Long hiatus

Hi all!

   It has been a long time (for internet clocks, at least) since the last post. Anyway, for now it is unlikely that I will keep this going: lately I have been able to find a (more or less) stable job, and when I come back home I tend to find little joy in playing with the computer, specially with Minecraft. Not because of the game, but because I am tired enough to not want to "keep working" (making my own house, automatization of the place, etc...) and, if I want to play a computer game, I tend to go for simple and short ones if possible. Not to mention the gym will open up this monday, so that means, essentially, I have less than 12 free hours between monday and friday, clearly not enough to make a let's play or similar things.

   Anyway, I won't say this is the end of this project: as the title says, it is just an hiatus, and I might go back to it later, but for now that's it.

   Thanks to you all for watching the previous videos, thanks for all the likes, and thanks for your patience. I hope it was at least half as funny for you as it was for me making it, and I'm sorry I didn't got around to make that multi-dimension operation based around of traincraft. I got it all to work with the trains & zeppelin mod, but simply put, I had no free time to play it.

Summer pause

It has been ten days since the last post, so I think I should give some status update:

I've been out of town for a week, and I'm still "landing" back home, also Star Trek Online released Season 6 with the starbases (and I am an officer in two fleets, damn myself XD). That points very badly to my capability of sustaining any streaming, at least for now.

That being said, I'd like to "leak" some of future projects: I will try to make a custom map to show some of the possibilities of the train mods I use (essentially railcraft and steve's carts), adding the possibilities of the Zeppelin and trains mod, not because it adds any new stuff to the game in the core of it, but because I always liked trains (ok, my father never let me play with the train models we had, so its a little a kid's frustration :) ), and the mod adds a lot of other possibilities.

To increase the easiness of distributing this, and since my talent when merging mods is untested thanks to my lazyness, I will be using Direwolf20's let's play (season 4) setup. I will explore the needed avenues to add the trains mod, anyway. We shall see, and the trains mod is not really a priority now, since the main one should be the working of trains!

I will see to try this for September, first with some videos, and finally with the map files, but I make no promises ^^. Also, my next video (a bunch of them, really) is more than likely going to be about Star Trek and the fleet starbases.

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 75

Finally it's here, the last episode of the season, at least for a while. Castle Black is nearly unplayable with 13 FPS at best when recording, and strangely enough almost the same when not. It was a fun project, though, and I enjoyed the complete simplification of the geothermal plant.

Of course, I know I didn't touch several parts of the mods: I barely scratched the surface of Forestry's beekiping or its alternate fuel system (frankly, I prefer to use solar energy), I used Buildcraft's blueprints only once, and thaumcraft was merely exploited. As for Mystcraft, it has a lot of potential, specially since you can set up your base in the main world and then expand to others, but alas I see more potential for that mod in a server, specially with the latest releases and the portals. That, by the way, is something that can be said also from Railcraft, which is a great mod (and I cannot wait to see it with Trains and Zeppelin in my computer), but I feel it would show all its potential in a big server.
Unlike on previous let's play series, Industrialcraft took a second place, being there only for the automated processing system and almost nothing else, while Buildcraft became a silent witness of the time passed: my quarries were not 64x64, but they were close to 50x50.
As for Redpower 2, I never went ahead and used the computer, because I was waiting to be able to install the next version (prerrelease 5b2), something I never came around, mostly because I was waiting for a new version of IDResolver that still has not been released. I suppose I could go ahead and make my own config file, but I hate looking at lines of code.
Strangely enough, the mod I reached "endgame" with was Equivalent Exchange: we reached a point where producing massive amounts of EMC was customary, and we got a quickstart thanks to the two condenser chests and the darkroom generator trick. At the time of closing this episode, besides all the Mk3 collectors and all the other stuff (essentially throwing away diamonds like they were cobblestone), I had more than 10 stacks of Red Matter, plus four fully charged Klein Star Spheres. Way past "creative mode" thanks to the red matter items (and the elemental cutter from Thaumcraft), the portable transmutation tablet and the ender pouches.

Anyway, it has been a fun season, with more things going on than I thought I would, and I expect to release one or two more Minecraft-related videos during the summer, but until october its quite unlikely that I will start another let's play.
For you that have been there since episode one, thanks. I hope you got some tricks and thought of better ones, and that you liked it enough to come back for more in the future.
And remember people, have fun! Because if you don't enjoy what you do, where's the point?

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 74

Well, here goes more building of the latest parts of the castle. In the next episode - the last- I will be crafting an electrical generator based on my old "geothermal generator" idea, but using some energy collectors and a condenser to produce lava buckets that will be placed on the geothermal generators from IC2. Then it will be just a matter of setting some place with the production systems and wire it all, and we'll be ready!

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 73

First of all, I'd like to announce that this season is coming to an end: as soon as I finish the "Castle Black" project, it will be done (which I intend to have ready for episode 75).

Second, due to several other reasons and projects, I don't have time to keep the series going, and the next two episodes will go from the usual "episode per day" to "episode each every two days". So, if everything goes according to plan, episode 74 will be released on Wendnesday and 75 will be released on Friday (it is very likely that the last one won't be released at noon, too).

Third, a port of Tale of Kingdoms to Minecraft 1.2.5 has been released here, I don't know how it was published without me noticing it for months, but better late than never, I suppose :S

Finally, episode 73, where we start the rail system and keep building. By the way, remember I am using outdated versions of a lot of mods! So it is very likely that the latest version of Steve's Minecarts will have some sort of extra options to tell the cart assembler to stop moving forward if it needs some materials, or even to go back to get more.

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 72

Some random ramblings with hopefully helpful stuff... Next episode, we will start for sure the railcraft travelling system!

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 71

More building, and a realization: the provider pipes, while more convenient than chassi pipes + modules, have the small problem of taking the first item first, so I cannot use them with condensers. Thus, I will have to change it!

My project will be using MK1 chassi pipes (redstone-based) with a provider module (duh! >.<) for small EMC items, and MK2 (Iron-based) with both a provider and an itemsink module for the EMC expensive ones (diamonds and the like). Obviously, there will be a destination for "useless" items: either a furnace or a condenser.

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 70

Storage area and production facility on the works! I will get around and make the crafting system as fast as I can. Someday... XD

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 69

Another 2 parts video, because before I realize it it was 50 minutes long ^^U

Part 1:

Part 2:

In this videos we will add a good staircase to go to the second level, a working door, and some other goodies. After that, well, you'll have to watch the videos :)

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 68

The building of the second floor of the castle starts! Sadly, glass panels wont connect to iron stuff, so it won't look as nicer as I wanted it to, but...

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 67

Building and deciding... And finally, expanding the castle! I might go ahead and expand it again in the future, but for now...

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 66

I don't know why this video has no preview, but it works anyway :S. As for the episode's contents, it seems like the damn frame engines are my personal beasts XD. Also remember that you need AND cells for thedoor opening contraption ^^U.

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 65

Keepin' Building! Damn Eldritch Stone, while black, can't be placed by the filler if there is no other block under it :S

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 64

Bees, bugs and buildings! Yeah, this seems like an S&P definition (BBB... oh dear...) XD. Anyway, I start today with the tropical bees in the volcano, then I will keep the building of the castle, and as a big news I will add an underground bluelectric power generation room for the whole castle (with a lot of batboxes too...). Thermopile power!

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 63

IC2 teleporter again, door motors and walls. However, I will have to move the teleporter a little because it is in a conflicting chunk (well, part of it is!).

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 62

Let's make a better battery charging mechanism, and after that let's go to IC2 teleporting!

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 61

Castle Black... Doors, walls... and access ways!

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 60

More Castle Black! We are going to exploit our ingenuity and to abuse all the great toys and ideas Buildcraft gives us, not to mention the other mods that will allow us to build impressive engineering tasks without effort!
Of course, I know I can just charge up my Volcanite Amulet and fill the bottom of the hole with lava... but why bother, if I can set up a system that will do it for me while I build other parts of the keep?

On a sidenote, happy birthday to me :p

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 59

The IC2 Teleporting system begins to be made! Of course, I will have to make another on the "other side" (which I call "Castle Black", as I told in a previous episode), which means I need to start making stuff like a madman, but for now, I suppose all is OK. Now I only need to think if I can make some sort of system to keep the manual work to the bare minimum...

Minecraft Let's Play season 3, Episode 58

Cropping... and the start of new projects!

Also, I published a new video on Star Trek Online about the new ship, the Armitage-class heavy carrier escort (essentially, an egineering version of the Multivector assault escort, with a torpedo spam console and one hangar bay, with the skin of an Akira-class heavy escort). You can find it here.