With ladders and minecarts and the like, in what way do you most prefer digging shafts?
Personally, I like a 1x1 vertical shaft with ladder in it, but that's mostly because its easy, ive been trying to make a 5x3 shaft with minecart track, thats only worked out semi well.
I'm glad someone posted this. It describes Minecraft to a tee. I've done this many times. I've gotten better and remembering how to get out though sometimes I still just have to start hacking a new random stair to the surface and then marvel at how close or far it is from the previous one.
5X5 shaft down, leaving the center block to put a torch on every fourth layer. before ladders, I did the same, except I left block-stairs around the outside edge. ladders gave me an approximate 5% increase in materials.
(Exactly 5.27%)
This happened to me a couple of nights ago. I was extremely frustrated by it. I ended up building a stair to the ground from wherever the heck I was... took me far too long, as I kept having to build stairs over huge caverns.
I ended up surfacing at the bottom of the sea. Of course.
Anymore I mine arrows into the floor and fill them with dirt to show the way back.
I really wish there was more than one color for torches. Then I could still fill up caves with torches to prevent monster spawns and still leave a trail back. As it is, I go nuts with torches and find that now I can't tell which way goes back.
Every mine I have spans a certain z-level. No ups, no downs. Up/down stairways are available only directly underneath my fort. I dig passageways 3 units wide. Torches are placed every four blocks. The ceiling is 2 units high. If I find ore, I mine the vein and patch the holes with cobblestone. If I find a cave, I wall it off and build a door, then go in, mine any ore off its walls, seal off particularly menacing sections, and populate it with torches. It's impossible to get lost in my mines because when these passages (which are always straight, btw) intesect, in the 3x3 space on the floor, I place a sand block toward the direction that leads to the nearest vertical passage. If I find magma abundant, I usually use soil to mark its location (as opposed to sand).
I never get lost in my mines or in caves, because I mark where I've been whenever possible. Be it just with a few blocks, or a mined-out vein.
Every mine I have spans a certain z-level. No ups, no downs. Up/down stairways are available only directly underneath my fort. I dig passageways 3 units wide. Torches are placed every four blocks. The ceiling is 2 units high. If I find ore, I mine the vein and patch the holes with cobblestone. If I find a cave, I wall it off and build a door, then go in, mine any ore off its walls, seal off particularly menacing sections, and populate it with torches. It's impossible to get lost in my mines because when these passages (which are always straight, btw) intesect, in the 3x3 space on the floor, I place a sand block toward the direction that leads to the nearest vertical passage. If I find magma abundant, I usually use soil to mark its location (as opposed to sand).
I never get lost in my mines or in caves, because I mark where I've been whenever possible. Be it just with a few blocks, or a mined-out vein.
Do you then avoid really large caves (the types that take over an hour to fully torch and explore) or incorporate them into your network?
I explore them thoroughly (and sometimes it takes several hours, if it's a really big network.), mine all the ore I see on their walls, and light them up so no monsters'll spawn in it. After that, unless it's a good source of magma, I ignore it. If while exploring I start running low on food, I high-tail out to restock before I go any deeper.
And btw, a rule of thumb of mine:
When magma is near, and ignition you fear, hold with you always a bucket of water. -- this has saved my life many a time. (If you mis-step into lava, set the water down and walk into it to rid of the flames.)
I really wish there was more than one color for torches. Then I could still fill up caves with torches to prevent monster spawns and still leave a trail back. As it is, I go nuts with torches and find that now I can't tell which way goes back.
More torch colors would be great.
Once we have the ability to color cloth, we can have a crafting recipe.
I currently have a save game where i'm in an absolutely fantastic cave, tons of resources, lava and water everywhere, and absolutely no clue how to get out.
Personally, I dig a little deep into the cave, see if I can get some resources, get too greedy/curious, and get completely lost and dig a spiral staircase upward for an hour to get out, then have to wander my way back home.
I did this on my Floating Continent save and ended up two mountains away from my base. Thus, I generally don't go into caves.
Today I got lost because I accidentally flooded a part of my rollercoaster, and saw where the water was trailing before I cleaned up the water. I went the way of the stream in hopes of recollecting the lost rails (never found the rails), and ended up getting lost. I ended up digging up. Thank god the entrance to the underground rollercoaster part was in sight and lit (it was night time) or I probably would've been lost forever and had to have made a new rollercoaster. D:
http://xkcd.com/760/
With ladders and minecarts and the like, in what way do you most prefer digging shafts?
Personally, I like a 1x1 vertical shaft with ladder in it, but that's mostly because its easy, ive been trying to make a 5x3 shaft with minecart track, thats only worked out semi well.
I had to stop and check to see if the holes in the comic had squared edges...
Personally, I just dig a 3x3 spiral staircase into the ground. I just like the way it looks.
(Exactly 5.27%)
I ended up surfacing at the bottom of the sea. Of course.
Anymore I mine arrows into the floor and fill them with dirt to show the way back.
Every mine I have spans a certain z-level. No ups, no downs. Up/down stairways are available only directly underneath my fort. I dig passageways 3 units wide. Torches are placed every four blocks. The ceiling is 2 units high. If I find ore, I mine the vein and patch the holes with cobblestone. If I find a cave, I wall it off and build a door, then go in, mine any ore off its walls, seal off particularly menacing sections, and populate it with torches. It's impossible to get lost in my mines because when these passages (which are always straight, btw) intesect, in the 3x3 space on the floor, I place a sand block toward the direction that leads to the nearest vertical passage. If I find magma abundant, I usually use soil to mark its location (as opposed to sand).
I never get lost in my mines or in caves, because I mark where I've been whenever possible. Be it just with a few blocks, or a mined-out vein.
Do you then avoid really large caves (the types that take over an hour to fully torch and explore) or incorporate them into your network?
And btw, a rule of thumb of mine:
When magma is near, and ignition you fear, hold with you always a bucket of water. -- this has saved my life many a time. (If you mis-step into lava, set the water down and walk into it to rid of the flames.)
More torch colors would be great.
Once we have the ability to color cloth, we can have a crafting recipe.
[ ] [C] [ ]
[ ] [c] [ ]
[ ] [S] [ ]
C=coal
c=colored cloth
S=stick
Hey, I can dream can't I?
I did this on my Floating Continent save and ended up two mountains away from my base. Thus, I generally don't go into caves.