Of mining and crafting.

[BrainWalker]

So apparently the entire internet has exploded with love for appropriately-named cubetastic indie game Minecraft, in which you mine resources, and then craft stuff. And occasionally murder things, because what video game is complete without murder? Anyway, there's so much love that the dude's server can't keep up with demand. I keep hearing about it but never really paid much attention to it until I watched some Let's Plays, and now I'm curious. Dude's having a "free play weekend," wherein "weekend" is being defined as "however long it takes to rectify server issues," and since I somehow managed to luck into a half-day off today, I decided to give it a shot. Haven't started yet, 'cause I've got a couple other things I need to do first, but I was just curious if anyone else has messed with this game yet.

In the comments on the Kotaku article (why can't I quit you, Kotaku?) some guy mentioned that some other guy was working on a utility to convert Dwarf Fortress maps into Minecraft maps. That sounds kind of sweet. So, you know, if you're into Dwarf Fortress, that might be an "in" for you.

[Capntastic]

It's pretty much entirely sandboxy, which is cool for some time for most people. Playing online with others is nifty, though the last time I messed with that was before crafting was in. Basically, it's free for now, so give it a shot and see if it's your thing.

[BrainWalker]

This game is nuts. Starting out, you get the impression that the block aesthetic is neat and all, but you have no idea what the Hell you're doing. Like, at all. I had to check the config options just to figure out how to open my inventory and start crafting stuff. It's actually a little irritating at first, but I love exploration so I stuck it out. And with help from the Minecraft wiki, (thank you for existing, Minepedia) I felt like I started to "get it."

I'm not really good at the murder part yet, but I definitely enjoy exploring and building stuff. I already started my first ambitious construction project. I basically hollowed out a desert island to create an underwater tower... well, it's not really a tower. An underwater shaft with windows to look out into the ocean. Not that there's anything to see out there. All that sand came in handy for making the glass for the windows!

Turns out it went deep enough to lead into a natural underground cave with some decent iron ore deposits. Score!

[Capntastic]

Here's a cool video

[BrainWalker]

That's actually the first Minecraft video I ever saw, and while it was amazing, it didn't really draw me into the experience. It felt like I was watching endgame stuff when I didn't even know how to get started, you know? That's where lets plays really helped.

[Taiar]

I joined a nice swath of people from Justin.tv back when this game was still in its Beta stages. One of them ran a server for it and we pretty much spent the entire time building giant statues of 8 or 16-bit characters as tall as the sun itself.

... Was pretty fun. We never did the murdering part either though; the Penny Arcade bit on it currently running is an amusing take on the whole zombie thing though.

[ChristianC]

Why haven't I played this game before? I'm going to try it when I get home!

[Jak Snide]

Tried it on Tuesday night. Just an hour to experiment before bed. I went to sleep at 5am, the beginnings of my subterranean stronghold in place. Last night I discovered a chamber deep within the earth. The only thing more deadly than the zombies that lurked in the darkness were the lakes of lava waiting to claim the life of those who dig incautiously.

Apparently gold makes sturdier armour and more potent pickaxes than iron.

[ChristianC]

Welcome to the realm of fantasy, where a sword made out of crystal (thanks Adv! :D) is superior to your average chunk of unprocessed iron.

[ChristianC]

Holy shit... This game... I'm playing the free online version and... damn. I just found a HUGE underground cavern whilst digging out the cellar floors of my AWESOME TOWER!

Apparently I was playing classic. Still, hella fun though!

[BrainWalker]

Two of the last three worlds I spawned I somehow ened up with ore in the floor of my first mountainside safehouse, which upon mining, lead to giant underground caverns. And then in the most recent one, there were no mountains nearby, so instead I built a wooden cabana on the beach. On stilts!

I'm having a hard time actually sticking with any particular world instead of just constantly spawning new ones.

[Besyanteo]

My experience is full of lag, zombies, and misplaced structures due to the first. I'm getting kind of frustrated with the whole thing. The idea that I need to go in and find a way to turn down the settings is... aggravating.

[ChristianC]

Bes, you playing online?

[Besyanteo]

Offline, actually.

Edit: Apparently my laptop can't handle this game with a high view distance. I now have a wooden fort, pending finding some coal, so I can make torches and tunnel safely. Yay!

[BrainWalker]

I tried to build a suspended house hanging underneath a floating island, but I couldn't figure out a good way to get construction started. Building on top of things is easy, building underneath things is really hard.

[Jak Snide]

I reckon the best way is probably to build a staircase up from beneath the island and destroy it afterwards you're done building your floating palace. Trying to place blocks under stuff when looking down from above is asking for a long fall with a sudden stop.

[Shinigori V2]

Trying to place blocks under stuff when looking down from above is asking for a long fall with a sudden stop.

It's asking to be lynched on a really long rope?

[Jak Snide]

Or falling from a great height before splattering all over the ground, yes.

[Besyanteo]

I like Shini's though. Imagine if they lynched people from the edge of cliffs with bungee cords. Oh man I am a terrible person.

[KingOfDoma]

Ah, this seems overly nerdy and lame. What could you possibly do with a bunch of Legos and too much time on your ha-

o_o

Oh... right.

[Animala]

This is my spawn point. It has a cactus on it, but I don't think he's in the image. He's camera shy.



Off in the distance, you'll see my first refuge. Let's go visit.



A rude sort of hovel, but it has some lighting, a window, and I dug a hole while I was inside because nighttime is boring.
But what's this?



A causeway leading from spawn off into the distance?



Ah, this is my kind of hovel! It's difficult to tell because it's night, but much of the wall is made of obsidian! But why build so far from spawn? Let's get a view from above.



A glass ceiling and a glass floor. It's a bit hard to see what's underneath, so let's go beneath the floor...



Oh, it's a chasm to hell. That's cool!

The chasm is natural, but I carved the staircase myself. Exploration lead to a vast cavern with water and lavafalls, and pools of lava that threatened to flow into any too-ambitious mining tunnel. So what's to be done?



Well, that's an aqueduct I built to get the water from the waterfall into the pools of lava, to cool it into obsidian so I could a) get obsidian and b) mine beneath it. Pretty fun!