Morning Discussion

Xav's away today and Brian is off at BlizzCon but we're all friends here, okay, so let's take today nice and slow, just see what happens, no pressure, until Blizzard unexpectedly announces Diablo 3 is on store shelves today and everyone there has (CD) keys under their chair or that Warcraft IV has become a Facebook game. Then we can get excited.

I can hardly wait for the weekend to begin as I'm going to a Twin Peaks marathon, where from 11:15am on Saturday till 6:40pm on Sunday I shall watch every episode of David Lynch's weird and brilliant TV series from the comfort of an arts centre floor while dressed as David Duchovny when he was dressed as a gentleman dressed as a lady dressed as a gentleman. If Monday's Morning Discussion is gibberish--more than usual, anyway--you'll know I had a fab time or my mind broke. Either way, it'll be great.

The official theme of today is run-on sentences while the official soundtrack is the bizarre/terrible/wonderful/astounding youth version of Devo, Dev2.0. Hey, here's what Devo has to say about the project. I say Whip It.

Indie Superstar, part of AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! - A Reckless Disregard for Gravity developer Dejobaan Games, wants to find out who plays indie games. Please complete their survey to help science.

From The Chatty
  • reply
    October 22, 2010 5:00 AM

    Friday Morning MineShock/Biocraft Thread!
    GotY Edition!!!

    What I like most about Biocraft is that it manages to effortlessly combine the complex ideals expressed by Ayn Rand with the playful simplicity of children’s building blocks. Truly, if games can be art, than Biocraft is this (console) generation’s equivalent of the Sistine Chapel.

    Multiplayer Servers!
    MercFox1 : shackeast.sytes.net
    Shadowdane : shadowdane.shacknet.nu
    Chicken Fur : 69.169.149.253
    m0rfus (PvP/Mobs on) : morfus.dyndns.org
    Haxim (TNT Server) : asplode.dyndns.org

    Teamspeak : ts.shackbattles.com:9987

    Now, I know a lot of you are stuck in the first level, so here’s a walkthrough if you feel like cheating. Be sure to watch it in 720p or you’re going to miss a lot of important details!
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNxcxnKYPOc

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 5:01 AM

      Gameplay Guides and Help
      - Check out (and help with) the Shackwiki Minecraft page!
      http://shackwiki.com/wiki/Minecraft

      - Map your levels with Oizomapper, by mroizo40!
      http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=24100023#itemanchor_24100023

      Video Guides!
      - (Series) X's Adventures in Minecraft! Linked by zuff!
      http://tinyurl.com/2ah7sex
      Lots of useful info in here!

      - (Series) Minecraft Minecart Tutorials! Boosters! Track switches! Et cetera!
      http://tinyurl.com/2udl2lt

      - Water Physics Tutorial by Arctic Fox!
      http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=24127669#itemanchor_24127669

      Written Guides!
      - Beginner’s Guides to Minecraft, originally linked by at0micgarden!
      (Work in Progress) Guide to Alpha: http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=17021
      How to Survive Your First Night: http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=19065

      Shacker Help!
      - Things I Wish I’d Known, a retrospective by Ebu!
      http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=23608826#itemanchor_23608826

      - Linkmania! By zuff!
      http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=23514788#itemanchor_23514788
      http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=23533536#itemanchor_23533536


      - Ores, and How to Find Them, by Fooldozer and CodeRedBeard!
      http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=23582115#itemanchor_23582115

      - Multiplayer Tips from BlackCat9
      http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=23641449#itemanchor_23641449

      - Circle guides! More useful than they sound!
      http://www.agentpothead.com/minecraft/sphere.html linked/hosted by AgentPothead!
      http://www.shackpics.com/files/radii_even_to_100_pgzh2n77iabkgcmee93q.png hosted by Arctic Fox!

      - Beginner’s Guide to Redstone, links by The Grolar Bear!
      http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=24044649#itemanchor_24044649

      - And some generally useful keys to press!
      F11 - full screen!
      F3 (hold) - CPU/ memory usage bar! Spikes for CPU/ red box for memory, I think!
      F5 - third person mode!

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 5:02 AM

      Oh my, that post is a little bigger than I thought it would be.

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      October 22, 2010 5:04 AM

      It's been a while since I've played. It's such an addictive game that once I start to play it's hard to stop. But now that I haven't played in a week I don't have such a strong urge to play.

      I still can't wait to see and play the boo update.

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        October 22, 2010 5:18 AM

        I'm really hoping that the update will bring some type of more aggressive monsters. Right now you can just build a house, put a door in and be in no danger whatsoever from mobs during the night.
        It's fun to build walls and towers and devise some kind of defense, but there's no point in doing it because the mobs can't even break down a wall made of wool.
        Can't wait for suicide creepers attacking your fortress ! But I hope he'll implement some kind of automatic defense so I don't have to watch my shit constantly either.

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 5:25 AM

          There was talk from Notch at one point about zombie hordes that can smash blocks, the coming of which would be "heralded by a blood moon rising" if I remember correctly. Also, one of the listed features of the Halloween Update is new, tougher mobs!

          And if you wanted you could just build a house in the Hell dimension to make the game extra hard.

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            October 22, 2010 5:29 AM

            it'd just be nice to have some kind of challenge while at the surface, for the time being the only challenge is exploring caves.
            I'd rather he implement something like this then create hell. If I want to build I'll play on peaceful and otherwise I expect at least some kind of fight from the mobs running around during the night. No need to add a whole new setting at this point yet IMO

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              October 22, 2010 6:43 AM

              He's said that in his grand plan, he'd rather the game be too hard than not hard enough, so I imagine he'll address this at some point. He's already leaning towards ramping the difficulty somewhat by making monsters spawn at progressively greater light levels, the deeper you go (mentioned in the boo update) and then there is things like the new monster, the Wight (I have a sneaking suspicion it's gonna be able to pass through walls, though it'll probably be limited to Hell or certain blocks if so).

              • reply
                October 22, 2010 6:53 AM

                sorry Ghasts. Also this should give you comfort:

                ProtoMith
                @notch Have you killed a Ghast yet?

                notch
                Markus Persson
                @ProtoMith Without a bow? No. It is possible now, though. I think.

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 7:01 AM

        Same, haven't played for a little over a week now and it's kind of nice not having that burning desire to do so all day. Also very refreshing to play other games again. But, I'm still really looking forward to the Halloween update and I'll definitely be playing again when it comes out.

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 5:32 AM

      [deleted]

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      October 22, 2010 5:58 AM

      the server portal stuff sounds sweet - Shadowdane and MercFox1 should link their servers.

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      October 22, 2010 6:44 AM

      FIRE! Someone's nice wooden pyramid is burning all the fuck up on Merc's server:

      http://i51.tinypic.com/2yp0nc9.jpg

      Couple clicks west of Duke City. I'm going to try dumping water on it & see if I can control it :(

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 6:45 AM

        Don't do that! It's supposed to be on fire.

        My floating island of crap is right next to that

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 6:47 AM

          Yeah scratch that - the fire didn't show up on the render so I thought someone had lit that shit up.

          Move along, nothing to see here.

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 2:53 PM

        someone already dumped water on it. That's why the middle bits aren't on fire :(

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 3:01 PM

          Have an admin come out and relight it. Just message Arctic Fox when you're in game. Or SM if he isn't on.

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 7:02 AM

        Lava sets wood on fire.

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        October 22, 2010 7:03 AM

        [deleted]

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        October 22, 2010 7:16 AM

        That house would take what - 10 minutes to build? What a dork.

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        October 22, 2010 9:13 AM

        One time we tried to build a moat around our house. Problem was, pigs, chickens were collecting in the moat and making a TERRIBLE noise. We had no way to kill them. So we decided to replace the water with lava. Turns out, the lava needs to have TWO BUFFER BRICKS below the wooden house....or it will catch frrrrrrrr

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 7:13 AM

      [deleted]

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        October 22, 2010 7:21 AM

        I want to get playing but I feel so tired :/

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 7:18 AM

      [deleted]

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 7:27 AM

      how come I can never get on the shack servers? always get a connection timed out error

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 7:38 AM

      Someone needs to port minecraft to iOS. I have a craving to place blox!!!!

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 7:38 AM

      I don't know the server's feeling a little stale, I think it's time for a redux. Let's get Merc v5.0 going sometime between 11/1/10 and 11/7/10.

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 7:41 AM

      Man it's cool, but Im still having trouble finding my way around the hugeness that is mercfox's world, although through some helpful shackers, I've learned the utlility of /compass and /getpos, but now to figure out how to get where I want to get on that render...sheesh

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 7:43 AM

        Just ask for a server reset, all the cool kids are!

        • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
          reply
          October 22, 2010 7:45 AM

          Why would you do that now? Wait for biomes IMO.

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 7:47 AM

            This is 'Set EricZBA Off Day' so all posters should request a server reset and extoll the virtues of ShackDroid's WatchThread feature!

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 7:48 AM

              [deleted]

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 7:54 AM

              [deleted]

              • reply
                October 22, 2010 7:56 AM

                Ok, I had to LOL this.

              • reply
                October 22, 2010 8:00 AM

                Hahaha, then blame Oizomapper. :P

              • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
                reply
                October 22, 2010 8:07 AM

                and then everybody would realize it's actually great and be disappointed

              • reply
                October 22, 2010 8:25 AM

                rofl

              • reply
                October 22, 2010 8:27 AM

                [deleted]

              • reply
                October 22, 2010 10:47 AM

                lol yea, and tell them the spawn point just moved, and ask everyone to go find it

              • reply
                October 22, 2010 12:27 PM

                i'd love a reset. i'd like to see everyone build completely new stuff.

                • reply
                  October 22, 2010 12:55 PM

                  [deleted]

                  • reply
                    October 22, 2010 1:30 PM

                    Devil's advocate: I think a reset is justifiable in the event that (dangerous) mobs are enabled in SMP, because it fundamentally changes the way that you approach building a structure -- you're building for protection, not to make some crazy mythical thing like Isengard out of Lego.

                    Also, Hell, and the existence of /sethome, would probably change the population density somewhat. It'd be interesting seeing how the server unfolds differently, given these conditions.

                    Of course, I'd fully recommend that we put any big decision like this to a vote among the server populace.

                    • reply
                      October 22, 2010 1:33 PM

                      Yes, Arctic Fox has been converted to the proper way of thinking! Also, with the reset, we can re-enable everything, since it's looking more and more like we need to!

                    • reply
                      October 22, 2010 1:33 PM

                      I think I'd rather have the Mercfox server remain the way it is, as people have really put a lot of time into it.

                      If dangerous mobs are added to MP I'd rather have a different server where the game play is more survival based and construction is for safety rather than aesthetics.

                      • reply
                        October 22, 2010 1:41 PM

                        Yea, this.

                        If we could have 2 servers, Mercfox for building (maybe disable monsters?) and a new one for survival.

                        • reply
                          October 22, 2010 1:44 PM

                          Well this plays into what Notch has (sort of) said that he's planning for the final game: http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=24166829

                          Our current server is basically a 'Creative' server. The second would be a 'Survival' server. There's pros and cons to each mode, and I'd like to see Notch bring Creative up to parity so that gamers who enjoy either mode can get their fix.

                          • reply
                            October 22, 2010 3:51 PM

                            if up to parity means "infinite" terrain instead of a limited flat plane like creative is now (AFAIK) that'd be decent. A mix of the two. I just happen to really like how it is now

                    • reply
                      October 22, 2010 3:03 PM

                      "changing the way people approach building a structure" would get rid of what makes the server cool. I don't want to see cobblestone redoubts everywhere. I like seeing the variety in what people have built. Pagoda, Isengard, Millenium Falcon etc. If I don't get to wander around and see cool shit I might as well be playing SP

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 7:44 AM

        I treat it like navigating the wilderness. You have a compass, a terrain map, and a general overhead map, and using all three, you can figure out where you are. I would be completely lost without the maps.

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 7:47 AM

        landmarks

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 7:49 AM

          yea, I just started using the angled view, and it's a lot more helpful than overhead it seems

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 7:52 AM

        [deleted]

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 7:57 AM

        There are more signs on this server than carter had oats man, come on.

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 7:58 AM

        Awesome, we're definitely going to need a server reset for this!

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 7:59 AM

        A winner is you!

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 7:59 AM

        [deleted]

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 8:00 AM

        I think he should make portals harder to craft, like put a diamond block in the middle surrounded by the obsidian

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 8:01 AM

          [deleted]

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 8:04 AM

            No, you need a second portal somewhere else to fast travel. You go into a portal, walk 10 blocks, create another portal in hell, then step into it. Now you're back on the surface, only 160 blocks away.

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 8:04 AM

              [deleted]

              • reply
                October 22, 2010 8:05 AM

                [deleted]

              • reply
                October 22, 2010 8:06 AM

                I think if you walked straight for a few blocks and built another portal you just multiply the blocks you walked by 16 and you come up into the world the result of that equation away from your first portal.

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 8:05 AM

          Obsidian is pretty tough to get, especially in single player. I think crafting with obsidian is already hard, or at least much harder than normal recipes.

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 8:07 AM

            at 15 seconds to break an obsidian rock with a diamond pick I'd say so, plus you'd need to take some with you into hell to make another portal out.

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 8:14 AM

              Imagine trying to portal out while under fire. That's going to get intense.

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 12:06 PM

            I wonder if portals can be made by casting obsidian in place instead of harvesting it and placing it. That would be much nicer.

            • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
              reply
              October 22, 2010 12:20 PM

              I'm sure it can, but you need one lava spring block per obsidian and unlike water they can't be duplicated(without bugs).

              • reply
                October 22, 2010 1:35 PM

                I was thinking I'd rather mine down to a lava pool and carry it up with buckets way more than I'd like to burn diamond tools mining it. It's not really efficient, but it beats mining for obsidian.

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 8:06 AM

          But you already have to burn diamond (tools) to get the obsidian in the first place.

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 2:01 PM

            Not really. Breaking one block of obsidian damages the pick the same as one block of stone.

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 8:23 AM

          [deleted]

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 10:58 AM

            I am 100% not shitting you. 16x faster than any other transportation? Uber monsters? Mega blocks? Fuck that noise being JUST OBSIDIAN. We need a fucking enchanted rune to do this sucker justice.

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 11:04 AM

              i am running Runecraft on my server. I need to update it though.

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 11:08 AM

              I feel like uber monsters already makes it difficult, even with the building requirement. It's hard enough to make the portal (even if you think it's easier), but trying to travel through it without dying is another part of it.

              • reply
                October 22, 2010 4:21 PM

                Getting your stuff back will be like a corpse run in Everquest.

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 8:05 AM

        renaming hell to avoid offending religious types? /facepalm

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 8:10 AM

          Well, naming it "Hell" would be bland anyway,

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 8:13 AM

          Ãœnderholme

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 8:14 AM

            awesome :)

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 8:16 AM

            ...or, to use Swedish letters, Ã…mal.

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 8:27 AM

              that sounds like it would be an awesome metal band name.

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 8:27 AM

              Yeah, except that that means "rivermoth" in Swedish.

              Underjorden, perhaps?

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 4:36 PM

              Fucking Åmål?

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 8:32 AM

            Ü is not in the Swedish alphabet. You're not doing anything to help the ignorant-American-stereotype. :)

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 8:35 AM

              I don't know a lick about Swedish, it just looked cool :p

              How about Hölle?

              • reply
                October 22, 2010 8:45 AM

                It means hell in German, so by naming it that you haven't actually solved the problem. :)

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 11:28 AM

              I figured Ãœnderland was too direct of a Venture Brothers reference

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 3:06 PM

              yeah I am totally familiar with the alphabet of every obscure language

              iss mir wurscht

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 9:22 AM

            [deleted]

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 8:05 AM

        "The red rock it’s made from can burn forever when ignited" I'm guessing we know the lantern ingredients now...

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 8:20 AM

          yeah it's pretty lame that if you are just starting out, the only way to get permanent lighting is to spend a week trying to get enough obsidian to build a door, survive hell, and then you can make a lantern.

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 8:24 AM

            [deleted]

            • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
              reply
              October 22, 2010 9:13 AM

              There should really be a server setting that disables the spreading of fire.

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 10:09 AM

              The Llama mod adds a lighter for safe lighting of items, I wonder if it might be similar to that

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 8:36 AM

            I don't see a problem there. Finite lighting is supposed to be a common thing in this game. A lot of the game play is going to center around dealing with areas of your map going dark over time. Lanterns are meant to be the exception to the rule; the rare thing you put in your home base or in major areas of high importance.

            Like obsidian, really.

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 8:42 AM

              well im just saying that the barrier to entry is going to be even harder for newbies to get into. Hell, a lot of people have a hard time figuring out how to survive the first night.

              • reply
                October 22, 2010 8:48 AM

                Surviving one night won't be any harder, unless torches burn out quicker than that. The main drawback is that you will have to spend more time chopping wood, mining coal and placing torches if you want to stay safe. But I think the situation today, when the landscape gets riddled with inexhaustible torches all over, is pretty ridiculous.

                • reply
                  October 22, 2010 10:17 AM

                  You don't need more torches than before, they're just going to need to be relit periodically.

            • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
              reply
              October 22, 2010 9:17 AM

              I don't think it's going to be as big a deal as you guys are imagining. Torches will probably last a few days at least, seeing as you're stuck with them until you can mine obsidian. I think it's a good change that the throwaway torches you spammed all over your mine and the terrain to light your path aren't going to keep it 100% monster-free forever. Lanterns probably won't be terrible expensive, just enough that you won't put them down for places you don't plan on revisiting.

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 12:28 PM

          Nope.

          The lantern fuel is the glowing gold blocks at the top of the screenshots floating in the air.

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 12:50 PM

            Your source on this?

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 1:08 PM

              That or they are the blocks that will allow lifts/elevators as they float to the top

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 8:07 AM

        The Ghasts are flying cuboid jellyfish that shoot fireballs at you, blowing chunks out of the world around you and setting it on fire.

        Well, this makes building in hell near impossible. I can't think of any way to make anything permanent there (wonder if obsidian could hold up against the blasts).

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 8:08 AM

          would be cool if you left your portal open and the ghasts followed you out and wreaked havoc on your world.

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 8:12 AM

          You don't build in Hell. It's for fast travel.

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 8:15 AM

            Sure, but where's the challenge in that? :D

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 8:15 AM

          [deleted]

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 8:16 AM

            Actually, that's a good point. They must not be able to destroy obsidian (probably similar to creeper explosions). If they could, then you're screwed since you would be trapped there.

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 8:17 AM

              Fire cannot destroy obsidian. I don't see how they will be able to destroy it.

              • reply
                October 22, 2010 8:25 AM

                See I am wondering how that's going to work, because whats to prevent someone from building a obsidian tunnel (outside of time) from one portal to the next, negating any danger. I feel like the danger factor is half the fun of the fast travel dimension.

                • reply
                  October 22, 2010 8:26 AM

                  an obsidian tunnel? That would take forever!! If someone wants to spend that much time between two portals it should be allowed, my god.

                  • reply
                    October 22, 2010 8:29 AM

                    Exactly my thoughts.

                  • reply
                    October 22, 2010 8:43 AM

                    [deleted]

                    • reply
                      October 22, 2010 8:43 AM

                      [deleted]

                    • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
                      reply
                      October 22, 2010 9:19 AM

                      Mining obsidian takes ages, not only do you have to find lava springs but you also have to slowly chip away at each piece. A 2 meter tall mini-tunnel would take 10 obsidian blocks per square of distance. Actually connecting portals with them even over short distances would be an epic undertaking.

                      • reply
                        October 22, 2010 11:36 AM

                        Yeah I guess it is a time sink. I didn't think about the durability hit on the tools (if that gets fixed in this update).

                        I just hope its never possible to be 100% safe in that dimension, maybe make Ghasts clip through obsidian or something :)

                        • reply
                          October 22, 2010 4:01 PM

                          Durability isn't a problem; it's just that it takes like 40 seconds to harvest one block.

                • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
                  reply
                  October 22, 2010 8:42 AM

                  Notch has said that it can be tamed, it's just really hard. I'm guessing they don't spawn in torch light, but because Hell is so open it's near impossible to completely blanket a big open area(like the screenshot) in sufficient light. If they can destroy hell rock though, the terrain is going to be swiss cheese whether you build anything or not...

                  • reply
                    October 22, 2010 2:36 PM

                    Notch said they don't care about light, only need space to spawn.

                • reply
                  October 22, 2010 8:46 AM

                  Then don't build one! It's not like an obsidian tunnel just appears out of nowhere.

                  • reply
                    October 22, 2010 11:30 AM

                    Well I am not saying I am going to do it!

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 8:49 AM

            If they could, you could get stuck in hell with no way out except by dying. It seems like a very unlikely design choice.

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 10:20 AM

          also, how far down can you dig in hell?

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 11:01 AM

            my guess would be that it has the same number of levels as a normal minecraft world 127 i think it is from top of the sky down to bedrock...i might be wrong about that number tho

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 8:07 AM

        Biomes are gonna rule.

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 8:25 AM

          I for one want to make a huge treehouse in the forest biome!! AWESOME!

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 8:26 AM

            my HDD is going to crash with all the exploration I'll be doing.

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        October 22, 2010 8:11 AM

        that's pretty cool. wish at some point he'd make flight possible. or at least some sort of transportation over land that's quicker than walking

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 8:22 AM

          Hopefully powered minecarts will work after this patch

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 8:22 AM

            Without crashing the server I mean.

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 8:27 AM

          transportation like boats or minecarts?

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 8:28 AM

            boat cant go over land and a minecart is good for exploring

            • reply
              October 22, 2010 8:46 AM

              Boats can go over land if you build a canal.

              Exploration should be somewhat slow, and potentially dangerous (at night). Once you explore a bit, you can then build canals or cart tracks to make travel faster.


              Flight would make things too easy to grief, and if anything moved faster than a boat or minecart, the terrain generation would not be able to keep up, especially if you were up high and had a wide open view (i.e., trees and hills help hide terrain generation and pop-in).

              • reply
                October 22, 2010 8:48 AM

                a hang glider that has a maximum glide distance. building a canal isnt conducive to exploration

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 8:12 AM

        Man everything about this sounds awesome. Can't wait for the biomes especially, let alone hell, portals, and lots of new block types.

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 8:14 AM

          ...and the inevitable surprises.

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 8:29 AM

            I will have to avoid browsing the Minecraft threads for weeks afterward to avoid all spoilers.

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        October 22, 2010 8:42 AM

        I hope you can build Minecart tracks right into a portal, lay them down in the hell world, and back out again through another portal.

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 8:45 AM

        [deleted]

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 9:12 AM

        Today is the 22nd. Getting close to Halloween. I can't wait!

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 9:49 AM

        Keep in mind, notch said that these Ghasts are actually 4 blocks tall, so as cute as they look, they're probably double their actual size compared to the player model

        • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
          reply
          October 22, 2010 9:56 AM

          No way are they actually four blocks tall, maybe they have to hover 2 blocks off the ground and so can't fit through entrances smaller than that.

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            October 22, 2010 9:57 AM

            The ghasts can move through walls

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              October 22, 2010 10:00 AM

              [deleted]

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              October 22, 2010 10:05 AM

              this has not been confirmed, I just speculated it due to the name

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                October 22, 2010 10:07 AM

                [deleted]

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                  October 22, 2010 10:34 AM

                  Ya I think arctic suggested this in one of his tweets, and notch just found it too funny not to include. So any time a ghast kills you, blame Arctic Fox!!!!

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                October 22, 2010 10:25 AM

                the screenshot in the article has a ghast passing through a block

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                October 22, 2010 10:36 AM

                [deleted]

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                  October 22, 2010 10:42 AM

                  I think in this case, making obsidian tunnels between portals would be a death trap. Imagine walking through it trying to get to the next portal and suddenly, a white blob moves through the wall. FFFUUUUUUU.... *you have died*

          • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
            reply
            October 22, 2010 11:07 AM

            I take it back, upon closer inspection they actually are really massive and just pretty far away in those screens. That is terrifying. It's hard to say if that one on top is phasing through a wall or not though.

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              October 22, 2010 12:00 PM

              Wow if the one on the top is behind those blocks, which it looks like it is, then those things are freaking HUGE

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        October 22, 2010 10:40 AM

        [deleted]

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          October 22, 2010 10:41 AM

          wont load for me either =\

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            October 22, 2010 10:57 AM

            a few reloads later it finally showed up

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        October 22, 2010 11:58 AM

        I'm not gonna play until the update is released.. Once it is I'm gonna start a brand new singleplayer game :D. I wonder if he's gonna fix the SMP issues

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      October 22, 2010 8:04 AM

      [deleted]

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        October 22, 2010 8:14 AM

        You can build stuff together in SMP but the monsters don't deal damage and you can't get hurt either, so it's better just to disable them at the moment. You don't need to leave a server running to maintain it, every time you shut it down the level is just saved in its last state, so when you boot it back up it's like it was when you left. You can't do everything you can in SP yet, mine carts are still glitchy, you need mods to use water, doors don't work, etc etc the list goes on.

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 8:50 AM

      Could someone get this up and running for the server renders?

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Moe24BzPdU&feature=player_embedded

      Links to open source code in the comments.

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 8:59 AM

        Ok. This is badass.

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        October 22, 2010 9:01 AM

        That is an extremely small piece of land compared to the area of Mercfox's server.

        Have you seen this:
        http://216.139.192.52/~djr/mc/gmap/
        ?

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        October 22, 2010 9:06 AM

        Very cool.

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        October 22, 2010 9:11 AM

        Cool, but it shows underground stuff, which won't be rendered on Mercfox as far as I know (give away too many secrets).

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          October 22, 2010 9:20 AM

          [deleted]

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          October 22, 2010 9:45 AM

          [deleted]

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            October 22, 2010 9:59 AM

            Well, honestly, I think someone would have to be really good/dedicated to be able to read much from these underground renders. They are so 'busy' that it's hard to tell what is what, and where it is.

            I'd be kinda amazed if someone could find my stuff with these.

            Still, I don't mind keeping the underground stuff more of a secret, makes for better exploring.

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 10:37 AM

            [deleted]

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            October 22, 2010 3:14 PM

            you might want to fix the gmap then. It's showing underground stuff in a big east west stripe just north of Stubb's Cathedral (and Minas Tirith) at the closest zoom level

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              October 22, 2010 3:37 PM

              Yea I saw that yesterday when I was exploring NE a little.

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              October 22, 2010 3:47 PM

              [deleted]

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                October 22, 2010 3:57 PM

                all the way across the map. Check Buttplug Tower or ConsFEARacy's fort, or start at Minas Tirith, go north to sky canal, then twice as far as that. Zoom all the way in. See this: http://www.shackpics.com/files/undergroundBleedingThrough_02g56r1sp5e8lxvyn16o.jpg

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                  October 22, 2010 4:02 PM

                  [deleted]

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                    October 22, 2010 4:10 PM

                    It's not broken caching, it's a partial render; I could expose the LRU cache size as an option to allow you to use more ram as a quick fix. I could render to temporarily named files and rename when they're complete.

                    I'll put that in later; right now I'm working on some code clean up. I just got lighting working right on textured and I need to propagate those changes to the other modes, test those, and fix some other misc things.

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                      October 22, 2010 4:16 PM

                      Here's how things are looking
                      http://www.digitized-e.com/mroizo/mercnight.PNG

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                        October 22, 2010 4:51 PM

                        that's incredible!

                        also, cave thing cleared itself up (as expected I guess) but I feel like a cheater for finding one I saw before that happened.

                        also: by building looks weird without cloth blocks :( Can't complain though

                        • reply
                          October 22, 2010 4:52 PM

                          *my building looks weird. ugh typo now and then is cool but when it makes a whole different word D:

                          • reply
                            October 22, 2010 5:02 PM

                            Cloth is fixed in the current build - also that's a pretty old copy of the world now.

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              October 22, 2010 4:06 PM

              What's actually happening is that you're catching a partial pass of the renderer as it's updating. I render some underground things as I'm building a gmap tile because of the simplicity of the visibility check. I'm rendering on a chunk by chunk basis and committing those to tiles; I have tiles in an LRU cache to limit memory usage, but due to the size of the map, there's no way I can keep all partially completed tiles in ram.

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 9:13 AM

        *Duke Nukem Voice* HoLY Shiiit!

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        October 22, 2010 9:22 AM

        I had this idea before, but then I realized someone else probably did it already, and yep, they did.

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        October 22, 2010 9:23 AM

        Render: underground tunnels.
        Highlight: Diamond Ore.
        HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAX

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 1:24 PM

        LIKE A BOSS!!

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      October 22, 2010 9:11 AM

      how is this thread so big so fcking fast?

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      October 22, 2010 9:53 AM

      [deleted]

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        October 22, 2010 9:56 AM

        There's something in the article that made me feel like there's going to be restricts in the overworld about portal placement... like there can only be one within such-and-such radius. Would make the most sense.

        • Zek legacy 10 years legacy 20 years
          reply
          October 22, 2010 10:02 AM

          Makes more sense that they would both go to the same hell portal. I think when you create an earth portal, it scans that area of hell for a suitable place and puts it somewhere within that 16x16 chunk, maybe independent of your z axis location. If there's one already there, it just uses that.

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            October 22, 2010 10:12 AM

            It seems like it was implied in the article that if more than one portal in the surface world is near each other and there's already a corresponding portal in hell, all of them would link to the same one.

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              October 22, 2010 11:08 AM

              of course, that raises the question of which portal you exit from when you leave hell...

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                October 22, 2010 11:18 AM

                I imagine it's could be a random one. It's trivial to travel a 16x16 area where any portal could be located, and doesn't really matter if it's consistent or not.

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                  October 22, 2010 11:21 AM

                  true, to be honest it seems pretty unlikely that i'll have portals that close together given their expense

                  one thing i would like though is a mod that lets me link overworld portals together so i can have a portal room with doorways to my various outposts

                  i don't expect something like that to be in the official version of the game though given notch's current design ideas

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 9:58 AM

        [deleted]

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          October 22, 2010 10:23 AM

          Ya, but which one will you go to when coming out of hell?

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          October 22, 2010 11:28 AM

          in light of this fast travel I think the move spawn point is a good idea as opposed to a new world (if the server can handle it)

          you move 5 minutes in hell and you have already travelled 1 hour. so it should be easy to get to the old world. that or making warps, some server scripts have warps which is cool, just teleports you to places. One for eonix's waterpark would make sense, and one for old spawn, etc

      • reply
        October 22, 2010 10:38 AM

        [deleted]

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        October 22, 2010 10:40 AM

        1m = 16m and I assume if you build two portals in the real world within 16m they will just go to the same portal in hell

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        October 22, 2010 12:57 PM

        Yeah, Notch said in the PC Gamer interview that if two portals on earth are too close, then there will only be one portal in hell.

        Hopefully, if Notch keeps the build process for portals, then only admins will be able to active portals (because only admins can place fire).

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 9:56 AM

      Im setting myself up with some beachfront property on Merc's server w00t. terraforming takes forever...

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 10:47 AM

      haxim i can't log in to your server!!

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 10:51 AM

      ATTN: Happy and Hyllis

      i am sorry to say that i was standing too close to your awesome cactus garden when the fucking creeper snuck up behind me. there is a hole now.

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 11:09 AM

      Wish I could go home and play minecraft righ now.

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 11:29 AM

      Hey is there any way to set it so that there is a default address in the muitiplayer connection menu? it's irritating to type in mercfox's server every single time I want to join in

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      October 22, 2010 1:23 PM

      Well well well, this http://www.minecraftforum.net/viewtopic.php?f=25&t=60704 fix isn't working for me.

      In fact, I think it's causing more socketerrors :@

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 2:24 PM

      [deleted]

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        October 22, 2010 2:40 PM

        [deleted]

        • reply
          October 22, 2010 2:43 PM

          You think she would actually do it then?

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        October 22, 2010 2:42 PM

        I'm pretty sure no one ever got laid because of minecraft. well maybe notch.

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          October 22, 2010 2:47 PM

          lol yeah I'm pretty sure Minecraft's success gets Notch laid all the time

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            October 22, 2010 2:52 PM

            [deleted]

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            October 22, 2010 3:01 PM

            especially since I think he has a fiancee

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              October 22, 2010 3:08 PM

              That was exactly my point. Imagine coming home and saying to your wife "I made $100,000 today". Fucken nookie magnet

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 4:13 PM

      It's getting impossible to follow Notch's twitter. He drops so much cool information in responses to fans on there, but when he gets going he can do 50-60 at a time, multiple times a day.

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        October 22, 2010 4:14 PM

        this is easily the best use of twitter i've ever found

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          October 22, 2010 4:16 PM

          Definitely. It's great. It's the whole reason I have a Twitter account. I don't tweet, but I like following celebrities, game devs and comedians and taking advantage of it that way.

          • reply
            October 22, 2010 4:17 PM

            That's how most people use Twitter.

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              October 22, 2010 4:18 PM

              Apparently so. Which is good, because there's enough insufferable cunts on there without everyone else getting in on it.

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                October 22, 2010 4:53 PM

                the good thing about twitter is that if someone is an insufferable cunt then you can unfollow them and never know they exist! unless someone retweets him. OKAY DRUNK HULK IS HILARIOUS I GET IT YOU DON'T HAVE TO RETWEET EVERY FUCKING THING HE SAYS GUYS.

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 4:59 PM

      Merc's server just go down?

    • reply
      October 22, 2010 5:03 PM

      mercfox server just kaboom?

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