Minecraft, awesome one man game project

[James]

So, I decided I hate living in the dark. So I created an elevated tree farm so I can harvest wood quickly and efficiently. I also cleaned out most of the beach surrounding my house, and kept the water back with a wall. (Good use for cobblestone! ) dug out the mountain side I was holed up in, and created a glass house. I'm not done yet, it's all enclosed, but I've decided I want a lava tube "frame" for the house enclosed in glass. I got one column done before I had to quit this morning.

First lava column piece of the "frame". (Also note the lava floating tube light.)



Here's the tree farm.


While rushing to finish this, I was an idiot and had my bucket of lava in hand when I went to close my door. Covered myself in lava, killing me and burnt up several diamond pieces of equipment.

[Kamakazie]

While rushing to finish this, I was an idiot and had my bucket of lava in hand when I went to close my door. Covered myself in lava, killing me and burnt up several diamond pieces of equipment.

Oh you poor bastard, I am so sorry.

[Adisharr]

I think they have to be placed.
Not sure though. I haven't been following it.

Looks like I have some work to do then

[Wurm]

Looks like I have some work to do then

Still think the whole idea sucks dead donkey... but yeah it looks like I have a bunch of torches to make before Notch ruins the game.

[linoleum]

Speaking of torches: when it says mobs don't spawn "in the dark", are there any specifics to that which anyone knows? For example, if I place a torch (above ground), how far will it "protect" (or I guess more specifically, how close do torches have to be together to consider an area "lit")?

Basically I'm trying to light up a large area and I'm not sure how many torches to use. For the most part I've just been placing randomly in the darker looking spots, but I did see one spider in the area so I'm not convinced that I put in enough....

[James]

Speaking of torches: when it says mobs don't spawn "in the dark", are there any specifics to that which anyone knows? For example, if I place a torch (above ground), how far will it "protect" (or I guess more specifically, how close do torches have to be together to consider an area "lit")?

Basically I'm trying to light up a large area and I'm not sure how many torches to use. For the most part I've just been placing randomly in the darker looking spots, but I did see one spider in the area so I'm not convinced that I put in enough....

Don't be too upset about that. I had a spider recently generate inside my house. And I have torches everywhere. I would imagine it's a glitch.

[monroeski]

I really like a new level I made recently. Spawned on the beach, some decent mountains around, and a cave I found very early is VERY deep and has a big waterfall, so I can almost drop straight from sea level to the bedrock in about a second and a half by riding the fall.

Don't be too upset about that. I had a spider recently generate inside my house. And I have torches everywhere. I would imagine it's a glitch.

Lord knows the game has a few bugs in it, but are you positive that it actually spawned in there and didn't just spawn elsewhere then wander in? I learned the hard way that that can happen. Now I make liberal use of lava moats. Torches only keep things from spawning, they don't keep them away completely.

I think they have to be placed.
Not sure though. I haven't been following it.

Apparently every item in the game has a numerical ID to say what it is; for example, torches are 50. Some people think that the best way Notch would have to update is to simply change the ID of torches and lanterns (in other words, lanterns would now be 50 and torches would be 280 something), which would have the result that ALL torches, whether placed, in inventory, or in a chest, would change.

Either way, I don't really care. I'm likely to re-roll an entirely new map when the update comes anyway to take better advantage of the new stuff. He has said you won't have to make a new world to have biomes, for instance, but if you use a world you had made previously you'll have to go all the way to the edge of your "old" map, which would cause a new area to generate with all the new stuff. I don't really want to have to cover that large of a distance to take care of some of the new stuff.

[Kamakazie]

Lord knows the game has a few bugs in it, but are you positive that it actually spawned in there and didn't just spawn elsewhere then wander in? I learned the hard way that that can happen. Now I make liberal use of lava moats. Torches only keep things from spawning, they don't keep them away completely.

Indeed, spiders in particular are sneaky bastards. They can actually squeeze through an area just one block tall/wide.

[James]

Weird.

But since I was still digging my stairway, and the doors on my house were closed, I would have to guess that "spawned inside" was the only way for it to get there. There weren't any holes in my house, plus it was protected by a lava moat. :shrug:

*Edit: I've recently added a 2nd story to my house. All glass floor to keep it "open" feeling. I haven't been back down the staircase in awhile. Been on the beach harvesting sand and building my retaining wall for the ocean.

[linoleum]

Lord knows the game has a few bugs in it, but are you positive that it actually spawned in there and didn't just spawn elsewhere then wander in?

This was an area enclosed by walls. I still wouldn't put it past a spider to have jumped the wall somehow, but I also found a zombie or two in there a little later. A few more torches and I haven't seen any foes since (but plenty of farm animals).

My latest idea was to build a small 3x3 room (height = 5, so nothing could get on top either) directly after spawning directly on the spawn point. This way I would always return to a safe area when I died (and the room has a chest and workbench inside). I hated having to always run unequipped from the spawn point back to my base (or to the place where I died) in my previous world. Then I made an outer wall around the room to give me a general safe area (uncovered, but lit with torches) and built my entrance to mine inside that area. Once I'd mined enough, I built an outer-outer-wall, and then progressed from there, continuing to wall off segments + light them up. This way my whole area is relatively safe, even at night, and yet still big enough for growing some trees (I space them out pretty far so the leaves don't create too much darkness underneath (another problem I had, first try)) and big enough for a ton of animals to spawn inside.

Since trees supposedly only need free space above + light, my latest experiment was to build a 5-deep 1x1 hole, knock out one extra block at the bottom for a torch, and then plant the tree at the bottom of the hole, in the hopes that it would just grow up as a solid 5-tall log with no leaves. So far (after many days) it's still a seedling though.

Also speaking of trees, I had one grow freakishly big...it sprang up overnight and I ended up getting 48 logs off of it (usually I get about 4-6 per tree).

[monroeski]

Once I realized that every time you die you respawn at the same spot, I've started marking the spawn point and building my home base around it. Literally the first thing I do when I start a world is dig an X right where I'm standing, then take the pieces I dug up to make a 4 tall tower on the exact spot. That way after I've run around and picked up logs and such I know exactly where to return to to start my base during the first night.

[Kamakazie]

Once I realized that every time you die you respawn at the same spot, I've started marking the spawn point and building my home base around it. Literally the first thing I do when I start a world is dig an X right where I'm standing, then take the pieces I dug up to make a 4 tall tower on the exact spot. That way after I've run around and picked up logs and such I know exactly where to return to to start my base during the first night.

You can build a compass that points to your spawn point.

I made my base away from the spawn point, so I have a huge lit tower and I leave breadcrumb torches to mark my way.

[taggart6]

So Kama, will you be making a server? Assuming Mp gets fixed, we need a brand new server that every one can start from scratch.

[Kamakazie]

So Kama, will you be making a server? Assuming Mp gets fixed, we need a brand new server that every one can start from scratch.

I have no problem hosting a server as long as my computer is running, but that would mean the server would be down 10 hours per day, every weekday.

[taggart6]

I have no problem hosting a server as long as my computer is running, but that would mean the server would be down 10 hours per day, every weekday.

...dang...

Gotta find a dedicated server.