Minecraft: Indie World Building Game

[Ink Asylum]

Originally Posted by Scaryfaced

I can't say I have the same reaction, I mostly drifted away because I didn't have any real goals in mind after a few weeks, but that feeling did pop up every so often. At one point on the old CoG server, I built a small fortress on a steep hilltop which I assumed was save. The entire area was well lit and fenced off completely, leaving a ladder system as the only way in, so I felt secure. Then one night I walked out of my house and a skeleton riding a spider jumped right on top of me. Oh man, I might've peed just a little.

Oh yeah. Skeletons can climb walls now.

[MagGnome]

Originally Posted by Suave Peanut

That's probably the sound it make when there's a nearby cave.

Ah, that could be. I didn't realize that it did such a thing.

Originally Posted by Ravenlock

Yeah, pretty sure the deep roar isn't a monster at all, just the noise Minecraft makes when you're underground for awhile.

I heard the noise twice last night. Once while I was above ground and once while I was digging down into the ground. It was disconcerting, to say the least.

I'm surprised more people don't consider Minecraft to be a horror game. Maybe I'm just a wimp...

[Vandabo]

Well I jumped back into this last night and played a couple hours. Things are definitely different! I spawned in the canopy of a tree in what must be a jungle biome. It took me a long time to find any coal, but I finally found some in a natural cave and built a home in it. I got right to digging a stairway down to bedrock, and in the middle of this process, with nothing near me, I suddenly get hit by something and take some damage with a loud cracking sound. I nearly shit myself because it was so unexpected. I then keep getting hit for half a heart every couple seconds, and I can't figure out what the hell is going on. That's the first time I really noticed this new bar (now empty) of things that look like turkey legs. I finally remembered that you had to eat periodically, and luckily I had some meat in my inventory, because there isn't much to eat down near bedrock level.

Anyway, I've definitely got to get used to some of the new stuff, but it is still very enjoyable, and a nice change of pace.

[MagGnome]

I'll admit that I groaned out loud when I saw that there was now a hunger meter. I tend to despise those in games. However, after playing for a couple of hours last night, I found that it's really not much of an issue. I already have 20 or so steaks, and it was easy to keep the bar filled up.

My goal now is to make "The Lie" without looking up all of the steps online.

[LordDon]

You can also run now if you double tap W, so you can leap gaps. It uses up some of your hunger meter if you run for an extended period.

[MagGnome]

Ah, I thought I sprinted for a moment last night, but I wasn't sure what I'd done.

[MagGnome]

I ventured a little too far away from my home, and now I'm completely lost. I had to set up a little wooden box to hide in until morning. Hopefully I'll be able to find my house again in this barren tundra.

[drobvice]

Originally Posted by MagGnome

I ventured a little too far away from my home, and now I'm completely lost. I had to set up a little wooden box to hide in until morning. Hopefully I'll be able to find my house again in this barren tundra.

Ahh, that feeling of, "Where the hell am I and what do I do now!?". I know it well. One reason I built a GIGANTIC tower that was well lit at my spawn point. You might just say the heck with it and build a bed and start all over with a new spawn. I once had a new tunnel connect with an old tunnel I dug and freaked myself out thinking I had an interloper in my single player world or a very ambitious NPC.

[MagGnome]

I found my old homestead after waiting out the night in my little box, watching an Enderman and two zombies mill about outside.

I'm working on a nicer place now. Nothing too fancy, but larger and made of stone this time. I might also add a beacon on top so I can see it easier from a distance.

[Vandabo]

My lord... I had turned the sound off and was letting my game run in the background so I could pass some time and let my various farms grow/drop some stuff. I left my guy standing in the middle of my underground home, which is totally closed except a very long tunnel leading to a staircase leading up to the surface near my chicken farm in the neighboring biome. I left it running about an hour and when I came back I turned around and there was a zombie pigman standing right next to me. Scared the shit out of me. The only way I can think that it got there was a pig way out near the staircase got hit by lightning (morphing it into the zombie pigman) and then it wandered into the tunnel all the way to stand in my living room. Thankfully they aren't aggro automatically. I quickly dispatched the thing and then went and put a goddamn door on the staircase.

[LordDon]

For you minecraft jumpy types, you know there's a MineZ mod now, right?

[drobvice]

Originally Posted by LordDon

For you minecraft jumpy types, you know there's a MineZ mod now, right?]

It's funny that RPS put up a review of MineZ right after you posted it. Sounds like alot of fun. I actually got ARMA Combined Ops during the Steam sale but have not had a chance to play it yet.

[Ink Asylum]

Played for a few hours today after at least a year away. I got to try out some of the new features. Ran across a village in the first ten minutes, stole some of their wheat and traded it to one of the villagers for an emerald. Then I set out in a boat to look for someplace neat to make my home.

While sailing past a jungle I saw a temple so I stopped to explore, disarming some traps to find the chests and getting some decent stuff, including a bunch of bones. Those came in handy later as I was trekking through a snowy forest and met some wolves. After giving them all the bones I had I ended up with 4 tamed wolves. After feeding them they produced a puppy, so I now have a total of 5 pets. I just wish they wouldn't bark so much.

I wasn't finding anywhere that interesting to set up a base, so I loaded the game into a map viewer and found my way back to the village, where I set up a house on the outskirts of town.

I made this map with large biomes, and while it does look more realistic to have huge fields and forests instead of small patches of wildly varying terrain, it's more boring to explore. I may leave that guy in the village raising domesticated wolves and try a more traditional map.

[Vandabo]

I'm really glad I didn't do large biomes myself. I spawned in a jungle/desert area, and I have to trek far and wide to find things like cows and chickens. It would have just been worse with the large biomes.

Currently I'm trying to buff myself up for a long trek through the nether to find a nether fortress. That place still creeps the fuck out of me, but I need to find some blazes to make a brewing stand, among other things.

[Ink Asylum]

You can see what large biomes look like at my online map. That map was rendered when I'd gotten sick of wandering, and wanted to get my five wolves and collected loot back to the town so I could build a house to store them. It was quite a hike.

Visually, they're spectacular. From the top of a tree looking out over a massive jungle is an amazing sight, they just don't provide much gameplay value.

[Vigil80]

I think that depends on how you play. I intend to play with large biomes in part so that I can have themed adventures or buildings. It's a little disappointing when there's desert within spitting distance of my igloo village.

Unless I'm mistaken, all the same stuff is still generated in the world. It's just a little farther apart.

[Ink Asylum]

Originally Posted by Vigil80

I think that depends on how you play. I intend to play with large biomes in part so that I can have themed adventures or buildings. It's a little disappointing when there's desert within spitting distance of my igloo village.

Unless I'm mistaken, all the same stuff is still generated in the world. It's just a little farther apart.

I might take a shot at generating a bunch of large biome worlds until I find one where I spawn in the right kind of area.

I like to build my homes into existing mountains that are near the ocean or another large body of water. Before there were biomes you could find those kinds of locations all over the place. Now that's mostly to be found in just one particular biome.

[drobvice]

I decided to start a new world for 1.3.1 and ended up in a waterworld stuck on a tiny island with one tree. I swam about 5 minutes and found...another tiny island with one tree. There are no animals around except for those horrible squids. I did find out that you don't seem to starve when you are swimming.

[biosc1]

Originally Posted by drobvice

I did find out that you don't seem to starve when you are swimming.

When the world generator gives you a lemon, you make lemon-aid

[MagGnome]

Thanks to the Wiki I learned about how gravel and dirt veins lead to resources. I found some iron and coal before accidentally digging into the side of a lake and flooding the cave I was in. Thankfully I managed to escape without drowning, but now I can't get down there and mine the rest of the iron. Oh well...I need to start exploring out further and see if I can find the edge of the taiga/tundra that I'm in.