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[Simmura McCrea]

I managed to make myself a bow and a big pile of arrows to help kill creepers and the like from a safe distance. I was thinking of investing two ingots of iron to make an iron sword. I'm not sure though, is an iron sword more damaging than a wooden or stone one, or is it simply more durable? or both?

Absolutely. An iron sword should be your second iron-based product, right after an iron pick. (Third, if you wander off from your main base and have to build a compass to get home. Never going to make that mistake again.  It takes, what, three hits to kill a mob with an iron sword? Seriously worth it.

Have you ever had caverns so big you have trouble ever finding parts of them? I have.

There was this deadly branch I wanted to explore yesterday. I couldn't find the damn thing.

There's probably parts of some of my megacaverns that have yet to be explored merely because I never found the way back.

Hehe, it's times like these I really wish signs would stack - you can't bring nearly enough on a single trip to label an entire cavern. I seriously doubt Notch's new maps will apply to the underground, but I'd be lying if I didn't wish they would; it'd make the whole subterranean exploration thing a heck of a lot easier.

One thing that can help is landmarks. Of course, caves all start to look alike after a while, so identifying natural landmarks is tricky - I've never tried it, but it might be helpful to bring stacks of coloured wool into the caverns, and use them to mark major intersections. Nothing says, "This way home!" like a massive pillar of neon-purple wool. 

I saw a thread giving advice like that. Using patterns of dirt piles to indicate where you've been, which way is out etc.

[0x517A5D]

Hehe, it's times like these I really wish signs would stack - you can't bring nearly enough on a single trip to label an entire cavern.

You can bring in a 64-stack of logs.  That's a whole lot of wood in one slot.  I tend to drop a small chest and a workbench in convenient locations.  Mind you, crafting in a partially-explored cave is dangerous.

You could also install More Stackables and get 8-stacks of signs.

One thing that can help is landmarks. Of course, caves all start to look alike after a while, so identifying natural landmarks is tricky - I've never tried it, but it might be helpful to bring stacks of coloured wool into the caverns, and use them to mark major intersections. Nothing says, "This way home!" like a massive pillar of neon-purple wool. 

I do the wool thing on all mining and all but the smallest caves.  Yellow next to pink, the pink points to the entrance.  Yellow-red, the red points to lava.  A single yellow, this area needs to be explored.  A single red, dangerous area.  (These are all colors craftable from flowers.)  A single white, or several of a single color in a row, marks a fully-explored branch.

Before wool, I used planks, sand, and glass as markers.  None of those are normally found underground, and they're all distinctive.

I've never liked the torch-on-right-wall rule.  I prefer to zig-zag my torches for maximum light coverage.  (I have gamma problems with my monitor.)

[Ampersand]

I remember one time I got lost in a cave system for like three hours until I just got fustrated and dug my way out along a diagonal. I exited the ground approximately ten blocks from the entrance of my base. I even did mark where I've been pretty well, but there were two major gravel cave-in's that ruined everything.

[Vertigon]

Whoever was asking about the texture pack Janet uses? This one might be a bit outdated, but it's what she posted, and I like it.

Combination of the Shockcraft and Yokai texture packs actually.

Really? gotta go fetch those then.

It's easier if I just upload mine. http://www.mediafire.com/?i44batop4lf7jcf

[breadbocks]

Made a new SSP world. I was amazed at how much shit I found. Is it seeming to anyone else the there are less good resources to be dug in SMP?

[sonerohi]

Perhaps the area is not as unspoiled as you thought?

[Duke 2.0]

 When I mine out a branch I just seal the cave in cobble. No complex things, just sealing things off.

[Aqizzar]

I always mine like a motherfucker.  Exploring existing caves is my main way of finding stuff, and I rarely do much more digging since my spacial sense in Minecraft is complete crap.  I have never once planned a tunnel to intersect with another tunnel and even come close on the first try.  Instead I rely my incredibly good memory to find my way around by landmarks.  I can still remember tunnels from worlds I played months ago.

On the other hand, I almost never place or bring a workbench into the cave.  I take stacks of wood and stacks of coal to make more torches, but when my inventory's full (sans crap I'll juggle out), I leave.  Only in one my most recent games did I ever place a signpost or any wool as a marker.  (And I use green wools, since green dye is renewable.)

[blackmagechill]

Green dye?
I'm try to expand the compound to encompass the country side (and get my sugar can farm under wraps), but I need more coal!! Isn't Duke a mod on the MC forums?

[Aqizzar]

He used to be, yes.  Why?  Do you think he can use his mod connections to score you some coal?

[sonerohi]

I looked at some of the mining tips on the forum. I didn't get quite as intense as they did, but knowing the range for the material definitely helps, and I was gladdened to see that Minecraft mining is essentially DF mining.

[Thexor]

On the other hand, I almost never place or bring a workbench into the cave.  I take stacks of wood and stacks of coal to make more torches, but when my inventory's full (sans crap I'll juggle out), I leave.  Only in one my most recent games did I ever place a signpost or any wool as a marker.  (And I use green wools, since green dye is renewable.)

Green dye's good, though it's a bit more of a pain to collect (grow cactus, cut down cactus without losing blocks to other cacti, cook cactus). Other dye colours are harder to renew (exploring more terrain generates a (near-)infinite supply of flowers, for instance).

White wool actually works really well, too - stands out nicely in an otherwise-dark cave. And it's the most renewable of all the wool colours. 

[SolarShado]

Green dye?
I'm try to expand the compound to encompass the country side (and get my sugar can farm under wraps), but I need more coal!! Isn't Duke a mod on the MC forums?

Easy, infinite coal: start a tree farm, "smelt" logs in furnace, get charcoal.
Unless you need the coal for a mod (like IC), charcoal works just as well.

Alternately, mine more. Coal's everywhere...

[Vattic]

Also, as a tangent about texture packs, didn't someone make a texturepack for IndustrialCraft? Anyone know where to find it? I saw it mentioned and some screenshots in the IC thread at the Minecraft forums, but I didn't have time to investigate and forgotten what post/page it was.

The texture pack I've been working on includes an almost complete set of IC items, blocks, and gui. The pack is called Faithful 32x32. I've tried to keep it as faithful as possible to the original textures but at twice the resolution.

/shameless plug

[Darvi]

That pack looks nice.