Minecraft! 1.0! (.0!)

Yesterday, 18 November 2011, the full version of Minecraft came out. That means we are no longer in the beta stage. At MineCon Notch flipped the ceremonial lever which hailed the exit from beta and into full release. After two years Minecraft has developed from an independent project to a full scale game written by his company.

I don't usually write much about the latest news and updates; you likely have read about those already. However this is clearly a milestone for Minecraft.

About an hour after I got out of work I updated my 1.7.3 to see what would come out. To my surprise it only went up to 1.8.1, even though there were something like 6 pre-releases of 1.9 and two release candidates. Instead of waiting and worrying about it I began doing some homework, checking in on the QubeTubers stream for entertainment and to see if it's been updated. Once I finished my work and saw people clamoring about the update I tried again and landed in 1.0.0!

One of the things I wanted to try first was the End. I had seen an episode of the Yogscast where Simon and Lewis (the two stars of the show) went to the End with Knight Peculier, one of the supporting characters. They proceeded to spend ten minutes trying to slay the Enderdragon, even switching to Creative mode. It's clearly that difficult.

I pulled the Eye of Ender from the item selection menu and started throwing it around it. It took five or so minutes but eventually I landed at a Stronghold. Being in Creative mode I dug down and encountered the End Portal. I placed more Eyes of Ender where they were needed and the portal came to life. It had a black, starry, void-like look to it. I jumped in and entered the End.

Dark. So dark. I got in there and there was no life until I switched to Easy. Then came the Endermen and the Enderdragon. I spent the next ten minutes trying my hand at long distance archery, shooting at the dragon and the Ender crystals healing it. My aim was pretty bad and although I did inflict pretty decent damage, the battle took longer than I really wanted to. So I gave up on the dragon and started playing with the Endermen! It was rather amusing getting them mad then making them chase me and fall off the small patch of land. I did other things and, via Nether portals, returned to the Overworld.

For right now, I'm not going to do much with 1.0.0. I like mods like SPC, Millenaire, and Wireless Redstone. It will take a few days for those to catch up so I will likely revert to 1.7.3 if I do any major activity. This also puts into question the future of the maps I currently have now. What will the possible block and ID conflicts mean for those mods? Surely I can save most of them but especially for Millenaire and MineColony, both of which having brought so much life into the game, will I have to restart my map again to get them to work?

Wimpy Wimpy

As I have said before, located underneath my house is a cavern system with at least one dungeon in it, which I reckon is a zombie dungeon. Before I do any other major projects I feel it's appropriate to take down that dungeon first and light up the caves so those noises will cease.

The problem is, I don't care much for exploring monster-ridden caves. I don't react well to the amounts of combat such things bring. I would rather mine around enemies than actually face them. Yet this seems best to do. I do not want to relocate so soon, but in order to get a mining system established I must first deal with these caves and these monsters. So what I am thinking of doing is setting up an outpost at the bottom of the tunnel entrance in the beach. I shall dub it Beachhead Cavern, or Beachhead for short. Beachhead Outpost will have a secure bed, workbench, furnace, and a single chest. It will be composed of cobblestone with many windows to see my enemies. I want to consider also setting up a ladder and tunnel setup which will connect me to my base.

Earlier I went into my basement and cleared out an area to establish a meager underground farm. It will have 20 blocks for farming although this could easily be expanded. In addition to finding coal and iron ore making this, I also discovered Farm Drop, a vertical tunnel similar in design and depth as Beachhead. I have not taken the time to explore it, yet. Maybe I could alternatively establish an outpost in there, since it would connect directly to my house and could be built into the stone wall. The zombies are close, very close. I cannot remember exactly where the dungeon is but if Beachhead and Farm Drop are part of the same system, the dungeon may be easily located.

And We Are Off!

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!

Mysterious Trader

I have finally managed to make a stable world using Millenaire in 1.7.3, without using MineColony. One of the things I've been doing to get the village to develop quicker is have the game running while I'm doing other things on the computer, checking periodically to make sure nothing has gone wrong. I have a little hole in the floor of the Maitre de Guilde (Guild Master), who is the leader of the village. So far it's been pretty safe for me, and the village has expanded quite well. It's the first one I've ever been in that didn't come to a screeching halt due to lack of usable land. Here's an aerial view of it:

During my time in the hole I have experimented with freecam. I discovered this neat little trick while experimenting on my non-legit creative world. It detaches the camera from the player's body, allowing me to move around freely while staying safe in my little cubbyhole. I can place and destroy blocks using freecam but I can't interact with entities, meaning no picking up items or battling mobs. It also lets me generate new chunks by flying over them although I want to limit that in order to keep my experience as vanilla as possible.

Picture of me, clad in leather armor. If I wanted to, I could punch myself in the back of the head.

I must come off as very peculiar to the villagers. I one day randomly show up while the village was still under construction and dig a hole into their leader's house, where I proceed to spend most of my time. Somehow I can almost clairvoyantly see things that are going on in and around the village despite being in said hole. However I am also liked because I trade heavily with them, plant saplings in their tree groves when they run out, and also beat down monsters when need be.

But I think I'm ready to move on. With 31 villagers, FPS issues are appearing once more. This time I think I will head west and make a nice little home there. Since I have never extensively traveled to the west in any incarnation of this map, it will be relatively new territory to me. Then, I will possibly try to use Etho's water highway system to connect my base to this village and others.

Decision and Direction

I have concluded that it is unsafe for me to use MineColony and Millenaire in the same save file. Once again I had a world crash on me. After I had established a small MineColony setup I attempted to teleport to my residential Millenaire village and the game did its customary crashing. Clearly MineColony is the culprit. Thus these two mods will no longer be used concurrently in a world.

Right now I have two projects running alongside each other. I am still doing the Earth map although it has not received much attention lately. Because the chunks of that world have all been generated already, there is no chance of Millenaire villages appearing on it. That makes it safe to use and experiment with MineColony on it. I am currently in Cush, where I would like to establish some colonists to perhaps be the Cushites and later on other lands' inhabitants.

The second project is in my main save. I still want to design a complex building, or maybe series of buildings, to become my base of operations in that world and wherever I may go. Someone once mentioned having satellite buildings presumably to stay safe and stocked during adventuring and I will possibly try some of those. Recently I have seen some videos by Etho, and his water system fascinates me. I would like to make an underground water highway of sorts, complete with intersections that let me choose just where I want to go.

Something I will need to do more is to back up my worlds. I have not been doing that, and as result world after wold has been lost recently. Keeping backups and updating them regularly will prove beneficial - especially if, say, on the Earth map I attempt to use MineColony and it crashes the world. Instead of losing all that progress I can just revert to a safer state.

Finally, I downloaded the Moon mod for 1.7.3. I am curious to see how that will work.

Lost the Save Again

Well ladies and gentlemen, it happened again. Due to some error that I still cannot figure out, I got the "Saving Chunks"/black screen error on my 1.7.3 world. This time I may have caused the error. I had started a small outpost of colonists in an area far enough for both Millenaire villages to be frozen and not in memory. But I felt as though I had not put enough thought into designing it so went to get rid of it. I mined the Town Hall chest and nothing bad happened. Then I mined a Citizen's chest and BAM! Game crashes.

I loaded up MCEdit and tried deleting possibly offending chests but to no avail. Whenever my character came inside the range of where the chest even was it would crash. So I went back into MCEdit and started deleting entire chunks from the area. This was a very bad idea. I assumed that if those chunks were to be deleted, then when I return they would be generated again. It was not so. I still could not get to those areas without crashing. Meaning whether or not they could be regenerated is currently unknown, however I have my doubts. 10 or so chunks were permanently removed from the game.

So with this futile situation I went ahead and deleted the save. I need to take the time to find what is causing this error. I attempted to reproduce this on a save devoted to testing MineColony but could not. Perhaps it is due to faulty interactions between MineColony and Millenaire?

Millenaire Experience Thus Far

For the first couple days after I upgraded to 1.7.3 and put in Millenaire/MineColony, I really could not focus on much of anything else. I made a new world with my Main's seed and started up a MineColony settlement there in order to get used to the way it functions. As it turns out, Nippon Island just is not large enough to handle all the colonists and their houses. The farmer was also getting very farm-happy and started turning a bigger portion of the island into farmland than I expected. Even when I placed fencing he kept on going. The miner, though, proved really good at mining and bringing up nice stuff.

So, I decided to go for it officially. I deleted that world and made yet another world with the same seed. It placed me a distance above the spawn point I've had since 1.5. I walked a little and found a village. When a village is generated, I know before I see it; my game freezes for a few seconds as the buildings and NPCs are put in place. I learned the ropes and helped the village grow. Then I added colonists to the mix, including a miner who had a shaft in the pit of the village miner. I didn't anticipate it, but something like seven other colonists spawned.

In order to have the villages grow without me actively watching over the game, I would dig a hole in the floor of a house I chose to live in and idle there. A couple days after starting the world, I came back to find the game had black screened.

Each time I attempted to load the world it would load the chunks then immediately say "Saving Chunks" and go to a black screen. I assumed it to be some kind of conflict between mods. I could not find anything that would make them conflict, since all the mods I have use different ID numbers. Even with MCEdit I could not find a block that would make it crash. Since that world had become unstable I put it in a zip file and generated a new save, again with the same seed.

That is the current map I am using. This time I was placed right in the center of the Yusarian continent I have mentioned in the past. It looks very similar to Europe and Russia combined the way they are in real life and stretches for about a kilometer. I picked my home with the farmer and began helping the villagers by collecting the blocks they needed to upgrade their buildings. I watched as the village, named Vaucelles-le-lac, grew and evolved in architecture. I also began mining underground, for the first time in my Minecraft experience on a non-Peaceful mode.

Then things started to get weird. With a population of 31, a dozen or so peaceful mobs and who knows how many monsters walking around, my frame rate began to drop to unacceptable levels. Even on tiny fog I still had stuttering graphics. On top of that, the village was giving a "not enough space" to build their next building error, meaning it probably was going to stagnate at the size it was. Given these two issues I packed up what I didn't need to bring with me and left for a new village, or some other experience.

I headed east, to where my 1.5 spawn point was. I found it, slept a night away there, and continued on to Nippon. I was sort of surprised that, although Vaucelles was over 600 meters away, no other villages had spawned. It was so weird and unfamiliar seeing Nippon in its primal, overgrown state. My heart then told me to go to a land mass connected to Yusaria, one which has a striking resemblance to South America. Unfortunately, my recollection of the map's terrain was poor and I found another village, Douvres, on a different landmass east of my goal. Oh well. This is going to be my new home. I'm bunking with someone there. As I did last time, I will assist the villagers and protect those who require it.

Also, I got my first 11 diamonds in Vaucelles, the first ever mined on Easy mode.

I don't plan on adding MineColony features just yet. Maybe after Douvres I'll stake it out somewhere and let the colonists do the construction for me. I realized I could modify the designs of the structures they build, to the point I could literally have them construct an entire starship for me if I so willed it. Although their premade structure plans look very nice as it is.