Digging for emeralds in Minecraft

[lionkingcmsl]

Digging for emeralds by ~LionkingCMSL on deviantART

A cavern that I excavated looking for emeralds in Minecraft.

It is 1360 meters long, 513 meters wide and 4 meters tall. The floor is at level 10

That works out to 697,680 sq meters in area and 2,790,720 cu meters in volume.

I am not done yet as I plan to excavate the entire "Extreme Hills" and "Extreme Hills Edge" biomes, in this location, from 1 to as high as emeralds can be found.

The fence in the foreground protects a shaft that goes from sky to level 1, for daylighting purposes.

To do the basic clearing out I use the "Creative Mode" so I don't have to worry about getting rid of the unwanted material, and excavate around all the ores and precious items.

Then I switch to "Survival mode" to do the "harvesting".

I was using "glass" to defeat the lava, but then decided to use "sand" to fill in the lava lakes.

Comments

[aj-hyena.livejournal.com]

Use glass on the lava and build rooms around it so you have a glass bottom house with lava underneath :) Done much with redstone yet? Found a jungle temple or a pyramid?

Emeralds are rare. Maybe 1 or 2 blocks worth per 16x16x16 block. You can get more through trading with the villagers in villages you might come across. I assume you upgraded to 1.4 along with the rest of us? :)

http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Emerald_Ore to save you time; they're at gold level or beneath, so digging out the entire mountain isn't needed.

If I thought you could afford a server, I'd say get one, have a bunch of people on at one time. :)

Looks like you're using the default textures, too. Though I can't imagine you'd be interested in higher def textures (easily available for free; I can give you a couple) when this works just fine.

[lowen-kind.livejournal.com]

You are correct in the levels and trading, but it is the "thrill of discovery" that I'm after.

So I'll dig from 1 to 32. Should keep me busy for a long while.

Let me think about high def textures. :=3

[aj-hyena.livejournal.com]

The ones I use are Herr Sommer's Medieval, or Misa's on occasion. I've used a few "ultra realistic" texture packs too (one with near-clear water so you can see the bottom, as well as underwater ravines).

Another neat thing is that if you place a ladder underwater, it removed that water block. I once made a bridge out to an underwater ravine, slowly sank (placing blocks as I went, going to the surface when needed or into my "ladder pocket" of air) and had a ladder stretching all the way to diamond level.

If you want a few screenshots I can post a few.

Edited to add: If you go hunting for textures, they're rar files you don't extract, but place in a folder. Don't download anything that is an installer, those are just bloatware or worse.

[kamau-d-lyon.livejournal.com]

A couple of tips would be to use jack-o-lanterns rather then busting your tail to get crystals from the Nether. Also don't destroy lava but use it to either make obsidian or use it in place of coal in your furnaces.

Sounds like you're having a good time which is the main thing.

[lowen-kind.livejournal.com]

In creative mode you don't have to go to the Nether. You can select the "glowstones" as one of the blocks.

Easier that way. :=3

[skipai.livejournal.com]

True but where's the fun in that. Okay, it is but also for server it's fun to do the survival as then you can work on projects together. :)

[skipai.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, smaller than when I get mining. Had a mine that was about 250x250 or something and went right down to the floor. XD

Seriously I can be a right monster when I get mining, do have my own Minecraft server, not really put it back online though. Hmm, maybe I will, see if I can grab you to get onto it one day. XD