How do YOU use minecarts?

[agentwiggles]

I hope this isn't considered as off-topic, as minecarts are of course a vMC feature, but I wanted to ask the people here their thoughts and uses for minecarts. Usage in BTW automation systems is my main interest here, since transportation via minecart isn't exactly difficult to figure out.

I will admit, however, that I've never bothered with them in any of my minecraft worlds. They've always seemed like more of a pain in the ass than they're worth to me - my primary purpose in posting this is to be proven wrong. I just saw Batto's video of the minecart unloading system and I figured the community would probably have come up with some cool uses for them by now.

So, how do you use minecarts? Do you have a badass transport system set up? Do they feature in your factories? Tell me about what you do with them, I'm looking for inspiration and a reason to use them!

[HavokSCOUT]

I think the correct question is, "How DO you use minecarts?" I haven't used them since beta 1.4, mods or no mods. I think a part of me died every time I tried getting the tracks to behave nicely with redstone. :[

[Sarudak]

Same for me. The only thing I could really envision using minecarts for is a nether rail network.

[jorgebonafe]

Check out FallenDice's sheep farm.... Extensive use of rails. Its pretty impressive

[agentwiggles]

Same for me. The only thing I could really envision using minecarts for is a nether rail network.

Funny, because as I posted this thread that was something I thought about. It would be quite useful for me in the nether just to get to the Nether Fortress, but that's about all I can think of.

[FlowerChild]

Funny, because as I posted this thread that was something I thought about. It would be quite useful for me in the nether just to get to the Nether Fortress, but that's about all I can think of.

Well, Nether-rail networks are extremely useful for traveling long distances in the overworld due to the 8 to 1 distance ratio. I basically have a portal network connected by rails in the nether connecting all my bases that allows me to rapidly travel anywhere in my world.

[Laskeri]

Yeah, a nether rail network is what I'm working on in my current survival world, I'm planning on for it to take me between blaze grinders, a Pigman farm (although I need to do this first >_> ) and a SFS production plant. There's no particular place in the overworld that I need to go to yet although a nether rail to a stronghold will be interesting.

[th3m1ner]

I have not used them sense i made a auto loader and unloader rail system in my creative world, but never got around to actually implementing it into my main world.

[Link]

I generally use them to transmit objects (sorta) vertically in any mechanical systems I do.

[Feliponius]

I've lost the world since then, but there was a point where I had made a fully automatic chicken farm that would A) Collect eggs into a dispenser B) Fire the eggs into a crusher C) Crush the chickens D) Deliver all of the loot into a Cart with Chest via hopper. It was the first redstone heavy build I'd ever created because it required a lot of research to figure out how to perfect the timing so that when the hopper had filled the cart and itself it would send a signal triggering the cart to be sent off, a new cart to be placed by a block detector, all the while preventing the hopper from spilling its contents out onto the floor while the carts were replaced. If you want I could give you more info or possibly try to rebuild it and make a presentation to explain how it worked. It mainly was meant to send the meat and feathers via the carts to a cart stack that I would empty as I needed them of course.

[The Phoenixian]

I do not use Minecarts. Yet.

I do however have completed prototypes for loading and unloading systems and intend in the future to make minecart logistics an important part of a very spread out overworld base --- notably for transporting dung from the wolves in the dungeon to the processing center and in a future mob trap --- and use it as the primary method of transport between systems in a nether based steel factory.

[rosstafan]

i dont use them either but i plan to create a storage system were i call the cart that contains the material
the only issues are that it is both space and resource intensive

[Urian]

I mainly use them in two ways:
1) As a method of travel, especially in the Nether.
2) As storage and ways to centralize the drop off point from my various automated systems (e.g. in my old world I had storage minecarts set up under every hopper in my mobfarm (sorted by drops), for the hopper in my wheat farm, reed farm, etc. All those could be called to a central pick up room by pushing a button and the pick up room was next to my storage hall.)

For more info on ways to use it for storage I recommend you check out Battosay's ASS. Really, it's quite a nice ASS and it will probably give you some ideas.

[Zhil]

I always plan to use them in all my worlds.

Then never do.

For some reason though, I always use them on SMP. Maybe once BTW goes SMP, we'll have a reason to use them finally :)

[MoRmEnGiL]

I hate walking. I use mincarts the same way those annoying people take their car to go to buy cigarets from the shop around the corner.

[jakerman999]

I've got a system set up using a hybrid of rails and BD's, detector rails and "switched rails" to use as a multi output clock. I've wired up a thirty second, a minute, a five minute, and a half hour clock all off the same rail system, and uses underground lenses to route it where I need it.

[Zhil]

the same way those annoying people take their car to go to buy cigarets from the shop around the corner.

Guilty as charged. It's odd, that's all I use my car for and the shop is a 2 minute walk away.

Stay off cigarettes kids.

[Katalliaan]

I think the reason why I never use minecarts in single-player is because most of my builds are close together. However, I can see myself using them in SMP on a non-anarchy server - people like to spread out so that they have room to build, but still like to be able to visit others. A nether rail system would be very useful in that situation, since it cuts the distance by a factor of 8 and can be much faster than either walking through the nether or taking a rail system through the overworld.

[DragonFire2876]

if i make 2 bases or just a deep undergrownd mine i love haveing a minecart from the top to the bottem :D
and on the server i play back in one of the old maps i had a server wide network of a mine cart rail system so you could catch them like trains!
ofcorse it was easyer to telliport to a person or use the stargates to get around but i found alot of fun making a gient rail system for everyone to use!
i would tell you guys were to find it but we lost the map so :( and now that the sever has flying for VIP's my intrest in minecarts isnt as much though i still own the best railway on the server :D

[Azdoine]

Transport, and badass item storage. I have a room, with a set of buttons to call up separate storage minecarts with different valubles including (but not limited to) diamonds, gold, steel, lapis, soul-jars, and cookies.

[King Of Midgard]

I use 'em as a long distance tnt fuse. Reason i need such a long fuse? Well when u have a crater made of 648 tnt placed in a heap, filled with tnt, it isnt safe to be near it.

[Elevatator]

first: you necro´d this thread.
second: your use of caps and words in "location" seems against the "no politics" rule.

[King Of Midgard]

quick question: What does necro'd mean? (sorry if i am an idiot)

[Elevatator]

necro:
you could think of necromancer, who summon dead corpses.
In this case a thread.

[walker_boh_65]

quick question: What does necro'd mean? (sorry if i am an idiot)

Necro refers to the art of necromancy, or bringing back the dead. You brought back a thread that was dead.

EDIT: Ninja'd.