Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Layouts for Fast, Efficient Mining
There are numerous methods for mining, and some may lead to madness. You can wander
around hacking at every rock in site, but this results in your missing a lot of ore deposits,
andit'sprettyeasytogetlostinamaze ofyourownmaking.Youcanalsogoforgrandeur,
hollowingouthallsasyougo,dwarfingtheMinesofMoria.Fortunately,Minecraftdoesn't
yet have a Balrog, although the ender dragon comes close.
Agigantic,modern,undergroundlairwithpoweredrailsallowingyoutozipbackandforth
in minecarts also has its charm. (See Chapter 9 .) There's nothing wrong with that, and it
does make for a fantastic creative challenge, but for your first serious dig, with what is
probably still a quite limited set of tools, your aim should be to collect as much ore as pos-
siblewiththeleastamountofeffortandusingthefewestnumberofpickaxespossible.That
mine is called a branch mine .
Branchminesgenerallycoverarectangularsurfacearea.Youcanchooseanysizeyoulike,
but you may also be limited by the terrain. Breakouts at Layer 11 are quite common, and
if you end up at a lava pool such as the one shown in Figure 4.6 , you have little option but
to treat it as the end of the trunk, or that particular branch. The good part is that lava pools
provide a lot of light.
FIGURE 4.6 Lava lakes usually act as a natural barrier to further mining, at least in the
beginning. Later you can use buckets of water to turn the lava into an obsidian bridge but
in the meanwhile just work around them.
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