Minecraft

Unagi · Post by **Unagi** » Sun Aug 01, 2010 3:06 pm

I found a small valley with lava flowing from the side of one of the rock outcrops. Looks great at night.

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Mon Aug 02, 2010 12:02 pm

Minecraft Multiplayer Survival

It hits Tuesday or Wednesday of this week. I have questions about it -- and I'm not sure I've found conclusive answers. How exactly does this work?

Is everyone in the entire Minecraft world dumped into one server and one world? Do you get fragmented out into games with a limited number of people active?

I was just thinking while playing the other day that it was an awful lonely world. Succession play helps some, but I'd love to be in a world where I really needed to establish a secret underground layer in order to keep people away from my stuff. Or get on a boat and sail in a random direction away from where others are setting up housekeeping or playing around.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Tue Aug 03, 2010 10:59 am

Looks like SMP is coming out tomorrow for better or worse, but he's pretty clear on the fact that it will be buggy and some of the features like mobs will be missing.

Still, as long as there aren't too many hoops to jump through I'm planning on trying to get an OO server up and running. Depending on how Notch sets it up I'd like to keep it private and by invite only to keep the rif raff out (and hopefully protect our mighty creations). I'll probably start a new thread on it once I get things up and running, and see what the server software is capable of.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Thu Aug 05, 2010 11:35 pm

Goddamit. I spent a long time getting construction started on a nice little tower. I come out of my cave/quarry at dawn to start the day's work. Get jumped by two creepers and killed. Now I can't find the tower again.

Kind of makes me not want to leave the respawn area, since there's not a good way to orient yourself. I guess if I ever figure out where my tower is in relation to the spawn area, I can set up a trail of torches or something.

What's the best way to find iron? It took me forever just to find coal.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 12:35 am

Never found my tower. Found a nice waterfall though. I've now decided to build a fort/castle thing over the waterfall, with the falls coming out of the front of the castle. I'm building the arch first, but at some point I'm going to have to find some metal so I can get a furnace going and make some glass and better tools.

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 10:27 am

Chaz wrote:What's the best way to find iron? It took me forever just to find coal.

Here's a good post I found on mining on the Minecraft forum a while back:

There are 3 methods for gaining ore: Spelunking, Strip-mining, and Grid Mining.

Spelunking: This is by far the best method for gaining ore, with minimal change to the land and minimal usage of tools. By finding a cave, you are uncovering far more surface area along the rock walls than you would when mining, and you travel at a far faster rate than if you are mining. If you were to mine out the equivalent volume of a cavern, you would make more ore per cubic meter, but at the cost of ridiculous amounts of time and tools.

Strip mine: This is the most inefficient form of mining you can do when gathering ore. Due to the fact that each new rock destroyed uncovers only a bare minimum of new rock faces, the chances of finding new ore are very slim. The more cube shaped your strip mine, the worse it will work.

Grid Mining: This is done by only mining out corridors to walk through, with consideration to boosting the surface area to a maximum with the least digging. By mining 4 blocks in every direction, placing a torch at the end, and mining 4 blocks from each of those torches, you are left with a 3x3 pillar with corridors all around it. This gives ridiculously large amounts of surface area, as you can see all sides of each pillar have no ore, and the likely hood of the centre of the pillars having ore is very slim.

They each have their drawbacks: If you spelunk, you could get lost or killed by lava or various predators. If you strip mine, you will not gain many ores and waste lots of time. If you Grid mine, you can get lost in there as well, but it is safer than spelunking.

In the end: Want the most ores in short time? Go spelunking. You also find mob spawners and gain arrows/feathers/string/gunpowder as well. Want to be safe? Strip mine or Grid mine. Don't want to get lost? Strip mine. Want lots of cobblestone? Strip mine or grid mine.

Chaz · Post by **Chaz** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 12:20 pm

I like the idea of spelunking, but I'm turned off by the very real possibility of getting lost. It's just way too easy to get turned around and not be able to find your home base again.

DonD · Post by **DonD** » Fri Aug 06, 2010 5:05 pm

You can dig back to the surface and then look for landmarks to reorient yourself.

Often, you aren't too far away from where you started due to all of the twisting and turning that goes on.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Sat Aug 07, 2010 12:30 am

Chaz wrote:I like the idea of spelunking, but I'm turned off by the very real possibility of getting lost. It's just way too easy to get turned around and not be able to find your home base again.

Use torches as "breadcrumbs" to help you remember which way to go. I typically put torches on the entrances to hard-to-find locations. I also put torches in high places near my home base, so that it glows at night. It helps to also create a high-up "lighthouse" at your home base - a tall tower with a glass top full of torches or lava.

Turtle · Post by **Turtle** » Sat Aug 07, 2010 3:38 am

I use a 3 point arrow configuration of torches that always indicate which way is "Back." I do this any time there might be any confusion as to which way is which.

You can also just use two torches as the tunnel that leads back, that also works.

Overall, if you're careful and plan ahead, you won't get lost.

msduncan · Post by **msduncan** » Sat Aug 07, 2010 8:37 am

Never get lost again!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cartograph

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Thu Aug 19, 2010 2:09 pm

Interesting... Notch made a post on his blog today talking about a trip he's making next week to meet some of his game development heroes in Bellevue Washington (home of Valve).

Things could get interesting if Valve gives him the resources he needs to ramp things up a bit and they publish Minecraft. Seems like Valve has a pretty good record of taking in talented indies and giving them the room they need to innovate, so I'm not too worried on that score.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Thu Aug 19, 2010 3:53 pm

Sepiche wrote:Interesting... Notch made a post on his blog today talking about a trip he's making next week to meet some of his game development heroes in Bellevue Washington (home of Valve).

Things could get interesting if Valve gives him the resources he needs to ramp things up a bit and they publish Minecraft. Seems like Valve has a pretty good record of taking in talented indies and giving them the room they need to innovate, so I'm not too worried on that score.

That IS quite interesting news. I would say his "1000 pre-orders in a day" should have people sitting up and taking note. Sure, that isn't AAA levels of pre-orders, but for a one-man show and a game with no real end-point in sight, that is pretty amazing! I would be all for Valve or some other studio pumping in some development cash and getting Minecraft fully polished and done. It's my favorite time-waster at the moment!

Vorret · Post by **Vorret** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 12:13 pm

anyone hosting a OO server?
I made a crazy underground labyrinth in a multiplayer map but they reseted the server overnight

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 6:03 pm

Vorret wrote:anyone hosting a OO server?
I made a crazy underground labyrinth in a multiplayer map but they reseted the server overnight

Yup.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=74764" target="_blank

I'll PM you with the connection info.

baelthazar · Post by **baelthazar** » Fri Aug 20, 2010 7:08 pm

I posted on another forum, and I'm too lazy to find the picture...

But Skeletons now can ride Spiders....

Chew on that.

Lee · Post by **Lee** » Sun Aug 29, 2010 9:34 pm

4000 sales in 24 hours! For an alpha! The guy is set for life off this one game that isn't even close to finished. He is meeting with Valve tomorrow, will be interesting to hear what that brings.

All that said, I kind of quit playing until the single player game gets some more development.

Kind of surprising this game didn't get a lot more talk here.

Matrix · Post by **Matrix** » Sun Aug 29, 2010 10:53 pm

I am expecting a lot of large and small companies to be hitting this nitch soon. I think he just discovered gold mine, and he is first mover, i cant imagine sales keeping up momentum like that. Around this time next year we will see a lot of not indy and indy copy cats. I know if i was developing games, and i saw a guy sell 2000-4000 games day in and day out before the game is even that polished and still in alpha stage, i would have taken notice and jumped in the field. I am all for that, i feel like there is a lot of potential in this nitch, and the nitch very very underdeveloped. I like this type of games, and cant wait for someone who brings involving game play and better graphics. considering how old school the graphic is and how much he is making, i think some executives in large gaming companies are having heart attacks right now.

Vorret · Post by **Vorret** » Mon Aug 30, 2010 8:19 am

Yeah, he does sit on a goldmine, Multiplayer could be alot of fun with a few improvements.

Vorret · Post by **Vorret** » Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:30 am

I need help for survival...
I'm trying to make a bow but I can't... I hit sheeps and they drop the white block but I don't think it's the correct material for a bow...

I'm getting raped by archers all around...

This game is probably the most stressfull game I've played ever, it creeps me out when I'm exploring a deep, dark cave lol... weird when you think about it...

Gameplay > GFX ... So true

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Thu Sep 02, 2010 11:35 am

Vorret wrote:I need help for survival...
I'm trying to make a bow but I can't... I hit sheeps and they drop the white block but I don't think it's the correct material for a bow...

I'm getting raped by archers all around...

This game is probably the most stressfull game I've played ever, it creeps me out when I'm exploring a deep, dark cave lol... weird when you think about it...

Gameplay > GFX ... So true

For a bow you need sticks and string. Sticks you can get easy enough from trees, but string only drops from spiders, so you'll need to kill a few of them.

Once you have the bow you'll also need arrows. Those are easier now. Feathers from a chicken, sticks from trees, and flint from gravel.

Vorret · Post by **Vorret** » Thu Sep 02, 2010 12:02 pm

ahhh thought it was wool from sheeps lol

Thanks alot

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 3:14 pm

Woo to the mother fuckin' oot!

Massive update to Survival Multiplayer... I'll get the OO server updated as soon as I get home.

Notch wrote: + Added server-side inventory
+ Made the server save player locations when they leave the server
+ Made chests work in SMP
+ Made signs work in SMP
+ Made furnaces work in SMP
+ Added monsters=false to server.properties. You can turn it on for experimental monsters, but you can’t hurt them directly yet. (Fire works, though!)

But this is NOT SECURE YET! I decided to just focus on making it functional first so I actually got it out.

I’ll work on inventory security and server-side health management next week. Server-side health means you’ll be able to fight monsters and perhaps even other players.

Vorret · Post by **Vorret** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 3:22 pm

Awesome!!!

Let us know when it's updated

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Fri Sep 10, 2010 4:08 pm

Sweet... apparently he also added a compass that points to the spawn point:

Mold Maker · Post by **Mold Maker** » Sat Sep 11, 2010 10:15 pm

Sepiche wrote:Sweet... apparently he also added a compass that points to the spawn point:

Very nice!

Baroquen · Post by **Baroquen** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 12:22 am

I bought this awhile ago, but finally got into it this weekend.

Started off using a cave at the top of a large hill to survive the first night. Then started digging around with my pick and grabbed a bunch of stone. Saw a nice island near my cave and worked on constructing a stone base there. Workbench. Furnace. Large chest. Door. Ladder to a second floor. Still hadn't seen much ore though.

A little combat, and generally successful with my wooden sword. Next island over had a deep mine shaft. Spent a day or two digging around to reach the bottom. As I got toward the bottom, the droning zombie really freaked me out. Was able to dispatch him pretty easily though.

Bottom of the shaft opened up into a big old cave complex. Waterfall. Multiple levels/tunnels. And was that redstone? And was that more groaning? Yeah... dead quickly. Dead upon 1st recovery attempt too. Thinking I'm going to have to prepare myself before heading back down there. But looking forward to staking out some territory down there.

Very enjoyable sandbox of a game.

neofit · Post by **neofit** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 3:07 am

This looks like Wurn, without the crafting gauge watching, the need to constantly feed yourself, the decay on everything, and the obnoxious players

. Which should be a win. I'd like to make sure I can live in a Lego world, but I can't find a demo. I've tried the "Free Single-Player" option, but I'm not sure how it relates to the actual game.

Is the download alpha that one needs to buy to access, the one that is not in-browser, actually run full-screen? Does it support 1680x1050 resolutions? Can one redefine the WASD keys (I am not on a qwerty keyboard)?

I'd really like to be able to see it in motion in full-screen. IMO this game has the perfect graphics for Dwarf Fortress, but I am afraid that in a 1st person game they may not make me feel like I am in a believable world.

Then, gameplay-wise, how does it relate to the "Free Single-Player" in-browser version? Are there attributes/stats/skills to develop? How do you grab things? In the free game, I see a flower but can't take it, only smash it or choose one as a tool. Then when I choose it as a tool I can smash through earth and rock as if it were a laser sword, and I can do that with any of the blocks that I can choose through B. Is mining and caving in so easy?

Vorret · Post by **Vorret** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 8:56 am

neofit wrote:This looks like Wurn, without the crafting gauge watching, the need to constantly feed yourself, the decay on everything, and the obnoxious players . Which should be a win. I'd like to make sure I can live in a Lego world, but I can't find a demo. I've tried the "Free Single-Player" option, but I'm not sure how it relates to the actual game.

Is the download alpha that one needs to buy to access, the one that is not in-browser, actually run full-screen? Does it support 1680x1050 resolutions? Can one redefine the WASD keys (I am not on a qwerty keyboard)?

I'd really like to be able to see it in motion in full-screen. IMO this game has the perfect graphics for Dwarf Fortress, but I am afraid that in a 1st person game they may not make me feel like I am in a believable world.

Then, gameplay-wise, how does it relate to the "Free Single-Player" in-browser version? Are there attributes/stats/skills to develop? How do you grab things? In the free game, I see a flower but can't take it, only smash it or choose one as a tool. Then when I choose it as a tool I can smash through earth and rock as if it were a laser sword, and I can do that with any of the blocks that I can choose through B. Is mining and caving in so easy?

Short answer : No
Long answer : You can set it to 3rd person (I beleive)
I run mine at home in full screen but the resolution isn't great, let's be honest here, the game doesn't look good in a "modern" type of game but there's some really nice touch... sun set are seriously awesome.

Also, no, you can't just laser through stuff, dirt takes a few hit, wood some more, normal stone if you don't have a mining pick is a pain in the ass.
The rougher the stone, the rougher your mining pick has to be (ie: try to mine gold with a wooden pick)

You can lose life, die, your stuff has durability so you need to carry many picks around. You also need to create your own "light" source , so start digging early otherwise you'll be eaten by zombies and creeper.

neofit · Post by **neofit** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 9:10 am

Thanks for the reply.

What does the "no" relate to? You can't go full-screen? You can't go 1680x1050? You can't redefine the WASD keys? Or something else?

Vorret · Post by **Vorret** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 2:26 pm

neofit wrote:Thanks for the reply.

What does the "no" relate to? You can't go full-screen? You can't go 1680x1050? You can't redefine the WASD keys? Or something else?

no it doesn't really relate to the "free" version, full version is much more complex (imho) and survival is just pure fun

Vorret · Post by **Vorret** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 2:30 pm

I'll let you guys live in my fortress on the server when the zombie apocalypse happens...

It's not quite (well far) from being completed yet though... give or take a few weeks... hopefully the "full" implementation of mobs on SMP is a few weeks away

neofit · Post by **neofit** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 3:54 pm

Vorret wrote:
neofit wrote:Thanks for the reply.

What does the "no" relate to? You can't go full-screen? You can't go 1680x1050? You can't redefine the WASD keys? Or something else?

no it doesn't really relate to the "free" version, full version is much more complex (imho) and survival is just pure fun

OK, but I still need to know: can one redefine the movement keys from the default WASD? I'm not on a qwerty keyboard, and when games won't let me do it I can't play them (King Arthur the RP wargame and Moobase Alpha for instance).

Mr Bismarck · Post by **Mr Bismarck** » Mon Sep 13, 2010 6:34 pm

neofit wrote:
Vorret wrote:
neofit wrote:Thanks for the reply.

What does the "no" relate to? You can't go full-screen? You can't go 1680x1050? You can't redefine the WASD keys? Or something else?

no it doesn't really relate to the "free" version, full version is much more complex (imho) and survival is just pure fun
OK, but I still need to know: can one redefine the movement keys from the default WASD? I'm not on a qwerty keyboard, and when games won't let me do it I can't play them (King Arthur the RP wargame and Moobase Alpha for instance).

Yes you can.

jasonroy · Post by **jasonroy** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 12:47 am

This game is very fun. This simplicity is what makes it so addictive. Sure the graphics are not spectacular, but the square pixel style is always fun. And more, it does not take a computer game to run.

neofit · Post by **neofit** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 4:01 am

jasonroy wrote:This game is very fun. This simplicity is what makes it so addictive. Sure the graphics are not spectacular, but the square pixel style is always fun. And more, it does not take a computer game to run.

I wouldn't say that it runs on anything though. My office PC, on which I am typing this, has an Intel E2160 @1.8GHz with an Intel G33/G31 graphics card, more than enough for work, runs MS Office and all my database stuff perfectly, but gives me 4-7 fps on the lowest settings on this CGA-quality game.

Oh, and no tooltips? Seriously?

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 10:46 am

Can I get added to the Succession OO game?

Sepiche · Post by **Sepiche** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 11:08 am

Carpet_pissr wrote:Can I get added to the Succession OO game?

Unless there's a new one that started up that I missed, we stopped the succession game a while back and have moved on to the Minecraft Multiplayer. If you're interested in joining in there just shoot me a PM and I'll send you the connection info.

Tscott · Post by **Tscott** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 4:35 pm

After reading two (1) (2) days worth of comments on this game at Rock Paper Shotgun and watching a 'survive your first night' video on youtube, I got sucked into this game today. And where did all the time go? I had stuff I was going to do today.

I didn't comprehend everything I saw/read before starting, so when my first night came I had only just made my first workbench but hadn't figured out how to use it so I was only equipped with my bare hands, some wood and flowers I'd picked up. As darkness fell, I made my way up to the highest point I could see and dug around me to get 2 blocks of space between me and the zombies. One made it's way up to me, but couldn't reach me- ah-ha, I'd outsmarted the game- but then he exploded doing some minor damage to me and leaving a hole in the ground. As morning came, another reached my mountain top, and I got to watch as he burst into flames and died. I emerged my first night as king of the mountain.

Day 2, I figured out how to use the workbench and got around to making a wooden pick and shovel. I dug in the hole left by the explosion to make a safe spot for my next night, found some coal and made torches and started digging deeper into the mountain- making a crude spiral staircase downwards. I then explored in three different directions finding more coal and some sand(?). I still haven't made anything more advanced than stone tools, but I'm having a ton of fun with this.

Carpet_pissr · Post by **Carpet_pissr** » Wed Sep 15, 2010 4:57 pm

Can you imagine the possibilities of this thing if it catches on? Could something like this, so revolutionary, be the next WoW? Is the title a coincidence?

I really see legs on this IF he can sign on with someone big. With the graphics as they are, you won't get much mainstream interest imo, but if you could get a team working on tweaking the code to allow you to up the pixel count while remaining playable...wow. I wouldn't touch WoW, but this? I immediately bought it just reading about it, no demo, nothing.

And I love it.

And the snow! Awesome...just spawned into a world with snow, and it made my work computer choke! As crude as the graphics are, there are some aspects to it that make it seem so realistic (like how peaceful the falling snow is, and some of the lighting effects, not to mention scale in the game, which is done very well). Weird.

PC GAMES LIVE TO SEE ANOTHER DAY!