So, Minecraft.

[NuurAbSaal]

(07-28-2012 02:55 AM)DeeBye Wrote:  The lava killing mechanism is now 3-wide and ensures there is no back-up of mobs waiting to be killed.

Quote:I added this little viewing area above the killing mechanism so I can see and hear the mobs dying in my little lava trap.

So do you think Minecraft brings out the best in you?

take care
Tarabulus

P.S.: You might get me to playing this game (*building in this world?). Since I'm clueless, is there a Mac version available?

[kandrathe]

(07-28-2012 06:35 AM)NuurAbSaal Wrote:  Since I'm clueless, is there a Mac version available?

Download Minecraft.zip (270 KB). Unpack and place Minecraft in your /Applications folder.

[NuurAbSaal]

(07-28-2012 11:48 AM)kandrathe Wrote:  

(07-28-2012 06:35 AM)NuurAbSaal Wrote:  Since I'm clueless, is there a Mac version available?

Download Minecraft.zip (270 KB). Unpack and place Minecraft in your /Applications folder.

Much obliged!

take care
Tarabulus

[DeeBye]

(07-28-2012 06:35 AM)NuurAbSaal Wrote:  So do you think Minecraft brings out the best in you?

It's really rewarding actually. These hostile mobs have killed me many times in every way imaginable when I explore scary dark caves. I devoted a lot of resources and time into building a system in which I can watch them die and actually profit from it.

(07-28-2012 06:35 AM)NuurAbSaal Wrote:  P.S.: You might get me to playing this game (*building in this world?).

Best $27x2 bucks I ever spent. The first few hours I played it I was all "This game is ugly and stupid", but after seeing a bunch of what other people have done with it I was all "This game is incredible". Check out some "Let's Play Minecraft" videos on YouTube.

[NuurAbSaal]

(07-29-2012 02:48 AM)DeeBye Wrote:  Check out some "Let's Play Minecraft" videos on YouTube.

I watched some really basic videos by SeaNanners what must be years back by now, that's why I started reading this thread. Thought "well, this might the fun!", then forgot all about it . Seeing the cool stuff you and Kandrathe put up here got me interested again. This might even be something for the missus.

take care
Tarabulus

[DeeBye]

(07-29-2012 07:32 AM)NuurAbSaal Wrote:  I watched some really basic videos by SeaNanners what must be years back by now, that's why I started reading this thread. Thought "well, this might the fun!", then forgot all about it . Seeing the cool stuff you and Kandrathe put up here got me interested again. This might even be something for the missus.

The series I quite enjoy is by Etho. He does some really interesting and elaborate stuff and I like his laid back narrative. Here is his Season 1 (101 episodes). Note that some of the stuff he built back then just doesn't work anymore with the changes in later patches.

Today I didn't get too much accomplished. I squared out a spawning room around a Cave Spider spawner. I think I'll make it into an XP farm somehow, but I haven't decided on the damage method yet. My son and I also went back to the nether and worked a bit more on the Blaze Farm. It's going to be a pretty huge project when it's done.

We also had a moment of panic when a Creeper somehow appeared in our storage room. We killed it before it exploded, but it would have been absolutely terrible if he exploded next to our storage chests. I think it spawned in a small corner that wasn't quite lit up enough, or maybe one of us left a door open.

[DeeBye]

We FINALLY finished our Blaze farm. It was the biggest and most intricate build we've ever done. We copied this design by Etho (I urge you to check out all the cool stuff Etho comes up with). A Blaze farm like is really great because Blazes give 10 experience per kill as opposed to 5 for Cave Spiders/Zombies/Skeletons. More importantly, they also drop Blaze Rods which are important for Brewing.

Here's the thing we built, looking up at it.


The Redstone wiring is very technical. Inside has a system of pistons activated by pressure plates that funnels the Blazes down into a 2x2 "kill room". Most of the damage is done by a precisely-timed system of repeaters that activate sticky pistons with blocks to suffocate the Blazes to near-death. When it turns off, you can just walk up and punch them once to kill them, and collect lots of experience and Blaze Rods. This is the repeater timer on the outside.


This is my son posing in front of the 2x2 kill area as Blazes are collecting. It's completely safe here and they can't attack.


The hardest part of this project BY FAR was disabling the spawner while also building a huge cobblestone cover over it. We died many times. You can't just disable it with a few torches, you literally have to encase the entire spawning area with solid blocks while dodging projectiles fired by both Blazes and Ghasts as you do it. It's 100% safe for us now, because it's completely protected from Ghast attacks and the Blazes can only spawn within the thing we built. The Etho design we used also allows us to turn off Blaze spawning by dropping streams of lava in the spawning area itself.

[DeeBye]

My son and I found a Stronghold purely by chance. We were walking around in the desert a couple of hundred blocks from our home when we both heard the sound of a zombie breaking down a door. There was no village or anything close to us, so I was about to attribute it to some kind of audio bug when by son said, "I bet there's a stronghold below us and a zombie is bashing an iron door". My son is a genius sometimes.

So we dug down and sure enough we found some mossy and cracked stone bricks. After 30 minutes or so of exploring the stronghold we found the end portal. We've never found one before. We barely had enough ender pearls saved up to make ender eyes to activate it.


Killing the end dragon was a bit tougher than we thought it would be, but we eventually did it. I wish I took more screenshots of the actual fight. It mostly consisted of my son sniping the dragon and telling me where it's position was while I took out the healing towers. Some of them were out of range of my bow from ground level and I had to ladder up the sides of them. That was kind of frantic.


After killing the dragon we decided to make an enderman farm to collect ender pearls because they rule. We built a ~150 block walkway out into the distance, away from any end stone blocks. The fences are for safety because my son and I are clumsy and fall off of things a lot.


We started building a 25x25 block platform for our enderman farm and they started piling up really fast when there's literally nothing else they can spawn on. We plan on making some piston/pressure plate thing up high so they spawn there and then fall to their death onto this platform while we just walk around and collect free ender pearls.

[DeeBye]

Enderman farm is complete.


Looking up at it.


At the top looking at the spawning/piston business end.


Looking downwards. Al those endermen are 1-hit kills.


I love my enderman farm.

[DeeBye]

We got tired of walking on the surface to our end portal, so we built a pretty fun powered minecart track to take us directly there. It goes down about 90 blocks and laterally about 320 blocks. We built a pair of rails so we can travel there side by side.


Whee! We encased the tunnel in smooth stone to make it look uniform. This is what minecraft OCD does to us.


I spent a few hours totally revamping our storage room. We've been accumulating too many resources and stuff was ending up in random chests. We just couldn't make sense of it any more. We are now at 90 double chests. I laid out blocks on the floor in front of each stack of chests to indicate what's inside. We'll see if this system works well.


My son started a side project. This is his jungle tree house. The thing in the top right is the beginning of his "wizard tower" (work in progress). The coloured wool underneath is supposed to represent magical energy dripping down. I actually think it looks pretty fun

[NuurAbSaal]

Keep it coming! I'm still amazed at what you can do in the "world" of Minecraft, even if I only understand the basics.

take care
Tarabulus

[DeeBye]

(08-20-2012 03:51 PM)NuurAbSaal Wrote:  Keep it coming! I'm still amazed at what you can do in the "world" of Minecraft, even if I only understand the basics.

Minecraft is the ultimate sandbox game. I love it so much

UPDATE! (because I haven't updated this thread much)

My son and I designed a nether wart farm, with dispensers using water buckets to harvest it all. My son came up with the nether brick fence and glowstone lighting detail. I like it a lot.


Harvesting nether wart using a water stream is weird. Nether wart can only grow on soul sand, which innately slows down movement speed of things traveling upon the block. Using water to harvest it means it takes a long time for the harvested nether wart to travel to the collection point. I used about 50 repeaters on full delay to make this nether wart farm a one-click affair. It was a fun project


When I took these screenshots I totally missed showing the actual nether wart collection button. I probably also should have shown an "action shot" of the device doing its thing. I'm terrible at this stuff.

Next project is likely a potion brewing room, or maybe to tidy up our end portal landing area.