Minecraft

Decorating? Really?

stargrace October 20, 2014 5 Comments

There’s a reason I love sandbox gaming, and it is all about the creativity and relaxation I find in creating. This weekend I learned a little bit more about the mods that are currently active on the minecraft server I’m playing on. There are 184 of them. That’s a lot of mods. Not all of them will affect me in game, but I’m slowly learning those that do. Some are still too complex and I have no idea what I’m doing but I’ll get there.

The ones I worked with this weekend were BibloCraft which is quickly becoming a favourite of mine because of the flavour it adds to the game, along with Chisel which also adds some incredible customization. Finally I also started exploring Forestry, which adds things like bee keeping. In the end I ended up “doing” very little in game, but I did get a pretty good grasp on the numerous ways I can customize my place, which I am completely tickled about as you can tell by the screenshot above. I created the tablecloth for the table, along with the chair, a backing for the chair, and then dyed it to match the rest of the room. I also used carpenter’s blocks to create a facade around my entrance, and then used chisel to turn the stones into some pretty decorative pieces. After all that was done I decided my house needed the beginnings of a map, and started the first one along with some potion racks (empty for now), and armour racks for flair.

My home may not be running on power, and I don’t have any automatic farming gizmos or industrial do-dads set up, but it suits me as I slowly learn my way through all of these awesome mods. Eventually I would love to create a better farm, both for crops and animals, and have them automated. It’s nice to automate the ‘mundane’ aspects of the game (farming for supplies, in other words) so that you can spend your time doing the “fun” things.

Speaking of fun, I want to get out and do more exploring too. So far I have spent most of my time in the winter biome that surrounds my home (fitting for a canuck, no?) but there’s some forest close by and some other fun places that I have been itching to do some adventuring in. So long as I stay away from the lava. A work mate went out yesterday and apparently got herself lost in some lava. Needless to say it didn’t end up too well.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Fancy Armour

stargrace October 11, 2014 No Comments

After heading off to Paul’s place to check out his smeltery set up, I went back to my own and adjusted mine a bit. Works like a dream. I didn’t have a lot of gold but I had enough to get a few casings made, and created a lovely set of bronze armour. Much better than the leather armour I was wearing before (which I stole from bandits). I’ll need to find a better source of metals in order to make some tools (I need casings) but I’m looking forward to it. I also need to make some iron blocks in order to make a tool forge, one of the machines I left off of my list (didn’t have the iron). In the mean time I can easily use the Nexus to get to Paul’s smeltery and use that one instead.

I haven’t created a method of recycling the molten metals back into the smeltery but that will be next on my list of things to do. I may also look into automating the system, but it feels a bit out of my league.

Speaking of out of my league, I went and checked out the power plant that Paul and Joel have created. Wow. That thing is insane.

I also want to do more exploring. Especially now that I’m all set up with armor and weapons. I plan on creating a second set of gear to keep in my chest (backups are always important) and going wandering once I have some free time. Hopefully I find some great spoils to take home! I get the urge to wander quite frequently, as much as I love my castle sometimes I just want to see what’s out there.

As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Smeltery? SMELTERY!

stargrace October 7, 2014 1 Comment

I have a smeltery! It works, too. Well, sort of. I figured out how to make blocks (I made one just for fun) but I have no idea how to make casings or actual things instead of just blocks. For some reason the tap that leads to my table doesn’t seem to want to spit out any of my bronze. I plan on going to visit P to see what his set up is like, and probably steal his design. I may just be using the wrong components on the table, but I’m not really sure. Or maybe my block container needs to be empty before I use the table part. Again, no idea.

I spent very little time playing yesterday (boo, real life) plus our server went down for a while. By the time it was back up it was time for me to get some sleep before work. Short term goals include trying to figure out what’s wrong with my smeltery, and maybe making some bronze armor. It would be a big improvement over my current leathers (which I stole from some bandits).

I also haven’t made any progress in decorating my castle, but hey I’m not in any rush. I’ll try to get some screenshots posted here later today. As always, happy gaming, no matter where you find yourself!

Diving into Tinkers’ Construct

stargrace October 6, 2014 No Comments

It’s not pretty (yet) but pictured above is the start of my tinkers’ workshop. I decided that if I was ever going to get comfortable with minecraft mods, I would have to actually start taking advantage of them and not just building manual farms. This is me taking one very tentative step. I started off by reading a book I had in my inventory. It taught me the basics like how to create a blank pattern, a stencil table, a part crafter, a pattern chest, and a tool station. I also learned how to create a tool forge but I don’t have the seared bricks for that yet, so it’s not pictured. Pictured is also one of those neat lamps that I stole from the dungeon I was in yesterday, they provide great light and are way better looking than the torches I have scattered around. I will probably replace the rest of the torches with those lights tomorrow, and I may make the walls all one matching stone (maybe using builder blocks) instead of the ugly miss matched dirt stone and marble. In the center I plan on creating the Smeltery, which uses a lot of supplies that I just don’t have.

53 Sand, 52 Clay, 52 Gravel and 105 units of fuel

I have the gravel, but I have had a rough time trying to get clay. There’s sand in abundance, so I should be able to collect everything tomorrow.

All of these stations allow me to create new types of tools, and customize them. They also let me repair said tools at the tool station so that I don’t have to worry about constantly breaking them and creating a new one from scratch. The more I read the more interested I got – and then I got completely confused as I read on automation of this system. Honestly, I think I’m far from automated-anything in Minecraft, but that is certainly a “one day” goal.

It feels weird to be so “old school” when it comes to this game and then come face to face with so many ‘new’ types of technology through mods. It has changed the game (for me at least) quite a bit, and requires a thought process that I wouldn’t have expected previously. I find that I need to focus a bit, or else things just don’t get done. Speaking of which. Still no success in getting components to breed my chocobo’s. Those lovely greens are just way too dang rare. Maybe I’ll have better luck tomorrow.

The Greatest Adventures

stargrace October 5, 2014 1 Comment

Building things is great fun and I could probably spend hours (and in fact have spent hours) doing it – but there’s more to minecraft than just that. Especially if the server you’re playing on is using mods (which of course as I have mentioned, mine is). One of the fun things to do is randomly find these dimensional doors and step through them. If you’re lucky you’ll end up in this really awesome dungeon looking type place (I may have stolen some of the lights) with neat things all around to look at – but eventually you’ll probably walk through a door and end up in limbo, which is not so fun. Limbo includes eyeballs teleporting you as you frantically try to walk towards a spot of red water on the mostly black map – that will port you back to civilization, some place also random.

I escaped, without any new treasures to boast of besides the screenshot but where I ended up was just a few feet away from another bandit castle. I had to be sneaky, their ranged arrows always hurt me pretty bad (what do you mean I need to get some armor..) so I built myself a little fortified wall and dug my way into their castle after they killed me the first time. See, I can be taught.

I was richly rewarded for my adventure in their domain, and it was awesome. I found another catapult which I placed atop my own fortress of laughter, a bag of force, a music CD and last but not least – an entire boat.

I’m on a boat!

I love exploring. There’s so much to see, especially when that involves going over to the neighbours (who are a few thousand paces away from my location) and nosing around their homes. I found a cow and chicken on the road (the chicken of course was attempting to cross it) and accidentally stole some potatoes. My neighbours place take advantage of the tech mod packs, which I have no idea how to even get started with. Automatic mob farming systems? Complex power grids and all sorts of weird awesome stuff that I have never heard of before. I know it won’t be too long before I sink my teeth into all of it, but for now I have been focusing on the ‘basic’ aspects of the game.

I set up a farm, started breeding cows for meat and leather, and have a few chocobo hanging around while I grow their food of choice so I can attempt to breed them (my ultimate goal at this time) because I want different coloured ones. Why? Because I can.

While all that is going on, I’m also attempting to decorat my (so far) very bare castle. I added a rainbow bed and a beautiful desk yesterday, but besides the craft room which is completely covered in storage chests (plus my forge and craft station of course) the place is empty. It’s time to fix that!