Sorry for one more off-topic post, but my experience on Xbox One directly contradicts that person's statement. I have a set of iron leggings with Fire Protection II which I named when first enchanting them and it has never cost more than 17 levels to repair them (I have done so twice so far; I'm bad about accidentally wandering into lava). Adding a name significantly increases the enchantment cost, but after that it doesn't increase.
I cannot explain the difference. An update since March, perhaps (but not the one Steve was talking about; I think he was talking about the Lapis change)? In any case I name all my important enchanted items for this very reason.
The reason I have never started another survival world is that I want to do new things all the time. I don't see the appeal of going through the same steps over and over again and caving gets old very quickly. I am frankly baffled as to what it is that you enjoy about caving once the initial novelty wore off...
I can't speak for TMC, but as for myself, a large part of playing the game is for relaxation. I have to think and be clever and deal with other people and navigate through grey areas all day long in real life- as an adult, a professional, and a parent. Sure, I like to challenge myself occasionally in combat or by undertaking large or novel builds (I built my first hopper-fed smelter last night, as a matter of fact- progress!), but I keep very close control over how stressful the game is- I neither have the time or mental energy to be interminably tinkering on some redstone system or running ragged from one fight to another. That's too close to real life.
Instead, I like to zone out and mine, occasionally stumbling upon something interesting or unexpected. Not every second of course- I do other things as well, but mining is a nice simple, methodical activity with easily quantifiable results. It also satisfies the little hoarding/OCD streak I have. In some regards, I do it just to do it, and perhaps that goes for TMC as well.
I do envy the underground renderings he makes, though the last time I looked nothing he was using was available for 1.8. Is this still true? I maintain a very low-res 2-D Excel map of my subways and mines (one cell = one chunk) that, if I really tried, I could probably superimpose over a screenshot of my in-game maps using Illustrator or something, but... naw. Too much work...
Ok, I've been wanting to ask this forever, but what program made that top 3d map in the original post? I see them a lot but haven't been able to figure out what software is making them.
I do envy the underground renderings he makes, though the last time I looked nothing he was using was available for 1.8. Is this still true? I maintain a very low-res 2-D Excel map of my subways and mines (one cell = one chunk) that, if I really tried, I could probably superimpose over a screenshot of my in-game maps using Illustrator or something, but... naw. Too much work...
MCMap is available for 1.8; a while back the original version was resurrected by WRIM, who fixed a bug that prevented it from properly rendering 1.7+ worlds and updated it to include new blocks added since 1.3.1 (I took the source code that was made available and modified the underground rendering to be more accurate. Note that if you use it you'll see random bits associated with mineshafts, which I removed the torches from so they don't render until I've explored them).
Also, the last time I played I decided to keep track of my progress, first after about an hour, then 1-2 hours after that:
After 1 hour (54 minutes to be exact):
You can check out the cave I explored by teleporting to the coordinates shown, using the seed "-123775873255737467" (without quotes) in 1.6.4; note that the cave I explored does not have the same ore distribution because there is an abandoned mineshaft which only exists in vanilla (they were so common, one every 100 chunks, that I had to reduce their frequency, by preventing them from generating in areas of high cave density (as explained here); otherwise, world generation is the same as vanilla. This changes the locations of ores because a single random number generator is used to populate chunks and ore generate after structures; otherwise, there are the same number of ores and they are the same in areas where mineshafts did not change):
Here are some more screenshots from around the vanilla cave showing numerous veins of ore:
Also, I made a rendering of the caves I explored, seen to the left of a couple passages that connect them to a previously explored cave system on the right, as well as a surface rendering, shifted eastwards by 10 chunks so my location is at the edge of rendered chunks, which show the caves on the side. You can also see three of the cobblestone pillars I make to mark where I returned to my base to empty my inventory and restock on food and wood:
After 2 hours (the stats reset because I'd quit so I could take screenshots in vanilla and render what I'd explored, so this is for one hour). Note the number of days, which advanced by 3 days between this and the previous screenshots; 3 in-game days, each 20 minutes long, is 60 minutes. You can also see how I accumulate a large amount of iron and gold ores before I smelt them:
I also found a new mineshaft to explore around that time, although I won't explore it until after I finish the cave system I'm in; you can also see my progress on the in-game map (fully zoomed, 2048x2048 blocks):
After the third hour/3 more in-game days (what you see is for two hours; subtract the previous time's totals); I've stopped in a dead end cave to smelt iron and gold to make more room in my Ender chest - and as you can see I mined some more ore while it was smelting, since I continue to explore any nearby areas while I wait:
Here is another rendering of the area I explored, with the previous one (from 2 hours earlier) at the top for easy comparison; on the far left you can see a staircase I dug to the surface to mark the spot for future exploration after I go to the next map over (this carries a bit of risk; I've done this before only to find that the cave dead-ends a short distance after; on the other hand I don't want to go too far off the map. This is one of about a dozen such points I've marked so far):
In total, over 3 hours I mined 2,709 ore, killed 221 mobs, found 3 dungeons, explored most of a cave system (more or less average by 1.6.4 standards, huge by 1.7+ standards), and 3 ravines. This was not consistent though; my hourly rate was highest in the first hour, since I'd just discovered a new cave system, thus anywhere I went I encountered new areas, as opposed to later on after I'd explored much of it and more frequently went through previously explored/mined out areas to find unexplored sections (it was pretty much all explored out by the end; I discovered a mineshaft (unrelated to the one that was present in the recreated world - they really are that common) which I plan to explore next, as well as a cave leading off the west side of the map I'm using, thus marked that spot, including writing down the coordinates, for returning to at some undefined point in the future.
Thanks for the tip on the 1.8 compatible MCMap. I'm not very facile with mods and 3rd-party packages (I've used AMIDST for about 5 minutes total and MCEdit long enough to figure out how to fix a missing chunk error) but I might give it a try with some smaller test worlds. I like your idea of trimming down the torch light radius; the fact that generated torches show up is kind of a bummer though. I don't have any particular reason to seek out mineshafts (I know of at least half a dozen of them in my world that remain unexplored), but I still don't like having their locations revealed.
I'm running a 32-bit system with limited RAM- I'm wondering how it would handle rendering my main world- 32,000 torches and a fully mapped/revealed area a little more than 6,000 m on a side.
As for getting stats on caving, I blew a good opportunity last night- I popped into a new system while mining and proceeded to mine it out (but not keep careful records of exactly what I got or how long it took). One difference though, is that I tend to light *everything* up before mining...
Thanks for the tip on the 1.8 compatible MCMap. I'm not very facile with mods and 3rd-party packages (I've used AMIDST for about 5 minutes total and MCEdit long enough to figure out how to fix a missing chunk error) but I might give it a try with some smaller test worlds. I like your idea of trimming down the torch light radius; the fact that generated torches show up is kind of a bummer though. I don't have any particular reason to seek out mineshafts (I know of at least half a dozen of them in my world that remain unexplored), but I still don't like having their locations revealed.
I'm running a 32-bit system with limited RAM- I'm wondering how it would handle rendering my main world- 32,000 torches and a fully mapped/revealed area a little more than 6,000 m on a side.
As for getting stats on caving, I blew a good opportunity last night- I popped into a new system while mining and proceeded to mine it out (but not keep careful records of exactly what I got or how long it took). One difference though, is that I tend to light *everything* up before mining...
cheers,
tbg
I have a 32 bit system as well and MCMap has no problems rendering my worlds - it just breaks the job up into batches; it even automatically sets the proper memory limit (I have more free memory than 1489 MB but if I increase it MCMap crashes, probably related to 32 bit processes being unable to use more than 2 GB total, including native libraries; similarly, allocating more than about 1 GB to Minecraft causes a JVM initialization error):
That said, I don't know if it can handle such a large world since the image itself (250 MB in memory) is pretty large even for this world (chunks -82, -167 to 79, 102 or 4304x2576 blocks; MCMap renders a rectangular area so the actual number of chunks isn't as important as the maximum distance east-west and north-south). However, you can render a specific area instead of the entire world at once; to render the area I explored in my last post I divided my coordinates by 16 and added/subtracted 10 to render 10 chunks around me.
Also, you can speed up rendering by reducing the height range being rendered, which also reduces the amount of memory used; e.g. render 0-127 instead of 0-255 (only a few large jungle trees will exceed this in a 1.6.4 world and terrain that high isn't that common in 1.7+ either); I've also set the maximum to 63 (lower 64 layers) when rendering caves, which only cuts off a few caves above sea level (I also check the "increase y-scaling" box to increase the vertical separation of caves).
Note that having a lot of torches will slow down MCMap because it prints out the coordinates (these appear to be relative coordinates, not actual in-game coordinates) of every single torch it finds (I commented out this line, which I believe was left in from debugging).
That's actually quite a lot, even by my standards (note that I do not use Fortune, which does make a stack more impressive than if you used it, which requires around 30 ore with Fortune III); I've actually only found that many on a few occasions and on average only find about 4 per hour, averaging 4.1 over the entire time I've played the world mentioned here, and 4.3 during a recent period when I only caved (not including those found in minecarts, which can make up most or all of the diamonds I find when exploring mineshafts, which are generally not good for diamonds, either from chests or from ores, though I did find a stack in one that was entirely below y=16).
Although if you are only exploring caves to find diamonds you can average much higher rates; I explore all parts of a cave regardless of elevation and generally explore the higher levels first, so a cave system large enough to take more than one day to explore and not too scattered sees me mining mostly coal and iron on the first day and more of everything else on the second day. On the other hand, I find quite a lot of diamond after mining out some other ore, possibly as high as 1/4-1/3 of the total I find (on one recent day I recall finding 14 diamonds, only 8 of which were exposed with the other 6 behind other ores), so just mining what diamond is visible reduces the amount found in a given cave (diamonds can also be in the ceiling of a cave 1 block above lava, where it is not visible unless you mine through it).
In any case though branch-mining likely wins out in terms of diamonds found over time and consistency of diamond find rates, which is why I do it to get resources when starting out in a new world (in some modded worlds I added a new ore that is intentionally rarer in caves (relative to diamond) so I find just enough to meet my needs for repairs, while branch-mining is practical).
I used Gimp to resize the maps I posted to 10% of their original size and also convert them to indexed colors (256 colors, which does not have a noticeable impact on quality, MCMap may only even use that many to start with) and removed transparency so the backgrounds are white; I downloaded the maps you posted and resized them:
Surface:
Underground:
From looking at the underground map it appears that you mostly branch-mine; there's also a whole bunch of scattered areas around the map which are likely unexplored mineshafts (I removed their torches so they don't show up in my worlds); you've still explored a good number of caves though.
Also, here are updated maps of my world, with the maps from the OP included so you can easily see how much I've done over the past few months; much of what I've since explored has been in new areas but you can also see where I've explored more in previously explored areas (at one time there was a hole (including no chunks) near the upper-left, at this point I was filling that area in):
Surface:
Underground:
Here is a comparison of our worlds, both surface and underground, in a single image:
Also, I decoded part of your stats file (if it were for 1.6.4 it would be impossible since older versions used only numerical IDs for each stat) and list the amounts of various ores and other resources I'm mainly concerned with:
The differences are pretty clear; compared to diamond I've mined far more of everything else except redstone, and more coal relative to iron (even in your case you've mined more coal than might be expected based on their relative abundances, I attribute this to larger veins being more likely to intersect a cave or mine, which also matches my findings here). I'm also guessing that you haven't mined much in Extreme Hills since you've found only 31 emerald ore; in my case it is about 1/6 as common as diamond. There's also no need to mine mossy cobblestone in 1.8 (you can craft it) so I guess you don't bother taking it.
Also, the rate at which you find diamonds is actually lower than mine (3.58 vs 4.09 per hour); I'd have expected it to be higher since you do a lot of branch-mining but then I suppose you don't spend as much of your time mining as I do (as mentioned in a previous post my diamond find rate isn't much higher when time spent only caving is counted).
I guess all those disconnected mineshafts in my picture are ones I haven't found that only show up because I don't have your torch removal mod?
Yes; I even modified MCMap itself (the source code is available) so it renders a smaller, more realistic area around torches; by default it renders a square +/- 20 blocks away horizontally and +/- 10 blocks vertically while I changed it to a circle with radius of 6 blocks and +/- 4 blocks vertically; 6 blocks happens to be the limit of torch light along an axis before it drops below light level 8 (torch = 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8) and not much vertical space is needed since caves are mainly horizontal, I have not noticed any gaps in rendering; when branch-mining I generally place them every 10 blocks and in caves I place them closer, using a zigzag pattern in larger caves (in mineshafts you can place them on the floor in the middle of every other support, 10 blocks apart, and there will be enough light to prevent mobs from spawning; if I mine ore out of a wall between torches I either place another torch or block it up, depending on how much cobblestone I have on me).
Also, I forgot to include the number of torches we have used in the stats I listed; you've crafted 89641 while I've crafted 253520; on a per-ore basis I've mined more of most ores per torch used, with around 1/6 of the coal I mine used to make torches and smelt iron and gold, plus cooking food and other uses. I've also used Fortune to mine some portion of ores, mainly diamond and emerald (791 diamond blocks and 120 emerald blocks, around 2/3 of the diamond blocks came from before I stopped using Fortune, which I initially only used on diamond and emerald, later using it on everything before stopping altogether with emerald ore being mined with Silk Touch). I've made close to 70000 coal blocks, which still represents more coal than I've mined as ore despite not mining it with Fortune for very long (the amounts I mine make it clear why I stopped using it), this should eventually drop below; conversely, I have a surplus of gold blocks thanks to mineshaft loot, which more than makes up for what I've used to make powered rails. Eventually iron should have a surplus as well since I use very little for anvils and shears and all the rails I've needed came from mineshafts.
I used Gimp to resize the maps I posted to 10% of their original size and also convert them to indexed colors (256 colors, which does not have a noticeable impact on quality, MCMap may only even use that many to start with) and removed transparency so the backgrounds are white; I downloaded the maps you posted and resized them:
I wanted to see how large the explored area of my large-biome vanilla SSP overworld was compared to yours and Hexalobular's, so I used GIMP to take my MCMap's image to 10% and 256 colors and then combined it with yours. I'll try to get a version with my underworld as well. I don't really consider myself much of a caver or miner, though. However, my world began in July 14, 2014, so it has some age.
I started it at the end of March 2013, in 1.5.1, so it will be 3 years old in a couple months. I haven't exclusively played it for the entire time though, first for about 6 months, then I played on various other worlds for about a year before playing on it again for another 6 months or so - except that time I modded a copy of the world with new caves and biomes added by one of my mods; when I recently started playing on the world again (since this past September) I started on an earlier copy and discarded the modded version (that said, the world as it is isn't entirely unmodded; I removed naturally generated torches from mineshafts and also prevent mineshafts from generating in areas of high cave density, reducing them by about a third overall, but still much more common than they are in 1.7+).
Here is what the modded version of the world looked like (a few areas have been explored twice, the modifications I'd made to caves did not significantly alter them, mainly by adding occasional larger caves and ravines, but here I mostly explored the area under the ocean to the north, in contrast to my current exploration to the south):
(of interest, there are no visible chunk borders because I added new biomes so that they only replaced biomes with similar characteristics and/or I made sure that biomes like mesas did not border already generated chunks; the worst that I saw was a few block drop/rise which was easy to smooth out with a shovel. The landmass near the top with a Mushroom Island doesn't exist in vanilla and was the result of adding more landmasses to oceans by making Mushroom Islands 15 times more common and making 14/15 of them other biomes)
Also, here are renderings of the world from after the first stretch of playing (I manually removed unexplored mineshafts from the cave map); even at this point it was already larger than any other world I've had since:
By comparison, this was one of my modded worlds (none of these are necessarily resized in proportion since I pulled them from various threads):
(this is basically what a 1.7+ world would look like without climate zones; I added many of the 1.7+ biomes as well as some of my own; all of my worlds have been in 1.6.4 or earlier. Also, this world used the same seed as my first world; the ocean seen near the bottom is the same ocean you can see near the bottom of the maps above)
(what's not obvious here is that some caves and ravines were MUCH larger than anything you'll ever find in vanilla. Near the top left is a stronghold, separated from the caves and the only area I explored underground away from my base early on; even while branch-mining to get resources I only explore any caves I come across enough to see if they lead anywhere)
I'm not sure many people have spent as much time playing Minecraft as you, TMC, nevermind spent as much time caving. Your OP question has to be about 90% rhetorical because of course nobody else has done it that much. You clearly have an addiction or maybe OCD. If you ever visit an actual cave system, please do not bring any tools! It's probably a national monument and they don't want you mining it out!
So far I think I'm an MC generalist. I enjoy caving well enough; I don't have enough diamonds or redstone yet to have lost the little satisfied feeling when I find a block to mine. I will actually be happy when they change to Lapis as an enchanting input because ATM I get a small rush when finding it in a cave, but then remember that it's mostly useless.
I also enjoy taking those resources back to base and using them to build things which automatically murder iron golems, chickens, or crops. Or which semi-automatically help me to murder zombies and spiders. And I enjoy designing ever bigger, better bases, or villager homes, or farms or whatever. I also enjoy the occasional fishing (only during rain).
I will say that I did not enjoy caving much before I got full iron armor and a blast protection enchant, at least. Now that a creeper can't one-shot me, I feel safer exploring on my own. Still prefer to have a friend along who at least can pick up all my stuff if I fall into a lava pool.
I find it odd that people consider mining for stone repeatedly to be interesting while caving to be boring. Caving is much more exciting, even if you are mining stone with the intention of finding rare ores. The only reason I don't cave 24/7 is because I have to replenish food and torches, and I find breaking trees and crops to be even more boring than mining stone, to the point I actively minimize my wood consumption.
Sorry for one more off-topic post, but my experience on Xbox One directly contradicts that person's statement. I have a set of iron leggings with Fire Protection II which I named when first enchanting them and it has never cost more than 17 levels to repair them (I have done so twice so far; I'm bad about accidentally wandering into lava). Adding a name significantly increases the enchantment cost, but after that it doesn't increase.
I cannot explain the difference. An update since March, perhaps (but not the one Steve was talking about; I think he was talking about the Lapis change)? In any case I name all my important enchanted items for this very reason.
I can't speak for TMC, but as for myself, a large part of playing the game is for relaxation. I have to think and be clever and deal with other people and navigate through grey areas all day long in real life- as an adult, a professional, and a parent. Sure, I like to challenge myself occasionally in combat or by undertaking large or novel builds (I built my first hopper-fed smelter last night, as a matter of fact- progress!), but I keep very close control over how stressful the game is- I neither have the time or mental energy to be interminably tinkering on some redstone system or running ragged from one fight to another. That's too close to real life.
Instead, I like to zone out and mine, occasionally stumbling upon something interesting or unexpected. Not every second of course- I do other things as well, but mining is a nice simple, methodical activity with easily quantifiable results. It also satisfies the little hoarding/OCD streak I have. In some regards, I do it just to do it, and perhaps that goes for TMC as well.
I do envy the underground renderings he makes, though the last time I looked nothing he was using was available for 1.8. Is this still true? I maintain a very low-res 2-D Excel map of my subways and mines (one cell = one chunk) that, if I really tried, I could probably superimpose over a screenshot of my in-game maps using Illustrator or something, but... naw. Too much work...
cheers,
tbg
"And different strokes for different folks
And so on and so on and scooby dooby doo..."
-Sly & The Family Stone
Ok, I've been wanting to ask this forever, but what program made that top 3d map in the original post? I see them a lot but haven't been able to figure out what software is making them.
MCMap is available for 1.8; a while back the original version was resurrected by WRIM, who fixed a bug that prevented it from properly rendering 1.7+ worlds and updated it to include new blocks added since 1.3.1 (I took the source code that was made available and modified the underground rendering to be more accurate. Note that if you use it you'll see random bits associated with mineshafts, which I removed the torches from so they don't render until I've explored them).
Also, the last time I played I decided to keep track of my progress, first after about an hour, then 1-2 hours after that:
You can check out the cave I explored by teleporting to the coordinates shown, using the seed "-123775873255737467" (without quotes) in 1.6.4; note that the cave I explored does not have the same ore distribution because there is an abandoned mineshaft which only exists in vanilla (they were so common, one every 100 chunks, that I had to reduce their frequency, by preventing them from generating in areas of high cave density (as explained here); otherwise, world generation is the same as vanilla. This changes the locations of ores because a single random number generator is used to populate chunks and ore generate after structures; otherwise, there are the same number of ores and they are the same in areas where mineshafts did not change):
Here are some more screenshots from around the vanilla cave showing numerous veins of ore:
Also, I made a rendering of the caves I explored, seen to the left of a couple passages that connect them to a previously explored cave system on the right, as well as a surface rendering, shifted eastwards by 10 chunks so my location is at the edge of rendered chunks, which show the caves on the side. You can also see three of the cobblestone pillars I make to mark where I returned to my base to empty my inventory and restock on food and wood:
After 2 hours (the stats reset because I'd quit so I could take screenshots in vanilla and render what I'd explored, so this is for one hour). Note the number of days, which advanced by 3 days between this and the previous screenshots; 3 in-game days, each 20 minutes long, is 60 minutes. You can also see how I accumulate a large amount of iron and gold ores before I smelt them:
I also found a new mineshaft to explore around that time, although I won't explore it until after I finish the cave system I'm in; you can also see my progress on the in-game map (fully zoomed, 2048x2048 blocks):
After the third hour/3 more in-game days (what you see is for two hours; subtract the previous time's totals); I've stopped in a dead end cave to smelt iron and gold to make more room in my Ender chest - and as you can see I mined some more ore while it was smelting, since I continue to explore any nearby areas while I wait:
Here is another rendering of the area I explored, with the previous one (from 2 hours earlier) at the top for easy comparison; on the far left you can see a staircase I dug to the surface to mark the spot for future exploration after I go to the next map over (this carries a bit of risk; I've done this before only to find that the cave dead-ends a short distance after; on the other hand I don't want to go too far off the map. This is one of about a dozen such points I've marked so far):
In total, over 3 hours I mined 2,709 ore, killed 221 mobs, found 3 dungeons, explored most of a cave system (more or less average by 1.6.4 standards, huge by 1.7+ standards), and 3 ravines. This was not consistent though; my hourly rate was highest in the first hour, since I'd just discovered a new cave system, thus anywhere I went I encountered new areas, as opposed to later on after I'd explored much of it and more frequently went through previously explored/mined out areas to find unexplored sections (it was pretty much all explored out by the end; I discovered a mineshaft (unrelated to the one that was present in the recreated world - they really are that common) which I plan to explore next, as well as a cave leading off the west side of the map I'm using, thus marked that spot, including writing down the coordinates, for returning to at some undefined point in the future.
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
TMC-
Thanks for the tip on the 1.8 compatible MCMap. I'm not very facile with mods and 3rd-party packages (I've used AMIDST for about 5 minutes total and MCEdit long enough to figure out how to fix a missing chunk error) but I might give it a try with some smaller test worlds. I like your idea of trimming down the torch light radius; the fact that generated torches show up is kind of a bummer though. I don't have any particular reason to seek out mineshafts (I know of at least half a dozen of them in my world that remain unexplored), but I still don't like having their locations revealed.
I'm running a 32-bit system with limited RAM- I'm wondering how it would handle rendering my main world- 32,000 torches and a fully mapped/revealed area a little more than 6,000 m on a side.
As for getting stats on caving, I blew a good opportunity last night- I popped into a new system while mining and proceeded to mine it out (but not keep careful records of exactly what I got or how long it took). One difference though, is that I tend to light *everything* up before mining...
cheers,
tbg
I have a 32 bit system as well and MCMap has no problems rendering my worlds - it just breaks the job up into batches; it even automatically sets the proper memory limit (I have more free memory than 1489 MB but if I increase it MCMap crashes, probably related to 32 bit processes being unable to use more than 2 GB total, including native libraries; similarly, allocating more than about 1 GB to Minecraft causes a JVM initialization error):
That said, I don't know if it can handle such a large world since the image itself (250 MB in memory) is pretty large even for this world (chunks -82, -167 to 79, 102 or 4304x2576 blocks; MCMap renders a rectangular area so the actual number of chunks isn't as important as the maximum distance east-west and north-south). However, you can render a specific area instead of the entire world at once; to render the area I explored in my last post I divided my coordinates by 16 and added/subtracted 10 to render 10 chunks around me.
Also, you can speed up rendering by reducing the height range being rendered, which also reduces the amount of memory used; e.g. render 0-127 instead of 0-255 (only a few large jungle trees will exceed this in a 1.6.4 world and terrain that high isn't that common in 1.7+ either); I've also set the maximum to 63 (lower 64 layers) when rendering caves, which only cuts off a few caves above sea level (I also check the "increase y-scaling" box to increase the vertical separation of caves).
Note that having a lot of torches will slow down MCMap because it prints out the coordinates (these appear to be relative coordinates, not actual in-game coordinates) of every single torch it finds (I commented out this line, which I believe was left in from debugging).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
My best caving trip I found a stack of diamonds
Here's my current world, the earliest date I can find (the stats directory) is from 5/5 2015
I branch/strip mine, 300-1000 block long branches at level 5 and dig up to cave when I hear mob noises.
According to the stats file I have mined 2608 diamond ore.
And 337840 stone. (I presume that includes Granite, Diorite and Andesite?)
I recently came back from a mining trip with a stack of diamond blocks + a few loose diamonds (mined with Fortune III)
I always use Fortune III for applicable ores, even coal even though I have double chests full of coal blocks.
Overview https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5c6qRTAo-4nTk5Kd3ZlUEI2a0U/view?usp=sharing
Underground https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5c6qRTAo-4nSWNoZ3ZtX291cDQ/view?usp=sharing
How do I get these down to a managable size?Found it! I downloaded Irfanview my favorite picture viewer, I'd forgotten all about itThey are 40 MB and 10 MB.
Stats
Put your spoiler here. {"stat.useItem.minecraft.bow":944,"stat.useItem.minecraft.quartz_block":3,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.diamond_hoe":1,"stat.leaveGame":335,"stat.useItem.minecraft.glowstone":14,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.sandstone":354,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.ender_eye":127,"stat.killEntity.PigZombie":14,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.stained_glass":1,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.web":1620,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.stone_pressure_plate":1,"stat.entityKilledBy.PigZombie":1,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.birch_fence_gate":10,"stat.useItem.minecraft.diamond_hoe":187,"stat.useItem.minecraft.sandstone_stairs":1,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.stone_axe":18,"stat.useItem.minecraft.vine":68,"stat.useItem.minecraft.rail":6851,"stat.killEntity.Enderman":593,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.wooden_slab":3,"stat.useItem.minecraft.anvil":21,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.iron_shovel":13,"stat.useItem.minecraft.record_strad":1,"achievement.buildPickaxe":214,"stat.killEntity.Witch":111,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.end_stone":3645,"stat.useItem.minecraft.iron_pickaxe":11550,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.wooden_pickaxe":1,"stat.useItem.minecraft.iron_shovel":1891,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.bed":18,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.vine":485,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.sticky_piston":3,"stat.useItem.minecraft.nether_wart":109,"stat.furnaceInteraction":165,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.rail":2102,"stat.useItem.minecraft.pumpkin_seeds":1004,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.leather_helmet":1,"stat.useItem.minecraft.end_stone":31,"stat.useItem.minecraft.double_plant":1,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.wooden_button":23,"stat.useItem.minecraft.stained_glass":289,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.prismarine":66,"stat.useItem.minecraft.fence":85,"achievement.openInventory":16329,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.sponge":1805,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.daylight_detector":4,"stat.useItem.minecraft.cauldron":1,"stat.useItem.minecraft.flint_and_steel":40,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.fence":140,"stat.useItem.minecraft.wheat_seeds":2949,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.sea_lantern":160,"stat.useItem.minecraft.wooden_button":78,"stat.useItem.minecraft.dye":216,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.diamond_boots":1,"stat.deaths":5,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.melon_seeds":99,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.item_frame":63,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.stone_pressure_plate":2,"stat.useItem.minecraft.nether_brick":50,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.iron_pickaxe":62,"stat.useItem.minecraft.jukebox":1,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.tallgrass":2561,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.cooked_mutton":127,"stat.fishCaught":830,"achievement.potion":47,"stat.chestOpened":196,"stat.useItem.minecraft.lapis_ore":2,"stat.useItem.minecraft.cooked_rabbit":2,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.sign":426,"stat.useItem.minecraft.stone":4502,"stat.killEntity.Ghast":6,"stat.useItem.minecraft.ender_chest":450,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.quartz_block":259,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.coal":9730,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.ender_chest":88,"stat.crouchOneCm":155195,"achievement.killCow":258,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.chest":24,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.diamond":180,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.iron_ingot":46339,"stat.craftingTableInteraction":129,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.wooden_pressure_plate":4,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.log2":280,"stat.useItem.minecraft.reeds":238,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.diamond_shovel":31,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.glass":19,"stat.useItem.minecraft.enchanting_table":3,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.ender_chest":408,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.dirt":16787,"stat.useItem.minecraft.bread":64,"stat.treasureFished":38,"stat.useItem.minecraft.cobblestone":38499,"stat.useItem.minecraft.gravel":5361,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.double_plant":99,"stat.minecartOneCm":6224685,"stat.useItem.minecraft.yellow_flower":3,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.gold_ingot":7835,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.brewing_stand":3,"stat.useItem.minecraft.tallgrass":1,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.stone_shovel":4,"achievement.portal":29,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.bucket":72,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.planks":22056,"stat.useItem.minecraft.iron_sword":617,"stat.itemEnchanted":12,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.prismarine":7093,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.fishing_rod":22,"stat.useItem.minecraft.stonebrick":45,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.log":9145,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.wooden_door":93,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.waterlily":263,"stat.useItem.minecraft.wooden_door":79,"achievement.acquireIron":2225,"stat.useItem.minecraft.spruce_door":6,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.paper":942,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.trapped_chest":54,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.spruce_door":6,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.cooked_rabbit":4,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.diamond_leggings":32,"stat.useItem.minecraft.iron_axe":6249,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.cobblestone":10566,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.pumpkin":8332,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.yellow_flower":9,"stat.entityKilledBy.Witch":1,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.wool":9,"achievement.buildWorkBench":703,"stat.useItem.minecraft.coal_block":1,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.iron_pickaxe":44,"stat.useItem.minecraft.obsidian":91,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.furnace":1395,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.lapis_block":3703,"stat.useItem.minecraft.egg":3,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.iron_boots":5,"stat.junkFished":16,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.cooked_beef":710,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.obsidian":10232,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.bow":104,"stat.useItem.minecraft.spruce_fence_gate":15,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.clay":116,"stat.flyOneCm":1559747,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.stained_glass":368,"stat.timeSinceDeath":32575500,"stat.useItem.minecraft.wooden_slab":3,"stat.useItem.minecraft.iron_door":3,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.iron_block":4710,"stat.killEntity.Bat":104,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.stonebrick":92,"stat.useItem.minecraft.potato":2690,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.coal_ore":89943,"stat.killEntity.Creeper":1359,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.stone_hoe":24,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.iron_sword":1,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.red_mushroom_block":552,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.golden_helmet":3,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.ladder":416,"stat.useItem.minecraft.milk_bucket":1,"stat.entityKilledBy.Skeleton":1,"achievement.buildSword":75,"stat.killEntity.Squid":80,"stat.sprintOneCm":130157,"stat.useItem.minecraft.diamond_shovel":51182,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.stone_slab":102,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.diamond_ore":2608,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.speckled_melon":7,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.wooden_pressure_plate":2,"achievement.killEnemy":14702,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.leather_chestplate":2,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.iron_shovel":4,"stat.useItem.minecraft.diamond_ore":39,"stat.useItem.minecraft.ladder":947,"stat.killEntity.Zombie":4078,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.dye":846,"stat.killEntity.Guardian":501,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.sandstone_stairs":4,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.diamond_axe":22,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.gold_ore":7372,"stat.diveOneCm":10966341,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.mossy_cobblestone":5,"stat.useItem.minecraft.sticky_piston":3,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.ladder":603,"achievement.buildHoe":29,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.stone_button":2,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.cooked_porkchop":4,"stat.useItem.minecraft.rotten_flesh":7,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.diamond_sword":60,"stat.jump":161956,"stat.useItem.minecraft.sand":8191,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.lever":7,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.torch":89641,"achievement.makeBread":371,"stat.useItem.minecraft.coal_ore":13,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.sponge":1714,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.fermented_spider_eye":1,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.spruce_fence_gate":11,"stat.useItem.minecraft.glass":546,"stat.useItem.minecraft.sapling":1427,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.lapis_ore":2849,"achievement.blazeRod":81,"stat.damageTaken":65619,"stat.useItem.minecraft.stone_brick_stairs":15,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.torch":2733,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.melon_block":451,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.red_flower":3,"stat.useItem.minecraft.gold_block":88,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.leather_boots":1,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.sapling":40,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.sea_lantern":10,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.glowstone":21,"stat.useItem.minecraft.slime":6327,"stat.useItem.minecraft.birch_fence":376,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.fence_gate":18,"stat.killEntity.Silverfish":183,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.stone_slab":3220,"stat.animalsBred":407,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.birch_fence":118,"stat.useItem.minecraft.chest":360,"stat.useItem.minecraft.pumpkin":4801,"stat.useItem.minecraft.lava_bucket":12,"stat.useItem.minecraft.gold_ore":1,"stat.useItem.minecraft.melon":9,"stat.useItem.minecraft.item_frame":66,"stat.useItem.minecraft.birch_fence_gate":18,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.iron_chestplate":3,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.stone_hoe":5,"stat.useItem.minecraft.redstone_ore":19,"stat.useItem.minecraft.netherrack":668,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.tnt":18,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.bookshelf":58,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.stonebrick":2484,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.glowstone":433,"stat.mobKills":15493,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.bookshelf":206,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.shears":14,"stat.useItem.minecraft.boat":12,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.lead":4,"stat.useItem.minecraft.mossy_cobblestone":4,"stat.useItem.minecraft.cobblestone_wall":911,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.diamond_shovel":2,"achievement.bookcase":51,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.map":11,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.compass":18,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.stone_sword":1,"stat.useItem.minecraft.bookshelf":62,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.iron_axe":32,"stat.useItem.minecraft.soul_sand":13,"stat.killEntity.Blaze":104,"stat.useItem.minecraft.planks":49,"stat.useItem.minecraft.water_bucket":24566,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.red_mushroom":4,"achievement.overpowered":4,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.stone_brick_stairs":19,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.nether_brick_fence":43,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.golden_apple":4,"achievement.diamonds":4002,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.lit_pumpkin":5015,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.cobblestone_wall":1269,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.stone_sword":9,"stat.useItem.minecraft.brown_mushroom":32,"stat.useItem.minecraft.ender_pearl":4,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.sand":14345,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.cooked_fish":556,"
achievement.buildBetterPickaxe":214,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.slime":657,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.blaze_powder":146,"stat.useItem.minecraft.fence_gate":34,"stat.trappedChestTriggered":45,"achievement.breedCow":324,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.magma_cream":19,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.golden_carrot":8,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.pumpkin_seeds":984,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.lapis_block":1,"stat.useItem.minecraft.minecart":63,"stat.useItem.minecraft.cooked_mutton":55,"achievement.overkill":249,"achievement.mineWood":8911,"stat.useItem.minecraft.stone_stairs":394,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.fence_gate":66,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.soul_sand":433,"achievement.ghast":3,"stat.playOneMinute":52424051,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.diamond_block":373,"stat.useItem.minecraft.shears":1383,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.brown_mushroom_block":655,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.carpet":6,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.netherrack":3295,"stat.useItem.minecraft.sponge":1745,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.redstone_torch":559,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.golden_rail":636,"stat.useItem.minecraft.quartz_ore":101,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.gold_block":30,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.iron_hoe":9,"stat.fallOneCm":526916,"stat.useItem.minecraft.trapped_chest":54,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.chest":384,"stat.useItem.minecraft.iron_hoe":1323,"stat.useItem.minecraft.golden_rail":470,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.wooden_button":81,"stat.useItem.minecraft.furnace":1465,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.gravel":22474,"stat.useItem.minecraft.stone_pickaxe":1454,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.stone_axe":6,"stat.useItem.minecraft.stone_sword":257,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.iron_leggings":3,"stat.killEntity.Rabbit":9,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.diamond_axe":2,"stat.useItem.minecraft.wool":3,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.monster_egg":43,"stat.useItem.minecraft.torch":90653,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.redstone_block":12282,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.stone_stairs":512,"stat.useItem.minecraft.log":19,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.crafting_table":706,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.boat":15,"stat.killEntity.LavaSlime":90,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.emerald_ore":31,"stat.useItem.minecraft.cooked_fish":156,"achievement.theEnd2":20,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.stone_button":5,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.iron_boots":1,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.golden_rail":53,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.iron_block":13,"stat.useItem.minecraft.wooden_pressure_plate":4,"stat.useItem.minecraft.stone_hoe":1553,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.golden_boots":2,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.cobblestone_wall":176,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.spruce_fence_gate":13,"stat.useItem.minecraft.baked_potato":2226,"stat.useItem.minecraft.brewing_stand":2,"stat.useItem.minecraft.fishing_rod":1035,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.enchanting_table":3,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.diamond_chestplate":39,"stat.useItem.minecraft.lapis_block":1,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.sticky_piston":5,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.slime":6326,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.stone_brick_stairs":4,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.brown_mushroom":5,"stat.useItem.minecraft.diamond_sword":29319,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.diamond_helmet":53,"stat.swimOneCm":11064333,"stat.climbOneCm":173879,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.gold_block":767,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.golden_chestplate":3,"stat.enderchestOpened":106,"stat.useItem.minecraft.redstone_torch":384,"stat.useItem.minecraft.dirt":3997,"achievement.exploreAllBiomes":{"value":0,"progress":["Sunflower Plains","Desert M","Birch Forest","Roofed Forest","Extreme Hills M","The End","Extreme Hills+ M","Beach","Extreme Hills+","River","Ocean","Taiga","Swampland","Birch Forest Hills","Savanna Plateau","Roofed Forest M","ForestHills","Flower Forest","Plains","DesertHills","Stone Beach","Forest","Desert","Extreme Hills","Savanna M","Swampland M","Hell","Deep Ocean","Savanna"]},"stat.useItem.minecraft.red_flower":7,"stat.useItem.minecraft.iron_ore":31,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.stone_pickaxe":12,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.carpet":4,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.redstone_block":1,"stat.useItem.minecraft.stone_shovel":678,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.glass_bottle":117,"stat.useItem.minecraft.red_mushroom":31,"stat.useItem.minecraft.cooked_beef":26,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.wooden_slab":18,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.iron_ore":44829,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.book":216,"stat.useItem.minecraft.sign":516,"achievement.theEnd":6,"stat.useItem.minecraft.lever":1,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.coal_block":1,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.nether_brick":205,"stat.useItem.minecraft.chest_minecart":4,"stat.useItem.minecraft.sea_lantern":41,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.chest_minecart":4,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.stick":27705,"stat.useItem.minecraft.stone_slab":3104,"stat.useItem.minecraft.bed":69,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.gold_nugget":180,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.stone":164,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.crafting_table":102,"stat.useItem.minecraft.stone_pressure_plate":1,"stat.useItem.minecraft.diamond_pickaxe":538986,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.iron_hoe":1,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.quartz_block":3,"stat.useItem.minecraft.carrot":784,"stat.useItem.minecraft.ender_eye":41,"stat.useItem.minecraft.bucket":24642,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.shears":1,"achievement.buildFurnace":2389,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.planks":1434,"stat.drop":161,"stat.killEntity.Sheep":48,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.diamond_pickaxe":145,"stat.useItem.minecraft.melon_seeds":112,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.clay":23,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.jukebox":1,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.piston":16,"stat.useItem.minecraft.glass_bottle":61,"stat.killEntity.Slime":4095,"stat.useItem.minecraft.diamond_axe":12994,"stat.useItem.minecraft.waterlily":7,"stat.useItem.minecraft.apple":3,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.deadbush":1,"stat.useItem.minecraft.carpet":7,"stat.useItem.minecraft.potion":5,"stat.useItem.minecraft.stone_axe":1296,"stat.useItem.minecraft.piston":6,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.bread":222,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.iron_helmet":4,"stat.useItem.minecraft.stone_button":13,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.rail":6206,"achievement.onARail":6693,"stat.boatOneCm":3756379,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.iron_bars":19,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.flint_and_steel":7,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.leaves2":202,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.stone_stairs":27,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.furnace":76,"stat.useItem.minecraft.wooden_pickaxe":40,"stat.killEntity.CaveSpider":319,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.birch_fence":387,"stat.damageDealt":3704838,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.glass":2382,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.cauldron":1,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.baked_potato":4546,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.anvil":21,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.nether_brick_stairs":1,"stat.killEntity.Cow":350,"stat.useItem.minecraft.crafting_table":800,"stat.killEntity.Pig":3,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.iron_sword":9,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.stone_shovel":7,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.fishing_rod":1,"stat.walkOneCm":146140552,"achievement.enchantments":2,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.stone_pickaxe":11,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.birch_fence_gate":67,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.diamond_boots":62,"stat.useItem.minecraft.redstone_block":1,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.wool":3,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.redstone":972,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.minecart":16,"stat.useItem.minecraft.cactus":158,"stat.useItem.minecraft.prismarine":160,"stat.killEntity.Skeleton":2593,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.cactus":133,"stat.killEntity.Chicken":3,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.redstone_torch":55,"stat.useItem.minecraft.iron_block":104,"stat.killEntity.Spider":700,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.quartz_ore":1061,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.fence":45,"stat.breakItem.minecraft.iron_axe":19,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.leaves":4478,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.piston":6,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.redstone_ore":19399,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.coal_block":17630,"stat.craftItem.minecraft.tripwire_hook":110,"achievement.cookFish":20,"stat.mineBlock.minecraft.stone":337840,"stat.useItem.minecraft.sandstone":8}
Just testing.
That's actually quite a lot, even by my standards (note that I do not use Fortune, which does make a stack more impressive than if you used it, which requires around 30 ore with Fortune III); I've actually only found that many on a few occasions and on average only find about 4 per hour, averaging 4.1 over the entire time I've played the world mentioned here, and 4.3 during a recent period when I only caved (not including those found in minecarts, which can make up most or all of the diamonds I find when exploring mineshafts, which are generally not good for diamonds, either from chests or from ores, though I did find a stack in one that was entirely below y=16).
Although if you are only exploring caves to find diamonds you can average much higher rates; I explore all parts of a cave regardless of elevation and generally explore the higher levels first, so a cave system large enough to take more than one day to explore and not too scattered sees me mining mostly coal and iron on the first day and more of everything else on the second day. On the other hand, I find quite a lot of diamond after mining out some other ore, possibly as high as 1/4-1/3 of the total I find (on one recent day I recall finding 14 diamonds, only 8 of which were exposed with the other 6 behind other ores), so just mining what diamond is visible reduces the amount found in a given cave (diamonds can also be in the ceiling of a cave 1 block above lava, where it is not visible unless you mine through it).
In any case though branch-mining likely wins out in terms of diamonds found over time and consistency of diamond find rates, which is why I do it to get resources when starting out in a new world (in some modded worlds I added a new ore that is intentionally rarer in caves (relative to diamond) so I find just enough to meet my needs for repairs, while branch-mining is practical).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
I guess all those disconnected mineshafts in my picture are ones I haven't found that only show up because I don't have your torch removal mod?
Just testing.
I used Gimp to resize the maps I posted to 10% of their original size and also convert them to indexed colors (256 colors, which does not have a noticeable impact on quality, MCMap may only even use that many to start with) and removed transparency so the backgrounds are white; I downloaded the maps you posted and resized them:
Surface:
Underground:
From looking at the underground map it appears that you mostly branch-mine; there's also a whole bunch of scattered areas around the map which are likely unexplored mineshafts (I removed their torches so they don't show up in my worlds); you've still explored a good number of caves though.
Also, here are updated maps of my world, with the maps from the OP included so you can easily see how much I've done over the past few months; much of what I've since explored has been in new areas but you can also see where I've explored more in previously explored areas (at one time there was a hole (including no chunks) near the upper-left, at this point I was filling that area in):
Surface:
Underground:
Here is a comparison of our worlds, both surface and underground, in a single image:
Also, I decoded part of your stats file (if it were for 1.6.4 it would be impossible since older versions used only numerical IDs for each stat) and list the amounts of various ores and other resources I'm mainly concerned with:
By contrast, here are the latest numbers for my world:
The differences are pretty clear; compared to diamond I've mined far more of everything else except redstone, and more coal relative to iron (even in your case you've mined more coal than might be expected based on their relative abundances, I attribute this to larger veins being more likely to intersect a cave or mine, which also matches my findings here). I'm also guessing that you haven't mined much in Extreme Hills since you've found only 31 emerald ore; in my case it is about 1/6 as common as diamond. There's also no need to mine mossy cobblestone in 1.8 (you can craft it) so I guess you don't bother taking it.
Also, the rate at which you find diamonds is actually lower than mine (3.58 vs 4.09 per hour); I'd have expected it to be higher since you do a lot of branch-mining but then I suppose you don't spend as much of your time mining as I do (as mentioned in a previous post my diamond find rate isn't much higher when time spent only caving is counted).
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
Yes; I even modified MCMap itself (the source code is available) so it renders a smaller, more realistic area around torches; by default it renders a square +/- 20 blocks away horizontally and +/- 10 blocks vertically while I changed it to a circle with radius of 6 blocks and +/- 4 blocks vertically; 6 blocks happens to be the limit of torch light along an axis before it drops below light level 8 (torch = 14, 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8) and not much vertical space is needed since caves are mainly horizontal, I have not noticed any gaps in rendering; when branch-mining I generally place them every 10 blocks and in caves I place them closer, using a zigzag pattern in larger caves (in mineshafts you can place them on the floor in the middle of every other support, 10 blocks apart, and there will be enough light to prevent mobs from spawning; if I mine ore out of a wall between torches I either place another torch or block it up, depending on how much cobblestone I have on me).
Also, I forgot to include the number of torches we have used in the stats I listed; you've crafted 89641 while I've crafted 253520; on a per-ore basis I've mined more of most ores per torch used, with around 1/6 of the coal I mine used to make torches and smelt iron and gold, plus cooking food and other uses. I've also used Fortune to mine some portion of ores, mainly diamond and emerald (791 diamond blocks and 120 emerald blocks, around 2/3 of the diamond blocks came from before I stopped using Fortune, which I initially only used on diamond and emerald, later using it on everything before stopping altogether with emerald ore being mined with Silk Touch). I've made close to 70000 coal blocks, which still represents more coal than I've mined as ore despite not mining it with Fortune for very long (the amounts I mine make it clear why I stopped using it), this should eventually drop below; conversely, I have a surplus of gold blocks thanks to mineshaft loot, which more than makes up for what I've used to make powered rails. Eventually iron should have a surplus as well since I use very little for anvils and shears and all the rails I've needed came from mineshafts.
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
Very impressive. Thanks for the link to MCMap as well.
My short story-like journals; quick-and-easy reads:
My Quest for Elytra Complete! (Pic Intense, End-Game Spoilers)
[Journal & Pics] After a Year and a Half, I Finally Found a Jungle
FrozenCore: Hardcore Death; 3/20/15 to 5/3/15; Eight Weeks on a Frozen World in Pictures
I declare you god of the underworld.
I am a friend of all Snow Golem kind.
Wow! That's huge! When did you start the world?
Why are guinea pigs called guinea pigs when they are neither pigs or from guinea?
http://i.imgur.com/oDP7Nau.jpg If only minecraft had generation tools like this....
"Personally, I don't care how large the oceans are. I just want them to still be ocean. I want "land in water", not "water in land".
I SUPPORT BRINGING BACK ACTUAL CONTINENTS AND OCEANS.
I wanted to see how large the explored area of my large-biome vanilla SSP overworld was compared to yours and Hexalobular's, so I used GIMP to take my MCMap's image to 10% and 256 colors and then combined it with yours. I'll try to get a version with my underworld as well. I don't really consider myself much of a caver or miner, though. However, my world began in July 14, 2014, so it has some age.
Most of the explored area is a single lengthy trip away from home on a search for a jungle. I posted details about that journey here: [Journal & Pics] After a Year and a Half, I Finally Found a Jungle
The image is 2.2 MB and 7659 x 3552 pixels.
http://imageshack.com/a/img908/9595/sEdIaK.jpg
My short story-like journals; quick-and-easy reads:
My Quest for Elytra Complete! (Pic Intense, End-Game Spoilers)
[Journal & Pics] After a Year and a Half, I Finally Found a Jungle
FrozenCore: Hardcore Death; 3/20/15 to 5/3/15; Eight Weeks on a Frozen World in Pictures
In much older builds I did this, but now I just stripmine.
I started it at the end of March 2013, in 1.5.1, so it will be 3 years old in a couple months. I haven't exclusively played it for the entire time though, first for about 6 months, then I played on various other worlds for about a year before playing on it again for another 6 months or so - except that time I modded a copy of the world with new caves and biomes added by one of my mods; when I recently started playing on the world again (since this past September) I started on an earlier copy and discarded the modded version (that said, the world as it is isn't entirely unmodded; I removed naturally generated torches from mineshafts and also prevent mineshafts from generating in areas of high cave density, reducing them by about a third overall, but still much more common than they are in 1.7+).
Here is what the modded version of the world looked like (a few areas have been explored twice, the modifications I'd made to caves did not significantly alter them, mainly by adding occasional larger caves and ravines, but here I mostly explored the area under the ocean to the north, in contrast to my current exploration to the south):
(of interest, there are no visible chunk borders because I added new biomes so that they only replaced biomes with similar characteristics and/or I made sure that biomes like mesas did not border already generated chunks; the worst that I saw was a few block drop/rise which was easy to smooth out with a shovel. The landmass near the top with a Mushroom Island doesn't exist in vanilla and was the result of adding more landmasses to oceans by making Mushroom Islands 15 times more common and making 14/15 of them other biomes)
Also, here are renderings of the world from after the first stretch of playing (I manually removed unexplored mineshafts from the cave map); even at this point it was already larger than any other world I've had since:
By comparison, this was one of my modded worlds (none of these are necessarily resized in proportion since I pulled them from various threads):
(this is basically what a 1.7+ world would look like without climate zones; I added many of the 1.7+ biomes as well as some of my own; all of my worlds have been in 1.6.4 or earlier. Also, this world used the same seed as my first world; the ocean seen near the bottom is the same ocean you can see near the bottom of the maps above)
(what's not obvious here is that some caves and ravines were MUCH larger than anything you'll ever find in vanilla. Near the top left is a stronghold, separated from the caves and the only area I explored underground away from my base early on; even while branch-mining to get resources I only explore any caves I come across enough to see if they lead anywhere)
TheMasterCaver's First World - possibly the most caved-out world in Minecraft history - includes world download.
TheMasterCaver's World - my own version of Minecraft largely based on my views of how the game should have evolved since 1.6.4.
Why do I still play in 1.6.4?
I find it odd that people consider mining for stone repeatedly to be interesting while caving to be boring. Caving is much more exciting, even if you are mining stone with the intention of finding rare ores. The only reason I don't cave 24/7 is because I have to replenish food and torches, and I find breaking trees and crops to be even more boring than mining stone, to the point I actively minimize my wood consumption.