Likely changes to F3 and its implications

[FlowerChild]

Yeah... I suppose that works. Although I need to make the side tunnels tall enough that I can't miss them vertically too... :P

Well... To the mines!

Making sure you're on the same level vertically though, is rather easy. Just count up from the top level of bedrock. It's hard to fuck up over like six blocks or something ;)

[Sarudak]

Making sure you're on the same level vertically though, is rather easy. Just count up from the top level of bedrock. It's hard to fuck up over like six blocks or something ;)

I suppose that would be mostly accurate if you look around a bit to find the lowest bedrock you can find.

And in relation to our conversation last night.

-If you warp from world to world, the direction you are facing is maintained (i.e. if you were facing east on the overworld and you warped to the Nether, you would still be facing east in the Nether). Also, if you enter a portal while flying in Creative, you will still be flying after you warp.
-An automatically generated portal may be built at a 90 degree angle to the one you entered.

I had these two things jumbled in my memory. You were totally correct.

[FlowerChild]

I suppose that would be mostly accurate if you look around a bit to find the lowest bedrock you can find.

Yeah, my usual habit when doing this was to dig down to bedrock, form a chamber there that would act as a hub for any connecting tunnels (usually with storage and crafting area), then count upwards to the actual tunnels. When you start thinking in these terms, ideas as to the specifics inevitably start to flow.

I had these two things jumbled in my memory. You were totally correct.

Ah, cool. Thanks for letting me know as it was gnawing at me a bit as to whether I had made an incorrect assumption and might be building off in the wrong direction as a result. Covering twenty kilometers with a rail is non-trivial, even in the nether ;)

[DaveYanakov]

In extreme circumstances, the cobble/netherrack compass still works as well. The pattern always orients in the same direction on the top face so depending on your texture pack you can pay attention to it and always be able to find north.

[Sarudak]

Yeah I may use that for connecting bases but I remembered the primary reason for building the overland road in the first place was as a navigation aid to protect against getting lost while exploring.

My little brother was complaining about not being able to go on adventures without F3 but if we built a road originating from spawn as long as you have a compass and don't got past the road in the direction it's build you can easily explore to either side of it as much as you want with no real fear of getting lost. Your compass will always tell you which side of the road you are on so you can always find your way back to it and then follow it to wherever home is.

[jakerman999]

One little "trick" I used to use regularly, and which I am returning to now, is combining mining with connecting bases.

Basically, the idea is that instead of branch mining, you focus your mining efforts at diamond level towards connecting your various bases. In early parts of my world there's actually a whole underground network of tunnels that connect all my bases as a result of this. Further expanding this into a subterranean minecart network also becomes relatively easy, since you can enclose the tunnels to prevent mob spawns interfering with your carts and such.

Anyways, thought it was a tip worth sharing, especially for those that might not want to disrupt the overworld look of their existing bases. This can basically result in an invisible transportation network.

This is actually backwards from how I normally progress. Typically, I mine a single tunnel the distance that four stacks of rails(three normal, one powered) will take me, then dig up and form a new base close by. Each base I give a number based on co-ord system(first base being 0-0, the one north from that 1-0, etc.) and label the hub at the bottom with signs. From there I typically explore the regions between bases, and set up outposts at locations I might want to spent more time at(for collecting clay, or taming ocelots for example).

[Poppycocks]

Just put the tunels at the lava level +1. It's rather hard to miss as most lava pools in that depth are at the same height.

[TheAnarchitect]

This is actually backwards from how I normally progress. Typically, I mine a single tunnel the distance that four stacks of rails(three normal, one powered) will take me, then dig up and form a new base close by. Each base I give a number based on co-ord system(first base being 0-0, the one north from that 1-0, etc.) and label the hub at the bottom with signs. From there I typically explore the regions between bases, and set up outposts at locations I might want to spent more time at(for collecting clay, or taming ocelots for example).

That's a pretty cool system.

[Mad_Scientist]

I have to say that the F3 screen has always bugged me. I really like it's removal, as it recaptures some of my earliest explorations in Minecraft, before i learned of F3 magic. I remember the first time i went wandering around underground, and feeling quite chuffed upon exiting a cave system with a sizeable quantity of ore. This gradually turned to panic as i realised i had no idea where i was, and night was drawing in. It eventually prompted me to make a large lighthouse in my first world, so i could see how to get back home from a decent distance away.

However, there is one thing i don't know how to do yet. I have a neat enclosed railway set up in the nether in order to get me to one of the strongholds. This was done by finding the stronghold in the over-world, constructing the portal there, then use of F3 to find my way back to the Steve Institute for Netheric Research.

As the orientation and positioning of portals is somewhat arcane, even without the whole weird linking behaviour, I am at a loss as to how to find my way back from a fortress in the nether. I could dig for miles away from my stronghold portal, only to find that the portal had some odd orientation, and that I now have no way to build my nether railway.

Any suggestions as to away around this? I'd hate to think this new feature had made nether-railways impossible to create with any accuracy.

[haphazardnuke]

Just put the tunels at the lava level +1. It's rather hard to miss as most lava pools in that depth are at the same height.

Lava? I haven't seen lava below y= ~40 since at least MC 1.0... which is too bad, really. I liked the danger.

On topic: I've always tried to avoid using F3 or any external tools, and I can say I've never 'hacked' anything in. I used a map viewer recently to find a mycelium biome (I'm in a large biomes world, and didn't feel that a 15k-radius circle was a practical idea), but I limited myself as to the number of times I checked the map, and tried to justify the use of such a tool to myself by imagining Steve getting visions of which direction to go. Now that I have a Nether path to that island, I have forsworn the use of any other external tools. I will find the strongholds manually.

[The Phoenixian]

However, there is one thing i don't know how to do yet. I have a neat enclosed railway set up in the nether in order to get me to one of the strongholds. This was done by finding the stronghold in the over-world, constructing the portal there, then use of F3 to find my way back to the Steve Institute for Netheric Research.

As the orientation and positioning of portals is somewhat arcane, even without the whole weird linking behaviour, I am at a loss as to how to find my way back from a fortress in the nether. I could dig for miles away from my stronghold portal, only to find that the portal had some odd orientation, and that I now have no way to build my nether railway.

Any suggestions as to away around this? I'd hate to think this new feature had made nether-railways impossible to create with any accuracy.

For finding your orientation in the nether: When you come in from the overworld, you'll find that you're always facing the same direction when you go through the portal as when you entered the portal. Additionally, blocks with directional properties, be they textures, as found in glowstone's texture, or otherwise, like in the rotation patterns of gearboxes or the on/off states of levers, will remain consistent between dimensions.

For problems with portals connecting imporperly: Just go through the portal and back, if you end up in the wrong location on either half of the jump, it's not connected right and you need to deactivate one of the portals and then go through again (Ghast fireballs do the trick nicely, even if their aim is sloppy.)

The following is hypothetical at this point but If you want it absolutely and perfectly centered there may be a way for that too: A portal will always seek the closest within a 128 block radius of itself in the opposite dimension and thus either a 1024 block radius of itself in the overworld or a 16 block radius of itself in the nether. If you define a 31 x 31 area perimeter and build nether portals along each edge, any portal too far from the true center will make a new portal and any within the edge will connect to the original portal. Thus if four portals 16 blocks away from the original portal all connect to the original overworld portal, you've got it perfectly centered. (Note that only 3 of the 6 portal blocks in each portal will exactly correspond to the overworld portal)

A portal generated by a trip between dimensions will always generate within 16 blocks being exactly centered so one generated on a trip from from nether to overworld should always have the netherside portal within 2 blocks of perfection.