# Anyone playing Minecraft anymore? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [February 13, 2012, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761 "2012-02-13T23:32:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_of_the_Lake)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/21 "2012-02-15T19:53:24Z")
> [@wheresgeorge04](#): > > Meanwhile, I have a small wheat and beef farm going nicely… > > Joe Nice! What farming has kept me alive many a time. 🙂 > [@fluiddruid](#): > > No, that’s a classic “dungeon” room. Mossy blocks, spawner, one or more chests was the basic formula. There are also larger underground structures that are multi-room, but those were added to the game more recently. > > Dungeons are useful for creating monster-killing machines for farming items. I always note the location carefully (usually I put up signs to find it again, if difficult). This is really smart. _sheepish_ I’ve been walling those rooms off after I loot the chest/mine the mossy blocks so that the monsters stop coming after me. Does anyone have any advice for Ghasts? I’ve tried shooting them with arrows, but I never seem to actually \*hit \*them. ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/22 "2012-02-15T20:32:57Z")
> [@Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](#): > > _sheepish_ I’ve been walling those rooms off after I loot the chest/mine the mossy blocks so that the monsters stop coming after me. You can also put a torch in each of the cardinal squares surrounding the monster generator block- the monsters won’t spawn. ---
**Author:** ![Phatlewt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a698b9/32.png) [@Phatlewt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phatlewt)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/23 "2012-02-15T20:36:55Z")
I still play, although I’ve been doing creative mode lately. I have lost the love to spend dozens of hours mining in order to build anything of consequence. Sounds like everyone here plays Survival only? If I may [Pimp my recent creations…](http://www.planetminecraft.com/member/wedgenet/) ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/24 "2012-02-15T21:59:55Z")
> [@Phatlewt](#): > > I still play, although I’ve been doing creative mode lately. I have lost the love to spend dozens of hours mining in order to build anything of consequence. Sounds like everyone here plays Survival only? In my own case, I really mostly like to build for practical purposes, plus fun things (like watercoasters and stuff like that). Occasional I’ll build something more whimsical but the idea of megaprojects doesn’t appeal to me too much. I just like to tame the world and explore, mostly. ---
**Author:** ![Phatlewt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a698b9/32.png) [@Phatlewt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phatlewt)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/25 "2012-02-15T23:17:22Z")
> [@fluiddruid](#): > > In my own case, I really mostly like to build for practical purposes, plus fun things (like watercoasters and stuff like that). Occasional I’ll build something more whimsical but the idea of megaprojects doesn’t appeal to me too much. I just like to tame the world and explore, mostly. One of the reasons Minecraft is such a great game. There’s a lot to do and no right way to play. ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_of_the_Lake)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/26 "2012-02-16T00:07:47Z")
> [@Lightnin](#): > > You can also put a torch in each of the cardinal squares surrounding the monster generator block- the monsters won’t spawn. Thanks for the tip! I’m going to start doing this, as even after walling them away, the sound of monsters…somewhere nearby…can make a mine seem more threatening. > [@fluiddruid](#): > > In my own case, I really mostly like to build for practical purposes, plus fun things (like watercoasters and stuff like that). Occasional I’ll build something more whimsical but the idea of megaprojects doesn’t appeal to me too much. I just like to tame the world and explore, mostly. I’m in the same boat. 🙂 I just ‘you tubed’ watercoasters, they do look fun. I had tried to make a water moat around my house, but got tired of logging buckets. > [@Phatlewt](#): > > If I may [Pimp my recent creations…](http://www.planetminecraft.com/member/wedgenet/) Nice work by the way, I quite liked the theater. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/27 "2012-02-16T21:31:52Z")
Lost my old 404 map somehow so I made a new one. The 404 seed no longer produces the falling gravel pit but does yield a flooding shaft (ravine?) with different terrain about where the pit would be. Still wanted a falling gravel pit so I temporarily replaced the current minecraft.jar with an old one. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/28 "2012-02-16T21:34:26Z")
> [@Phatlewt](#): > > I still play, although I’ve been doing creative mode lately. I have lost the love to spend dozens of hours mining in order to build anything of consequence. Sounds like everyone here plays Survival only? There was no Creative mode when I was playing previously. I like to play Survival but on Peaceful until I’ve built a home base that I can defend. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/29 "2012-02-16T22:21:02Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > Lost my old 404 map somehow so I made a new one. The 404 seed no longer produces the falling gravel pit but does yield a flooding shaft (ravine?) with different terrain about where the pit would be. > > Still wanted a falling gravel pit so I temporarily replaced the current minecraft.jar with an old one. Would you miss out on some of the newer spawning things like mushroom biomes and stuff, then? That’d be my concern. Playing old maps is a bit dodgy in some regards. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/30 "2012-02-16T22:25:33Z")
> [@Phatlewt](#): > > One of the reasons Minecraft is such a great game. There’s a lot to do and no right way to play. Yeah, exactly. I like to explore, but mostly because I like to get all available resources together and then play around. Right now, on my new map, I’ve been setting up a far-above-ground farm with breeding populations of cows, pigs, chickens, and sheep, plus of course wheat, added cactus and sugarcane and just starting a pumpkin patch also. I’ve been playing a lot with the sound off for various reasons which makes mining a bit more dangerous and difficult (since it’s significantly harder to find caverns without being able to hear moaning monsters and ambience), but I have found diamonds and started enchanting stuff, which is a bit fun. Wish I could find a dungeon with a spawner though, need more experience and would like a faster way of getting it. I’d like to find a mushroom biome. Since maps aren’t so useful over huge distances, I also have been making forays out – I tend to navigate by the sun and leave large lit landmarks pointing the way back home. Sort of like those flaming towers in Lord of the Rings, you can just see the next one in the chain. 🙂 Makes it easier to get home without ‘cheating’ through coordinates, though I do use them if utterly lost. I don’t think there’s much else I’m missing that I’m likely to find above ground, except snow. Also, btw, lilypads breaking boats?! Makes boat travel far less convenient and useful. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2012, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/31 "2012-02-16T22:46:53Z")
> [@fluiddruid](#): > > Would you miss out on some of the newer spawning things like mushroom biomes and stuff, then? That’d be my concern. Playing old maps is a bit dodgy in some regards. Might be just a matter of wandering far enough to load another chunk. Haven’t really started playing again but I’ll explore an old map (with the current minecraft.jar in place) and report back. ETA: Yep. Wandered a bit on the Beta version of 404 and found a village. ---
**Author:** ![Yorikke](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yorikke/32/4335_2.png) [@Yorikke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorikke)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2012, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/32 "2012-02-17T01:46:23Z")
I added a minimap mod - makes the game so very much less stressful to be able to navigate by map and waypoints. Joe ---
**Author:** ![Critical1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/3e96dc/32.png) [@Critical1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Critical1)\ **Post date:** [February 18, 2012, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/33 "2012-02-18T18:44:43Z")
Shazbot is a great seed, behind you very close is a small cave opening (hidden in some trees) with a skeleton spawner right inside, in front of you is a caved in area with a massive chasm system that goes out into the ocean ( I think I found over 9 places you could swim to the surface from within the chasm) even further behind your spawn is a town as well. near the town there is a cave with a spider spawn, in the chasm there are at least 3 zombie spawns. including one not far at all. its a pretty incredible map, if laying down mine tracks wasnt so tedious I would make a video with the tracks going in and out of the chasm system and the ocean. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/34 "2012-02-22T01:31:39Z")
I often play for a few minutes in the evening with my three-year-old sitting on my lap (it’s her reward for taking a nap in the afternoon). [It’s infected her storytelling.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CgUZp38bV7Q&feature=youtu.be) ---
**Author:** ![Agent\_Foxtrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc29f/32.png) [@Agent\_Foxtrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agent_Foxtrot)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/35 "2012-02-22T18:04:08Z")
I still play and played for several hours last night. My current world is by far my greatest success: I set out to build a fortress in the Nether, and it’s been a roaring success. My fortress is enclosed in a 16x16 perfect _circle_ made of pure obsidian five meters (blocks) high. Inside, behind several small utility buildings lining the main thoroughfare, a chicken pen, and a melon farm, lies my castle… several rooms sporting a portal, a library with enchantment table, dining hall, kitchen, three fireplaces, a hidden escape passage, and on top, an ominous obsidian tower that you must use a fully functional _piston elevator_ to enter. The tower contains four floors, all glass. Right now I’m working on a dungeon and prison under the castle. I built this all in Survival Mode from scratch while fending off Ghast onslaughts. I can be very easily swayed to post pictures if people are interested. 🙂 I don’t have many people I can geek with about Minecraft. Now that my fortress is almost complete, I intend to start working on my next goal: Finding a Nether stronghold so I can get a blaze rod and make potions. After that, my ultimate goal is within reach: enchant a suit of armor, sword, and bow, then travel to the End to take on the Ender Dragon. I’ve basically turned Minecraft into a free-form, sandbox RPG. And I’m _loving_ it. P.S. - Can someone please direct me to a simple, step-by-step guide to adding mods to Minecraft on a Mac? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/36 "2012-02-23T20:38:46Z")
I quit playing when it got so you can’t mine anymore without massive ravine systems (and their water and lava) interfering. ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_of_the_Lake)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/37 "2012-02-23T22:45:11Z")
> [@Agent\_Foxtrot](#): > > I can be very easily swayed to post pictures if people are interested. 🙂 I don’t have many people I can geek with about Minecraft. I would love to see pictures of this! > [@wonderlust](#): > > I quit playing when it got so you can’t mine anymore without massive ravine systems (and their water and lava) interfering. I understand the feeling. I’ve abandoned mines that were just too sprawling for me. I especially hate mines that open up into these monstrous spaces that have openings to levels up and down and left and right so mobs can come at your from many directions at once and it’s all huge and twisty and wrapped in on itself. I’m getting better at it though. 🙂 I tend to block up water in caves, right at the spout point. For falling lava, I mainly try to build a little ‘box’ around the base to keep it from interfering too much, though if you remember to have a bucket of water (I have them, but don’t always remember to bring them), you can block it/poor water on it and completely get rid of the lava. ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/38 "2012-02-23T23:34:21Z")
You’re tempting me. I haven’t played since the potions and breeding came out, and I’m losing interest in Rift. I switched computers since I played it last. Does anyone know which files I need to retrieve in order to put it on my new computer? ---
**Author:** ![wonderlust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wonderlust/32/7237_2.png) [@wonderlust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wonderlust)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/39 "2012-02-23T23:50:07Z")
Sorry, looked up that info myself. I’m going to try playing it again. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e19adc/32.png) [@Lady\_of\_the\_Lake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lady_of_the_Lake)\ **Post date:** [February 24, 2012, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761/40 "2012-02-24T00:10:55Z")
> [@wonderlust](#): > > You’re tempting me. I haven’t played since the potions and breeding came out, and I’m losing interest in Rift. > > I switched computers since I played it last. Does anyone know which files I need to retrieve in order to put it on my new computer? Tthe classic version is still free, the new, up to date version is $29, both are [here](http://www.minecraft.net/). I should share honestly that I’m currently in a horrible Ravine before I convince you to play again. 😉 Granted I’m going to tackle the thing, I’ve got a train track from my home running here and have been systematically working away at it, but yeah [Here it is](http://www.flickr.com/photos/57672259@N02/6924345967/in/photostream/lightbox/). I’ve been going around water bucketing the lava-falls, my next one is the one right in front. I’ve learned it works better to mine out the block directly over the block of lava that starts the lava-fall - then pour your water bucket in that space. It takes out everything and follows it down to make oblivion blocks down on the ground. I learned this after doing it wrong several times and washing myself away. 😉 [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-playing-minecraft-anymore/612761.md?page=3)