Located 380 meters away from the village that housed me for so long (we'll just call it Yusaria Village), and about 230 from a new fledgling village, is my new base of operations. I spent a couple in-game days looking for just the right location and, after traveling north of Yusaria Village I found a promising piece of land. Although surrounded by hills, mountains and interesting rock formations, the land itself was relatively flat and suitable for construction. I decided it would be the best place to begin.
First things first, I dug a temporary home into the ground. After chopping down birch and normal trees I lit the forest up with flint and steel to make some nice room for building. That done I next began laying down the foundation of the house, a cobblestone rectangle. This project is where all that money saved up from trading with the villagers came in handy: lacking in resources I just teleported and got what I needed.
Knowing that variety is one of the keys to pleasant-looking houses, I attempted to utilize multiple blocks. Cobblestone was used for the foundations and sides; glass windows were used all around the house with birch on either side; planks filled up the space not used by the others. For my roof, I made a pointed rooftop of plank and cobble. After moving my bed, workbench, furnace, and double chest out of the hole in the ground, I placed torches inside the house and had my base ready to go!
Night fell and I slept on my secure bed. Woke up and, knowing that Creepers were around, I rushed out the door. To my left one of those green freaks was staring me down! Despite my attempt to run away, I was too slow and the monster exploded - taking out the left half of my building's front side! I called it a certain name and collected some wood to rebuild. Luckily there were extra glass and wood in my chest. This showed me that the inside of my building may be safe, but certainly not the outside. I needed fences.
Following that, I used up probably a good couple hundred sticks making a fence perimeter around my house, at least 3 blocks from it. This took a while and afterward, I placed torches on the fence and my house. Off to sleep and success, no monsters inside the perimeter. There were, however, about 3 Creepers up against the fence, seeing me from a distance. I proceeded to spam them with arrows until all were dead, and then another Creeper hopping behind a ledge that was a bit too tall for it. I went outside the fence perimeter, reclaimed unused arrows, and picked up the gunpowder.
At this point, I'm starting to feel inspired to be creative with what I make, courtesy of
Etho. Having a three-block-wide infinite water pool I try setting up a stream from it to a lava lake very close to my house (my fencing is partially placed on dirt a few blocks above the lava, but safely out of danger). The problem is, I cannot get the streams short enough or have the lava come from the proper place to have it function. At best I end up with a crude cobble generator and give up.
One of my ideas for my final base is to have an underground area with double chests lining the walls. I begin digging five blocks down under my floor, placing ladders, and dig out a sort of basement. Currently I have three sections 6 blocks long by 3 blocks wide by 5 blocks tall. These are going to eventually have four double chests and a workbench apiece. Right now only one is done and most of the chests are in use, holding distinct item categories like mob drops or wood-related items.
In order to make my house even better looking I replace most of the floor with white wool. I considered coloring it but don't have sufficient dyes. The blocks around the hatch I use to get into the basement are cobble. There is also the infinite water source, and the blocks around that are still grass so if I ever wanted a miniature farm in my building it could work.
Time to explore! Although one of my wolves died when it walked into a burning tree, I still had my second wolf, Aquinas II. There is an opening to a deep tunnel system at the shore nearest my house with iron in it. I claim some of the iron and decide to conquer the tunnels. According to Minutor I have at least one dungeon not very far below my house. And when I walk around I can hear zombies very loud and very clear so I would say it's a zombie spawner. Stocking up on torches and taking Aquinas with, I head back and make a gravel pillar. We're going in. No sooner do I get within range than a zombie and skeleton appear. I pillar up to hopefully get out of shooting range because I had stupidly neglected to put my bow in the hotbar. Aquinas even more stupidly does a jump off the edge of the opening and falls to his death. Hardly a shame. The skeleton lands a good shot and I somehow fall off the pillar and into the fray! I decimate the skeleton and zombie with arrows. Then in a hole nearby, another skeleton shoots at me. I kill it, too, then collect all my arrows.
Briefly exploring and lighting up the immediate area I see three possible tunnel entrances. Plus there is a deep hole in the ground to another. I gravel up what seems to be the most probable tunnel complex entrance and explore the other two. Both turn out to be dead ends. Now they are lit up and should pose no further danger. In fact, one has plenty of coal and iron ore which gets mined and smelted as needed.
I still want to conquer the dungeon, and perhaps convert it into a mob grinder. In the past I would use Minutor and locate dungeons that way, taking the thrill out of them. This is going to be different. I will not use Minutor, I will find it legitimately. Having seen Etho's latest project, which converted a dual cave spider spawner system into an impressive item farm, I may use water and lava to make a feather farm. Til then!
