"Click 5 times at get the same result"? OK, I suppose if we aren't going to be honest about how many times we toss eyes around, then the discussion is moot. At the end of the day, I suppose the entire discussion is moot. Everyone will play the way they want in the end. You like doing it your way, I hate doing it that way and will probably never do it again. You don't see the merit in the triangulation method due in part to how arduous you find alt-tabbing, and I would prefer an extra ender-chests early game than waste even a single eye. I also run with F3 up permanently, I'm weird that way. To each their own.
I admitted I was merely joking about your math-adversity, but you reacted rather ironically. I mean, you state outright you aren't math adverse, but then you go on to explain various scenarios and how you would avoid doing math whenever possible, sort of proving the point I wasn't making in the first place. *shrugs*
Oh, and I would suggest you put some thought into braking distance, as it is rather important to avoid rear-ending someone. There is a reason driver-safety training harps on about following distance, and unless you are aware of the road conditions and how your ABS will react, you most likely will rear-end someone when the day comes for that panic stop. This is the entire reason there are multi-car pileups instead of just 1-2 car accidents. But, that isn't math, it's judgement, so your analogy doesn't really work.
Back on topic, I would agree that finding multiple strongholds is pretty pointless--unless you want to gather rather than craft all those cracked and mossy stone bricks, or build a variety of silverfish xp farms, or otherwise do something complex with the portals without using your main travel one. Some folks really like clearing out caves and nether fortresses, so I would assume that some people would enjoy clearing out strongholds, and the addition of all the extra ones sure makes for a shorter travel if you chose to build you base a great distance from spawn.
Monster Spawners count as one. Nether portals are another, so you got two.
1. Monster spawners, found in dungeons, mines and strongholds.
2. Nether portals will spawn Zombie Pigmen.
3. Squid
4. Baby animals after breeding
5. Bats? (Not sure about this one)
6. Skeleton trap horses (and the resulting skeleton riders that appear when the trap is triggered).
I added my answers in in green. I have no idea if they count, but that's all I can come up with.
My preffered method is to get to level 11, then dig a gigantic U-shaped 2x1 tunnel (maybe 50 to 100 blocks on each side). I go to the bottom of the U, and move three blocks up, and dig another 2x1 corridor from one side of the U to the other. I then move three blocks up again, and dig another 2x1 tunnel to the other side of the U again. The tunnels have two blocks between them. This exposes a lot of surface area while minimizing tool usage.
I'm having trouble visualising what you mean by a "u=shaped" tunnel. Also, when you say you move "three blocks up," do you mean you move vertically (Y axis) by three blocks? I'm sure that can't be the case if you are hunting for diamonds.
Actually, I think I have it now. Do you mean you dig out 50-100 blocks from you access tunnel, then turn 90* and dig over 3, then turn another 90* and dig your way back in the direction you came in until you hit the access tunnel again? If that is the case, I used to do almost exactly this, but now I just tend to dig in a straight line until the inventory is full and sprint back. I should go back to doing this method though, so there less wasted time spent travelling.
On a parting note, you mention the block exposure vs. tool use efficiency of a 2-block space between tunnels, but this is actually quite inefficient. If you can stand the idea of missing the occasional node between tunnels, you will expose far more fresh blocks with tunnels 3-6 wide than just 2. The reason is, you very often encounter the same node (though you already mined it) when only leaving a 2 wide space, which means you aren't actually exposing that many new blocks. A 3 wide gap is the best compromise (IMHO) between getting everything and efficiency, but as I understand it the max efficiency is somewhere around a 6 block gap.
From the wiki:
The results indicate what is expected — that when tunnels are close together they are not efficient because the miner will encounter diamonds which were already removed by the adjacent tunnel(s). A maximum efficiency is reached at a spacing of around 6 blocks
Additionally, poke holes are quite probably the most efficient way to mine for diamonds, but I can never convince myself to use them. Maybe after all my farms a set up and the only ore I care about is diamonds, I'll have to force myself to give it a try in a fresh mine.
And here is Xisumavoid's video about the pokehole style of branch mining, and why to use it:
And your username, "Adversity," just couldn't be more ironic at this point. You know, because you seem to be math-adverse. OK, it's a terrible joke, I admit.
Math isn't hard, math is easy. We invented math to solve problems, not make things hard, and this fact is pretty self-evident in the culture of Minecraft that gives us iron farms, mob farms, and pretty much everything that is awesome-sauce about the game.
Sure, you could calculate mob fall damage the hard way: guess, and then move it up and down until you get it right; but it is far easier to simply calculate the distance needed to damage the mobs the needed amount.
Granted, you could figure out how to layer villages manually, by just slapping doors hither and thither and then painfully observing the rate of iron golem spawns to...oh wait, you would still need math, and it would be much harder than just calculating the distances between village centers using some basic algebra and geometry.
I've never understood the intentional avoidance of math that people practice--maybe they just don't teach it very well?
I usually find a stronghold by triangulating from the direction a couple of widely spaced Ender Eye tosses travel.
You note the starting coordinate of your first throw (where you are standing when you toss the Eye of Ender). It will travel a short distance, then hover for a moment before dropping. While it is hovering put your aiming cross on it and note the directional angle. Move 100 (or more) blocks away and repeat the process. Then it's just a matter of math to calculate where the converging lines intersect.
X1, Z1 and F1 = Starting coordinates and direction of travel of first toss.
X2, Z2 and F2 = Starting coordinates and direction of travel of second toss.
The above information is available on the F3 screen.
x-X1=tan(-F1deg)(z-Z1) ; x-X2=tan(-F2deg)(z-Z2)
If you need help with the math, fill in your numbers, paste it into the box at www.wolframalpha.com and hit the = sign.
You sir, are my new hero for today. I'm not sure why it never occured to me to us this method; it will speed things up significantly.
I may be wrong. Imo mining for diamonds at Y 15 is the best.
Yes, you are wrong. Have a look at this:
Theoretically, mining as low as Y6 would be best, but since battling lava isn't a very good way to find diamonds, I usually settle for Y11, which means you can just carry a bucket, turn all the lava into obsidian, and keep on going.
I would possibly be suspicious based on your descriptions, but not at all by that single screenshot. Admin advice: follow him/her/them around in spectate when they are on and you will probably find out what is happening.
A couple of things come to mind, that would influence how I (but maybe not you, that is your call) would react to this:
How delicate is your economy to this activity? Is there a trade/barter/plugin economy that you don't want imbalanced? Are these players hoarding or otherwise taking away opportunities/resources from others?
How old/mature are these players? If they are there to "win," then even without overtly doing the above, they will be disruptive to some styles of server, but especially the community server. If the server is meant to be competitive, then obviously cheating is upsetting the game's balance, and cheating to win is pretty much destroying the server.
How community-minded are these players? If a player is the biggest helper on the server, doing community builds and such all the time, there could be pressure to cheat in order to keep up the image other players have of them.
Do they feel like they are way behind? I see this sometimes with players that join an established map. Everyone is rocking amazing gear, and has cool bases in various stages of completion, so they rationalize cheating as merely trying to catch up.
The reason I bring all these things up, despite the fact many people will have a binary cheating/no-cheating attitude, is to me these situations will make or break the decision to ban them, or have a conversation with them instead.
Actually, that concept is quite old. I waffled on linking you what I think is the 'first' of such breeder/produce/iron farm combos, as you were so close to the concept already.
I'm a little confused what you are really asking me. It seems like you might need some primers on the coordinate system, and a few of the basics about how commands work. Don't be afraid to simply ask. I'll try and give you a quick primer.
The coordinate system is XYZ, where X = West/East, Y = Height, and Z = North/South.
The height is the only one that won't really deal with negative numbers, since the very bottom of the usable map is at Y 0, the old build height is at Y 128, and the new build height is at Y 256. West and North are negative directions, and East and South are positive directions.
As far as how to use the /fill command to create a bedrock box, I would highly recommend playing around in a test world to simply get used to the commands before you try doing it on your live map. That tidbit of advice aside, pull up the wiki entry on the command in question to have a look at the syntax. http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Commands#fill
Following my own advice, I am reminded that there is few options for oldBlockHandling,. The hollow argument looks helpful for our purpose here, as it allows us to define our cube, carve it out with air blocks and then encase it in a box with a block of our choice, all in a single command. Let's look at that syntax and I'll try and walk you through this example.
So first off, we have x1 y1 z1 and x2 y2 z2. These are the two block coordinates of our opposite corners of the admin cave. I would consider how big to make my cave, but definitely err on the side of too big. I think ours is 51 x 51, and it is rather huge, so lets go with 31x31 for our example. So go in your world, switch over to spectator mode (/gamemode sp) and hold shift to ghost on down to the bottom of your map. For simplicity, let's pick the NorthWest corner of the box, and simply add 32 to both the X and the Z numbers. Using the NorthWest corner means we don't have to use our brains at all to remember which direction we are facing, and whether to subtract or add. We use 32 instead of 31, because we want a cave that is 31x31, not the walls themselves to be that size, and the way the game handles the lesser and greater sides of the region. Now we add the height we want + 2 to the Y coordinate, so from Y1 (the bottom block) if we want to have 10 blocks of height, we go to Y 12.
Let's say our NorthWest corner coordinate was 100 1 100. Our SouthEast corner, or second coordinate, would be 132 12 132. We know we want to fill with bedrock already, so our command is now taking shape as:
dataValue is for stairs, wooden planks and blocks that can have extra information stored in them to handle how they are rendered. Bedrock has none of this, so we default that one to zero.
oldBlockHandling is where we get to decide how the old blocks in the region will be handled. As previously mentioned, we want to hollow out a box, so we will use the hollow argument here. Since air doesn't have a dataTag either, we can put in 0, or since we aren't going to need that portion of the command, and it is optional, just leave it blank. We finally have our finished command.
/fill 100 1 100 132 12 132 bedrock 0 hollow
Now, reading thought that process step by step might make it seem complicated, but it really isn't that bad. Follow my example, see what it did, then change it to suit your needs. By playing in a test world, you can also just "cowboy it" and type things at whim to see what happens when you mess with stuff. When you get it right, copy/paste the command that worked for you into a notepad doc.
Oh, BTW, start a notepad doc for all your Minecraft commands. It will come in handy later on. Trust me. For instance, write down the coords for you new admin cave so you can /tp to it easily.
Your last question...I'm sorry, but I just don't understand what you mean. If my explanation above doesn't help you with this last question, please try and rephrase it for me and I'll do my best.
It is a bit inconvenient to be spawned in the middle of an ocean, which is why on our server I set it up so that doesn't actually happen.
You have a few ways you can fix this. You can create a "spawn" for people to appear in, that basically does as little or as much as you want it to, that links up to a nether tunnel system to take players wherever they need to go. Alternatively, you can do some command block science.
A player with no spawn point set (such as by a bed) will be placed randomly at the highest point in a 20x/20z square centered on the x-/z- corner of the spawn point; that is, the 20x/20z spawn square's edges are at SpawnX -10/+9, SpawnZ -10/+9. The 10 block radius can be changed using /gamerule spawnRadius though. (http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Spawn/Multiplayer_details). Knowing this, if we create a platform waaay up (you could try barrier blocks, which are invisible, but I have never tested them for spawning,) in the sky, it will catch all players spawning at the default spawn. Using a repeating commandblock into a couple conditional chain commandclocks, we can grab every player in survival mode around a radius of 10 of the spawn block up on our platform, /spawnpoint them to our "Starter Town", and finally /tp them to our starter town. It is slightly more complex than that, since we also use a scoreboard to catch first-time-logins, which don't always seem to obey the spawn rules very well.
Here is the commands I use to accomplish this:
First, add the needed scoreboard:
/scoreboard objectives add spawn dummy
Then, create a command block chain, starting with a repeating block:
/scoreboard players add @a spawn 0
/tp @p[score_spawn=0] XX YY ZZ
/spawnpoint @a[score_spawn=0] XX YY ZZ
/scoreboard players set @a[score_spawn=0] spawn 1
To test a first login:
/scoreboard players reset USERNAME spawn
Reset Spawn on Bed Failure: (First block repeating, next blocks conditional chain)
This sounds like a world generation glitch. Are you sure you didn't generate the world with a snapshot or something? I'm not up to date on them, but I recall a 1.8 snapshot that did almost exactly this; it removed chests from dungeons.
I would just create a new world with this same seed and check again. You might have to migrate things over to a new map if the generation went wonky on you.
Besides the on/off redstone circuit solution above, the other thing I like to do is put two wooden trap doors in front of the portal and open them once I return from the nether. The zombie pigmen fall down in a water flow that pushes them into a drowning trap with a hopper underneath to collect any drops. You don't get a lot of drops but at least no annoying pigmen running around.
Xzerpy, The only way to ensure that your command blocks are always loaded, and therefore always running, is to place them in the spawn chunks. If they aren't there, then they will be unloaded whenever there is no one around those chunks.
Placing them in an "admin cave" encased in bedrock is exactly what we do on a small server I play/admin on. However, you cannot go "below bedrock" since this is the void/build limit. Just set your worldspawn somewhere convenient to you, go into spectator mode and fly down to the bottom, then switch back to creative and use /fill commands to create a bedrock box, then carve it out. Ours is basically in a deep ocean in the middle of nowhere so no one builds there, which prevents lag.
That command works fine for me. Do you play in Offline mode? Would that affect the client's ability to search for the Minecraft account that has that head?
0
Gotta love that feeling of finally getting what you feel is perfect gear! Good job.
0
"Click 5 times at get the same result"? OK, I suppose if we aren't going to be honest about how many times we toss eyes around, then the discussion is moot. At the end of the day, I suppose the entire discussion is moot. Everyone will play the way they want in the end. You like doing it your way, I hate doing it that way and will probably never do it again. You don't see the merit in the triangulation method due in part to how arduous you find alt-tabbing, and I would prefer an extra ender-chests early game than waste even a single eye. I also run with F3 up permanently, I'm weird that way. To each their own.
I admitted I was merely joking about your math-adversity, but you reacted rather ironically. I mean, you state outright you aren't math adverse, but then you go on to explain various scenarios and how you would avoid doing math whenever possible, sort of proving the point I wasn't making in the first place. *shrugs*
Oh, and I would suggest you put some thought into braking distance, as it is rather important to avoid rear-ending someone. There is a reason driver-safety training harps on about following distance, and unless you are aware of the road conditions and how your ABS will react, you most likely will rear-end someone when the day comes for that panic stop. This is the entire reason there are multi-car pileups instead of just 1-2 car accidents. But, that isn't math, it's judgement, so your analogy doesn't really work.
Back on topic, I would agree that finding multiple strongholds is pretty pointless--unless you want to gather rather than craft all those cracked and mossy stone bricks, or build a variety of silverfish xp farms, or otherwise do something complex with the portals without using your main travel one. Some folks really like clearing out caves and nether fortresses, so I would assume that some people would enjoy clearing out strongholds, and the addition of all the extra ones sure makes for a shorter travel if you chose to build you base a great distance from spawn.
0
I added my answers in in green. I have no idea if they count, but that's all I can come up with.
0
I'm having trouble visualising what you mean by a "u=shaped" tunnel. Also, when you say you move "three blocks up," do you mean you move vertically (Y axis) by three blocks? I'm sure that can't be the case if you are hunting for diamonds.
Actually, I think I have it now. Do you mean you dig out 50-100 blocks from you access tunnel, then turn 90* and dig over 3, then turn another 90* and dig your way back in the direction you came in until you hit the access tunnel again? If that is the case, I used to do almost exactly this, but now I just tend to dig in a straight line until the inventory is full and sprint back. I should go back to doing this method though, so there less wasted time spent travelling.
On a parting note, you mention the block exposure vs. tool use efficiency of a 2-block space between tunnels, but this is actually quite inefficient. If you can stand the idea of missing the occasional node between tunnels, you will expose far more fresh blocks with tunnels 3-6 wide than just 2. The reason is, you very often encounter the same node (though you already mined it) when only leaving a 2 wide space, which means you aren't actually exposing that many new blocks. A 3 wide gap is the best compromise (IMHO) between getting everything and efficiency, but as I understand it the max efficiency is somewhere around a 6 block gap.
From the wiki:
http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Tutorials/Mining#Horizontal_Mining_.28or_Resource_Mining.2FStratifying.29
Additionally, poke holes are quite probably the most efficient way to mine for diamonds, but I can never convince myself to use them. Maybe after all my farms a set up and the only ore I care about is diamonds, I'll have to force myself to give it a try in a fresh mine.
And here is Xisumavoid's video about the pokehole style of branch mining, and why to use it:
0
And your username, "Adversity," just couldn't be more ironic at this point. You know, because you seem to be math-adverse. OK, it's a terrible joke, I admit.
Math isn't hard, math is easy. We invented math to solve problems, not make things hard, and this fact is pretty self-evident in the culture of Minecraft that gives us iron farms, mob farms, and pretty much everything that is awesome-sauce about the game.
Sure, you could calculate mob fall damage the hard way: guess, and then move it up and down until you get it right; but it is far easier to simply calculate the distance needed to damage the mobs the needed amount.
Granted, you could figure out how to layer villages manually, by just slapping doors hither and thither and then painfully observing the rate of iron golem spawns to...oh wait, you would still need math, and it would be much harder than just calculating the distances between village centers using some basic algebra and geometry.
I've never understood the intentional avoidance of math that people practice--maybe they just don't teach it very well?
0
You sir, are my new hero for today. I'm not sure why it never occured to me to us this method; it will speed things up significantly.
0
Yes, you are wrong. Have a look at this:
Theoretically, mining as low as Y6 would be best, but since battling lava isn't a very good way to find diamonds, I usually settle for Y11, which means you can just carry a bucket, turn all the lava into obsidian, and keep on going.
0
I would possibly be suspicious based on your descriptions, but not at all by that single screenshot. Admin advice: follow him/her/them around in spectate when they are on and you will probably find out what is happening.
A couple of things come to mind, that would influence how I (but maybe not you, that is your call) would react to this:
The reason I bring all these things up, despite the fact many people will have a binary cheating/no-cheating attitude, is to me these situations will make or break the decision to ban them, or have a conversation with them instead.
0
Actually, that concept is quite old. I waffled on linking you what I think is the 'first' of such breeder/produce/iron farm combos, as you were so close to the concept already.
Have a look at it here:
0
I'm a little confused what you are really asking me. It seems like you might need some primers on the coordinate system, and a few of the basics about how commands work. Don't be afraid to simply ask. I'll try and give you a quick primer.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The coordinate system is XYZ, where X = West/East, Y = Height, and Z = North/South.
The height is the only one that won't really deal with negative numbers, since the very bottom of the usable map is at Y 0, the old build height is at Y 128, and the new build height is at Y 256. West and North are negative directions, and East and South are positive directions.
As far as how to use the /fill command to create a bedrock box, I would highly recommend playing around in a test world to simply get used to the commands before you try doing it on your live map. That tidbit of advice aside, pull up the wiki entry on the command in question to have a look at the syntax. http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Commands#fill
Following my own advice, I am reminded that there is few options for oldBlockHandling,. The hollow argument looks helpful for our purpose here, as it allows us to define our cube, carve it out with air blocks and then encase it in a box with a block of our choice, all in a single command. Let's look at that syntax and I'll try and walk you through this example.
/fill <x1> <y1> <z1> <x2> <y2> <z2> <TileName> [dataValue] [oldBlockHandling] [dataTag]
So first off, we have x1 y1 z1 and x2 y2 z2. These are the two block coordinates of our opposite corners of the admin cave. I would consider how big to make my cave, but definitely err on the side of too big. I think ours is 51 x 51, and it is rather huge, so lets go with 31x31 for our example. So go in your world, switch over to spectator mode (/gamemode sp) and hold shift to ghost on down to the bottom of your map. For simplicity, let's pick the NorthWest corner of the box, and simply add 32 to both the X and the Z numbers. Using the NorthWest corner means we don't have to use our brains at all to remember which direction we are facing, and whether to subtract or add. We use 32 instead of 31, because we want a cave that is 31x31, not the walls themselves to be that size, and the way the game handles the lesser and greater sides of the region. Now we add the height we want + 2 to the Y coordinate, so from Y1 (the bottom block) if we want to have 10 blocks of height, we go to Y 12.
Let's say our NorthWest corner coordinate was 100 1 100. Our SouthEast corner, or second coordinate, would be 132 12 132. We know we want to fill with bedrock already, so our command is now taking shape as:
/fill 100 1 100 132 12 132 bedrock [dataValue] [oldBlockHandling] [dataTag]
dataValue is for stairs, wooden planks and blocks that can have extra information stored in them to handle how they are rendered. Bedrock has none of this, so we default that one to zero.
/fill 100 1 100 132 12 132 bedrock 0 [oldBlockHandling] [dataTag]
oldBlockHandling is where we get to decide how the old blocks in the region will be handled. As previously mentioned, we want to hollow out a box, so we will use the hollow argument here. Since air doesn't have a dataTag either, we can put in 0, or since we aren't going to need that portion of the command, and it is optional, just leave it blank. We finally have our finished command.
/fill 100 1 100 132 12 132 bedrock 0 hollow
Now, reading thought that process step by step might make it seem complicated, but it really isn't that bad. Follow my example, see what it did, then change it to suit your needs. By playing in a test world, you can also just "cowboy it" and type things at whim to see what happens when you mess with stuff. When you get it right, copy/paste the command that worked for you into a notepad doc.
Oh, BTW, start a notepad doc for all your Minecraft commands. It will come in handy later on. Trust me. For instance, write down the coords for you new admin cave so you can /tp to it easily.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your last question...I'm sorry, but I just don't understand what you mean. If my explanation above doesn't help you with this last question, please try and rephrase it for me and I'll do my best.
0
It is a bit inconvenient to be spawned in the middle of an ocean, which is why on our server I set it up so that doesn't actually happen.
You have a few ways you can fix this. You can create a "spawn" for people to appear in, that basically does as little or as much as you want it to, that links up to a nether tunnel system to take players wherever they need to go. Alternatively, you can do some command block science.
A player with no spawn point set (such as by a bed) will be placed randomly at the highest point in a 20x/20z square centered on the x-/z- corner of the spawn point; that is, the 20x/20z spawn square's edges are at SpawnX -10/+9, SpawnZ -10/+9. The 10 block radius can be changed using /gamerule spawnRadius though. (http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Spawn/Multiplayer_details). Knowing this, if we create a platform waaay up (you could try barrier blocks, which are invisible, but I have never tested them for spawning,) in the sky, it will catch all players spawning at the default spawn. Using a repeating commandblock into a couple conditional chain commandclocks, we can grab every player in survival mode around a radius of 10 of the spawn block up on our platform, /spawnpoint them to our "Starter Town", and finally /tp them to our starter town. It is slightly more complex than that, since we also use a scoreboard to catch first-time-logins, which don't always seem to obey the spawn rules very well.
Here is the commands I use to accomplish this:
First, add the needed scoreboard:
Then, create a command block chain, starting with a repeating block:
To test a first login:
Reset Spawn on Bed Failure: (First block repeating, next blocks conditional chain)
0
This sounds like a world generation glitch. Are you sure you didn't generate the world with a snapshot or something? I'm not up to date on them, but I recall a 1.8 snapshot that did almost exactly this; it removed chests from dungeons.
I would just create a new world with this same seed and check again. You might have to migrate things over to a new map if the generation went wonky on you.
0
That is a pretty simple solution.
0
Xzerpy, The only way to ensure that your command blocks are always loaded, and therefore always running, is to place them in the spawn chunks. If they aren't there, then they will be unloaded whenever there is no one around those chunks.
Placing them in an "admin cave" encased in bedrock is exactly what we do on a small server I play/admin on. However, you cannot go "below bedrock" since this is the void/build limit. Just set your worldspawn somewhere convenient to you, go into spectator mode and fly down to the bottom, then switch back to creative and use /fill commands to create a bedrock box, then carve it out. Ours is basically in a deep ocean in the middle of nowhere so no one builds there, which prevents lag.
0
That command works fine for me. Do you play in Offline mode? Would that affect the client's ability to search for the Minecraft account that has that head?