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.

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.

Marooned, E04

So, the next episode of Marooned in Minecraft is ready to upload! I ended up having to split it up into two episodes again because I just couldn't fit it all into a length I felt good about. The episode starts off fairly slow until I find a nice little surprise waiting for me! I was completely taken aback when I saw the opening of an abandoned mineshaft right down there in that ravine. And it shocked me even more to realize that I have found such easy access to a cave spider spawner! And, because of that, a new project is underway. One that has already taken me nearly 10 minecraft days, and will take many more before I'm done with it. The worst part is, after all that work I put into it, I nearly died a couple times, which would have totally destroyed the world I was working in. Below the cut you'll find a current map of my world and the video.

Back on Track

So, now that the Star Wars: The Old Republic beta is over, I've got a couple of weeks until I can start playing the game. Of course, I've also still got WoW, and a friend of mine convinced me to check out DC Universe. Oh, and I'm still in the Tribes: Ascend beta. But, even with all that, I'm still making time for Minecraft. I know it's been a while since I've posted or put up a new video, but worry not! I've recorded some more footage, so you can look forward to a new episode of Marooned! This video has me doing some mundane work around the island and some exploring until I come across something really cool, and then I set to work! You'll have to wait until the video is up to find out what it is! I will tell you there was a moment when I was afraid this might be the last episode in that series!

Putting it all together

So, I'm in the process of editing the fourth episode of Meandering together. I start by taking a look around the world that's already been explored and finish filling in the map that I created previously. After that I take a nice long boat ride to a whole new area of the world. You'll get a quick look at some of the stuff that the children have built on the server. This is the first video of this series that I recorded outside of the initial livestream I did when 1.0 was released. The video turned out to be a bit longer than I would have liked, compared to the other three in the series. Turns out I got so much footage I ended up splitting it into two episodes. Unfortunately that means you'll not get a new world map from me in this post, but you'll get one next time.

Marooned in Minecraft E03

So, after a weekend with no uploads, and over a week of no updates to this blog, I've got a new Marooned in Minecraft for you. This video covers days 7, 8, 9 and 10. I decided I did not like the style of narration on this series, so it's no longer in-character. I had a hell of a time gathering the animals for my pens, but I'm glad to be able to breed them. I didn't get quite as much done as I would have liked, but for now I think the area around my house is mostly safe. I do fear that I got hit with the peaceful bug, since I didn't see a single hostile mob while I was playing, so next video I'm going to have to make sure I start with a hard world before I go into hardcore and start recording. Next time, I think I'll also have to start punching grass to gather more seeds, cause that wheat field is taking an awful long time to grow.

Marooned in Minecraft

My new series has started! I was able to record it all yesterday, but I didn't get a chance to put it together till today. Took me three tries. For some reason, it hung during the encode the first time, so I had to put it all together again, and then left a whole bunch of extra footage I didn't mean to. The third time it was finally ok.
This is my 1.9 PR3 Hardcore survival series. Right now, it's just about surviving, but as time goes on (as long as I don't lose) I'll need ideas and suggestions as to what you the viewers would like to see in this series.
Video behind the cut

Full of fail

So I tried to start my new Hardcore Survival Let's Play series last night, but it was horrible. I used a seed I had heard about as being a good survival island seed, but I ended up spending the first 10 minutes swimming from island to island looking for one with trees, and that does not make good video. I think this is for the best though, cause my commentary sucked anyway, and because of that I came up with a new idea I'm going to use for this series. I can't tell you what it is, but I hope to get some video tonight. I can't promise to be great, but I can promise to try to be!

Coming Soon

Just want to share with you guys what I've got coming in the future. It appears they've put out a second pre-release of minecraft 1.9 so I'm going to start a survival series in hardcore mode (bugs and all) in that. Once the official release happens, I'll obviously update to that (and beyond probably). I've also got the idea of doing a couple other series. One would be survival island (maybe I should do the hardcore mode, as the survival island? It would make it even more hardcore!) I also want to do a series on a new world (SSP probably, or a private world in my SMP server) just walking, exploring the world and finding nifty new places. I think I'm going to wait to make that my official 1.9 world though. Ok, so that's what I'll do, we'll have the official 1.9 world on the server be the start of my new Meandering with Munchmo series. Keep the Mining with Munchmo series in the world in 1.8. And create a 1.9 (PR2) surival island hardcore world. What should I call that one? Any suggestions?