Minecraft: The New Era - Walls and Traps

A few more days have passed (OK, several more days), and there is progress! Last time I mentioned finding a spider spawner in my mine. I've now turned that into an infinite string supply, which means I can finally get some sleep! If you're unfamiliar with Minecraft, string combines into wool, and wool and wood combine to make a bed. A bed lets you sleep through the night, skipping past a lot of cowering in the dark or fighting monsters.

Home Ugly Home

The trap I built is pretty straightforward. I carved out a chamber sized for a flowing-water floor, which pushes the spawned spiders to one wall. That wall contains a one-high slot edged with unclimbable glass. Spiders get pushed into the slot by water, and forced against cactus (see, desert power!) which kill them. A one-wide water trough runs below this, sweeping drops to a collection point. Done.

Die Spider! Die!

I also spent some time clearing out the cave complex near the spider trap, so I didn't get surprised by a creeper while building it. I'm not 100% done with this task, but it's mostly secure. I scored a fair pile of gold, redstone, iron, and even a few diamonds from this process. As usual, I've used the 'torches on the right' method to mark trails. As you explore away from your entry point, put torches on the right wall. To get out, turn around, and keep torches on the left. It's easy to get lost in big complexes, this is a great way to avoid that.

Hmm. What else. Oh yeah, I finished off the cactus walls that provide nominal surface safety near my base of operations. Since they ran between cliffs and ocean, they're not 100% secure, since monsters can come over the cliffs or swim around, but they help a lot. And since I had an ocean available, I decided to build a moat around the outside too.

A moat!

Entry to Cactus Land

While doing that, I discovered a cave system just below the surface to the east. That's my next exploration task. I've now made one-day forays in all non-ocean directions, and it appears I'm on an island made entirely mostly out of sand and clay. Aside from a few patches of trees, I've not seen any other terrain, and I've hit coast in three of four cardinal directions. Non-ocean appears to only lie beyond the village I found way back. I need to see if Minutor has been updated to get a better feel for the map.

Let's see, I'm sure I'm forgetting something -- Oh yeah, I started a fishing pier and house. Which hasn't gotten very far yet. I've done enough to say that I really like the colored clay blocks for building! Theoretically they're about as tough as stone, and there's no processing involved to get a nice smooth look. Great stuff. Now I'll have to see if I can make something attractive out of these materials.

Cube House and Mine Entry

That's it for this update. I guess posting these has done some good, one of my gaming group, Locky's player for those that follow the Wilds game, read them and picked up Minecraft. He told me "So far I spent the night on top of a tower, because I planned poorly and night came." Definitely the usual first experience in Minecraft.

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