Minecraft: Nether Update

The Game Room
#1

My kids have been begging for Minecraft, and with school “out”, I relented and got it for them. And good timing too, a new update drops this week.

I’ve been playing along with them (not quite this bad). We have a family server to play on. I could turn on cheats to give myself stuff, but I want to play it straight. Any suggestions for a newbie? Sure, I can google, but I turn to you for sage advice.

With the update, I’m hoping some experienced players will be around. The Nether Update is supposed to add a bunch of stuff to the Nether. Go figure.

#2

If you have gone to the Nether in your current game, you might end up having a tough time finding some of the new blocks/biomes, so it might be best to start a new game. I’m not sure how you have your server setup, but if you have it on a separate server, you might want to run two servers. You would just have to run the server on a new port. That way you could have the best of both worlds.

However, if you have not gone to the nether on the old server, you can just keep that game.

#3

Does posting subscribe me to a topic, like in the old forum?

Anyway, I’ve been playing a lot of Minecraft recently, on someone else’s shared server. I’ve been cheating by looking stuff up in the wiki.
https://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Minecraft_Wiki

#4

:slight_smile: Yeah you should bookmark the wiki. You will need it for a lot of stuff. The game is getting better with in-game help. When I started, there was not formulas for creating things in the game. You had to look it up on the wiki. But learning the Redstone actions is still a bit tough.

#5

I’m not sure, but you can switch a thread from “Normal” to “Watching” to get notifications.

#6

The bottom of the page says “You will see a count of new replies because you posted a reply to this topic.”

That’s plenty. I don’t want my devices binging at me. (In fact, I told my phone to block discourse from offering notifications, because I couldn’t figure out how to turn them all off.)

#7

I suggest you start the game allowing cheats even though you may not intend to use them. Minecraft certainly has it’s moments that you have proven to yourself that you can do something, but it’s just now wasting a lot of time doing that something. Even if you don’t allow cheats there still is a way to enable them per session, but it’s annoying to do so every time. After a while wanting to rush it a bit I put on ‘keepinventory’ which allows me to keep my items if I die. Yes less realistic, and does change gameplay (as you can adventure as much as you want, die be back home but with all the loot), but makes it less prone to having to restart from zero, or old equipment - having to go back to mining which gets old fast. In that I would not use that cheat till you experience such a setback, as it is part of the gameplay, then decide if you want to go though that again.

#8

Looks like the Nether update is out. I just downloaded the 1.16 server version and loaded the game. Will have to check out the nether shortly. One thing to remember, always wear some gold to the nether. Otherwise the Piglins are automatically hostile. By wearing gold, they become neutral.

#9

Oooh, I wonder if they guy whose server I use has uploaded it, yet. I know he plans to. Should be interesting. (Not that I’ve gotten far enough along in the game to spend much time in the nether…)

#10

If you would like to try, I do have it running on a server. Pm me, and I will try to make sure it is open.

#11

Besides the 2 piglins I ran into to, put on a gold helmet and traded for a block of crying obsidian, I have seen no difference in my nether. I went on a search for the new bioms and couldn’t find any, and that was also with flying around with fireworks powered Elytra. Nor did I see that lave sea roaming ridable creature. I also did see 2 ghasts, which should not spawn in the nether wastelands. and went to where they were and…nothing.

With that said this was a seed that I’ve been playing for quite some time and I use the nether as a shortcut. When I’m at the point of able to explore I will usually chose a compass direction away from spawn and keep moving away in a straight line as much as practical. When I fill up I will build a base there, explore the map, once complete make a portal and go back via the nether (and chose another direction). Thus my nether is well explored and then nether roadways are constructed to help make travel faster.

I will either need to travel very far or start a new game, but it’s hard to go back to nothing once I achieved so much, and giving up my hard won Elytra will be hard to do.

#12

Wow Nice. I started a new game for this reason. Since my last game had a lot of nether explored, I just thought I would start over. I don’t even have enough gold to head to the nether and be safe right now. Hopefully tonight. Oh and this game was started PRE-Release so id should be a nice clean world for the nether update. Not sure I like the this world yet, will just have to wait and see.

#13

This is what we ended up doing. We talked it over, so we’d all be happy. I restarted with a fresh seed. There’s no cheats except for one: the village nearest the center has an infinite diamond block—mine it and it reappears. We wanted to be able to get to the Nether quickly, but not have things be too easy.

Kids are still trying to find lava to make obsidian. I’m building a nice cottage on the edge of town near my mine.

Any advice on not getting lost? It’s very easy to get lost underground, especially with cave ins. I’ve taken to placing torches facing away from home (so that if you go toward the torches you see, you’ll be going home).

#14

What I use for not getting lost is:

1- Use the f3 command to get the coordinates of bases and portals (or whatever you want to note), or at least take a screenshot or smartphone pict of it. This is if all else fails and also helps constructing nether highways. Also note that the coordinates don’t follow the standard +/- convention.

2 - In caves I place torches on the right hand wall, which allows a retreat with torches on the left. I also use 3 on the floor to signify a section that was totally searched and not needed to revisit and 3 on the wall to indicate a tricky section where it may be difficult to find a passage.

3 - In the nether I like to use cobblestone to mark my path, and those other useless stone blocks, but will use anything contrasting to do this. If I’m out stacking Netherite will work in a pinch. Sometimes I will use torches if it’s a path I’m not sure I’m keeping (as the are easy to remove). Lately I have found the occasional use of torches along with cobblestone helpful since they can be seen from a far distance very easily. Before the update I have also found it very worth it to build nether highways, meaning straight paths with minimal and gradual elevations changes that only follow the natural terrain when it’s a major advantage in construction. But one really needs the coordinates to know where they are going. IDK if that’s still a good plan with the nether update.

4 - Use the compass, move at 3 o’clock, come back at 9 o’clock.

5 - Build a tall pillar at my bases, place a campfire on top, burning nethererack or torches. Jump down into water to get back down (or jump to death if bed is nearby and you can recollect your gear).

6 - You can use the direction of the sun/moon but that’s sort of a last resort for me.

7 - In caves if that lost, I enjoy the lost, don’t worry about route finding and make it free explore and I just dig a stairs up when I’m done.

#15

So I went to log in today, and there was already and update. Had to re-download the server. Oh well, finally got some gold so will be working on the nether tomorrow.

#16

I decided to start a new map, got to the nether and made a bridge to a Crimson Forest (a very small part was on my side of that bridge, but most was over there). Those hogs are pretty bad ass (though I’m in iron gear with a gold hat, not the enchanted diamond which I was used to). I did get some nether wood and some other plant like stuff, however not sure if I’m loving the new nether as it really only seems like I still just need it for netherwart, blaze rods and perhaps some magna cream (and the ability to use the nether for worm hole travel). While it’s cool and all, like many minecraft biomes, I would really like a unique reason to visit them.

So with that initial finding the new biome out of the way, and no more elytra for a bit till I get to the end, I am trying to learn how to ride a horse.

#17

Working on the Iron Golem/Villager Trading building. Up to 3 Golems now. Still got 2 sides to go. Time for the Iron to FLOW!!!

#18

Yay! :slight_smile:

#19

I’ve turned my cottage into a walled compound, using cobblestones from a machine with lava dripping into water. I added some fencing jutting over the edge of the wall to keep the spiders out. (The world is such an unsafe place.)

Oh, is it possible to get flint from gravel that’s already been dug? That is, can I dig gravel, collect the blocks, place them, then dig again until I get flint?

Interesting. How do you kill the golems without the villagers getting upset?

#20

Yes you can place and mine and you can get Flint.

Lava.

Mine is not a small Iron farm, it takes a long time to build. However it will generate more Iron than you can deal with. The other bonus is you will end up with many villagers that you can trade with. PM me if you want to come see it.