Pahoehoe Lava -> Netherrack / Basalt

    Original Post

    Maybe make Netherrack a renewable resource by drying Pahoehoe Lava? Here's two ways it could work:

    •  Pahoehoe Lava in the Nether dries to Netherrack instead of Basalt.
    •  Pahoehoe Lava has a small (10%) chance of drying into Netherrack, otherwise it becomes Basalt.


    This way we could have nice Nether Brick factories by pumping lava from the Nether -> heatingcooling the lava into Pahoehoe Lava -> Dispensing the Pahoehoe Lava -> Mining the Netherrack/Basalt (I'm working on a way to do this automatically) -> Smelting the Netherrack into Nether Brick and storing the Bricks and Basalt instead of (currently) just Basalt. Now I have plenty of Basalt and Nether Brick for building, and it is sustainable so long as there is still lava to pump.

    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.

    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.

    Native language german, please point out mistakes to me. forget it, my english is better than that of a good deal of people on the forums anyway.

    IC Related Quotes thread. If you ever need some good puns.

    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.

    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).

    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.