I’m looking forward to being able to set a bed as a spawn point.
I’m not so much. If a bed were just a spawn-point or just a moon-repellent, I’d be okay with it, but conflating those purposes makes it less appealing.
Consider a sequential game. This isn’t the typical way to play it, but I’m absolutely enamored of the concept. The big concept behind Chain World was that once you died, you went back to the original spawn point, and the next person to play would have to rediscover all that you had created. If a bed is used and you can’t reset the spawn point to the original location, then that rediscovery can’t happen and that makes me very sad.
It also removes a lot of the danger inherent in the current game. If you go a long way off from the spawn point, you have to be very careful about dying, because it can mean a long trek back. If you spawn at a nearby bed, meh. It makes survival too easy.
For everyone’s information, version 1.4 just came out. New features include wolves and changing your spawn point.
Also, random crashes every few minutes.
I had a dog. Then it crashed, and not only did I no longer have a dog but that world file was completely hosed.
Back up your worlds before updating.
Notch wasn’t able to fix Achievements and Stats in time for this update. He said they will likely be included in the next. Hopefully he can get it done some time next week.
If only ThinkGeek could make a real USB Nether Portal
I put in Pi (copied from Wikipedia) up to about as many digits as the seed field could hold (something like 3.1415926535897932384626433832795, converted to 1675877255 by the game) and got some floating islands near a very large natural arch to the south of the spawn.
The standard 3.1415927 (converts to -1347356516) yields an island chain with a very tall and narrow natural arch northwest of the spawn. This thing is shaped like a flying buttress and dwarfs the tree just south of it! I’m thinking of playing that map and establishing a glass tower inside the arch.
Also tried copying a bunch of digits for e (2.71828182845904523536028747, converts to 1873471693) and got a nice place for a tree house just west of the spawn point, a bit further west of that is an interesting “Y”-shaped natural arch with a borehole at one end. South of the “Y” arch is a pillar that looks remarkably like the top of the Chrysler building. All it needs is a bunch of gold or diamond blocks on the façade.
Try “gargamel” make sure it’s all in lower case. You spawn underground but can easily dig out. Once you get out the area is pretty rich with coal and trees.
If they ever advertise on TV I wonder if this would fly.
I have a huge file. I built my home to scale. Then built the Taco Bell, A local Bar, the gas station and then the Dairy Queen. THey are all connected by roads with curbs.
Then I wanted to see how high a building I could construct. I built it through the clouds a floor at a time.
Now I an almost done with Tiger Stadium. The center field bleachers are blue so I am mining for the blue stuff. It is not common so it is taking some time.
You could use the Lapis to dye wool and then make the seats from that. Maybe not realistic, but extra comfy!
Breathing new life into this thread…
Before getting Minecraft, I watched a few YouTube videos and read most of the relevant threads on this board. Last night I bought and plunged right in. My first goal is to build a glass skyscraper (I think someone else in this thread was doing the same thing).
So I paid for the game and plunged in. After dying the first night and spending the subsequent three nights in a 2x2x1 tomb I cut for myself in the rockface (the growling and scratching of the monsters right on the other side of the wall was scary as shit!), I finally came upon some much-needed coal. Mining the coal ended up creating a nice little nook which I decided to carve out as my permanent shelter. I stumbled upon the recipes for rock tools, a bow, leather armor and boots, glass, swords, and pressure plates.
I then decided to turn my little shelter into the entrance of a mine. I carefully carved out a staircase into the mountain, digging deeper and deeper and hitting iron. I needed to cheat and look up how to smelt, thereby creating iron tools and armor. I then attacked those gold and redstone deposits I ran into. I’m not sure what to do with the gold yet, but that’ll be my task for today.
I’m having a total blast playing this game. I’m on vacation at Rehoboth Beach next week, and I see myself playing a LOT of Minecraft. I’ll probably get started on that skyscraper this weekend.
I sincerely hope Notch decides to sell his source code in the future. I can see a ton of innovative games coming from this one sandbox.
Question: How far out will I be able to see redstone torches? I’m planning on creating a lighthouse of sorts since my spawn point isn’t close to my shelter.
Jack ‘o’ lanterns have better light. Glowstone blocks have better yet. Redstone torches aren’t all that great for light.
Huh. Then why does everyone say to use redstone torches as exit beacons?
Possibly because you can set up circuitry to make them flash on and off? Redstone torches themselves barely give off any light. IIRC, they’re not even bright enough to keep hostile mobs from spawning one square away.
I personally have quit playing the game (might pick it back up if any of the updates look interesting). However, I’ve become a religious devotee of a particular YouTube guy’s “Let’s Play” series, and watch each one when it comes out. The guy specializes in inventing cool things in minecraft, and his episodes usually deal with his gadgets. Etho’s Lab. (He’s doing two other “Let’s Play” series for two other less interesting games, so ignore those.)
Use them as beacons separate from the general-illumination torches. You wouldn’t use an EXIT sign to light up a room, right?
Last time I played Minecraft I used regular torch placement as a guide back to the entrance; I’d always place torches on my right, so to leave the cavern I’d turn so the torches are to my left. The more complex caverns may not make that so easy, though, with multi-level rooms, various passages crossing over each other and intersecting, and so forth.
Placing torches instead for best illumination and setting up redstone torches in addition to lead a path back to the entrance is way simpler.
Yeah, I’ve read all of the approaches to not getting lost. In my experience, they’re pretty much useless in practice. If I come to a fork in the road, I put a single torch on the ground in the branch I came from. All other torches are on the wall. It’s only occasionally useful.
Good point.
Question: Should I keep trying to play the game without the wiki, or is that stupid? I’d like to be able to discover all the crafting recipes myself, but I don’t know if that’s realistic.
As more things get added, recipes get less and less intuitive. Anyone who figured out the recipe for Powered Rails through T&E has got far more patience than I. I’ve used the Wiki since day one.
I really wish we could make our own recipes using some sort of editor. I’d also like to be able to set the “rules” for my games (like no Spiders, for example).
I’ve had a lot of fun recently playing with the random seed function when making a game. My username, WasabiBomb, generates a world that has a large waterfall flowing out of a cave high up on a cliff. The most… interesting seed I’ve used, though, was 3666440496532277820 . Try it.