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The Rocks and Minerals of Minecraft

270 points by colinprince 5y ago

marpayne 5y ago
It's probably amazing to incorporate what we can do in Minecraft and convert it into a real-world object. Given that we will only use it for good purposes. It will drastically transform our world and imagine the countless possibility of the creative minds can do.
- bovermyer 5y ago
  Since you've got a pretty new account, here's a tip: Hacker News is not Reddit. This community takes a very dim view of sarcastic dismissiveness. You're welcome to dislike anything you want, but generally speaking, let those of us that are more playful enjoy our whimsy. Or, to borrow a phrase that's long out of favor - don't harsh the mellow, man.
  - scollet 5y ago
    I am surprised you got any information out of gp. I have no idea what that comment is supposed to be saying.
    - ilaksh 5y ago
      I am not sure either but I have a feeling English is not their first language. Regardless, most interesting comment in the thread in my opinion.
- ilaksh 5y ago
  Not sure what you mean and honestly in English that doesn't come across as fully coherent. But it is a really fascinating idea.[ How would we manifest Minecraft things? You mean like a Microsoft Hololens demo or something?
charliea0 5y ago
The process of going from rocks to manufactured goods is fascinating, and probably part of the interest in Minecraft. Obligatory link to a video showing the home refinement of iron metal from minerals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBBt7IhHOFQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBBt7IhHOFQ
- jvanderbot 5y ago
  The best ref on _primitive_ Iron production I've seen is acoup.blog ... also textiles, food, etc
- notthemessiah 5y ago
  Some Minecraft mods like TerraFirmaCraft and new games such as Vintage Story opt for a more realistic portrayal, and include the use of realistic ore and flux in smelting.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
lordnacho 5y ago
For a while I would work as a coder during the day, and in the evening I would work in the mines, for my son. "Dad we need more iron ore. Dad, make sure the furnaces have coal in them." Eventually my kid worked out that you can build generators, effectively coding it in MC bricks and providing infinite resources. Probably the first time he's coded something, he just doesn't know it. This made my evenings a bit less monotonous to start with, but then I was managing a factory instead of hacking out blocks underground. One thing I never understood about the game was how TNT and minecarts are supposed to work, economically. It seems you need to kill creepers to get TNT? That takes time, even if you make a farm. And then when it blows up, it doesn't really blow up enough blocks to make it worth the time, surely? Same with the tracks for minecarts. How does the investment pay off? You need a huge amount of iron to make the tracks, and all it lets you do is transport stuff about as fast as riding a horse.
- bonzini 5y ago
  Minecarts really are useful only to transport creatures around, and to distribute stuff from and to furnaces.
  - lordnacho 5y ago
    Right but you can find these abandoned mines with nicely laid out track along the whole length. The game sort of suggests that you should do that too? But basically if you don't find enough iron in a given length of cave, you can't have tracks all the way.
    - munk-a 5y ago
      The iron to track conversion ratio is pretty efficient though - so I don't know how often you'll find an area devoid enough of iron to be building at a loss... That all said if you're laying a continuous path while spelunking you'll probably manage it.
    - outworlder 5y ago
      You can decomission the track when it is no longer useful and build it somewhere else. As you find more iron, the distance you can go increases. There are some mods with excavators that can also lay tracks. Those were great fun.
eloeffler 5y ago
Strike the Earth!
- Sharlin 5y ago
  Like almost everything else, Dwarf Fortress's geology is in a class of its own. There are about two dozen stone types that form layers, divided quasi-realistically into sedimentary, igneous intrusive, igneous extrusive, and metamorphic [1]. Then there are forty other types of stone that occur as veins and pockets [2]… and then there are about twenty types of metal ore and 130 different types of gem! [1] http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Stone#Stones_forming_entire_layers http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Stone#Stones_f... [2] http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Stone#Other_Stone http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Stone#Other_St...
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
bombcar 5y ago
Vanilla Minecraft has a decent smattering of ores (they just added copper) - but if you want the rabbit hole you head into something like GregTech: New Horizons and the massive ore dictionary it has. However, it's not entirely realistic as the only way to get titanium is from the Moon ...
- willis936 5y ago
  GT:NH does hit a lot of good points, but overshoots by quite a bit. My best experience in minecraft was from making my own GT5U kitchen sink pack with GT-based modified recipes.
  - Akronymus 5y ago
    I think gregblock could be to your liking. Altough it is greg lite. Same with omnifactory, sadly. Still quite enjoyable packs.
    - willis936 5y ago
      I've tried it. GTCE's dev is on a power trip and completely misses the enjoyable aspects of gregtech. It's like if someone pissed in a wine you like then insisted that it's better and anyone who thinks otherwise is out of their depth. GTCE isn't even in need of a fork because all of the work has been shoddy from the beginning. It's a failed project.
- ilaksh 5y ago
  copper wow.. what can you do with it? make wires?
  - detaro 5y ago
    a spyglas (=lets you zoom in) and lightning rods (catch lightning that would have struck in a radius around it otherwise). And the blocks look nice, and slowly oxidize and turn to green copper (which you can stop at any stage by waxing the block with bees wax)
Hayarotle 5y ago
I like how unfocused article feels. With the videos, comments and interesting facts, it manages to replicate the experience of reading an article at the same time you're randomly browsing the internet and talking about it with your friends in a group chat. I wonder if it's deliberate?
cratermoon 5y ago
Geology lesson!
Cycl0ps 5y ago
I went on a game hiatus in June just to see if I'd even miss them or if they were nothing but a time sink. So far there's only two games I'd really like to play, Battlefield 2042 (which hasn't released yet) and Minecraft. To my mind it is a perfect sandbox game. Solid core loop, various secondary objectives you can set, high replayability, and deep customization. There is an impressively deep level of interaction between different objects in the game, combined with the redstone logic system there's no real limit to what can be designed. It's the Lego of the digital age.
treeman79 5y ago
My daughters love to play Minecraft with me. My youngest one collects Pets. To the point I had to ban them from the house as 7 wolfs and a dozen cats in the room is a bit much. She has many stables around the house for them. I have hitting turned off to reduce drama. So same one will leash a bunch of wolves and walk in front of older sister. Causing an accidental hit and wolves then proceed to eat the sister. The older one loves diamonds. She follows along my mining and rushes to grab them ahead everyone else. We are working on sharing. She also loves to produce fancy houses, better then I can do. It’s quite heart warming when I log And a new chest is there with a sign “for Dad” and it will have whatever oddball crafted items they want to leave for me; Last was a telescope.
- Darmody 5y ago
  That's wholesome. I used to play a lot with my niece. I can't wait to have my own children to play with them. It's so full of possibilities. Not many games are this entertaining and educational at the same time. Even though it depends very much on how you play it.
- ilaksh 5y ago
  To me hitting should maybe be on for kids because its a way for them to learn. Although after being hit a few times by my nephew when he was younger, I understand turning it off. I have not had kids, but I get the impression that most kids are just prone to certain tendencies at a young age. Like, they are kids. Maybe there are a rare few that act less like kids, but I think there may be limitations on training especially for the young ones. But anyway I was happy to find the last time that I was in with my nephew, I had no fear of being accidentally attacked with a sword.
AnotherNotch 5y ago
I think the 'rocks and minerals' follow Notch'es psyche, he's insane, so, it's just a game!
moomin 5y ago
The article touches on this, but one of the things that pretty much every computer game gets wrong is making diamonds super strong and rare in the natural world, when in the real world they’re neither. De Beers must be laughing down their sleeves.

270 points by colinprince 5y ago

It's probably amazing to incorporate what we can do in Minecraft and convert it into a real-world object. Given that we will only use it for good purposes. It will drastically transform our world and imagine the countless possibility of the creative minds can do.

bovermyer 5y ago
Since you've got a pretty new account, here's a tip: Hacker News is not Reddit. This community takes a very dim view of sarcastic dismissiveness. You're welcome to dislike anything you want, but generally speaking, let those of us that are more playful enjoy our whimsy. Or, to borrow a phrase that's long out of favor - don't harsh the mellow, man.
- scollet 5y ago
  I am surprised you got any information out of gp. I have no idea what that comment is supposed to be saying.
  - ilaksh 5y ago
    I am not sure either but I have a feeling English is not their first language. Regardless, most interesting comment in the thread in my opinion.
ilaksh 5y ago
Not sure what you mean and honestly in English that doesn't come across as fully coherent. But it is a really fascinating idea.[ How would we manifest Minecraft things? You mean like a Microsoft Hololens demo or something?

charliea0 5y ago

The process of going from rocks to manufactured goods is fascinating, and probably part of the interest in Minecraft. Obligatory link to a video showing the home refinement of iron metal from minerals: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBBt7IhHOFQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBBt7IhHOFQ

jvanderbot 5y ago
The best ref on _primitive_ Iron production I've seen is acoup.blog ... also textiles, food, etc
notthemessiah 5y ago
Some Minecraft mods like TerraFirmaCraft and new games such as Vintage Story opt for a more realistic portrayal, and include the use of realistic ore and flux in smelting.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

lordnacho 5y ago

For a while I would work as a coder during the day, and in the evening I would work in the mines, for my son. "Dad we need more iron ore. Dad, make sure the furnaces have coal in them." Eventually my kid worked out that you can build generators, effectively coding it in MC bricks and providing infinite resources. Probably the first time he's coded something, he just doesn't know it. This made my evenings a bit less monotonous to start with, but then I was managing a factory instead of hacking out blocks underground. One thing I never understood about the game was how TNT and minecarts are supposed to work, economically. It seems you need to kill creepers to get TNT? That takes time, even if you make a farm. And then when it blows up, it doesn't really blow up enough blocks to make it worth the time, surely? Same with the tracks for minecarts. How does the investment pay off? You need a huge amount of iron to make the tracks, and all it lets you do is transport stuff about as fast as riding a horse.

bonzini 5y ago
Minecarts really are useful only to transport creatures around, and to distribute stuff from and to furnaces.
- lordnacho 5y ago
  Right but you can find these abandoned mines with nicely laid out track along the whole length. The game sort of suggests that you should do that too? But basically if you don't find enough iron in a given length of cave, you can't have tracks all the way.
  - munk-a 5y ago
    The iron to track conversion ratio is pretty efficient though - so I don't know how often you'll find an area devoid enough of iron to be building at a loss... That all said if you're laying a continuous path while spelunking you'll probably manage it.
  - outworlder 5y ago
    You can decomission the track when it is no longer useful and build it somewhere else. As you find more iron, the distance you can go increases. There are some mods with excavators that can also lay tracks. Those were great fun.

eloeffler 5y ago

Strike the Earth!

Sharlin 5y ago
Like almost everything else, Dwarf Fortress's geology is in a class of its own. There are about two dozen stone types that form layers, divided quasi-realistically into sedimentary, igneous intrusive, igneous extrusive, and metamorphic [1]. Then there are forty other types of stone that occur as veins and pockets [2]… and then there are about twenty types of metal ore and 130 different types of gem! [1] http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Stone#Stones_forming_entire_layers http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Stone#Stones_f... [2] http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Stone#Other_Stone http://dwarffortresswiki.org/index.php/DF2014:Stone#Other_St...
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

bombcar 5y ago

Vanilla Minecraft has a decent smattering of ores (they just added copper) - but if you want the rabbit hole you head into something like GregTech: New Horizons and the massive ore dictionary it has. However, it's not entirely realistic as the only way to get titanium is from the Moon ...

willis936 5y ago
GT:NH does hit a lot of good points, but overshoots by quite a bit. My best experience in minecraft was from making my own GT5U kitchen sink pack with GT-based modified recipes.
- Akronymus 5y ago
  I think gregblock could be to your liking. Altough it is greg lite. Same with omnifactory, sadly. Still quite enjoyable packs.
  - willis936 5y ago
    I've tried it. GTCE's dev is on a power trip and completely misses the enjoyable aspects of gregtech. It's like if someone pissed in a wine you like then insisted that it's better and anyone who thinks otherwise is out of their depth. GTCE isn't even in need of a fork because all of the work has been shoddy from the beginning. It's a failed project.
ilaksh 5y ago
copper wow.. what can you do with it? make wires?
- detaro 5y ago
  a spyglas (=lets you zoom in) and lightning rods (catch lightning that would have struck in a radius around it otherwise). And the blocks look nice, and slowly oxidize and turn to green copper (which you can stop at any stage by waxing the block with bees wax)

Hayarotle 5y ago

I like how unfocused article feels. With the videos, comments and interesting facts, it manages to replicate the experience of reading an article at the same time you're randomly browsing the internet and talking about it with your friends in a group chat. I wonder if it's deliberate?

cratermoon 5y ago

Geology lesson!

Cycl0ps 5y ago

I went on a game hiatus in June just to see if I'd even miss them or if they were nothing but a time sink. So far there's only two games I'd really like to play, Battlefield 2042 (which hasn't released yet) and Minecraft. To my mind it is a perfect sandbox game. Solid core loop, various secondary objectives you can set, high replayability, and deep customization. There is an impressively deep level of interaction between different objects in the game, combined with the redstone logic system there's no real limit to what can be designed. It's the Lego of the digital age.

treeman79 5y ago

My daughters love to play Minecraft with me. My youngest one collects Pets. To the point I had to ban them from the house as 7 wolfs and a dozen cats in the room is a bit much. She has many stables around the house for them. I have hitting turned off to reduce drama. So same one will leash a bunch of wolves and walk in front of older sister. Causing an accidental hit and wolves then proceed to eat the sister. The older one loves diamonds. She follows along my mining and rushes to grab them ahead everyone else. We are working on sharing. She also loves to produce fancy houses, better then I can do. It’s quite heart warming when I log And a new chest is there with a sign “for Dad” and it will have whatever oddball crafted items they want to leave for me; Last was a telescope.

Darmody 5y ago
That's wholesome. I used to play a lot with my niece. I can't wait to have my own children to play with them. It's so full of possibilities. Not many games are this entertaining and educational at the same time. Even though it depends very much on how you play it.
ilaksh 5y ago
To me hitting should maybe be on for kids because its a way for them to learn. Although after being hit a few times by my nephew when he was younger, I understand turning it off. I have not had kids, but I get the impression that most kids are just prone to certain tendencies at a young age. Like, they are kids. Maybe there are a rare few that act less like kids, but I think there may be limitations on training especially for the young ones. But anyway I was happy to find the last time that I was in with my nephew, I had no fear of being accidentally attacked with a sword.

AnotherNotch 5y ago

I think the 'rocks and minerals' follow Notch'es psyche, he's insane, so, it's just a game!

moomin 5y ago

The article touches on this, but one of the things that pretty much every computer game gets wrong is making diamonds super strong and rare in the natural world, when in the real world they’re neither. De Beers must be laughing down their sleeves.