I prefer to mine. . . Dig down to about Y11 and make a tunnel 4 high by 4 wide and about 30 long. Then I make it 4 high by 30 long by 30 wide. End up with huge amounts of ore, and at the end of it you have a slime farm. 2 birds with one stone.
Hate cave systems. They stop surface mobs from spawning. Hate them. Especially when you think you've lit it all up, and you turn a corner and there's a ravine with 100+ caves spanning from it.
In most of my seeds there are not that many caves. But when i do find some there normaly small.
Please, share some of your seeds with me then. My worlds are so full of caves, I hardly have any blocks underground left to stand on. Seriously, I think that maybe you're not seeing the little hidden holes in the smaller caves that usually lead into bigger caves (if you break a few more blocks around the 1 hole opening).
Like wolfeuk, I do a bit of both. Since 1.8.2, though, there are so many caves that I find it difficult to get a staircase to bedrock without intersecting at least one cave. Also, there is so much lava now is most of my worlds, that my branch mining efforts on level 12 or lower down usually get stopped by lava after only a short distance. Before 1.8.2, I had several mine drifts that went completely across the map without hitting lava.
In caves I always place my torches to the left, if I come to a Loop I put a double torch at the start and end of the loop. At a fork I'll put a triple torch to show which is the cave back to the surface.
Mine shafts and strong holds I remove the game generated torches to the left side of the halls.
I also strip mine when I'm not in the mood to go spelunking.
I used to branch mine, but then I discovered it was much faster to just explore the caverns.
What I do is keep an entrance to the caverns near my or house (my house is usually underground anyway) with a door blocking it. I use stair slaps to point the direction back home so I can't get lost (the larger side points the direction). When I do light up caverns I try to stick to the top as much as possible (even if it means going the long way around at times), so monster don't drop on my head.
Once your at the lava beds, just use water buckets to get around easily, you'll find diamond better this way because it'll show up on the surface of the walls, roof, or floor.
I end up doing both when I dig out my mines but, I do prefer mining over exploring, and for the same reasons you stated in addition to the fact that you don't--or at least it's hard to--get lost mining. When I first started playing I used to prefer exploring over mining but I got lost and died so many times from mobs... I just stick to mining now
I mine when i need to mine. But if this discussions is at all about efficiency here's my two cents.
If you're talking diamonds, strip mining seems to be a great way to find em. I am semi obsessed with cave exploring and I do it a lot. I have gotten lucky and found some diamonds sticking out, peeking out at me. a few times they have ended up being a vein or 7-9 when I only saw one. I have gotten lucky, but this is random, and only when you explore caves that are going low enough to start seeing all that. Mining is efficient for finding the good stuff.
But If low enough, I can go cave exploring and come back with armfuls of redstone and lapis.
Aside from all that, if you are just trying to find loads of iron and coal, and maybe a decent amount of gold, cave exploring will be mining anyday. Mining helps me find the rare stuff. but Takes a while, and a lot of clearing stone, to find a decent amount of iron.
Not exaggerating, on an average cave adventure, in a ridiculously short amount of time, I can accumulate 2 64 stacks of iron or more, some gold, plus whatever else I find. so much coal to the point where you just stop mining it.
If you find a potent cave, or even a cave system that leads to a ravine or abandoned mine shaft, you'll hit the jackpot. the key is just being prepared, keeping your wits about you and not dying.
For me, food and wood is what you always need. if you have food and wooden planks, and a crafting table, you can stop anywhere and make yourself some more tone picks and swords to defend yourself and keep mining. you find some coal and iron, you make a furnace and smelt some iron, get your iron pick axe in case you find gold redstone or diamond.
cave exploring is dangerous and scary, but I love it, and it is part of what makes minecraft, minecraft for me.
I used to branch mine, but then I discovered it was much faster to just explore the caverns.
What I do is keep an entrance to the caverns near my or house (my house is usually underground anyway) with a door blocking it. I use stair slaps to point the direction back home so I can't get lost (the larger side points the direction). When I do light up caverns I try to stick to the top as much as possible (even if it means going the long way around at times), so monster don't drop on my head.
Once your at the lava beds, just use water buckets to get around easily, you'll find diamond better this way because it'll show up on the surface of the walls, roof, or floor.
I like your idea of using stairs, very clever. might start doing that. I recently started using vines or leave blocks to mark a path in caves that split up. I explored this crazy system with so many directions and i found a ravine. wanted to find my way back to thoroughly explore it and i just happened to have a bunch of greenery that I had sheered. so i used those to mark the path while finding my way back to the top. it was just what I had to use, but i think it's effective because the green really stands out in the caves. easy to follow.
But facing stairs in the right direction, that is really clever.
I like your idea of using stairs, very clever. might start doing that. I recently started using vines or leave blocks to mark a path in caves that split up. I explored this crazy system with so many directions and i found a ravine. wanted to find my way back to thoroughly explore it and i just happened to have a bunch of greenery that I had sheered. so i used those to mark the path while finding my way back to the top. it was just what I had to use, but i think it's effective because the green really stands out in the caves. easy to follow.
But facing stairs in the right direction, that is really clever.
Thanks. Before that I used signs, but it was very costly.
i prefer mining simply due to the decreased risk of getting creeper'd.
light it all up as you go and you won't see any mobs.
i do enjoy caving, but only once i'm bulked up in terms of weapons, armor & food!
with caves i find that even if i light it all up, i OFTEN miss overhangs, and i've had mobs drop right behind me and mess me up.
when i start out with caving, i'll light up a large-ish space, and block off any ends that i haven't explored yet, and start strip mining out from the cave.
Hate cave systems. They stop surface mobs from spawning. Hate them. Especially when you think you've lit it all up, and you turn a corner and there's a ravine with 100+ caves spanning from it.
Please, share some of your seeds with me then. My worlds are so full of caves, I hardly have any blocks underground left to stand on.
Like wolfeuk, I do a bit of both. Since 1.8.2, though, there are so many caves that I find it difficult to get a staircase to bedrock without intersecting at least one cave. Also, there is so much lava now is most of my worlds, that my branch mining efforts on level 12 or lower down usually get stopped by lava after only a short distance. Before 1.8.2, I had several mine drifts that went completely across the map without hitting lava.
In caves I always place my torches to the left, if I come to a Loop I put a double torch at the start and end of the loop. At a fork I'll put a triple torch to show which is the cave back to the surface.
Mine shafts and strong holds I remove the game generated torches to the left side of the halls.
I also strip mine when I'm not in the mood to go spelunking.
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Curse PremiumWhat I do is keep an entrance to the caverns near my or house (my house is usually underground anyway) with a door blocking it. I use stair slaps to point the direction back home so I can't get lost (the larger side points the direction). When I do light up caverns I try to stick to the top as much as possible (even if it means going the long way around at times), so monster don't drop on my head.
Once your at the lava beds, just use water buckets to get around easily, you'll find diamond better this way because it'll show up on the surface of the walls, roof, or floor.
If you're talking diamonds, strip mining seems to be a great way to find em. I am semi obsessed with cave exploring and I do it a lot. I have gotten lucky and found some diamonds sticking out, peeking out at me. a few times they have ended up being a vein or 7-9 when I only saw one. I have gotten lucky, but this is random, and only when you explore caves that are going low enough to start seeing all that. Mining is efficient for finding the good stuff.
But If low enough, I can go cave exploring and come back with armfuls of redstone and lapis.
Aside from all that, if you are just trying to find loads of iron and coal, and maybe a decent amount of gold, cave exploring will be mining anyday. Mining helps me find the rare stuff. but Takes a while, and a lot of clearing stone, to find a decent amount of iron.
Not exaggerating, on an average cave adventure, in a ridiculously short amount of time, I can accumulate 2 64 stacks of iron or more, some gold, plus whatever else I find. so much coal to the point where you just stop mining it.
If you find a potent cave, or even a cave system that leads to a ravine or abandoned mine shaft, you'll hit the jackpot. the key is just being prepared, keeping your wits about you and not dying.
For me, food and wood is what you always need. if you have food and wooden planks, and a crafting table, you can stop anywhere and make yourself some more tone picks and swords to defend yourself and keep mining. you find some coal and iron, you make a furnace and smelt some iron, get your iron pick axe in case you find gold redstone or diamond.
cave exploring is dangerous and scary, but I love it, and it is part of what makes minecraft, minecraft for me.
I like your idea of using stairs, very clever. might start doing that. I recently started using vines or leave blocks to mark a path in caves that split up. I explored this crazy system with so many directions and i found a ravine. wanted to find my way back to thoroughly explore it and i just happened to have a bunch of greenery that I had sheered. so i used those to mark the path while finding my way back to the top. it was just what I had to use, but i think it's effective because the green really stands out in the caves. easy to follow.
But facing stairs in the right direction, that is really clever.
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Curse Premiumlight it all up as you go and you won't see any mobs.
i do enjoy caving, but only once i'm bulked up in terms of weapons, armor & food!
with caves i find that even if i light it all up, i OFTEN miss overhangs, and i've had mobs drop right behind me and mess me up.
when i start out with caving, i'll light up a large-ish space, and block off any ends that i haven't explored yet, and start strip mining out from the cave.