Pahoehoe Lava -> Netherrack / Basalt

Max Shen · Mar 1st 2015

Edit (3/23/2015):
Yeah, on second thought, the original idea is probably not so useful if the Nether is enabled. Here's my new idea:

Pahoehoe Lava doesn't dry automatically, you need to use a cold fluid like coolant (or water, but coolant is more fun). Less ticking blocks is always better.
Pahoehoe Lava non-source blocks dry into Netherrack.

By the way, you can already use cold fluids to dry Pahoehoe Lava. I just don't see why it needs to dry by itself. In real life, the high temperature gradient causes the lava to dry very quickly but only on the outside, and this newly-hardened outside insulates the interior lava flow, which doesn't dry for months or even years. The time it takes the outsides of the interior lava flow are also exponential due to the increasing insulation.

blub01 · Mar 9th 2015

and when you have thermal expansion, you even get power two times. but i don't quite see how this feature is useful, just get a diamond drill and mine a bunch of netherrack, it should essentially insta-break with the diamond drill.

MauveCloud · Mar 10th 2015

Or you can even use a mining laser on the netherrack. I can state from personal experience that it's about as fast as lasering through sand.

Also, pahoehoe lava is made by cooling regular lava, not heating it, and it would make more sense for it not to harden at all in the Nether.

Requia · Mar 10th 2015

Not hardening at all in the nether could be pretty cool. Set yourself a base up in the nether, power yourself off the local lava, then use the pahoehoe for moats and stuff (wherever you need a decorative liquid basically).

EvGamer · Mar 11th 2015

Why not obsidian? It would be MUCH more useful and will fit better to minecraft "logic". Of course if it will be cooled in some machine. It is painfull to dig up obsidian.

Max Shen · Mar 23rd 2015

Quote from blub01

i don't quite see how this feature is useful

The only use I had in mind for the original post was a Nether Brick factory, and in retrospect it is not very useful since you still have to mine the Netherrack. (I'm just discovering the Advanced Miner, though!). I've revised the OP.

Quote from MauveCloud

pahoehoe lava is made by cooling regular lava, not heating it

This was an accident. Not sure what I was thinking.

Quote from MauveCloud

it would make more sense for it not to harden at all in the Nether.

I have since revised the OP, now suggesting that it not harden by itself at all. Instead, we can make Netherrack generators using the non-source blocks.

Quote from Requia

power yourself off the local lava, then use the pahoehoe

Geothermal Generators are twice as efficient than Liquid Heat Exchangers, a fun fact I recently recorded on the wiki.

Quote from EvGamer

Why not obsidian... cooled in some machine[?]

I think it would make even more Minecraftian sense to have the hypothetical machine take normal Lava as an input. Plus, you can't have Basalt and Obsidian come from the same Lava, since Basalt is mafic while Obsidian is felsic. Most people probably wouldn't care, but it would bother me a little.

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