User:Jaeil/Cobblestone factory

Due to the properties of infinite fluids, water springs and lava springs can be cleverly combined to create a construction that produces Cobblestone infinitely, automatically, and without having to remove blocks from the landscape.

= Mechanics = A cobblestone factory relies on flowing lava encountering a water spring, causing cobblestone to form. When an empty block (or one with flowing water) is bordered horizontally by two water spring blocks, it reverts to a water spring itself. This is commonly known as spring duplication. The main function of a construction used to produce cobblestone is to create an area in which a water spring is created, then combined with lava to produce stone. SInce water replicates horizontally, it is more efficient to have the lava pour in from above onto a pool of water springs.

= Construction =

Materials
In order to make a cobblestone factory, you will first need a bucket (one at the least) to transport the fluids around during construction. You will also need to go deep enough to encounter lava and bring a spring up in a bucket. It is helpful to put the lava spring somewhere where it won't spread while you gather other materials. The factory itself can be made of any building material besides sand, gravel, and woods. Some floating blocks are required to construct the factory and lava will be present, ruling out gravity-affected blocks and flammable blocks. Dirt is plentiful in the average Alpha map, so it makes a good material, stone likewise. Iron will be required to make the bucket. Once you have a bucket, lava spring, water access, and dirt or stone, you may begin construction.

Building the factory
The simplest form of factory is one where the lava pours into the center of a pool of water. The minimum pool size is a diamond, 5 water springs wide at the center. Blocks are placed around the pool so as to keep the water inside the factory. The lava spring is placed above the center block of the pool. Blocks must be placed on all four sides of the lava spring, or else it will flow out sideways and remove more water than you want. The blocks flanking the lava spring will cause it to only pour one block down. When the lava hits the center spring, it will obliterate it then spread to the adjacent springs, This will create a ring of four cobblestone blocks around the pillar of lava, and if you are using the minimum pool size, there will be a ring of eight water springs surrounding the cobblestone. When you mine away a block of cobblestone, the water will replicate a spring into the vacancy, and then the lava will convert it to cobblestone.

= Benefits = While cobblestone factories may be superior to regular mining operations in some ways, they fall short in others.

Convenience
Factories are more convenient than regular mining, because they can be located inside a base or fortress to allow for mining without having to travel between the base and the mine.

Safety
Regular mining bears the danger of Mobs coming out of the darkness and attacking you where you cannot escape. While factories can be places in mob-free areas, they bear the problem of dealing with lava, which can burn you. The water creates a brief current when you mine a block of cobblestone that can suck you slightly towards the lava. The danger in burning to death, though, is mitigated by the water you stand in while mining the stone, making only prolonged and direct contact lethal.

Speed
Factories have a delay between the mining and the creation of a new stone. You can work around this by mining around the ring of four stones, however, factories cannot match the speed at which stone can be mined in the middle of a huge stone deposit. With the fact that factories can be put in secure locations, though, time becomes less of an issue.

Efficiency
Factories have one non-obvious flaw: the mined stone can be incinerated by the lava. A quick test reveals that only about 70% of the stone mined makes it to your inventory. The other 30%, because the stone randomly flies out from the destroyed block, hits the lava stream and is lost. However, the cobblestone that is collected will provide enough stone to make a stone pickaxe to continue mining.

Production capacity
Factories can produce infinite stone as long as the fluids remain infinite. Regular mining has theoretical limits.

Ores
Regular mining produces occasional finds of iron, coal, and deep down, diamond and redstone. Factories do not produce any ores, so regular mining is still the only way to get ores.