Minecraft @ Crazy Vincent's

Good News: I’m able to log in and play again yay!
Bad News: The nether has been regenerated.
Good News: Helm’s deep portal is now connected to one portal so you can move back and forth between the nether and helms
Bad News: Endermen are scary
Good News: I’ve loaded up on obsidian and am heading over to the town.
Bad News: The town is a long ways away….
Good News: There was a full set of armor waiting for me at Isengard
Bad News: my lunch break is over, now i have to stop playing.

I want this.

I popped in the other night to check out Bush’s Nether tunnel, and it seems that Sunday’s power outage reset the biomes again.  Now our beautiful sunny city is under a blanket of snow.  When I get home tonight I’m going to restore the world from Saturday’s backup.

I couldn’t wait anymore, I just had to start building!

I moved some of the streetlights apart, I think we should be able to put 6 spaces between them.  Although my building was designed for 4 spaces so now of course the streetlights are right in front of my doors. 

On my belt I have two notches, one for each ghast that fell to my deadly arrows. They will not hinder me as I work in the depths of hell to connect the world above. When you get a chance enter a portal to see the bridge of life I’ve begun.

You may have noticed on the map that we’ve begun laying out the roads for the new city!  The town center is laid out, with signs marking the four buildings that will be located here.  We tried to pick the four most common stores:

• Lumber yard (Jester)
• Stone mason (Vincent)
• Grocer
• Blacksmith (currently labeled Toolmaker.  We’re thinking of putting the blacksmith on the corner instead and the toolmaker next to it.)

I placed stones to mark the lot sizes, but after discussing with Jester we think it’d be more fun to grow more organically.  Feel free to take as much space as you need for your building.  I’ll remove the stones (and relabel that one sign) next time I sign in.

We also think that the streetlamps are too close together.  We will calculate the appropriate distance (to prevent monster spawns) and separate them a bit.

So let’s hear some feedback!  Specifically:

• Do you agree with the four buildings at the town center?
• Who wants to build those ones?  (We should build those before we move on to other buildings, Sorry, Bush)

Jester installing streetlights

Jester and I have been talking about our newest mega-project: an entire city!  Jester did some exploring and found the perfect location – a nice open field which we have been terraforming in preparation.

This is just an example.

So, why a city?  First: because it’s awesome!!  Second, I thought it’d be cool to have a huge, centralized, organized storage facility.  A place where we can dump massive amounts of goodies and raw materials.  A place where we can gear up before adventures.  A place where we can craft items and we always know we’ll have the materials on hand.  But not only that, a place that is a destination in itself.  Somewhere that you’d have a reason to go to other than because you left a bunch of iron there.

This is going to require some major planning, and lots of help, so I think we should organize our ideas here on the blog.  Here’s the basic idea so far:

There will be roads!

• There will be a main street (probably called Main Street) that runs north-south.  Jester and I have determined roughly where it will go; we will lay that out to get everything started.
• There will be another primary street running east-west.  The corner between the two will be the center of town.  It will probably be ornately decorated.
• Each street will have a sidewalk.  The streets will probably be stone (either cobblestone or smooth stone, TBD).  The sidewalks will be stone slabs, either 2 or 3 blocks wide (depending on what we decide with the streetlights).  We need to experiment to find the proper street width, but we’re thinking it could be as much as 12 blocks wide.  Main street will be the largest, the second street will probably slightly smaller.  If we need other roads then we can determine their sizes later.  The smallest streets might not need sidewalks.

There will be fields!

• We need at least three big open areas: a farm (for wheat etc.), a tree farm, and a livestock pen.  These will probably be located on the outskirts of the town, but close to their respective stores so we can get the goods there quickly.

There will be buildings!

• (Of course, that’s what makes it a city!)  The key is that each building will have a purpose.  So when you go to the city, you know exactly where to go to get wood, or smelt iron, or stock up on food.
• Every building will have lots of storage space inside.  Many building will also have work areas – one will have lots of furnaces for smelting ore, for example.
• Jester wanted me to decide the lot sizes for each building.  I’ll lay corner stones to demarcate the lots and then place signs for which building goes where.  If you have any suggestions/requests for building sizes or locations, post them here!
• Each building should be architecturally unique so it’s purpose is obvious from the storefront without reading a sign.  This is where we get creative!  The lumber store will probably be built from wood; the stonemason will be built from stone, etc.  For the other places, you’ll have to use your imagination.  Try to think of what those types of buildings look like.  Use Google Image search if you need inspiration.

Jester and I have come up with a preliminary list of buildings and what they’ll be used for.  We think it’s pretty complete but feel free to modify it or suggest additions.

If you see a building that you want to build, claim it in the comments!  I’ll update this post (and maybe the in-game signs too) with the builder’s name so we know what’s available to claim.  (Jester has already claimed a couple.)

Building Types

Here is the list of buildings.  If you click the “more” link you will see all the details about what each building will be used for.

• lumber yard/store (Jester)
• tree farm (near lumber store)
• grocer
• bakery (maybe inside grocery store?)
• livestock pen (near grocer)
• farm
• farm equipment (near farm)
• stonemason (Vincent)
• blacksmith
• hardware store
• electrician (combine with hardware store?)
• textile shop
• mine
• library
• toolmaker
• armory
• bank
• mystic (Bushwashere)
• marina
• attractions:

• city hall
• clock tower (with working clock!)
• rollercoaster
• observation tower (Jester)
• art gallery
• hedge maze
• snowball arena

(more…)

I found this really amusing Minecraft diary about a guy who played for 30 days with one rule- if he died, he had to delete his entire world and start over.  That’s a cool idea, though one I’m not sure I’d personally like to put into practice.

Anyway, after a bunch of deaths, the guy decided that he needed a big goal so he could have something to work towards.  His goal: stock up on Obsidian, build a portal to the Nether, then go as far as he could there and build another portal, then work his way back home in the real world.  On one life.

Jester and I thought this was a cool idea, so we geared up and headed through the portal.  We didn’t make it very far when we came to a cliff in a huge cavern that dropped off into lava.  Jester decided to tunnel through the wall so we could get around the lava lake.  Feeling useless, I decided to dig away at the wall and gather some netherrack in case we needed to build a bridge.

As soon as I started digging, the ground fell away at my feet.  Due to some strange Minecraft physics, there were a couple rows of floating gravel between the wall and the platform we were on.  Apparently, when I disturbed the wall, the physics caught up and all the gravel succumbed to gravity.  Luckily, I was still on the platform, so I didn’t plunge into the lava below.

That’s when the Ghast showed up.

Its fireballs set me ablaze and began destroying the ground around me.  Terrified, I tried adding blocks to bridge the newly formed gap between the platform and Jester’s tunnel.  Another fireball knocked me backwards off the narrow bridge and down into the fiery depths below.

I respawned back at Crown Point.  Just as I was about to type “I died,” Jester appeared next to me, stripped of all his armor.

We decided to take another run, so we stocked up on gear (again) and headed back inside.  We carefully navigated across the bridge this time, narrowly evading some roving Ghasts’ attention.  We tunneled up, then straight for a bit, until we finally broke through to a medium sized room.  I looked around for a bit, struggling to see in the darkness, when I realized that Jester was gone.

Frantically, I began searching, until I came to a staircase heading down.  Guessing that he was working his way back down, I followed.

Being surrounded by unlit Netherrack in an enclosed space is disorienting.  I figured that I’d run down the stairs until I hit a wall, then turn to the right to break out on the other side of the vast cavern.  Instead, I found myself falling.

Looking straight down, I could see a lava lake far below.  There was enough time for me to orient myself to the nearest land mass and hope that perhaps I could shift my momentum enough to hit land instead of lava.  It didn’t work.

I respawned back at Crown Point to see Jester already standing there naked.  “I fell in lava,” he explained.  That, I thought, is an understatement.  We didn’t just fall in lava, we plunged unexpectedly into a lake of fire from a height of 10 stories or so.

Four suits of armor, 30 obsidian, countless netherrack and glowstone, three diamond pickaxes; all perished in the inferno.

The nether sucks.

So, you know how we have some landmarks named after Lord of the Rings locations? I think it’s time to step up our game:

Jester and I have been busy lately!  About a month ago, I set sail from Adventure Pier to explore the northeastern reaches of our world.  Around the same time, Jester headed off towards the southeast to uncover new territory.  After a few weeks of exploration, he began heading due north to work his way towards my settlements.  He eventually found himself at Sinkhole Cavern, which completed the loop at the east edge of the map.

We bummed around the cavern for a bit, exploring the limited mines but not really finding much to exploit.  Feeling wanderlust, Jester began to explore the surrounding areas, meandering south to Adventure Cabin.  Not finding much, he began exploring again.  One day he was enjoying the scenery and the wondrous landscapes, but neglected to pay attention to the time.  Before he realized it, darkness began to fall.  He ran for his life, hoping to make it back to familiar ground before nightfall.  Lonely and scared, Jester found himself at an unfamiliar cliff in near blackness with the sallow moans of nearby monsters echoing from the gloom.  It was all he could do to dig a crude hideaway to gain sanctuary from the dangers lurking outside.  Once safe, he expanded and fortified the establishment with redstone-powered entry hatches.

He later began making his way west and came across a medium-sized mesa with a sloped side.  He constructed a fortification on top with a tower similar to the Great Mesa fortress.  Dubbed Crown Point, this has become our recent base of operations.

I eventually made my way down to Crown Point with the intention of completing the map’s missing section.  Upon heading down the slope on the south side of the fortress, I found that the ground was pockmarked with cave entrances.  Curious, I began to explore, frequently leaving to resupply at Crown Point.

Finally, Jester and I were able to meet up for a couple nights, and we completely explored the caves beneath the mesa.  There are numerous vast, interconnected caverns that were rich with ores.  We found a couple dungeons to use as landmarks, and after a frightful bout of disorientation, began marking our exits with yellow wool.  Together, we were able to bring in a mighty haul of iron, redstone, gold, diamonds and more.

We were also able to build a nether portal atop the tower using the obsidian that we mined from one of the many lava pits in the cave.  Exiting the portal brought us back to Jester’s cliffside home, called “I almost peed my pants.”  All in all, it has been a successful several weeks!  I hope to eventually continue on my original quest to explore the unknown lands to the south of Crown Point and fill in that area of the map.  Let’s hope the next week is as fruitful as the last!