Portals

[Thorin]

I'm reading all about portal placement now: http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Nether_portal

Looks like they can be closer together if you also get the Y coordinate exact, otherwise you need to space them out more for the "exclusion zone".

(split off from photo thread)

According to the wiki, this is feasible:

overworld portal at x:32, y:64, z:32
   links to
nether portal at x:4, y:64, z:4

nether portal at x:4, y:80, z:4
   links to
overworld portal at x:32, y:80, z:32

Then all you need is a staircase to ascend 16 blocks.  Or a railway!  I'm lazy.

If that doesn't work, you could always do:


overworld portal at x:32, y:64, z:32
   links to
nether portal at x:4, y:64, z:4

nether portal at x:6, y:80, z:4
   links to
overworld portal at x:48, y:80, z:32

[Lazybones]

I was thinking we should import some nice smooth stone into the neither and make the portal hub a little more friendly... I really hate the look of neither rack

[Lazybones]

We could also color code markers around each portal to note the over lap zones for better placement.

[Thorin]

Well, signs definitely help.

From what I'm reading, if your coordinates are exact you can pretty much guarantee two portals linking to each other.  It selects the closest portal, so if your overworld and nether portal locations line up precisely then another portal that's off by one block is, well, not the closest by one block.

I dunno if anyone has done that perfect-alignment thing yet, though.

[Lazybones]

I dunno if anyone has done that perfect-alignment thing yet, though.

Moving around the obsidian portals to do that type of cleanup goes through diamond picks fairly fast and is slow work.

[Melbosa]

I ran many random portals from the central hub in the Nether just to explore the map.  I labelled most with signs in there, but up to you guys if you want to re-do them.

[Thorin]

I _might_ have a few diamonds to spare... [looks at nearly-completed fourth stack of diamond]  Also, at most it's 14 hits to the diamond pick, right?  A diamond pick should be able to take apart a hundred or so portals.  It's just that it takes 10 seconds per block, so two minutes to tear down a portal.

The hard part would be the perfect placement - off by one errors could really mess you up and cause a lot of re-work.

Anyway, my idea is a long way off yet.  Who knows, by then all the portals might've been fixed up already, or maybe I'll just find a nice empty place for myself somewhere with no portals yet.

[Lazybones]

Hmm This got me started thinking how nice it would be to have evenly placed compass direction portals with minimum spacing, possibly rails all lined up.... hmmmm urge to build rising...

[Thorin]

ROFL

I KNOW THE FEELING

Damn life getting in the way of Minecraft

I think a start would be having overworld and nether portal coordinates line up precisely.  That makes it a heck of a lot easier to add other portals to as needed.  Having the linked pairs then point in the same direction would help, too, as you're less likely to get disoriented.  Putting railways between them is then just gravy

Although ask LennyLen about zombie pigmen spawning on the rails; apparently it's very common.

[Lazybones]

Although ask LennyLen about zombie pigmen spawning on the rails; apparently it's very common.

Yes the spawn at any light level and occupy the same space as a player.... an ugly fix is to place glass block at head level... You pass through it without suffocating, but it is a ugly costly hack.

[Thorin]

Could you just put slabs on the ground to keep them from spawning?  And I assume they can't spawn on the rails themselves either.

Slabs are cheap and easy to make...  Plus stone slabs in a red corridor might look nice.

[Lazybones]

Could you just put slabs on the ground to keep them from spawning?  And I assume they can't spawn on the rails themselves either.

Slabs are cheap and easy to make...  Plus stone slabs in a red corridor might look nice.

I believe the pigmen can spawn directly on track, the wiki just says ANY 2 high space... http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Zombie_Pigman

[Mr. Analog]

Yeah! Feel free to build up and clean up the area. I had to build the fugly cobble pillbox around the initial portal due to a LARGE number of Ghasts spawning (seriously 4-5)

Adding labels really helps there are portals that go all over the damn place

[LennyLen]

Yup, the pigmen can spawn on any blocks, even with slabs or rails.  The glass block method is the only way to stop them.  What I also learnt the hard way is to make sure all of your rails are at the same y value. If two blocks next to each other are one block different in height, you can't place the glass blocks without stopping travel, which allows pigmen to still spawn on slopes.   

[Lazybones]

OK I have been playing with the portals and manual placement works great (as long as there isn't conflict).

I am acutally  thinking of adding portals in all of the transit stations however FIXing portal locations and collecting Obsidian is SLOW!!!!!!!

So I have a request...

If anyone has one or two HIGH efficiency Diamond pics I would very much appreciate it!

The first thing I plan to do is move the REALLY LOW nether portal UP... Since depth seems to be screwing up the other portals.. If the depth is the same for all portals it makes running between them in the nether MUCH faster, also if they are all the same depth then ONLY X and Z will be used for linking , making close placement MUCH easier.