Talk:Tutorials/Branch mining

Pretty Diagrams
I have created a template for prettier diagrams, but it is currently limited (see Minecraft Wiki talk:Admin noticeboard)

If it gets fixed: Here is the diagram used on the Page; If it looks complete, paste the code into the page itself:


 * I don't understand how this works. How would you get up into the top two branches? You can't jump that high. Or am I looking at the diagram wrong? --HexZyle 04:49, 14 July 2011 (UTC)


 * it's a cross section, ignoring the main shaft. 24.18.8.160 00:57, 15 April 2012 (UTC)

how long?
there is no mention about how long the shafts should be. is there a recommend distances for the shafts?--Lazeman 21:22, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

Technically there isn't any recommended length. Any length works. It's better to make lots of small tunnels : this increases a very bit the chances of ores, this makes transport faster too. C ali nou - talk × contribs » 21:29, 9 May 2011 (UTC)

Gap between shafts and efficiency
The article seems to say that there is a tradeoff between a 2-block gap between shafts and a 5-block gap. This is partly true, but if you look at it efficiency-wise, a bigger gap is better.

If you have a small gap between shafts, you will never miss any ore, but it also means that if you go off mining a vein of ore, you will poke into an adjacent shaft, which cuts your efficiency.

If you have a large gap between shafts, you might miss some ore, but you will end up averaging the same amount or more ore, because you will never re-visit already seen blocks when you mine an ore vein. It also makes sense to have bigger gaps, because most veins of ore span more than 1 block in width. For example, if you leave a 3-block gap between shafts, the chance of an ore vein "hiding" entirely in the 1 block that you will not uncover is next to impossible. If you leave 4 blocks, there is a slight chance that a vein will occur only in the 2-block wide unrevealed gap, but again, this is still quite a small chance.

The tradeoff comes down to this:

- A smaller gap gives you better distance/ores found, in that your mine will cover less space for the amount of ore you are getting.

- A larger gap gives you better time/ores found, because you will almost never have to re-visit old blocks when you mine a vein of ore.

In all current-version single player maps, distance should never be a problem, because you have an unfathomable amount of potential map generation that could never be entirely covered by branch mining legitimately, therefore a large gap between shafts is more efficient.

I believe this should be summarised on the main article.