Portals

[Thorin]

Yeah, signage you're right about.  That, and making sure it doesn't turn into a giant maze, or warren.  If there's a default, "if lost retreat to spawn then try again", that'll definitely help.  That said, it'll all be done before I get there to help, probably, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt.

However, I really was lost in the Nether, taking the wrong railway and portal several times a while back.  Took me over an hour just to get home.

[Lazybones]

I think signage is going to be FAR more useful than portal direction.

Not to mention signs are cheaper to make and take less time

(also don't forget to bring a flint and tinder with you when you go on a portal adventure)

If you are manually placing portals (instead of auto spawning them by building first in the overworld) you can all but ensure that you are always in a safe zone so burn out isn't likely.. Isn't fire, explosion or breaking the portal the only things that can put it out?

A more important thing is don't lite your self or building on fire when you have flint and tinder or lava buckets in your hot bar.

[Mr. Analog]

If you are manually placing portals (instead of auto spawning them by building first in the overworld) you can all but ensure that you are always in a safe zone so burn out isn't likely.. Isn't fire, explosion or breaking the portal the only things that can put it out?

A more important thing is don't lite your self or building on fire when you have flint and tinder or lava buckets in your hot bar.

Haha, way too true! Oddly enough my first foray into this servers' Nether a Ghast put out the portal and I was stuck as I didn't have a flint and tinder. I actually had to get a Ghast to fire another fireball at me while standing on the the portal frame to relight it. That was the worst thing ever, that's also why no matter what I'll always visit the Nether with a flint and tinder...

Yeah, signage you're right about.  That, and making sure it doesn't turn into a giant maze, or warren.  If there's a default, "if lost retreat to spawn then try again", that'll definitely help.  That said, it'll all be done before I get there to help, probably, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt.

However, I really was lost in the Nether, taking the wrong railway and portal several times a while back.  Took me over an hour just to get home.

The Nether is just really easy to get lost in as it all looks the same.

[Tom]

If you are manually placing portals (instead of auto spawning them by building first in the overworld) you can all but ensure that you are always in a safe zone so burn out isn't likely.. Isn't fire, explosion or breaking the portal the only things that can put it out?

A more important thing is don't lite your self or building on fire when you have flint and tinder or lava buckets in your hot bar.

Haha, way too true! Oddly enough my first foray into this servers' Nether a Ghast put out the portal and I was stuck as I didn't have a flint and tinder. I actually had to get a Ghast to fire another fireball at me while standing on the the portal frame to relight it. That was the worst thing ever, that's also why no matter what I'll always visit the Nether with a flint and tinder...

Yeah, signage you're right about.  That, and making sure it doesn't turn into a giant maze, or warren.  If there's a default, "if lost retreat to spawn then try again", that'll definitely help.  That said, it'll all be done before I get there to help, probably, so take my suggestions with a grain of salt.

However, I really was lost in the Nether, taking the wrong railway and portal several times a while back.  Took me over an hour just to get home.

The Nether is just really easy to get lost in as it all looks the same.

My first real trip, I just died. That got me back home quick. Then I came back, picked up my stuff, and left

[Mr. Analog]

Not sure if you've seen the first portal entrance, it was on a floating island so I had to be very careful not to fall into the lava pit below. It was all exposed to 3 Ghasts as well, I was capable of dodging for the most part but stupidly my hunger bar was low and I had no food on me. I didn't want to risk the jump to kill zombie pigmen for either as I had on a full set of armor and had all my diamond implements (which, in retrospect, was dumb to bring)

[Tom]

Not sure if you've seen the first portal entrance, it was on a floating island so I had to be very careful not to fall into the lava pit below. It was all exposed to 3 Ghasts as well, I was capable of dodging for the most part but stupidly my hunger bar was low and I had no food on me. I didn't want to risk the jump to kill zombie pigmen for either as I had on a full set of armor and had all my diamond implements (which, in retrospect, was dumb to bring)

Haven't seen that one. The one I went into there were like 4 ghasts firing at me the moment I exited. gate was blown out, and I panicked.

[Mr. Analog]

Not sure if you've seen the first portal entrance, it was on a floating island so I had to be very careful not to fall into the lava pit below. It was all exposed to 3 Ghasts as well, I was capable of dodging for the most part but stupidly my hunger bar was low and I had no food on me. I didn't want to risk the jump to kill zombie pigmen for either as I had on a full set of armor and had all my diamond implements (which, in retrospect, was dumb to bring)

Haven't seen that one. The one I went into there were like 4 ghasts firing at me the moment I exited. gate was blown out, and I panicked.

I built a bunker around it: http://mc.tomasu.org/#/2/64/-5/max/1/1

It was a bit panic inducing when I realized that if I couldn't get the portal re-lit I'd basically have to hope I died from starvation so I could get my stuff back.

[Thorin]

Right, well, we're hoping to avoid open areas, with portal rooms and connecting corridors instead.  Sounds like it makes sense to have a chest at each Nether portal with some supplies (food?  flint and steel?  a couple of swords, picks, and shovels?  anything else?)  And if we dig corridors and they come out in caverns, we should cover over our corridor so that ghasts can't get at us (I hear glass works good for that?)

Lazy, what y coord are you planning to use for all the fixed portals in the Nether?

[Mr. Analog]

Well, that's one lesson I learnt from the old server, dig into the ceiling and make your portal network through connecting tunnels, I'm just saying if you plonk your portal down in the overworld and connect to the Nether that way be prepared

[Thorin]

Why the ceiling?

[Lazybones]

Lazy, what y coord are you planning to use for all the fixed portals in the Nether?

I would have to go look, but the spawn city portal and the north, south, east, west signs all seem to be at the same level (not including the portal below there...

lava is everywhere in the nether so having everything at a standard height might be hard, but I plan on building off of what we have so far.... Some variation in height isn't bad, as long as you are not too close to other portals...

on the over world there will be lots of variation, I only plan on trying to standardize the nether for quick transport between them.

[Mr. Analog]

Why the ceiling?

If you dig straight down you'll likely run into lava and everywhere else is caves with dangerous stuff.

Digging up in the Nether is the easy way to get a group of fast travel portals going. You can also build forts and stuff but it's a bit tricky, nothing worse than getting knocked off a wall you're building and landing in lava or something.

[Thorin]

Oh, it's all solid near the top?  I kinda figured it was one big cave up there.

Maybe that's an idea, to dig right under the ceiling (I just read something about going above the bedrock, but it sounds like it'll only _maybe_ work).  Moving everything up to close to the ceiling sounds like a fair bit of work, though.  Maybe we need to do a couple of joint builds in the next week or something

[Lazybones]

Starting to sound like lots of work...

I was just planning on leveling out the portals, aligning them better with the overworld where needed and maybe creating a cobble stone generator to line the halls because nether rack is the only block worse to look at than cobble.

[Tom]

Starting to sound like lots of work...

I was just planning on leveling out the portals, aligning them better with the overworld where needed and maybe creating a cobble stone generator to line the halls because nether rack is the only block worse to look at than cobble.

Nether brick?