Weekend Update Jan 29

Really not much to update.

I'm starting to feel like I'm waiting week to week to decide if I'm going to play much Minecraft. I'm wanting that new patch, that new item, that new thing. Unfortunately the next update looks like help for the mod community, something I do not dabble in.

I'm stuck in consoles and emulators at the moment. I"m having a Beat'em up addiction flare up currently. Playing the old Ninja Turtles arcade games, some Genesis Streets of Rage here and there, and also looking at a few games I never knew existed.

I did see that Halo 2 map for Minecraft. I am not a Halo fan, but I did see that it looked like the bow was just reskinned(very simple to do) as well as the arrows. It is very cool though, and it makes me want Minecraft to be a games platform like Little Big Planet. With some tweaks I'm sure you could have it make randomized city buildings. Add in some way to do cutscenes and people could make their own RPG's. Maybe not even that, I could see after Minecraft is done that Notch just officially makes a Gun-craft as a pseudo sequel. RPG-craft too. It seems it would be simple to really expand Minecraft into several games for several years. I don't think Notch has that ambition though from what I read in his interviews.

I need to download that Legend of Zelda Link to the Past map, that's my favorite zelda by a wide and far margin. I'd like to play around in it. Perhaps dig a few of the dungeons that aren't included in the map.

Well, that's it for now, I don't know if I'll have many updates next week. We'll have to see how today and monday goes.

S4 E7 Man Vs River

Season 4 Man vs River

Episode 7 Finishing Touches

I wanted the house to look nice, not just be functional. One of the problems with Minecraft is that it is hard to make non-blocky and decent looking building tops. I have a roof on the house already so I can stay there at night, but I still need to work on it.



As you can see, to get a slightly steeper roof I use step blocks so that I can increase the angle of the slope with much less blocks. I get up there using dirt because using ladders just isn't so good when you're not wanting to harm the building you're working on.



I wanted to open up the house a bit on the inside. Originally I figured on having just a 3x3 window in the middle of the roof, but I decided more of a + so that I could get more light in without it looking like just having a glass roof.



Next I took some of the rare clay that was in The Bay at Fort Lookout and I made some brick blocks to go beside my oven. The patio looked more like a grill out for a modern house now, and I really liked how it looked. I had barely fenced the area to complete the look when I suddenly got attacked by a spider. I ran into the house... but realized my roof was not secure, the spider ran in and jumped directly on top of me. The only safe thing to do was to run to the basement and wait till morning to head out and slay it.



Soon as the spider was dead, I of course put the glass in the roof, it looks really nice in there now. I decided that my living room would be there. It looks a little empty, so I went to the Forums for some inspiration.



Next I decided to make some furniture. There is a post in the Minecraft forums about how to make furniture with items in game. So that's what I did. A step here, signs on the side, and I have a living room.



Still something was missing... I had gotten some wool in case I had room to have a nice rug, but with a basement, I can't do that now. So I double thick walled the wall on one side in front of my furniture, and made myself a big screen TV complete with TV stand.



The inside is now cozy, the storage is all in place, and the crafting tables are set. A little clean up of the yard, some installation of a planter's box for some flowers outside the window and I'm all done with my new home for the next couple of weeks.

S4 Man vs River: E6 Break it

Season 4 Man vs River

Episode 6 : Break it!



I loathe temporary shelters. For a couple of days I have lived in this cramped little hovel. I sit there listening to pigs and cows make noises, probably pooping on my new home's foundation, and I wait, watching my clock.



So I'm not going back. I broke it down and now I have to finish the house enough today to use it as a shelter. I have to start by making a roof on the walls I finished last time. I have plans for a better roof, but for now I'm just going to box it off so I can work on finishing the structure.



After its boxed in, I now need to make a trip back to my other two homes for some building materials. I need glass from the Tower. I wanted the Tower to feel raw, so it never had windows, I will be happy to have windows again. From Fort Lookout I get some clay, I have some ideas on what I want to use clay on. I come back and I install my windows and my doors.



Now that's a ton better than living in a rock hovel.

I start going through my list of things I need. Storage areas, a place for a smelting oven, and a few niceties that I have not had in my Tower. I realize that my house is a little small for my list. I do not want to make a large house, I am reserving the Plantation for when I'm done with the river.



So I decide I'm going to have to make a cellar for storage. Nothing large, more like my old cellar in the tower, just large enough for 3 double-chests.



No surprises here because... I made a foundation! Yay, +1 for thinking ahead, right? I made it close to the house so that, again, I'm taking up very little real estate. Lastly I've decided to have a patio out of the back door. I ripped up the old wooden floor back there, and I put in some nice cobble stone.



Well, that's it for the main structure! One more house episode to go! I'll be making it pretty and adding some neat stuff on the inside! As always, comments are welcome and encourages me to continue blogging. Thanks for reading.

S4 E5 A new Home Part 2

Season 4 "Man vs River"

Episode 5 "A New Home part 2"



I have about 4 chests like this near the old Treehouse. I'm back here to get stone for my foundation. I am not trying to be realistic, I feel a foundation really does help in Minecraft. First, it makes sure that directly under your home is void-free, so that there is no way a creeper is going to spawn under there and blow things up without you realizing what happened. Second, stone takes the wind out of explosions as compared to dirt. So the stone helps to minimize any explosions from continuing through your home.



I'm going three deep, and actually 2 wider on each side than I expect to put flooring. Sort of an overhang with dirt on top, just extra paranoia is all. Since the bottom floor is natural stone, I will have at least 3 layers of rock under my floors no matter what substance my floor ends up being made of, typically wood.



It always surprises me how much it takes to fill in earth. I know, I know, the area equation is super simple, but come on. I'm playing a videogame, I like to guesstimate.

Once again I go back to my porch ideas. I like porches, and so that will be the first thing I build. Not a very large porch, just enough room to get out and watch the sunsets and maybe defend my home on. This is what I ended up with.



Now, the structure of it is interesting. You see that ultra thin column there? Perhaps there are people playing that do not know how I accomplished that. Non-full square construction is an innovative artform in Minecraft since it is not easy and usually involves using stuff where its not intended.



As this illustrates, I am using fence posts. I use dirt to get them the height I want, then I destroy the first block of dirt under the fence, and add another fence piece there. Eventually getting a nice looking piece of woodwork.



I went ahead and started working on the face of the house. Two windows and a door in the middle I think will work just fine. I'm going for a traditional "house" look, and I'm not going to go crazy modern in the design.



I went ahead and finished the outline of the house while I was at it too. The walls are generally done. I haven't decided on what room is what, or if I'll close up some rooms. I'll see how I feel once I have the roof up.

Weekend Update

A few things out of the way first. I've got a full up week full of episodes done thanks to the new house construction. Kind of a sidetrack inside "Man vs River", but very necessary and very fun. I first made the house in a random world I have generated, using wood and dirt. This was to make sure it worked, and didn't "dominate" the landscape as I have been worrying about.

The future of Minecraft is murky. I think that is one of the big draws to it. The future is every bit as open ended as the gameplay, allowing people to take the small glimpses of something great, and formulate their own Minecraft in their own minds.

My personal Minecraft view is something that includes extensive Biome work. I know Notch has said that Biomes follow a set of rules, but I call bunk on that because snow is showing up right next to tropical rainforests currently. But I'm fine with that for now. I have this vision of each biome taking up much larger amounts of space, and being very diverse. He has started adding seperate trees for the biomes, and I want seperate animals. A gorilla in the rainforests, a lion on the savannah, polar bears in the snow.

Further, and this is stretching it, I want at least 2 water biomes. Fresh water and oceanic.

I'd like to see what they call "rogue-like" dungeons instead of what we have now, which is random 10x10 room squares dotted about. I'd like to find doors that lead to long tunnels with treasure rooms, traps, and boss fights.

All of these "hopes" are based on things that are in game now. I think, as usual, I take things a little more serious than some people, and I think the same goes for Notch and Minecraft. I want fish in the water, we get very weird squids. I want different environments, we get snowy deserts.

The most dangerous thing to Minecraft is getting done. As in being a finished project. Because everyone has their own vision for it, and the majority will not see those hopes reflected in that product. I guess it is good Notch did what he did with the pricing, I see Minecraft making all its money in beta, and maybe even being forgotten at release.

S4 E4 A New Home part 1

The beach where the river will eventually meet the ocean is pretty far from the tower. The progress of the river is getting to where it is becoming less time efficient to work on the river so far from a stable home. I've always hated making temporary homes. If you remember to when I started the river, I lived for a long while in a tree house. I still have that tree house up, I debated on burning it down, but it is a reminder to me not to build quick, crappy shelter because I might get stuck in it for a week or more.



This is where the mouth of the River will be. The arrows show where the river will flow and eventually continue around the bin and toward the drowned quarry(that's what I'm calling that elbow that is mostly done in stone). To the left of the picture notice the trees and a sign.



The sign says Bearded Trees. I came up here a few days ago because I'm always re-evaluating my river course. The new change in the tree code means that there are some more "tropical" trees near water, sometimes the leaves grow directly to the ground. I thought they looked bearded and they seemed a neat landmark.

This is where my new home would be. I wanted to see how it would look in the landscape. This will not be an end all be all house, more of a cabin rental. I do not want to make a huge house here, so I tried out an outline.



I like it. I think I can do something nice with the area here, and it will not dominate the landscape. Now, despite what I said before... I made a temporary shelter. But I did it for a reason, and it is not going to last very long. I wanted to find out where I was to put my porch.



If you want to set it for a nice view of the sunset like this, you gotta be around at sunset. I'm feeling good about this home, I think I will enjoy it.

S4 E3 Man vs River: The MADNESS

Season 4 Man vs River

Episode 3: The MADNESS

I knew something was up when the chicken kept following me.

I went to the edge of my "back yard" to look at how my trees were doing. Now, I thought I could work with what I saw, but the chicken, he thought differently.



So I had to.



Actually, Minecraft can bring about something that isn't true OCD, but something like it. I wasn't happy. It took a while for those trees to grow, and I didn't like their position. I underestimated the length of the trees, and how much I would have to add to the cliff to hide them for what I wanted to do. So I made adjustments.



I dug much deeper downward, and a bit further into the side of the cliff.



Now I just had to wait for them to grow and see if round 2 was any better. While I was contemplating in the water, a creeper jumped out at me. For the next few days I stalked the creepers at daylight, collecting their valuable explosive innards.



Then I went back to the river once again. It was time to make my last push. I was now ready to start descending the mountains. The hard part, the deepest digging, was now over. With the help of TNT it would prove easier than the first half of the river.



TNT was set, and the path was chosen beyond the arch.



This looks like a mess, but believe me, 3 charges of TNT made things SO much easier. TNT eats through dirt like its nothing, and it breaks stone pretty well too. It felt like it took no time to get the arch area cleared.



Past the arch area took a little while longer, but it was so fast that I decided to make some dramatic naturalization in this area. A sloping cliff on the left, an overhanging rock formation on the right, as if the water eroded away the softer dirt beneath it. It looks neat in game.



This leg of the river went so smoothly, easier than the others, its revitalized me since the rest after this is easier. I'm getting farther away from my tower though... it is almost time to leave the Tower area and make a new home nearer the ocean.

here's a nice Before and After picture with very similar view points, I'm sure you can match up the upper features to see just how much work went into this area.



I think a new home will be the next episode! Thanks for reading and as always, comments get me posting more episodes more quickly.

Weekend Grab Bag

Look.

I know most of you are from the Minecraft forums, and I know my blog is nothing amazing on the "omg that's awesome" end of things. I'm not a builder really, I'm an adventurer. There are lots of places to get your builder kicks, and I'm sure you've seen plenty of neat creations.

I know a couple of you are from my facebook and have no idea there are people that aren't like me in Minecraft. You might read my blog because you are bored or because you are my friend, but there really is some amazing building going on in this game.

So this weekend I am adding images from Crafthub and Worth1000 of amazing buildings from Minecraft. I do not know how many of these are "pure" as in, no cheats, but even if there were cheats involved, there is some amazing architecture in here.



This is a log cabin from the "aesthetically pleasing log cabins" post on the Minecraft forums. What I like about this one is the landscaping that goes along with the cabin. The waterfall is a very nice touch. The cabin is absolutely massive, and inside there are lots of nice additions.



Shockingly this is not based on a real Japanese castle. It looks like it could be though. This is absolutely huge. It is not to scale, but that's a must if you want this kind of detail. The mountain rock that it is built on, and the massive walls surrounding it are amazing. There are many texture packs that make this kind of stuff easy, but this guy used the default textures, so he made the "look" all by hand.



This is what they call the Legendary Map, and for good reason. I have not seen any more impressive a city in game yet. You can now download this and walk around in it if you desire. The scope and scale of this is absolutely mystifying.



A classic bit of art recreated in Minecraft. An M.C. Escher staple, the stairs poster adorns many a college room dorm. Is this really an optical illusion inside minecraft? Not really, but this is an impressive recreation none-the-less


So there. Now you know how dull I am. I spend months carving a river through a mountain. I make a tower barely large enough to walk in lol. I do want to build more, but I feel like if I do a magnum opus in BETA, I'll be burned out by the time the game is released. Or I'm afraid if I create a big landscape, I'll ruin the feel of my map, which I have found I like much more than any other random generated map I've had generated since.

Either way, I do need to build a new home soon, I'm getting further away from my tower as I'm digging my river.

S4 E2 Man vs River: Make it Pretty

Looking further down my river I see that I've blown a path through a giant mountain, leaving a rather rocky face on one side. It does remind me of the sandstone cliffs on the southern side of China where they collect the swallows nests.



The one thing that is missing is foliage. Those cliffs always have vegetation growing on them, so I want that too so that it completes the look. I start cutting into the mountain for places I can plant things.



The idea here is to plant trees and let them grow on the side of the mountains here. Then after they grow, I will bury the trunks and sculpt the side above them to make it look like plants, not trees, have grown out of cracks in the side.



I want to get a good spread, after all, if its too much I can always trim the leaves before placing dirty around them, I just gotta hope that the trees do not get super mutant big like the one beside my tower.



I will have to wait a few days to see how all that grows in. Meanwhile I have the rest of the river to fight. Using a special tool in the last episode, I want to use more of it to clear the river now.



To get that much TNT, it means every morning I have to put up my valuable tools, grab a sword, some arrows and a bow, and actively hunt the bane of my existence. This also means I sometimes end up in precarious situations....



These guys don't read my blog, they don't want my autograph. They want to blow me up. Luckily I'm getting good at dispatching them... even when I'm left with only a torch to knock them down cliffs to their deaths.

So I go to the mouth of the river, which I haven't worked on in months. Here's a good before shot, notice the step like formation at the top of the screen for reference. The holes are what I dug for the explosives.



And, taking note of the steps like I said before, you can see the aftermath here.



Thanks for reading! leave a comment if you like what you read, I know there are several of you out there, probably not this far along yet, but I appreciate comments, they keep me posting more than the statistics page ever could.

Season 4 Man vs River: Episode 1

Season 4 Man vs River

Episode One : The other side

Ok, I'm out of the caves and into the light. This river has got to be done, its my one project in this Minecraft world that I have to get done.

You've seen what I did before on one side of the opening of the river. This is a before and after showing the side right after I blasted the river through, and now how it looks now with my tower.



What I haven't been showing is the other side, what I see outside my doorstep.



Not very nice looking, right? Well I'm gonna fix that. I start very simply by following the contour of the land around it to make a nice gradient.



But I get impatient and realize I've been killing a lot of creepers lately, and all my gunpowder(now called sulphur) is piling up near my tower. So I grab it and set about my scheme.



I dig into the mountain.



I expertly set my explosives near sources of fire... ok that looks bad but its not bad in minecraft.



The explosives blow large holes into the hill, making it much easier to just clear the land. I fully intended to continue re-planting dirt along the edge to make a nice hill, but then I liked the look of the exposed rocks. Remember in Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring where the 2 Argos are? The big statues they pass near the end? Right beside the statues is a quarry where the artisans obviously got their material for the statues.

So I thought it would be cool to have an old exposed quarry near my tower to be sort of "the source" of the building material for it.



Comments

I want to start adding that I would appreciate comments. I still get 30-50 views a day even when I'm less active. I would really be encouraged by people leaving comments.