More Map Madness!

Check out this isometric view of my compound in the map I posted yesterday. Pretty fun stuff!



Top left side of the map has a small building that is the spawn area for the world. I made that safer to spawn in by building around it. Lower right by the water is the docks. Both spawn building and docks are linked by a service tunnel to the central compound.

Running to the left is the rail tracks for mine carts to my mine. In the compound itself is a Greenhouse in the upper left, house just under it, mine cart station below the house. On the right side of the compound is a workshop with about 10 ovens and a fountain down and to the right. Between the fountain and mine cart station is the monster pit which farms monsters. :P

Maps, maps, maps...

I found a program that lets me make maps of the areas discovered in Minecraft. It's a pretty slick little program and can do everything from general surface mapping to cave mapping based on the save file. The program is called Cartograph by someone named ZomBuster.

Check out this map of one of my saves below, you will have to zoom in to the pixel level in an image viewer to make out some really small details. Larger things like buildings and stuff shouldn't require as much zoom.



See if you can make out my settlement in the map. Should look like a goofy pipe with the tail going to a snowy peak near by. That tail is a dual mine cart track which allows me to ride a mine cart roller coaster of sorts over mobs safely as well as carry extra ore back in carts with trunks.

Minecraft Monster Grinder

So I've had an itching lately for blowing things up. I want to play with a TNT cannon that I've only been able to gather enough gunpowder for one shot in the past month. That means I need a LOT more gunpowder but I don't want to cheat to get it either.

So whats the best way to get gunpowder? Kill Creepers. What's the safest way to kill em? Drown em! So I did some research and came across this monster trap in these two videos. Props to Colbycheeze for the videos.

Video #1

Video #2

So now I have a basic blueprint, time to build! First I need a place to build my trap, hmmmm.. time to dig!



I won't go too deep for this.



The bottom of the trap, that is where I stand so all the drops float right to me.



As you can see, the monster will sink to where the glass is in the distance and drown. Their drops will float out from under the glass to me. Notice also how I have the ladder above the water so it doesn't interfere with the current?



The room above is the second safe zone, notice the cactus plants in the wall? They catch spiders since spiders are so big and can't fit down the drowning hole. Spider drops fall in to the hole as they die and float to me. I also made good use of lighting and storage chest placement so I don't hurt myself accidentally against the cactus.



It's hard to see in this shot, but notice how the water stop just at the edge of the drowning pool drop? That is a key thing about the whole water trap. Also those above floor glass walkways make a nice safe way to pull monsters from the back of the trap area.



This final shot is a view of what a monster would see if they spawned back against the far wall. The lights leading up to the water wouldn't normally be there so it'd be pitch black in this area with the exception of the center trap area shining the in the distance.



Notice my service tunnel in the ceiling near the edge of the water on the right? That lets me go out in the dark zone and mine the area surrounding the trap further back. I'm collecting a ton of gunpowder now and I've had some nice explosions along the back walls clearing out space. The more empty dark space you have the more monster spawn up to 200 I think.

Fox News makes you less informed.

According to this study, Fox News is a big source of misinformation in America. There's also a summary article here.

Be warned, there are pop-ups. Take it with a grain of salt, there are some valid points and there could be some not so valid points.

This is a WTF picture...

Apparently there are more then just deer out in the Louisiana woods. Check out this article here.