The Hunt For Lapis Lazuli - The Tale of Ravine Deception.

I'm pleased to say that I have picked up work on my 1.9.5 world! My modern home in a mountain.

At the moment I really want to get the bathroom done but finding enough Lapis to finish the bathroom as it is, is a big job. Don't forget it takes 9 Lapis just for one block, and even a small bathroom such as this means it's a lengthy process.

So this is the bathroom as it is, not much to look at right now. For the border of Lapis - all the way around i decided it was time to go mining, so I went to the local mine just across the way from the house. After digging steps down until bedrock, then creating branches at level 14 I began the tunnel branches within. I'd only got a good length down my first branch, clearing a 3 block height (x1 width) tunnel when one block I dig out spewed water on top of my head. A bit annoying, but when I traveled past it I came across this:

First branch and I hit a ravine! A very strange one it is as well with tonnes of water falling from above making a big patch of it very hard to move about in, especially as it's near lava. It must be actually under an ocean for that much water coming down. here's a later pic better lit up:

I tweaked the FOV (Field of view) for this shot so you could see where the water is coming from - that large hole at the top, which must be under an ocean. I found some gold, lots and lots of Iron naturally, about 24 Lapis, no diamonds. Then disaster struck. I was following a small nook that led of somewhere and I could see lava behind this column of gravel that was in my way, so I removed the gravel.. next thing I know I had lava drop on my head from above - instakill. I lost everything. Within the next 5 minutes of silent rage as I made my way back - nothing was left, all incinerated by the lava.

After investigating the ravine, (It wasn't very extensive), I when back to the start of the branch and dug in the direct opposite direction.. At the end of this branch, I um...

Um yeah, another ravine. I was confused for a long while and though i'd run into the same ravine as they were so similar, but thought - "That's impossible" because a ravine can't run back round on itself. I kept travelling from one ravine down both branches to the other ravine. They are two ravines, because one is underwater and has a huge great waterfall come down it - the other doesn't. Occasionally squid come down to the bottom where the one with the giant waterfall comes down, either they strand themselves or end up killing themselves.

Whilst making this post, I went back there and traveled up the giant waterfall, to give you an idea where it comes out at, here:

You can just about see my mountain home in the distance in the very middle of the picture, under the right field of view of that tall tree in the center. The mine is far left out of shot in the hills. I did manage to get the same amount of Lapis back after exploring, and more, which is how we got to the first picture in today's blog, but it's going to take a long while to finish these walls. There is the other mine I have as well which is out in the middle of nowhere. A branch mind started in a big patch of stone found at ground level whilst flying around.

In other news I have also made a bit of a change to this corridor outside the bathroom:

As you can see there's a new door on the right! Basically I decided to make an enchantment room. I looked downstairs and there was nowhere I could really put it (Although I guess I could've dug down), so I saw this section of corridor and wondered how much mountain I had left behind the wall. After digging in I found I could easily fit a room there:

It is a small room with a floor space of 7 x7, but i don't need a huge room for it. I could dig further back and sideways, but there's no need. The plan is to deck it out in bookcases - everywhere! even the floor - those aren't wooden planks, they're bookcases! I'm going for maximum potential here!

In the meantime I need to check out the fanver version of the texture pack - Soartex and see if they've updated it as there are still alot of things that need fixing so I can use it and not the original Soartex texture pack as I am right now.

Things I've Been Up Too.

I haven't been doing too much to this world, I have done some minor work on level #4 - the farm level, and adding a little to the bedroom on level #5 though. With the farm I still can't work out what wall material to use, so in the meantime I've just leveled of the ceiling and cleared any overhangs, which looks much better. Also made the entrance a little nice.


The before's and after:

And the bedroom is a little bit more homely now:

And finished that corner outside:

Might slab the floor though, or definitely choose something different for the floor outside.

Devolving A World
Long before creative came back, I had an idea about devolving a world - my then main world, world 2 as it was back in Alpha 1.2 when I started it. Due to limited means though, I got bored of it quickly and stopped doing it and deleted the save. As we have creative now, I thought it'd be fun to try again.


This world has been deleted twice accidentally, the first time due to a power cut, so with that and the different terrain generation of the last few years I'll never get the original basic world look from it's seed, ever. What would it be like to devolve a world you've built up over a long time? back to it's original state - no buildings, no farms, no landscaping.. With creative, I made a copy of the world and changed that to creative mode, using archive pictures I took way back when as references. The only big obstacle is the pool/tennis court and changing rooms as there was a mountain there. (See: here)


It's just as a fun project, something to pass the time.


Here's the world as it as, and the devolved pics after them. (All work in progress.)

The removal of the lava stream is temporary, it will be returned..

The strangest thing for me, is the lack of bridge, the first cobble bridge, leading across the water to the church. Seems so strange to me that it's not there! originally there was no church, it was just lump land over there that I built on for the sake of building on. At first an empty cobble hut, prompting the bridge build, which lay empty for several months before being converted into a church.

Pictures from this blog will certainly help me try and get as close as I can to how it was before I ever started building, although some of it may be open to interpretation as I don't have pictures for those times. (Like when I very, very first started World #2, I never took pictures at first.

Next: The Hunt For Lapis Lazuli in my 1.9.5 world, ravines, lava death and more!

Minecraft Monday: Seed Showcase

I thought I'd try something a little different for today's post, a seed I tried out last night. I wanted to try a new world with a seed, so I thought "Hmmm, what can I put in?". In the end I think I put in something like "iwantallyourdiamonds", and this is what I got:

When you spawn, you start off here, up the side of a tree in a snowy in the taiga hills. As you can see there were a few pigs around and the actual seed number it works out at is also displayed here. If we fly up slightly using SPC, we can get a better view of the taiga hills and see vaguely in the distance a mountain  as well:

A nice bit of hill side and not too far away some nice flat-lands too:

     

Perfect for a home maybe? If you keep travelling around these flat-lands you'll come across this rather HUGE crater!:

   

And it doesn't stop there either with just that waterfall, this could be a very interesting place!:

I've no idea how far back it goes? but it looks interesting! Spin round, and we have lava and two more cave systems!

There's also a desert not too far away for all your sandstone and glass needs:

Head back to spawn and if you go the opposite way behind from where you spawned, the tagia hills peter out to a nice lot of trees:

So there you have it, this is just some of what I've found. If you were to use this seed there's almost everything you could need, snow, sand (for glass), trees for wood, caves, water, lava..

The seed is in the first picture so have an explore and let me know what you find!

Level #3 Lamps & Hidden Treasure.

Really need to update this banner again!

So I've been busy with level #3, the waterfall corridor, but I also made a small change on the outside world. As you know this is my very first world way back when from Alpha. My original spawn point is here:

From this wooden hut I have a very long dirt tunnel to the back entrance of level #1 via the emergency exit corridor.

As it was, you had to go out these double doors, up the cobble steps to go round and down some dirt blocks to the dirt tunnel. (Seen here where that dirt roof is just slightly off top left of the 2nd picture.) I never wanted to change anything on the outside world as a monument to my 'then' n00b buildings and building style. I realised however, I could just remove the cobble steps and the dirt wall covering the entrance to the tunnel so you could just walk down. As apposed to going up, around then down again.

Anyway after fixing this, I fixed the tunnel slightly as there was a low bearing roof. With the alteration I had just done, I removed the floor level down one block so it was even, and did this further on also for the last stretch of the dirt tunnel towards the beach. On the last bit I removed a bit of side wall and found a cave underneath, so quickly put a door in and explored:

Before I leveled the rest of the dirt corridor floor to the end so it was even.

I wondered why I was getting so many skeletons and zombies! It's actually a zombie spawner. Now either that has been there the entire year without me knowing or it generated in a later version.. The treasure I speak of in the title though, was however, not very good:

I ninja'd the mossy cobble though, apparently here I chose a cracked brick as the look. Hope to use that if I can. The rest of the cave wasn't extensive, in fact it was very, very short and just gave me dead ends. It was an unexpected find though!

Right, onto the corridor and I had this idea to change some of the hanging Glowstone lights to Redstone lamps, after doing this though, and adding switches to their sides, I had a better idea. Forget the "hanging" aspect, and attach them directly to the ceiling so I can use Redstone to have proper lights to turn on and off. Both the ones that hang from the ceiling and ones embedded.

The switch to the left you can just see on the wall controls the bottom two floor lights.

I went a bit Redstone lamp mad.. When off, the corridor is just dimly lit by the Glowstone at the bottom of the waterfalls, but I'm not sure if I should keep them there? As well as this, I also tidied up the entrance to the "nice room":

I also removed the torches in said "Nice room" in favour of Glowstone:

May need additional lighting in the ceiling however. I was please how better the entrance to this room looks though. No more drab stone, nice and bright walls, no gravel borders to stop you falling off the stairs/accent it. Instead a slightly moderated entrance, a nice new asphalt (Black gravel) floor, additional lighting and Iron safety railings. Still need to replace the dirt in the "Nice room" with brown wool (Hard to get) or another colour.

Elsewhere, although I found pumpkins not too far away, it's pointless as snow Golems don't leave a snow trail in 1.2.3, one of the bugs unfortunately, so the snow ceilings are out unless I just collect snow, which is going to have to be the answer. As you may have noticed though the water shader has updated for 1.2..3!! As well as SinglePlayer Commands and the links for the 1.2.3 version of MCpatcher, so I can fix the other texture packs! As it was, no work had been done on AllBases and Modern Mountain Home II (1.9.5 world) as the MCpatcher was out of date. So now I can continue using John Smith's (For AllBases) and the standard fan continuation of Soartex, Soartex Fanver, for 1.9.5 world. (Even though text on signs is a horrible black block - they need to fix this.

Might do a few more lamps at the start of the waterfall corridor, then it'll be slightly tidying up the farms on level #4 and on to kitting out the bedroom on level #5. yes, I have become completely emboiled and hooked on this old world!