My plan for our mines

[d3yci]

If i understand this correctly John has put me in charge of mines.
Sadly I have a project with our school and I wont be home for 3 days.

So if anyone is going to work on the mine; here's the plan:
The mine should descend down to layer 12 (f3 Y coordinate). After that descend there should be a 20x20x6 room as our underground base, and from that room there will be 2x2 tunnels going in every direction, except for the direction where the entrance is. From those tunnels there will be 1 wide tunels 1 block apart starting 5 blocks from the main room, so we check every single block. Those tunnels can be as long as you want. Mine everything you see in the tunnels and explore every cave you find but dont make random tunnels.

John, Gold and Lol have the right to veto this plan and ill accept every of their oppinions.

[Decibert]

May I enter two suggestions?

If one were to mine TWO blocks apart, one would still check every single block, with a LOT less mining. This is how I have my branch mine in singleplayer.
Some people suggest even having three blocks apart: you may miss single blocks, but the chances are very high you will still find each pocket of ores. Both offer a significant improvement in efficiency over 1 block apart.

Furthermore it may be useful to make the tunnels not 2x1 but 5x1 (so 12-13-14-15-16 get dug out), or 4x1. This way you keep the mines twice as compact, while still mining in the layers with the highest diamond/lava ratio. Mines on a server always get to be like a maze so keeping them more compact is very important.
Again, this is how I do it, but judging by the various graphs people have made on ore densities versus layers, I think the diamond/lava ratio in layers 12/13 is about the same as 14/15, so we might as well mine at least those four layers so we'll need to cover an area that's twice as small to get the same amount of ores.

[goldmarine9]

So I had a little spare time this morning so I dug down to 12 Y, dug the 20x20x6 room, turned it to smoothstone, turned the staircase to smooth stone, and added the cobblestone steps.

[JohnTB]

also could you take a few screenshots of the city so far? :3

[goldmarine9]

I don't really have time ATM, i'm going to harvest the reeds then I have to go.

[d3yci]

I wrote that at like 4 or 5 in the morning so yeah... the tunnels should be 3 appart and 4-6 high as deci said.

[Decibert]

Great. I didn't wanna start mining like that before I was sure you agreed.

[d3yci]

After a chat with John we both agree that Decibert will be put in charge of the mines, as long as he agrees as he is far more experienced as me. If noone has anything against it, I'll be the one responsible for redstone and rails.

[Decibert]

Well, for one I'm not available much :/ I do keep my eye on the forums of course. Furthermore I didn't want to stage a coup. On the other hand you know your way around redstone pretty well, while being in charge of the mines just means being pissed at people ignoring the pattern, so OK.

[JohnTB]

also deci, somehow your house got in the way for the mkaet district, it has been moved and rebuilt, only needs furniture, sorry for the inconvinience.

[Decibert]

Oh well I did ask beforehand where I could place it but ok, thanks for rebuilding it. Did my slight deviation in design stay intact?

[JohnTB]

Oh well I did ask beforehand where I could place it but ok, thanks for rebuilding it. Did my slight deviation in design stay intact?

its a carbon copy of the standard edition. I dont want to deviate too much from the design, but if you really want to you can widen the windows again. though keep away form the smoothstone.
in time soem more house models will be needed and such, but for now atleast its the standard one, hope you udnerstand.

[Decibert]

Well I was trying to rebel against the design because even with 4 identical houses it looks boring as all hell, even if the design fits well. But I was also going to give in if not approved, so ok, no smoothstone .

[goldmarine9]

That was my bad for saying he could build there, it was before I got the plans.

[d3yci]

Just noticed... Deci why are the mines on layer 13 and not 12?

[goldmarine9]

When I dug the layer to 12, Deci said it was 1 lower than it should be so he raised it one.

[Decibert]

Because the layer is determined where your head is, not where your feet are. If F3 says y=13, you are standing on layer 11, layer 12 is then where your legs are, so that means you dug out layer 12. I hope this helps more than it confuses. At any rate, our mineshafts consist of layers 12, 13, 14, 15 and 16, which are the layers with the highest diamond/lava ratio. The next couple lower levels have about the same amount of diamond but a sharp increase in lava.

[d3yci]

I was allways used to mine on layer 12 (11 for your legs) as then the obsidian after pouring the water on lava is at the same level as you and you dont need to place blocks on it to stay on same level

[Decibert]

Good point. I do believe there's a significantly higher chance of lava on layer 11 than on 12 though, but I'd have to look up the graphs on that. Either way, the mine is working pretty well as is, it's very compact.

[Sponsored content]