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Comment by 5hoom | Hacker News Reader

Quite an amusing story. Minecraft sure can introduce you to the importance of planning & strategy.

I recall early in my minecraft career learning painful lessons (don't dig down!) as I was exploring a large cave, fell in lava & lost my hard-earned diamond-tools, respawned & had no idea where I just was.

If it weren't for the peer pressure of being at a lan surrounded by other players, I probably would have cried too ;)

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One of the first things I learned was to build a giant torch-studded tower in order to mark your house. Sure, you may have to suicide to get off of it, so leave your good stuff at home. This prevents exactly the scenario they encountered.

Yeah, you can also build a compass, but that takes gold & redstone. Huge towers can be made with mere dirt.

Iron and redstone for compass. Gold and redstone is clock.

Oops. You are correct. I have one, but I leave it in my base. And I'm still miffed that you can't put clocks on the wall.

Hit F3 and write down your house's coordinates.

Build a bed. The last bed you sleep in becomes your spawn point, and they look less ugly than giant dirt towers.

I have several, but sometimes you want to walk home. And they help you know your relative location when exploring so you can find your items if need be.

Try a spiral staircase instead of a straight tower. It takes the same amount of material once you remove any scaffolding. You don't need to jump off and die, and you can return to the top and build a larger or more interesting beacon (such as a lava ball, a pixel art sign, or a huge glass observatory) at a later date.

Another thing I like to do is, once I've gotten just to the edge of sight range from my current base of operations, find a local high spot and put up a short cobblestone pillar. Put a torch on top of it and another torch on the side facing home (or two sides if your base is on a diagonal). These navigational beacons extend the range at which you can easily explore without getting lost.

The lessons I learned when I played a bit this winter:

Always put torches on the right (really "same") side of tunnels/etc as you dig/explore. Then you can always find your way back topside.

Always build markers at your spawn point pointing which way you're heading out, as well as a chest with basic supplies there

The mapping tools are great for finding a structure that doesn't fit on your mental map you know you built (but ones that point out minerals feel like cheating)

Burning Netherrack makes excellent markers, as well as monster killing traps

I don't play minecraft often anymore, but when I do, it's very well planned out ;oD

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