Minecraft

[Robert Maxwell]

Judge Alba wrote:

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well made a nice little house stocked it with goodies and even found a lava lake and made some obsidian? anyway got me a couple of diamond picks and went for a walk. now i cant find my way back home

It's kind of cheating, but press F3 and you will see your X, Y, Z coordinates. Y is your height, whereas X and Z being 0 and 0 is more or less your spawn point (or very close to it.) So, navigate back toward X and Z being 0 and you're on your way home.

[TheGodBen]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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But where's the damn mod API?!

There's not going to be a modding API, Notch said that he wouldn't be able to make one comprehensive enough to work with all mods as well as not breaking with each update. Instead, he plans to create some sort of official modding partnership thing that will give modders complete access to the source code and comments, as well access to code for upcoming updates. Some people tried to lynch him over it yesterday.

The map thing looks cool, but I feel that it kinda missed the boat a bit. There's so many mapping tools available now that there's no novelty to it. Not that I don't appreciate adding an official one into the game, that would have come in very handy during my first few weeks in the game. And I'm sure it will be useful whenever I head out exploring again.

[Robert Maxwell]

TheGodBen wrote:

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There's not going to be a modding API, Notch said that he wouldn't be able to make one comprehensive enough to work with all mods as well as not breaking with each update. Instead, he plans to create some sort of official modding partnership thing that will give modders complete access to the source code and comments, as well access to code for upcoming updates. Some people tried to lynch him over it yesterday.

The map thing looks cool, but I feel that it kinda missed the boat a bit. There's so many mapping tools available now that there's no novelty to it. Not that I don't appreciate adding an official one into the game, that would have come in very handy during my first few weeks in the game. And I'm sure it will be useful whenever I head out exploring again.

No modding API? Great. I like how his solution is basically what I and others have suggested in the past, though. How's that crow taste, Kimi3013?

[Canadave]

TheGodBen wrote:

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The map thing looks cool, but I feel that it kinda missed the boat a bit. There's so many mapping tools available now that there's no novelty to it. Not that I don't appreciate adding an official one into the game, that would have come in very handy during my first few weeks in the game. And I'm sure it will be useful whenever I head out exploring again.

I agree to a point, but I think the fact that it's entirely in-game will make it useful in its own right, myself.

[Owain Taggart]

I like the idea of maps. That's awesome. Also, apparently you can share them and join them together with other maps to reveal more area. Though, I think what hurts it a bit is the fact that it's a low resolution map, making it hard to see any detail of where you actually are. Looks like something from an 8-bit game. When I pictured in-game maps, I thought they'd be more like overhead maps featuring elevation marks.

[Kimi3013]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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No modding API? Great. I like how his solution is basically what I and others have suggested in the past, though. How's that crow taste, Kimi3013?

Quite nice :P.

[Cutter John]

I guess maps are a good idea. But I wish Notch would spend more time adding more features to the elements that are already in the game (more abilities for wolves, cool stuff in the Nether, more uses for dyes, etc) rather than piling on more stuff.

Oh, for any of you guys in Roberts world. I could really use some wool for an upcoming project. So if you happen to have some extra, I could sure use it. (wtf are all the sheep hiding?) I'd be happy to trade cobble, iron, or maybe even a diamond or two for it.

Judge Alba wrote:

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well made a nice little house stocked it with goodies and even found a lava lake and made some obsidian? anyway got me a couple of diamond picks and went for a walk. now i cant find my way back home

Oh lord, I've done that. Last time I ended up laying down a circle of torches on the ground and using the Cartography program that was mentioned earlier.

[Robert Maxwell]

This evening, I was trying to add a "boiler" on the lower deck of my (all wood) ship. I accidentally lit the entire thing on fire. Luckily, the server had backed up just a few minutes before so nothing was lost, but wow, I was panicking for a minute there.

It was quite a sight, watching my whole ship go up in flames.

[TheGodBen]

I was playing in Rob's server for the first time and I spent about 15 minutes exploring and punching random sheep when he mentioned a snow biome to the west. Being adventurous, I decided to trek over there, I collected some pumpkins, left a sign eloquently announcing my presence in the area, then started to trek back. Then the server needed to be reset because the ship burnt down, so I came back 15 minutes later and continued walking back to spawn.

It's at that point that something must have gone wrong because a few minutes later I realised I had no idea where I was. I checked the world map, but I couldn't identify my location with it, and the 1-block-tall cactuses suggested to me that I was in newly rendered terrain. I decided not to use the x,y,z coordinates or any of the warps to get back, but to wander around for a bit to find where I was. That didn't work and the sun soon went down, then it started to rain, so I made a little hovel in a rock, with wool as a roof to keep the rain out, and bunkered down for the night.

I decided to make a compass in order to get home, but I didn't have any redstone and decided that I should try to find some in a cave. After a few small caves, I finally found one that branched out all over the place and set out to find a way down to redstone level. Perhaps inevitably, this led to me getting lost in the cave. Finally, I found some redstone, along with a bunch of iron, gold, some diamonds and a dungeon that provided me with some cool things. After a few more minutes, I managed to find my way back to the surface.

So I made a compass, gathered my valuables, left a flashing redstone ring to make the hovel easier to find in future, and set out towards spawn, expecting to be only a minute or two away. I was not. It was another ten minutes before I saw some sign of civilization; a wooden house overlooking an impressive lavafall. I was expecting to approach the spawn from the north or east, but somehow I approached it from the west, which I still don't quite understand. I still can't figure out where I was. It was fun, though, because I've never actually gotten lost like that before.

Anyway, the moral of the story is that I found gunpowder in that dungeon and now I have TNT, so don't piss me off.

[Robert Maxwell]

Wow, that sounds like quite an adventure. And that's Canadave's house over the lava falls, I believe.

[Owain Taggart]

Well, been playing on Robert's server lately and this is the progress I've been making:



I've also got my own personal natural waterfall:



All I did was add a scenic lookout:



Did a little research into lightning today, and I'm seriously wondering and considering if I should use Cutter's half block trick, because wood can catch fire and burn due to lightning.

Lightning is a lethal element to the storm. It strikes randomly across the map, creating brief fires. While most are put out almost immediately by the rain, it will once in awhile ignite wood and other flammable blocks successfully.

• Thunderstorms are much darker than normal rain, at light level 7 or less. This is dark enough to spawn hostile mobs.[1]
• Lightning creates fire where it strikes, but the rain usually puts the fire out before it can spread.
• If Lightning strikes a pig, it morphs into a zombie pigman.[2]
• If lightning strikes a creeper, it becomes supercharged and has a much more powerful explosion.[3]
• Being struck by lightning or standing near a lightning strike deals 5 hearts of damage, not including damage from the fire.

[Canadave]

Robert Maxwell wrote:

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Wow, that sounds like quite an adventure. And that's Canadave's house over the lava falls, I believe.

Yup, that's my place. I actually got lost in a massive cave system myself when I wandered off to the west. Never did get the whole thing explored, so I wonder if it might have been the same one?

[Cutter John]

Looking good Owain!

Ben - If all else fails you could have yelled for help and we could send out a search party.

[Reverend]

Well it snowed for the first time on my world for the first time and it appears as if Fort Binky is now in a snow biome...mostly. When it happened the first time I was out past the farm enclosure working on the transit station for the great western highway, so when I got back to the keep, I found the snow ended right smack in the middle of the courtyard so only half the area was covered in snow! Luckily when it snowed a second time I was closer and made my way to the front gate and now it's all even. For a minute there I thought it might be stuck looking that stupid!

Oh and it seems the new biome has brought wolf spawning to the keep too as I went outside to find the grass strewn with blocks of wool and turned just in time to see two wolves pounce on a hapless sheep....and land right smack into my spider proof lava wall. Though I managed to save one with a bone I had handy and he now sits in the keep. I only take him out to help me clear out the mobs in the mornings.

I'm actually a bit worried about the lightning since two of my houses are mostly wood and have wooden stairs for a roof so a fire would be devastating. I think the ability to craft a lightning rod would be a great idea and it could even be put so some use...say like (off the top of my head) converting redstone to something new (like the way a furnace works) say...bluestone? Works the same as redstone but can carry a charge over a longer distance?

P.S. Since I only just discovered how to take screenshots, here's some progress on my great western highway.



Needless to say I'm starting to run low on iron!

[Cutter John]

Finally got rain in my singleplayer game as well. I was a bit surprised though that the rain didn't turn to snow when I ran over to a nearby snow biome. I guess weather doesn't work like that?

Really impressive bridge there Reverend. I wonder if using the double-half block technique under the roof would keep the fire from spreading downward?