You're trying to argue abstracts. It doesn't work that way. You're arguing probability and ignoring outliers, and when you're talking about the probability of finding a diamond vein that is (to give you a fighting chance) three blocks wide in a roughly 16x16x10 rectangle when your search pattern consists of a straight line 2-3 blocks high and one block wide, those outliers are pretty darn significant. You're leaving too much ground untouched.
untouched ground is irrelevant because all the blocks have an equal chance of being diamond.
When you isolate a chunk and work methodically, you'll find the diamonds. And if a person wants to get full dork on the situation, they can work an "optimal" pattern. I don't get where you're arriving at the conclusion that the only way to ensure you're uncovering new blocks with every block you destroy is to mine in a straight line. I don't think you're understanding how to be properly methodical.
I understand methodology very well thank you. there is no need to actually be methodological on any single mining session, because you do indeed cover a pretty significant section of any given chunk you mine through. many never touch the lowest half of the chunk ever. they don't want to deal with random lavapockets and the invasive darkness at the lowest levels.. you get as much and more by just steaming ahead and then picking trough the caves and other free opportunities you get to scrape up them goodies without having to do more digging than you strictly need. unless you need cobble ofc. but that is what quarries were made for.
And for record (all in the name of "science", of course) I decided to test my methodology of a clean, efficient, thorough chunk search. First diamonds were located within 30 seconds of starting, second chunk within a minute and same with the third chunk. All three chunks yielded diamonds, all three chunks did so quickly, and it's a method that I can pass along to anyone with confidence and say, "If you do it like this, you'll find the diamonds like I did." Some guy using a mining pick isn't going to find them as fast as I did because I was using a mining laser, but they'll find the diamonds. It's a guarantee, because the game code says it is.
you used a mining laser. an OP tool that lets you zap trough 20 blocks in half a sec. that was not the topic at hand. it was vanilla mining for the first set of diamonds.
you can straight line mine with a mining laser too. mostly the same effect you know. the chance of any given 20 block 1x2 line giving diamond is the same. it matters not if you make 20 parallel ones every 3 or 4 blocks or go straight ahead. the chances are exactly the same for every attempt. on average you will find approximately the same number of diamonds. per block mined. except if you are ocd about your pattern, and you keep making holes in chunks where the diamonds have already been found. This is where most of the time wasting from thorough branch mining comes from. unless you spend time marking out chunk boundraries. (that is also time wasted imo).
The mining laser actually changes the equation a bit. since it's faster to sidestep while blasting away than it is to run forward and zap. but that is only true of the mining laser.
the time to find diamonds is directly related to the number of blocks revealed in a given timeframe no matter the tool.
Gaming theory. you should read up on it. it's quite interesting how chances actually play out into statistics. much of it applies to real life events as well. much more so than you can imagine.
The best you can offer is, "You'll probably find them" or "you'll find them sooner or later."
No it is not. it's a statement of fact. finding diamonds is an inevitable consequence of mining at the right height. stressing out over patterns and whatnot is a waste of brainpower unless you actually enjoy doing that sort of thing. just chill out and dig instead.
Nobody is going to take away your perfect branch mine pattern. if that is what floats your boat then so be it. but you cannot claim that it is the absolute best way to do it.
For those who don't enjoy making patterns in rocks underground the best way is to just mine til one hits something interesting, then explore some and then continue on the same way til the next interesting place encountered. return home when the bags are full. empty them out and try some other random spot and direction and keep going.
Listen. I've played this game since early alpha. I have mined chest after chest full of diamonds. I have done all kinds of crazy patterns to try and maximize the output of my mining. when you actually have to walk up to the blocks to mine them, then doing straight lines til you run out of inventory nets the most stuff per minute spent. I've even done this with timers over multiple sessions and worlds. you have no idea how hot those discussions back then got over this.
It's been tested again and again. heck. if you have watched some of the mindcrack LP'ers, then you know that even a railway project at close to bedrock level can easily net a stack of diamond just as a side product of digging a big ass long tunnel. (etho seem to like to make deep subway lines for some reason)
I go 20 blocks, you barely almost never usually have to go 200, but you've got the lock on "optimal". Right. Sometimes you need to see optimal to realize just how sub-optimal you really are.
Now you are just being snarky. I never gave an average find time of 200 blocks for a vein of diamonds. they are generally found within the first 4 chunks one passes trough. remember that all revealed blocks have the same chance of being diamond. it matters not for the odds per revealed block if you make paralell 20 block tunnels or not. the time wasting isn't in the digging of said tunnel. it is in the time spent setting out the pattern.
Where did I claim you claimed I wouldn't find any?
I can see you're taking this personally, and that usually means that if this keeps going you're just going to get more and more incoherent in a desperate attempt to discredit me because your actual argument is garbage, so let's just cut out the middle man and call it done? You win. Bad is the new optimal. Fill yer boots.
I haven't taken anything personally. You were the one being quite the bit less than civil with your choice of language up-thread. and you are continuing in the same style in this post. Your incivility is duly noted.
You strongly insinuated that straight line mining would have a lesser chance at finding diamond than being "thorough" as you put it. this is simply not true. even a thorough search can easily come up empty since diamonds are sometimes destroyed during world gen. caves and lava-pools come after ore gen. there is even a fair chance that they will be locked under bedrock as well. this used to happen more often in alpha and early beta. they changed the code so that diamond gen would come a bit later in the world gen process during beta. Dirt and gravel used to be generated after diamonds too back in alpha. so more diamonds got destroyed that way as well.
Sometimes one can luck out totally as well. a single 64 block long tunnel can net 3 or 4 veins easily. it happens pretty regularly too.
The point is. diamonds are random distributed. and it really does not matter where you dig within that distribution area, the chances of finding them remains the same until they are found. (that is when that particular chunk get's set to a 0% chance) anything more fancy than a straight line til you run out of picks is a waste of time. hundreds of people spent countless hours worrying over this back in alpha. (you should have seen the grief in those threads too)
When in fact the true solution was to not bother with any particular system at all.
the most common bad advice that people give to those who need help with their mining is to tell them to use some kind of fancy pattern or other. that is not what they need. they need simple. and simple is really the best way in most cases. you can't get simpler than mining straight ahead til you hit something.
You have wasted enough of my time already. so I bid you farewell. Enjoy your branch mining.
I for one are going to set my turtles to strip this here mountain down to bedrock while i take a nice nap after working my night-shift. Now that is efficient use of time
