Minecraft

[Reverend]

Yeah, the piston-mod rocks. Haven't used it myself (don't feel like installing mods that have to be reinstalled with every upgrade).

One of the demonstrations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=salYX2iDyqs

Just had just had a look at that and a few other demo vids and I'm seriously impressed. Now THIS is what minecraft has been missing! There are so many practical applications for this that redstone and iron suddenly become so much more valuable.

My favourite machine so far has to be the automatic bridge builder. It's just a shame you can use it in the nether (is uses water) because that'd make navigating those lava lakes so much safer. Actually, if you set up a similar device down near the bedrock you could (in theory) set it up so a slice of the world gets pushed up one block at a time and all you need to do is stand there with a switch and a pickaxe and just wait for the ore to come to you!

Another one I found impressive is a light switch mechanism that slides a block of light stone over a glass block in the roof and back again. I think this simple mod will really inject some life into the games, which let's be honest, has been getting a little stale of late.

So what's next I wonder? Flying mobs and dirigibles!?

 

[Itisnotlogical]

^^

That'd be cool for my shuttlecraft statue (which I haven't even started, because I've been busy keeping Flake out of trouble). Maybe I could make a Bird of Prey to go with it!

 

[Cutter John]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rugjyQxKy1s&feature=feedu

for another demo of possible piston uses (incluing a few fails). The water flow gate in the last minute of the vid is probably my favorite.


But I'm seriously chuffed about the weather. I've been wanting snow for the longest time.

Still debatign if I want to tame another wolf in my current world. It just seems too dangerous with all the cliffs, ledges and narrow walkways.

Nearly done with the hull of my airship. Which means soon I'm going to have to start on the balloon.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

I've finally taken a picture of my almost-floating house with second level and the entrance to my underground segment:

Because my shuttle didn't really turn out and I didn't feel like collecting all that cobblestone only to do absolutely nothing with it, I decided to make a little area to contain my currently useless wolf:

Even though wolves aren't supposed to teleport while they're sitting, I've had several times where I've had to rescue Flake from all sorts of baddies (which, by the way, apparently can survive during day as long as they're chilling underneath my digs) because he mysteriously appeared right next to me. Maybe he decided he was done sitting and somehow hopped the fence...?

 

[Cutter John]

Awww, poor doggie...

Lookin' good so far man, keep it up!



And it finally happpened, I was working on the airship and took a header off a playform. Fortunately I was armored up and only lost half my health. Not bad for such a long drop.

OTOH, I later got myself killed during a mega-spawn night. I don't know why, but ocassionally I'll just get swarms on hostile mobs outside my house. Tried to outmaneuver the half dozen skeltons and a few zombies, but there were a pair of skeletons that got my right on my doorstep. I respawned inside, made a iron swird, and tried making a dash outside to get my stuff and died again. Thinkfully the third time I had the sense to go to sleep and wait for morning and let the sun take care of them. Got everythign back thankfully.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

^^

Owie! That's why you put rails on your airship and put a ton o' torches around your house.

 

[Owain Taggart]

Out of curiosity, how far does anyone usually have to go before encountering a wolf? Just started playing again in singleplayer. I'm starting to feel like after a few updates that I'm not as burned out on it anymore with more to do. Kind of wondering how long it takes before one sees a wolf.

 

[Cutter John]

^^ Wolves are pretty rare unfortunately. I've played a lot this past week and only seen three total. But then I also don't tend to wander far from my mountain.

Oh I have plenty of railings on the ship. Problem is I'm trying to remove all the dirt blocks I laid down during around it construction and I guess I missed a jump.

I do have a fair number of torches up, but to be honest I kinda like having alternate areas of light and dark in the woods. It adds to the atmosphere.

Basically I live on top of a tall hill. To get to it I have to climb a stair, shimmy up a ladder, cross a bridge, then run through a small wooded area to reach the stairs to my front door. So its easy to wait just a little too long and not reach the woods til nightfall.

Out of curiosity, has anyone else noticed a lot more sheep in the game lately?

 

[Owain Taggart]

I don't know if I'd say there are more sheep, but I did notice the colours are starting to be more varied, from brown, to black, and to grey, so maybe due to the variety, it feels like there are more of them? It's nice to see the different colours rather than white all the time. I'm sure seeing lots of cows though. I'm sure we'll start to see brown ones eventually.

 

[AdmiralGarak]

Out of curiosity, how far does anyone usually have to go before encountering a wolf?

There's a spot roughly 1/3 of day away from my home where I've consistently found them. I haven't seen them anywhere else, but I haven't really wandered too far into forested areas lately.


But forget wolves. Fortune has given me some new pets:

That's a one block deep ditch on top of a mountain, unconnected to any other bodies of water. I don't know why the Gods of Spawning have deemed that they should be there, but there they shall spend the rest of their natural lives.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

^^

Awesome! I wish I had squid in my house, but about half a dozen creepers have removed all my ladders and stairways down from my little hill, so it'll be a while before I see the ocean again.

Also, has anybody been on to the not-quite-official Minecraft forums? It's like the Wild West in that place! Spam and one-line threads and necro-posting and trolling EVERYWHERE!

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Actually, the Minecraft forums (minecraftforum.net) are official. At the least, they are sanctioned by Mojang and listed as an "official" link. But yeah, the median age of Minecraft players is something like 15, so no one should be surprised at the level of trolling and general asshattery over there.

I've been working on my server lately, so my single-player world has been getting neglected. Managing CraftBukkit mods can be quite the pain in the ass, I've found, but I've finally got things working the way I want. Current mods are:

* Backup (used to generate a single backup every 4 hours, which I use to auto-generate a map image)
* BackupPlugin (the one I use for my "real" backups)
* informant (mostly for the MOTD)
* LWC (someone requested lockable items, so yeah)
* MyWarp (also by request)
* SpawnMob (monsters are disabled because I was having problems with invisible ones, so this way people can spawn everything else)

I haven't yet setup any multiworld plugins. None of them are mature enough for my liking and I don't want to bork my server.

I might have room for a couple of you guys on it, too. If you want on, PM me your Minecraft username. First come, first served. I'll take 2 or 3 of you!

Current server map is here, updated every 4 hours: http://gorzek.com/minecraft/serverworld.png

I'll probably have an MCMap version done on the same schedule soon, too.

 

[Cutter John]

Yeah, that place is troll central. But its THE place to go for mods and texture packs, so we'll just have to deal with it.

Hey cool Robert! I have the opposite problem unfortunately. Too busy with my singleplayer world to look into multiplayer. If theres still room in a week or so I might drop you a note. Gotta admit I'm curious.

Well the hull of the airship is down. Now to start on the balloon. I've already gone through several stacks of wool and barely made a dent in it. So I may have to start using sand, with wool to support it.

 

[Itisnotlogical]

I've started thinking about maybe doing a desert-themed world, with a palace made out of sandstone and the only source of water for miles being my infinite-water-glitched spring. The only problem with this, resources would be kind of hard to find, and indeed, expanding my palace in the downwards direction would be difficult with all that sand. But there'd be a ready supply of cactus, plus feeling like a lot more of a survivor than in a forest full to the brim with cuddly creatures and resources aplenty.

 

[Jadzia]

I've started thinking about maybe doing a desert-themed world, with a palace made out of sandstone and the only source of water for miles being my infinite-water-glitched spring.

Are you going to be hand crafting the desert? Or is it possible to choose a climate when you start this game? (eg, Temperate, Desert, Arctic, .)

 

[Itisnotlogical]

^^

It's not possible to precisely choose a climate, but world seeds can make it a bit more likely that you'll spawn in a world with similar features to any other world generated using that seed.

 

[Cutter John]

Try the 'Gargamel' seed I've been using. It has snow, rain forest, ocean, and desert within a fairly close proximity.

 

[Peak]

A small preview of Beta 1.5: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qy882ILYJMM

 

[Itisnotlogical]

Yeah, I've heard it's going to be released later this month. I'm hoping there's some Nether-centric achievements, like pushing a Zombie Pigman into the lava, because it seems like there really isn't much to do in that place.

 

[Robert Maxwell]

Try the 'Gargamel' seed I've been using. It has snow, rain forest, ocean, and desert within a fairly close proximity.

I agree, that's an awesome seed, and in fact it's the one my server uses.