Server and blog news!

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.

Post slightly edited September 2017

Tonight’s open run

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.

News!

Ugh Fell out of the habit of posting here regularly. Going to try to fix that over the weekend.

Not too much new to report on the world front other than “Hey! I built some subway tunnels!” Because that’s what I’ve been working on: the two side south tracks, aka the Granite and Brick lines. They run about 12 blocks below the original subway line (mostly to get around some logistical problems – unsure whether I’ll be keeping that double deck idea in the other three directions). So far there are new platforms below the Wilshire Castle and Crystal palace lines, but the tunnels connecting the castle and the palace are nowhere near done yet. 

I’d post pictures but sandhogging, much as in real life, is pretty monotonous and grueling. Of course real sandhogs get tunnel boring machines… I’d murder a score of innocent villager children for a way to dig out 5 x 5 blocks at a time. or at least copy/paste sections of tunnel considering they’re all uniform. But… pipe dreams. Anyway the one picture I’ll post is of the section of abandoned mineshaft running parallel to the Brick Line tunnel; it looked so cool I opted to glass that part of the tunnel so it would be visible to passing riders.

In OMG FLAIL SO EXCITED news, Mojang submitted 0.11.0 to the Apple app store last night, so the update will hopefully drop either this weekend while the kidlets are visiting (whoooo) or next week sometime. Depending on whether its been made available to Android/windows/kindle by Monday I may hold off on that week’s open server until everyone’s versions get caught up, since due to Apple’s approval process iOS is doomed to get it last. But yes so excited! It will no longer be a bunch of Steve clones running around! I can look like me! And since 0.11.0 will have file sharing and gamemode switch i can finally back up and run survival games again, though I’ve been enjoying the collective building on creative a lot in the meantime. Cannot. Wait.

I also started a subreddit for this last Monday because I felt a little guilty junking up the MCPE subreddit with my “please come play” announcements. So far The_Swarm_Hut and 576875 have been doing a great job so far keeping it lively in there. Hoping I can pull in a few other reddit people who have visited as well. Link is on the sidebar.

Lastly I’m looking into ways to get this game off my phone and onto either a dedicated Android device or resurrecting my main desktop and emulating Android there via Andy or Bluestacks. Several reasons for this – despite a desperately needed battery transplant last weekend, this game is murdering my poor old iPhone. 😛 More than that though, there is clearly interest in a laid back griefer-free server, and people like tooling around my builds, so i want to find a way to leave it running more than Monday nights. I would also like more server controls (and less lag) that Plug PE offers, hence looking into jumping platforms. Ideally I’d love to run it on Pocketmine since php is my jam and I enjoyed running a server for me and the kids before 0.9.0, and the customizability of the gameplay experience was really appealling, but development on it seems to have stalled and there’s still no way to port LevelDB worlds into it as yet, so boo to that. Also it does look like someone’s developed a map tool for Android that works and y’all know how I’ve been wanting one of THOSE. So… hopefully I can get something more permanent set up by end of summer. More on that as it develops.

GCT, part 2 and some notes on last week’s open server

Note: Written before update 1.1.0 when the direction of the sunrise/set was fixed. North here is now west.

Made a fair amount of progress in the past few days on GCT. It’s starting to actually resemble its inspiration now…

Chunk error.
Chunk error.

…well okay, when there aren’t huge holes in the floor/wall. Also there is apparently a HUGE cave system under the south tracks. Going to have to investigate that later.

track level from the corner.
track level from the corner.

Track level is done, lit, and has a ceiling. One of the challenges of this build was how to keep the various levels lit without having a mess of torches, something that proved challenging as GCT has >6 block high ceilings. This became much easier once I realized that light passes through stairs and I could hide glowstone behind “moldings.”

Mezzanine floor
Mezzanine floor

Time to do the next story! I’ve since finished up the mezzanine level.

The center column of the mezzanine level.
The center column of the mezzanine level.
Mezzanine staircases going both up and down.
Mezzanine staircases going both up and down.
Mezzanine lights
Mezzanine lights

It’s currently a big empty room bracketed by the two staircases on either side. I may put in some vendor booths and cafe tables later. The real station has a fancy food court and a branch of the NYC transit museum on this level.

I’m still working on the main level but so far it looks awesome.

View from East Staircase.
View from East Staircase.
Info Booth
Info Booth
Ticket office.
Ticket office.
The West Grand Staircase.
The West Grand Staircase.

The grand staircases were annoying to design and build, and I ended up trying three different things before settling on this, and then I had to build it from scratch an extra time since I had a game crash and none of the work I’d done that afternoon saved. D’oh!

Honestly I should have known the game was a little screwy – I cam up to work on one of the starcases to find that all of the stairs I’d put down had oriented themselves facing north.

Thats a weird looking glitch.
Thats a weird looking glitch.

I didn’t get a picture but some of the stairs I’d placed upside down in places had also turned themselves around. It was a little creepy looking I won’t lie. But then the game crashed and I had to start over, but the nice thing about having to build a thing twice is that you’ve already worked out the kinks so it goes a lot faster the second time around.

Peeking down the stairs.
Peeking down the stairs.

This is just the top of the staircases down to Mezzanine level.

So, yeah, it’s coming along. Maybe a little slower than I’d like, but I’d been busy this week with other stuff.

I realized earlier that I hadn’t made my post-open-server post this week, so I’ll just take this moment to thank The_Swarm_Hut, Mathguy40, 576875, and Brandonthekid-don’t-remember-your-reddit-handle-lol for coming. 5’s underwater surprise seems to be coming along, while The_Swarm_Hut built a bunch of neat stuff by spawn. I’ll probably make a separate post about this tomorrow, but I’ma need folks to start ranging a bit away from spawn for building stuff – the area by Spawn House is filling up quite a bit. 🙂 But yeah, it was a good open server night, and being able to play with friendly company was nice after a long and unfortunately crappy day beforehand. I will be running tomorrow night at 6, hope to see folks there.

Taking the Scenic Route

Most of this weekend’s build work included laying a ~1115 block segment of road running from a brick house* I’d mostly finished a few weeks ago (just had to add the roof) to the mostly unexplored northwestern shoreline. This was slightly more of a pain in the neck than usual (literally at some points throughout Sunday even) because after last Monday’s server session I’d left my game set on survival for Reasons.** After having my game mostly creative for the past little while, I’d kinda forgotten how arduous building a Large Thing in Survival mode is, even if you’re using Plug to cheat a little with regard to tools and inventory. Arduous, but somehow satisfying.

Anyway, I did finish the road (and the house, which I’m calling Rose House, not Brick… hoooooooooouse***), and since Survival mode did slow me up a little it meant I had time to stop and appreciate the scenery along the way.

Rose House from the road.
Rose House from the road.

I was experimenting with a different roof shape on this house. Very unsure if like.

Back of Rose House
Back of Rose House

We’re getting ready for boats, hence the dock in the back. Also if you look carefully through the water you can see the double basement.

Off in the distance...
Off in the distance…

I really love having my view distance hacked to 255 blocks. it doesn’t seem to slow up my gameplay much, aside from an uptick in chunk errors. Still, a view like that… worth it.

Tiptoe... through the tulips... with me...
Tiptoe… through the tulips… with me…
Another stunning view!
Another stunning view!
Sunset over the cliffs
Sunset over the cliffs

I have a horrific compulsion to take pictures at sunset. Minecraft sunsets are just so PRETTY now.

Shore Cave
Shore Cave

I decided it would be really cool to have the road end emerging through this cave. I wanted to take a before picture first through.

Also can I just say I love that Plug gives you access to coordinates? It makes road planning way easier.

All roads have an end.
All roads have an end.

But this road ends emerging triumphantly through a cave!

Night and day
Night and day

The other thing I like to do is if I found something super pretty, I like to stand in one spot and take a lot of pictures. This is the first time I’ve spliced those time-lapsed screenshots into one picture though, and I like how it came out. Might print and frame it even.

So yeah, now we have come… to the ENNNNNND OF THE ROOOOOOOOAD.****

behold, a Boyz II Men song.
behold, a Boyz II Men song.

Meanwhile in B plot land, 576875 showed up for a bit on Sunday afternoon to work on the farm they’re building across from Spawn House so players don’t have to go ranging far and wide for food. It’s coming along nicely. As of last night it did not have a roof, 5 put that in tonight.

5's farm
576875’s farm
Crops and lights
Crops and lights

By the way, holy cats, it’s actually really hard and frustrating trying to lead livestock into a confined area. I’d only done it with sheep before, and they’re dumb enough to follow you relentlessly anywhere so long as you’re holding wheat. Cows, pigs and chickens aren’t nearly so cooperative.

Moooooooooooo
Moooooooooooo

They will however get RIGHT up in your grill though.

While fishing the above pictured cow out of the river and trying to lead it back to the farm, I stumbled across a house built by mathguy04 a few sessions back.

mathguy04's house.
mathguy04’s house.

One of the reasons I’m really enjoying having guest players is that they bring some fresh ideas and building styles into my world. For example 5’s farm system of placing down a square of water for the crops, placing a slab one block over it, and then having a floating glowstone block above that as a crop light. I also really liked how mathguy framed the giant bay window of his house entirely with doubled slabs, which gives it a neat look. So yeah, live and learn. Reminds me, his house is missing a bed, I may go back and leave one and a houseplant for him as a housewarming present.

Hopefully I’ll have more news from the open server front soon. I’m open all week but haven’t been advertising it much. Hopefully I’ll get a few more folks in later in the week or over the weekend. Also I’m so behind on the build posts front. I’ll tackle that project this week I think.

* she’s mighty mighty… letting it all hang out ayyyy she’s a brick… HOOOOOOOOOUUUUSE… sorry, couldn’t help myself.

** Reasons being I wanted to hack in iron doors for the prison build, which is coming along. Hopefully done this week.

**** …for exactly this reason.

**** Its apparently just that kind of post. 😛

Server Time, and MCPE 0.11.0 news!

Monday night server time was had tonight! I only had two guests tonight: 576875 and Team Heath Bar, but a good time was had arrowing mobs, adopting wee cows (one of whom THB has dubbed Mr. Moo) and 5 has started a farm at the Spawn House so folk coming in don’t have to scrounge around for food, initially. I’m starting to quite look foward to my weekly visitors. 🙂

In belated OMG! News, turns out the rumors swirling about the MCPE 0.11.0 beta were legit, and y’all lucky folks with Android devices do indeed get to beta test it. Some of the pictures released are massively exciting. While I’m envious of my Android compadres as a non-jailbroken iOS user, I am still excited because beta test now = update SOON.

So what am I excited for in MCPE 0.11.0? Lots.

  • Boats! Cause swimming/flying across oceans is a pain.
  • Skins! Steve I love you, but you and i need to see different people and as a black lady gamer I’m tired of playing as a goateed white guy. Sorry not sorry. I made a new skin that’s all ready to go even.
  • “new” mobs! Bats, Squids, fish and cave spiders may be old news to all y’all PC Minecraft players but they will be entirely new to me. Doesn’t seem to be ocelots yet, so I’ma have to be patient for a while longer before I can have a creeper scaring kitty cat in game.
  • Dyeable doggie collars! Cause being about to tell which dogs are who would be nice, lol.
  • Gamemode Switch! For real, not just hacking the level.dat! that’d be real nice because creative mode with no flying and still getting hurt? Not fun. Might as well be playing in survival with Plug on spamming the give command. 😛

I am cautiously excited about the option to make old worlds infinite. I don’t know if I’d be up for going back to either the Hunt world or the Dreamscape world and expanding them that way. Honestly, if I could find some way of dropping both worlds and their accompanying projects somewhere in my current infinite map I’d do that instead, seeing as I’ve sunk so much time into the current map. I am glad to finally be able to rename my main world though – not that I’ve thought up a good enough name for it yet.

So yeah – SOON.

There doesn’t seem to be a WBC up on Reddit this week, as the sticky post has been hijacked by the MCPE 0.11.0 bug reports posts. Which is good, in a way – In among the other stuff I want/need to do this week, I need to seriously sit down and actually finish the prison dungeon build I’ve been working on for awhile, and then start sketching up the next couple of builds I’ve had percolating in the meantime, not to mention do some exploring in uncharted territory. Still on the lookout for a PC mapping tool that will work with the MCPE leveldb. And I need to make posts about my other builds too. So much to do, so little time!

Open Server II: Electric Boogaloo

Thanks to Brandon, 57, Kidzilla, and Mathguy for coming!

To everyone who was having connection problems, ARGH! I’m sorry, I’m not sure what was going on.

The good news, considering people really liked coming in and hanging out, I have decided to do open server weekly. So see everyone next Monday at 6!

I am a little behind on build posting – I am working on entries for the Circus (which I missed the WBC deadline for – oops) and the Four Guardians, but due to aforementioned main computer problems and a show on Saturday I have to prep for, those might be delayed for a bit. I also promised tonight’s players that I’d write up how to host external players on your pocket devices. All that will happen at some point, it just might be next week sometime!

Thanks again, y’all.

First open MCPE server run!

Well, after getting the domain and port forwarding right and figuring out FINALLY how to switch the main world back to Survival (I’ll post a tutorial on both later), I posted a “hey my world’s open, come visit!” notice on /r/MCPE this evening. I wasn’t expecting too many visitors – hell, I would have been happy if one person showed up. Happily I had four, and to those four, especially /u/Palcto and /u/EclipseSun, I say thank you for making my first MCPE server run pretty epic.

Sadly the allotted 3h of game was cut a little short by an incoming call from the husband (note to self, Plug PE does NOT play nice with phone calls). Such is the hazard of running a server on one’s iPhone. But still I’d say a pretty successful first run and I’ll definitely be doing it again.

Good Stuff:

I am frankly flabbergasted that it took two hours into a 2.5ish hour run for the game to crash. Between the general bugginess of MCPE especially with Plug PE going, and the unreliability of my net connection lately (sigh *COMCAST*) I was expecting the game to be yo-yoing way more than it did. Nope. Pretty smooth and stable. We only seemed to have problems when teleporting players with laggier connections around, making them fall through a not-loaded-yet world. Oops.

Bad Stuff:

Plug PE’s give command is borked. I can .g stuff to myself fine, not so much to other people. Also had a frustrating problem with amazing disappearing/reappearing chests. >_< Also the .in command does NOT hide you from mobs. I spent most of the game invisible near spawn (mostly so people didn’t spawn into oncoming zombies) and would get knocked about by spiders and skeleton arrows constantly. Yay diamond armor I guess. 😛

Interesting Stuff:

It apparently takes about 2.5 hours to see almost everything in the main world. Palcto found just about everything (I suspect the Hellfire Library was missed, as it’s a little off the beaten path and possibly the maze under the castle). Something for next time then.

Stuff to fix/think about for next time:

It’s been so long since I’ve run/played this world in survival that I’ve not only forgotten what’s in all the chests everywhere (answer: lots of good stuff still) but I’d forgotten to do things like leave minecarts in the subway stations for folks to use. Whoops.

Player Pictures!

EclipseSun has a different shader pack, so I asked him to post the screenshots he took, and holy crap, some of the builds look amazing in it. Palcto also took screenshots of his adventures.