OldMarriedDude wrote:ok so I took your suggestion. I took 4 trips through the portal 3 of the trips put me under my mob trap the fourth trip put me on the surface just outside of my mob trap. I was careful to make sure each time i entered the portal in the nether I did it front-right, front-left, back-right, back-left. None of the trips put me at my original desert portal.
Ah, that's unfortunate. The radius for portal creation (when entering the nether) is the same as the radius for portal linkage (when exiting the nether), which would imply that automatically generated portals always have at least one block that is close enough to be linked. (though perhaps this block is one of the walls of the portal rather than one of the portal blocks; I don't know how the portal is actually placed once it picks a location :P)
I think there's another way we can determine how to fix this. When entering the portal in the desert, face away from the direction of your base. After entering the Nether, go about 16 blocks forward in the direction you're facing, and build a portal. (to clarify, if the direction is diagonal, go 16 blocks horizontally
and 16 blocks vertically; like most things in MC, it checks a square area) This portal should link to the desert portal.
You'll most likely have to dig through a wall or build a platform; according to the wiki, nether portals are generated in the closest possible valid location in the search radius, so there must be some reason that most of the search radius isn't valid.
(Note, however, that I am not 100% sure that walking through a portal maintains your facing. If there's perfectly walkable floor in the direction you're facing, and nothing but air or wall in another direction, try building a portal in the direction of the wall/air instead.)
If that doesn't work, I don't know what to say. :/ This is an odd case, to be sure.
