New Turtle Script

So I've been doing some work with turtles since the update of Feed The Beast and I have what appears to be a fairly decent script worked out. It has many possible uses. I originally intended to use it to do branches for my mine, but it also works as a tunnel maker or bridge builder. It digs a 2 tall tunnel and makes sure there's walls, floors, and ceilings. You feed it with fuel, torches and blocks and it will go as far as it can. If it runs out of blocks it could have some issues. Below is the code.

-- Clearing Terminal
term.clear()
term.setCursorPos(1,1)

-- Setting up Variables
local tArgs = { ... }
local fuel = 1
local torch = 2
local block = 3
local gone = 0

if #tArgs ~= 1 then
    -- Missing Length Argument
    print("Usage: Branch <length>")
    print("Slot 1: Fuel")
    print("Slot 2: Torches")
    print("Slot 3: Blocks")
    error()
end

local length = tArgs[1]

--Missing Items Check
if (turtle.getItemCount(fuel) < 1 or turtle.getItemCount(torch) < 1 or turtle.getItemCount(block) < 1) then
    print("Missing Critical Item")
    error()
end

-- Fuel Checking Function
function tFuel(moved,f)
    if turtle.getFuelLevel() < (moved + 10) then
        turtle.select(f)
        if not turtle.refuel(1) then
            print("Need Fuel")
            finished(moved)
        end
    end
end

-- Drop Items Function
function dump()
    print("Dumping Goods")
    for i = 4, 16 do
        turtle.select(i)
        turtle.drop()
    end
end

--Checks for full inventory
function slotCheck(moved)
    local slots = 0
    for i = 4, 16 do
        turtle.select(i)
        if turtle.getItemCount(i) > 0 then slots = slots + 1 end
    end
    if slots == 12 then finished(moved) end
end

-- Return Function
function finished(m)
    print("Returning after " .. m + 1 .. " blocks")
    turtle.up()
    turtle.turnRight()
    turtle.turnRight()
    for i = 0, m do
        turtle.forward()
    end
    turtle.down()
    dump()
    error()
end

--Check for Walls
function wallCheck(b)
    turtle.turnRight()
    if not turtle.detect() then
        turtle.select(b)
        turtle.place()
    end
    turtle.turnLeft()
    turtle.turnLeft()
    if not turtle.detect() then
        turtle.select(b)
        turtle.place()
    end
    turtle.turnRight()
end

print("Starting tunnel " .. length .. " blocks long")

for g = 1, length, 2 do
    tFuel(g, fuel)
    while turtle.detect() do
        turtle.dig()
        sleep(0.5)
    end
    turtle.forward()
    if not turtle.detectDown() then
        turtle.select(block)
        turtle.placeDown()
    end
    wallCheck(block)
    while turtle.detectUp() do
        turtle.digUp()
        sleep(0.5)
    end
    turtle.up()
    wallCheck(block)
    if g%5 == 0 then
        turtle.select(torch)
        turtle.placeDown()
    end
    while turtle.detectUp() do
        turtle.digUp()
        sleep(0.5)
    end
    turtle.up()
    wallCheck(block)
    if not turtle.detectUp() then
        turtle.select(block)
        turtle.placeUp()
    end
    while turtle.detect() do
        turtle.dig()
        sleep(0.5)
    end
    turtle.forward()
    wallCheck(block)
    if not turtle.detectUp() then
        turtle.select(block)
        turtle.placeUp()
    end
    turtle.digDown()
    turtle.down()
    wallCheck(block)
    turtle.digDown()
    turtle.down()
    wallCheck(block)
    if not turtle.detectDown() then
        turtle.select(block)
        turtle.placeDown()
    end
    gone = g
    slotCheck(gone)
end

finished(gone)

Computercraft Turtle Program

Just figured I'd share my turtle programs with you as I get them made. This first one is just a simple loop that you can use when the turtle is stationary and hooked up to a pipe or something feeding him with fuel. I use it as my startup script and have him hooked up to a cactus farm. It refuels him and when his fuel level goes up, he prints his current amount of fuel.

while true do                                                                   
  local current = turtle.getFuelLevel()                                         
  turtle.refuel()                                                               
  if current ~= turtle.getFuelLevel() then                                      
    print(turtle.getFuelLevel())                                                
  end                                                                           
end   

More notes for the build

39 blocks high, 74 blocks wide.
Each row is 3 blocks high, 13 rows (of course).

Just some notes

WBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWB  -R15-
BWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBW  -W15-
WBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWB  -R15-
BWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBW  -W15-
WBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWB  -R15-
BWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBW  -W15-
WBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWB  -R15-
BWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBW  -W15-
WBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWB  -R15-
BWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBWBW  -W15-
              -R35-                     -R35-
              -W35-                    -W35-
              -R35-                     -R35-

Supplies:
Dyeable wool:160
White wool/Sand:160
Blue dye:50
Red dye:110

taken from:
http://gaszturtle.blogspot.com/2011/03/american-flag-blueprint-for-minecraft_16.html

I don't think I'll be using quite that, but it's a starting point for my next project.

Of the UHCS and SMP

So, as you may know, some things have happened with the UHCS that I'm not completely sure about. I know that the original admin just kinda stopped coming around. Long ago he stopped hosting UHC games, but recently he's been just MIA when it comes to the UHCS. Many people didn't like this. Honestly it didn't bother me.
Part of the reason I liked the UHCS is because of the people, but a lot of them left, I'm sure they all had their reasons. They still played the games, but I think the idea of a survival server with the UHC mod on, although unique, was a pain. I even felt it, but kept playing there, trying to build on what I was doing.
Originally the server was hosted somewhere that sucked balls. horrible lag, all the time. A group of us chipped in money to get hosted by a new company that was supposed to fix the problems, but it didn't seem to help. I threw in like $25, and I think in total we got like 150-200 to host the server for many months.
I blame the plugins, I think a lot of the grief protection cause blocks to re-appear and threw out more lag than it should have and would just cause the game to stutter all the time, every few minutes you'd be stopped on the track for 15 seconds while in a railcart, or the last 5 blocks you broke would re-appear. It made doing anything a pain.
Not long before 1.4 hit, there were periods when the server was down for DAYS with no one around to fix it. And then of course 1.4 hit and because the server was running bukkit it wouldn't be updated until bukkit did.
With the update to 1.4 there was talk of people who wanted to keep playing together, the community is still there, just not on that server. A new vanilla snapshot server popped up. The Minecore server. This server is much more restrictive on who gets in, and only someone who is suggested by an active player can even apply to be added to the whitelist.
There were a lot of complaints about the UHCS this addressed, some people hated how easily new people were added to the whitelist. Personally, I didn't care as long as they were cool folks. What I missed was the continuity of the server.
The Minecore server is great, I've had some really good times with the folks on there, but I don't plan on recording anything on there, just going to be there for fun. I might throw out some footage occasionally or appear in other people's videos, but it won't be a regular thing.
After Minecore popped up, the people who were new and active on the old UHCS started talk of clearing the place out, starting over fresh. Not sure exactly what came of that beside that the last time I tried logging into the UHCS, I was denied (not whitelisted anymore) on the server I helped fund, even though it's going by another name, Mumblecraft, in the MotD. Honestly, I don't mind. It seems that the old world that was there (which I assume has been erased from that specific server), was moved off to another one, under a different admin.
I was contacted by that admin before the move, asked if I wanted to join and I gladly said yes. Seems the server is up, but I'm not on the whitelist. I'm sure it's just something that was overlooked, I haven't bothered bringing it up to the admin because I'm not too worried. I put a lot of work into my builds on the server, but I really wasn't too attached to them.
Again, it's more about the community. There's a lot of crossover between the two, the New UHCS and The Minecore Server. Most of the people I really got on with are on the Minecore server. There are other things outside of normal survival play we do together. So in the end, to me, it isn't a big deal. I'm just glad I can share my minecraft experiences with you guys.
All of this is one of the main reason I've picked back up with Mining with Munchmo. That server I control, I don't have to worry about some admin closing it down, wiping the world, griefers, etc. Sure, I'm mostly alone there, which sucks, but I have community in many other places, so I'm happy.

I'm sure there's a lot that I've missed or not covered here. You might even have some questions, and if you do, please feel free to leave a comment and I'll do my best to answer 'em.

And we're back!

So Mining with Munchmo is back with a vengeance! And boy do I have some plans . . .
I'm finally going to get to work on my spawn house, and it's going to be epic! Or will it? I really don't know. I'm not a great builder, but it was suggested of me to build a Japanese style pagoda, so that's what I'm going to do. I figure a lot of people out there have made them, and there are pictures all over the internet that I can use for inspiration and guidance that I might actually be able to make one that looks decent.
Not only that, but the Nether has gotten a bit of an overhaul that I'll share with you guys soon, but I'm thinking of completely redoing the whole thing in the hopes of making it better, although it would be a lot of work. We'll just have to see how it goes.
Also, you remember my lair? Yeah, I'm done with that. I need to find a new home, and we'll be doing that together. I have an idea for what I want to make and where, but I haven't finalized anything yet so you can look forward to the adventure.

And so it ends . . . sorta

So, I have uploaded my very last episode of Meandering with Munchmo to youtube. The show has finished and I will not upload another, but that doesn't mean it's over. From now on, every Friday I will livestream the show on my Twitch.TV channel! So make sure you're following me there so you'll know when I go live. That's http://www.twitch.tv/munchmo
I haven't decided yet what time it will be, but I will be announcing it on youtube with a short commercial. I think I'll go for an hour each night, we'll see though, depends on how the audience is.
Also, I will be trying to focus more on Hardcore, see if I can bring that show to a close. I feel like my videos are a little too across the board, and I need to narrow down my focus to bring better content to you guys.
Along with these changes, Mining with Munchmo is coming back! The show will change a little, but I'll wait till the first episode is up to discuss with you guys more about that. With 1.4 out now, I've turned that world from bukkit server to a vanilla server.
Also with 1.4 out, I won't be spending much time on the UHCS until it is updated.

Tekkit: Equivalent Exchange

Here's a list of stuff to get started with Equivalent Exchange

• Philosopher's Stone
• Diamond
• Redstone (4)
• Glowstone (4)
• Transmutation Tablet
•  Philosopher's Stone
• Obsidian (4)
• Energy Condenser
• Diamond (4)
• Obsidian (4)
• Alchemical Chest
• Diamond
• 1 Each Dust
• Diamond
• Redstone
• Klein Star (Not necessary)
• Philosopher's Stone
• Mobius Fuel (8)
• Alchemical Coal (4)
• Coal (128 Total)

Tekkit notes

I'm trying to narrow down the minimum materials I need to run a macerator, so I'm going to put up some links and numbers. Feel free to ignore this.

• Macerator
• Machine Block
• 8 iron (refined)
• Electronic Circuit
• 1 iron (refined)
• 3 copper cable (insulated)
• 3 copper
• 6 rubber
• Generator
• Machine Block
• 8 iron (refined)
• RE Battery
• 4 tin
• 1 copper cable (insulated)
• 3 copper
• 6 rubber

So that means I need to cook 17 iron (twice), 6 copper, 4 tin, and find some rubber! That's not too bad actually. Now that I have the redstone, that'll be easy (unless I can't find rubber trees).

More Moon II

Just got done doing another recording set with CeeJayLerod and it was totally epic! I won't spoil anything for you guys, but you can look forward to the footage coming up this Tuesday.
Also of note, there will be two different contests starting on Monday. One will start on my next UHCS video, and the second will be during my next Monday Montage of Tribes. To enter, just follow the instructions in each video.

And I'm back!

Well, Dragoncon was awesome! I even got to see Guude, unfortunately I couldn't stop to talk because I was busy helping a friend with his giant dinosaur costume. And I've still got a day or so of pre-recorded video, but I'll be back with new stuff in the next couple of days, so keep your eyes out. Also, we hit 1k subs while I was away, as well as 1 million views! So much to celebrate, so I think I'm going to see what I can do to bring even more contests in to celebrate these milestones!

Upload Schedule

Just want to let you guys know that I will most likely be adjusting my upload schedule in the near future. Just because a video doesn't go up when you expect doesn't mean there won't be one. I'm going to play with it to see what I can find that'll work out best for everyone.

Things in the works

So wow, my subscriber count has been shooting up, I'm so happy to have you guys around and I love hearing from you. So, as I write this, I have almost 400 subs, and my estimation shows it's only going to be two weeks before I hit 500. This is amazing!
Before 500 hits, I need to get an idea of what I'm going to do to celebrate with you guys. I'm thinking a livestream of some sort. Maybe just a general livestream, playing Minecraft, Binding of Isaac, Tribes, whatever? Most of you guys come for the Minecraft, I know that for a fact, so maybe just livestream that, but for how long?
Of course, I've also thought of livestreaming for Tribes for Charity when I reach my goal, so I don't want to overdo it, or make that seem less special. Maybe I can find some other way to celebrate? But what else is there?
I thought about doing a contest, like give away a game on steam, maybe give away a copy of Minecraft? I do have some gifts in Steam still from the summer sale, would you guys be interested in that?
I would love to hear from you guys as to what I can do to thank you all for joining me in this youtube adventure!

Meandering Season 1 World Map

DD3P3

Quinn's Song - First Night
Decay
The House of Leaves
Controlled Chaos
Mechanolith

Notes for Meandering

Head northwest to 3k, -14k

Sorry, more musical notes

I have no great place for this stuff so I keep putting it here, sorry.

16p3
40:47 "Stormfront" Incompetech
55:05 "City of Innocence" Dan O

17p3
 26:31 "Escape from the temple" machinimasound

More musical Notes

2:
12:41 Thinking Out Loud
29:19 Killing Time

3:
21:19 Ropocalypse 2

Music Titles for next videos

Just more notes to self.
4:
7:55 Unlight
29:39 Five Armies

5:
0:03 Five Armies
6:11 Plans in Motion
15:30 Plans in Motion
18:45 Nerves
23:11 Vortex
30:15 Hero Theme

6:
8:39 Future Gladiator
13:48 Interloper

Saving some links

So, I'm always looking for more music to use when I'm making my videos, and decided I'll just keep a list of the websites I use for royalty free music here. As I get more I'll update this list.

http://incompetech.com/
https://machinimasound.com/
http://www.danosongs.com/
http://www.partnersinrhyme.com/

Modding

So, I've decided that once the API is released for modding Minecraft, I'm going to try my hand at it. I've got this idea for a custom mod to run on a server, that I think can be fun. Really it would kind of be a mixture of existing mods with a twist. My ideas are as follows:
1. Ultra-Hardcore: Like the ultra-hardcore mod, where health is only regained through golden apples and potions. Maybe setup so that it doesn't require as much gold (the normal recipes, not the modified ones).
2. Hardcore: Once a person dies they are respawned either in a special area or are respawned in a mode where they cannot affect the world.
3. Mo Creatures: Basically more mobs, more hostile mobs, maybe some new friendly mobs that will help you? Possibly a way to tame some of the hostile mobs.
4. Worldgen: Create a custom world generator that will randomly add a few traps to the world, and generate a world specific for this (creating the border around your map), allows random spawns for each player (instead of a central spawn point shared by all).
5. PVP Bonus: When you kill someone they have a chance to drop items on death. This will be configurable, or possibly based on something specific (length of survival = Better loot).
6. Scoring: possibly a system to score a player. Base it on a number of things, like blocks collected, damage dealt (pvp and pve) player kills, damage healed, etc.
These are just some general ideas, I'm not really familiar with modding for minecraft, but I once there is an API, I'll give it my best shot. I know some of these things I can accomplish using existing mods, and I might use them, depending on the work involved in creating my own mod.

Starting Funland

So, 500 blocks in Minecraft is a lot bigger than I was thinking. I found a place where I think Funland will be, already working on the entrance. After beginning the project, just the entrance seems like such a big task, let alone all the other parts of the park. I'm really going to try to put a lot of thought into the things I do because this park will be what people who join my server see. I've decided to base some of my design choices around real amusement parks, using facades and "employee only" areas. Right now I don't have any sort of area border plugin installed, so it will only be for show, but I do intend on adding something. Do any of you have any thoughts on what I can use for this? The one public server I play on (Avidcrafter) uses Worldguard, so if any of you have experience with that and want to tell me if that will do what I want, please let me know. I've also got to decide if I want to keep weather turned on in this world. Right now, most of the park will be in the desert, so weather won't matter, but I'm pretty sure there will parts of the park that are in other biomes, which will mean rain and/or snow. I do have a good area in the desert minimum 250x250 I can use for the park, and there's still a good amount of desert that is unexplored, so there will be a lot of room to grow. Anyway, please leave any feedback you have for this project, because I'm sure there's a lot of ideas I'm missing.

Ideas so far

So far I've come up with the following things for the amusement park:
Roller Coaster
Zoo
Spleef Arena
Melee Arena
Bow Arena
Mob Arena
TNT Arena
Glass Maze
Hedge Maze
Monorail
Tunnel of Love
Shooting Gallery
Food Court
Carousel
I'm thinking I'll start with an area about 500x500 and I should hopefully have enough space for it all and more space to grow.

More Funland ideas

A monorail that goes around the whole park
A tunnel of love
Some kind of carousel that might use minecarts?

The roller coaster

So, some ideas I've had that I wanted to get out of my head so I'll remember them are:
a portion that goes under a lava fall and a water fall, and something that goes deep underwater, and at bedrock, and all the way up to height limit, and through abandoned mines, and all around the amusement park.

Epic Good Time Funland!

So, I have this idea planned for my Bukkit world, actually a couple. I'll go into them in a bit more detail here. They are both large, ambitious projects that will take a long time to complete, and hopefully some of the other players on the server will join in too.
The first is Epic Good Time Funland (name is a WIP). It will be our Minecraft amusement park. There are a few things I intend to build there, and I'm sure more will come to me as time goes on. So far I've got ideas for having a roller coaster (what's an amusement park without a roller coaster), a "petting zoo" (although I don't know if I'll be able to keep hostile mobs from despawning), a mob arena (big top maybe?), a gladiator arena (for some real melee pvp action), a bow arena (like the mindcrack paintball area), glass maze (or some kind of maze, maybe hedge), and much more.
Obviously, if you guys have any ideas of things you want to see in there, let me know and I'll do whatever I can to make it happen. The plan is to do it all as legitimately as I can, but still using the Bukkit tools at my disposal. I was originally going to start with a flat world using a world-generator but have since changed my mind to start with a new real world and just clear the land. Would give me a lot more to do, but also a lot more resources to work with.
The second project I had in mind wasn't exactly for me, but I'm considering either creating another server for my son's Hunger Games, or creating a hunger games world on the Bukkit server for him to play with. I have a lot of untapped potential on my server right now, I could probably run at least 2-3 more servers on it and was looking into Multicraft, but I don't feel like spending the money on something I can do with just a little more effort.
The hunger games that my son is doing is all arenas he is building in creative mode with no special addons or plugins, so having a separate server for him to play with might make it easier for him to make sure he does everything he wants with that.
I look forward to your feedback with ideas and suggestions!

Mindcrack Public Server

I got in! For those of you who weren't lucky enough to ever make it into the Mindcrack Public Server, I've got a video uploading right now. I hope to maybe get back in at a later time, once it all dies down a little. I'm not really sure what it will be like at that point though.
Some of you might have noticed in my video something I didn't notice until after I put it together, turns out I got connected just a minute or two before they rebooted, which is what really kicked me.
For those interested, the address is mindcrack.mcprohosting.com

Avidcrafter

So, I haven't heard back about whether the server is actually public, but I found a post on the Minecraft forums advertising it, so I'm going to assume it is ok to give out the information.
I will take down the link if the owner asks me to, but everything seems to say it's open to anyone who wants to join.
Click here to access server information.

A new style of post-production

So, with this next video, I'm trying something I've never done before, and the video is still rendering, so I really don't know how well it will turn out, but I would really like feedback about whether it was any good or if I should try something else.
I have seen other people do something similar, and it seemed to work pretty well in their videos, so I thought I've give it a try to spice up the less interesting portions of my hardcore series. I have to record the whole thing anyway because you never know when I could die, so I thought I needed to find a way to incorporate all the less than awesome footage into the episodes without boring my viewers.
Obviously this won't happen too often, but I figure I'll need to branch mine from time to time and I might decide to build something big (like a mob farm in the sky or something). If this works out well enough I will start using this style in future videos, and not just hardcore.

A few things

One, I'd like to apologize for the lateness of Mining with Munchmo, but I had a long weekend at work, so I didn't have as much time as I would have liked to get videos put together.
Today I should be recording another special video for you, although I'm not exactly sure how it will turn out. My son wants me to play in his Hunger Games series, and so I will, and I will record it, but I'm not sure how the footage will be, or even what being part of the games involves.
I will definitely get a new Meandering put up on time this week. And I will keep up with Hardcore, although with the new Avidcrafter server I won't be pushing out as many hardcore episodes as I was. I do think I'm going to try something a little different in the next hardcore episode though, and see how that goes.
On an unrelated note, EA released another video showcasing the GlassBox game engine that was built for the new SimCity. I absolutely cannot wait for the game, it looks so unbelievably awesome. If you're interested in checking out the video, click here.

Here comes another one!

So it's been nearly two weeks since I've started my push to get out a new video everyday. So far so good, I don't have any backlogged video now, but I should be able to get something special put together tonight for tomorrow. I've been invited to a server by one of my viewers, so I think I'll check it out tonight and record my experience. I've only ever played on my own local server, so I don't have a lot of experience with SMP outside of that. I might not notice a difference or I might have some serious lag issues, we'll see.
I'm not sure exactly what I'll do, probably look around at whatever I can find and head off into the sunset to settle down. From what I understand it's a Bukkit server running essentials (similar to mine) and some anti-griefing plugins. Obviously, I don't intend on griefing, I've had it happen to me, and even though it only took me a very short while to fix, it was still aggravating.

IRL Update, etc

So, I just want to apologize if my videos come through a little late or rushed, I'm trying my best to keep putting out a video every day, but I've had a lot of stuff going on in the real world lately so I may end up having to skip a day or even worse, put out sub-par quality videos to make up for that.
Hopefully there hasn't been any real issues yet, and I'm going to try my best to make sure there are none, but who knows what might happen in the future. I'm currently in the process of buying a house (as you may have seen from the IRL video I posted yesterday) which may take my focus away from Minecraft at times. It has been putting me under a bit of stress, which is making me a little scatterbrained.
I'll also have a bit of an issue with videos once I've bought the house, because I'll have to move and I'll certainly be without an internet connection at home for a little while. I'm going to try to make sure I have a small backlog of videos to upload at that point so I can keep uploading them for you guys, but with things are working now, that may be easier said than done.

Voting closing soon

It's Wednesday again and time to get your votes in for this week's episode is almost over. I've got another video uploading now, hardcore is going well so far. Keeping one video a day isn't as hard as I thought it would be.
Tomorrow I'll get the newest Meandering up, and will keep filling in the week with Hardcore. Saturday you should get a new Mo' Angels 'n Creepers, and Monday should be another Mining with Munchmo. I might even get a special up on Friday if they release the new version of Minecraft tomorrow.
Until then, keep playing!

Well, that's ok then

So, the Youtube uploader is being dumb. It won't upload a video at all in Firefox, but in Chrome it is uploading, but not showing any progress at all. Because of this, I was at least able to get the two videos I had out there. So you can be happy to have a new Mining with Munchmo and a new Mo' Angels 'n Creepers.
I've also got a new episode of Hardcore uploading now which should be available to you guys a little later today, and I am going to see if I can get a new video up every day for the next week or two.
On a side note, Bukkit still hasn't got a Recommended build for their server yet, so I'm still in 1.1 in Mining with Munchmo, but I'm keeping with 1.2.3 for Meandering and Hardcore. I haven't found a reason to update Mo' Angels 'n Creepers yet, so that's still at 1.0.
Also of note, we might have a new version of Minecraft this week per Jeb's tweet. This can be a good or bad thing, might mean it will take even longer for Bukkit to get an RB out for the server, but it'll also hopefully fix some of the glaring bugs in 1.2.3.

Really sorry about this

It appears that youtube is having issues with video uploading, so I have a couple videos waiting to go up, but at the moment there's nothing I can do. I'm going to get them uploaded as soon as I can, so keep an eye on your sub box.

Note to self

I need to remember the following site for information on getting my mapping program working with an external website so you guys can see the world we're playing in.

http://hartvig.de/2009/howto-mount-a-ftp-drive-in-ubuntu/

IRL Stuff

My brother mentioned a new science fiction convention that's starting this year in Atlanta. Unfortunately, it starts tomorrow, so I won't be attending. But it did put an idea in my head of promoting my Youtube channel IRL at regional cons.
I go to Dragoncon every year (What? You've never heard of it?) and I used to go to a lot more, but haven't lately. Once I've moved and get my budget set I'm going to put aside more money to go to other conventions in the area.
And with that came my idea for a way to promote my Let's Plays. A business card with a creeper's face on one side with the text "It's dangerous to go alone!" and on the other a picture of a diamond sword and the text "Take one of these!" with my Youtube channel address on it.
Of course, it'll be a while before I need anything like that, but it's still an idea for shameless self-promotion.

New Poll Is New!

Just got done recording the newest episode of Meandering, and a new poll is up! You can vote as many times as you'd like, and the poll will close automatically before the next recording. Please feel free to also leave any suggestions about where I should travel next either here, or in the comments on the most recent episode of meandering.
I'll be uploading this video overnight tonight, so look forward to watching it tomorrow.

Special Edtion

So over the weekend my son has challenged me to the Minecraft Super Pirate Battle Royale! The video finished uploading a short while ago, and is ready for viewing. Unfortunately, I failed to win, but I had a great time playing!
In case you want it, the map can be found here.

What a disaster!

Do, today I got a new video up, Meandering. I actually had it up yesterday, but stupid me, I forgot to watch the video or anything before going through the process of encoding and uploading it. There was no audio! I had game sounds, but for some reason, my mic didn't pick up. Not sure if I accidentally muted it, or what, but I had the video up at the usual time, but it was unwatchable.
So, instead of recording a whole new video, I just decided to dub it. I watched the video and recorded commentary. Then I took that audio track and overlaid it with the video and Viola! you have the newest Meandering.
To be honest, I was kinda scared to do it. I thought I'd have a hard time making it feel real. But in the end I think it turned out ok. There are some points in the video when I was watching it that I almost forgot the voice-over wasn't recorded with the video.
Don't worry, this won't become a regular thing, unless you guys really like it, then I might start doing the series this way. Not having the commentate (is that a word?) would make it easier to survive, but who wants to see that?
Of course, I recorded some footage for Mining with Munchmo that same day and had to completely re-record that portion. Luckily there wasn't anything major that went down.
Course, then later as I was doing some work on the rail station, I found a cave and went exploring. Found another zombie dungeon, and got eaten alive by them. Then, within moments, the guy that was tagging along got killed by a creeper and Poof, there goes enchanted diamond sword, pick, and shovel. . . /sadface

Last chance to vote!

Going to record the another episode of Meandering in a few hours, and there's been no more new votes, so unless there is, it's time to explore that mineshaft! I've been busy building and digging and playing recently.
A friend that I introduced to Minecraft just started his own server, running 1.2.3 on his home internet connection, and I've been playing on that some. I've got myself a treehouse in a jungle. Found a TON of diamonds in a mineshaft that's really close to bedrock.
Got the spider farm just about the way I want it on my server. Next project is going to be a mine cart station, I'll be starting that soon.
I also plan on recording more hardcore in the next day or two, so you can look forward to that.
I'm pretty close to "beating" skyblock too, so I'll show you guys around there when the time comes. It's not too impressive though, I'm not all that good at making things pretty.

1.2? 1.2.2? 1.2.3!

So the newest version of Minecraft has been released! First thing I did was install the Minecraft Profile Manager. This tool is a great way to keep multiple versions of Minecraft installed and running. I used to use many different users on my computer, one for each of the versions of Minecraft I was running. But now I can just have a single icon I click and choose whether I want to play my modded version of 1.0, or 1.1 for my Bukkit server, or 1.2.3 for my vanilla server.
And just like I said I would, I started my new Hardcore season. Boy, if the season keeps going the way it has, it will be a short one. I think I'm going to record my hardcore more than once per week, maybe fill in the gaps between the other shows, so 2 or 3 episodes every week. If this season does end soon, I plan on starting up another one right away, but I think the newest patch to 1.2 is going to really help me survive a bit longer.
I'm nearly done with the spider farm, it has been a huge project and I'm glad it's finally almost over.

1.2 Preview Release

So they've done it! There's a preview release of 1.2 available now. As it turns out they're planning on releasing it tomorrow! I'm so excited for this to happen because I get to start my new hardcore series!
So, let's go over what you can expect to see in 1.2:
Jungles!
Cats!
Villager Breeding!
Iron Golems!
Smart Mobs!
Smart Villagers!
Zombie Invasions!
Flaming Balls!
Upside-Down Stairs!
Top Half Slabs!
Higher Worlds!
Redstone Lamp!
Rare Random Mob Drops!
DOORS WORK RIGHT!
A whole new world format!

Daunting Project

So the newest episode of Mining with Munchmo is up now, and I've begun building a cave spider exp farm from some spawners a friend of mine found. Now, in the end, this is gonna be a good thing, the zombie spawner was great for exp, but getting it at three times the rate will be even better.
Now, the video is going to end up being 3 parts. Originally it was planned to only be 2, but I got so much footage for the first half that I ended up dividing that in two. I'll still be releasing the videos at the normal times, just means I'll be ahead a week or two.
I must say that I was procrastinating a bit on this project because I felt a bit overwhelmed with everything involved. I still feel that way a bit actually, even though all I have left is the drop-tower. Of course, I do plan on clearing the whole area around the spawners out and making it prettier too, but that's mostly just gonna be digging rocks. After the work I've done, I still may need to modify the design slightly, but so far it appears to be working ok.

Creeper Madness

So, I have another episode of Mo' Angels 'n Creepers encoding now, and I'll be uploading it soon. In this episode we go back down into the cave system and explore some more. Turns out there is a nice ravine that leads down to lava level, so hopefully I'll be in the diamonds next episode.
I didn't expect when I installed Elemental Creepers that I would end up with so many creepers in my world. I think in this episode I fought off more creepers than I ever have before. Unfortunately, I had a little problem with one. I'm not sure exactly how it happened, but I think my fingers slipped off the WASD keys and wreaked havoc.

New intro idea

Smooth Jazz playing in the background, Deep voice speaks:
"Awww yeah baby, you ready to mine?"
overlaid text with title of series
Video showing my avatar mining and finding diamonds.

National Margarita Day Fail

Boy, that was a mistake. I Just can't believe how it went from bad to worse! I guess I just got a bit cocky and it totally bottomed me out. I lost all the stuff I had, diamonds, iron, bookcases, obsidian, everything! Even if I was able to get back to where I died, there was no way I'd have made it in time. So, look forward to next episode where I go cave diving in the hopes of replacing even a fraction of what I lost.
This has taught me a valuable lesson though. I think from now on, I will place a chest at each place I sleep so that if I do die, I will at least have something to start over with. Put one of each tool, the best I can currently afford to lose.

Holy Crap! 25 Subs!

So, it seems I just hit 25 youtube subscribers! YAY! Now I just need to put together the 25 subscriber special I was planning on. Luckily I'll have lots of time after work to put it together, so look forward to it either tomorrow night or Wednesday.

Stupid Greifers

So, I had to roll my server back three times over the weekend due to people being stupid. First it was because my son pissed off one of his friends and he was blowing creepers up in the world. Then this guy destroyed my zombie farm, which I thought might have been accidental. Of course, later someone totally spent god knows how long ripping the place apart and destroying my base, so I kicked the two people who could have been responsible and rolled it back again.
Now you might think it's wrong of me to kick both guys out when it was most likely only one of them. I can't know for sure which one did it, but the fact that the guy I'm certain did it (was the guy who destroyed the zombie spawner in my exp farm) was vouched for by the other guy it could have been, made me decide to err on the side of caution and just kick them both out.
Of course, right now as I'm reading this, I realized I should have recorded some video of what they did. Luckily the rollback didn't take long (it's like 1 minute of copying files). And no one lost anything. So really I don't understand what the point was, the guy spend a long time doing this, the damage was extensive. But in the end, it meant nothing.

Another Mo' Angels 'n Creepers is in the can!

So, I got another episode of Mo' Angels 'n Creepers recorded, edited and ready to upload. Should be going up in the next couple of hours, so look forward to that. In this episode we go cave diving and run into a lot of the new creepers added to the game. I sure have a lot to learn about them!
I had an issue Somnia, but after I finished recording I figured out the problem. For some reason, while recording with Fraps, Somnia goes REALLY slow, but if I'm not actively recording, time just FLIES! At least I know this for next time, so I don't have to worry about it.
I'm really happy about all the iron I found, so I can make some better tools. Next episode I'm thinking about moving my little hovel out of the hillside and into the cave I'm exploring. It appears as if there's a lot there, so I might spend a decent amount of time down there.
I've found another mod that looks like it might add some more challenge to the game, but it will change the world in a way that will require me to travel outside the areas I've been to find the new content. What do you guys think? Should I install Better Dungeons?

Meandering forward!

So the votes were in and forward was the choice! This week we fight off creepers in the night as we continue walking around my vanilla server. I am beset upon by all sorts of monsters and bugs, but the lag was kept at bay!
I think restarting the server just before recording helps, although I still got hit with the weird bug where I get stuck in a spot and the one where the blocks around me change (or even disappear completely!) as I light them up.
With that video up, it's time to begin work on my next Mining with Munchmo! This time we're going to clear out the old chicken room to make way for a new farm! Silk touch is going to be even more important than ever, unless I want to try to run grass down 30 blocks, which I don't.
Wish me luck!

Another weekly snapshot

So, there have already been two snapshots released today, the second being a huge bugfix from the first. This one adds things like waves of zombies sieging villages, villagers reproducing to make up for the deaths overnight, increased world height, and light sources that can be turned on and off with redstone!
I don't have a video yet, but I should have one up in just a few hours showing off some of this cool stuff. Have you found anything interesting in the snapshot I missed?
More information and the official download can be found here

Zipper towers and SMP

So, I really thought this was gonna be a great idea and really easy to do, but after spending a LONG time working on it, seems that zipper towers don't work on a server?
I didn't find a good tutorial for the build till I was already halfway through with the process, even though I was doing it all wrong.
Eventually I found the right tutorial and figured out I had to start over. Even in the end I'm not sure I did it right. It looks like it should work, so either I did it right and it just won't work on SMP or I did it wrong and I have no idea where I messed up.
If you want to see the tutorial, you can find it here.

Starting a Skyblock

So, I'm mostly doing this for fun, but if I do any good I might post a little video showing you around the place. For my records:


Challenges:
1) Build a Cobble Stone generator.
2) Build a house.
3) Expand the island.
4) Make a melon farm.
5) Make a pumpkin farm.
6) Make a reed/sugarcane farm.
7) Make a wheat farm.
8) Make a giant red mushroom.
9) Craft a bed.
10) Make 64 stone bricks.
11) Make 20 torches.
12) Make an infinite water source.
13) Craft a furnace.
14) Make a small lake.
15) Build a platform 24 blocks away from the island, for mobs to spawn.
16) Make 10 cactus green dye.
17) Make 10 mushroom stew.
18) Craft 10 Jack 'o' lanterns.
19) Craft 10 bookcases.
20) Make 10 bread.
21) Collect 10 Ender-pearls.
22) Cook 10 fish.
23) Craft 10 Black Wool.
24) Craft 10 Gray Wool.
25) Craft 10 Light Gray Wool.
26) Craft 10 Lime Green Wool.
27) Craft 10 Red Wool.
28) Craft 10 Yellow Wool.
29) Craft 10 Pink Wool.
30) Craft 10 Green Wool.
31) Craft 10 Orange Wool.
32) Craft 10 Snow Golems.
33) Craft 20 Paintings.
34) Build and light a nether portal.
35) Craft 5 Gold Ingots.
36) Craft 16 Glass Panes.
37) Collect 50 birch logs.
38) Collect 64 arrows and craft a bow.
39) Craft 10 stone buttons.
40) Craft 30 stone slabs.
41) Craft 10 signs.
42) Craft 20 ladders.
43) Craft 20 fences.
44) Craft 20 fence gates.
45) Craft 10 levers.
46) Craft 10 trapdoors.
47) Craft 10 stone pressure plates.
48) Craft 10 wooden pressure plates.
49) Collect 64 bonemeal.
50) Craft 20 cobblestone stairs.

Here it comes!

So I have my newest Let's Play series up and ready for release. I am playing on hard (not hardcore) in a new world with Mo' Creatures, Weeping Angels, Rei's Minimap, and Somnia installed. Now it turns out I didn't install Somnia right, so it didn't work the first couple nights (during this episode) but I think I've got it installed and working now.
I would love if you guys have any suggestions of other mods to install that would make it more dangerous to play. Of course, I'm sure it'll get even more intense once I start cave diving.
Also want to remind you guys that I don't know much of anything about Mo Creatures so I'm sure there's going to be a lot of stuff I miss out on, so please feel free to leave me comments and suggestions about what I need to do.
I had to do this all in Minecraft 1.0 though, since the mod author of Weeping Angels hasn't updated since then. There appears to be someone else who has updated it, but I'd rather have the official release.
Rei's Minimap
Weeping Angels
Mo' Creatures
Somnia

A new snapshot

So I just threw together a new video featuring this week's snapshot! Ocelots now have sound and it is awesome!
Zombies will break down wooden doors!
Doors work! Yes, double doors work the way you'd expect them to!
And much more!

Download the weekly snapshot here.

There it is

Another new Meandering is in the bag. Just got done uploading it and it is now available for your viewing pleasure. I'm not sure why, but I was suffering from a lot of lag issues, which I think I may have fixed, but I won't know until next week's episode.
In today's episode we talk about some more changes to the rules of this game. Instead of sleeping at night, I have to walk around and light up the world while fighting off monsters!
Mojang just released a new weekly snapshot! So look forward to a video about that one really soon.
Then tomorrow night I'll start recording my new series temporarily dubbed Mo' Angels, please feel free to leave me any suggestions for that one!

Let's get this party started!

So I just made my newest Mining with Munchmo public, it is up for viewing! I spend a lot more time working on my underground lair making it prettier, and so far this is just the tip of the iceberg. I've some major plans for renovation.
After widening the tunnel and getting all the clay I need (well, at the time I thought it was enough, but I realized now that I need some more) I begin to lay out the next phase of design. I need lava, and a lot of it! But before I do that, I'm going to replace that damned spinning minecart track to the surface with something nicer. Look for the next Mining with Munchmo where we'll build a zipper tower!
Now it's time for me to record another Meandering. . . Stay tuned!

Uploading as I type this

A new video is uploading as I write this. Today's video is Mining with Munchmo and in it I go on the hunt for clay to prettify the minecart tunnel to the zombie spawner. Unfortunately, since then I've changed my ideas around a little bit, and I need a lot more clay. That will mean at least 2-3 more visits to the surface and that rail track up bothers me. So what am I gonna do about it? I'm going to install a new solution to get to and from the surface.
So, today I'm going to start recording the next video where I'll be putting in a zipper tower to the surface. I've also got some other plans for changes to my base including getting rid of that fishing hole and expand the storage room into that. I never use the fishing hole and don't see a reason to have it. I'm also planning on widening some of the walkways because that narrow one just bothers me.
I also need to venture into the nether to get more glowstone and blaze rods, because I want to expand my brewing chamber.

Another new video is up!

Got another new video up. Episode 11 of Mining with Munchmo. In this episode I take you around the server and show off some of the recent changes and things the other players have been working on.
I implemented the PhysicalShop plugin for the players to use because I felt it would be beneficial for the players to have a decent trading system with each other. I'm not sure how much use we'll actually get out of it, but at least it gives me a way to turn all the rotten flesh I get from the zombie farm into something I can use. The values of everything I just kind of pulled out of my head, but luckily the other players seem okay with them.
Unfortunately, some of the players don't quite grasp how to use the shops yet, but I hope in time they'll figure it out. I'm trying to do my best to keep this server mostly legit while also making things a little bit easier for the kids who play on it.
Stay tuned for the next episode where I'll begin overhauling my minecart tunnel to the exp farm!

Stupid Youtube is Stupid

So, overnight I uploaded a new Mining with Munchmo video featuring another trip to the nether! But for some reason the video has been flagged as containing copyrighted material. The real problem I have is that the dispute form talks about whether I think it contains the copyrighted material, yet nowhere does it even mention what is actually being claimed as copyrighted! Something called the "Music Publishing Rights Collecting Society" has laid claim to something within the video, a video that is not even publicly available now.
It seems that within mere moments after filing the dispute, the claim is just gone now. This really seems like a malicious abuse of the system by a third party (an affiliate of the RIAA, I'm sure) to make money off other people's hard work. I understand people being upset for not getting credit for their art or losing money due to piracy, but I really don't think any third party should be allowed to claim infringement for another unless explicitly directed to do so.

Wow, Creepers and Kitties, eh?

So I threw together a little video having fun with the new AI stuff in the weekly snapshot. It really wasn't much, just me playing around with an idea I had from DocM's video earlier today. So I uploaded it and posted it to Reddit, and people actually liked it!

Awesome Minecraft resource

So, the other day I was trying to see if I could find a way to maximize my enchanting, and I did! I found this site that lists your chances of getting whatever enchant you want! This thing has saved me so much time and energy, you should really check it out for yourself.
Stuart Pernsteiner's Minecraft Resources

Meander with me now

So, 30 Minecraft videos, wow. I'm kinda surprised at myself for that. And over only 5 months? That averages out to be more than one video a week. Obviously it hasn't been too hard, cause they're really fun to make, and I just love playing Minecraft. The hardest part is putting them together, and I still have some issues when it comes to that. I kinda wish I had a good opening, I tried putting something together once, but it really didn't work for me.
Once again, thanks to all my current subscribers, it makes me happy to know that I don't totally suck, and some people find me interesting. As always, your comments and suggestions are welcome.
Links, lists and video behind the cut.

Finishing touches

In today's thrilling conclusion we find out hero in the depths of his branch mine in search of diamonds, in the harrowing desert digging for sand and waiting patiently for zombies to spawn.
I eventually got sick of digging for diamonds so ended up going topside for the first time in ages, and realized that what looked like it should have been a snow biome actually was one. This world was first started in 1.8, which if I remember correctly didn't have any snow.
Stay tuned for my next episode where I have fun with my zombie farm and venture into the nether.
Video behind the cut.

New video is new!

So I got back into my Bukkit world cause I lost in hardcore, and boy did I have some fun! This video actually had to be cut in two parts (don't they always seem to be that way?). This first part covers me changing around my melon farm. The original concept for it didn't work, because I missed a couple key parts. I got the idea originally from DocM, but I can't find the video I got it from. Please feel free to drop a comment with a link in it if you find it.
After that was done, I was ready to create my enchanting room, which I failed at, since I didn't have any diamonds! So, instead I set out to branch mine, and it took HOURS to finally find some diamonds. I have to say I did enjoy the branch mining, it was very relaxing and I'm actually looking forward to going back down there.
Stay tuned for the thrilling conclusion of my search for diamonds!
Video after the cut.

Alas, the end is here!

So, Marooned in Minecraft episode 10. Yeah, that was a bad idea. I spent sooo long working on that spider farm, and almost had it working the way I wanted. Then I just had to go and venture into the nether. I really could have done it all bit smarter, but at least now I've learned stuff for my next hardcore adventure. I really did enjoy playing in this world and am sad to see it go, but am looking forward to starting a new one.
I've learned a few things with that spider farm too. I got really frustrated with how the spiders wouldn't stack up for me, until the very end. Watching Etho's videos, his never seemed to have a problem, but mine kept backing up in the feeding tube, which is why I changed the way it worked. I think there's something about using glass where they gather too, which helps them stack on top of each other.
I figure some of you might be interested in downloading the world I was playing in, I backed up a copy of it before every play session, so below you'll find a link to the world as it was before this video.
Download world

A new year brings a new video

Sure, this one might be later than you'd like, but I got it done! So what do you get to see? Well, I rebuild my wheat farm because it was just too ungainly, so now it's a bit more automated. I wanted to try something more challenging, so I built one that only used a single water source block. That is, one source block that is used for both the water that keeps the dirt farmable, and is also used to harvest the wheat. It took me a while to design the structure to work, but in the end, I'm happy with the results.
I also moved my chickens, they're now in a new kind of pen which makes it easier for gathering the eggs. This will also mean I'll be eating more chicken too, since it'll be a lot easier to make chickens.
My sugarcane farm is also a bit more organized, only using one water block for every 4 plants, although I think I might have enough to finish all my bookshelves. I'll have to get to making those soon too.
I also planted some melons, realized I didn't need pumpkins as much as I wanted melons, so the pumpkin patch is gone for now.
Video behind the cut.