Topic: Minecraft

[W7RE]

I'm sort of surprised there's not a thread about Minecraft here yet. It's an indie game made by one guy, and you basically mine stuff, and then craft and build things out of the materials you've gathered. At night, zombies, skeletons, and exploding green penis monsters come to attack you, so if you haven't craft a sword/bow and some armor, you'd better get inside and hide until sunrise.

The game does cost, but it's only €10 (about $13 US), though the only accepted payment method is currently Paypal.

The game is in alpha, and apparently the price will double once beta hits, but alpha owners will get full access to all updated even after the price hike.
EDIT: Thought I should mention, upon launching the game you are prompted to log in, so I'm pretty sure it requires an active internet connection. I know that's an issue in some cases.



Anyway, so I first found out about this game about a week ago, and I hesitated to pay for it until about 3 days ago. I bought it Saturday afternoon, and have done nothing else since. Damn I've spent a lot of time with it in just those couple days. I spent the entire first afternoon and evening building a dungeon into the side of a mountain, with a vertical shaft with a ladder leading up to the summit, where I would build my castle. Then the next day I noticed a lot of mountains in the distance that had large overhangs, and I decided to start over on one of those since a castle hanging off one of those would look way better. Then today I decided none of those mountains were large enough for a castle of the size I was imagining, and I was building right in the cloud place, which meant clouds passing through towers and causing my vision to look greyed out. I didn't like the idea of starting over again and leaving unfinished projects lying around my world. So I started a new world and instead picked a large valley with a mountain towering above it, which has an overhang just large enough for one tower to go up there (like a wizard tower or something).

This time it will be a village as well as a castle. So far I have my blacksmith building and the beginnings of my inn. I really need to wall it in or something, because the torches aren't keeping the bad guys away at night, and I find myself cowering in the blacksmith until the sun comes up. I also have a really deep mine where I've been gathering stone, and plan to run a mine cart track system through there to make heading in for mining a bit easier.

I need to figure out Iron Ore. I haven't seen any, I don't think. I've gotten stone, I've gotten coal, and I've gotten very little of a very stone-like ore, but it has brown spots on it. I assumed this is bronze or something, but I haven't tried to smelt it yet. I need iron so I can start making my mine cart tracks, but if it's this rare it's gonna take a while.



EDIT: Here's a screenshot of my second home, the castle on the overhang I had just started:


All I got done was most of the main tower, and a bridge across to a nearby mountain, also with an overhang. There's a small wooden block floating above the tower. That's my marker for the maximum build height (the tower would have gone up to there). The tower is intentionally crooked, which didn't turn out nearly as good as I had hoped. Also, you can see from this picture that the whole world is made up of large blocks with primitive textures. The character is two of these blocks in height, and one block in width/depth.

[idolminds]

Que and I played one of the much earlier versions before all the actual game stuff was added. It was basically just a sandbox. But it was a lot of fun, been meaning to buy a copy.

[W7RE]

Yea, I tried out the old version (free to play in-browser). It gives a decent idea of how the game looks and plays, but the added features in the current game change a lot. You have to gather all of your materials, keep tools of varying strengths for different purposes (which degrade and break, so you have to keep making more), make weapons and armor, find/cook food to replenish HP, make armor/weapons to defend yourself against monsters (no monsters in MP though), etc.

The limitations added with the new mechanics make for a more dangerous and more fulfilling gameplay experience.

[idolminds]

Wow, this is bad.

And.. Paypal. On the 25’th, they limited my account for unspecified reasons (a suspicious withdrawal or deposit! wow, thank you for that amazingly detailed information), and asked me for a bunch of vague documents. I did my best to give them what they asked for.

My account is still limited. I’ve called them three times, they keep telling me it’s being reviewed. Most recently they told me it’d take up to two more weeks for it to get resolved, and that if they decide something bad’s being going on, they’re going to keep the money.

There’s over 600000 euro in there. Money I was planning on investing in the new company.

I’m sure it’ll get sorted out, but this is kind of frustrating.
[edit:] Just to clear things up: I withdraw everything from paypal every week. They limited my account just as sales started spiking, so this money has accumulated since they limited the account.

I hope he gets everything worked out. And fuck PayPal.

[Quemaqua]

Seriously.  Those fuckers should be destroyed.

Anyway, cool on the progress of the game.  I didn't realize he was adding like... a game to it.  The sandbox was just awesome.

[Cobra951]

I know we've talked about Paypal before.  I still don't understand how they get away with what they get away with, or why they have no competition.  Seems like a wide-open market to me.

[W7RE]

Minecraft Dungeon Party

[W7RE]

A little while ago I was working on my new dwelling in a new world (snowy world! nice!) and found a cave while out gathering wood. So I decide to check it out, and it's pretty huge. As I work my way down (almost a straight vertical drop, I'm having to create makeshift steps as I go), I hit a branch off. So I decide to check out the breanch before going deeper. The branch leads to a hub of sorts where there's 3-4 more branches, each with zombies, spiders, and the green penis monsters all coming out after me. So I wall up all those branches as fast as possible so the monsters can't get to me and I can explore wach one systematically. Somehow a zombie and an exploding penis find a gap I left and come kill me. I run back to get my stuff, grab it all, and then somehow dig a block out from under myself and fall into ANOTHER cavern and get zerged by monsters and die.

So now I'm determined to clear out this cave, but I don't want to go back in through this vertical shaft of death. so I could out the blocks to figure out it's position from my front door, then start digging a mine in the back of my house (which is already in the face of a cliff). As I get closer to being directly under the entrance of the cave, I start hearing water and zombies. I'm sure I'm going to either hit the cave and get eaten alive, or hit water and flood myself out. Then creatures somehow start appearing BEHIND me as I'm digging. There are definitely no holes for anything to come through other than my front door, which is closed, and the whole path down and through my mine is lit with torches.

I also keep getting stuck on flat floor geometry, so maybe the monsters are doing the same and falling through from above? No idea. This is some hectic shit though.

[Ghandi]

Monsters spawn in caves if it is dark - are you putting torches on the walls as you go?

[W7RE]

Monsters spawn in caves if it is dark - are you putting torches on the walls as you go?

Yea, maybe I'm not putting enough though. I tend to be stingy with my torches, plus I think it looks cool to have varied light as you move through an area. I guess I should just put them all over though.

[idolminds]

Apparently the servers are overloaded and down....so the game is free to play this weekend (and until they fix it). So nows a good time to check it out.

[TheOtherBelmont]

I wonder if the servers got overloaded because of the link on the Penny Arcade front page and the related comic:

[idolminds]

So I gave the latest version a spin, and I like the crafting/survival stuff. Its just a little...off the wall when you start. No way you'd figure it out without a short little guide (the tutorial button was grayed out?).

Basically everything is a raw material that you can collect and then craft into useful items. You need wood to turn into sticks, and then you use the sticks to make things. The genius part is the crafting grid. You don't just pop a couple things in at random and get the item. Its a 3x3 grid, and you sort of "make" the item on the grid. For example, if you make a T shape with the lower part sticks and the cross part wood, or stone, etc..you make a pickaxe. Or a single stick with a coal on top makes a torch. Or two sticks and a stone and you have a shovel. Watch this video to see what I'm talking about.

Its really pretty great. Different materials makes better items (a wooden pickaxe will wear out faster than a stone one). I haven't even gotten a lot of the materials that I could, so theres probably a lot of stuff to make. And while this is all going on you need to build a shelter because at night monsters spawn.

I'm going to have to buy this at some point.

[W7RE]

Once you really get into it you can make minecarts and tracks for them to ride on, complex eletrical switches, some really complex stuff. A week or so ago I watched about an hour of tutorial videos on mine cart boosting (for extra speed) and setting up electrical systems. (like powered mine carts that stop at a predefined location, or a pressure switch that sends you a minecart when you stand on it, complete with a light that tells you if there's a cart ready to be sent to you.)

[idolminds]

I wish nighttime was a little different. I like that nighttime is dangerous so you want to find a safe place to hold out, but its kind of boring waiting out the 9 minutes or so for the sun to rise. I've been sort of digging out my little cliffside fort, but I only have 4 torches so it gets dark in there. Plus I don't want to dig into a cavern and suddenly have a bunch of monsters in my house.

I went out the last daytime and located some coal, so I'm going to head over that way and mine it out. I think I'm going to gather up some sand and smelt some glass, too. Then I can build a new shelter closer to the coal area so I don't have to run all the way back to my main house when night falls.

[W7RE]

My brother had a good idea last night. He said you should be able to make a bed that you can sleep in to speed up the passing of nighttime.

[idolminds]

This is awesome.

EDIT

Yeah, a bed to pass time till the sun starts coming up would be nice.

The other problem is nighttime is not just dark, its a complete lack of any light. You can't see anything at all. They need to lighten it up...even just a little. If you are caught outside then you are basically doomed because you can't see to even run away from anything. Also, it would be nice if torches worked while you held them in your hand. That way you could at least see where you're going.

Pretty much the only way to survive the night without a shelter or torches spread around so you can see to fight, is to take any building blocks you have in your possession, look straight down, jump, and place the blocks below your feet. Do this to build a tall skinny tower and wait till morning.

The other thing I would suggest (and I might actually submit this one) is a clock or some other visual HUD indicator of the current time. Like the day indicator in Pikmin. I think the problem with getting left outside at night is there is no warning until it suddenly starts getting darker. Once that happens you have about a minute to rush back to your shelter...made harder since you have to jump so much to navigate the terrain. If you had a little indicator you could look at and say "Oh, its going to be getting dark soon. I should head back" then it would be much nicer. Hell, they could even force us to craft a "watch".

[W7RE]

This is awesome.

ROFL, that was the funniest shit I've seen in a long time. WOW.

EDIT

Yeah, a bed to pass time till the sun starts coming up would be nice.

The other problem is nighttime is not just dark, its a complete lack of any light. You can't see anything at all. They need to lighten it up...even just a little. If you are caught outside then you are basically doomed because you can't see to even run away from anything. Also, it would be nice if torches worked while you held them in your hand. That way you could at least see where you're going.

My brother and I were also discussing the need for this. Or you could have a craftable mining helmet that has a torch or flashlight on it.

The other thing I would suggest (and I might actually submit this one) is a clock or some other visual HUD indicator of the current time. Like the day indicator in Pikmin. I think the problem with getting left outside at night is there is no warning until it suddenly starts getting darker. Once that happens you have about a minute to rush back to your shelter...made harder since you have to jump so much to navigate the terrain. If you had a little indicator you could look at and say "Oh, its going to be getting dark soon. I should head back" then it would be much nicer. Hell, they could even force us to craft a "watch".

This would be nice, especially for when you're underground or indoors. Though you can watch the sun when you're outside. It rises in the east and sets in the west, and you can watch it move across the sky throughout the day. Just keep on eye on how close it is to the horizon. Also, clouds always move north. Watching the clouds is like using a compass.

Also, a compass was recently added to the game. Put cobblestone in the top center, bottom center, left center, and right center squares of the crafting station, and then put a piece of redstone in the center. This compass points toward your spawn point, not north. For this reason, I stopped exploring for good places to make a home, and instead made new worlds over and over until I found a spawn point I liked for my home. This way when I venture further out, I can find my way back.

[W7RE]

Damn, the game REALLY needs a way to pass the time at night. I'm constantly finding myself alt-tabbing to check forums and such because I get bored waiting for the sun to come up. Until I get to the point that I have a walled off and well-lit area to work in at night, I find myself just sitting and waiting. I just now realized I've been alt-tabbed for 30+ minutes and not playing, just because I got bored while waiting for sunrise. It sucks that if you alt-tab, the game pauses.

EDIT: oooh, I think the game continues going if you alt-tab while you've got a crafting station/furnace/storage container open.

[idolminds]

Yeah, if you have inventory open you can change windows and let time pass. But I agree, night needs a change. You can make torches but so far coal hasn't been that abundant, and each torch only illuminates a small area. For even a small-ish building you're going to need a bunch of torches to light it. I figured I'd try digging down inside my house at night, seeing if I'd come across anything interesting. But same problem...lack of torches. I had to leapfrog 2-3 of them to keep them with me as I went down. So far nothing interesting but more stone.

[W7RE]

ROFL, I just spent most of the evening off and on playing in a new world. I'd periodically pause and alt-tab for a while. I just had it paused and hit "return to game" and it took me to the main menu instead. So I thought maybe I hit "save an exit" accidentally. I go back in and now I'm in a snowy world. I leave, enter again and it's the same. Then I start loading up other worlds I've made, and instead it loads the new snowy world.

So one of my saves is intact (one that I had abandoned), and the other 4 are identical copies of a brand new snow world. Oh and save #3, despite loading this snow world, says it's empty still.

Well, I guess it IS an alpha, lol.

[gpw11]

When I first heard about this on Something Awful I tried the in browser version on my laptop and wasn't all that happy with the performance....think the actual game would run better?

[W7RE]

Yea, the full version would probably run better.

[Cobra951]

I was thinking of trying it over the weekend (though I never did) because of the free-to-play thing.  Since my system is older than most cats, I searched for requirements and found this thread.  The memory numbers getting thrown around are the biggest discouragement.

Edit:  I guess this game might become the new Lego universe?

Bioshock Infinite floating city in Minecraft

[idolminds]

Its still free, but probably not for much longer. I'm going to have to buy this when it goes back to pay.

I've started and restarted many worlds. I like exploring the new areas. But I think I have a keeper. I ended up finding a spot next to a waterfall, so I dug into the cliff to make my home. Found a bunch of coal so I have plenty of torches to go dig down and explore the underground. During the night I dug down and eventually hit on a cave of some kind. I can hear spiders or something but so far have not actually seen them. I went and redid my stairs and placed a door so I can always run back and keep monsters our of my house. I did see some iron ore in the small area I could see, so hopefully there is a bunch down there and I can make metal stuff.

While exploring I hurt myself from falls, so I'm now working on farming. Figure out how the hoe is supposed to work, so now I'm growing some wheat so I can make bread to heal up before I go explore that cave. There is also plenty of sand and water nearby for whatever I need. I think I'll make a boat to get around outside. I noticed a lot of pigs and cows hanging around...I could get some pork and make leather armor. Hmmm...

There were a lot of zombies outside last night, and even during the day I could hear them. I explored a little bit and found a couple caves open to the surface. Nothing can get out, but it blocks the sunlight so the zombies don't die. I marked these places with torches so I don't fall in...and so I can eventually go explore them.

Fan trailer

[W7RE]

This game has really become sort of an addiction for me. It's not necessarily that I'm playing it non stop, but I've got some other games I've been wanting to get through. I've got this mentality now of, "I want to play some Borderlands/Fallout 3, I can't let myself get back on Minecraft right now I must resist."

Oh, and the world that I said I lost a couple posts up? It was back the next time I loaded the game up. Not sure what happened, but I didn't end up losing anything.

[idolminds]

Its just so fascinating. Theres a real sense of exploration and discovery.

I went out and killed some pigs and made some grilled pork to get my health back up. Good thing, too. When I first stepped out in the morning a spider jumped at me. I was down to a half heart! But I got all healed up and went to explore that cave. Or should I say tunnel? I followed it around and it eventually came back outside in this really interesting area. I found a rather large waterfall in this area. The nice part about the tunnel is I can go explore in this direction without having to go all the way around the mountain, and when it gets dark I can get into the tunnel which is all lit up to keep baddies away.

There is a branch of the tunnel that ends in gravel. The sounds of zombies are loud here, so I think if I dug out an area it will open up into another cave system. Should be interesting.

Its nice having a lot of coal. Torches are essential, and being able to make a LOT of them is a very handy thing.

Also, stepping on your planted wheat kills it. Oops.

[W7RE]

Also, stepping on your planted wheat kills it. Oops.

Sneaking over it won't break it. (hold shift)

sneaking also causes you to make no noise (will that keep enemies from noticing you?), and you can't fall off of blocks while sneaking. (edge building at massive heights is much easier now that sneaking is in)

[idolminds]

Ah, didn't know sneaking allowed you to walk over crops. But yeah, sneak mode to not fall off things is one of the better additions. Way back when Que and I played it and it was just creative mode, it was hard to build tall things since you had to just edge out and hope to not fall off.

[idolminds]

Servers are back up. The free ride is...semi-over. I could still play, but sound is disabled. I'll probably end up buying this at some point.

Interesting note, hes got 10,000+ new paid accounts in the last 24 hours. Crazy.

Only downside is its Java. Not really a bad thing on its own, but the thing pegs my CPU pretty hard. Last night my system actually started beeping because my CPU was so hot after a couple hours of play. Im sure I need to dust it out, but I can play Borderlands for 8 hours and not have that happen. The game needs to take better advantage of the GPU. EDIT: Ah, well...theres a limit framerate option that I somehow missed. I turned that on and its already much nicer to my CPU. A google search and it seems even that limit is 120FPS. Going to see about forcing vsync on it to lower it even further. There is really no need to be blasting 400FPS in this game.

[idolminds]

This is very true. Once you get to the point where you've found a decent amount of coal to make torches and don't have to worry about light, the game just changes for the better. You can go and do what you want and care less about what time of day it is. I spend most of my time underground now, only returning to the surface to unload all my crap and to craft items. I have so god damn much stone that I've made piles of stairs to put everywhere. No more jumping around for me in my hobbit hole. I've dug down so far I've hit bedrock (can't dig any lower...except for that hole I discovered where you'd fall into the void).

I have exhausted my cave system. I built a tower on the mountain and lit it with torches, a beacon for home. Tomorrow I will set off in search of new caves. Perhaps I will locate an area to build an actual castle instead of just a hut here and there.

Also, its kind of amazing the buzz this game has gotten. The site/server/payments just came back up and look at these stats:

In the last 24 hours, 52200 people registered, and 23476 people bought the game.

At $13 a pop, that dude made $305,188 today.

[beo]

i keep gettin involved in conversations about this game at the pub. i've never even played this game. i think it has either become popular or i have sunk to a realm of geekhood i never knew existed.

also, i recently tried coffee cake. i don't like coffee, but coffee cake is very good.

[iPPi]

This game has struck gold --> $12,000 per hour based on sales of the game.

[idolminds]

Heh, its funny that buying now is half the "final" price. By the time final rolls around, everyone that wanted it will have already bought it.

[idolminds]

So I decided to venture away from my home. I saw some neat things, a double waterfall...that I then diverted and turned into a quadruple waterfall (seeing how water behaves when routed around). There were a couple little caves but nothing major of note. That is, until I started heading home.

I didn't want to venture too far from home for fear I'd never find my way back. I was climbing hills to so I could find my tower since I lost sight of it. Thats when I found it...the amazing cave.

I was intrigued when I found a steep vertical shaft, probably 10-15 blocks deep. There was no easy way out without digging, and it wasn't like the usual cave entrance I have seen. So of course I had to drop inside and have a look around. It was the best decision I have made in the game yet. This cave is MASSIVE! I've found iron, redstone, and coal (which will be useful since I've blown through close to 100 torches to light my way in this place). Not only was it rich in crafting material, but I went further and further in I eventually found a lava flow...that flows right into a waterfall. Just down from there I found two lava lakes. They appear to be small...but theres no way to be certain. They could continue under the stone walls. They could even be one single lake, I just can't tell! There is yet another large waterfall down here as well. Perhaps I can set up some obsidian farming? Might not be too useful without diamond pickaxes, though.

I'm going to see about maybe finding a way to hook my original home and this new cave system together, though that would be a TON of work. Perhaps I will create a stone pathway leading me from one to the other so I dont get lost in between. With torch lampposts to light the way at night.

Anyway, discovering and exploring that cave is one of the best gaming moments ever. And whats great is that it was totally unique to me, and no one else has ever seen that same cave (and never will unless I share the save file. Which I've zipped up just in case.)

[Quemaqua]

Stop making me want to play this again.  My computer is still dead.

[K-man]

Yeah I'm seriously pondering buying this thing.

[idolminds]

I carefully mined around the lava lakes. They are both small. One actually already has a waterfall flowing into it, so theres some obsidian. Outside of the neat factor, its not really worth mining. Building a giant obsidian tower would be an impressive feat, though.

Oh...and a confession. I turned the difficulty to passive, which stops monster from spawning. I just like exploring. Turns out this cave had two dungeon rooms in it. One had a monster spawner in it, the other a spawner and two chests. I have no inventory room right now to take the items, but I saw a couple saddles in there.

And yes, I know your pain in pondering a purchase. I was sorta so-so on it...going back and forth. I enjoyed the time I was spending playing it but there were some fiddly bits (night time was a bore). But once I got materials for exploring, the more I explored the more I found, so now I can go wherever I want and the night time doesn't even matter. So many torches... But that cave system. Sold.

EDIT

I wonder what multiplayer is like. I know its "Creative" mode where you can just place blocks to your hearts content, but the world generation is the same I take it? If so, going spelunking with others would be awesome.

[iPPi]

So is there a way to try this game?  I registered an account but it won't let me play without buying it.  I know this thing is selling like hot cakes right now, but since it's 'alpha', I absolutely refuse to pay for it without at least trying it.

[Ghandi]

I wonder what multiplayer is like. I know its "Creative" mode where you can just place blocks to your hearts content, but the world generation is the same I take it? If so, going spelunking with others would be awesome.

I'm pretty sure there are no monsters on multiplayer, and the host generates the map. And you have to watch out for thieves.

So is there a way to try this game?  I registered an account but it won't let me play without buying it.  I know this thing is selling like hot cakes right now, but since it's 'alpha', I absolutely refuse to pay for it without at least trying it.

I "obtained" the game to try it out - you can only play single player this way since you can't log in, but it gives you a good idea of what the game is like.