July 26th, 2012

It's finally done. I was really not satisfied with how the stone brick looked and how unsupported the spawning towers felt. It seems that you can only use 2-3 types of blocks effectively before other things start to look tacky, so I resorted to using sandstone and wood to complete the columns and the new lava blade setup.

First of all, I had to design the pillar that supported the spawning towers. I wanted to keep it mainly as sandstone, and took inspiration from the design style of the ancient Romans. That said, just plain sandstone wouldn't look much better, so I began changing the shape, making use of half slabs, and also accenting the sandstone with different colors to make it more vibrant (and I finally found a good use for lapis blocks). This is the result of that effort, though it was not the final result.

Night shot of the four finished pillars

Day, aerial shot of the four finished pillars

In the middle of the second image, you can see the next part of the refurbishing project: the lava blades. Now, there actually had to be some function to this part, so the shape was sort of out of my control, though the style was not. The style actually changed quite a bit from first conception all the way through me finishing off the redstone for the lighting system.

Yes, you heard right. I finally got the redstone wiring for the lighting system all the way underground. Aside from the siding and the top of the lava blades, there is no redstone showing (and you can't see the redstone on the lava blades from anywhere in my base). The wiring was actually challenging to do, and I'm glad I thought of a few of these things in advance. For instance, the spawning towers actually sit one block lower now than they did before. I added an additional layer to prevent the water from dripping, but it also served to house the redstone without any bulges sticking out on the bottom of the towers.

The wiring wasn't initially below the spawner, where it would creep to the sides and move upwards from there. When I first tried wiring the rest of it, I had it on the side, but I didn't like the additional ring it made around the side. It made the towers feel like they are too close together, and it looked a little tacky.

Day shot of the finished base for the mob grinder

Top-down view of the lava blade section

What the pillar looks like after I installed the lighting system into it

When all is said and done, this project went extremely well. I'm happy with the design, and think they add a lot to my base, which was previously very open. A lot of lines of sight were blocked, and a lot of space was taken up and is well lit from the pillars. This will make it immensely easy to light up the whole base with redstone lamps, which is an upcoming project for me.

Funnily enough, I discovered that I actually spaced out the spawning towers incorrectly. The north and west spawning towers are one block closer to the center of my base than the south and east spawning towers. I randomly discovered this problem when I was just looking up at them, but I still did my best to mask that mistake by making the sides of the lava blade rather plain. You can see the mistake most clearly in my top down view, where two sides of the redstone are three blocks long and two are four blocks long.

That's all for now. Signing out!

Public World Download - July 12th, 2012

I'll keep this short since I just posted an update to my blog.

This is the third month that I've released a download link for my world. Every time, there are more and more changes to the world. This time, I've finally put a roof over Steve's head and began construction on the entrance to my base. More terra-forming has been done on the north side of the base, pushing the hill even further back. My storage room is even more full of goodies than last time, enough to start any project I want. The desert is getting flatter, the minecart track got cleaned up a lot, and I've finally started a cow farm. This time I don't even really need to include signs, as every part of my base is now connected via rail. So enjoy the new additions.

Download here

July 12th, 2012

Last time I posted an update, I had just finished building the giant half sphere surrounding my base. With that mega project out of the way, I was finally allowed to focus on more fun things to do in Minecraft. That said, I haven't abandoned the idea of finishing the doorways to my base, but I didn't focus my entire attention on it either.

So for the entrances to my base, I completely abandoned the idea of using a piston door to get in or out. Instead, I chose to just have no door at all, and rely on lighting up the area around my base sufficiently that I won't be bothered by mobs. I'm not satisfied with this arch yet however, as the sandstone seems rather bland when looking from the inside of the base.

There is also the small problem of trying to transition from the archway's solid blocks to the glass dome surrounding it. I figured I would add supports to the dome all the way down to the tip of the arch, where it would split and follow the side down to the ground. I wanted to be sure of the material I was using for the arch first though, and after sleeping on it for several days, the sandstone hasn't grown on me. Something has to change, but I have yet to figure out what.

Moving onto the next project, I've elected to connect things to my base more. For awhile now, I've tired of going through the stronghold to get up to my desert (which has seen quite a lot of use as of late). I've been sitting on the idea of making a minecart track move over there, when I remembered the design that I showed off in the teaser. Of course, that design wasn't sufficient for what I wanted to do, so I had to modify it slightly.

As you can see, I have two destinations on the right side of my control panel.

Really, the only modification that I needed to make was hooking the top right button up to the piston. Unfortunately, there is no way to avoid completing the circuit, so I had to rely on another small trick, which was the redstone power length.

A view of the RS-NOR latch used to control the direction
you go from the station.

The redstone wiring might look ugly because it isn't very compact, but it comes with the benefit of no added delay to the circuit. I needed to avoid having both ends of the RS-NOR latch activate at the same time when I pressed either button. By having 4 redstone dust between the connection of both button circuits, I was able to move the RS-NOR latch away far enough so that one side was within range of the each button, but out of range on the other side.

With the three button selector working, I had to dig a new tunnel the the surface of the desert. Luckily, it was not a very long tunnel, as I built it by the corner of the old minecart track.

I'll probably add a small hut here, just to store some chests so that I can
stay in the desert for longer and make the whole operation look cleaner.

Now, the minecart actually does stop down at that midway station, so I needed something there as well. I elected to make another branch mine there, thus connecting a branch mine to my base.

The completed station

The tunnel down to the branch mine

Now, I have to be careful about where I dig. The old minecart track ran along y-level 12, so I raised it up six blocks so that the branch mine would not intercept the minecart track. Basically, there is only one orientation that I can't make branches in, so I'm quite happy with it.

This new mine also comes at a perfect time. I have two more redstone intensive projects that I need to finish: the lighting array in my base and the lighting system for the mob spawner. I can't start either project until I refinish the bottom part of the mob spawner and finalize the terrain in my base (I want to add some height difference to make it look natural, and I may even add a tiny waterfall to my base from the river). Therefore, finishing the mob spawner is the next thing on my list of priorities, and I actually have a plan on how I will do it, thanks to the advice I got from my sister when I talked to her about it.

That's all for now. Signing out!

Extending the Rail System - A Sneak Peak

So I've just finished figuring out the wiring for this crazy contraption. What once was Test3891's bi-directional rail station is now a tri-directional, midway rail station. I'm adding on two more destinations to my minecart track, but can you guess where I'm adding them or what purpose they will serve?

That's all for now. Signing out!

July 4th, 2012

Well I'm finally back. I was incredibly burnt out from this game for the longest time. It didn't help that I've been working on the most boring project in my entire world since I first hollowed out the base (and that one might have been easier to do than the glass dome, because I didn't have to focus much while doing it). I'm pleased to say that I've overcome that problem and I've finally finished the dome.

So this is what three and a half double chests of glass buys you. Granted, I'm not done with this dome yet because it is rather plain looking. I'll most likely add in some supports and make the dome a giant cap. And then of course, there are the doors to add yet (which will be very fancy, you have my word).

I'm thinking about using this for wall lighting instead of having the pistons. It helps add more shape and texture to the rather plain walls, and it doesn't cost so much! (Yes, the pistons are still there for now.)

With all of that glass needed for the dome, my desert is starting to look very much like a wasteland. Funnily enough, it's where I would probably expand next after I finish my base. Both of those events are very far away however, so I won't bother with details for now.

Next up on my list of things to do include:
- The doorway arches for my base
- The supporting rings and cap for the dome
- Finish the aesthetics for the base of the mob grinder and make the lighting system functional
- Gather more sand and glowstone

I'm sorry that this update doesn't have much, but I truly, truly didn't feel like playing for the longest time.

Signing out!

Public World Download - June 12, 2012

Well, a month has now gone by since I first put up a download link for my world. I've made quite a bit of progress since then. My storage room is now finished and functional, the mob grinder is producing at quite a solid rate, I've gathered a ton of diamonds and redstone, I've started terraforming the landscape around my base, and now I've begun the glass dome over my base.

With this download, I've placed helpful signs around my world, helping to guide you to various important features. If you wish to explore the local area, I have a map in my Miscellaneous chest in the first storage room. If you feel like downloading the map, look no further!

June 9th, 2012

Well, I'm back from my vacation, and I did play a little bit during the evenings so I have something to show. The mob grinder is now fully functional, and I am very happy with the drop rates. Although I am not completely done with it just yet, I'm happy to at least have the base structure finished, allowing me to move onto new projects.

The enchantment table room with half the bookshelves active

The enchantment table room with all of the bookshelves active

So here is the main enchantment table for my base. It's under the second tier of my base and just barely fits with two blocks to spare. Unfortunately, I believe I only need 15 bookshelves in 1.3 in order to achieve the highest enchanting level, so this will soon be outdated. Still, it was a fun little build that didn't take very long. It's been too long since I had enough redstone to build something with.

My next goal for the mob grinder is to have an on/off switch. With redstone lamps available to me, I was able to avoid using lava and was thus able to build with wood. This is an example of the wiring I used for one side of the mob grinder, which I think looks nice actually. I'm still debating about how to join all of this together, but I have awhile to think on that, as it takes quite some time to do even one side of this. You also will notice the glass dome starting to take shape for the walls of my base. Unfortunately, I'm out of glass and sand, so I'll need to get more before building again.

I'm also still working around my base as well as inside of it. I'm changing the hillside to grass in this picture. I also have enough for two stacks of TNT to finish blowing these mountains away and forming my own in a somewhat mellow shape. I'll also probably plant trees around the area and light the inside of them up using pumpkins or glowstone.

Aside from that, I've been helping my sister with her world. We haven't really been playing multiplayer much, but we will sit and chat and play our respective single player worlds. She wanted me to build her a minecart system to keep her dogs in motion constantly to prevent them from teleporting to her, and I agreed thinking it would be a five minute job, but then she showed me her pack of some 20 dogs. Yeah, forget that, she's on her own. She's also had very bad luck recently trying to dig for redstone and diamonds. She wants to emulate the endermen farm that I'm using, but she doesn't quite have the resources for it.

That's all I've got for now. Next update will be a download link to my world for the month. Signing out!

June 5th, 2012

Happy Summer fellow students! Surprisingly, I've been more busy now than I have been at school, but that doesn't mean I've been slacking on my survival world, oh no. I've been working on quite a few things, most of which are unfinished, but all are necessarily for mid-term goals with my world.

First up, I'd like to talk about the mob grinder. Three of the four towers are now finished, and I am sitting at around 1,000 spawning spaces already. It works beautifully, and I already have two double chests full of loot from it (with most of the gunpowder being used for TNT as well). It seems to me that I'm going to need to install a lighting system on to have it shut off from time to time. I was planning on just forcing the items to drop down into a lava pit, but I have a new idea for my base that forces that to not be possible.

Functionally, I'm almost done with the mob grinder. Aesthetically, I have a lot of work to do on it, starting from the bottom and working my way up probably. It kind of looks unrealistic for that one central point to support these four towers, and I definitely want to change it.

I mentioned that I had TNT before. In fact, I've used four stacks of it already. I didn't like that large mountain next to my base, and I definitely wanted to remove or re-shape it. I do believe I'll reshape it eventually, but for now, I'm just going to work on shallowing it out and moving it further away from the border of my base. The point I'm standing on in the third picture is also going to be shallowed out, but it's far enough away that I don't care about it for now.

Other than that, I've done a lot of caving. Specifically, I've started a branch mine, which is located just across the river. I'll probably create a fancy entrance for it later, but for now, I'm leaving it as is. And yes, in this picture, I'm up at the world height by stacking up there with nothing but redstone ore blocks and diamond ore blocks. I think it's safe to say that I can use diamond armor now. And I'm glad to finally have something in my redstone chest again.

Finally, I've also been mining a lot of sand. The plan is to build a giant glass dome over my base, which is going to require something like 7,000 glass blocks. That's more than two double chests of glass, to put it in perspective. Half way there with the sand now though.

Recently, I've introduced my sister to the game. At first, she said she didn't like blocky games (would you believe it?) but as soon as I sat down with her and taught her how to play, she's been playing more often than I have. I actually set up a locally hosted server on our network for us to play on. I'm debating about whether or not to post pictures from it when we get it up and running. I'm still teaching her a lot about the game, but just yesterday she surprised me by showing me her zombie spawner xp farm. I'm glad she's willing to look some of this stuff up and work with it on her own. Pretty soon, she might be inventing things as well.

In closing, we are nearing a month since I first released my world. I think I'll make it a monthly occurance from now on, and you guys can get a good, scaled sense of my progress by using that. This time, I plan on making it a bit better, with signs directing you guys around in order to find key landmarks (which will be marked by glowstone pillars, most likely).

That's all I've got for now. Signing out!

Minecraft Snapshot Week 21

Well, it's out. This lone snapshot seems to have just completely altered how the endgame is played. There are so many awesome changes, some of them being very long awaited indeed.

The Desert Changes

The new snapshot adds in two main changes to the desert biome. First of all, we have a re-skin of desert villages, which are no longer made out of wood and cobblestone, but purely out of different kinds of sandstone blocks. Yes, this is literally a re-skin, with all of the buildings looking the same. Why is this important? Because it adds sandstone stairs!

Also in the desert change list is a new structure: the desert ruin. Inside the ruin (which is shaped like a pyramid using sandstone and orange wool) you will find a room with a little wool pattern in it. Dig below the room, but be careful when doing so!

A New Ore Block

It appears that when digging below y: 16 (unconfirmed), you have a chance to find a new ore block: emerald ore. Yes, the ore block color is currently red. Jeb forgot to change the color, but this isn't anything game-breaking. It must be mined with an iron pickaxe and will only drop one emerald per ore block. It is used to trade with villagers.

Villager Trading

You can now interact with villagers by right-clicking on them. Villagers will always offer trades involving emeralds, whether they offer something for an emerald, or they give an emerald for something. The list of materials they can trade is quite large and includes diamond pickaxes, iron tools (including flint and steel), 8 iron ingots, 3 glowstone, food, books, rotten flesh, and even more that I don't list (note that the amount of emeralds needed will vary for this).

In it's current implementation, trading is not balanced. 8 iron ingots will go for one emerald, but one iron tool will require 3-5 emeralds, for instance. Also, rotten flesh will have a use now (which is something I can be grateful for, as I'm working on my mob spawner). Look for more changes to this in the future, but I'm glad it's finally there.

Ender Chests

This part of the update is actually based on a mod that was created by chicken_bones on the Minecraft Forum. Ender chests are crafted using 8 obsidian instead of 8 wood, but you also have to add an eye of ender to the center of the crafting window. What this nets you is one ender chest, which can only be placed as a single chest, gives off a faint level of light, and acts like an instantaneous transfer device. Each ender chest created and placed will all store the same items that are placed in another ender chest, meaning you can access things from thousands of blocks away (and maybe even from across different dimensions).

I can see this update being really useful in SMP, where it can create an easy trading tool between anyone on the server (provided that you trust them to actually give you the items).

Also, I think I found the item that will replace that ugly water fountain inside of my storage room.

Dispenser Changes

Not content with just adding boats and minecarts to pop out of dispensers, Jeb has now added water and lava to the list of items that can be dispensed. When you place a bucket of water or lava in a dispenser and power the dispenser (you only have to power it for a bit, then it can be unpowered again), a water or lava source block will appear in front of the dispenser. This means we don't need to use piston floodgates anymore to make wheat farms, for instance. I can see this being used for lots of things in the future, and I'm very excited about this change.

Well, that's all I've got for now. I truly can't wait to see what update 1.3 looks like when it's all finished. It will round out the game very well, and I can't wait to play with friends easily on my single player world.

EDIT: I see that I'm getting a lot of pings from Google searches. Since I'm only explaining the major changes that I think will affect the game the most and not posting the entire change log, I'm going to put up a link to the Minecraft Wiki. Always use the Wiki to find these changes. It is always the one that is most up-to-date.

Click Here to see the entire change log in this snapshot.

Let's Talk: Mob Grinders

And we're back. If you are in college, you would recognize that this is the time of the year for final exams. If you are even remotely attuned to the gaming world, you would also know that the ten year wait for Diablo III is now over. With both of these things to occupy my time, I confess I haven't thought too much about playing Minecraft. Well, the school year is wrapping up and the initial attraction of doing nothing but playing Diablo III is now over and it's time to get back to business.

And what better way to resume than by building the mob grinder that is centralized in my base. For the last several months, I've been observing the changes that have been made to hostile mob behavior and how it affects the designs of mob grinders.

There have been several changes to mob behavior, primarily the change to "improve game performance." When mobs spawn, they will now wander around for a few seconds, but if they are more than ~32 blocks away from you, they will eventually stand still until you are either in range of them or they despawn. This change has prompted many design alterations for people. We now have several options to sift through.

First of all is Monkeyfarm's "mobs-on-demand" style grinders, where you can periodically flood the spawning pads, pushing the mobs into water canals, either manually or based on a timer. This design is certainly efficient, but it does have its downsides. This system will constantly be updating water currents, which means that it will decrease game performance, which is not something I care to have near my main base. It also requires my active attention to use, which is not the goal I set when I wanted to create a mob grinder in my base.

Second, we have the piston-based grinders, like the very same one that I used for my Endermen farm in this world. I didn't seriously consider this one for very long, primarily because it costs too many resources compared to what I have available. In the End, I got away with around 700 spawning spaces for my Endermen farm. In the main world, I'm going to need something like 1,200 spawning spaces to have a good efficiency. That would be too resource intensive to do. It also causes block update lag with all of the sticky pistons activating constantly.

Third, I can go very old school and use grinders that don't make use of pistons, redstone, or spawning pad flooding. With the changes being made, I have to rely on mobs falling in the water canals before they stop moving. This necessitates smaller spawning pads than I used in the past (my first was 12x12 spawning pads and my second was 6x6).

Etho recently came up with a SMP-friendly design, using 3x3 spawning pads, while also being very easy to build, as each layer only requires eight source blocks of water and no signs; however, there are some things to Etho's design that I don't like. With only a one block wide central tube, mobs can jam easily. Also, if I went with the one block wide tube, the width of the spawner is an odd number of blocks, which would annoy the crap out of me by being off-centered in my base. So I altered his design to make use of two block wide water canals. The lighting system that Etho designed still works perfectly fine as well.

This grinder is going to be used primarily for drops. I wanted something that can always be running in the background and I just pop in every five minutes to collect the drops. With that in mind, the quickest way to kill the mobs reliably would be a lava blade. Now here, I could potentially have more congestion problems, which can only really be solved by adding more lava blades (as I dislike the vertical lava blades for losing more drops than the horizontal lava blades). My solution was to have four spawning towers with each having their own lava blade at the bottom, just before the junction. While this currently looks a little ungainly and largely out of scale, it will develop well once I add the walls to my base.

In the mean time, there is nothing to do but keep building. The resources I've used consists of stone brick for the base, sandstone for some small detail, and birch wood planks for the side of the grinder. I definitely don't like the base as it is right now, and that will most likely change. The shape doesn't feel right, as that column would definitely not be able to support this structure in real life, but the stone brick also feels out of place. I do have to use something that isn't flammable because of the lava blades, but I have plenty of time to think about that.

That's all for now. Signing out!