WAR OF THE PIGMAN

A bit of a filler post today, but I've been meaning to post this anyway, a tale of you will of one planned journey to the nether, 3 attempts, including trying to record it for my YouTube series and one hell of a war with the zombie pigman! All for just trying to record an episode in the Nether!

There aren't many mobs that bother me, creepers are annoying - especially when they blow up parts of your buildings and creations, but they can easily be fought with a simple attack , step back, attack, step back x repeat motion. Zombie are dead slow (Even more so now with the latest snapshot) and skeletons you can be tactful around. Even Enderman you can just aim for it's tentacles, but the only one true thing that really bothers me are Ghasts! SO it's a great shame that when I first tried to record an episode for WLTM (welovetomine) that the sound didn't record properly, rendering my voice barely audible. It is a great shame because I lost a lot of genuine reaction to the ghasts. On attempt #2 recording, Bandicam, which I use to record the episodes with, went ding after the first 10 minutes as usual - only I didn't hear it.  So although I continued recording there was no commentary being recorded - oops. It was the third try however when all hell got unleashed.

It was going well, I was making sure the audio was recording fine, keeping an eye on Bandicam, it's what happened in game that went awry.. I'm not sure how it happened, only that I was backing off from ghasts when it happened but, I may have accidentally hit a zombie pigman..

As I'm sure you're aware, you hit one of them, even by accident, there's no going back - they're all after you! That's exactly what happened. I wasn't worried about losing my stuff at first as I went back time and again to recover it, but each time I went back they were getting more and more pissed. Hey, if they come at me - I'm gonna defend myself! You know what I'm saying! So they were getting more and more pissed, I kept getting killed, going back to keep trying to recover my stuff, trying to ignore the zombie pigman and just go for the items, but they made it impossible. I was getting more and more annoyed and hett up, but the last blow was when I died on this lower flat area of Nether. I had just got all my stuff back at last - and got killed. Not just killed but killed spectacularly! Right as I died - what was the last thing I saw?! My stuff going flying over this ledge... The lower flat bit of nether was still high up and i was near a nether cliff ledge, not right near the edge about several Minecraft blocks from the edge - enough for my stuff to go flying over. It's one of the most horrifying things you can see when you die - your stuff going over a cliff ledge, possible into lava .

After a big "NOOOOOoooooo", I hoped to God when I returned there was a lower ledge below of netherrack, or low bit of nether shore by the lava, but there wasn't, just a giant lava ocean. I lost all my stuff on me, all my diamond tools. So I have had to start again, I have literally two diamonds left. I still haven't manged to bring myself to edit the video. There were times I wanted to rage quit, times of just silent anger and no commentary, but most of all i just wanted revenge. Revenge to find/revover/ormake a new sword and just slay every last zombie pigman! Thus erupted a huge war. I never returned until the other day.

Incidentally, after finally going back to the nether, I have collected more soul sand for the new look dinning room, and have nearly completed the top half of the walls too!:

Nice fancy new entrance as well instead of just a door, really liked how that has worked out. I have also finished clearing out the space for the new kitchen and laid a floor:

I also have plans to change this area:

I plan to get rid of the the single stairs to the right, leading up to the door, where they've always felt out of place and will build a patio around it, meaning the left stairs might have to shift over. I've done this on my creative version of this world and it looks much, much better! Aesthetically nicer too.

I've also changed the bottom where the lava pools are, mostly this has stood empty, for a while I did build little "jail cells" down there for want of building something, anything. Now however after sealing up the old science lab tuned mob room, I have turned this huge area of cave and lava pools and jail cells into the new mob area:

*Note it's not normally lit up like this with torches.

originally it was glass with hit box holes, but creepers that pre-maturely exploded made it expensive. If I can get diamonds again, what I would like to do is turn it all into Obsidian so it's blast proof. Also whilst taking this picture just now, there were some mobs just before I lit it up, so I did a bit of grinding. Skeletons, creepers, zombies... After killing them all one dropped something purple, but It was so dark I had no idea what it was.. I got a skeleton to kill a creeper and got a new record! After three consecutive yellow records I got a purple record! Possible new favourite after green?!

On my adventures outside I also found a 2-year old spider dungeon near watch-tower#2 that I never knew was there! Two years I've had this world almost, and it's been there all this time unknown! There wasn't much being an old dungeon, some wheat, a bucket, saddles and redstone.

That about brings things up to date, more to come!

Diamonds, Death & A New Home!

Days #3 - #6/7

Well, I've explored a lot of the cave my branch mine led to, underneath my survival island. I've found Gold, plenty of Iron, Diamonds - enough for a complete set of tools! Then I found mob after mob, after mob and fought to stay alive and keep my stuff. I also found plenty of Lapis. Many times I died and had to keep going back down to regather my items, sometimes only just managing to do it within the 5 minute time. 

I know, I know! It was foolish to attempt it right next to the lava!...

I had to though, 13 diamonds in total = totally worth it.

It came to one point however, when I was very low on health with an army of skeletons surrounding me, that I had to block myself in with my work-bench and furnace! I really really didn't want to lose all my stuff as I was getting more and more lost, especially not my diamonds! I also found a ravine but it was nothing special, not even a proper ravine more like a half-ravine, not very long length wise. I have also begun to make myself a small home:

I'm also considering having another go at hardcore with a number of goals and to reach and travel to, the end! Work on the new look dinning room on world#2 is progressing well, more and more walls have their red wool tops and I've finished clearing the space for the kitchen and laid the floor!

Change is afoot.

The beloved dinning room on my World#2, I've had it since Alpha. Today however, the biggest change has begun, the start of the great re-decoration. Here's a look back:

December 2010
A new room, but what shall it be? Note: HD texture pack.

February 2011
Perhaps a dinning room? But what was with the nether seats around the big fake TV? Clearly I was still unsure..

April 2011

Early floor designs..

Completion:

Also had changed to painterly texture back which would become the staple for World #2, even to this day.

December 2011

Exactly one year on from the start and not much has changed since April, save new lighting.

August 2012

Eight months on and it's a new beginning.. And not just the sandstone, that's not gonna be there long as I start to regenerate areas of World #2 in the summer of 2012...

A freshly laid floor. Literally done today before this post!

The change into a more homely "great dinning hall" from a more "commercial" looking one has begun. It might look dark now, but once that Glowstone is re-done it'll be back a whole new dinning room! A spruce plank border surrounds the carpeted area (Netherrack) and soul sand now goes all the way around up to three blocks. On top will be red wool with fences on the walls acting as posts to hold torches, but only a few, evenly spread out, Glowstone will mix with torches and chandeliers.

I've began digging out behind the back wall to what will be the new kitchen! In almost two years, this home has never had a full kitchen. (Makeshift on-suite one in the bedroom and a servery here in the dinning room.)

It's a new dawn, it's a new day, and a brand new era for the old dinning room!

Survival Island

So I generated a new world, but it didn't give me a great spawn, a tiny little island with one tree. However, I thought to myself, wait a minute why don't I try a survival island! Now I did turn the bonus chest on, so I got some 3 stone pick-axes, wooden axe, some bread and apples. Not bad, This is the island:

There's also this area underneath:

My first thought was to create a hoe to hoe the wild grass and grow the seeds on the shore, so at least I wouldn't go hungry. As I worked for the rest of the day I chopped down the tree for wood, replanted the two saplings, and dug up the dirt and did some terra-forming of the uneven ground on the surface, I also cleared out that area with the stone for some much needed cobblestone for tools. Whilst there, I accidentally dug into a wall and let water in, but just as well, as I saw clay! I collected as much as I could and have just over a stack! I'll probably keep the clay for now, it won't amount to much in bricks if I furnace it.

Tree of life!

I'm sure I can find some use for this, mine-shaft?

Day #2:

Chopped down the two trees and began mining, found a nice amount of coal so far, used 5 for torches. Had to eat all the bread to get hearts back, now all I have left is the apples until the wheat grows. On the bright side I now have more saplings and have several trees growing! Will keep digging.. Eventually came across more coal as I dug through the night and 6 Iron! Just before I hit a cave. Before descending down I heard water just above me so investigated.

Before I go down there and do battle I'll out some stuff away first in my single chest, in-case I die. One tree has grown and the wheat is still growing. As I reach the toip we head into day #3. I shall make a furnace, smelt the iron and make supplies, before descending into the very depths of this cave!

Out of my PECAN/CHESNUT Mind!

With the release of 1.3 (Or rather 1.3.1), it's about time I updated my painterly texture pack for the world. I previous updated the wood and got rid of that pooey brown coloured wood for traditional oak (default) wood:

 

However, I never updated the doors so they were still the old colour, but now I have some nice pecan doors and took the opportunity to update a couple of things as well as update for 1.3.1 (Emeralds, book & quills and other new stuff). Here are the comparisons:

Glass is now border-less too.

New sandstone, the larger bricks make it look less "retro" and more modern and smarter.

One of the big problems I had was what the stairs looked like when made of cobblestone or stone-brick, cobblestone looked horrible, and stone-brick just the same. As you can't change the stairs them selves only the block the were made from, i couldn't change cobblestone as I wanted to keep that look, I just won't be able to use cobblestone stairs (stone stairs), but that's a good thing! With Stone-brick however, I have changed it radically to a lighter stone colour (Like in World#1), and it looks much much nicer. (I wish there was an option for marble steps or even iron steps!).

Finally I created a new patio area, out the back of the dining room, near the tennis court. I originally done this on the creative version, and it came about because of wanting to create a path around to corner of the tennis court. (Corner shown, left pic below), to create a new staircase up. Also because of the new dining room plans (Raising the ceiling up 2 blocks) it meant the path area (left pic below) would be one block higer because the dinning room is below it so once the ceiling was done I had to add another layer of dirt to cover the snow ceiling, making it 1 level higher and thus rendering the old stairway up (Very bottom right on the left pic below), un-usable.

The back entrance also to the dining room wasn't very good either, you'd go along a long one-block stone path, not safely either because the long stairs down were to it's right., where as now  we've new stairs (double) down to a nice patio area instead of a narrow one block corridor. It's hard to explain, and easier to see in pictures:

BEFORE & AFTER

Stairs now go down in the opposite direction, no dangerous walkway, allowing a nice set of double stairs descending..

A narrow entrance become a whole new patio area, eventually to be filled with tables, seating and plant pots. This while new change to this area will be easier to explain in a future video and episode of my welovetomine series.

I also had a new idea for the living room and the old mushroom farm. If you remember, when I moved the mushroom farm, I cleared out the room and it's remained pretty much empty since:

I've had an idea however...

Where the wall goes round to the very back wall in the distance, that area, is right behind the back wall of the living room behind the TV:

I've already tested this on the creative version, but what i'm going to do is knock down the back wall behind the TV so it's an open area creating  more open second reception room and new office! The old poky little office will be no more. It's be an office/reception room and will really open things up. I'll have to close access to it in the corridor, but that's fine. On the creative version I've raised the ceiling level of the living room too, but I don't know if I'll do it on this legit version, I'll have to see how this conversion goes.

So these are latest plans for re-generating World#2, I've still the new science lab to finish in the old cave behind storage, the dining room to re-decorate, finish patio, new reception area as mentioned, redecorate library and still lots more to do!