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[_DroidFreak_]

So I got to the nether in my first survival game recently and it looks like there's absolutely nothing but netherack and small caves within a vast area around my portal. This predicament leads me to a few questions.

First, why in the name of all things minecraft did this happen? Isn't the nether supposed to be a system of large caves where players can search for fortresses. I sure hope the developers fix this soon, because it's honestly a huge pain to dig endless walkways and staircases through netherack just to find another small cave.

Second, what can I do to find an open cavern or at least find a buried nether fortress? So far the only plan I have is to just keep on digging all around until I find a large cavern. I know that moving to a different location in the overworld to create another nether portal because I know that the solid block on netherack I'm stuck in is quite large and I'd have to go 8 time as far in the overworld to escape it. Worst case scenario I guess I could just start a new survival map. Do you guys know of any solution besides just blindly digging around?

[Person360]

Wow, that's really inconvenient. I've had similar troubles, but the only solution is to keep digging. You likely just spawned in a large block of netherrack. Also make sure that you're not too close to the ground or ceiling. The giant caves are in the middle of the nether in terms of height.

[cru1234]

Do what I do summon chuck norris to help you out and take the castle to you

[_DroidFreak_]

I'm starting another survival map just to see if the nether is better, speed run for obsidian here we go.

Perhaps I should just make open nether a criteria for all maps that I play. If I turn cheats on I could go into creative at first to check if the nether is open and if it is I could destroy the portal and switch to survival.

I may end up just trying to dig out of the block of netherack, but I've dug long distances already in multiple directions (incuding up and down) without finding anything promising. Maybe I'll just find the middle height and dig off in one direction until I find something, but what I've found so far doesn't give me much hope. I wonder if there's a way to extract nether fortress locations from the world seed. It would be nice to at least know I'm digging in the right direction.

Edit: Just made a portal in my second map using lava buckets and water. Sure enough, that map has an open nether. No fortresses within sight distance, but at least I can trek around to search for one and battle with ghasts.

[IronMagus]

What's your y coordinate?  It sounds like you probably built your overworld portal either high up on a mountain or deep underground, which means you'll enter the nether at around the same elevation -- encased in the netherrack "ceiling" or "floor" of the nether.  It's best to build your portal closer to sea level so that you end up in the more open central regions of the nether.

[_DroidFreak_]

IronMagus, on 11 November 2012 - 09:54 PM, said:

What's your y coordinate?  It sounds like you probably built your overworld portal either high up on a mountain or deep underground, which means you'll enter the nether at around the same elevation -- encased in the netherrack "ceiling" or "floor" of the nether.  It's best to build your portal closer to sea level so that you end up in the more open central regions of the nether.

I live right next to a river and there are a few oceans nearby, my portal is literally 3 blocks above sea level in the overworld, and it's at y = 70 in the nether. Add to that the fact that I've dug up, down and pretty much every other direction without finding anything. I've dug down to bedrock without even hitting lava pools and I've dug up to a small lava-river cave that reaches higher than y = 110.

[JTTCOTE2]

Grab MCEdit and take a look around. I guarantee you'll find that if you'd dug your tunnel 10 blocks to the left or dig it another 10 blocks forward you'll enter a cavern. That's Murphy's law for you.

[_DroidFreak_]

JTTCOTE2, on 12 November 2012 - 12:08 AM, said:

Grab MCEdit and take a look around. I guarantee you'll find that if you'd dug your tunnel 10 blocks to the left or dig it another 10 blocks forward you'll enter a cavern. That's Murphy's law for you.

Thanks, that helped quite a bit. I really wish MCEdit allowed you to find the coordinates of a selected block or of your camera (there probably is and I just didn't find it), but by moving the camera to the player position and finding a path from there I was able to locate an open nether. It was more than 10 blocks away, but I made it there.

[_DroidFreak_]

Found a nether stronghold, gathered some netherwart and killed some blazes. Now I just need to get my mob farm working on endermen at a fast enough rate. So far I think I've gotten a grand total of one ender pearl from it.

[arsonwelles]

If it happens again, make dozens of beds and use them to explode to the surface.