Minecraft

[Canadave]

I haven't been able to play for a couple weeks, because I was at my parents place, and they have a terrible computer which doesn't work at all. So I got back yesterday, and developed my first Beta world, and quickly found that it's trying to tell me something:

What's even weirder is that the two "arms" are made of sand, which miraculously stays in the air...

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Notch is trying to save your soul!

 

[Jadzia]

What's even weirder is that the two "arms" are made of sand, which miraculously stays in the air...

I expect the game engine will only apply physics to blocks that are moving, and in certain cases whether those moving blocks have cascading effects on their neighbours.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

What's even weirder is that the two "arms" are made of sand, which miraculously stays in the air...

I expect the game engine will only apply physics to blocks that are moving, and in certain cases whether those moving blocks have cascading effects on their neighbours.

Yeah, when a chunk is generated, I don't believe it necessarily makes all the sand, gravel, etc. fall. To do that for an entire chunk at once would be very computationally intensive. So, it's just generated and left hanging there. If you touch an improperly-suspended block (or an adjacent block) that will trigger it and any blocks above to react to gravity again.

 

[Canadave]

What's even weirder is that the two "arms" are made of sand, which miraculously stays in the air...

I expect the game engine will only apply physics to blocks that are moving, and in certain cases whether those moving blocks have cascading effects on their neighbours.

Yeah, when a chunk is generated, I don't believe it necessarily makes all the sand, gravel, etc. fall. To do that for an entire chunk at once would be very computationally intensive. So, it's just generated and left hanging there. If you touch an improperly-suspended block (or an adjacent block) that will trigger it and any blocks above to react to gravity again.

Yeah, I encounter "hanging" sand fairly often. It was just the context which made it stand out.

 

[TheGodBen]

After taking a couple weeks off, I came back to Minecraft a few days ago and decided that my main base needed to be fortified by putting a wall around it, paving it over and putting lights up everywhere. Luckily, I already had four chests of cobblestone stored down in my mine so I didn't have to waste time with that. Here's the end result of three day's work:

Fortress Godfrey. It encompasses my main house, my rail station and my boathouse in one convenient, safe location. It has three iron gates, numerous entrances to my tunnel network, three grass pens for farmyard animals to spawn, a well, a natural pond (for swimming), an underground farm and a secret entrance through a cave. Because fortresses need a secret entrance for the hero to sneak in. Here's the view from the top of the tower:

And here's the aerial view:

Notch has said there will be an update next week that he hopes will contain the ability to paint blocks as well as a sea-based mob. Personally, I'm still waiting for it to snow in cold areas, I don't feel there's much point in building a base in that region until he fixes that.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Very nice! I think I need to get a new world generated, myself. I got kind of bored with my previous one and I want to see if the new world generation system has any new tricks in store.

 

[Sephiroth]

how did you get that wicked aerial shot?

 

[TheGodBen]

Very nice!

It's nowhere near as impressive as that castle you were building, but I wouldn't have the patience for something like that. I prefer building things slowly over time, adding onto them when I feel like it. That fortress started out as a tiny wooden shack that I took shelter in my first night with only a hole in the roof for moonlight, and even though every block of that tiny shack was replaced over time, I like to think that it's the same building, only far more evolved. One day I'll probably make the walls taller and thicker, I'll expand the grounds of the fortress and probably make the keep larger, but I'm happy enough with it right now.

how did you get that wicked aerial shot?

I used the third-party Cartograph program and set it to isometric view, then cropped the image. Here's the full map which is a bit over 4km long.

 

[Sephiroth]

nice, just enough space to construct a Zentradi battlecruiser

 

[froot]

Pixel art in Minecraft is kind of cool but I admit I prefer projects people did legitimately by mining all the materials themselves.

Jumping back in this thread after a hiatus.

I agree with this. Some of the pixel art is cool, but there's something to be said for people doing projects with limited resources as well as mobs and creepers actively trying to kill them.

Lovely new castle, TheGodBen.

 

[Owain Taggart]

So, I'm getting the hang of this game! I love that it has simple game mechanics that make it easy for anyone to pick up and play.

I've been playing on a friend's server, and I just logged in to a view of creepers on fire. Oh, how I love seeing that

Here's a tour of the built up land.

This is where my friend started building. He has quite a nice oceanside view.

When I first started playing on the server, he had already built a dock, and then we decided to extend it and build a bridge/walkway to connect his area and mine, which I'll show you in a bit.

This is the spawn point, although it still spawns us underneath for some reason. There must be a way to set it so that we spawn on the platform.

Welcome to my area. I've built myself a home into the mountain on the right. And to the left is an extension of the bridge that goes right through the other side of the mountain. It doesn't really go anywhere at the moment, but as we expand, I could see this becoming a cart line or something.

Here's inside my home:

Btw, anyone finding the newest version of photobucket confusing to use? Seems so cumbersome.

 

[Canadave]

^ The new PB is terrible. Especially since you have to go back to the gallery to get the links for your newly uploaded photos... that's an unneccessary step I don't remember having in the past.

Looks like a nice little world you've got there. I have to admit I've yet to play MP myself. I wonder how hard it would be to set up a server for TBBS folks, actually?

 

[Robert Maxwell]

I was considering setting one up however I don't think I could afford to fund a decent one all by myself. If we pooled money, maybe.

 

[Canadave]

I was considering setting one up however I don't think I could afford to fund a decent one all by myself. If we pooled money, maybe.

Yeah, that's the problem, of course. I don't really have any spare income myself, unfortunately.

 

[TheGodBen]

I might be interested depending upon cost and what sort of commitment would be involved. But I'm not in the most financially stable situation (or country!) right now which is why I still haven't renewed my premium membership for the board, so it can't be too much.

 

[froot]

My husband runs a small server, however, we usually only have about one to four people on at a time. I don't know if we could handle all the BBS folks. If it's only five or six, it might be okay.

Running a server with tiny handfuls of people doesn't really cost anything.

I love single player, but I agree that Minecraft really shines when played with other people.

 

[Sephiroth]

my, thats alot of torches, hopefully notch will change his mind about giving them a finite lifespan

 

[Robert Maxwell]

He's said that any existing torches will be turned into lanterns if they ever go through with making torches have finite lifespans.

 

[TheGodBen]

Running a server with tiny handfuls of people doesn't really cost anything.

I love single player, but I agree that Minecraft really shines when played with other people.

Theoretically, I could run my PC as a small server and it should have enough power and bandwidth to allow 4 or 5 people on at a time. In reality I couldn't do that as I'd have to leave it on all the time and my PC has an overheating problem.

In Minecraft news, Notch has included cake. There's also going to be an update on Thursday with some fun new content.