9 replies to this topic

[Oniya]

Some friends and I have a small Horizons server, and one of my first projects was setting up a deep mine-shaft.  So far, each level consists of a 9x9x3 central room, with a 1x2x5 tunnel in each wall to a 7x7x3 branch room.  Floors are 1 block thick.  (So basically clearing out a large amount of material from four chunks with each level.)  Levels are connected by a central pillar with ladders.  The intent is that the side rooms can be used as 'mining bases' for extended quarrying.

 

I've hit Void Fog, and haven't found a single diamond.  Tons of other stuff, (including random blocks of Hepatizon Bricks!), but no diamonds - which means that the lovely lakes of Obsidian that I made on a couple of floors are now impenetrable obstacles.  (I would have made a stack of buckets and done a 'poor man's portal' if I'd suspected this was going to be an issue.)

 

Bad luck, or did all the new ores suck up the likelihood of finding Diamond, and I should just make a smeltery and be done with it?

 

[DiamondDoctor]

Each chunk SHOULD have at least one diamond.. hm. Did you add any mods that change ore count? Metallurgy, timesoreforge, etc?

[TehRawrz]

If you've hit void fog you've gone too far. Strip mining at levels 11,12, and 13 with a Tinker's hammer is usually your best bet for finding diamonds.

[Oniya]

Each chunk SHOULD have at least one diamond.. hm. Did you add any mods that change ore count? Metallurgy, timesoreforge, etc?

Metallurgy 3 is part of the standard modpack for Horizons - it's a bit of a separate gripe, but there are loads of pink-and-black 'nonimplemented' blocks that will break with a single punch (I whack 'em with a torch to save my pick durability.)

 

 

If you've hit void fog you've gone too far. Strip mining at levels 11,12, and 13 with a Tinker's hammer is usually your best bet for finding diamonds.

 

I pretty much figured I'd gone 'too far'.  ^^;  I hit Void Fog when I dug 'stair-step' floors in the last full level of side rooms (feet at level 12) to see if maybe there was something just below me.  I will say that the basalt and other swag that I picked up was worth the dig (Essence ore, Iridium).

[DiamondDoctor]

Thought diamonds were at 2-7?

[timrem]

Thought diamonds were at 2-7?

More like 2-17, with best results around y=12.

[DiamondDoctor]

Ive wasted a LOT of durability then thanks lol

[dgelessus]

FYI, diamonds can spawn anywhere between y=0-16. Most packs have some kind of bedrock flattener enabled, so you could just stripmine at y=1 if you really wanted to. Usually going for something like y=12 is best though, because at that height lava pools are much rarer, and you'll still find diamonds, redstone and any other ore. Except copper, depending on what mod adds it.

[Oniya]

Yup - I've seen them as high as the low 20s in Vanilla, so when I hit 16 I was starting to get puzzled.  When I'd finished the level at 12, I was more or less annoyed, and imagining the diamonds hovering just outside my dig-range and laughing at me (not really, but you know how it is).  Ah well, I've moved out of that chunk cluster.  Thanks for all the input!

[ZL123]

Yup - I've seen them as high as the low 20s in Vanilla, so when I hit 16 I was starting to get puzzled.  When I'd finished the level at 12, I was more or less annoyed, and imagining the diamonds hovering just outside my dig-range and laughing at me (not really, but you know how it is).  Ah well, I've moved out of that chunk cluster.  Thanks for all the input!

Low 20s? That's impossible (unless your friend put it there).

 

FYI, diamonds can spawn anywhere between y=0-16. Most packs have some kind of bedrock flattener enabled, so you could just stripmine at y=1 if you really wanted to. Usually going for something like y=12 is best though, because at that height lava pools are much rarer, and you'll still find diamonds, redstone and any other ore. Except copper, depending on what mod adds it.

Apparently 5 is best for diamonds, and I read somewhere that lava lakes are most abundant at level 12 (maybe it was level 9, as this graph seems to suggest)...