string to wool (I break them down for permanent storage so there are no persistent mod items in the world); otherwise, I also fixed some bugs (e.g. zombie lag) and made some other tweaks (e.g. light level 0 is actually dark), and making the regional difficulty calculation start at 50% instead of 0% and reach 100% in half the time (which it still never reaches in most chunks, and that is during a full moon, 75% on a new moon) and giving zombies more types of weapons (the rare diamond tool drop is entirely balanced given that I can buy new ones for a few emeralds) and other similar minor tweaks.
More specifically, the size of a cave is determined with the following code:
As you can see, most caves have an initial "width" that varies between 0-3, then there is a 10% chance of this being multiplied by 1-4, giving a maximum value of 12. You can see more of the code here (for 1.10; the 15 on line 231 is the "size" and 7 on line 233 is the "chance", while 1.6.4 uses 40 and 15, which had not been changed since sometime in Alpha or Beta; I decompiled InfDev before and it used 40 and 10, making caves 50% more common than in 1.6.4, but it did not have the additional width multiplier).
This value is then used to calculate the actual radius with the following code, which adds 1.5 to a value that varies between 0-100% of the maximum based on the current position along the length, reaching a maximum at half the length (think of the shape of ravines, which use nearly the same code as caves):
Thus, "normal" caves, with an initial width of 0-3, vary in diameter from 3-9 blocks (radius of 1.5-4.5) and "large" caves can reach up to 27 blocks in diameter (radius of 13.5), with not every cave having the additional multiplier actually exceeding 9 blocks.
And yes, I do have a self-made utility that measures the volume of caves within an area; for example, this is for the largest and densest cave system in my world, and I included the measured volume (all for a 4 chunk radius) of the three cave systems in my post (ravines are also included; I do this by running the cave generation code over fake chunk data, which is just a byte array replacing the one used to temporarily store terrain data until it is used to initialize a chunk):
Cave size is 40 and cave chance is 15
Ravine chance is 50 and version used is <= 1.6.4
Center of area to search is -800, -1056
Area to search is from -928, -1184 to -672, -928
Radius to calculate air volume over is 4 chunks
Altitude range is 11 to 62
Generating caves (may take a while)... 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Calculating air volume...
Creating list of densest regions found...
Removing redundant entries...
Sorting list...
Top 1 regions found by air volume between layers 11-62:
Air volume of 161590 (21.30%) at -824, -1032
(there is actually another cave system around 2100, 500 which is slightly larger but only when ravines are included)
Incidentally, this is how I've found such impossibly huge cave systems like this one, which is 5-10 times larger than any of the three cave systems I mentioned before:
Cave size is 40 and cave chance is 15
Ravine chance is 50 and version used is <= 1.6.4
Center of area to search is -304, 96
Area to search is from -432, -32 to -176, 224
Radius to calculate air volume over is 8 chunks
Altitude range is 11 to 62
Generating caves (may take a while)... 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Calculating air volume...
Creating list of densest regions found...
Removing redundant entries...
Sorting list...
Top 1 regions found by air volume between layers 11-62:
Air volume of 540287 (19.05%) at -376, 216
The smaller cave system is the one from my first world, which has less than a third of the volume but is slightly denser (4 chunk radius vs 8 chunks, which is actually a diameter of 2 * r + 1):
Heh, I suppose that you've never heard of my mods, in particular, "TheMasterCaver's World"; here are some of the caves (and ravines) that I explored in my most recent world (all of this is of my own making; the only mods that I've used which were not of my own making were a few simple mods like Rei's Minimap and Backpacks, which I no longer use, aside from Optifine (which I've modded myself) I've only used my own mods for the past few years):
A cutaway view of the cave:
In another cave I killed around 600 mobs, and nearly 800 overall, my all-time record for a single play session (likely since before I added the "per play session stats" in the inventory screen, which I also use with my first world):
Wondering how I light up the ceiling of these caves?
A giant circular room 57 blocks in diameter, with around 37 times the volume of the largest vanilla room (17 blocks; the Wiki claims 30+ blocks but it is incorrect; conversely, it claims that ravines are no more than 7 blocks wide when they can get up to 15):
A slightly smaller room, 52 blocks in diameter:
The largest ravine that I found, slightly larger than the largest cave; both combined had a volume of more than half a million blocks and were only 128 blocks apart:
A cutaway view of the ravine; the "separate" ravine on the far right is part of the ravine, which is mostly straight with a curve at each end:
The second-largest ravine that I found, and third-largest cave or ravine:
As seen from the middle towards each end:
This was my first look at the ravine:
And for the finale, a "giant cave region", which is like a cave system that has been scaled up in every aspect (except for depth; the underground is 7 layers deeper in TMCW since I lowered the lava level by 7 layers) with a total volume of more than 1.2 million blocks; it took more than 5,500 torches to light it up with more than 15,000 resources mined from it (which is actually less than I mined from a much smaller (volume-wise) complex of mineshafts in vanilla):
(as seen here I set up furnaces in caves I'm exploring so I can smelt iron and gold to make more room since blocks take up only 1/9 the space as raw ore)
Some views of the giant cave region in MCEdit:
An MCEdit analysis of a 300x300 block area centered over the giant cave region:
Here is a map of part of the world; the giant cave region is the huge area in the upper-right while you can see several giant caves and ravines, including the largest ones shown above to the west of the giant cave region:
Here is a chart I made of the size distribution of caves in TMCWv4, similar to the one I made for vanilla, as well as a comparison of both in one chart (note that both of these use calculated values; they do not account for a cave intersecting itself, as it would be far too slow to actually measure 1 billion chunks worth of caves if every one had to be generated. Circular rooms and ravines are much more accurate since they do not overlap themselves; a circular room is a single semi-spherical cave segment (the floor is flattened) with a height that is half the diameter):
Also, this is what the largest cave possible looks like (I forced all the size variables to their maximums). The cave would be even deeper if I did not reduce the height as width increases (done so they don't break the surface as often; ravines could get up to 120 blocks deep if I did not reduce their height):
And that's not even considering my "double/triple height terrain" mods, which added 64 or 128 layers to the underground, with ravines able to cover the entire ground depth (the largest caves were actually smaller than in TMCW but cave systems were absolutely enormous as I basically scaled their size up by 3^3 or 27 times. I stopped developing these mods since I decided that the ground was too deep; TMCW uses the vanilla sea level while lava level is 7 layers deeper for 13% more underground, as well as more caves near to above sea level in biomes with elevated terrain):
Notice the ravine on the far left - which was around 180 blocks deep. Some of the cave systems were also entirely split into separate layers, each equivalent to a medium-large vanilla cave system, due to the huge vertical distance (for this reason I added special caves which went from the surface down to bedrock to link them together; these were also the only caves that appeared on the surface. An adaptation of these caves were used to make "vertical" cave systems in TMCWv4):
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
Oh my ... I'm just imaging those giants with flowing water ... empty the oceans and there's still air :-).
Alright, so one piece of confusion: You seem to use the same term for both the full cave system, as well as an individual node/tunnel of a cave system.
* Promoting this week: Captive Minecraft 4, Winter Realm. Aka: Vertical Vanilla Viewing. Clicky!
* My channel with Mystcraft, and general Minecraft Let's Plays: http://www.youtube.com/user/Keybounce.
* See all my video series: http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-editions/minecraft-editions-show-your/2865421-keybounces-list-of-creation-threads
(In regard to a mod that gives realistic animal genetics):
Would you really rather have bees that make diamonds and oil with magical genetic blocks?
... did I really ask that?
This is in the middle of a very large cave system that I've spent the past two days exploring, with more than 7,000 ores mined and 800 mobs killed so far with more to go, plus a mineshaft which intersects it:
In fact, the chunk containing the huge cave chamber contains a single cave system with 58 caves, including 5 larger caves (4 below sea level) - the largest single cave system that I've found in this world (there are many other cave systems nearby which all merge together into a larger system), as well as the highest air volume of any chunk in any cave system I've explored so far (it is likely that a 16x16 block area has a higher volume but I only measured chunks. Ravines were not included):
Center is -1424, 1424 (chunk -89, 89)
Radius is 0 chunks (circular)
Version used is <= 1.6.4
Large cave with a width of 18.16 at -1418 21 1426
Large cave with a width of 17.84 at -1413 12 1431
Large cave with a width of 10.76 at -1413 12 1431
Large cave with a width of 16.40 at -1414 12 1436
Large cave with a width of 16.67 at -1420 75 1438
Size 36 cave system at -1424, 1424; total number of caves: 58
Number of cave systems: 1
Initial number of caves: 36
Total number of caves: 58
Additional circular room caves: 22
Number of small caves: 53; average width is 5.93
Number of large caves: 5; average width is 15.97
Number of circular rooms: 11; average width is 10.47
Additional caves per circular room: 2.00
Average caves per chunk: 58.0
Average altitude: 31.22
Percentage of caves on layers 0 to 9: 18.97
Percentage of caves on layers 10 to 19: 25.86
Percentage of caves on layers 20 to 29: 27.59
Percentage of caves on layers 30 to 39: 0.00
Percentage of caves on layers 40 to 49: 1.72
Percentage of caves on layers 50 to 59: 10.34
Percentage of caves above layer 59: 15.52
Air volume of 6621 (49.74%) at -1400, 1432
This is from checking most of the area that I've explored (x = -64 to 64, z = -168 to 192 and x = -192 to 192, z = -64 to 64, corresponding to the maps that I've filled in so far, not counting the one I'm currently exploring), with all chunks exceeding 40% air between layers 11-62 listed. The first area listed is within the cave system I mentioned in this post, the second and sixth ones are within the largest and densest cave system that I've found so far, more than four years ago:
Air volume of 6371 (47.86%) at -2312, -648
Air volume of 6316 (47.45%) at -792, -1016
Air volume of 6281 (47.18%) at -2200, -40
Air volume of 6261 (47.03%) at -1880, -520
Air volume of 6130 (46.05%) at 1064, 24
Air volume of 6071 (45.61%) at -808, -1064
Air volume of 5977 (44.90%) at -1448, -504
Air volume of 5910 (44.40%) at -952, 1624
Air volume of 5785 (43.46%) at -1192, 280
Air volume of 5781 (43.43%) at 1624, 920
Air volume of 5720 (42.97%) at 2728, -488
Air volume of 5695 (42.78%) at -392, 1112
Air volume of 5673 (42.62%) at 888, -56
Air volume of 5422 (40.73%) at -2264, -104
Air volume of 5341 (40.12%) at 1528, -232
Here is the same area but with cave systems with 45 or more caves shown, as well as data for all caves within that area - it is really saying something when I've explored virtually all of an area with more than 36,000 caves! (on average about 60% of caves are between layers 11-62 for 21,600, though caves above/below that range do extend into it)
Size 32 cave system at 0, -2240; total number of caves: 48
Size 34 cave system at 288, -1024; total number of caves: 45
Size 31 cave system at -1744, -736; total number of caves: 49
Size 33 cave system at 672, -480; total number of caves: 49
Size 23 cave system at -1360, -448; total number of caves: 46
Size 35 cave system at 1760, 192; total number of caves: 46
Size 36 cave system at 2096, 496; total number of caves: 54
Size 36 cave system at 480, 832; total number of caves: 47
Size 28 cave system at -176, 1376; total number of caves: 45
Number of cave systems: 3979
Initial number of caves: 26251
Total number of caves: 36220
Additional circular room caves: 9969
Number of small caves: 35082; average width is 6.03
Number of large caves: 1138; average width is 11.77
Number of circular rooms: 6525; average width is 10.94
Additional caves per circular room: 1.53
Average caves per chunk: 0.45787823
Average altitude: 33.40
Percentage of caves on layers 0 to 9: 23.17
Percentage of caves on layers 10 to 19: 17.75
Percentage of caves on layers 20 to 29: 14.05
Percentage of caves on layers 30 to 39: 10.55
Percentage of caves on layers 40 to 49: 8.50
Percentage of caves on layers 50 to 59: 6.97
Percentage of caves above layer 59: 19.01
As mentioned before I've started exploring the map to the south of the last one, or to the southwest of the first map around spawn, working my way south along the westernmost boundary I explored to from the map to the east, going as far west as land permits (100-200 blocks under the ocean, where I found the cave):
Here is a full-size rendering of an area from x = -2048 to -768, z = 1024 to 3200; the cave system I'm currently exploring is the densest area furthest to the left and down while you can see how far west I explored further south; not visible are many points I marked for further exploration westwards when it was time to explore that map:
I've also been reusing one of my older secondary bases, located near -875, 330; while it is quite far to the north of where I'm currently exploring, more than 1,100 blocks to the south, I've been traveling most of the way by boat, which is faster and easier than walking. I also added a 8x36 wheat farm (half a stack of hay bales per harvest, giving 16 emeralds) and chicken pen (mainly for wearing down diamond swords so they are cheap enough to repair my main sword, as well as a use for all of the seeds I get), as this was one of the bases I built before I started trading so it only had a potato farm (some earlier ones also had chicken farms which I used for food). The closest base to the south is at -500, 2040, and depending on what I find further south (westward extent of land, which for now seems to be a bit past x = -1024) I may build a new base somewhere to the south.
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
Seed is -123775873255737467
Center is -1328, 1584 (chunk -83, 99)
Radius is 0 chunks (circular)
Version used is <= 1.6.4
Size 19 cave system at -1328, 1584; total number of caves: 27
Number of cave systems: 1
Initial number of caves: 19
Total number of caves: 27
Additional circular room caves: 8
Number of small caves: 26; average width is 6.28
Number of large caves: 1; average width is 9.18
Number of circular rooms: 6; average width is 11.99
Additional caves per circular room: 1.33
Average caves per chunk: 27.0
Average altitude: 37.44
Percentage of caves on layers 0 to 9: 3.70
Percentage of caves on layers 10 to 19: 22.22
Percentage of caves on layers 20 to 29: 22.22
Percentage of caves on layers 30 to 39: 18.52
Percentage of caves on layers 40 to 49: 7.41
Percentage of caves on layers 50 to 59: 0.00
Percentage of caves above layer 59: 25.93
While only half the size of the previous cave system this single-chunk cave system is still larger than anything you can find in 1.7 or later in terms of the initial size, and 872 times more common than a cave system with 27 or more caves in 1.7; since I explore around 100 chunks per play session I can expect to find a cave system of this size every 3-4 days (less when you count multiple cave systems close enough to merge together; there were no other cave systems within a 3 chunk radius and only one cave system with 3 caves within 4 chunks of this one. Naturally, since larger cave systems are much more common in 1.6.4 the same applies to large multiple cave system complexes):
Also, here is a comparison of the chances of finding a cave system with 5-50 caves, in increments of 5; 5 caves is the crossover point where larger cave systems become rarer in 1.7 while smaller ones are more common, and nothing was found for 40 or more in 1.7:
Found one cave system with at least 5 caves every 35 chunks in 1.7+
Found one cave system with at least 10 caves every 58 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 10 caves every 133 chunks in 1.7+
Found one cave system with at least 15 caves every 98 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 15 caves every 652 chunks in 1.7+
Found one cave system with at least 20 caves every 165 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 20 caves every 5308 chunks in 1.7+
Found one cave system with at least 25 caves every 287 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 25 caves every 83116 chunks in 1.7+
Found one cave system with at least 30 caves every 525 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 30 caves every 2713178 chunks in 1.7+
Found one cave system with at least 35 caves every 1038 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 35 caves every 175000000 chunks in 1.7+
Found one cave system with at least 40 caves every 2291 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 45 caves every 5934 chunks in 1.6.4
Found one cave system with at least 50 caves every 19047 chunks in 1.6.4
Also, here is a before and after comparison of the area I explored over the past few days:
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
If you thought that the last two cave systems were big it appears that I've found another "great" cave system, one of the largest and densest that I've found in this world; even after an extensive amount of exploring today I've only explored much of the outer edges of one side; the center is so dense that a ravine that runs into it just disappears into a mess of countless intersecting caves that looks more like foam than "Swiss cheese":
Most of what you see in the lower half of this rendering, which I explored today, is just the edges of the cave system, including a mineshaft (the second one in two days), with the center being somewhere around where it curves around on the right side, as I explored around it:
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
After several days of intensive exploration I'm still exploring the last cave system that I found, which is turning out to be truly colossal:
And there is still a lot more left to explore. There are some indications that it is actually two separate cave systems (or rather, two separate areas of multiple cave systems because there is no way a single chunk cave system can be that large) but they overlap enough that they may as well be a single giant cave system.
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
Today I saw a zombie in full enchanted diamond armor when I came up to return from exploring the massive cave:
I'm not sure if these are all of the diamond armored mobs that I've seen in this world (taken from various posts, not in order) but if so then this is the 7th mob that I've seen so far:
Interestingly enough, in this thread I predicted that I'd see another one by October based on the number that I've seen before and the amount of time I've spent in the world; the last time I saw a mob in diamond armor was a bit over a year ago, although I did not play on this world for 7 months; 5 months is about 150 play sessions or a bit more than the average time(127) I calculated between mobs.
(this does not include my modded worlds, where I saw 18 mobs in diamond (or amethyst) armor over less than 1/5 the playtime in the most recent world as I increased the chances of armor, better armor, and made regional difficulty based on the time played, maxing out after 100 hours)
As for the cave system, I've basically finished exploring it from what I can tell and it ended up being the largest cave system that I've ever found in this world, with a total volume of around 280,000 blocks within a 7 chunk radius, including two denser areas with 143,000 and 126,000 blocks within a 4 chunk radius, the first of which is the fourth densest such area that I've found:
4 chunk radius:
Air volume of 166205 (21.90%) at 2088, 536
Air volume of 161590 (21.30%) at -824, -1032
Air volume of 157411 (20.75%) at -1864, -504
Air volume of 138465 (18.25%) at -360, 1064
Air volume of 128321 (16.91%) at -2264, -632
Air volume of 125291 (16.51%) at -824, 776
Air volume of 124527 (16.41%) at 1416, 232
Air volume of 118987 (15.68%) at -1192, 296
Air volume of 118593 (15.63%) at -88, -1656
Air volume of 118136 (15.57%) at 2296, 40
7 chunk radius:
Air volume of 279711 (13.05%) at 2104, 520
Air volume of 276199 (12.89%) at -840, 856
Air volume of 263090 (12.28%) at -408, 1064
Air volume of 253148 (11.81%) at 2376, -56
Air volume of 250933 (11.71%) at 152, -440
Air volume of 250000 (11.66%) at -1240, -840
Air volume of 248214 (11.58%) at -824, -1016
Air volume of 247231 (11.54%) at -888, 1592
Air volume of 246133 (11.48%) at 344, 1016
Air volume of 244265 (11.40%) at -824, -2376
For comparison, this is the cave I just explored:
4 chunk radius:
Air volume of 143767 (18.95%) at -1176, 1656
Air volume of 126624 (16.69%) at -1160, 1816
7 chunk radius:
Air volume of 280122 (13.07%) at -1224, 1720
I also found 257 caves within a 7 chunk radius, including 16 separate cave systems, 6 larger than the largest size in 1.7+, with as many as 44 caves each:
Size 11 cave system at -1136, 1616; total number of caves: 17
Size 1 cave system at -1264, 1632; total number of caves: 3
Size 24 cave system at -1152, 1648; total number of caves: 27
Size 9 cave system at -1104, 1648; total number of caves: 12
Size 22 cave system at -1200, 1664; total number of caves: 30
Size 1 cave system at -1120, 1680; total number of caves: 1
Size 3 cave system at -1264, 1696; total number of caves: 7
Size 18 cave system at -1184, 1712; total number of caves: 26
Size 2 cave system at -1200, 1744; total number of caves: 2
Size 5 cave system at -1120, 1744; total number of caves: 7
Size 3 cave system at -1184, 1760; total number of caves: 3
Size 18 cave system at -1168, 1760; total number of caves: 26
Size 4 cave system at -1200, 1776; total number of caves: 8
Size 9 cave system at -1168, 1776; total number of caves: 9
Size 23 cave system at -1200, 1824; total number of caves: 35
Number of cave systems: 16
Initial number of caves: 185
Total number of caves: 257
Additional circular room caves: 72
Number of small caves: 253; average width is 6.03
Number of large caves: 4; average width is 10.69
Number of circular rooms: 40; average width is 11.09
Additional caves per circular room: 1.80
Average caves per chunk: 1.5962733
Average altitude: 33.92
Percentage of caves on layers 0 to 9: 19.46
Percentage of caves on layers 10 to 19: 19.07
Percentage of caves on layers 20 to 29: 18.68
Percentage of caves on layers 30 to 39: 7.39
Percentage of caves on layers 40 to 49: 6.23
Percentage of caves on layers 50 to 59: 10.12
Percentage of caves above layer 59: 19.07
This is still not the largest single complex of caves/mineshafts/ravines/etc that I've ever found though; around -50, -1700 is a huge cave system surrounded by more than dozen mineshafts which has an air volume of more than 400,000 blocks (since I have since modified the game to prevent mineshafts from generating too close to dense cave systems it is possible that there would be mineshafts within the cave system i just explored):
Here is a comparison of the cave system I just explored (top) to the aforementioned cave/mineshaft complex (bottom), as well as a step-by-step rendering of my progress as I explored it and a 1/10 scale rendering of the entire world:
Can you find the caves shown in the first image above?
(the one I just explored is just right of bottom center while the other one is about a fourth of the way from the left side near the top. As large as they are, they really don't look that big or stand out well at this scale - and to think that I've explored that many caves)
Even that is not large compared to a cave system in the seed "-7501191248410737040" which has a volume of more than half a million and more than 500 individual caves (and is practically under spawn to boot; I found another seed where you actually spawn right on top of a cave system which is nearly as large as what I just explored and much denser, even denser for its size than the cave system at -800, -1050 in this world), and depending on your definition of a cave network there are even larger ones in my world as can be seen on the full rendering above (I consider two denser regions with a noticeable degree of separation to be two separate cave networks; the big cave/mineshaft complex has another large cave system just to the north of it, making it even larger if both of those areas are counted as one).
There may still be more of the cave to explore though; you can see a more scattered network of caves extending off to the right of the cave system and while exploring that area I've come across more very dense areas (when I'm completely finished with the area I'll use Unmined to see just what I've explored).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
It appears that I've continued to explore the same vast cave network, now stretching over 400 blocks north-south and around 100 blocks wide and with as many as 400 or more caves:
Of note, it appears that I first explored part of this cave network nearly two years ago since I've run into an area I explored before when I was exploring the map to the east, but stopped because it went well past x = -1024, the western edge of the map, with a return point (pillar marker) at -1065, 2057; based on this post I was exploring to the east of where I am now in December 2015.
This is an analysis of a region just to the south of the one I showed yesterday; I've explored as far south as z = 2050 so far:
Size 6 cave system at -1168, 1856; total number of caves: 6
Size 28 cave system at -1136, 1856; total number of caves: 33
Size 2 cave system at -1120, 1856; total number of caves: 2
Size 2 cave system at -1072, 1856; total number of caves: 3
Size 1 cave system at -1104, 1872; total number of caves: 1
Size 13 cave system at -1072, 1872; total number of caves: 16
Size 3 cave system at -1200, 1904; total number of caves: 7
Size 26 cave system at -1120, 1936; total number of caves: 41
Size 7 cave system at -1104, 1936; total number of caves: 7
Size 4 cave system at -1136, 1984; total number of caves: 6
Size 12 cave system at -1088, 2000; total number of caves: 21
Size 1 cave system at -1056, 2000; total number of caves: 1
Size 8 cave system at -1120, 2016; total number of caves: 8
Number of cave systems: 14
Initial number of caves: 114
Total number of caves: 153
Additional circular room caves: 39
Number of small caves: 147; average width is 6.00
Number of large caves: 6; average width is 12.49
Number of circular rooms: 26; average width is 12.05
Additional caves per circular room: 1.50
Average caves per chunk: 1.2644628
Average altitude: 32.64
Percentage of caves on layers 0 to 9: 24.84
Percentage of caves on layers 10 to 19: 16.99
Percentage of caves on layers 20 to 29: 15.03
Percentage of caves on layers 30 to 39: 11.76
Percentage of caves on layers 40 to 49: 9.80
Percentage of caves on layers 50 to 59: 6.54
Percentage of caves above layer 59: 15.03
Here are some more screenshots:
Also, this is representative of what I've been getting from the cave every day for nearly a week now (the Ender chest includes some of what I got from the day before); I also found 5 dungeons today:
I've also found at least two mineshafts over the past few days, none of which I've explored yet (the location of one can be seen on the renderings where there is a series of vertical dots near the center, which is part of a 2x2 spiral staircase to the surface, the other is to the west and is not visible).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
I've found even more caves, including another particularly dense area, with a size 32 cave system with 45 caves, the largest single cave system that I've found so far (if it can be called single when it merges with everything else):
This screenshot was taken while standing at y=16, with the surface near sea level - a view of the sky from nearly 50 blocks below the surface:
Here is a sequence of renderings of what I explored over the past two days:
The caves I most recently explored appear to form a loop around a cave-free area with at least 7 separate cave systems with a total of 97 caves identified within the western side of the loop (I identify these by recording the coordinates when I find something notable, then running a simple program that counts the number of caves within a 0-3 chunk radius):
Size 6 cave system at -1360, 1760; total number of caves: 6
Size 1 cave system at -1312, 1808; total number of caves: 1
Size 15 cave system at -1296, 1808; total number of caves: 21
Size 7 cave system at -1232, 1824; total number of caves: 10
Size 9 cave system at -1280, 1840; total number of caves: 10
Size 1 cave system at -1312, 1856; total number of caves: 4
The caves do finally appear to be ending though; I last stopped playing while exploring a network of at least 4 intersecting ravines on the southwestern edge of the loop, with only a few caves in the area (then again, I marked a return point to what may be a new cave system around -1368, 1866, if not as densely interconnected as all the others).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?