Greener Pastures

I could not believe my eyes when I saw this. If I recall correctly, I got a total of 8 diamonds from that ore vein hanging over the pool of lava.

In preparation for the upcoming goals, I decided to made a bunch of improvements and complete a rock crusher to progress to higher tier machinery.

The automatic miners in reality are very slow. The rock crusher needed diamonds to be crafted and miners only yielded some. I decided to invest another trip down with the tunnel bore in hopes of finding more iron and diamonds—that turned out to be a lucky success as I found a motherlode of diamonds in a lava cavern not far off the newly drilled tunnel.

I needed the rock crusher to make light engineering blocks for the industrial squeezer and diesel generator.

In the meantime, my settlement is in chaos. Buildings are cluttered close to each other because when I started out, this was to combat threatening monsters lurking around at night. But the place is much more secure now, so that’s the least of my worries. On top of that, I designed most of the buildings to accommodate the current technology I built them for, but the newer technology makes everything look messier or out of place.

I’ve tried a few strategies to organize them, but they all suck. It just seems that I need to move on from my original starting area and to the outer area—where everything is untouched and waiting to be utilized.

I’ll probably do this by slowly abandoning the old area and build newer, more modern facilities outward. The first buildings in the old area will be most likely be combined with the greenhouse to make the Agricultural Research Center (ARC) I’ve been wanting for a while. The workshop will be moved to the lab. An electronics factory and metalworks is definitely on my list as well.

Automation Out of Reach

The tunnels I picked off along the sides of the main tunnel. The tunnel bore is hard at work at the end of the tunnel where it’s darker (too dark to be seen here).

I made the railroad factory and a small workshop for making industrial TNT. A few more tunnels were drilled for ores. I found it effective to also pickaxe several short tunnels off the main tunnel to check for ores as shown in the picture above. From what I see, a typical drilling delivers about 40 to 60 iron ores per trip.

Once I started research on the harvester and planter required to automate my farms, it got very complicated. I attempted a flowchart to help clarify what I needed, but it got so extensive that I decided against it. There was a certain machine, however, that proved—and I just knew—that these automation machines are far, far out of my reach at this current time: The magma crucible. Again, I need the nether bricks to complete it; which I have not found yet.

Besides, from the looks of it, I will need a network of ore processing, crafting, smelting, compressing, transporting—heck, an entire industry of factories to obtain just one automated machine.

Modern conveniences make our lives so easy but I seriously had no idea they are theoretically difficult to get. It makes me appreciate them more in real life.

So anyway, I’m going to focus on enabling myself to develop ore processing and mining machinery. However, I’ll first need a way to power them. The windmill won’t be enough. I already started work on the watermill power plant, but I know that won’t be enough too. Solar panels are impossible to gain obviously. So I have two energy options I’m aware of: Coal and oil.

Thankfully in the world of Minecraft, no skies will get polluted.

At any rate, I’ll need microchips…a lot of them; so that watermill will power mainly the research facility for them. I’ll need a ton of iron too, for making that oil/biodiesel generator and the systems that will go with it.

Two Major Investments

The tunnel bore doing its work.

Ok, this round gave me great progress thanks to the two biggest investments I made: The tunnel bore machine and the lumber axe. Both of these required a massive amount of resources. It was totally worth it however.

The tunnel bore sucked up a lot of iron to make the machine itself and the railroad tracks it needed to operate on. It turned out to be a highly productive investment as it delivered a ton of stone, iron, coal, and even diamonds in return.

The lumber axe is a completely different story. I wanted this tool because it cuts down entire trees by simply chopping one block of the tree compared to my old axe—which needed to cut each individual block one at a time.

First I needed the compressor to make a special kind of steel plates, and that machine needed a microchip that is made in an assembly table powered by lasers. Making that table and laser took all ten diamonds I got from my mining efforts. After I had the compressor, I could make the forge with the plates. This forge allowed me to make the expensive lumber axe. All of this took all my diamonds and a large amount of steel to accomplish. Despite that, I can now level forests in no time.

I personally feel both were good investments because now I I’m seeing a massive increase in stone and wood stocks. This will speed up all construction in my settlement and the mines below.

My next goal is to move into the industrial age. I need a reliable supply of energy and a ton of iron to make the enormous machines that will forever reshape the landscape.

The first step will be the windmill. I’ll need a metal former for that.