Are Diamonds supposed to be this rare?

[deltasrage]

I have been playing the new tekkit 1.1.8 for around 9 hours now and have been mining the whole time. I have only found 4 diamonds and 1 emerald. Is this normal? I used the diamonds to makee a mining turtle hoping things would pick up a bit but still havent found anymore diamons? I have played minecraft for 2 years so im used to digging to the bottom and finding diamonds near lava and bed rock but this is starting to get rediculous any tips or hints would be greatly appreciated

[Dewfire]

Ravine and cave formations have always benn my best spots.

[deltasrage]

See thats the thing! Right under my spawn area there is a massive cave system cris-crossing a ravine as well as being intertwined with and old mining rails area lol. maybe i should go find a better mining spot i guess im at the point i basiclly only need diamonds lol. Ill keep hunting. Thanks

[Dewfire]

I know someone was telling me some biom's have different mineral mixes. So perhaps try mining in another biom?

[weirleader]

I think sometimes it also amounts to just bad luck. In a recent world I started I mined for HOURS in the nether, with tunnels from level 40 through 125 (I actually topped out at bedrock) and they extended 50+ blocks in every direction from my spawn point... and I didn't hit a single cavern, despite hearing ghasts taunting me and even shooting at me (not sure what was going on there). So I finally used MCEdit to see what was up and discovered that I had just missed a cavern by about 10 blocks.

[CharlieChop]

I think sometimes it also amounts to just bad luck. In a recent world I started I mined for HOURS in the nether, with tunnels from level 40 through 125 (I actually topped out at bedrock) and they extended 50+ blocks in every direction from my spawn point... and I didn't hit a single cavern, despite hearing ghasts taunting me and even shooting at me (not sure what was going on there). So I finally used MCEdit to see what was up and discovered that I had just missed a cavern by about 10 blocks.

Ouch

And yes, sometimes caves just miss diamond clusters for like 1 block. And puff youre never gonna find em. Just strip mine at 12 and youll eventually hit a diamond.

[deltasrage]

well i found enough diamonds for another turtle. wasnt paying attention to my level and sent him on a run at level 9?? lol anyways hes burried in lava somehwere so ill start another branch/strip mine after some sleep. Thanks guys. Still after 2 years hard to believe my luck is this bad lol.

[weirleader]

well i found enough diamonds for another turtle. wasnt paying attention to my level and sent him on a run at level 9?? lol anyways hes burried in lava somehwere so ill start another branch/strip mine after some sleep. Thanks guys. Still after 2 years hard to believe my luck is this bad lol.

Just a suggestion, I like to use the following programs to avoid turtle loss. The uTurn programs are older and not as well-designed to avoid barriers/blockages, but they'll make a u-shaped tunnel, and arrive right back on the main tunnel from which you sent them; the tL and tR are specially designed to run with a pair of turtles for maximum time efficiency. With the tL and tR you'll want to put approx. 7 torches in slot 16 (for every 50 blocks you dig forward) and they'll set the torches up while they run. For best results, run tL on the left turtle and tR on the right and give the right turtle about 5 blocks head start (otherwise tL will sometimes cross paths with tR and gobble it up).

My preferred run would be 'tR 50', wait five blocks and then 'tL 50'.

uTurnL = http://pastebin.com/hRNR3pDR

uTurnR = http://pastebin.com/Y1rvmak6

tL = http://pastebin.com/DtbDmh64

tR = http://pastebin.com/jY9EXbQG

[H4RV3Y]

I always use the OreQuarry turtle program, it goes straight to layer 6 and starts up so its first return normally has diamonds in it. I run them on 64 size so very slow but you could run a 10x10 to quickly find some diamonds. its pastebin code is 3mkeUzby must save as OreQuarry. Then just run OreQuarry "current level" "size" eg: OreQuarry 64 10.

[Gorian]

I've had the best luck digging out the dirt in caves, usually reveals ores. Also, if you need diamonds, don't forget that tekkit has EE 3, and you can transmute 8 iron to 1 gold, and 4 gold to 1 diamond. (using the minium stone)

[deltasrage]

Oh very nice!!! Now for those programs, I need a disk or something added to the turtle right? This is my first go at any tekkit.

[Redvan]

I've just been mining level 8 every 3 rows. That on top of a quarry running, I've over 120 in under a couple hrs of actual mining time.

[weirleader]

Oh very nice!!! Now for those programs, I need a disk or something added to the turtle right? This is my first go at any tekkit.

ah, for the programs there is a way to import directly from pastebin I believe (I haven't used it, but watch this:

).

Since I run a server on my home system, I just copy the files directly into each computer's folder. If you want more info on that, let me know... don't have time to 'shplain it all at the moment.

[TokiWartooth]

ewww yea i think you just have to do pastebin get (link name) (programName)

[Kalthas]

By far my favorite mining program.... http://www.computercraft.info/forums2/index.php?/topic/6766-mlg-mining-circular-branch-mining/

Just wish I could take credit for writing it! Turtle makes a branched mining tunnel and the program is fully configurable so it's great in any situation.

Does require some simple setup but with pipes you can fully automate the mine. I simply LOVE it (did I already say that)?

EDIT: He's also got the simple install directions in that post

[weirleader]

By far my favorite mining program.... http://www.computercraft.info/forums2/index.php?/topic/6766-mlg-mining-circular-branch-mining/

Just wish I could take credit for writing it! Turtle makes a branched mining tunnel and the program is fully configurable so it's great in any situation.

Does require some simple setup but with pipes you can fully automate the mine. I simply LOVE it (did I already say that)?

EDIT: He's also got the simple install directions in that post

Yep, I've seen that one before; I just prefer to stick to programs I've written myself. I still need to figure out a good way to get turtles to drop of resources and perhaps even autorefuel. So many awesome things to do with Tekkit, so little time.

[Spudgy]

My turtle script waits when it detects a diamond block (compared against an ore block in a particular slot in its storage) so that I can mine it with a fortune pick. Never had a diamond shortage after making that change.

If you want a lot there is always the mystcraft dense ores modifier. With 6 turtles and a fortune III pick I got a couple thousand diamonds in a few hours.

[deltasrage]

I kind f cheated and made diamond clusters bigger and also spawn up to lvl 30 its just me and my wife on a home server so nothing to kill the balance of a pvp server but less head ache trying to find diamonds when we want to just play and make random stuff lol. Thanks for all the tips and programs though they are extremely helpful already :)

[mrcavallol]

after about 5 hours of manual labour i had just enough diamonds to make a quarry. after building a huge trench down to bedrock around my base using the same single quarry, i now have over 70 diamonds.

i have found letting quarries run whilst i do my own thing eventually builds up quite a few diamonds.

[Dewfire]

getting a Dense Ore Mystcraft age solves all diamond issues too.

Well, and we got lucky and ended up with a Diamond tendrils age...we had it for about 30 minutes before it was consumed with black corruption, but we got out with a nice haul.

[Catts]

Once you have one quarry up, your good, just pull out the minium stone.