I would really love an update all about mining! Hell, it's in the name of the game. Usually, once I have enough materials to get by comfortably for a while (which doesn't take me very long), I kinda stop going underground unless I think, "Damn, I need a couple more diamonds." In which case, I mine 1 or 2 blocks of it with my fortune pick. Because of this, I never feel an urge or importance in building a nice mine. Instead, I just stick to 1 deep cave that I find and keep lit. I want the name of the game to be more present. I want to feel the wonder I once did, getting lost in caves. The motivation I used to feel to tunnel for miles. An awesome mining update could potentially have:

• A couple more ores with their own uses in crafting or even just by themselves. Probably practical things that most large modpacks have, like copper and aluminum. Copper could be used in some recipes for new redstone devices. Not sure what aluminum would be used for, but in real life it's used for quite a lot of things.

• Improvements to minecarts and more use/relevancy for powered minecarts. As far as I have seen, I don't really hear of anyone actually using the powered minecarts. After looking at it, a lot of the simpler things from the mod Railcraft would be really great improvements/additions.

• Stalagmites and stalactites in larger caverns. Picture example is from the mod Wild Caves 3 by Minecraft Forum user Alexmania, unsure if he/she is on reddit.

• Maybe some form of new tool or utility item that has to do with assisting you in mining/caving/tunneling. Maybe some kind of dowsing rod item that leads you to abandoned mineshafts or larger caverns? Or maybe some way to map out your tunnel systems, potentially using a new type of map? Sorta like this.

• A rare occurence to find deep underground, like a glowing mushroom cavern. Not huge like a full on underground biome, but a cool little thing to come across. Example picture was found in a previous reddit post by Minecraft Forum and reddit user /u/LupusX.

• (This one is just an annoyance of mine, don't take as seriously) Less random water sources/mini waterfalls in caves. It looks better/makes a little more sense in ravines, but without Depth Strider, they are extremely annoying to deal with in regular small caves. I feel that water in caves should be in little pools like ones you see in real caves.

• Warning, this last one is the least thought out of my ideas, as in super non-thought out. I don't think this is the best wording, but…furnaces: either some form of improvement (I don't know what) or a more interesting process involved in furnacing. Either this, or some minerals needing to be "refined" rather than furnaced. Namely the two new ones, but I personally think it would be interesting in general.

Obviously, I am open to criticism on ALL of these ideas. I miss my old days of mining and feel it could be made more interesting/fun. Tell me your thoughts!

With that I leave you this pleasant little image 😀