I have seen countless minecrafters talk about their spelunking experiences. Getting lost seems to be a theme. I am here to tell you now that I absolutely never get lost in caves or mines. No, I do not stop to make maps or place signs. I do not just dig my way out.
There's nothing to it, really. When spelunking, You almost assuredly must place torches just about everywhere. When placed, torches may be in any of five orientations, sticking out of the north, south, east or west side of a block, or centered on the top of the block.
If you consistently place torches on the side of a block facing you while you explore, you will always find your way back to the entrance when you follow the the direction torches are placed. This does take a bit more care when placing torches, not just for light, but also making sure that they actually point the direction you came from. Don't get lazy and place one in the middle of the floor. Find a ledge to stick the torch on. If it's too dark to see where to place the torch, place it anywhere, then look for the right place to put the torch and put one there too. then go back and remove the first torch.
Your method is logical, but difficult to stick to in a hard-mode situation. I tend to just get lost a LOT, and then go back to my landmarks and create a virtual bridge of saplings that are all in visual contact.
That doesnt really help when you dig down one block (for coal or something) and fall 14 blocks..... and see some iron, and dig it out..... and get lost...
That doesnt really help when you dig down one block (for coal or something) and fall 14 blocks..... and see some iron, and dig it out..... and get lost...
the irons not worth getting lost over, now if it was diamond....
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Matt, seriously, stop trolling. So can you please shut the **** up and go troll the infdev forums about how much you want to get 10 bucks from your hobo house?
Sometimes, I place cloth blocks leading to the exit, but I created my own method of exploration:
Given a hub with multiple tunnels, explore the caves in order from top to bottom, left to right. Either that, or explore the least significant tunnels first (the ones that seem shorter/smaller), and tackle the large branching tunnels later.
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My Youtube channel.
Contains Pachebel's Canon made with noteblocks, a working Rubik's cube made with pistons, and the ultimate TNT cannon.
I walk until I find a dead end, strip mine that part back to the nearest fork, close it off with cobblestone, repeat until there are no forks left, 842 bits of iron, 57 diamonds, 1683 coal bits, 637 bits of gold, 20 sulfur or whatever the new red stuffies are.
That doesnt really help when you dig down one block (for coal or something) and fall 14 blocks..... and see some iron, and dig it out..... and get lost...
Which is one of the reasons why breaking the block you're standing on is a very bad habit to have. At least you didn't learn it the "really hard" way... having a huge hoard of ore and falling into an inescapable lava pit.
When I make a cave, I don't dig tunnels. I flatten the entire mountain, or I make a crater. If there is a deep hole that I uncover, then I cover it with white cloth to explore later.
The problem is you can
A) fall through the floor
:cool.gif: tunnel through your own wall and make a loop
C) torches can be put out by water
a. Don't ever dig on the block you are standing on. Also, don't stand on sand or gravel while digging nearby blocks, unless the sand has been proven to be stable.
b. This will be immediately apparent, because there will be torches visible. They will even point you to the exit.
c. Well, not much you can do about this besides be careful around water, and especially when digging above you. Fortunately, the current dynamics of water limit the damage that can be done to torches.
I dig out the rocks in caves until the tunnels are all smooth-walled. I then make arrows on the side using dirt or cobblestone that point to the next arrow until I get out. I also wall off parts that I've finished mining (using dirt) so I don't go back in by accident.
If I uncover a shaft that I can't see the bottom to, I just take a pail of water and create a water fall going down into the pit, that way I can use it as a kind of elevator to get back up.
I bring a whole kit needed to make a base (Workbench, furnace, few stone stacks, few wood stacks, wooden doors, signs, torches, seedlings and saplings), go to the bottommost of a cave, hollow out a good spot and set up my base and set up a door to keep monsters out. Then, using the stone and wood blocks I brought with me, make hoes, pickaxes and shovels and make 2 areas in my base for an underground farm and an underground patch large enough to grow 4-10 trees in.
When my base is completed, I turn the remaining wood and stone into sticks (for torches) and pickaxes and continue on exploring the cave. After trekking back from the cave back to my main base, I make a few signposts with directions on how to make it to my underground "safe house".
Example:
To safe house
<--
To safe house
-->
Safe house
Below
If you stop
seeing signs:
GO BACK!
I continue spelunking in cave systems and maybe dig deeper in. Sometimes I end up digging right into a new cave network.
It helps to curb your greed. You find that mother lode of that much desired ore, you mine it out, you see some more glimmering in the dark, mine that out, and bam! You just went through several cave hub areas and are hopelessly lost. Proper marking and torch alignment takes precedence over ore grabs. The ores aren't going anywhere.
There's nothing to it, really. When spelunking, You almost assuredly must place torches just about everywhere. When placed, torches may be in any of five orientations, sticking out of the north, south, east or west side of a block, or centered on the top of the block.
If you consistently place torches on the side of a block facing you while you explore, you will always find your way back to the entrance when you follow the the direction torches are placed. This does take a bit more care when placing torches, not just for light, but also making sure that they actually point the direction you came from. Don't get lazy and place one in the middle of the floor. Find a ledge to stick the torch on. If it's too dark to see where to place the torch, place it anywhere, then look for the right place to put the torch and put one there too. then go back and remove the first torch.
Happy spelunking!
the irons not worth getting lost over, now if it was diamond....
@ OP: I believe you're talkin' about beacons. :biggrin.gif: I like to use cloth blocks and torches for my bread crumbs.
Given a hub with multiple tunnels, explore the caves in order from top to bottom, left to right. Either that, or explore the least significant tunnels first (the ones that seem shorter/smaller), and tackle the large branching tunnels later.
Contains Pachebel's Canon made with noteblocks, a working Rubik's cube made with pistons, and the ultimate TNT cannon.
Which is one of the reasons why breaking the block you're standing on is a very bad habit to have. At least you didn't learn it the "really hard" way... having a huge hoard of ore and falling into an inescapable lava pit.
A) fall through the floor
:cool.gif: tunnel through your own wall and make a loop
C) torches can be put out by water
a. Don't ever dig on the block you are standing on. Also, don't stand on sand or gravel while digging nearby blocks, unless the sand has been proven to be stable.
b. This will be immediately apparent, because there will be torches visible. They will even point you to the exit.
c. Well, not much you can do about this besides be careful around water, and especially when digging above you. Fortunately, the current dynamics of water limit the damage that can be done to torches.
I bring a whole kit needed to make a base (Workbench, furnace, few stone stacks, few wood stacks, wooden doors, signs, torches, seedlings and saplings), go to the bottommost of a cave, hollow out a good spot and set up my base and set up a door to keep monsters out. Then, using the stone and wood blocks I brought with me, make hoes, pickaxes and shovels and make 2 areas in my base for an underground farm and an underground patch large enough to grow 4-10 trees in.
When my base is completed, I turn the remaining wood and stone into sticks (for torches) and pickaxes and continue on exploring the cave. After trekking back from the cave back to my main base, I make a few signposts with directions on how to make it to my underground "safe house".
Example:
I continue spelunking in cave systems and maybe dig deeper in. Sometimes I end up digging right into a new cave network.
.:pizarro:.