EricBall's Tech Projects

A few friends play Minecraft, but I've been so busy with 2600 projects that I've never gotten around to checking it out. I recently ran across this video, and now I'm kinda interested.

 

On Monday I played several hours of Minecraft - started a new world but then got bored mining. I declared I was done with Minecraft, but last night I played another couple of hours (another new world). So I'm obviously not quite done yet.

 

A couple of non-standard things I've determined:

• Boats are cool in the early game. It only takes 5 planks (plus a crafting table) to build, so all you need is a source of wood and you're sailing. They make crossing water much, much easier. And spending the night on the water is very low risk. Even if a hostile mob tries to reach you, you can sail much faster than you can run so they can't catch you. The only risk is crashing (especially into the invisible wall which surrounds the PS3 map).
• A 1x2 mineshaft is the quickest & easiest way to reach Y=11 (diamond depth). Put torches & blocks of dirt every 5 blocks for light & fall protection. A 1x3 mineshaft with a plunge pool at the bottom may provide quicker descents, but it requires more effort to build and iron for buckets.

In my last game (and the start of this one), I'd remove any gravel & dirt I discovered while mining. I'm now going to try a new tactic with a spiral mining pattern I've created and leave any non-ores alone.