The ammount of iron you can get depends a little bit on the world generation. On some worlds i created i barely could find some iron to make the basics and on others i could find plenty of it.
Theres another factor: the uses that iron has. I believe is one of the blocks that has most uses on the game, from armor and tools to rails, pistons, hoppers, hooks etc etc etc.
Another factor is the players experience: when you know how to search something you will be more fit to find it.
Anyone else think Iron ore is much too common? I'm on my first night on a new world and I already have a Steel Pick, Shovel and Sword. Is iron too common and easy to get or is it just me
You called iron both steel and iron in the same post
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You should really read these books if you're a fan of, well, reading.
You are very lucky in my seed i just get coal and tons of gold (i dont complain) its very rare to find iron.
I have more Gold than Iron as well. I might even have more Diamonds at the moment, although that's because I just used a bunch of Iron to build something. Then again, I also built a bunch of Diamond armor and tools (multiple full sets), and I still had more gold, even before using the iron.
The thing I seem to have the most trouble finding is Lapis Lazuli, believe it or not. I have tons of Diamonds, Gold, Coal and Redstone, a good amount of Iron, but very little Lapis Lazuli.
I had planned to pave the floor of my small island home with Lapis Lazuli Ore blocks (just for an interesting look), so I started mining like crazy, using a Silk Touch pickaxe to get the ore, and I ended up with more Diamond and Gold ore than Lapis. So now my floor is paved with Diamond Ore blocks. I have 16 more Diamond Ore blocks than I need for the floor, and I still have not found enough Lapis (need 6 more)!
I'm guessing this has something to do with ore distribution. My mine is located at levels that maximize the chance of finding diamonds, while iron is more spread out, and lapis is more concentrated at levels above where I'm currently mining.
Oh, and I haven't found a single dang Emerald yet, while my friend Kristine has over 20!!
People saying that iron is rare in their seed have to be very unlucky or are only branch-mining, which can easily miss veins; there is no correlation at all between the world seed and the amount of iron in a world; 20 iron veins are always generated in each hunk regardless of the seed (a bit less in ocean biomes due to less stone, but otherwise the same % of iron/stone, around 0.6%).
Any cave I've been in has lots of iron exposed; sure, some passages may not even have coal, but others have iron exposed everywhere (I once found this; 39 iron ore in that small area, if mostly covered up; I used Creative to uncover the iron without mining it).
From my stats I'd say that iron is definitely very easy to get; however, check out the amount of coal I've mined so far (there's only about twice as much coal per chunk, and half as many veins per volume, but the veins are bigger):
NB: This is from a modded world, which includes twice as much iron per chunk due to the ground being twice as deep, but the amount per volume, thus exposed per length of cave, is the same (40 veins over 128 blocks compared to 20 over 64 for vanilla; the ratio of gold/iron/coal is pretty close to what I got from vanilla generation, I also find plenty of lapis/redstone/diamond, and emeralds when in Extreme Hills).
Theres another factor: the uses that iron has. I believe is one of the blocks that has most uses on the game, from armor and tools to rails, pistons, hoppers, hooks etc etc etc.
Another factor is the players experience: when you know how to search something you will be more fit to find it.
Irony? Please say its so...
I have more Gold than Iron as well. I might even have more Diamonds at the moment, although that's because I just used a bunch of Iron to build something. Then again, I also built a bunch of Diamond armor and tools (multiple full sets), and I still had more gold, even before using the iron.
The thing I seem to have the most trouble finding is Lapis Lazuli, believe it or not. I have tons of Diamonds, Gold, Coal and Redstone, a good amount of Iron, but very little Lapis Lazuli.
I had planned to pave the floor of my small island home with Lapis Lazuli Ore blocks (just for an interesting look), so I started mining like crazy, using a Silk Touch pickaxe to get the ore, and I ended up with more Diamond and Gold ore than Lapis. So now my floor is paved with Diamond Ore blocks. I have 16 more Diamond Ore blocks than I need for the floor, and I still have not found enough Lapis (need 6 more)!
I'm guessing this has something to do with ore distribution. My mine is located at levels that maximize the chance of finding diamonds, while iron is more spread out, and lapis is more concentrated at levels above where I'm currently mining.
Oh, and I haven't found a single dang Emerald yet, while my friend Kristine has over 20!!
Any cave I've been in has lots of iron exposed; sure, some passages may not even have coal, but others have iron exposed everywhere (I once found this; 39 iron ore in that small area, if mostly covered up; I used Creative to uncover the iron without mining it).
From my stats I'd say that iron is definitely very easy to get; however, check out the amount of coal I've mined so far (there's only about twice as much coal per chunk, and half as many veins per volume, but the veins are bigger):
NB: This is from a modded world, which includes twice as much iron per chunk due to the ground being twice as deep, but the amount per volume, thus exposed per length of cave, is the same (40 veins over 128 blocks compared to 20 over 64 for vanilla; the ratio of gold/iron/coal is pretty close to what I got from vanilla generation, I also find plenty of lapis/redstone/diamond, and emeralds when in Extreme Hills).
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?