With the news of 0.12, zombies are becoming a greater threat to the servers population of villagers. I have always wanted to fix a village up, so with this I decided to start with the Troll Village. When I arrived to the village, I was greeted by the troll and a villager spawner that I could not break. The first task I started on was fixing up the roads. I replaced the gravel paths with the new grass path block.
I left the original wooden paths alone, because I wanted to keep some of the original parts of the village intact.
With one of the larger villager homes, I decided to decorate a little bit. The rest of the time I spent lighting the surrounding area and building a little hut for myself. Next run I plan to build a wall around the village. Got any designs for a wall I should take a look at? Let me know in the comments down below
Monday night your intrepid heroine and host of the server came home with a horrid stomachache, so I canceled server time for that night. To make up for it I ran Wednesday night instead.
It was a fairly low key evening with a bit less lag and voidspawning than usual and people mostly worked on their own stuff. DoublePositive, anticipating 0.12, built a nether portal behind spawn and finished up stuff in Spawner Land.
Opening who knows when?
Also in the spirit of preparing for 0.12, 576875 went out to the Troll village and started shoring it up against Things to Come. Hachi finished his water temple and made it super creepy by filling the fort part of it with spiders.
Fort and water templeLooking through the water and doorsEeep.
Dyaaagh Minecraft spiders will never not creep me out. And I like spiders in real life! Anyway I hope Hachi posts about it at some point, there was a whole backstory and mythology that went with this build. Maybe when he finishes the companion structures he’s planning.
We were also joined by Batman3054 from Worst Server Ever, who set up shop near DoublePositive’s. And Swarmhut did something adorable besides flit around dressed in a bee suit.
Aww!
There was also a fair bit of players getting bored with stuff between building and trying to reel each other in with fishing lines. I don’t know why hooking other players works (bug? feature?) but it does mean that if you go AFK (which I did a fair bit last night owing to some real life things demanding my attention) you could come back to find yourself sowmwhere completely different, or, what happened most often to me, up a tree with weird structures built around me, lol. Not so sure I like being fished as it always seems to happen when I’m in the chat window and can’t really see whats going on, but it’s a thing, and the gang is trying to brainstorm possible games to make up around it.
At the end of the evening Hachi took off due east from spawn and stumbled into a huge desert waste bordered by jungle and savannah, and across the sandstone village pictured above seated at the edge of it. (We looked. No stronghold, but hey, mineshaft!) Guess I know where I’m running some road this week. Interestingly enough this was a part of the map that I had explored briefly before when I first started playing in it a year ago. Well, “explored” is a generous word, got completely lost is more like it. This was in the very beginning when the world was still Survival, I didn’t know the cobblestone trick yet and hadn’t put together a compass. So I started marking my trail with torches on blocks and swam when I came to the edge. I got lucky and ended up very close to spawn on the other side. I’d meant to go back sometime, but never got around to it until last week when I blundered into the jungle biome on the desert’s other side.
Hachi continued flying far out past where I explored and the new terrain generating made for interesting errors on the rest of our parts – namely have terrain disappear out from under out feet. Note to self, the game does not like it when players get too separated.
Meanwhile in other news, I’m in the middle of three build posts (sigh) and I really must make some posts about my adventures on Worst Server Ever and musings about possible hosting solutions for the game. I’m also working on an out of game but still Minecraft related project for the Wee Beast’s birthday. There are not enough hours in my day, I swear.
Just putting this here for Reasons. Sing the title along to it, okay? 😀
I was telling Wee Beastie about the time I backed up the server and then said all server rules were off the table and how the area around spawn devolved into mess and murder. He of course thought this sounded like fun and asked if we could do that before he goes back to his mom’s. Sure, why not, right?
Turns out Sunday afternoon isn’t the best time for an open run, as aside from a brief appearance from Swarmhut at the very beginning, only 576875 showed up and stayed for the entirety of what very quickly became known as “MURDERTOWN.” Which mostly devolved into Beastie and I “murdering each other IN THE FACE” and 5 sniping the winner to death from afar. 5 was not privy to 8 year old side commentary such as “COME AT ME BRO, I’VE GOT A HOE!” which may have resulted in me dying in-game a couple of times because I was dying laughing IRL.
Wee Beastie then found a lava pool just to the north of spawn and, well, he did what he does best:
No more bridge or rule board.This barn is on FIYAAAAAAAAAAAAAARBurn baby burn… spawnhouse infernoGoodbye Spawn.
Yeah about that – here’s the thing about lava-bombing your spawn point – if you get murdered afterward? YOU SPAWN IN FIRE. OW.
So yeah another day where I’m very very glad I can restore from backup because while it’s fun to destroy things? *twitch*
Mad props to 5 for being patient with the small one and his need to murder everything. In the face. XD
Back to your murder free scheduled programming tomorrow!
Note: Written before update 1.1.0 when the direction of the sunrise/set was fixed. North here is now west.
A fairly low key evening was had tonight, with a concentration on finishing up builds people had started earlier.
5 and Swarm finished the minigame arena they’ve been working on.
you’ll pay full price for your seat BUT YOU’LL ONLY NEED THE EEEEEEEEEEDGE!Step right up and take a shot.
There is spleef, archery, King of the hill, fishing and parkour to compete in. May the best person win!
One of these things is not like the others…
Henry10030 meanwhile finished up his base and topped it off with a giant statue of themselves. Obviously so we don’t forget what they look like, lol.
Hachi’s (question mark?)
Hachi has been working on… well, I still haven’t figured out what this is supposed to be. I just know that it is awesome.
and it looks like a clock from the top!
To the south, Double Positive worked on several mob grinders of various sizes/mobs farms. Hence “SPAWNER LAND” written large friendly quartz letters.
A day view of Spawaner Land.
We are still plagued with connection issues around 7:30 pm evey server run. I’ve tried prioritizing udp requests, periodically dumping the phone cache , closing all background app, etc and nothing really seems to help. Fortunately it seems to only be a thing in the earlier parts of the evening. More incentive to make this a Proper Server, though I did have a conversation with Hachi today weighing the pros an cons of running an Android mobile emulator (more stable, working mobs, not glitchy gameplay / max 5 players, lag) vs pocketmine (more people on at once, better computer resource management, no lag, php programmable / mobs and game behavior glitchy as all get out). All of that are problems for Future ARBT to tackle at some later point; Present ARBT needs to log off and get some sleep!
Note: Written before update 1.1.0 when the direction of the sunrise/set was fixed. North here is now west.
I am pleased and relieved to report that the 2 additional lines of the subway (Granite and Brick) are done. Obviously if there is world expansion to the east or west, the lines will also extend accordingly, but this is as good as they’re going to get for a while. I love when I get these tunnels finished, but boy howdy is building them tedious. If anyone knows of an Android mod that’ll let me dig out 5×5 squares, let me know. >_<
Being a lover of random miscellaneous information, I spent a little time after completion riding the lines and timing roughly how long it takes to ride them end to end. (All times are traveling south from Grand Central Terminal.)
Swarmhut and 5 at Crystal Palace (back when Swarm didn’t have a face, lol)
Netherrack Line
Grand Central → Wilshire Castle
1:09
Wilshire Castle → Crystal Palace
1:33
Crystal Palace → Sand Baori
0:33
Sand Baori → Spawn
0:51
Spawn → 4 Guardians
0:52
4 Guardians → Southern Continent
1:29
Total
6:27
Granite Line
Grand Central → Wilshire Castle
1:13
Wilshire Castle → Crystal Palace
1:35
Crystal Palace → Sand Baori
0:46
Sand Baori → Wacker Tower
0:44
Total
4:18
Brick Line
Grand Central → Wilshire Castle
1:13
Wilshire Castle → Crystal Palace
1:35
Crystal Palace → Mt. Servermore
0:46
Total
3:34
I look forward to working on something above ground for a while. I seem to remember I still have a zombie pigman prison I haven’t quite finished…
A little over a month a ago I suggested a Mt.Rushmore style pixel art construction. As of today Mt.Servermore is finally complete. At first I was hesitant of my skills as a builder doing pixel art. But with some practice, I felt a bit more confident going into this project. If you are not well familiar with who is on Mt.Servermore they are from left to right: ARBT, 576875, Swarmhut, and ARBT’S Oldest Kid (who has yet to make an appearance on the server). The viewing platform is a great place to view Mt.Servermore and is accessible via a side pathway.
the viewing area
To find Mt.Servermore keep going down the main road from spawn and take the last left road. Huge thanks to ARBT for terraforming the hill into a proper mountain (with a secret bat cave).
It has been a busy few days on the server between Saturday night and the usual Monday run. After a long busy Saturday I decided after I came home that I was going to put my feet up and play MCPE and I might as well do it with extra company, so I put the call out on the subreddit and even put a little announcement in /r/MCPE since it was a special irregular run. Had so many folk show up and hang and start building things that I decided I’d run Sunday night too. And of course, Monday night, because Monday Night. All three nights were great, despite periodic connection problems and spontaneous game crashes… people had a good time tho.
We have two new players late of Worst Sever Ever – Hachi and FatalDeath (or VitalLife depending on their level of humorous nihilism) We’ve also seen quite a bit of Henry10030 and DoublePositive, and of course 576875 and Swarm. At one point during Monday’s Survival/anything goes run (between game crashes) I managed to get the group pic in the last post. You know what I’m going to post it again because it was awesome.
<3
We hit a server milestone on Monday! A good portion of that night’s game was at full five player + host capacity. That was certainly a thing! Never had that many on at once before.
the server… is full… [/strongbad]The 4 Guardians accidentally acquired names in an offhand comment to Hachi. They are now Icky, Stinky, Yucky and Clyde. As to which one is which… does it really matter? lol.
New Things built:
Swarmhut added an advertisement board during Monday’s run, having a forgotten I was intending to wipe and restore after the game. (Oops.) I liked the idea so much I put it back in after I restored the game, and also started to revamp the Pillar of Rules at spawn. I think it’s going to be more of a Fence of Rules eventually.
but was Kilroy here?
Hachi built an awesome house near Mt. Severmore!
Remains awesome despite me forgetting to turn off the GUI.
I love the white umbrella/canopy above it – reminds me of something out of the Super Mario Mushroom Kingdom.
Meanwhile FatalDeath is working on a colossus standing across the road near spawn. So far they’ve gotten the skeleton completed but that by itself looks cool:
Fatal’s Colossal Skeleton.
Meanwhile, Swarmhut and 576875 are working on a minigame tournament space. Parkour! Fishing! Spleef! Chills! Thrills! You’ll pay for a whole seat but you’ll only need the edge!
um, picture when they get further along.
Some of us wanted to go down to the basement of 5’s fishing house after the group picture to clobber zombies. There was a disorganized effort to reset spawns by sleeping, during which I tossed a bed out on one of the patios to sleep outside.
It’s really hard to sleep with a creepy dog staring at you.
After zombie clobbering fun was had, the last two hours of Monday’s game we decided it was all rules off. The free-for-all that resulted was epic, and the area around spawn just became this mess of creeper craters and forts:
Thank goodness for backups and restores. 😉 Even my PvP-disliking self got in on the fun in the last 45 minutes, which is where I found out that I’m a much better long range shot than short range shot. Which is to say both are terrible but I hit things/people more often at ridiculously long distances.
Things are certainly livening up on my little server, that’s for sure. There’s something a little humbling about reading a “hey, anyone know any good servers?” and seeing my name come up in recommendations immediately after Worst Server Ever. That’s a certainly a compliment! Couldn’t do this without my gang – there’s still some debate on whether they’re the ARBFans or the ARBiTors of Justice – They’re really the reason my little one-woman world has become such an awesome place to hang out and play.
Hello my name is 576875 and I am a regular to ARBT Server. You can call me 5 for short. I am going to start Featured Build of the Month (FBoM) series. Where I show off new and exciting builds on the server. Today I am going to feature a Witch Hut set up in a swamp.I assume this was built by ARBT. What I like about this build is that it adds a small detail, to an ordinary swamp biome. Additionally, I like the use of the oak leaves as the roof of the hut. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the interior. I will try to remember for next month’s FBoM. Until then, keep on building folks.
I’m glad actual witches have not been added to MCPE (yet).
Note: Written before update 1.1.0 when the direction of the sunrise/set was fixed. North here is now west.
I ran twice this week on both Monday and Tuesday nights. There have been some in-world developments. Mt. Servermore is now done (now with four faces and seekrit bat cave!), as is the Granite line of the subway – well. “Done.” It runs to Wacker Tower and stops there pending expansion. Also during Monday’s game DoublePositive (the artist formerly known as Mathguy04) first showed me and 576875 how to build mostly waterless boat launchers (two exist high in the sky above spawn) and built a steak/leather grinder near spawn house, which is weirdly fascinating. And hey, free leather and meat, right? 576875 also has built a community mineshaft around the corner from Spawn, so people should feel free to dig around in there during survival games.
The area around Spawn is about as full as I’d like it to be (more so, but nvm), so I made an official rule calling for a moratorium on building any new structures within 64 blocks of spawn in any direction. I want people to build stuff! JUST NOT NEAR SPAWN, OKAY. It’s a big world, spread out. 🙂 I made some minor updates to the rule list; please check them out before playing.
Other world news: Now that I’m hosting in Survival more often, I’m trying to keep various chests around stocked with various supplies. I’ve also taken a liking to fishing (unsurprising, I loved fishing in World of Warcraft too) and the lake base that 576875 built a while back is fantastic for it aside from occasional attacks from baby zombies. I’m also digging out the Brick line, which will terminate not far from Mt. Servermore when it’s done. (again, “done” until westward expansion.)
Just for a change of pace, I went down to the southern terminus of the Netherrack line, where there is absolutely nothing aside from a “budder” house Beastie built at some point, took a hard left onto an adjacent landmass, and switched the game into survival. Aside from the flights to and from the main continent, I’ve been playing pure survival at max difficulty in this area. I’d been stuck in Creative mode for so long that I’d forgotten what a challenge resource management and staying alive is, especially as my little island home seems to be absolutely plagued with creepers. >_< It’s a nice break from everything else though.
Note: Written before update 1.1.0 when the direction of the sunrise/set was fixed. North here is now west.
Ah, nothing like the first week after a major update drops. It’s like having a picnic next to a frog pond – so many bugs, lol.
My main annoyance is that Plug PE is totally borked after the update. There has been an update this weekend which restored some functionality like coordinates, but due to some incompatibility with 0.11.x they had to remove teleporting. Ah well. Back to taking the long way places. Didn’t much matter anyway as plug repeatedly crashed out while running game to the point where I just gave up and quit trying to run it. I do hope that gets fixed soon.
Two more bugs that are making server runs a right pain is 1) a lot of times other players spawn in what appears to be the void (really just the terrain not loading in right away) with a really jittery, shakey view of the sky. People playing tonight disconnected, reconnected, couldn’t really get on and tried again for most of the night. 😛 Also I’m apparently invisible to some users. Gonna have to ask the Reddit crew what devices they’re using, as I suspect maybe a platform issue or a skin compatibility problem or something.
Aside from those irritating bits, it was a fun and productive run. Two new folk to the server today: welcome Henry10030 and pedro! Please stop by again.
In world development news, I’ve finished as much of the Granite Line of the subway as I’m going to bother doing until I start building stuff out east. As it is, it terminates at Wacker Tower. Also looks like the Brick Line may terminate at Mt. Servermore, which is coming along both in the faces and in the “mountain” I’m terraforming around it. I’ve been taking pictures of stuff, other players, and myself doing things because yay new skin. I’ll post those soon.
Yep, just another evening in the world of Minecraft.
