Are minecarts still for mining?

[PatriotBob]

Because I can't see it anymore.
(This isn't about the change to iron into nuggets)

Minecarts, as best as I can tell, are now just a mode of faster travel. And this is great, with the addition of powered rails it's an amazing tool. Train stations are amazing fun to design and build. My question is about their use in mining operation, which I always though was one of their main intended uses.

The chest minecart gives the impression that can be minecarts used for bulk item transportation. But the need to move items in mass tend to only be used in mining. Something I find my self doing less and less in a specific location. The occasional branch mining for diamonds in the initial stages and a bit later is done in a localized manner, but most my resource gathering is done via cave exploration.

So I guess my question is this, do any of you find that you use minecarts for mining anymore or are they just for transit? And then maybe some discussion on that point. :)

Oh and for the love of God, is there any use for the terribly forgotten powered minecart?

[JakeZKAM]

Well while I haven't done it recently (too sucked into early game survival atm) but furnace carts are good for creating "minecart trains" to move storage chests filled with mining goodies. I've always liked using it so I can save my gold for transportation rails, rather than stuff like this since I end up making many different mines.

[Foxy Boxes]

Technically minecarts are only for transit. The only mining use they have is to transport items so you carry on mining when you inventory fills. I've considered using them in my mines before, especially considering how easy/small an unloader station can be, but by that point I'm normally setting up the collection system for a mob tower, and just use them there instead.

[Kazuya Mishima]

I have only ever used minecarts for automation with BTW pulley systems. Since Steve has some miraculous ability to transport tons of rock without the need of any form of conveyance they don't seem to fill their intended role for mining. The fact that 1 cubic meter of rock exits the world simulation as an item also makes them pointless for mining.

I haven't bothered to make transport systems yet.

[FlowerChild]

No, they aren't, and I've never considered them to be.

I do however use chest minecarts for my storage system (I fill chest carts with common goods like cobble, then push a button to send them off to permanent storage), and for transporting bulk goods between bases (as I have several).

And no, the furnace cart is entirely useless and I've said I wouldn't go near it with a ten foot pole pretty much throughout the development of this mod because of the whacky collision code for minecarts (I suspect it would need an almost complete rewrite before considering tackling furnace carts). They were also made fatally obsolete when powered rails were introduced.

That hasn't changed. It's still an aspect of MC I consider best forgotten about as a lingering remnant of a past (and flawed) design.

[PatriotBob]

Fair enough. I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. I guess I'll focus their use on trap output rather than mining use.

I completely understand not wanting to open that can of worms.
It's just so sad. So much potential, such a spectacular failure.

[Lord Cake]

I've never got around to fully automating my soul urn production, so I mine netherrack for them. Because of this, I use minecart chests to move whole chests of netherrack back to my overworld base, without having to go back and forth each time. Admittedly, outside of that, I don't particularly use them much.

[Locke]

...I was wondering why they were call minecarts...

[Shengji]

With HC movement & Hunger, a decent railway system is even more enticing. In my old world, I had every one of my bases linked, you could go to a platform, punch in a code for any other station in the world (and there were getting close to 100), a minecart would be dispensed, stop at your feet. You hopped in and were whisked off to the platform you had chosen. I had local lines linked by a transcontinental network, it was one of the most complicated redstone devices I had ever built!

Only one base in my current build, but even that has remote stations which take a meal to get too on roads, so I am going to build a local line soon!

Sure, they are not necessary but as a showcase for redstone computers, a challenge to build, an aesthetic wonder, they are a fantastic project!

[tom_savage]

Yup, I use them all the time. Not necessarily for 'mining', but for staying underground longer. I fill my inventory with food and pickaxes, and pile it all into a chest down in my mine, then whenever I want to clear out my inventory, I put them in my minecart chests, and send up the elevator, it deposits my chests into unloading bays (for later unloading), and replaces them with 2 empty minecart chests. Then I can call the elevator back down for sending more crap back up. I can stay underground for 8 full minecart chests, and my own inventory.

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[PatriotBob]

Yup, I use them all the time. Not necessarily for 'mining', but for staying underground longer. I fill my inventory with food and pickaxes, and pile it all into a chest down in my mine, then whenever I want to clear out my inventory, I put them in my minecart chests, and send up the elevator, it deposits my chests into unloading bays (for later unloading), and replaces them with 2 empty minecart chests. Then I can call the elevator back down for sending more crap back up. I can stay underground for 8 full minecart chests, and my own inventory.

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Something similar is about the best I have been able to come up with for mining use.

Although while I knew I could use pulleys and platforms with minecarts, I haven't tried it yet. I like the setup, pretty clean and simple.

[johnt]

The problem with using minecarts for mining is that they're only useful for repeatedly returning to the same location, and since ore distribution is completely even, there is almost no reason to ever do that in minecraft. You may take a minecart down to your branch mine, but once you've dug out an area, there's no real point in running track to it. The only way I could see it being worth while is if A) worldgen was changed to have much rarer, much larger seams of minerals, B) ore spawned on a biome/chunk basis (ie, if diamonds were more common in extreme hills biomes) or B) ore blocks could be mined repeatedly for ore.

[wirer]

Emerald ore is biome specific, so that may be one thing to look for.

another possibility is an extended branch mine, with more tracks laid down as tunnels are dug. not really a stripminer myself, so i'm not too sure on the practicality, but i use this technique to mine netherrack and start new bases.

[tom_savage]

Something similar is about the best I have been able to come up with for mining use.

Although while I knew I could use pulleys and platforms with minecarts, I haven't tried it yet. I like the setup, pretty clean and simple.

The actual mechanisms required to build this are fairly complex to cram into a small area, and I think I did a good job with it. I'd be willing to upload the prototype if you want. If you're planning on making something like this, it's important to note, elevators allow redstone to be placed on them. Thank you SOOOO much for that FC.

As for the mining aspect, I still feel as a time/hunger saver, Minecart chests are the main draw of the minecart system in mining, where minecarts are mostly used for transportation.

[PatriotBob]

Something similar is about the best I have been able to come up with for mining use.

Although while I knew I could use pulleys and platforms with minecarts, I haven't tried it yet. I like the setup, pretty clean and simple.

The actual mechanisms required to build this are fairly complex to cram into a small area, and I think I did a good job with it. I'd be willing to upload the prototype if you want. If you're planning on making something like this, it's important to note, elevators allow redstone to be placed on them. Thank you SOOOO much for that FC.

As for the mining aspect, I still feel as a time/hunger saver, Minecart chests are the main draw of the minecart system in mining, where minecarts are mostly used for transportation.

I appreciate the offer tom, but I prefer to build everything my self. Half the fun is the design.

And yes I'm aware that we can put redstone on platforms, I've used that a few times. :)

I think I'll look into using minecart chests to bulk process cobble... and maybe ore... meh. Who knows.

Thanks guys for all the responses!