12/12/2011

In an effort to catch up on the backlog of information I have for the blog, I will be combining the past two weeks of updates.  This is partially because I don't quite remember the distinction between the two for most information.  It is difficult to even attempt to fairly represent everyone's work, so this week I've thrown that idea out the window, and have picked my 'top hits' of interest.  This week's theme? Matt, Murder, and Mordor!


Extensive Exploration:
In a brilliant move inspired by the search for snow, I went exploring out to the West.  Determined to find snow and/or mushroom biomes, I charged through roughly 12,000 squares of space.  While I was midly successful finding the mushrooms (roughly Z=3,500), I was unable to find anything other than ocean beyond that point.  However, while my explorations proved ineffective, John was able to find a Snow Biome not nearly as far out as I was exploring.  Kudos to you, John!  Side note: I should have thought better about exploring; the save files went from being 40mb to 350mb for the server.  That's going to start hurting when backing up.

Light Map:
Making its return this week is the Light Map.  I have cropped down the light map simply because our 'real' map is so silly (due to misadventure on my part, looking for snow).  My current intent is to include the light map about once a month in these updates, simply because it's not a one step process like the other map is.

In an effort to get maps with higher resolution, I have uploaded these maps to Photobucket.  The maps original URLs (with 2000x1400 resolution) can be found at: http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg109/CyclicReasoning/Minecraft/light_map-1.jpg
http://i246.photobucket.com/albums/gg109/CyclicReasoning/Minecraft/minecraft_map.jpg


No New Challengers Appear!:
The past two posts have brought new players onto the server.  The two weekends this post covers did not see any new members joining the server.  Most players focused instead on their individual projects and mining rather than extensive expansions.  I am not aware of any entirely new bases that were developed in this time frame.

Mob Grinding:

Alas poor grinder, for ye be dead.

No minecraft game is complete without a mob grinder.  Grinders come in many shapes, sizes, and forms.  People have come up with many different approaches to building these grinders.  In my single-player game I built a crude drowning grinder near a skeleton spawner; this provided me with ever-valuable arrows.  Water flowed into glass panes which sucked the skeltons underwater where they would be drowned.  This method was very effective, but limited.

Kenny and I moved his prototyping grinder from on top of his house onto an empty patch of land nearby.  We designed the server grinder using the same drowning method I employed in my single player game. However, no matter how we manipulated the workings, the enemies refused to behave in a predictable enough manner for this to work; the grinder would get jammed and enemies would avoid the cliff face.  After working on a drowning grinder for a few hours, we abandoned the drowning mechanism in favor of a more humane lava trap method.  To my pleasant surprise, the lava trap causes minimal item loss.  However, while I have fixed most of the jamming problems, the grinder still fills up too much occasionally, and it does not currently handle spider killing.

Creepers beware! Spiders, just wait until I figure out things!

Kill it with fire!

The 'base' 5-level mob spawner + grinder.

Why yes, those ARE pumpkins now that you mention it...

Most of the work on the base of the mob spawner was done two weeks back. As a result, Kenny and I have had a fair amount of time to sink into its creation. We did the original spawner mock-up using dirt we borrowed from Marian, but have since replaced that with Stone Brick. This change in texture in the mob spawner/grind was mandated by the HOA. However, I do not respond well with veiled threats, so I responded in a technically HOA-allowable move by building a feeder-tower next door OUT OF PUMPKINS. Unfortunately, not even I have nearly enough pumpkins to complete the structure, so it may take a while to complete this feeder station. Most of my time spent this past week was done working on this project.



Plane Jane:

It's a bird! It's a plane! It's.. oh, yeah it's actually a plane.

Call me a left-wing conspiracy theorist, but something is fishy about Pierre's sky-base/plane. Perhaps I am just being paranoid, but it looms too close to my pumpkin base for comfort. Is this a sign of peace sent from Mordor on a diplomatic mission, or is this the advance force for an impending invasion? Hailing frequencies are being monitored, have been no lines of communication yet. Until that communication can be established, I will assume that the following statements are true.

1. Pierre's Airship is named Lady Luck
2. He has included hidden bomb compartments
3. His plans include domination, destruction, and famine
4. The real reason he build it was so we could call Pierre's Airship the "Pierreship"

Sometimes being an admin means playing... differently...

"And on this side of the plane we see... everything; we're all going to die!

Choot choot.  Rails are fun when they are actually efficient.

Daniel's Den:
Because Daniel works most, if not all, weekends, he was not online much these past two weeks. As a results of his non-work, I leave you with a pretty picture of me on top of a railroad that goes in front of his base. Isn't that pretty?

Nether Warts.  An Alchemist's wet dream. Wait. Eww.

Dave's Dungeons (Hell):
Dave decided against outdoing his previous works this time around, and focused on working within the Nether instead. This makes pictures both exciting to take, and also more than slightly dangerous (see: Picture of all my drop loots). While wandering the Nether (or scouring, more likely), Dave managed to find a Nether Fortress. I had never seen one before, and I highly recommend the trip for anyone else who has not; they're very impressive.  We've now found both types of Fortresses on our server now. Kudos! Now, if I could just figure out what to do with 100,000 Nether Bricks...

I collected this loot 2 [rl] days after I died.  Thank you, SMP!

This picture is downright ghastping! (ok, maybe that pun was ghastping at straws...)

This is the aftermath of Pierre's Lava Occupation.

Lava it or Leave it!:

With the #Occupy protests settling down, things on the server are starting to return to normal. A number of the monuments that were constructed during this frenzied time remain intact, while others have begun to disappear over time. Most noticeably, the lava fountain that became John's Skybase has reverted to a Cobblestone dome. Whether this was an act of further sabotage, or whether it was intentional remains to be seen. In either case, the gardens should be considered extremely dangerous until lighting can be improved.

Finally! This line is a fully operational battle station.

All Aboard!:
The better part of the first weekend this update encompasses I was working furiously on the Red Line Aqua Tunnel. After having spent many hours refining my techniques, noticeable progress was
made in passing the three quarters mark. With the further help of the community, the Red Line has finally been completed in all of its glory! The transcontinental rail clocks in at a flying 2.5 minutes; arguably faster than hopping through the Nether.







Mike's Mysterious Ministry of Magic:
In an in-office interview with Mike, he refused to divulge the exact meaning of the prototype that has popped up on top of his "Chicken Coop" At first, I assumed this contraption to be a clever egg-harvester; I assumed the chickens would lay eggs, and those would fall through to the bottom floor for collection. This was fervently denied, so that leaves me with only one option: it must be the home base for the occult.

Suspicious Prototype is suspicious...

A nice capture of the space between Mike and Dave.

Pierre's Possessive Pyromania:
It has been a while since I have cataloged Mordor's building projects. I decided to check out exactly what those crazy orcs have been doing since Minecraft's official release. I could tell I was approaching Mount Doom when all of the grass started to disappear. While there are still a few patches of sod strewn about, they are few and far between. The Excavation Tower has begun to earn its name. Ironically, while Pierre claims that the ring of fire was to "Keep the enemies out", I had no problem finding a skeleton waiting right outside his front door waiting to gank somebody. When I finally mustered the courage to peek inside, I was greeted with familiar "#Occupy" signs tucked away.

Mordor: No grass for you! Is that a skeleton?

#OccupyALLtheThings!

I wandered around Pierre's tower searching for additions and renovations, but I could only find one small alteration. A library module has been attached to the cobblestone tower near the top. It appears that everywhere I go I am greeted by these wretchedly drab half-finished book rooms. Word[s] of advice to everyone: if you're going to build a library, please make it a nice one. Since that was the only major change to Mordor (that the sod removal), I decided to move on to greener pastures.

Libraries: all the craze.

I glanced down and saw this view.

Little Egypt:
Perhaps I was mistaken when I said "greener pastures" Next on my list was Troy's settlement. I was greeted by an aesthetically pleasing village which has grown since the last time I visited. Most noticeable, a number of existing buildings have second stories attached to them now, and many serve proper functions.

While I wandered around, I stumbled into one of Troy's mines, and was greeted by an elaborate redstone machine. I am a sucker for redstone, so I immediately threw the switch and watched it work. Troy's contraption powered a minecart, pushing it from one end of a tunnel to the other, and stopping on a block where it can be recalled by the single flick of that same switch. Impressive circuitry, although I could not help but feel that I was only looking at the first stage of a more elaborate design.

Troy's Little Egypt gets bigger every day.

Push Lever, Receive cart.

Merry Solstice!
While my exploring can be considered a complete and utter disaster, John deftly located the server's first snow biome. The first order of business for said biome was to create a snowman, as is pictured below. My favorite part is the pumpkin head. What do you think?

Merry Holidays! Joyous solstice!

It is unlikely that I will update the blog again before Christmas, so let me take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas/Holiday/Solstice!