The Recent Inactivity

I know I usually post daily, but like Notch is with his blog, I'm being rather uninspired lately and haven't found much time to blog. To help that, I will post some of my building techniques and ideas



























of which I PROMISE will occur on Sunday.

It's been a while...

Why hello there thin air! I am indeed breathing and haven't forgot about you completely while playing Minecraft! I've only forgot about you partially! Oh, and it's my birthday!

Anyway, 1.5_01 is out and my greenhouse is being naturally watered despite the fact it has a ceiling.

Should've thought twice before coding rain to fall through transparency eh, Notch?

Optimine

This is a mod that modifies the chunk generation coding to run more efficiently, it ups the fps quite well if you have a slower computer.

I couldn't find the link, but Google can, ask him.

Minecraft for iOS?!

It's been confirmed to happen sometime after the game's release. It'll be a little different of course, but thanks to the iPhone's SSD memory it'll be able to run.

A Few Mods I Find Tolerable

SDK's Gun Mod- COMPLETE in balance of field here, but still cool if you're a gun buff like me.

Planes v2- Very cool way to explore a world quickly, can be a little laggy on slower machines due to chunk generation and the planes are a little hard to control in terms of altitude.

Poke'ball- Very cool, balanced, compatible with most other mods, love it. I CHOOSE YOU, CREEPER!

HumanPlus- My favorite, adds a whole new level of life to Minecraft. They talk, walk and stalk. I find myself building stuff to impress the AI.

"Feel my blade, Creeper!"








Boom.

Mount Rushmore, Minecraft Style.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzbHMBW-Meg, by NoBlueLights.

Very creative idea, features Paulsoaresjr, Luclin, Wolv21, and MinecraftChick. I also love the HD texture pack he has going on, whatever it's called.

Notch's Lovely New Addition

Jeb is implementing tamable wolves. They're VERY well animated and act like a real canine. You can find them here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c9Lp9p5yjuo

I'm gonna get started building an exact replica of New York and hack Zombie Spawners everywhere. Then I'll shoot one from far away so my dog will run after it into a dark building.

"NO MAX NO!"

The Discovr Servers

Those people you don't know at Discovr have a few Minecraft servers. They're extremely well done but the uptime is a little unpredictable, from what I hear they're having a few problems with Bukkit or something. Anyway, here's two of their best:

survival.discovr.us (SMP)
chaos.discovr.us (PVP)

Notch's Ramblings

Notch is starting what is a little like an autobiography. It's an article all about map generation and such. It's on his tumblr, if you don't know where that is then get out from under the rock and click: http://notch.tumblr.com/

Some News

Well, it's been a few days, but I'm back with some great news. Minecraft's transition to iPhone and iPad has been CONFIRMED. It'll probably be a little different on iOS, but hey, it's Minecraft.

Though, I wish Notch would pull Java out of the equation here before attempting SSK.

What I do.

I realized I should probably show a few more examples of my building procedures.

I'll do that sometime in the future.

I'm just too lazy to post pictures at the moment.

Minecraft for Hours Straight

Most of us tknow that after playing Minecraft for several hours at a time, things appear as blocks at a first glance in real life. Well, I've also found that you can also instinctivly punch someone in the face if they tend to carry their 'S'.

Slimes

I've finally found slimes. Mean little buggers, they can be very deceiving. One minute you're like: "Aw, what a cute little square of Jello!" Next minute is like: "Ah! Why is he trying to eat me alive?!"

I've always wanted a pet slime, but apparently this time none of the more docile ones spawned... crap.

The Overrated 404 Challenge

I went and tried out the famous 404 Challenge. The game was set to 'Hard' and I followed all the forum's rules, no torches, spelunking only, the whole nine yards.

I had three chunks of the cave under my control within five minutes. The only challenge I saw was evading the Creeper waiting for me at the end of the chute. I'm gonna try it again sometime soon, but instead I'll jump into the gravel upon the world's birth. Meaning I'll have nothing but the pixels on my back.

Notch have mercy...

TNT Cannons

Woot!

With the new redstone repeaters you can make TNT cannons automatic by putting four repeaters together to obtain a delay for the projectile TNT. (For you slower people, this does not mean FULLY automatic, it just removes the need for two switches.)

Some New Stuff

Notch got the servers back up a few days ago, thank God, and promised an idol of his he'd add pet dogs to Minecraft. Coo'.

C418 also released "Minecraft - Volume Alpha" which contains all the songs in Minecraft and a few extras. You can buy it here.

In other news, I got raped by a Creeper. A-friggin'-gain.

A Seed for You

You've found 404...
Now you must conquer it...
Dig the gravel!

Beds

I hate the beds. Completely. They remove the entire concept of surviving through the night, thus making the game even MORE easy. It's terrible, I don't want to put some wool and planks together, and skip exactly what adds the ultimate challenge to Minecraft. I can't believe Notch would actually consider adding this.

1.3 Update!

I'm unable to play at the moment, but let this vid do the talking:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYQbJwFWXEs

Just tolerate his lag.

A Day Later

Minecraft.net is experiencing some downtime at the moment, but Notch just uploaded the new launcher! Epic timing right! (This means he's back from his vacation for all of those slower miners)

In other news, Notch has confirmed diodes, repeaters, wooden half blocks, and beds will be in the next update. 2 Player Productions wants to do a documentary about Mojang as well.

E: Site's back up, downloading the launcher.

Fireball Fishing

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8_hMi__M_8

The player states this is a glitch, but the grappling hook, Ghast spawner, and cross hairs say otherwise.


There, you have your post. I'm gonna finish my Rice Krispies.

Ripping off the Dev's Tumblr.

Notch likes these quite a bit, which means you automatically will too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uyxVmdaJ-w&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-MfrT0wvMg

Notch also has a booth at GDC. If you go, make sure you have a blue shirt, so you can have this:

A Poem in Three Minutes

Looking up,

I see the sun go down.

And Rana, with her apples,

rises through the dark.

Zombies, Creepers, and skeletons alike

spawn in the night

to give quite a fright.

I stay in my home.

My sword in my hand.

I focus and listen,

I hear the spiders land.

Then, seven minutes later,

the mobs begin to burn.

The sun rises once more.

I know it's time again,

to mine some more ore.

Difficulty

I feel no matter what difficulty I play on, MineCraft is just too easy. I want an extreme difficulty, one where hostile mobs move around in packs and in greater numbers. Anyone can go outside, plant a farm, and maybe kill one skeleton. Once you get advanced to where you have a compound lit, the outside is little threat. I want a real challenge. A challenge like the Nether has, near impossible.

The Shaft

Hey guys, I'm currently listening to a podcast for MineCraft right now. It's called 'The Shaft' and is quite hilarious. Look them up on iTunes. They're part of the Dead Workers Party, so you can take my word it's great. 

Notch

I'm sure plenty of you know this by now, but for those who don't: Notch is currently taking a break to celebrate his mother's birthday (she's turning 60!) Wish Notch 50 more years with the woman who birthed our saviour from the infinite norm of gaming.

And try not to get too pissed that newest update will be a little longer. ;D

...Coo' of the Week

We now know... The chicken came before the egg. Now, did the skeleton come first or was it the zombie?

Flour

So, I've been thinking. What if placing wheat in the crafting square would make flour, which would be used instead to craft bread and cake. I don't see any difference in balance here, and it make more sense plus possibly some more possibilities of additions in the future. I don't know, just a thought.

Oh, and I may add something to the site that may make all readers piss their pants after playing MineCraft thirty-six hours straight.

Flying Mobs?

According to minepedia.net, one of Mojang's employees has confirmed eagles that can be ridden will be added in later March. Now don't get your hopes up kids, I haven't found any other evidence, so this site may or not be legit. I'm still looking into it.

Now, birds are apparently going to be added. They'll fly in flocks and maybe occasionally land, so stock up on ammo.

A New Purpose

Well, it didn't work out. Having to pause to type every new day really hurts the fun of MineCraft for me. As a result, this blog is getting a new purpose. From now on, the site is going to be dedicated to making journals a part of the MineCraft subculture, and a site that revolves around the subculture.

Day 3

Emerging from the depths, I took a long gulp of the crisp morning air. I had a few blocks of planks leftover from some tool crafting, I figured they could contribute to my home. I placed some dirt below me, got onto the edge  of the wall, and found this.

That's a hell of an introduction. I began playing cat and mouse with him. I'd move a few blocks over, and he'd try to follow by jumping. Just before the bugger could start ticking, I'd smack him in the face. When he worked up the nerve to try again, he'd get smacked once more. This process repeated about twenty times before the dried leaf pile rolled over and died. I added the wood, and began to ponder what to do next.

Oh, there's a branching tree I was working on harvesting, I'll go take it down. As I climbed over a small hill to get to it, I noticed something...

Reeds! Uh, I mean Sugarcane! I gathered up the crop, took down the big tree, and a few others before night set. Heading back, I heard a mob. But not just any mob, a zombie. I swung around, drawing my sword. I looked left, right, up, any other direction. But there was nothing here. Just a pile of sand.

This could only mean one of two things, there's a dungeon beneath my feet, or a cavern. I'll be sure to check it out in the future.

Once I got back to the house, I began laying some more wood. Once darkness had completely fallen, I had the framework done. Anyone here see what I'm doing? Once I got that done, I descended into the mine.

(To be continued in a later post, most likely the next)

Day 2

Well, I'm halfway finished with my house. Found some coal, made some primitive tools, started a shaft. Looks like things are gonna get better from here, as long as no more pigs jump into that pit of lava, as you can see I'm pretty low on hearts.

I also took a few screenshots I couldn't get for Day 1.

OH CRAP
Another Mountain

Day 1

Well, technically this is day 2, but I figured most of you know the typical routine of the first day. Sadly, my avoidance of work has backfired, because my first day wasn't typical. The first thing I'd like to point out is that this world is loaded. I spawned smack in the middle of a valley. After taking a quick look around, I found a natural waterfall, a pit of lava, pumpkins, and some of the most extraordinary mountains MineCraft has ever built for me.


Lava
Pumpkins
Mountain

This issue I ran into was that I spent too much time being in awe of the newborn map and taking screenshots for you guys. As a result, I'm spending the first night in a hole by my unfinished shelter. Thanks a lot.


E: There's nothing worse than sitting in a hole slightly larger than your body listening to giant man-eating spiders beat each other to death above you.

Testing... Testing...

Okay, I'm going to see if this will work. A few weeks ago I tried to start a MineCraft journal. I started recording play time by days and such, pausing the game every new day to record the events that took place. The issue I found was that I get too into the game, thus several days pass without notice. I believe journals should without a doubt be a part of the MineCraft subculture. So, I'm going to back up my old worlds and start fresh. Maybe this time I'll be dedicated enough.