Minecraft - Rebuilt (ish)

It's taken a while, but my new base is (mostly) back up and running. Moving your entire network takes a bit of planning, because once you shut down your ME system, all your stuff is stored in memory modules that you can't access, and all your auto-crafting stuff is offline. You also have to deal with wiring and power (or the lack thereof) issues.

Minecraft - A Short Break

I guess I should have posted something before I took a week away from the computer to do some house-sitting! This is a quick update about the stuff I was doing before the break.

Minecraft - Home Improvements

After my somewhat disastrous trip to the Nether last report, I spent last week working on base improvements. After upgrading base power to provide more efficient ore processing and a more energy for farming, I started working on a Botania setup. This proved interesting since there have been some changes to recipes since I last used this mod. Here's how things turned out.

Minecraft - A Trip to a Dark Place

I had limited time for Minecraft this week, but I did get a few things done. In the last post, I mentioned doing some basic automation to keep myself supplied, organizing storage, and building a quarry. One out of three ain't bad, right?

Minecraft - Relocation

I've been playing my modded Minecraft world a bit since my last post, making slow progress on my base, doing a bunch of mining, and creating a bunch of handy tools using my newly built Smeltery. As I mentioned last time, I wasn't quite sure if I was going to stay put or move my base. I've decided to move, but my new base is not too far away. Here's an update on everything that's happened since my last post.

Delving into Minecraft -- Again

In my recent recap of 2015, I mentioned my last Minecraft series, the City Builder Challenge, died a death of ennui. Rather than trying to do something in vanilla, which always seems to end with me getting bored, I'm going to play a modded game. How modded? Very.

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

Minecraft: The New Era - A Few Days Later

Some time has passed, work has been done, and improvements made. Nothing spectacular yet, but my little desert base is starting to take shape. I've spent several days in and around my original mine, finishing off the greenhouse, starting some security measures, and doing some harvesting and digging.

Minecraft: The New Era - Decisions (Day Eight / Nine)

After a night of mining, that extended into the morning of day eight, I've come to a decision: I'll make this desert wasteland a solid base of operations. I've already started a mine shaft, there's ocean right outside the door, and trees that are close enough to harvest. With that in mind, I spent the day, poking around the area right next to my base, discovering a tiny patch of grass, which yielded one wheat seed; a small partially underground pool, which I'll turn into my indoor fishing pond; and a variety of dead shrubs, which are useless.

Indoor Fishing is the Future!

Minecraft: The New Era - Day Six & Seven

After a couple false starts, getting lost in the desert, dying to a zombie horde, things are looking up! I spent the night doing some minor mining and found a couple nice pockets of iron, so I have some raw materials to work with now. My little hovel on the beach is nothing special, but it'll serve for now.

Minecraft: The New Era - Day Three-Five (Ah, Death!)

Yep, it only took three days to die. After spending the night in the village I stumbled over, I ran outside a bit too quickly for someone with one life left. A skeleton put an end to me, and we know what that means... respawn!

Minecraft: The New Era (Day Two)

Another day, another aaah, run away! After spending the night huddled in my little hole in the wall, I ran outside, hoping to find something useful. Instead I found several zombies, a giant spider, and a couple creepers. I managed to defeat the horde and gained a bit of string and some rotten meat for my troubles. At least I won't die of starvation.

Minecraft: The New Era (Day One)

I haven't played Minecraft in quite a while. I went through a period of messing with mods, including some huge mod-packs full of technology and such, but got tired of keeping them up to date with core changes. Since things have changed a lot since the last time I really delved into the game, I decided to start from scratch with a vanilla world and check out what's new. Day one begins...

Homicide - The Truth of the Matter

Gabe Babbett. Our two detectives, Evan Stacy and Jeff Long, were finally sitting across the interrogation-room table from their primary suspect. They know quite a bit about Babbett already; felony record, parole violation, lied on his job application, fingerprints on the murder weapon, witnessed fighting with Marin, ID'd trying to sell the stolen documents. In short, he's screwed.

Homicide - Remote Control

Last time, we had a pretty good lock on the events surrounding our two murders. We still have some loose ends to tie up though. Let's get to it!

Homicide - The Devil's in the Details

Our prime suspect Gabe Babbett, is looking more and more like our man. When we left he was in custody in Chicago, and his truck had been impounded. We have a witness reporting he was involved in an altercation with our two murder victims near the site of a theft, and testimony indicating he was trying to sell stolen property on his trip to Delaware. We'll flash forward a bit, and allow some forensics work to get done in the background. The two things we're most interested in are the crime scene at the church and Babbett's truck. Specifically we're looking for fingerprints at the former, and blood evidence at the latter.

Homicide - Sins Discovered

When we left our investigators, they had just finished up their interrogations of Albert Burns and Rose Marie Orr, the roommates of our murder victim, Scott Marin. Both had alibis for the night of the murder, and our primary suspect, Gabe Babbett, is looking better and better. Evan and Jeff's next move was to head over to Michelle Allen's place of work, a local religious center, and poke into the stolen property that seems to be the core motive for these murders.

Homicide - Motives

Last session our detectives had pretty well wrapped up the two murders they were faced with, with all evidence pointing to Gabe Babbett, our parole-violating ex-con. Based on Kevin Woods's interrogation, we think the following is a reasonable scenario:

• Michelle Allen, our second victim, steals something from her place of employment, a religious organization associated with the college campus.
• Scott Marin, our first victim, either discovers or was involved in the theft, leading to some sort of confrontation or conflict with Allen.
• Gabe Babbett, our main suspect, becomes involved, either as a way to fence the item, as protection against Marin, or in some other capacity.
• Babbett steals the item from Allen, involving Kevin Woods in the theft. Babbett also steals Allen's handgun, the murder weapon.
• Things go south and Allen, Marin, and Babbett are involved in some sort of confrontation in Allen's car.
• Babbett shoots them both, then dumps Marin's body in his old apartment and Allen's body in hers.
• For reasons unknown Babbett gets Woods to steal rental records from the apartment office, perhaps to slow the identification of Marin and his roommates?
• Babbett takes off for Delaware to arrange the sale of the stolen item and to put some distance between the crime scene and himself, violating his parole in the process.

Minecraft - Daylight!

I've finally gotten around to snapping a day time screen shot of this arch so you can actually see it. Without further ado...

Minecraft - The Arch

A quick screenshot of the next phase of construction. I really need to stop taking night pictures, but usually I snap these after completing a day's work. This is the arch framework and part of a tower build out that's going to be the structure surrounding the giant tower in the center of this build.

Click to embiggen