Minecraft: Finale!

Now, finale usually indicates a climactic ending filled with suspense and awesome, and while I can provide awesome, it's more of a satisfying "sweet" finale. I have established a base a good ways away from my spawn point, I traveled through the nether and successfully secured a safe path between the portals, and I've even turned to decorations and other neat things.

My base looks awesome at night.

I cleared out the dirt to make a flat courtyard; I found a small tunnel behind the back wall to use as an escape route; I hung my first picture on the wall; and my best achievement is an actual mini-port.

Half-blocks prevent water flow, yet allow me to exit the boat easily.

I spent several days spelunking with plenty of success, mining plenty of gold, diamond, and redstone. I started a small farm and was pleased by how easy it was to build off just one seed.

Mmmm... Wheat!

But best of everything was just wandering this new region, with amazing mountain formations and huge forests; it's truly breathtaking to stand on top of a mountain with the fog set to normal. It makes everything look so much bigger than reality, which is what I appreciated most of all.

Awww... too bad it's over, huh?

I have had such a great time playing through on hard, and while I still prefer the risk-free settings available, it has allowed me to have the full experience of Minecraft. I have a new appreciation for all the various materials and objects available in the Minecraft world, where diamond and TNT was once the only tools I used.

While this story has reached a conclusion, my time in Minecraft is just beginning. The next project I am working on is a special with one of the best and most awesome-filled sandbox games available: Just Cause 2.

More gaming goodness to come!

Minecraft: Day 6-Recovery

My first death in Hardmode... I had been careless, allowing my armor to degrade far past what I should have. Fortunately, I had stored a second set of armor in my shelter. With nightfall, I would have to wait until morning to try and recover my loot. Unfortunately another aspect of Hard in Minecraft is that fallen loot doesn't wait around for you. All that delicious roasted pork was lost, along with my bow, flint and steel, and tools. Fortunately, the trees I had planted on top of my shelter provided the necessary wood to replenish most of my needed supplies. I made sure to collect and replant any saplings the rapidly degrading leaves dropped, and I realized that this process was making my small forest grow exponentially. I possessed the power to turn this bleak wilderness into a utopia.

In the meantime I focused on supplementing my supplies. With the sudden depletion of pork, I decided to turn to a more readily available recourse: fish. While fish were not as effective as pork as a restorative, they were much easier to obtain. Although as much as I'd hoped it would work, fish did not actually take up residence in a bucket of water.

But still, I would have the option of fishing in the ocean that was literally right at my doorstep. For now, with my supplies finally replenished, I turned again to the tedium of mining for precious materials. The cavern I had uncovered earlier proved fruitful once more, and even when I reached a dead end it took only brief digging to uncover another cavern. This one was carved out by a giant underground river, stretching for miles into the darkness.

I followed the river down into the earth, and pretty soon I was forced to jump to the side to avoid being swept over the edge of a waterfall. Another important lesson is look before you leap, and sure enough I could see a zombie waiting waiting for me at the bottom. I was trying to figure out the best way to eliminate him safely, and short of a bow I had to resort to probably the best method for eliminating the undead: burial. Sand is one of the few substances that actually gives in to gravity, a lesson learned usually by burying oneself. I had eight beautiful blocks of sand I unceremoniously dumped onto the zombie's head.

Sure enough, the groans were replaced by repeated grunts of pain as the zombie suffocated under the weight of the sand. I was once again free to proceed with my exploration. This cave proved to be even more expansive than the first, and had all kinds of amazing phenomena like unnatural lighting;

Floating rocks;

And golden pillars;

I found more amazing underground rivers and rare minerals, and before long I found a section of the cave that went straight up to what appeared to be a ceiling of sand.

It required a little effort to climb up to it, but once there it took only a second to cause the whole ceiling to collapse and reveal sunlight... and water.

Thanks to Mincraft physics, the water poured endlessly into my cavern without actually filling it or lowering the ocean level in any way. Also, it's apparent my Minecraft character is incredibly athletic, and I was able to swim up the waterfall and all the way to the surface. The surface proved to be pretty close to my shelter, and I was able to safely deposit my valuables and restock my supplies a bit.

Okay, spelunking was fun and all, but it was time to make a second attempt at an above-ground shelter. This time I would build in the center of the small forest I was growing, which would be close enough that if I was killed in the process of building, I would be able to recover my gear before it vanished. It took a couple cycles of day and night, but I successfully completed my home without incident, and I stepped back to view my handiwork.

Ugly, yet efficient. I was proud of my success. I created a second workbench and large chest as furniture, and even made a defensible rooftop. A little more work to spread the forest, and I was able to call it a day. My death hadn't set me too far back, and now that I had replaced most of what was lost, I was beginning to feel comfortable in my ability to survive once again.

Look for more tomorrow!

Minecraft: Day 2

Day two:

I respawned not far from my shelter to find zombies swarming all over the place. Losing everything and being sent back to the spawn point is bad enough, but when it is nighttime, it can be excruciatingly difficult getting back.

I had to bait the zombies, draw them away, then circle back around to my shelter, knowing that my fists would prove futile if they came too close. Ducking inside, I checked my chest hoping for something to fill my empty inventory, but all I had was dirt and cobblestone. I had to fight those first urges to load up InvEdi, but I swore I'd stick with it, and stick with it I shall. My corpse and loot were just a short walk away, and it wasn't like I had anything else to lose, so I trudged back down, peeked around the corner for creepers, dashed to my loot, then ran back to my shelter for dear life.

That was all a very brief, terrifying experience, but I had successfully recovered all of my lost items, and there didn't seem to be any more creatures in sight.

So that's where that creeper came from. Well, I'll just avoid going that way for now. So what's over he- OOOH! Gold!

Argh! I need an iron pickaxe to mine gold. Ah well, it's not too far, so I'll just mark it with a torch and come back later.

After a bit more exploring I found a few more veins of iron, which after mining I decided to prioritize my next piece of armor: boots.

My confidence was building again as the only creature I had to fight was a spider that wandered too near. Cave after cave yielded iron and coal enough to complete my armor set with helmet and pants, and so with ham in hand I cautiously approached the area the creeper had appeared. As soon as I stepped through I was amazed by the size of the natural cavern. I could hear the moans of zombies off in the distance, and several waterfalls disappeared down steep shafts into the darkness. There was even a small lava-fall across the way, setting the scene beautifully, and like an overconfident noob, I decided to reach all the way up my keyboard to take a screenshot.

Do you see that? It's a beautiful sight isn't it? Do you see that dark pit in the lower left corner? Yes, and it sucked.

The very EXACT second my finger touched the button to take that picture there was a loud and very terrifying *TWANG!* and I found myself plummeting down into that pit with an arrow in my back. I was panicking, but I acted quickly; remembering there was a waterfall close by, I broke my fall in the water, fighting off a zombie with a torch as I drifted down in the darkness. My feet finally hit solid ground and I tucked myself in a convenient corner behind the waterfall and started clicking frantically into the darkness until I managed to slap a torch down.

I had somehow managed to choke down one of my precious pork chops during my panicked descent, and with no real idea where I was, I cautiously set out, knowing that at any moment another creature could appear to finish the job the zombie and skeleton had started. And boy did they try. What followed I can only explain by saying I am completely traumatized by it all. Every noise, every growl, every clunk of bone against stone had me spinning in circles trying to find and kill whatever made the noise before it killed me. I climbed up and up, fighting zombies and skeletons all the while praying that I didn't come across a creeper. My very short second life flashed before my eyes at one point when an arrow hit me and the only creature I saw was a zombie, AND I had already used the last of my pork chops. But my frantic, tear-filled flight finally found myself in an area lit by the same lava flow I where had taken that foolish, foolish screenshot. Dashing back into my tunnel, I stopped only to take a picture of a poor zombie who futily continued to chase me.

Finally, I was home. This precious safe-haven that still held some extra pork-chops and a desperately needed spare set of armor. As the adreniline died down I decided it would be best to take a break from spelunking for a while and work on something above ground. This of course meant a celebratory barbecue.

I ran around restocking my pork-chop supply, and nearly got myself killed when I realized I had east and west mixed up the entire time; I only barely made it back before nightfall brought the creatures out. Once inside I went and checked on my pet tree, only to find it had still made no progress.

What was I doing wrong? Well, I remembered that trees had to have a good bit of space to grow, so the little room might not be big enough. After opening it up a bit more, I remembered that those newfangled bones I had collected could be used to make plants grow instantly, so like a dummy I started whacking away at my little sapling with a bone. Oh wait, bonemeal? That's right, I remember now. Crafting the bones gave me a solid stock of bonemeal, and I then proceeded to chuck those at the sapling. Nothing... Frustrated, I cleared out more space and chucked a couple more at it. Still nothing... I was down to my last bonemeal, and while I had absolutely no expectations for this thing anymore, I knew I had to be able to say that I tried. I chucked my last bonemeal at the sapling.

Once again, I have no real way of explaining what happened next, and I was far too shocked to remember to take a screenshot. Perhaps trees are randomly generated when they grow, and if that specific shape won't fit, it won't grow. Perhaps this tree was really Bruce Banner, and my incessant whacking made it angry. For whatever reason, everything suddenly went black. Now, I've had sand cave in on me before; I've been completely buried in an avalanche. I've always successfully dug my way out. But for some reason, while I could hear my panicked clicking was breaking through something, I still couldn't move and I still couldn't see.

In short, I died. I'd heard of people killed by falling trees. I'd heard of people killed by burning trees. But I was completely dumbfounded that I had let myself get killed, or better raped, by a growing tree. Still in shock, I rushed back to my shelter, taking out an innocent pig on my way, and sure enough...

There it was, completely filling the area I had cleared for it. I was simultaneously angry that I had survived my terrifying escapade underground, only to be killed by a tree, and proud that I now had my own man-eating hulk-tree.

It took me just a second to find and recover my gear from the foliage, and I very eagerly decided to call it a day. But this is when I made perhaps the most terrifying discovery yet. More tomorrow!