Regeneration

So here's the plan. With the seed of my original World1, my first ever world back from Pre-Alpha, I plan on redoing World1. When I started the world, just as we were about to go into Alpha, I was very new to the game, and thus the buildings were very n00bish. It's been almost 10 months since then and I have learned alot, from playing the game (How to), crafting, building styles etc. I know alot more now than I did then. So I thought, what if I re-d-d this world with what I know as a beta world. How would I do things differently?


To learn about this world in it's pre-Alpha/Alpha days, start reading from: Here



Getting Started.
First things first, is gathering materials. As this time it's being done in Beta, there are Birch trees around in the immediate area, whereas before I would have had to go to a new chunk. Of course we have the new things this time - different trees/saplings, lapis, doggies etc. Like before I would make a small fort on top of the first mountain, but would need cobblestone. Venturing down to the open mine you see above, which would in the future become the underground home, I get my supplies and try and find some coal. I just find 8 Iron instead. Always handy however.


I built the fort pretty much as the sun slowly set, doing things a bit different this time with slightly "In" walls instead of a cube, and also window slits. First off, I gathered dirt and expanded the area at the top of the mountain, I'm not sure if I did this originally, I'm guessing not. I noticed also,  there's no dip by one side of the mine this time where I originally built a "Third wall" around the open area to close it up. I could make the dip, but why repeat history when there's an existing wall there that was never there. This time also, the wooden stairs going down the side of the mountain, now go straight forward. They are also made of smooth stone this time with natural dirt sides:




Original:

Today:

I also have a sand floor instead of the original gravel. I thought what would an old fort have and it's probably dirt, but that would just turn to grass, or animals would spawn inside, So I settled on sand instead. After changing thw walls (I did them the wrong way round and had the front and back of the fort at the sides!), I spent my first night in a dark, dark fort...

One More Done/Giving up the Beta?

I finally finished the changing room days and days ago on World2. I still have to put the paper in the toilet paper dispensers of said toilets in both changing rooms - but it's a small detail. I did all I said though in the girls - sandstoned the rest of the floor, added benches, added shower heads (levers) and the skylights. They are done, so that's another of the list. Just leaves me the Nether bridge and the expansion of the library, but I may take a break.


I found myself sidetracked by World1 - with the sky-bridges and underground home.


I only went on to have a little nostalgic look again when I got the idea to transform the ground of level #1 of my underground home. Currently, it was all smooth stone. The last time we saw it on this blog it looked something like this:

There was an over-hang over the single door with sandstone columns and the front of the overhang being wool, later on. Not sure if I posted it. So yeah, after having this painterly pack for a while, things have changed, and the other night I changed that stone to grass:

Also gravel-ed out the flooring below and turned the column and rest of the wall into cobblestone, as well as 3/4 of the emergency exit - giving it two automatic doors and a proper entrance. I got carried away! Also changed the viewing area a bit, the small room inside it is now a spawn room with a proper bed. No more spawning on the beach a good 5 minutes away via a dirt tunnel!

I used the Minecraft Level Tools to get the seed for my World2 - the mountain base/home and tried to find it again. Found the rough sort of area but after two accidental deletions, it's just not the same original place as it once was due to regeneration. I have never tried it with this World1 though, which gave me the idea to try...

Those pictures above are from World1, the world with the sky-bridges between mountains and a home on each mountain, plus the underground home above. As it was my first ever world back in V1.1_02, pre Alpha, it remains very N00by-ish. Which is why there's the underground home - to retain the world as it was and my then n00b skills - or lack of them in September 2010. So currently it's like this:

Using those Minecraft level tools, I got the seed and found the co-ordinates pretty easily to the untouched original world!:

Due to it being a pre-Alpha world, there are a few subtle changes, like instead of trees to the right of the mine/future underground home entrance - there's now sand and birch trees on the second mountain. A few slight changes, but all very minor! I have an idea for this, but will post it tomorrow.

Oh as for the Beta world bit, I'm gonna jack it in, it just doesn't hold the fascination like the old Alpha world2 mountain home/base. I know I said about doing the docks and Captain's quarters, but never say never. I might come back to it one day.

Passing Time/Getting Things Done

That's mainly what I've been doing lately, not feeling very inspirational. I finally finished putting the last blocks of Netherrack up in the Portal room, just another stream of lava to re-add and it's done. At the swimming pool I've fixed the pool so there's no current. Finished the male changing rooms and have almost finished the female changing rooms. In the later I've just the rest of the floor to sandstone, add levers (Shower heads) and add skylights. I will eventually change the ceilings. SO that's a good few things almost off the list of things to do. The tennis courts need finishing put the animal mobs aren't really appearing, holding things up. I think it's where I took some of the torches down outside. I re-instated them but after going for a walk, the animals re-appeared for a while, but have disappeared again. No cheep = no wool = no lines for tennis courts.


Thanks to a handy hint on the Minecraft forums I learned how to fix a big hole full of water. The main thing is two new rooms, well 1 & 1/2. I was upstairs in the corridor between the bedroom and rear lounge when I heard mobs. I turned on F3, just to see where they were and dug into the corridor walls. After killing them, them most killing each other bar 1 skeleton, I found a perfectly square little room. I must've dug it out at some point with plans to use it but changed my mind and filled over the door hole. As it backed onto the bedroom I dug up to the light shaft on the back wall of the bedroom. At first this was going to be a new room, but it has been changed into a bedroom extension!


 (I also ,moved the entrance door from the front of the mountain to round the side, which meant readjusting the outside stairs but it was worth it.)

I'm not sure how I'm going to decorate it yet, but as you can see I've matched the walls and floor and added doors opening from within to the main bedroom, keeping them permanently open like a pair of fake French doors. I have a proper bed in there as well to respawn in as well as the fake bed in the main bedroom, which put an end to the other spawn room by the portal, but that wasn't the best location anyway. Whilst digging the walls out to replace with cobblestone I found a hole shape behind one wall so created a short corridor (literally a few steps long) and a neighbouring next room, which I did have to dig out.

The smaller water-window in the first picture utilizes the same waterfall the main, bigger, water-window in the rear viewing room down stairs uses. I decided to use this as a V.I.P room because as you can see it overlooks the tennis courts and pool. I went through many stages with this room, at first all brick then brick as a feature wall with other sand walls before settling on a wooden room with log columns (And originally i wanted log beams), an idea I had had for a room for a good few days. The only trouble was, you can't go through someone's back lounge or bedroom to go to a V.I.P. room, which meant I needed a new entrance:

I don't think the stairs stand out too much in the private garden and I do like the little bay window underneath where veranda garden is outside the rear lounge. Speaking of which, I had to raise that veranda by 1 level to hide the stone from underneath. It looks the same with grass and fences but it's a shorter step down (Now with marble half-steps replacing the fugly cobble steps) and a level higher as a result.

Here are the changing rooms, with shower area (Gravel blue floor) and toilet area in the blue partitioned area:

Like in my Beta world, the toilets are the same design with a working toilet paper dispenser (paper), although not actually have any paper yet.

My concern with getting these things done, is that I'm beginning to run out of ideas now. I do still have the Nether bridge to finish however. Today I also finally continued the expansion of the library, this will be my main project for a while. When complete, should I run of ideas, I guess I will go back to my Beta world full time and continue the docks/Captain's Quarters and that area. I also when cave splunking again and got all diamond tools and a sword, though I lost the sword, but I have at least all diamond tools again.

Am I finally running out of ideas for this world though?

All The Small Things

I thought I posted this, but trawling through the blog I guess not. Whilst in the Nether of my Alpha Mountain home, I found an unlit portal I never knew was there. After getting some flint & tinder I returned and lit it and ventured through. I was a bit anxious as I had no idea where it would take me, but it turned out to be a nice hilly land with a small snow biome. This was all well and good, nice area and all that, but a few days ago I made a discovery. I was wandering in this new land and left it too late to get back, after failing to locate my portal I ventured through some trees and after 5 minutes or less came to quite an extra-ordinary discovery! My other portal!


The very same portal I created after I accidently deleted this world and spawned on the beach. The two portals are literally in a straight line from each other through a small gathering of trees, about a few minutes walk away from each other. I went exploring on here found plenty of sand, more clay which was once rare on this old world. Other that that I've just been doing a lot of small things. When I found the clay I had an idea about what to do with it, an idea I got whilst at work, meaning I couldn't think of anything else during the night - nor could I wait to get home to try it. It was time for the next revamp of the front entrance. One thing that has always slightly bothered me was the cobblestone.

With this texture pack (Painterly) it looks fine, but the front still lacks something, even with the cobble overhang I did I was still like: "meh." So whilst at work I got an idea to replace it with brick, even making it two width to the side of the bay window, shown on the left of here by the birch tree. Unfortunately the four glass above the door didn't quite sit right with me leading to all sorts of problems on what to do with it. Eventually it turned out like this however:

A Tree for a tree - Yeah, the birch on the left burned down, but the one on the right finally grew! After a week!

It looks a LOT more homely right now, It also prompted me to change the back entrance, and yesterday the rear lounge entrance:

I also filled in the middle line in the tennis courts and decided to change the left side wall into the same fort-esq style after all so it matches. Should have done this all along.

Not much else to report, added a bench/chair in the park, and added a gold block behind the plaque in the dinning hall:

I suppose I should finish the library extension. I keep saying this, but it's such a chore making bookcases, gathering so much reed/sugar cane for paper to make books to make bookcases - ugh. Could continue the changing rooms, I have more sand, but no doubt I'll need even more, the sandstone tiled floor is what takes it all.

Distracted

So I returned to my first Alpha world (World1), with the sky-bridges to have a little look around again, and I got distracted on this world! I decided to take a boat trip and do a little exploring, look for new chunks etc. I initially did this because I saw what I thought I was clay out in the middle of the sea. Literally 1 block on it's own surrounded by no other visible blocks on the surface, just visible on the surface. Well, I was right. Not only that but I ended up finding 6 & 3/4 stacks of clay! And I knew exactly where and what I was going to do with it. In my underground city/home , you might remember this room as one of my favourite future rooms on level 5:

Well, I decided to make that pillar the brick, especially as I had just changed the brick on painterly. This opened up ideas for the rest of the room with 2 feature walls (Painterly cookie dough clay blocks) and two sand walls with a wooden floor:

Big difference eh?! I know I need to so something about the ceiling still but this is what started my distraction on this world from a look around/explore to fixing up some of the old areas at last. I even redecorated the immediate outside of the room and built up the rest of the clay walls by the stairs down to this room, (Otherwise a 1/2 or 3/4 wall of clay blocks would've looked weird), for a proper access - not just walk down the stairs and there it is. It now has a wall and door there.

The second find was a... not so much hill, not even a mountain, more of a lump of grass on the sand. I hollowed it out for a temporary overnight Hobbit home. In the morning I found a large sand biome that would sustain any future endeavorers using glass, sand or sandstone for life:

This picture does not do the size of it justice.

So yeah, I got carried away in this world, I fixed the bottom of the stairs between level 4 and 5 so you don't immediately have to fall down the stair hole, or be wary of it when coming down to 4 on the way to five. This also resulted in a new corridor for that bit and I ended up cobbling out the upper section of leevel 4 that the viewing area looks over:

No more walking down into the hole of the next stairwell, at least you can go round now.

Before:

After:

Just because these walls are cobblestone however, does not mean they will stay that way.

I also begun raising the ceiling for the "Nice room" on level 3, despite it being a big undertaking. The problem was, the uneven ceiling overhung, so when you looked out the viewing room above you had smoothstone in the way - which was unsightly for the view and in he way. I'll need to raise the sandstone walls and columns but that won't be a problem now I don't have to worry about sand.

When I get enough brown wool, I'll probably replace the dirt in the floor as well. Will I continue this now I've started it again? Time will tell..

For a full reminder of the floors to the the underground city/home, see: Here

World2

Back on my main Alpha world meantime, the mountain home/base, I went exploring in a cave located a few hills past the swimming pool. It was one of the more newer caves and I managed to replenish my gold I lost and all the iron ingots/Iron ore I lost and even managed to score 6 diamonds to give me a diamond: sword, pick and shovel. Just one more and I could've had an axe.. Subsequently I l have lost almost these from boating to another opposite island returning at night, again. Due to this, I decided I was tired of losing boats, and stuff and began building another bridge, this time out of Netherrack. After a fall however I swan back to the shore and got shanghaied by Skeletons. It's very hard to see your stuff underwater. I managed to get my diamond pick back but lost my diamond sword and shovel. I did get some new doggie friends also, due to which I removed the cacti from out the front in case I want to go walkies with them. Something I had considered doing with the cacti for a while. They're all replanted further back behind the wishing well & park, where it's more dark - great for collecting at first light from the mobs!

Can't think of anything else, found a dungeon in that cave though and got a green disc in the chest! Nice music. A dug out room a little way down the stairs from the portal room now serves as a spawn room as well. After the bed glitch, I couldn't figure out why it still wouldn't work with doors, mountain all around it and spamming it with torches - it still wouldn't work! I kept spawning two mountains away from my home -very annoying. Seems two thick walls IS essential and there was one wall that didn't meet this so when I finally cottoned on, I bricked it up with cobble and now it works like a dream.

Guess I can fill that trench in two mountains away - already for another portal, the main reason for going to the cave in the first place to get diamond to get obsidian.

The irony.

Fire! (Plus, large Gallery Coming)

So I was in my Alpha Mountain home, pissing about with the front entrance again, when I had a small accident. With the slightly changed front entrance, It bugged me that the overhang of cobble on both the window behind the lava and over the front door were at different levels. (OCD again!) I began correcting this but must have removed a vital block as the lava fall somehow reached across to my wool ceiling inside:

Thankfully, thankully(!), that sandstone support at the center top of the picture stopped it spreading, otherwise I would have lost the entire roof! It's easy correctable and has as already been seen to but it's just as well it happened as what I planned after. For this old Alpha world, world2 (And later my other worlds) I am making a full gallery for the Message Board which will be updated all the time with changes. Because of the number of pictures, this gallery will only be  posted on the message board.

This will be the most full gallery ever, of this world. Every room covered. I spent a Minecraft day, just going round taking pictures of what I thought looked good. It will have the lesser seen portal room, the completed doghouse outside (Now has glass.), shots show the improved front entrance with the new birch trees all around the place replacing the old trees (Just inside the perimeter.) and much more. I've just got to make the folder and rename the screenshots to their usual type filenames before mass uploading them. My Photobucket account only ever seems to have Minecraft screenshots these days. I'll probably do that this morning.

I'm also doing a halfway house, as where the world was deleted a second time, the route to the old spawn point/graveyard is now encased in water. In other words, there's an ocean where it once was. I finally got round to removing the dirt beans to that place last night - them being three blocks of dirt up from the ground with a torch to mark them as a map marker/beacon. They're obsolete and not needed now. Anywho, one the way back I once again see one of those places that has the side of the mountain completely flat. Only this has three flat sides of a mountain down to the sand floor/water pool. I have been looking at it lately and keep thinking it'd be a good place for a stop point ior... to have something in that slot. So a half-way house it is:

The beginnings of that roof, the wood floor and the row of cobble - all at the front is the only things I've had to add.

Not done any more to the fishing area/Captain's quarter's in my Beta world, world3 yet. It is the weekend however so I have 4 full days to do plenty. Doctor Who pending, must watch the new Doctor Who series this weekend.

Mega Post II

So this was meant to be a small post about how I was having a small break from my old alpha world - world2, (Yeah, that didn't last long with 1.5), and how I returned to the docks on my Beta world on World3, but I never got round to posting that. Maybe it's just as well as I was idly going about things. Since then 1.5 (and subsequently the patch 1.5_01), has been released, so I have too much to post now!


So yeah I was having a small break from my Alpha world, world2, and the changing rooms by the swimming pool. Whilst on the break, I returned to my Beta world and the docks. I did flatten the new shops I started to create. They were too flat looking at the front and there wasn't enough room to build there really. I t would have spoiled the landscape building up the land with dirt that high to build them. I have also decided - not, to go ahead with the hotel. I don't think it's really needed for a docks and a fishing port. In it's place will be where the shops can be found. I'm still trying to decide the look however. I have begun the captains quarters however and was very inspired by this picture:

I really like this place! So I've decided to build something similar, the frame is currently being built and what I shall be continuing with for a while:

Minecraft 1.5

Released with different tree saplings, power boosters for rail, achievements and weather, which not only sees the return of snow, but rain, thunder and lightning! The last I have been dead excited for! After doing a few achievements on my Alpha world, I made a new world to fulfill some of the other ones, just a temporary one though, and not one I've kept. It was in this world I got my first taste of rain - and it absolutely pissed down! I wandered for a while to a snow biome as I was desperate to see falling snow again, oh how I have missed it! After a bit of an explore I went back to my Beta world and was wandering back from the docks when I about a dozen - or just under, wolves! I nearly jizzed. With 17 bones on me and only managed to tame 5 as the last one was a greedy little bastard who took at least several bones to tame. I think I've got 14/15 in that world now. Back on World 2, the Alpha mountain base/home, I attempted to ride a pig off a cliff! Silly pigs, they're so stupid, so close to the edge then turning the opposite way. Believe it or not I had never ridden a pig until then. It just never appealed to me. Now I realise just how inane and boring a pigs life is in Minecraft!

This post was going to say I had no luck with weather on any of my pre 1.5 worlds, not even my beta 1.4 world, but that changed later on. I put the first Alpha world, with the sky-bridges, back into the saves folder and had a little wander, nice to have a little reminisce on my first full world. I left it on and went to lay down on the couch for a bit in case any weather turned up, but I started falling asleep. The volume wasn't high, but high enough, enough to wake me up when I heard a deep rumble. Slightly confused and dozy from sleep, I looked across and saw the storm on my World1! Thunder and lightning! Not only was it enough to wake me up, but enough to spring me off the sofa and watch for a while! I was beginning to worry some Mincraftians were right with their concerns about no weather on their own world.

Morning Interruptions

In the morning I returned to my Alpha mountain home/base, and had an idea to turn my water emergency exit into something more easier with rails.. It also mean I could try out super-powered boosters. During this however I was was disturbed by a deep rumble and HSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS No, it wasn't a creeper! Rain had finally come to World2. The hissing was because of the rain falling into the lava fall that flows outside the front of my mountain base/home.

I have also built up my dog home as I have even more of them on this world too. (After an adventure travelling to another opposite island and seeing many doggies on a small Island I had passed on the way. I lost my stuff solving fighting off the spiders and skeletons, and when I spawned the two I had spawned in the house with me! I found more after also.). The pen for the doggies was getting far far to cramped, so after finding out my pet slime had de-spawned, I dismantled the slime hut and used that space to extend the dog pen.

I did finish the two-rail emergency escape, and I have also removed the floor lighting outside like I said I might do. The only exception being on the sand out the front amongst the cacti. As I write this, I failed to bring birch saplings back from another island (The one I was at earlier) after I left it too long to get back and lost my stuff on the way back due to mobs at night. I went back though and have literally just finished turning the upper section of the tree farm into a birch tree farm. So now I have a regular tree farm and behind it in the upper farm is now all birch. I am thinking about changing the trees around my base to all birch? This is what prompted the farm, but I'm not sure on this idea yet.

Here's a picture of the extended doggie home and a little plaque pillar I made:

So that is that, band up to date - to the minute.

Footnote: As I was uploading these photos I came across a lost picture of the first ever world I attempted! It never lasted or became long term. I built a home on top of a mountain and realized it was quite a trek down to the bottom each time to get resources, so I dug into the mountain and created a stairway all the way down! (or it would have been) It was so long and deep I used to call it the stairway.... to Hell! Unfortunately, it's not a good photo with the pause screen over it:

What is interesting though is the version. It was back in Alpha, version V1.1.2_01. I've checked wiki and that came out September 23, 2010, so I have been playing it since late September as I suspected. World1 - with the sky-bridges, the earliest screenshot also shares this date, so World1 dates back at least to September 23rd 2010 also. World2 - The earliest screenshot is from 1.2.0 in Alpha but that's when I had to change the lava fall out the front to water, so I had been playing it a little while before then. So I must've started the second world, sometime between 23rd September 2010 and October 30th - the Halloween update.

Oh how I wish I had started the blog back then! But to find out roughly when these world were created is great news!