Fret wrote:Before I was only willing to use the full force of my midgame arsenal in ‘special occasions’, for example a risky nether trip. Now I use it even for the most mundane tasks.
I agree, It has opened my late early to mid game wide up.
Specifically the "tier" of HCS after the first nether portal. Before when you HCS you could experience more early play but due to the distances it made much more sense to set out back to your main base. The diamond "quest" makes the few days by compass to a known diamond unlock more tempting.
Being so much further out randomly and if you hit some non abandoned items (pumpkins in my case) it is very reasonable to fully establish. Nether travel is so hostile (I have still not tried this "ceiling" mining trick) that building up for an over world expedition, slowly making progress is more natural.
I have begun raising pigs with chocolate for the first time in organic play because nether progress is not a priority for blaze until I have connected the two bases. I say this because the first base had a fortress where the portal loaded. Even without that I might have tried to head back by portal to also fortress scout only to find it overly difficult/risky and connect the bases by over world to have added "foot hold" on the map and HCS markers.
My preseption is skewed because I put my HCS knowledge into my decisions where a newbie would have no way to know that their HCS changed. Then again someone that brand new would have their butt kicked so bad they would probably read here if they didn't just quit before long.
I will edit this post with a world map and seed I pulled up for science because I have spawned three times now in the same location after that portal HCS. I'm guessing it is the land available in a band of territory surrounding the initial spawn zone is so much water but is feels like incredible luck.
Edit: Here is that map, I guess there is just too much water, landing me in the spot three times now? (Not sure how big the 1.5.2 to 1.8 difference make in generation)
http://mineatlas.com/?levelName=STREAM+ ... unks=false