Minecraft's performance would like a word with you too.
Array access in Java is dramatically slower than C++. In an application where array access is basically the whole show, that's a problem.
On the other hand, Minecraft runs on anything with a Java VM, which is more than can be said for most games. I bet he gets a lot of sales from Mac and Linux users relieved that they can play a hot game natively rather than struggling with Wine or dual-booting. I know a few for whom that was a selling point.
Minecraft's performance would like a word with you too.
Array access in Java is dramatically slower than C++. In an application where array access is basically the whole show, that's a problem.
On the other hand, Minecraft runs on anything with a Java VM, which is more than can be said for most games. I bet he gets a lot of sales from Mac and Linux users relieved that they can play a hot game natively rather than struggling with Wine or dual-booting. I know a few for whom that was a selling point.
Minecraft's performance would like a word with you too.
Array access in Java is dramatically slower than C++. In an application where array access is basically the whole show, that's a problem.
On the other hand, Minecraft runs on anything with a Java VM, which is more than can be said for most games. I bet he gets a lot of sales from Mac and Linux users relieved that they can play a hot game natively rather than struggling with Wine or dual-booting. I know a few for whom that was a selling point.
Oh yeah, there are definitely advantages to the JVM and writing for it. And the fact that you can jump on and play Alpha from any machine with a web browser and the JRE installed is huge for a casual game like this. I'm just saying that, in terms of 'could this be made to run on system X', it's a simple enough game that the answer should be 'yes' for almost any X.
i can dig real deep, and the further i go, the more seams i hit
obviously i'll have to go spelunking again sooner or later, but for now my needs are being very adequately met
by the way, has anyone seen what something awful is doing with their own server
they've got a goddamned rail system, fully functional, across multiple continents, including a glassed-in underwater tunnel
shit be whacked
Doesn't their rail system screw up the server?
Perhaps we can test a bit with rails?
vernes on
0
GumpyThere is alwaysa greater powerRegistered Userregular
so i got past the "schmuck" phase of my run, wandering around half the continent to find my house only to give up and respawn when i had all the necessary materials for a compass right there
so now my modest little underground shack has a little door in the back, and two very long tunnels
one tunnel leads into the bowels of the earth, where i can get all the stone, coal, and iron i need
the other leads right into the center of a small mountain
i have a vision
seeks: nope, website specifies no DMR or whatever it's called
All the stone, coal, and iron you need, you say? With every underground expedition, you will be forced to dig deeper. And deeper.
i can dig real deep, and the further i go, the more seams i hit
obviously i'll have to go spelunking again sooner or later, but for now my needs are being very adequately met
by the way, has anyone seen what something awful is doing with their own server
they've got a goddamned rail system, fully functional, across multiple continents, including a glassed-in underwater tunnel
shit be whacked
Doesn't their rail system screw up the server?
the video i saw of it running was silky-smooth, so i don't think so
overall they seem to be a lot more stable than anything you guys have
Can you plant your own bamboo? I thought that you could but I just tried and wouldn't work.
I want to created a book-filled library in my new house but sailing around and almost getting lost while looking for hints of bamboo is pretty tiresome. It'd be nice to just lay down a plot I could continually harvest.
edit: so the Wiki says it can be planted. I wonder why mine wouldn't work...
It has to be planted next to water, literally next to it. In my experience you cannot even plant it on a diagonal from water. Once you get some growing though, it grows fast!
This game is surprisingly addictive. I spent the better part of two hours just building a spiraling stair case going straight down into the earth. I still haven't hit bottom or lava. I'm assuming we're in some kind of box. I've found the top where I can't build any higher, but have yet to find the bottom.
This game is surprisingly addictive. I spent the better part of two hours just building a spiraling stair case going straight down into the earth. I still haven't hit bottom or lava. I'm assuming we're in some kind of box. I've found the top where I can't build any higher, but have yet to find the bottom.
There's a top and bottom but I'm not sure there are sides... it may just keep building a universe as long as you travel it?
so i got past the "schmuck" phase of my run, wandering around half the continent to find my house only to give up and respawn when i had all the necessary materials for a compass right there
so now my modest little underground shack has a little door in the back, and two very long tunnels
one tunnel leads into the bowels of the earth, where i can get all the stone, coal, and iron i need
the other leads right into the center of a small mountain
i have a vision
seeks: nope, website specifies no DMR or whatever it's called
All the stone, coal, and iron you need, you say? With every underground expedition, you will be forced to dig deeper. And deeper.
i can dig real deep, and the further i go, the more seams i hit
obviously i'll have to go spelunking again sooner or later, but for now my needs are being very adequately met
by the way, has anyone seen what something awful is doing with their own server
they've got a goddamned rail system, fully functional, across multiple continents, including a glassed-in underwater tunnel
shit be whacked
Doesn't their rail system screw up the server?
the video i saw of it running was silky-smooth, so i don't think so
overall they seem to be a lot more stable than anything you guys have
I'm going to try not to sound defensive when I say this, since the server's mine, but if you've seen a working minecart system involved in their stuff, it's because someone loaded the map up in singleplayer and did it that way. Minecarts not working is not a server stability issue; nobody in multiplayer has working minecarts.
Also, a glassed-in underwater tunnel ain't nothin' new for Rapture. That is the entirety of how you get to rapture.
the video i saw of it running was silky-smooth, so i don't think so
overall they seem to be a lot more stable than anything you guys have
I can't tell if this is a troll attempt or not, but no.
As was mentioned, minecarts don't work correctly in Multiplayer.
And...more stable? As in what? Server is more stable? Otherwise, in a sandbox game, I don't see how you can be "more stable" than someone else. Especially given all the cooperation that went into putting Rapture together.
I'm sure this has been posted before, but I just saw this for the first time today (and we have a bunch of new players who probably haven't seen it). This blows my mind. I wanna buy a second copy of the game after watching this.
Has anyone been able to grow trees underground? I can grow crops just fine, but saplings don't seem to want to grow into trees. I tried digging out more space above them, and I even dug a huge chimney shaft straight down above one so it got sunlight.
I've been trying to finish my current building projects in anticipation of starting a new map for biomes. Most of my construction is underground tunnels, but I've built a few other structures:
First is my "Exit Tower". It connects to my tunnels under the mountain and is my primary method for entering and exiting my tunnel system.
Next is my "Valley Bridge". It runs from a natural cave I tunneled into, across the valley, and into a mountain side that I've begun to hollow out. I also dug those lakes by hand to extend the left waterfall and added the right waterfall myself, so that the bridge would have something to cross.
Third, my Great Hall inside the mountain from the previous picture. Not much to comment on, other than the nice large viewing window onto the valley
Has anyone been able to grow trees underground? I can grow crops just fine, but saplings don't seem to want to grow into trees. I tried digging out more space above them, and I even dug a huge chimney shaft straight down above one so it got sunlight.
Has anyone been able to grow trees underground? I can grow crops just fine, but saplings don't seem to want to grow into trees. I tried digging out more space above them, and I even dug a huge chimney shaft straight down above one so it got sunlight.
Yup.
You just gotta give it lots of space and light.
Just need an adjacent torch and four blocks of space above the sapling.
Has anyone been able to grow trees underground? I can grow crops just fine, but saplings don't seem to want to grow into trees. I tried digging out more space above them, and I even dug a huge chimney shaft straight down above one so it got sunlight.
Yup.
You just gotta give it lots of space and light.
Just need an adjacent torch and four blocks of space above the sapling.
I must be doing something wrong because I've done all of this. I'll check and try again.
You can't see it, but the waterfall extends much higher up. The size of the shaft shrinks by a couple columns towards the top. I ended up intentionally flooding the whole upper section.
The base of the waterfall. Originally the whole surface I'm standing on was going to be the bridge, but I realized it'd take a shit ton more work that might actually be impossible to finish in order to cover the whole surface to the point where water would go over the edge. I ended up halving the size of it with the row of cobble you see down the middle. I also had to wrestle with the water physics (ha!) in order to get the water to up (hence the lumpiness of the water). All the work doing that up here got the far side of the stream 2 blocks away from going over the edge. I ended up cutting some blocks out at the end of the stream to finally give the small push over the edge.
Once the water finally went over my mined out steps, the rest was pretty easy. The water didn't travel far enough to cover the whole area, so more exploitation of making lumpy water and cutting away surface was necessary. The bottom rows of cobble were the destination.
All that work (took about 2.5-3 hours from start to mining the obsidian) netted me 30 blocks of obsidian. Phew!
My attempt to be a nomad ended with me being killed. Combat really needs to be improved.
Eh, I dunno.
I thought the whole appeal to the game was that even when you think you're such a badass with your shiny armor and your giant castle, the legion of the night can still fuck you up.
I always felt like that put me in my place. During the day I wander around like I'm a fucking god, but when I'm mining deep underground I whimper and scurry from light source to light source like the squishy bag of water that I am.
I just made it out alive from the largest dungeon system I've run across yet. Spoilered for long, for it is an epic tale.
I prepared ahead of time; I left my mountain fortress home with fresh metal armor and an extra sword, with pickaxes and shovels to spare, along with a half dozen cooked hams and 128 arrows for my trusty creeper-slaying bow, with dozens of torches and extra wood. I hopped in a boat and sailed across the ocean to a very promising mountain I had seen earlier on.
I found a cave on the side of a mountain and entered to see a naturally occurring massive staircase. It lead to a system of massive black, empty halls filled with naught but darkness and monsters. I worked my way through, building paths across yawning chasms and slaying the occasional creature.
In time, I reached a treasure room which I cleared by mining around the side, opening a small window and swiping at the half-dozen spiders which had shown up inside. The chest inside contained my first record, which I was pleased with.
At this point I had about two dozen metal, the goodies from the chest and a couple gold. I was considering heading back at this point, but as I was cheerfully ripping up the green stone from the treasure room to use later I noticed it connected to another passage leading further down.
I said to myself, "Oh, what the hell, I still have some room. I'll just see where this leads!"
Two hours later I would be bitterly regretting that decision which, I tell you, was not even remotely the same level of regret I was feeling 90 minutes after that.
The passage lead to another sequence of massive caverns. These caverns were huge, at some points you could see down maybe 15 squares or more if you were at the highest point. Massive, sprawling locales filled with side tunnels that looped back on each other, grand halls lit by lava pools glowing beside waterfalls. And treasure! More metal in one cavern than I had ever seen, next to redstone and gold and even diamonds, in some places.
I ran out of shovels, and pickaxes, broke my second sword on a charging zombie, and when I was down to my last dozen torches I sealed myself into a side room and got to crafting. I had to juggle all the treasure I had picked up to make room for all the essentials I had to make again. An hour or so later, having worked my way through all the new stuff, I had to repeat the process.
I was completely lost, of course. One massive lava-lit system just lead into another. I knew where I had been from the torches I left behind, but I kept finding places I hadn't explored. I only really started worrying when I was down to my last dozen arrows; at this point I was carting around more treasure from one trip then I had picked up in 2-3 days of regular exploration. I was terrified at the prospect of dying and losing it all. When I could no longer use my bow I knew at one point I was going to run into a creeper with my name on it. There was no way I could find my way back the way I came, if I could I doubted that I could survive fighting off all the monsters which had invariably respawned from the places I forgot to illuminate, so I just kept pressing on.
I used 3 diamonds to make a good pickaxe and started digging up. I quickly broke into another massive, unexplored lava cavern. I got as high as I could, followed waterfalls up to their sources, burning through the last of my food in the process trying to stay alive. This took some time.
Finally, finally, I entered a new cavern and saw light at one end. At first I thought I had doubled back some how, but as I got closer I realized it was a passage to the surface: one massive vertical shaft maybe 10-12 blocks high. I carved stairs into the side and finally reached the top.
I had ended up right on the edge of the ocean, and I couldn't even see the mountain where I had first entered. I quickly dropped a bunch of stone in a flat square nearby and set some torches on it, then created a workbench to craft both a boat, and a compass. With both in my hands I sailed for home, which took several minutes of travel.
The end result was something like this:
100+ metal, smelted then crafted blocks for room
21 gold
180+ redstone, 3 stacks and change
120+ coal, not counting all the ones I used for forges and torches
13 diamonds
12 obsidian
Green and Yellow records
3 treasure rooms cleared out
I wore through a dozen stone pickaxes and shovels, 3 metal pickaxes, and 25% of my diamond pickaxe by the time I got out. I had 3 hearts at the end with no food or armor left.
The reason why I made the flat square after exiting is so the position would be visible later; I use cartographer to render the world map to help with exploration. Checking later, I would see that I essentially entered the cave system at one end of a continent, and escaped from the very opposite side.
The last funny epilogue: after all that spelunking I decided to spend more time just building up my home. In the process of carving stairs down to make a treasury to store the blocks of metal I made, I broke into a cavern.
Which lead to another...
I haven't worked up the courage to explore that system yet.
Has anyone been able to grow trees underground? I can grow crops just fine, but saplings don't seem to want to grow into trees. I tried digging out more space above them, and I even dug a huge chimney shaft straight down above one so it got sunlight.
Yup.
You just gotta give it lots of space and light.
Just need an adjacent torch and four blocks of space above the sapling.
If I'm clearing trees, how much of the canopy do I need to clear before the sapling I plant in the tree's place can grow again? I really, really don't want to manually remove entire canopies, not with days this short.
Well if you want to replant the tree you just harvest you could do what I do, burn the leaves. You do need to watch out for the fire jumping to other trees but it works.
Robziel on
Do I look like the sort of man who'd go and find unsuspecting Japanese schoolgirls in short skirts and white panties and ask them if they want to see my "Cthulu Special"?
I just made it out alive from the largest dungeon system I've run across yet. Spoilered for long, for it is an epic tale.
I prepared ahead of time; I left my mountain fortress home with fresh metal armor and an extra sword, with pickaxes and shovels to spare, along with a half dozen cooked hams and 128 arrows for my trusty creeper-slaying bow, with dozens of torches and extra wood. I hopped in a boat and sailed across the ocean to a very promising mountain I had seen earlier on.
I found a cave on the side of a mountain and entered to see a naturally occurring massive staircase. It lead to a system of massive black, empty halls filled with naught but darkness and monsters. I worked my way through, building paths across yawning chasms and slaying the occasional creature.
In time, I reached a treasure room which I cleared by mining around the side, opening a small window and swiping at the half-dozen spiders which had shown up inside. The chest inside contained my first record, which I was pleased with.
At this point I had about two dozen metal, the goodies from the chest and a couple gold. I was considering heading back at this point, but as I was cheerfully ripping up the green stone from the treasure room to use later I noticed it connected to another passage leading further down.
I said to myself, "Oh, what the hell, I still have some room. I'll just see where this leads!"
Two hours later I would be bitterly regretting that decision which, I tell you, was not even remotely the same level of regret I was feeling 90 minutes after that.
The passage lead to another sequence of massive caverns. These caverns were huge, at some points you could see down maybe 15 squares or more if you were at the highest point. Massive, sprawling locales filled with side tunnels that looped back on each other, grand halls lit by lava pools glowing beside waterfalls. And treasure! More metal in one cavern than I had ever seen, next to redstone and gold and even diamonds, in some places.
I ran out of shovels, and pickaxes, broke my second sword on a charging zombie, and when I was down to my last dozen torches I sealed myself into a side room and got to crafting. I had to juggle all the treasure I had picked up to make room for all the essentials I had to make again. An hour or so later, having worked my way through all the new stuff, I had to repeat the process.
I was completely lost, of course. One massive lava-lit system just lead into another. I knew where I had been from the torches I left behind, but I kept finding places I hadn't explored. I only really started worrying when I was down to my last dozen arrows; at this point I was carting around more treasure from one trip then I had picked up in 2-3 days of regular exploration. I was terrified at the prospect of dying and losing it all. When I could no longer use my bow I knew at one point I was going to run into a creeper with my name on it. There was no way I could find my way back the way I came, if I could I doubted that I could survive fighting off all the monsters which had invariably respawned from the places I forgot to illuminate, so I just kept pressing on.
I used 3 diamonds to make a good pickaxe and started digging up. I quickly broke into another massive, unexplored lava cavern. I got as high as I could, followed waterfalls up to their sources, burning through the last of my food in the process trying to stay alive. This took some time.
Finally, finally, I entered a new cavern and saw light at one end. At first I thought I had doubled back some how, but as I got closer I realized it was a passage to the surface: one massive vertical shaft maybe 10-12 blocks high. I carved stairs into the side and finally reached the top.
I had ended up right on the edge of the ocean, and I couldn't even see the mountain where I had first entered. I quickly dropped a bunch of stone in a flat square nearby and set some torches on it, then created a workbench to craft both a boat, and a compass. With both in my hands I sailed for home, which took several minutes of travel.
The end result was something like this:
100+ metal, smelted then crafted blocks for room
21 gold
180+ redstone, 3 stacks and change
120+ coal, not counting all the ones I used for forges and torches
13 diamonds
12 obsidian
Green and Yellow records
3 treasure rooms cleared out
I wore through a dozen stone pickaxes and shovels, 3 metal pickaxes, and 25% of my diamond pickaxe by the time I got out. I had 3 hearts at the end with no food or armor left.
The reason why I made the flat square after exiting is so the position would be visible later; I use cartographer to render the world map to help with exploration. Checking later, I would see that I essentially entered the cave system at one end of a continent, and escaped from the very opposite side.
The last funny epilogue: after all that spelunking I decided to spend more time just building up my home. In the process of carving stairs down to make a treasury to store the blocks of metal I made, I broke into a cavern.
Which lead to another...
I haven't worked up the courage to explore that system yet.
:^:
I love stories like this. They inspire me to go on further adventures myself after I've settled into long construction projects.
Re: construction projects, what do people use (if anything) to plot out their blueprints ahead of time? UncleSporky recommended zoomed-in MS Paint with the grid turned on and that worked to a degree until I upgraded to Win 7 and now none of the brushes are square shaped and I'm dissatisfied again.
Drake Chambers on
0
CarbonFireSee youin the countryRegistered Userregular
it's reaaallllly gonna suck when torches are no longer a permanent light source
i mean, presumably there'll be a new part that is permanent
but still
What? This sounds like a horrible idea if there is no permanent easy to obtain replacement.
He's stated there will be a permanent replacement. Like a lantern or similar. It'll probably cost like 1-2 iron plus a coal or some such, but hopefully give out more light.
Well if you want to replant the tree you just harvest you could do what I do, burn the leaves. You do need to watch out for the fire jumping to other trees but it works.
it's reaaallllly gonna suck when torches are no longer a permanent light source
i mean, presumably there'll be a new part that is permanent
but still
What? This sounds like a horrible idea if there is no permanent easy to obtain replacement.
He's stated there will be a permanent replacement. Like a lantern or some such. It'll probably cost like 1-2 iron plus a coal or some such, but hopefully give out more light.
it's reaaallllly gonna suck when torches are no longer a permanent light source
i mean, presumably there'll be a new part that is permanent
but still
What? This sounds like a horrible idea if there is no permanent easy to obtain replacement.
He's stated there will be a permanent replacement. Like a lantern or some such. It'll probably cost like 1-2 iron plus a coal or some such, but hopefully give out more light.
Any word on how long torches will last?
I can't remember where I heard it, but something like 3 days? With the torches dimming on the 3rd day. Again, can't remember the source, this might have been speculation rather than directly from Notch.
it's reaaallllly gonna suck when torches are no longer a permanent light source
i mean, presumably there'll be a new part that is permanent
but still
What? This sounds like a horrible idea if there is no permanent easy to obtain replacement.
He's stated there will be a permanent replacement. Like a lantern or some such. It'll probably cost like 1-2 iron plus a coal or some such, but hopefully give out more light.
Any word on how long torches will last?
Carbon you are an admin of the group. Can you add me?
It will be much much harder to build light if it requires iron.
CommunistCow on
No, I am not really communist. Yes, it is weird that I use this name.
Posts
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter
For sure, I bought it to play on my Linux laptop.
Oh yeah, there are definitely advantages to the JVM and writing for it. And the fact that you can jump on and play Alpha from any machine with a web browser and the JRE installed is huge for a casual game like this. I'm just saying that, in terms of 'could this be made to run on system X', it's a simple enough game that the answer should be 'yes' for almost any X.
Doesn't their rail system screw up the server?
Perhaps we can test a bit with rails?
the video i saw of it running was silky-smooth, so i don't think so
overall they seem to be a lot more stable than anything you guys have
It stands astride the only water entrance to my little cove. My home is marked by the smaller and closer of the two dirt towers on the right.
It has to be planted next to water, literally next to it. In my experience you cannot even plant it on a diagonal from water. Once you get some growing though, it grows fast!
[X][X]
[w]
[X][X]
I plant mine alongside a pond.
[X]
[w][X]
[w][w]
[w][w]
[w][w]
Twitch/Mudzgut
Fall down seven times. Stand up eight.
This game is surprisingly addictive. I spent the better part of two hours just building a spiraling stair case going straight down into the earth. I still haven't hit bottom or lava. I'm assuming we're in some kind of box. I've found the top where I can't build any higher, but have yet to find the bottom.
i mean, presumably there'll be a new part that is permanent
but still
There's a top and bottom but I'm not sure there are sides... it may just keep building a universe as long as you travel it?
I'm going to try not to sound defensive when I say this, since the server's mine, but if you've seen a working minecart system involved in their stuff, it's because someone loaded the map up in singleplayer and did it that way. Minecarts not working is not a server stability issue; nobody in multiplayer has working minecarts.
Also, a glassed-in underwater tunnel ain't nothin' new for Rapture. That is the entirety of how you get to rapture.
I can't tell if this is a troll attempt or not, but no.
As was mentioned, minecarts don't work correctly in Multiplayer.
And...more stable? As in what? Server is more stable? Otherwise, in a sandbox game, I don't see how you can be "more stable" than someone else. Especially given all the cooperation that went into putting Rapture together.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaMTedT6P0I
Hold F3 and S for a few seconds. On Mac you have to hold fn+F3+S.
This will work until you reload the game so every game you have to do it again. Its a known issue so it should be fixed soon.
First is my "Exit Tower". It connects to my tunnels under the mountain and is my primary method for entering and exiting my tunnel system.
Next is my "Valley Bridge". It runs from a natural cave I tunneled into, across the valley, and into a mountain side that I've begun to hollow out. I also dug those lakes by hand to extend the left waterfall and added the right waterfall myself, so that the bridge would have something to cross.
Third, my Great Hall inside the mountain from the previous picture. Not much to comment on, other than the nice large viewing window onto the valley
And, finally, the view from that window
Yup.
You just gotta give it lots of space and light.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Just need an adjacent torch and four blocks of space above the sapling.
They seem to drop from the tree leaf blocks.
I must be doing something wrong because I've done all of this. I'll check and try again.
The base of the waterfall. Originally the whole surface I'm standing on was going to be the bridge, but I realized it'd take a shit ton more work that might actually be impossible to finish in order to cover the whole surface to the point where water would go over the edge. I ended up halving the size of it with the row of cobble you see down the middle. I also had to wrestle with the water physics (ha!) in order to get the water to up (hence the lumpiness of the water). All the work doing that up here got the far side of the stream 2 blocks away from going over the edge. I ended up cutting some blocks out at the end of the stream to finally give the small push over the edge.
Once the water finally went over my mined out steps, the rest was pretty easy. The water didn't travel far enough to cover the whole area, so more exploitation of making lumpy water and cutting away surface was necessary. The bottom rows of cobble were the destination.
All that work (took about 2.5-3 hours from start to mining the obsidian) netted me 30 blocks of obsidian. Phew!
Eh, I dunno.
I thought the whole appeal to the game was that even when you think you're such a badass with your shiny armor and your giant castle, the legion of the night can still fuck you up.
I always felt like that put me in my place. During the day I wander around like I'm a fucking god, but when I'm mining deep underground I whimper and scurry from light source to light source like the squishy bag of water that I am.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Please add me!
I found a cave on the side of a mountain and entered to see a naturally occurring massive staircase. It lead to a system of massive black, empty halls filled with naught but darkness and monsters. I worked my way through, building paths across yawning chasms and slaying the occasional creature.
In time, I reached a treasure room which I cleared by mining around the side, opening a small window and swiping at the half-dozen spiders which had shown up inside. The chest inside contained my first record, which I was pleased with.
At this point I had about two dozen metal, the goodies from the chest and a couple gold. I was considering heading back at this point, but as I was cheerfully ripping up the green stone from the treasure room to use later I noticed it connected to another passage leading further down.
I said to myself, "Oh, what the hell, I still have some room. I'll just see where this leads!"
Two hours later I would be bitterly regretting that decision which, I tell you, was not even remotely the same level of regret I was feeling 90 minutes after that.
The passage lead to another sequence of massive caverns. These caverns were huge, at some points you could see down maybe 15 squares or more if you were at the highest point. Massive, sprawling locales filled with side tunnels that looped back on each other, grand halls lit by lava pools glowing beside waterfalls. And treasure! More metal in one cavern than I had ever seen, next to redstone and gold and even diamonds, in some places.
I ran out of shovels, and pickaxes, broke my second sword on a charging zombie, and when I was down to my last dozen torches I sealed myself into a side room and got to crafting. I had to juggle all the treasure I had picked up to make room for all the essentials I had to make again. An hour or so later, having worked my way through all the new stuff, I had to repeat the process.
I was completely lost, of course. One massive lava-lit system just lead into another. I knew where I had been from the torches I left behind, but I kept finding places I hadn't explored. I only really started worrying when I was down to my last dozen arrows; at this point I was carting around more treasure from one trip then I had picked up in 2-3 days of regular exploration. I was terrified at the prospect of dying and losing it all. When I could no longer use my bow I knew at one point I was going to run into a creeper with my name on it. There was no way I could find my way back the way I came, if I could I doubted that I could survive fighting off all the monsters which had invariably respawned from the places I forgot to illuminate, so I just kept pressing on.
I used 3 diamonds to make a good pickaxe and started digging up. I quickly broke into another massive, unexplored lava cavern. I got as high as I could, followed waterfalls up to their sources, burning through the last of my food in the process trying to stay alive. This took some time.
Finally, finally, I entered a new cavern and saw light at one end. At first I thought I had doubled back some how, but as I got closer I realized it was a passage to the surface: one massive vertical shaft maybe 10-12 blocks high. I carved stairs into the side and finally reached the top.
I had ended up right on the edge of the ocean, and I couldn't even see the mountain where I had first entered. I quickly dropped a bunch of stone in a flat square nearby and set some torches on it, then created a workbench to craft both a boat, and a compass. With both in my hands I sailed for home, which took several minutes of travel.
The end result was something like this:
100+ metal, smelted then crafted blocks for room
21 gold
180+ redstone, 3 stacks and change
120+ coal, not counting all the ones I used for forges and torches
13 diamonds
12 obsidian
Green and Yellow records
3 treasure rooms cleared out
I wore through a dozen stone pickaxes and shovels, 3 metal pickaxes, and 25% of my diamond pickaxe by the time I got out. I had 3 hearts at the end with no food or armor left.
The reason why I made the flat square after exiting is so the position would be visible later; I use cartographer to render the world map to help with exploration. Checking later, I would see that I essentially entered the cave system at one end of a continent, and escaped from the very opposite side.
The last funny epilogue: after all that spelunking I decided to spend more time just building up my home. In the process of carving stairs down to make a treasury to store the blocks of metal I made, I broke into a cavern.
Which lead to another...
I haven't worked up the courage to explore that system yet.
What? This sounds like a horrible idea if there is no permanent easy to obtain replacement.
A VOTE FOR EIN IS A VOTE FOR FREEDOM, AND AGAINST THE FOREIGN MENACE!
:^:
I love stories like this. They inspire me to go on further adventures myself after I've settled into long construction projects.
Re: construction projects, what do people use (if anything) to plot out their blueprints ahead of time? UncleSporky recommended zoomed-in MS Paint with the grid turned on and that worked to a degree until I upgraded to Win 7 and now none of the brushes are square shaped and I'm dissatisfied again.
He's stated there will be a permanent replacement. Like a lantern or similar. It'll probably cost like 1-2 iron plus a coal or some such, but hopefully give out more light.
Any word on how long torches will last?
I can't remember where I heard it, but something like 3 days? With the torches dimming on the 3rd day. Again, can't remember the source, this might have been speculation rather than directly from Notch.
Carbon you are an admin of the group. Can you add me?
It will be much much harder to build light if it requires iron.