So here it is the video I promised. You can see here how I make my automated farms to get wheat, cacti, mushrooms, and sugar cane (well, and wood when I set up a tree plantation in the roof or floor of a base).
About farming the flower farming: you cannot plant flowers and expect them to expand, you need to use bonemeal on grass to get more, so set up a water collector for that is quite an overkill ^^.
I expect to make a new video before next week about making a monster grinder that also doubles as a critter grinder during the day, using Buildcraft.
As for Industrialcraft, I'm currently not using the mod, because it takes so many terrain sprites, I would be limited to Eloraam's RedPower and Alblaka's Buildcraft, and I'm currently making some traps and contraptions that take much more advantage from the Better than Wolves and Portal Gun mods (see them in the links section to the right of the page).
Stay tuned!
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jueves, 21 de julio de 2011
martes, 19 de julio de 2011
Farming 101: what and how much
So we are all impressed by the big an amazing farming contraptions out there that allow, with a simple click of a button or turn of a lever, to get a lot of wheat to make bread, or get tons of sugar cane, or an endless stream of cacti... Now I wonder: is it really necessary?
Let's take a look at all the resources that grow on Minecraft:
1. Mushrooms. Used to make stew, they expand by themselves, so you can make a self-harvesting machine with some pistons and water, which is quite the good part, and they heal a lot. The bad parts are that, first, you need two different mushroom types to make the stew, and that Mushrooms tolerate levels of light that are dangerous: sunlight is light level 15, but mushrooms will "die" (in the game, they will pop out, like a destroyed block) when the light surpasses level 7... which is the limit at which monsters spawn. Lastly, you need three wooden planks per mushroom stew to make the bowl (well, to make 4 bowls), which is not consumed (unless you use the canning machine from Industrialcraft). While I think this all balances the mushrooms in the good side, if you want to carry the raw materials you need to leave 4 spaces at least (crafting table, 2 mushrooms and the bowls), and they take a lot of time to expand, but you can make a safe automatic harvesting machine (I'll get to it on thursday, I promise).
2. Wheat. You need three to make bread, which heals for 2.5 hearts or so. Unlike the mushrooms, it requires light, at least a torch in the next 3-4 spaces (I usually put one every 2 blocks one block above the one with the wheat) when you make an underground farm. The good points are that you only need wheat to make the bread and that you only "sacrifice" two slots to carry the materials (that is, wheat and a crafting table). The bad points are that farming wheat requires water, a hoe, dirt, and manually replanting (unless you use some mods). This last point is what makes the big farms a little like a waste: you can set up a small "farm" you can manually harvest quickly, and you are setting up a smal farm you can replant quickly. I takes more time for me to harvest and plant a big auto-harvesting farm that to harvest and plant two small manual farms...
3. Cacti. While these are not edible, they can be farmed for different uses, among them for furnace use as burning material, or to be burned to get green dye (or the more extended "defense wall"). While cacti have no problem with diagonally-placed blocks, they will drop if a block is north, east, west or south of them, and won't grow if there is a block over them; not to mention you can plant cacti only on sand (which obeys gravity), making the cacti automated farms a little too big in the vertical axis. Their best point, however, is that once you have set up the farm, you only need to collect the items (and a well-placed obsidian pipe with some chests does a great job for that).
4. Flowers. Used for dye crafting (and in some mods for other recipes), this will expand like mushrooms over grass, and they would be better suited to be used in great farming projects thanks to that (and because they take much more time to expand to the same surface).
5. Sugar cane. The best suited for farming, you can use it to craft sugar (needed to make cake) or paper (needed to make maps and books; paper is needed also in some mods). You only need to set up water, with dirt adyacent to it, and plant the sugar cane on top of the dirt. Since you can harvest the second or third part of the plant without removing the base, pistons (and a wall to stop the dropped items from flying all across the world XD) can be used with a water current for quick farming. Also, with Eloraam's Integrated Redstone you can set up a clock to activate the pistons once every 5 minutes or so (300 seconds) and use an obsidian pipe to gather the materials after a water current has put them all in a block, making them fully automated (meaning that you will usually need small farms since they are harvesting all the time, unless you need a lot of paper/sugar). The only bad thing about sugar cane is that is hard to find unless you are lucky with the starting position.
6. Wood. The most important resource is also the only one you can't set up in an automated harvesting farm. The best you can do is to plant trees with two blocks between them and three blocks from any other high obstruction, and try to keep homogeneous farms (I have noticed that when two trees of different kind get their leaves mixed, they drop less saplings), aside from that there is nothing to do there.
I expect to provide you all with some videos and images from some examples on thursday for different farms and contraptions, so stay tuned!
Let's take a look at all the resources that grow on Minecraft:
1. Mushrooms. Used to make stew, they expand by themselves, so you can make a self-harvesting machine with some pistons and water, which is quite the good part, and they heal a lot. The bad parts are that, first, you need two different mushroom types to make the stew, and that Mushrooms tolerate levels of light that are dangerous: sunlight is light level 15, but mushrooms will "die" (in the game, they will pop out, like a destroyed block) when the light surpasses level 7... which is the limit at which monsters spawn. Lastly, you need three wooden planks per mushroom stew to make the bowl (well, to make 4 bowls), which is not consumed (unless you use the canning machine from Industrialcraft). While I think this all balances the mushrooms in the good side, if you want to carry the raw materials you need to leave 4 spaces at least (crafting table, 2 mushrooms and the bowls), and they take a lot of time to expand, but you can make a safe automatic harvesting machine (I'll get to it on thursday, I promise).
2. Wheat. You need three to make bread, which heals for 2.5 hearts or so. Unlike the mushrooms, it requires light, at least a torch in the next 3-4 spaces (I usually put one every 2 blocks one block above the one with the wheat) when you make an underground farm. The good points are that you only need wheat to make the bread and that you only "sacrifice" two slots to carry the materials (that is, wheat and a crafting table). The bad points are that farming wheat requires water, a hoe, dirt, and manually replanting (unless you use some mods). This last point is what makes the big farms a little like a waste: you can set up a small "farm" you can manually harvest quickly, and you are setting up a smal farm you can replant quickly. I takes more time for me to harvest and plant a big auto-harvesting farm that to harvest and plant two small manual farms...
3. Cacti. While these are not edible, they can be farmed for different uses, among them for furnace use as burning material, or to be burned to get green dye (or the more extended "defense wall"). While cacti have no problem with diagonally-placed blocks, they will drop if a block is north, east, west or south of them, and won't grow if there is a block over them; not to mention you can plant cacti only on sand (which obeys gravity), making the cacti automated farms a little too big in the vertical axis. Their best point, however, is that once you have set up the farm, you only need to collect the items (and a well-placed obsidian pipe with some chests does a great job for that).
4. Flowers. Used for dye crafting (and in some mods for other recipes), this will expand like mushrooms over grass, and they would be better suited to be used in great farming projects thanks to that (and because they take much more time to expand to the same surface).
5. Sugar cane. The best suited for farming, you can use it to craft sugar (needed to make cake) or paper (needed to make maps and books; paper is needed also in some mods). You only need to set up water, with dirt adyacent to it, and plant the sugar cane on top of the dirt. Since you can harvest the second or third part of the plant without removing the base, pistons (and a wall to stop the dropped items from flying all across the world XD) can be used with a water current for quick farming. Also, with Eloraam's Integrated Redstone you can set up a clock to activate the pistons once every 5 minutes or so (300 seconds) and use an obsidian pipe to gather the materials after a water current has put them all in a block, making them fully automated (meaning that you will usually need small farms since they are harvesting all the time, unless you need a lot of paper/sugar). The only bad thing about sugar cane is that is hard to find unless you are lucky with the starting position.
6. Wood. The most important resource is also the only one you can't set up in an automated harvesting farm. The best you can do is to plant trees with two blocks between them and three blocks from any other high obstruction, and try to keep homogeneous farms (I have noticed that when two trees of different kind get their leaves mixed, they drop less saplings), aside from that there is nothing to do there.
I expect to provide you all with some videos and images from some examples on thursday for different farms and contraptions, so stay tuned!
sábado, 9 de julio de 2011
Base 101: Underground base
So here we are, with the underground base finally. I took my time there because since I started a new world with the Mo's Creatures mod, I've been busy farming a lot (and for once I had a lot of luck finding diamonds, so I was able to make four quarrys now).Anyway, I just made a small underground base between layers 12 and 22 (aproximately) and decided to show it to you all.
I put three trees here, separated 3 blocks from all the walls and between each other (2 blocks of separation between the tress would have been enough, but then the leaves blocks tend to merge, and we will get less saplings after cutting the tree).
Finally I made a small recess of three high and one depth, then excavated a 2 high and one depth additional one, added a line of dirt , water, covered the water, added some torches, and used a hoe to plant some wheat, then added two chests, a crafting table and two furnaces (you can't see them in the photos, I'm afraid), plus a bed in case I want to sleep.
So there we are, a fully functional base underground. It only lacks animals, but the pain of taking dirt with grass all the way to the underground, with all the time it takes for animals to spawn once you are down there makes it for me something not to worth the effort.Ok, so now with the pros and cons of an underground base:
Pros:
Self-sufficient: it's the only base with ready access to all the material needs you might have in Minecraft, given enough work to make room for the trees. Mi advise would be to chop the trees every time you go back to the base, and replant, no matter your needs of wood.
Mining-oriented: extremely easy access to mining.
Stealthy: it's underground, so it's unlikely other players will find it in SMP (saving glitchs).
Cons:
Effort-intensive: unlike a surface base, you will have to clear room in all directions so the trees will grown up. Also, you need to provide light.
Stealthy: you might have trouble being able to reach your base back unless the path is marked... in which case the base turns into one more easy to find in SMP by other players.
No sun: again, you will need to provide lightning to your plants, and more importantly if you play using Industrialcraft, you won't have access to solar light unless you make a solar generator in the surface with HV cables taking the power down there... which again will make the house easy to spot in SMP.
In case you want to look into more detail this kind of base, Paulosoaresjr has two or three videos showing how to setup underground farms in his "how to survive and thrive" video list.
Have fun!
martes, 28 de junio de 2011
Ground level bases: defenses
I made some snapshots and two videos about how to protect your base from hostile mobs.
First, the videos (I use brick blocks because the map is a stone-based flat map, to avoid passive mobs spawning):
Murder holes:
I got this concept from Paulosoaresjr, you can see the link to his channel to the left. To build a murder holes protected base, the inside must be 1 block lower than the outside, and the rest is to leave an uncovered hole. If you were to leave a hole one block up instead (and not making the inside 1 block lower than the outside) you would be vulnerable to skeleton's arrows.
Spider's bane:
This one I found by experience: a spider can't attack to something under itself, and it has a 2x2 blocks base (and 1 up), so this shows what to do before getting out of your house in the morning: check the roof for spiders ^^.
Now, some more defenses against stuff... like a lava pit (with a piston middle jump point), a cacti perimeter and what I call "the house's hat", something that, believe it or not, prevents spiders to get to the top of the house:
Lava Pit:
Cacti perimeter:
"House Hat" (be advised that undeads might find protection from sunlight under its shadow, so it works best with the murder holes):
First, the videos (I use brick blocks because the map is a stone-based flat map, to avoid passive mobs spawning):
Murder holes:
I got this concept from Paulosoaresjr, you can see the link to his channel to the left. To build a murder holes protected base, the inside must be 1 block lower than the outside, and the rest is to leave an uncovered hole. If you were to leave a hole one block up instead (and not making the inside 1 block lower than the outside) you would be vulnerable to skeleton's arrows.
Spider's bane:
This one I found by experience: a spider can't attack to something under itself, and it has a 2x2 blocks base (and 1 up), so this shows what to do before getting out of your house in the morning: check the roof for spiders ^^.
Now, some more defenses against stuff... like a lava pit (with a piston middle jump point), a cacti perimeter and what I call "the house's hat", something that, believe it or not, prevents spiders to get to the top of the house:
Lava Pit:
Cacti perimeter:
"House Hat" (be advised that undeads might find protection from sunlight under its shadow, so it works best with the murder holes):
domingo, 26 de junio de 2011
Base 101: the ground level base
Ok, lets look at the most basic kind of base of all: the ground level one, a simple design with the floor at (more or less) the same level as the ground around it, and the roof 4-5 levels above.
Pros: it's quick and easy to make, you can expand it with ease (just take down a wall, and that's it, or add higher walls in the roof, then another roof) and allows equal access to all blocks in the game. Also, it's not so much of a tragedy if you can't find your way back (unless you use it for storage too...)
Cons: you might need something to mark where is it to be able to find it again, you will need to expand this base quickly if you don't throw away some items, and you can only expand it safely by daytime.
As an example, this is a screenshot of my base in one of the worlds I play at. It's two stories high, plus the "growing tower" with glass ceiling and a lava signal. The lava pit was a late adittion (I hit bedrock and several lava deposits before any diamond, so I decided to get rid of my spider problem), but initially it was about 1/4 smaller (one story high, and half the lenght). Funny thing is, when I ended adding the tower (a process that I made one level at a time), some monsters started spawning in the higher rooms while I was away, so I had to put more torches.
Also as you can see the base walls are 2 blocks thick, because of the creepers (that was before the pit). The access, by the way, is by a piston raising in the middle of the pit.
Later on, I added torches at ground level to be able to see mobs at night, but since the house has an access to my mining operation, I mine during nighttime. As for the solar panels, those are a small arrangement I made while expanding the base, and are part of the Industrialcraft mod.
Speaking of diamonds, I can't believe how much it takes to find them at the beginning! It took me about 6 hours of real time before I found my first diamond in that map, and in the map I'm currently playing it took me about the same... and then when I got inside a deep cavern, and wandered around like mad, I ended with 11 in less than half an hour. Luck... XD
Pros: it's quick and easy to make, you can expand it with ease (just take down a wall, and that's it, or add higher walls in the roof, then another roof) and allows equal access to all blocks in the game. Also, it's not so much of a tragedy if you can't find your way back (unless you use it for storage too...)
Cons: you might need something to mark where is it to be able to find it again, you will need to expand this base quickly if you don't throw away some items, and you can only expand it safely by daytime.
As an example, this is a screenshot of my base in one of the worlds I play at. It's two stories high, plus the "growing tower" with glass ceiling and a lava signal. The lava pit was a late adittion (I hit bedrock and several lava deposits before any diamond, so I decided to get rid of my spider problem), but initially it was about 1/4 smaller (one story high, and half the lenght). Funny thing is, when I ended adding the tower (a process that I made one level at a time), some monsters started spawning in the higher rooms while I was away, so I had to put more torches.
Also as you can see the base walls are 2 blocks thick, because of the creepers (that was before the pit). The access, by the way, is by a piston raising in the middle of the pit.
Later on, I added torches at ground level to be able to see mobs at night, but since the house has an access to my mining operation, I mine during nighttime. As for the solar panels, those are a small arrangement I made while expanding the base, and are part of the Industrialcraft mod.
Speaking of diamonds, I can't believe how much it takes to find them at the beginning! It took me about 6 hours of real time before I found my first diamond in that map, and in the map I'm currently playing it took me about the same... and then when I got inside a deep cavern, and wandered around like mad, I ended with 11 in less than half an hour. Luck... XD
sábado, 25 de junio de 2011
Beginners advice: youtube tutorials
Well, today let's talk about starting with minecraft (I know, it's a little inconsistent to start with mods, then go back to the first steps, sorry ^^U). I'd like to reccomend you all to watch paulosoaresjr "How to survive and Thrive" series, with more than 35 or so videos describing, in a very easy to follow way, and without getting boring even if you already know what he's talking about. You can find the link to his youtube channel in the useful links list to the right of the page.
Tomorrow I'll talk about making a base. Not a small starting hut, but an installation where you can find most of the stuff you need to keep going. Also, some advice about what to bring to your deep digging expeditions.
Tomorrow I'll talk about making a base. Not a small starting hut, but an installation where you can find most of the stuff you need to keep going. Also, some advice about what to bring to your deep digging expeditions.
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