Previously, when I wanted a new main survival world for fresh areas to explore (well, just once), I used MCEdit to copy over my main base, so that wasn't really starting over but more like just moving everything to a new base; I decided to start over this time instead (I also reset my statistics and achievements; I play my main worlds in their own profile, even before using mods/Forge). In particular, the last time I made a new world was because I found out how to modify cave generation. This time though, there is a new twist, as the following screenshot shows (note that I did use the same seed as my previous two worlds; the lake shown here is where I put my base; my first world was simply called World1 and I named my second World1v2 and of course this one is World1v3):
Notice anything weird? Click the button below to find out:
Wait a minute, are those clouds* just above sea level, and the y-coordinate is over 130?! Yep, that is thanks to my latest modification, raising the height of terrain - in 1.6 nonetheless (you can read about it here), which was limited to 128 because of how the terrain generation code was written, only finally raised to the world height limit in 1.7 (and no, I didn't find out how to do this from looking at decompiled 1.7 code; I looked at an old mod that did this and a lot more, although I kept terrain exactly the same otherwise); I basically doubled the size of the array that holds terrain data and added 64 to the normal terrain, filling in the rest with stone and a layer of bedrock at the bottom, of course, removing the original bedrock so it doesn't block everything below it.
*Optifine can change the height of clouds; setting the height to 50% moves them to a "normal" height.
I also adjusted a lot of things to account for the increase in terrain height; for example, iron ore has double the range and double the ores per chunk (but the same density/percentage of blocks), the same is also true of coal (50% more + 50% higher range), while for rarer ores I did something different, adjusting the ranges relative to that normally above lava level in caves; e.g. diamond ore normally can be found up to 5 blocks above lava (11-15), but I made it 10 blocks, which is actually 2 levels lower (to layer 13) because I lowered the lava level from 10 to 3, something I previously did to make more room, leaving it as-is (bedrock is just one layer so lava is still up to 3 blocks deep); the amount of ore was adjusted based on the new total y-ranges, about 50% more gold and lapis (to y=45) and about the same amount of diamond and redstone (to y=13, but the removal of bedrock offsets the decreased range). Similarly, the spawning ranges of some mobs had to be adjusted, or no slimes spawn in swamps (instead, deep underground; I also increased the range of slime chunk spawning).
Additionally, I also modified the generation of abandoned mineshafts; besides extending their y-range, I made them 3 times less common (chance = 0.0033...) but also removed the decrease in frequency within 80 chunks of the origin (i.e. not actually 3x less common near the origin but less common than the mess I started encountering on my first world, almost nothing but mineshafts everywhere; a much larger y-range also makes them less likely to intersect each other).
Note that I used Minecraft Land Generator to pregenerate a world large enough to have every old biome because the terrain generation is VERY hard on the game, especially when generating a supercolossal cave system (made even more so by the doubling in terrain height); a single region file is around 10-12 MB. I still need a few modded classes when playing though to fix spawning ranges, as noted above, but not the 20-odd classes that I needed to modify (I also made it very easy to change the terrain height/lava level by adding a new class which has a couple simple methods that return the height to add and the lava level in caves; at first I just hard-coded the changes in but decided to make everything adjustable).
In addition, I add my modded classes to the jar using this method, so I don't have to mess around with the actual jar and can easily change what I add (I used the Forge source for the in-game mod so all of the Forge code added is there since Forge refuses to patch modified classes; the other classes were modded for a non-Forge server, so I have two copies of several classes).
That said, I am currently gathering materials to make a huge base, much better than the one I had before, which was mostly built haphazardly over time; starting by mining - yes, actually mining; I haven't explored any caves yet (there is a cave opening right near by, guaranteed to lead to a cave system because of how I made caves generate, with a special type of cave spiraling down from the surface over every cave system, otherwise no caves cut through the surface); among other things, I am collecting a huge amount of cobblestone/stone and wood, as well as mining out dirt deposits so I can fill in that lake. In the meantime, I just made a simple base a short distance underground:
It is pretty interesting when you have to dig down over 100 blocks to find any diamonds (I have found 18 so far out of over 2,700 stone mined, although a lot isn't all the way down). Of course, my world has something even better than diamond; amethyst, of which I've found just one ore so far (caving is really the only practical way to find it since it is about 7-8x rarer than diamond):
(one ore is the most common vein size, although if you are REALLY lucky you can get up to six; this uses a custom vein generator I wrote to randomly put up to 6 blocks in a 2x2x2 cube in random locations, so many times less than 6 will generate, plus the vein size is logarithmic, with values of 0-1 being more common, plus a 50% chance of no vein in a chunk, even not considering a size of 0, averaging about 0.4 ore per chunk)
I'll definitely NOT mine that until I have Fortune III on a diamond pickaxe (yes, only a diamond-level pickaxe can mine it). Or use anything other than enchanted books to enchant the tools/armor I eventually make (not just because of bad enchantments, but if for example, I got Efficiency IV, Fortune III, Unbreaking III on a pickaxe I might as well kiss it goodbye since even with just the latter two enchantments it costs 37 levels to repair, not that you need Efficiency since the base efficiency is already about the same; higher durability makes up for the rarer ore, which I found more than enough in my previous world; note that I didn't adjust generation when I doubled terrain height, so it is effectively even rarer now).
Meanwhile, I'll have to start a cow farm to get leather for backpacks, as well as collect string; each big backpack requires 16 leather and 56 string to make and I use four of them, plus 8 more leather for a normal backpack, although I'm not in a hurry to get either amethyst tools/armor or backpacks yet, only using iron right now.
Also, here is a look with Unmined at what lies underground; the world size is 3008x4000 blocks (size chosen to minimize ocean while being 2x bigger than my largest world generated normally; I also put a bedrock wall around it and made it superflat with a preset of 2;0;0 - meaning nothing at all generates past the pre-generated area):
Note: I only made this during testing, deleting the Unmined cache files after making this so I don't get tempted to check on where I am, only using MCMap to map underground areas, which only shows areas near a torch (all torches were removed from mineshafts and strongholds so they aren't shown); it took Unmined about half an hour to map the world. Unmined is also not very useful at showing the surface for this kind of world since it makes higher elevations darker; everything other than water was dark brown.
You could also use Amplified to create awesome worlds, though it is very hard on your PC.
The landscape is pretty cool, although I don't really like it from a survival perspective; what I did with my current world can be seen as similar but all i did was make the ground deeper (more land overall than Amplified), with everything else exactly the same. Also, despite the warning and not having a powerful PC I don't find it to be much different from a normal map, aside from more lag during initial world load. That said, 1.7.2 acts weirdly on my computer; even when just standing still I get weird FPS lag spikes (even visible to an extent on the title screen), not enough to make it unplayable but annoying; the weirdest part is that it has gone away after pausing the game for a few minutes on a couple occasions (but not usually, not related to chunk loading, updates, etc, either because moving into new chunks doesn't make it come back).
But anyway, this is what I have done so far on my base (I need to get a LOT more cobblestone to make stone bricks with; I even used up most of my coal smelting it; filling in the lake also takes a lot more dirt than I thought, I just started using cobblestone in the deeper areas):
That's just my storage area, pretty much the same idea as my previous base, but above ground this time and with a more efficient arrangement; for example, I am going to use trapped chests in addition to regular chests so I can place then next to each other (on the left you can see that I used dirt and gravel to mark the location of chests), and for rarer ores I will put them all into one corridor (yeah, I previously had a full corridor with 14 double chests just for gold - and only filled about half of one, never mind diamond and emerald, although I did split one for both). I also plan to later replace the center two blocks in each corridor with the corresponding mineral blocks in the chests next to them.
The basic outline, by floor, will be my regular living space, storage, etc, followed by a farm, then a village at the top and space for some jungle trees for wood.
The torches are also temporary; I will use glowstone for lighting when it is complete; here is a screenshot from testing in Creative to see what would be the best arrangement (that's more than necessary but I don't mind getting a lot of glowstone and prefer more even lighting); as you can see, I also retextured it to look like a light (previously, I gave it the same texture as cobblestone to make invisible lighting):
(I made the area 5 blocks high, one higher that what I'm using in my base, so I can see the light level at floor level)
Also, here is a view underground of my mine; I also explored a bit of a cave system I dug into (the stuff at the top is where I mined for coal/iron/stone, you can also see my temporary base):
Oh yeah, I don't go up/down all of those stairs; I dug a 1x2 shaft straight down with ladders and a water pool at the bottom so I can just jump down (MCMap doesn't show it because it only shows horizontal areas):
Also, while I still haven't made an enchantment table, I got a Sharpness II iron sword from a zombie, which I repaired/renamed (just to IronSword because I don't plan to keep it long-term; I can make a diamond sword but an iron sword with Sharpness II does more damage). Meanwhile, after only two uses the first anvil I made became slightly damaged, thus my suggestion in this thread to makes anvils have fixed durability.
(snip)
Meanwhile, after only two uses the first anvil I made became slightly damaged, thus my suggestion in this thread to makes anvils have fixed durability.
Right there with you on the idea of fixed durability for anvils. In my world, I've just had 4 consecutive anvils break on the fifth use. Four in a row.
If anybody was wondering, this is how much coal alone I got from my previous two worlds, not including a lot used for torches and smelting; you can see why I decided to just start over, besides the experience of building from scratch (otherwise, I could have just emptied them out):
I also filled a 9th double chest in the next set over, plus a bit more of a 10th...
It has been a week since I last updated and I have pretty much completed my base; I only need to do a few more things before it is completed (convert a couple zombie villagers to populate my village, get Silk Touch so I can replace dirt with grass, find pumpkins and melon seeds and Nether wart): Following is a series of screenshots from around my base:
First, here is the overall view of my base and the surrounding area as seen on Rei's Minimap, full screen view (I normally post screenshots in windowed mode to reduce image size):
You can also see a cave opening to the north of my base, which leads to the same cave system I found by mining; in fact, the cave that leads to the opening goes all the way down to bedrock/lava layer because I made a separate type of cave that spirals down from the surface to bedrock, helping to ensure that cave systems are vertically connected (I also limited the minimum number of caves per system for this reason), plus only these caves ever break the surface (one is generated per cave system).
Here is the view from the front (south side):
The main hallway:
Yep, that's me:
This is the main storage area, which takes up half of the first floor, with blocks in the floor of the respective ores that are stored in each chest (one corridor each for coal, iron, redstone and lapis, with other ores all stored in one corridor), plus corridors for rails, "miscellaneous" and dirt/cobblestone/etc:
Of course, I need someplace to smelt all of the iron and gold I will be finding:
Here are my bedroom, enchanting/potions room and Nether portal room ("Gateway to Hell", heh):
(I'm using lime wool as a substitute for emerald blocks until I find some; the purple block on the lower right is amethyst, for which I'm also using purple wool as a substitute in my storage room)
(note the water in the floor to the right; a single source block can fill an infinite number of water bottles, rendering cauldrons useless)
Now on to the second floor:
Which is where I have my farms, with potatoes of course being the main crop (2x the area of wheat and carrots):
(the empty areas on the right are going to be used for melons/pumpkins and Nether wart)
(a really easy way to harvest crops is to empty a water bucket against the ceiling. Also, I actually made a diamond hoe since I'd otherwise need two iron hoes, plus it will last forever, as long as i play this world)
And finally, the third floor, or roof, or whatever (open to the sky but surrounded by a glass wall), which has a village I built (soon to be populated) and, of course, jungle trees for torch wood:
(on the right are oak trees with a block of cobblestone to prevent them from overgrowing; while building my base, I used a tree farm with a few dozen saplings planted next to each other, growing into a wall of wood)
Here is a list of everything I used to build it (analysis from MCEdit):
I also made this bridge (I changed the lake bottom to all sand):
Also, here is an updated map of what I've explored underground so far, which will dramatically expand soon (I only need to make four big backpacks, but the abandoned mineshaft I found will make that easy to do once I find cave spiders (rather, the cobwebs around the spawners) for the string I need, a total of 224 pieces):
(part of my base is also shown since I put torches around the top wall and in some of the village houses)
Currently, I have actually explored more of the Nether than the Overworld (in the middle you can see the cobblestone shelter I built around the portal):
Also, here is a list of what I have mined so far, mainly by branch mining, which in itself was mostly to get stone (I had to explore some caves to find enough coal, which also boosted the iron I mined):
Torches made: 1,092 (all but around 50 used in mines/caves)
Nether Quartz Ore: 1,930 (not kidding; I mined it for XP for enchanting, mainly while getting glowstone)
Glowstone: 948
I also got the most important thing I need to really start caving:
I now have a lot of "useless" enchanted books as a result since I enchanted books to get those enchantments, instead of trying to enchant directly, only mining three amethyst ore for the pickaxe until then (I ended up with over 30, more than enough for armor and a sword and repair for weeks of playing). Also, that pickaxe really does do more damage than a diamond sword, since all of the tools do 4 more damage than their diamond counterparts:
(+11 damage is 12 total, or 24 for two hits; a critical hit will do up to 18 damage, enough to get the "overkill" achievement)
There's no need for Sharpness on this thing (I'll add Knockback II when I can), not that it really has any benefit either, still requiring two hits on most mobs and increasing the repair cost, which is much higher than diamond for the same enchantments (37 levels for the pickaxe, rendering Efficiency too expensive to add, but the base efficiency is like Eff IV-V diamond).
I also have enough books to make a Power V bow, which I just need some XP to make (Power IV + Power III + four Power I books); I also tried enchanting books at level 1, mostly getting Power I, although I want Protection IV for my armor, then I can dump the iron helmet and boots.
I've since gotten Protection IV on my chestplate and leggings (enchanted a bunch of books at level 1, then combined them, requiring a total of 16 Protection I books), plus a bow with Power V and Infinity I, and all of this quartz (plus about 100 blocks used in my base and a stack not made into blocks):
You could also use Amplified to create awesome worlds, though it is very hard on your PC.
At first I kind of liked amplified - but the more you play it the more irritating it becomes (and I both my computer and my son's computer can handle it well so it's not an issue of lag).
Might be fun for creative but for a survival world is not much fun at all.
I like the idea here - raising the entire terrain so that there is more ground underneath - now if Minecraft could have layers of metamorphic rock, igneous rock, and sedimentary rock I think that would be a perfect use for what MasterCaver is doing here.
This is the first time I've ever gotten one of these:
Although, I'm not going to try to get two more; I've gotten pretty much all of the enchantments that I want (after mining a total of 4,700 Nether quartz) so at this point I don't have any reason to go back to the Nether (got over 30 blaze rods and a dozen Ghast tears, although I've never used health potions).
Next is curing a couple zombie villagers so I can populate the village that I made; I'll just lead them up to it and run into one of the houses and close/block the doors (Normal difficulty, but you don't want a cured villager opening a door and letting the second one out before it is cured), throwing a splash potion of weakness and feeding them a golden apple through a temporary hole in the wall.
Great journal/diary i really enjoyed reading what you did, so whats your next goal?
I've pretty much started doing what I do most of the time I play - exploring caves, although there are a few things I still want; for example, I have made one big backpack so far but need a lot of string to make three more (each one requires 56 string), but right now I'm just putting everything I mine/find into one, which is still a lot of space, even more if I stop to smelt iron/gold ore and turn it into blocks.
Also, I made and enchanted several gold shovels (I used gold from zombie pigmen) in order to get Silk Touch so I could put grass down where I keep animals and around the village (I actually got Efficiency V on the shovel as well). Yeah, I know that this is kind of a waste but I don't use Silk Touch for anything else, at least not since my first main world when I used an Ender chest for extra inventory space, later mining glowstone to use for lighting my base (more efficient to mine with Silk Touch; that said, a shovel would also work since it doesn't have any specific tool).
Of course, once I have enough ender pearls (I have 6 so far), I can go fight the Ender Dragon.
By the way, you can now play Minecraft with my mods to terrain height and caves, the same as the world I'm playing in right now (partial to the latter since I doubt people want to explore 500 block wide cave systems, this also eliminates the performance impact associated with them); this one is for 1.6.4.
Note that this will be a 1.6.4-only mod since 1.7 changes terrain generation with terrain (rarely) able to go to the world height limit even in default (I could, but I'd have to chop off the upper 64 blocks and/or nerf the height of mountains).
I've basically just been caving over the last few days - already getting nearly two double chests worth of coal (mined with Fortune III), not including coal I used to stock the 60 furnaces I use for smelting (60 stacks of coal, which lasts for quite a while, I restock them when they get below 32 coal):
Note the 6 stacks of coal blocks, which are equivalent to a double chest of coal; doing this allows you to store 9 times as much in the same space. Although, after getting this much coal initially, I start to pass it by, not bothering to pillar up to reach coal in the ceiling, etc, but still get more than anything else, except redstone when I'm deep enough.
Of course, I've also found plenty of iron and other stuff (note that I don't bother getting horse armor and saddles, or more minecarts, after I've found several, or stuff like gunpowder; also, the enchanted book has Silk Touch on it, which I'd worked to get on a shovel, as mentioned previously):
Here is a look at some of my statistics; note that almost all of the caves I've been in so far have generally been above y=70, so I've only mined coal and iron from caves so far; the gold and diamond was all from branch mining, and the 500 torches I mined were used to light up my base before I got glowstone:
Here is a look at what I have explored underground so far, which you can see is now much bigger than before; so far it looks like caves in this area occur in two main layers, around y=80-120 (the lighter shades) and near bedrock (the latter I hit while mining), with some in between (plus the single caves that spiral down from the surface to bedrock):
(note the cave that cuts through the middle from left to right; that is actually one contiguous cave around 450 meters long, probably even longer since I stopped when I reached another cave system on the left side; they can get up to 560 meters long, excluding bends)
This includes an abandoned mineshaft located around y=77, a couple dozen blocks higher than they usually generate to (they can generate to as high as around y=100; similar to how slimes can spawn up to y=79, hence the slimeballs I found):
(this is only one mineshaft complex; the smaller square above the big one, which is the starting room, is a dungeon)
I also found a dungeon practically under my base; I normally destroy the spawners but I left this one intact because I could use it later (note the dirt ceiling, which is what happens to caves that reach the surface, similar to what happens in vanilla in deserts; if it had gone one block higher, it would have collapsed the lake above into it; I dug a hole up into it and placed ladders to get to it from the surface):
Also, here is a look at the village at the top of my base, with a couple dozen or so villagers and two iron golems (I used bonemeal on the ground after grass grew over it):
You should make a zombie xp farm to get like, lvl 30 enchants on EVERYTHING!!! But if you dont like farming and want to get xp legit, you can set up a arena and have the spawner spawn zombies.
You should make a zombie xp farm to get like, lvl 30 enchants on EVERYTHING!!! But if you dont like farming and want to get xp legit, you can set up a arena and have the spawner spawn zombies.
It has nothing to do with that; I don't see a need to give everything the maximum possible enchantments, plus, as I previously, mentioned, it isn't possible if I want to be able to repair my tools:
Note that a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V added would cost the same (31 for base cost, including a prior work penalty of 2, and 3+3 for one unit); in this case, the base efficiency is already close to Eff V, rendering it unnecessary (and too overpowered if it did have it, like mining Netherrack with an Eff V diamond pickaxe, but with stone instead). The same is true of my other tools and armor; a chestplate with only Protection IV costs 20 levels to repair; I don't recall what my sword costs to repair (Knockback II and Unbreaking III), but the base damage makes Sharpness* unnecessary (+11 or 12 total, a 2-hit kill (24 total damage) on most mobs, the same as a Sharpness V diamond sword, which actually does more damage but with a larger "overkill" factor).
*Since Sharpness only adds damage (1.25 per level) regardless of the sword's base damage (unlike, for example, Efficiency on tools, which multiplies their base mining speed), a wooden sword benefits a lot more than a diamond sword and the sword I use would still need 2 hits on most common mobs except spiders. Endermen would require one less though, and armored mobs would also require less but its not like I really need it (most of the damage I get is from skeletons with their ranged attacks):
(one of those deaths was from accidentally hitting a zombie pigman while mining quartz in the Nether, the other because I fell while placing stairs as an overhang around the top of my base)
Also, speaking of statistics, here is a list of what I've mined so far, in terms of blocks made (x9 for units except for the Nether ones, which are x4):
Coal: 1,671 (not counting that used for torches and fuel; around 8,800 ore, mostly mined with Fortune III)
Redstone: 463
Iron: 440
Lapis: 142 (mining lapis with Fortune III is a bit OP, up to 32 pieces per ore; for comparison, redstone only gets drops added)
Gold: 40
Diamond: 17 (Fortune III and no longer using diamond tools has made a big difference here; I mined about 20% more diamond ore in total but more than tripled the diamond blocks I have)
(+2 emerald blocks from villager trading so I can replace the wool I used as a substitute)
-------------------
Quartz: 1,298
Glowstone: 1,091
(note that I haven't been in the Nether since I got all of the enchantments I wanted; I used about half the glowstone for lighting)
Torches made: 4,892
I've mostly explored out the fairly sizable cave system under my base at this point (more like two as I mentioned earlier; you can see by the shading with elevation that they are either mostly near the surface or near bedrock, with an abandoned mineshaft between the layers):
The long cave extending to the left side (the right is a dead end) connects to a new system though for when I'm satisfied that I've explored everything (I intentionally added them for this reason, cave systems being bigger but more separated than vanilla, as seen in the comparison in this thread, also easy to tell when I'm in one so I know that I'm going to another cave system).
BTW, out of the time I've spent on this world, only about 12 hours were actually spent exploring caves so far, so you can get an idea of how much I can explore/mine in a given amount of time.
Notice anything weird? Click the button below to find out:
Wait a minute, are those clouds* just above sea level, and the y-coordinate is over 130?! Yep, that is thanks to my latest modification, raising the height of terrain - in 1.6 nonetheless (you can read about it here), which was limited to 128 because of how the terrain generation code was written, only finally raised to the world height limit in 1.7 (and no, I didn't find out how to do this from looking at decompiled 1.7 code; I looked at an old mod that did this and a lot more, although I kept terrain exactly the same otherwise); I basically doubled the size of the array that holds terrain data and added 64 to the normal terrain, filling in the rest with stone and a layer of bedrock at the bottom, of course, removing the original bedrock so it doesn't block everything below it.
*Optifine can change the height of clouds; setting the height to 50% moves them to a "normal" height.
I also adjusted a lot of things to account for the increase in terrain height; for example, iron ore has double the range and double the ores per chunk (but the same density/percentage of blocks), the same is also true of coal (50% more + 50% higher range), while for rarer ores I did something different, adjusting the ranges relative to that normally above lava level in caves; e.g. diamond ore normally can be found up to 5 blocks above lava (11-15), but I made it 10 blocks, which is actually 2 levels lower (to layer 13) because I lowered the lava level from 10 to 3, something I previously did to make more room, leaving it as-is (bedrock is just one layer so lava is still up to 3 blocks deep); the amount of ore was adjusted based on the new total y-ranges, about 50% more gold and lapis (to y=45) and about the same amount of diamond and redstone (to y=13, but the removal of bedrock offsets the decreased range). Similarly, the spawning ranges of some mobs had to be adjusted, or no slimes spawn in swamps (instead, deep underground; I also increased the range of slime chunk spawning).
Additionally, I also modified the generation of abandoned mineshafts; besides extending their y-range, I made them 3 times less common (chance = 0.0033...) but also removed the decrease in frequency within 80 chunks of the origin (i.e. not actually 3x less common near the origin but less common than the mess I started encountering on my first world, almost nothing but mineshafts everywhere; a much larger y-range also makes them less likely to intersect each other).
Note that I used Minecraft Land Generator to pregenerate a world large enough to have every old biome because the terrain generation is VERY hard on the game, especially when generating a supercolossal cave system (made even more so by the doubling in terrain height); a single region file is around 10-12 MB. I still need a few modded classes when playing though to fix spawning ranges, as noted above, but not the 20-odd classes that I needed to modify (I also made it very easy to change the terrain height/lava level by adding a new class which has a couple simple methods that return the height to add and the lava level in caves; at first I just hard-coded the changes in but decided to make everything adjustable).
In addition, I add my modded classes to the jar using this method, so I don't have to mess around with the actual jar and can easily change what I add (I used the Forge source for the in-game mod so all of the Forge code added is there since Forge refuses to patch modified classes; the other classes were modded for a non-Forge server, so I have two copies of several classes).
That said, I am currently gathering materials to make a huge base, much better than the one I had before, which was mostly built haphazardly over time; starting by mining - yes, actually mining; I haven't explored any caves yet (there is a cave opening right near by, guaranteed to lead to a cave system because of how I made caves generate, with a special type of cave spiraling down from the surface over every cave system, otherwise no caves cut through the surface); among other things, I am collecting a huge amount of cobblestone/stone and wood, as well as mining out dirt deposits so I can fill in that lake. In the meantime, I just made a simple base a short distance underground:
It is pretty interesting when you have to dig down over 100 blocks to find any diamonds (I have found 18 so far out of over 2,700 stone mined, although a lot isn't all the way down). Of course, my world has something even better than diamond; amethyst, of which I've found just one ore so far (caving is really the only practical way to find it since it is about 7-8x rarer than diamond):
(one ore is the most common vein size, although if you are REALLY lucky you can get up to six; this uses a custom vein generator I wrote to randomly put up to 6 blocks in a 2x2x2 cube in random locations, so many times less than 6 will generate, plus the vein size is logarithmic, with values of 0-1 being more common, plus a 50% chance of no vein in a chunk, even not considering a size of 0, averaging about 0.4 ore per chunk)
I'll definitely NOT mine that until I have Fortune III on a diamond pickaxe (yes, only a diamond-level pickaxe can mine it). Or use anything other than enchanted books to enchant the tools/armor I eventually make (not just because of bad enchantments, but if for example, I got Efficiency IV, Fortune III, Unbreaking III on a pickaxe I might as well kiss it goodbye since even with just the latter two enchantments it costs 37 levels to repair, not that you need Efficiency since the base efficiency is already about the same; higher durability makes up for the rarer ore, which I found more than enough in my previous world; note that I didn't adjust generation when I doubled terrain height, so it is effectively even rarer now).
Meanwhile, I'll have to start a cow farm to get leather for backpacks, as well as collect string; each big backpack requires 16 leather and 56 string to make and I use four of them, plus 8 more leather for a normal backpack, although I'm not in a hurry to get either amethyst tools/armor or backpacks yet, only using iron right now.
Also, here is a look with Unmined at what lies underground; the world size is 3008x4000 blocks (size chosen to minimize ocean while being 2x bigger than my largest world generated normally; I also put a bedrock wall around it and made it superflat with a preset of 2;0;0 - meaning nothing at all generates past the pre-generated area):
Note: I only made this during testing, deleting the Unmined cache files after making this so I don't get tempted to check on where I am, only using MCMap to map underground areas, which only shows areas near a torch (all torches were removed from mineshafts and strongholds so they aren't shown); it took Unmined about half an hour to map the world. Unmined is also not very useful at showing the surface for this kind of world since it makes higher elevations darker; everything other than water was dark brown.
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?
The landscape is pretty cool, although I don't really like it from a survival perspective; what I did with my current world can be seen as similar but all i did was make the ground deeper (more land overall than Amplified), with everything else exactly the same. Also, despite the warning and not having a powerful PC I don't find it to be much different from a normal map, aside from more lag during initial world load. That said, 1.7.2 acts weirdly on my computer; even when just standing still I get weird FPS lag spikes (even visible to an extent on the title screen), not enough to make it unplayable but annoying; the weirdest part is that it has gone away after pausing the game for a few minutes on a couple occasions (but not usually, not related to chunk loading, updates, etc, either because moving into new chunks doesn't make it come back).
But anyway, this is what I have done so far on my base (I need to get a LOT more cobblestone to make stone bricks with; I even used up most of my coal smelting it; filling in the lake also takes a lot more dirt than I thought, I just started using cobblestone in the deeper areas):
That's just my storage area, pretty much the same idea as my previous base, but above ground this time and with a more efficient arrangement; for example, I am going to use trapped chests in addition to regular chests so I can place then next to each other (on the left you can see that I used dirt and gravel to mark the location of chests), and for rarer ores I will put them all into one corridor (yeah, I previously had a full corridor with 14 double chests just for gold - and only filled about half of one, never mind diamond and emerald, although I did split one for both). I also plan to later replace the center two blocks in each corridor with the corresponding mineral blocks in the chests next to them.
The basic outline, by floor, will be my regular living space, storage, etc, followed by a farm, then a village at the top and space for some jungle trees for wood.
The torches are also temporary; I will use glowstone for lighting when it is complete; here is a screenshot from testing in Creative to see what would be the best arrangement (that's more than necessary but I don't mind getting a lot of glowstone and prefer more even lighting); as you can see, I also retextured it to look like a light (previously, I gave it the same texture as cobblestone to make invisible lighting):
(I made the area 5 blocks high, one higher that what I'm using in my base, so I can see the light level at floor level)
Also, here is a view underground of my mine; I also explored a bit of a cave system I dug into (the stuff at the top is where I mined for coal/iron/stone, you can also see my temporary base):
Oh yeah, I don't go up/down all of those stairs; I dug a 1x2 shaft straight down with ladders and a water pool at the bottom so I can just jump down (MCMap doesn't show it because it only shows horizontal areas):
Also, while I still haven't made an enchantment table, I got a Sharpness II iron sword from a zombie, which I repaired/renamed (just to IronSword because I don't plan to keep it long-term; I can make a diamond sword but an iron sword with Sharpness II does more damage). Meanwhile, after only two uses the first anvil I made became slightly damaged, thus my suggestion in this thread to makes anvils have fixed durability.
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?
Right there with you on the idea of fixed durability for anvils. In my world, I've just had 4 consecutive anvils break on the fifth use. Four in a row.
I also filled a 9th double chest in the next set over, plus a bit more of a 10th...
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?
CLICK ME
http://www.minecraftforum.net/user/2412846-bergerdog/
First, here is the overall view of my base and the surrounding area as seen on Rei's Minimap, full screen view (I normally post screenshots in windowed mode to reduce image size):
You can also see a cave opening to the north of my base, which leads to the same cave system I found by mining; in fact, the cave that leads to the opening goes all the way down to bedrock/lava layer because I made a separate type of cave that spirals down from the surface to bedrock, helping to ensure that cave systems are vertically connected (I also limited the minimum number of caves per system for this reason), plus only these caves ever break the surface (one is generated per cave system).
Here is the view from the front (south side):
The main hallway:
Yep, that's me:
This is the main storage area, which takes up half of the first floor, with blocks in the floor of the respective ores that are stored in each chest (one corridor each for coal, iron, redstone and lapis, with other ores all stored in one corridor), plus corridors for rails, "miscellaneous" and dirt/cobblestone/etc:
Of course, I need someplace to smelt all of the iron and gold I will be finding:
Here are my bedroom, enchanting/potions room and Nether portal room ("Gateway to Hell", heh):
(I'm using lime wool as a substitute for emerald blocks until I find some; the purple block on the lower right is amethyst, for which I'm also using purple wool as a substitute in my storage room)
(note the water in the floor to the right; a single source block can fill an infinite number of water bottles, rendering cauldrons useless)
Now on to the second floor:
Which is where I have my farms, with potatoes of course being the main crop (2x the area of wheat and carrots):
(the empty areas on the right are going to be used for melons/pumpkins and Nether wart)
(a really easy way to harvest crops is to empty a water bucket against the ceiling. Also, I actually made a diamond hoe since I'd otherwise need two iron hoes, plus it will last forever, as long as i play this world)
And finally, the third floor, or roof, or whatever (open to the sky but surrounded by a glass wall), which has a village I built (soon to be populated) and, of course, jungle trees for torch wood:
(on the right are oak trees with a block of cobblestone to prevent them from overgrowing; while building my base, I used a tree farm with a few dozen saplings planted next to each other, growing into a wall of wood)
Here is a list of everything I used to build it (analysis from MCEdit):
I also made this bridge (I changed the lake bottom to all sand):
Also, here is an updated map of what I've explored underground so far, which will dramatically expand soon (I only need to make four big backpacks, but the abandoned mineshaft I found will make that easy to do once I find cave spiders (rather, the cobwebs around the spawners) for the string I need, a total of 224 pieces):
(part of my base is also shown since I put torches around the top wall and in some of the village houses)
Currently, I have actually explored more of the Nether than the Overworld (in the middle you can see the cobblestone shelter I built around the portal):
Also, here is a list of what I have mined so far, mainly by branch mining, which in itself was mostly to get stone (I had to explore some caves to find enough coal, which also boosted the iron I mined):
Stone: 10,462
Coal Ore: 1,593
Iron Ore: 820
Redstone Ore: 752
Gold Ore: 97
Diamond Ore: 94
Lapis Lazuli Ore: 40
Torches made: 1,092 (all but around 50 used in mines/caves)
Nether Quartz Ore: 1,930 (not kidding; I mined it for XP for enchanting, mainly while getting glowstone)
Glowstone: 948
I also got the most important thing I need to really start caving:
I now have a lot of "useless" enchanted books as a result since I enchanted books to get those enchantments, instead of trying to enchant directly, only mining three amethyst ore for the pickaxe until then (I ended up with over 30, more than enough for armor and a sword and repair for weeks of playing). Also, that pickaxe really does do more damage than a diamond sword, since all of the tools do 4 more damage than their diamond counterparts:
(+11 damage is 12 total, or 24 for two hits; a critical hit will do up to 18 damage, enough to get the "overkill" achievement)
There's no need for Sharpness on this thing (I'll add Knockback II when I can), not that it really has any benefit either, still requiring two hits on most mobs and increasing the repair cost, which is much higher than diamond for the same enchantments (37 levels for the pickaxe, rendering Efficiency too expensive to add, but the base efficiency is like Eff IV-V diamond).
I also have enough books to make a Power V bow, which I just need some XP to make (Power IV + Power III + four Power I books); I also tried enchanting books at level 1, mostly getting Power I, although I want Protection IV for my armor, then I can dump the iron helmet and boots.
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?
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?
At first I kind of liked amplified - but the more you play it the more irritating it becomes (and I both my computer and my son's computer can handle it well so it's not an issue of lag).
Might be fun for creative but for a survival world is not much fun at all.
I like the idea here - raising the entire terrain so that there is more ground underneath - now if Minecraft could have layers of metamorphic rock, igneous rock, and sedimentary rock I think that would be a perfect use for what MasterCaver is doing here.
Although, I'm not going to try to get two more; I've gotten pretty much all of the enchantments that I want (after mining a total of 4,700 Nether quartz) so at this point I don't have any reason to go back to the Nether (got over 30 blaze rods and a dozen Ghast tears, although I've never used health potions).
Next is curing a couple zombie villagers so I can populate the village that I made; I'll just lead them up to it and run into one of the houses and close/block the doors (Normal difficulty, but you don't want a cured villager opening a door and letting the second one out before it is cured), throwing a splash potion of weakness and feeding them a golden apple through a temporary hole in the wall.
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 pretty much started doing what I do most of the time I play - exploring caves, although there are a few things I still want; for example, I have made one big backpack so far but need a lot of string to make three more (each one requires 56 string), but right now I'm just putting everything I mine/find into one, which is still a lot of space, even more if I stop to smelt iron/gold ore and turn it into blocks.
Also, I made and enchanted several gold shovels (I used gold from zombie pigmen) in order to get Silk Touch so I could put grass down where I keep animals and around the village (I actually got Efficiency V on the shovel as well). Yeah, I know that this is kind of a waste but I don't use Silk Touch for anything else, at least not since my first main world when I used an Ender chest for extra inventory space, later mining glowstone to use for lighting my base (more efficient to mine with Silk Touch; that said, a shovel would also work since it doesn't have any specific tool).
Of course, once I have enough ender pearls (I have 6 so far), I can go fight the Ender Dragon.
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?
Note that this will be a 1.6.4-only mod since 1.7 changes terrain generation with terrain (rarely) able to go to the world height limit even in default (I could, but I'd have to chop off the upper 64 blocks and/or nerf the height of mountains).
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?
~NInja
Note the 6 stacks of coal blocks, which are equivalent to a double chest of coal; doing this allows you to store 9 times as much in the same space. Although, after getting this much coal initially, I start to pass it by, not bothering to pillar up to reach coal in the ceiling, etc, but still get more than anything else, except redstone when I'm deep enough.
Of course, I've also found plenty of iron and other stuff (note that I don't bother getting horse armor and saddles, or more minecarts, after I've found several, or stuff like gunpowder; also, the enchanted book has Silk Touch on it, which I'd worked to get on a shovel, as mentioned previously):
Here is a look at some of my statistics; note that almost all of the caves I've been in so far have generally been above y=70, so I've only mined coal and iron from caves so far; the gold and diamond was all from branch mining, and the 500 torches I mined were used to light up my base before I got glowstone:
Here is a look at what I have explored underground so far, which you can see is now much bigger than before; so far it looks like caves in this area occur in two main layers, around y=80-120 (the lighter shades) and near bedrock (the latter I hit while mining), with some in between (plus the single caves that spiral down from the surface to bedrock):
(note the cave that cuts through the middle from left to right; that is actually one contiguous cave around 450 meters long, probably even longer since I stopped when I reached another cave system on the left side; they can get up to 560 meters long, excluding bends)
This includes an abandoned mineshaft located around y=77, a couple dozen blocks higher than they usually generate to (they can generate to as high as around y=100; similar to how slimes can spawn up to y=79, hence the slimeballs I found):
(this is only one mineshaft complex; the smaller square above the big one, which is the starting room, is a dungeon)
I also found a dungeon practically under my base; I normally destroy the spawners but I left this one intact because I could use it later (note the dirt ceiling, which is what happens to caves that reach the surface, similar to what happens in vanilla in deserts; if it had gone one block higher, it would have collapsed the lake above into it; I dug a hole up into it and placed ladders to get to it from the surface):
Also, here is a look at the village at the top of my base, with a couple dozen or so villagers and two iron golems (I used bonemeal on the ground after grass grew over 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?
CLICK ME
http://www.minecraftforum.net/user/2412846-bergerdog/
It has nothing to do with that; I don't see a need to give everything the maximum possible enchantments, plus, as I previously, mentioned, it isn't possible if I want to be able to repair my tools:
Note that a diamond pickaxe with Efficiency V added would cost the same (31 for base cost, including a prior work penalty of 2, and 3+3 for one unit); in this case, the base efficiency is already close to Eff V, rendering it unnecessary (and too overpowered if it did have it, like mining Netherrack with an Eff V diamond pickaxe, but with stone instead). The same is true of my other tools and armor; a chestplate with only Protection IV costs 20 levels to repair; I don't recall what my sword costs to repair (Knockback II and Unbreaking III), but the base damage makes Sharpness* unnecessary (+11 or 12 total, a 2-hit kill (24 total damage) on most mobs, the same as a Sharpness V diamond sword, which actually does more damage but with a larger "overkill" factor).
*Since Sharpness only adds damage (1.25 per level) regardless of the sword's base damage (unlike, for example, Efficiency on tools, which multiplies their base mining speed), a wooden sword benefits a lot more than a diamond sword and the sword I use would still need 2 hits on most common mobs except spiders. Endermen would require one less though, and armored mobs would also require less but its not like I really need it (most of the damage I get is from skeletons with their ranged attacks):
(one of those deaths was from accidentally hitting a zombie pigman while mining quartz in the Nether, the other because I fell while placing stairs as an overhang around the top of my base)
Also, speaking of statistics, here is a list of what I've mined so far, in terms of blocks made (x9 for units except for the Nether ones, which are x4):
Coal: 1,671 (not counting that used for torches and fuel; around 8,800 ore, mostly mined with Fortune III)
Redstone: 463
Iron: 440
Lapis: 142 (mining lapis with Fortune III is a bit OP, up to 32 pieces per ore; for comparison, redstone only gets drops added)
Gold: 40
Diamond: 17 (Fortune III and no longer using diamond tools has made a big difference here; I mined about 20% more diamond ore in total but more than tripled the diamond blocks I have)
(+2 emerald blocks from villager trading so I can replace the wool I used as a substitute)
-------------------
Quartz: 1,298
Glowstone: 1,091
(note that I haven't been in the Nether since I got all of the enchantments I wanted; I used about half the glowstone for lighting)
Torches made: 4,892
I've mostly explored out the fairly sizable cave system under my base at this point (more like two as I mentioned earlier; you can see by the shading with elevation that they are either mostly near the surface or near bedrock, with an abandoned mineshaft between the layers):
The long cave extending to the left side (the right is a dead end) connects to a new system though for when I'm satisfied that I've explored everything (I intentionally added them for this reason, cave systems being bigger but more separated than vanilla, as seen in the comparison in this thread, also easy to tell when I'm in one so I know that I'm going to another cave system).
BTW, out of the time I've spent on this world, only about 12 hours were actually spent exploring caves so far, so you can get an idea of how much I can explore/mine in a given amount of time.
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?