Minecraft

[Robert Maxwell]

Yeah, getting rid of water is fairly easy. Its trying to level it out that I have trouble with. Theres an inlet near my house that looks more like white water rapids than a section of ocean. Haven't been able to figure out how to level it.

Let us know how things go with the portal, Robert. The Nether is an interesting place to say the least.

And if you guys are willing the make your servers public, I'd love to visit. Single player is fun, but it gets a bit lonely sometimes, knowing you're the only person in the world.

I figured out through trial and error how to make springs in an arbitrary body of water. Basically, you have to place water in a checkerboard pattern.

If you don't know how to make an infinite spring, it's easy. Gather up 2 buckets of water, dig a 2x2x1 hole, then dump one bucket into one corner, and the other bucket in the diagonally-opposite corner. Voila! You can pick up water from this hole as many times as you want and it will never go away. And when you want to get rid of it, just fill with dirt (or whatever) and it's gone.

I usually do that then get 9 buckets of water to go around leveling things off. I had to do that for the moat around my castle.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Here we go. I took one from both ends. For all I know, I'm probably committing one of the basic errors

And I don't know if this will help, but here's a shot from above. You can see one of the entrances:

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Yikes. I think you're fucked, dude. You're probably going to have to fill the whole thing with dirt and then excavate it again.

 

[Owain Taggart]

I'm likely going to have to abandon the idea. It's just too long a tunnel to be able to fill it all with dirt, because I can only reach both ends. As soon as I get further into the tunnel, I get the air meter. If I put any dirt blocks and then take them out again, it just fills back up with water.

 

[TheGodBen]

Yeah, getting rid of water is fairly easy. Its trying to level it out that I have trouble with. Theres an inlet near my house that looks more like white water rapids than a section of ocean. Haven't been able to figure out how to level it.

I had a similar problem when I built a pontoon dock and it was a right mess. I figured out that you have to place a dirt (or whatever) block under the top water block, then it should level out and you can remove the dirt block.

The rapids can be useful though, I use them at my docks to keep the boats from floating away.

I'm likely going to have to abandon the idea. It's just too long a tunnel to be able to fill it all with dirt, because I can only reach both ends. As soon as I get further into the tunnel, I get the air meter. If I put any dirt blocks and then take them out again, it just fills back up with water.

Nah, it should be doable, but it will take about 10 minutes. I had the same problem when I made my underwater tunnel, just do it bit by bit and the water will eventually go away. At least you don't have an 8x6x4 underwater glass station like me, that took me 20 minutes to clear of water in mine.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, that does look pretty similar to what I have. How did you end up going further and further in? Are you saying I have to wait 10 minutes before I take the blocks out?

 

[TheGodBen]

No, you just need to block it off incrementally. Go in 4 blocks, build a 2x2 dirt "wall" there, then come back out. Then fill in from 3 blocks in, 2 blocks in and 1 block in. Then remove all the dirt blocks. Water will come in from the 5th block out, but it wont create any source water blocks. Push past the current of water and go in another 4 blocks and repeat the pattern until that section is clear of blocks. Keep repeating until you reach the other side of the tunnel. It's a boring process and the current will always be against you, but it's doable. With a tunnel that size, it should only be about 10 minutes.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Ahh, I see. Ok. I'll try that. Thanks It's funny. I didn't think that with it closed off like that that there'd be flowing water from within it.

 

[TheGodBen]

Logically, there shouldn't be, but Minecraft's water defies logic.

 

[Owain Taggart]

So far, it seems to be working I noticed you put stone blocks to hold torches. How does that work? I mean, you've attached the stone to the outside, but it looks like the torch is holding from inside.

 

[TheGodBen]

I just put a cobblestone block in place of a glass block every couple of meters, it's the only way to place torches down there as far as I can tell. It looks really good at night from above, seeing the glow from under the water.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yeah, I can imagine. I might try doing something different by making lightpoles from the outside.

 

[Reverend]

For future reference, it's much easier when building underwater structures if you build them in dirt or gravel first. Then once you've placed the glass layer around whatever mould you have it's just a simple matter or hollowing it out. There's also a trick you can do with ladders to create an airlock so you can get in from above without flooding the thing.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

Is it possible to detonate the TNT in the free version of Minecraft? It would seriously help if I could simply blow up the hill in front of my castle instead of removing it block by block.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Is it possible to detonate the TNT in the free version of Minecraft? It would seriously help if I could simply blow up the hill in front of my castle instead of removing it block by block.

I don't believe so. The free version (Creative Mode) doesn't have any "gameplay" to it. You can just place and remove blocks and that's it.

Shit, the game doesn't cost that much, just buy it! If you enjoy it you will get tons of hours of gameplay at 1/3 the cost of a typical game.

 

[Cutter John]

Oh, looks like the guys have already helped with your glass tunnel problem Owain. I hope you won't give up. I love underwater viewports. Now if only Notch would give us some fish and water plants.

Speaking of water, heres my dillema. Actually its not QUITE this bad anymore, but still pretty rough.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2003-7/276900/2011-02-07_08.09.38.png

Not much accomplished today. I straightened out my trackway,

and spruced my room up a bit (bunk bed ftw!).

,

Oh, and heres a shot of my main mineshaft down to the diamond layer. The only opening is a single block where the ladder touches the surface. With blocks on either side, when you slip through the opening, you basically slide all the way down to the bottom with no problem. Perfectly safe too unless you intentionally jump off. Overhead theres a matching glass skylight in the roof to keep things well lit during the day. And you can turn the camera upside down and pretend you're flying down the Death Star trench on the way down.

Shit, the game doesn't cost that much, just buy it! If you enjoy it you will get tons of hours of gameplay at 1/3 the cost of a typical game.

Yeah, the free version is basically a sandbox game as far as I could tell. I'll second second what Robert said. I think its still selling for like $14 US. Definately a bargain, plus you get free frequent updates. Not to mention you'll be helping supporting indy game design. 1.3 million players can't be wrong.

 

[TheGodBen]

I remember being really unsure about the game, thinking that there wouldn't be much gameplay in placing blocks, so I gave the creative version a go on the website. An hour later, I had an underground canal from one side of the island to the other, along with bridges alongside. From that point, I knew I had to buy it in order to gather resources, run from monsters and explore an infinite world.

You can turn the camera upside down and pretend you're flying down the Death Star trench on the way down.

Glad I'm not the only person that does that.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I was also not convinced of its appeal until I played around with it online, but then this thread came up and I saw what you guys were doing and I decided to give it a shot. I definitely haven't regretted it.

 

[B.J.]

I think its still selling for like $14 US.

Not quite. From the site:

When Minecraft is finished, it will sell for €20.00.
If you pre-purchase now during beta, you pay just €14.95!

That's about $21 right now. I do have a question though, since I'm not sure how the full version works. If my son & I both wanted to play, would we need to buy one copy and have two logins, or do we need two copies? How does that work?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I think its still selling for like $14 US.

Not quite. From the site:

When Minecraft is finished, it will sell for €20.00.
If you pre-purchase now during beta, you pay just €14.95!

That's about $21 right now. I do have a question though, since I'm not sure how the full version works. If my son & I both wanted to play, would we need to buy one copy and have two logins, or do we need two copies? How does that work?

Depends. You can both play offline (Survival Single Player) with the same login, but only one of you could play online (Survival Multi-Player) at a time with a single login.