Mainly Minecraft

Distracted from work on the storage room by a new video from Test137E29 I dropped what I was doing and attempted to make a sand generator on the server entirely from memory. I didn't quite manage it but got there in the end. Test137E29 gravity block duplicator video : http://youtu.be/7m2G1QeV-nQ Texture pack by Misa : http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/69354-64x151-misas-realistic-texture-pack-updated-13mar2013/

An overdue update. This video is all talk and no action so feel free to just listen in while doing other things. I discuss my plans for the 3 in 1 nether farm becoming a 4 in 1 ultimate nether base, what I've been up to in-game and what I hope to be able to do in the future.

Super Hostile - Spellbound Caves Part 10 - Grey Wool Vechs Super Hostile #10 Spellbound Caves download: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/191908-ctmcollection-%E2%98%A0-vechs-super-hostile-series-%E2%98%A0/ Misa's Realistic texture pack download: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/69354-64x110-pre-misas-realistic-texture-pack-updated-15dec/

Vechs Super Hostile #10 Spellbound Caves download: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/191908-ctmcollection-%E2%98%A0-vechs-super-hostile-series-%E2%98%A0/ Misa's Realistic texture pack download: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/69354-64x110-pre-misas-realistic-texture-pack-updated-15dec/

I was typing a response and decided it would be better described through the magical medium of video. I've used ladders for safe fall for a long time because while adventuring I'm far more likely to have wood and sand/gravel than an iron bucket and water. Especially on Vechs Super Hostile maps. See my pillaring method video.

I was experimenting on my AMCATS in the nether and after many forehead slapping moments I took a break to play with snow golems. First thing I noticed is they started attacking Zombie Pigmen unprovoked which was unexpected as they are neutral to a player unless attacked. So I decided to experiment on traps with Snow Golems to lure in the Pigmen and made various types. Be aware, place them too close together and you'll see friendly fire incidents. In the video I briefly mention the AMCATS (Automated Mob Collection And Transportation System) but I'll be coming back to that in a later video. Many more ideas and tweaks to test out. Postscript: I looked up Snow Golems on the wiki after filming this... I prefer finding out some things by chance, and didn't know the snowballs did no damage and yet I could have sworn some friendly fire killed other snowmen.

Inspired by Etho I created a new 1.8 world with his seed. I'm hoping he decides to protect his original spawn point and here's a suggestion on how to go about it. It includes a bed, crafting bench and furnace as you may expect but it also has some bonus features. A simplified quick kit design, a compact hostile mob system and even a new 1.8 passive mob system! Sorry for the demo capture software, I'm broke and can't afford to buy anything except food. If you need tutorials on any of these features let me know. Enjoy!

I wanted to collect some spider eyes and ender pearls from my sky mob spawner and because spiders won't drop eyes unless killed by a player I had to separate them and provide a water brake. Problem is, creepers and skeletons are somehow glitching through blocks into the spider chute which has ended badly for me and my base several times now. It's rare but it does happen. I'll do some testing and see what I can figure out but if you know why this might be happening please let me know. All I wanted to do was have a temporary solution while I continue work on a subterranean mob spawning/separating system and ran into this quite major issue.

To celebrate the legendary 13 subscriber hurdle I return to my humble roots way back when.... So, my first minecraft video was terrible, even more so than my later efforts but before I deleted this world I wanted to bid it farewell... It tickled me all over again to revisit and as a small victory I actually sound positively cheerful in this one if a bit flemmy. OH BLOODY HELL I LEFT THE GAME SOUND UP TOO LOUD AGAIN!!!11!11ONEONE

Erm, I forgot to turn down game sound again, sorry about that...and BTW I know I sound kinda pissed off but I assure you I thoroughly enjoy working on new system ideas although this one has been very frustrating. Anyway, on with the description. After seeing the change to Blazes (not dropping rods unless killed by a player) I took this as a sign of things to come. The "End" will probably be the place to farm Ender Pearls when implemented but for now I took on the challenge of Enderman separation! I had seen MrPixelTech testing their teleport distances along the horizontal and vertically upwards but I decided to test for myself and found some major issues. Firstly they seem to be far less limited when it comes to descending from heights. They can easily port from Y128 down to Y64 pretty much instantly indicating they scan from the bottom to top whereas it takes them much longer in reverse. Ascending they start to struggle at around 30+ but can definitely do 32 possibly more. It seems to me they are using the same kind of scan used for spawning packs of mobs rather than simply looking for a single dry block with enough airspace. Secondly when they do come into contact with water (and possibly direct sunlight) they enter a panic state which means they sometimes port as they take a tick of water damage and even though they've ported to a dry spot they port again instantly. In direct sunlight I've observed them port over and over as if looking for shade. After working for hours on various test setups I felt confident enough to try and retrofit my base with Enderman separation and after observing very low success rates I imported my base to the test world just to make sure my system was feasible before finishing a rail system and filling in caves/tunnels. Conclusion: Working separation but low yield so far. Fix: Make sure all blocks in port range have no more than two high clearance... ugh, well, there's a use for those chests full of dirt!

Here I'm placing the final wool, in my case the red wool which took me quite a while to find because I thought I was done in the area it's in. In Kaizo caverns I tried to complete the mastery monument (grass block) but lacked the patience as I'd completed the VM. This time there is no mastery monument challenge given but the ability to do it is... I got carried away. I didn't record a playthrough of this map because I was too eager to explore it but maybe with Vechs next Super Hostile map I will. Now I can watch my favourite LP'ers like Zombie Cleo play through this map without seeing spoilers. If you haven't played any of Vechs maps yet I would strongly urge you to try them out. HERE: http://www.minecraftforum.net/topic/191908-ctmcollection-%e2%98%a0-vechs-super-hostile-series-%e2%98%a0/

Just a progress video on Nightmare Realm. Awesome new map from Vechs! I may attempt some let's play style coverage at some point but I'm already halfway through this map. By the way you may notice I'm using 1.9 pre-release 2 and that actually makes this map harder. Beefed up endermen and cave spiders actually poisoning you etc. I could use ender pearls but I've decided not to as the map wasn't made with them in mind and would therefore technically be cheating in a sense.

Another follow up to my experiments on my Automated Mob Collection And Transportation System (AMCATS) in the nether using the 1.9 beta pre-release. I first show you a version of Ethos "Blaze farm" I made with five possible spawn points just to see if it would increase efficiency. With only one spawn point you may be losing out because when a blaze is in the act of being suffocated the spawn point is unavailable for a new blaze to spawn in. Next I show you my suffocation method using the AMCATS which also kills naturally occurring blazes, pigmen and also breaks up Magma cubes into the smaller less dangerous versions. Unfortunately you will have to deal with them manually when they split and the tiny ones will ride a cart around the system indefinitely. Finally I show you how I've protected the rails from spawns and collisions using glass blocks. Hope you find this useful or inspires you to design your own setup. Please leave a comment, thumbs up or even maybe subscribe. I'm especially interested in thoughts on improvements.

In this video I've added a pulse generator to regulate cart spacing like I promised but I came to the conclusion the system is all far too resource hungry and time consuming to be worthwhile actually using. I give my final thoughts on this system and offer a far simpler but effective collection and transportation method. This will also be perfect if you want get your very own Ermintrude from the new Mushroom biomes. By the way, if you don't get the reference Ermintrude was a cow in an old BBC kids television show called Magic Roundabout that used to trip out on shrooms or poppies or something.

My base is surrounded by water and I wanted to collect some passive mobs in preparation for 1.9 breeding. I decided to use the fact that passive mobs spawned in new chunks will no longer despawn. I figured I could automate the collection fairly easily allowing me to go off and explore/build/gather resources etc. A railway does this very effectively. You would set up a system in the nearest chunks containing passive mobs with a rail going back to base. You could then just leave it running until all the available mobs have been captured then rip up the system and move it further out to the next area extending the return rail. Kind of a painful process but far less painful than making a MASSIVE spawning tower that only produces a new mob a few times a day.

Out of date info: it's now a 9x9 area and therefore far easier to setup. The vast majority of us know how to light up spawners in caves and dungeons to suppress spawning but what most people don't know is what the spawn area is exactly and the restrictions involved. If you are planning to make an XP farm using a spawner this is step one of the process. Armed with this info you can then get creative but efficient at the same time.

red3yz suggested I show a closer look at the setup for people to check out if they want to make one similar. I also attempt to answer DocM's questions about the setup, showing that the normal mob cap is ignored and my softener is now set to take the blazes to exactly half a heart allowing for a spectacular nuke from a splash potion.

Following on from my last video I finally got the mob softener working for one of the two blaze spawners after much trial and tribulation. As I mentioned in that last video Blazes grant ten xp per so I skipped all the overworld spawners in favour of this setup. Love DocM, Etho etc but for me ten XP beats five by a factor of two. Besides, the nether stronghold is close to my portal and much closer than any convenient pair of spider spawners : ) Enjoy!

I promised a video of my base and how it's progressing so I start with that and then enter the nether to show my work so far on an xp/blaze farm I'm setting up. XP from blazes is listed as 10 per kill on the wiki which is more than any other mob bar dragons so I decided to test it out and it's looking good so far. Cave spiders are decent XP and easier to deal with though so I may make one of those also at some point.

Here I show enderman separation based on mob health inspired by red3yz and further tested by Roboticaust but then I use a killing option I've never actually seen used by any of the many minecrafters I watch here on youtube. If I use this in my world I will have to tinker around with the kill spot but the downside of this kill method is loot collection is messy. When a mob or player dies loot sort of explodes out from that block and can be unpredictable so at the point where the cart leaves the track loot often kicks back onto the block behind it.

I was getting bored waiting on naturally occurring blazes to spawn in the nether fortress and to pass the time I imported a mobivator then switched out the water for lava. No particular reason, can't see much use for it atm but you never know. Fun was had by all.

EDIT: Patched in 1.9.5 I mentioned I'd read this ages ago to Roboticaust during his livestream and he said he hadn't heard of that before so here's a quick video showing it in action. Zombie pigmen and blazes are the two nether mobs that will always attempt to swim up in lava. Only difference being blazes can fly out if they have the clearance above. In the case of a lava column both mobs will climb until they hit an obstruction and get stuck or exit the lava. After a few blocks in height they will make no effort to escape the column.

Response to AutomatorMC's request on spider suppression.

A closer look at the basic structure as well as the spider suppression and lava lighting (on/off toggle) additions. I point out the main weakness with avoiding pistons for the lower section where I'm getting mobs idling for random periods slowing down the flow and discuss options.

The new terrain in 1.9 is riddled with caves, ravines, abandoned mines etc and I've noticed I'm finding a lot more dungeons also. After watching many LPr's I cringe when seeing how some (naming no names) tackle mob spawners. So many people watch these guys they may be picking up bad habits so here's my first spelunking tip on how to suppress a mob spawner economically.