Oh noes! My Weighted Companion Cube!

What ever will I do now?!!



Truely I will need to craft some swords. Must go and get raw materials at Papercraft!

Things that make you go wow...

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.

So I ask you all that watch this blog...

What is a Gilligan without having a Skipper as well?

Preview



Skin

Skinning

I've come to realize Minecraft is like a survival game of sorts the way I play it. You're trapped with no phone, no light, no motor car, and not a single luxury. Like Robinson Crusoe, it's primitive as can be.

So I made a Gilligan player skin with my lousy art skills. :)
(Version 2 with fixed hat)



Here is a preview screen shot.

More Minecraft Pics

Showing off my greenhouse second floor and someone I found in my mine!

Green House



The Blob!

Minecraft Pictures

Behold, ready for battle!


Defend the tower!


Spawn base in the distance!


Spawn base closer!


It's a long way down to China!


Mine command center!


Make sure the work area is safe. Did you hear something?!


Glad it's a game, I'd hate to have cleared all this by hand for real.


I've been really dig'n Minecraft!


I don't think I have enough stone.

Minecraft Addiction

I'm hooked, it's not as flexible as NWN was when making things but what it gives in return for that lack of flexibility makes it much more enjoyable. I remember posting earlier on this blog how I was looking for something to not only be fun but challenge me to think and be creative. Minecraft has accomplished this nicely.

I've been doing the single player survival game ever since I purchased the alpha. While I've not built anything massive except a mine shaft and a large mining area square shaped at the bedrock of the Earth. I'm slowly figuring things out and trying different things.

I'll post a screen shot of my mining project as well as other shots later on. :)