Coming back to Minecraft. (and BTW!)

[Kain Magin]

Hi guys!
Been forever since I've played MC so ive missed out on a lot of stuff. (The last vMC I had was 1.3.2)

Also been lurking the board here trying to catch up on past events. (Dinnerbone visits the BTW thread. Nifty, BWF.... grrrr, RTH from secondary addon to tc or full game (i'm confused on whether RTH is tc or full game. I've tried to read all I could find on it. I apologize if I have missed something. Either way. Best wishes FC.)

Anyways. The reason for my post is, as I said above, I have been away from Minecraft, and consequently Better Than Wolves, since vMC 1.3.2. I think I was using BTW 3.9.3 because the next update added "hardcore sheep" and I definitely don't remember that. Now my dilemma is that there are all these nifty hardcore modes and new items and gameplay mechanics that just weren't there before. (Thank you FC. And I'm not being facetious when I say that, I really mean Thank you.) The only problem is... I don't know where to start. I've done the reading... But that is getting me no where. Anyone have any updated btw guides? Or video tutorials that are more current than the links i had saved?

Oh... One other thing. Hardcore Spawn... On or Off? Sounds fun. Does it work in single player worlds?

Thank you!



EDIT!:

Notification!

New World started Jan 12, still in this thread: link viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6609&start=25#p109370

I will post updates in "this" post (not the one I linked) to keep things simple. Pics on the other hand will be a bit different. New pics will be posted here, and old one'w will be archived at my Imgur page, Link below.

Imgur: http://imgur.com/a/GkmOo

1st pic: My Spawn
- I said I wanted to spawn in a snow biome, Taiga works, but spawning in the middle of a pack of wolves? that's new!
2nd pic: Dirt Hovel
- My 1st home in this world, and just look at that sky, beautiful. The interior of the hovel is currently nothing but a carved out cube, and not a big one either. Got 2 wolves, a furnace, a workbench, and cobble stairs going down to it. That's the extent of it.
3rd pic: What my base looks like... Above ground
- But not for long. 1st thing, Terraform the hell out of this. There is a valley then a mountain in the distance, I'm going to widen the valley and enhance the mountain with the resources I get.

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4th pic: Mountain behind my base
- Not much of a mountain... at the moment... but i do like terraforming ^^. Gonna hide that desert from view!

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5th pic: The valley
- Not much at the moment, little pond, a tree. Blah... Gonna move much of my base here, because on the other side of the mountain, there's a desert ^^. Non-stop windmill FTW! The terraforming of the mountain is to kind of hide the desert and move the mountain into the desert so i can have my windmill on top of the mountain, in the desert for so much win factor.

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Update 1: Gotten diamonds (7 to be exact), mined obsidian (havn't been to nether yet, sidetracked by terraforming, which is taking a bit), started a cow farm mid terraform ^^ (got hungry, had wheat already). Hard part of the terraforming over, mining out most of the area I wanted (used cobble picks, why waste precious ore on this? lol), just gotta make it look good now, will prolly do that later after a Nether trip... reaaaaly need to start progressing the BTW tech tree... and having 0 luck getting hemp seeds... only got 3 hemp plants atm, so I really need some light blocks big time. (There's an "In Progress" pic of the terraforming over at Imgur if anyone wants to see, taken from atop the Mountain... now that I'm up here, i'm thinking I might need a bit bigger area... but we'll see...)

Update 2: House built ^^. Nether portal built ^^. 1st venture into the nether netted me over 4 stacks on glowstone dust, 2 stacks of netherrack, some soulsand, some netherwort, a blaze rod, and 2 wither skeleton skulls... ouch... Found a Ravine (with a mineshaft connected) right below where I built my house! Which is awesome, because I wanted a huge open area below my basement that goes nearly to bedrock (ravine hits lvl 18 ^^ at its lowest point) now i just need a ton of blasting charges and powder kegs to blow the thing wide open. Might just be an arse and build a spread cannon at one end and film the destruction ^^ (dont think anyone's ever done that ^^, terraform a ravine via gunpowder canon, least not an underground one, AND in the hopes of ever actually using it ^^). Hemp's coming along nicely, almost enough to make windmill.

[tom_savage]

My suggestion, leave everything enabled and dive in. Hardcore spawn does work on Single Player, and will remind you of the old days when you lost your way back to your base, and had to start over. I'm not sure if the wiki has been updated recently or not, but most of the main game progression remains the same. There is however, a lot more side things to do during the ages. Hardcore Sheep like mentioned before being one of those, it takes a looooong time to breed all the colors. Any other questions, and I'm sure anyone in the forums would be glad to fill you in! Best wishes and good luck!

[Pfilson]

I don't know that where to start has changed too much. You still want your basic 3, Shelter (ideally with something for you to do at night now since you won't be sleeping), Wolves (for the poo), and nearby water (if you plan on automating, or leave off HCB)..

And the starting steps are basicly the same get hemp seeds, find coal, find some sort of meat to survive on (because with hard core grinding wheat really isn't going to cut it in the beginning.

If you can find a village near Taiga/forest your pretty well set for food and water. You may want to lock a couple of villagers in their (well lit) house or they may all be zombie fodder before you have a chance to light up/wall off the area.

And of course the first thing you will want to build for the tech tree is the millstone and crank so you can get your windmill going. You will not be able to use slime to make a water wheel so you wont be able to move to water power till you get glue.

Others may have more suggestions, but so far those have been my experiences.

oh yeah, and yes hardcore spawn works in SSP, so wherever you end up setting up you will probably want to make it so you can find it from fairly far away.

[FlowerChild]

Not sure if I have much to add, other than that bonemeal now works on Hemp thanks to Hardcore Bone :)

Also, I'd say go for Hardcore Spawn. I'm probably going to make it a default mode soon.

[Kain Magin]

My suggestion, leave everything enabled and dive in. <snip>

I did just that, tho, had to turn ON hardcore Spawn but meh. Thanks for the reply and letting me know that everything is "mostly" the same.

I don't know that where to start has changed too much. You still want your basic 3,<snip>

::breaks out notebook:: Didn't have much experience with villages before i stopped playing, and what with i read, they can sell you stuff now? Wait, what? cant use slime? that kinda sux? oh well, makes a bit of sense technically. Thanks.

Not sure if I have much to add, other than that bonemeal now works on Hemp thanks to Hardcore Bone :)

Also, I'd say go for Hardcore Spawn. I'm probably going to make it a default mode soon.

FC responded to my post... 1st... ::dies:: anyways, all jokes aside. Yea, just started a world with hardcore spawn enabled (see above). Bonemeal works on Hemp? oh hell yes! reason to be out at night! tho kinda super scary with hardcore spawn. question, is hardcore spawn completely random, or do you spawn somewhat near your initial spawn point? (like nearby or leagues away?)


EDIT: omg, love dropping pumpkins! MWAHAHA! oh, btw, anyone ever pissed off an Enderman on their day 1? rofl... was all, whats all that purple particle crap :got closer:: ::ENDERMAN-RAGEFACE!:: OH CRAP! never seen endermen within 3 minutes of starting a game before lol.

[RalphKastro]

question, is hardcore spawn completely random, or do you spawn somewhat near your initial spawn point? (like nearby or leagues away?)

well, there's distance limit and it's random within this limit(I think), but the limit is so big, it's better not even considering it.

[Pfilson]

Yeah they can sell you stuff, but you will need to trade them a fair amount of hemp, wool, raw meat, coal, or wheat to get one emerald, 10+ at least. and they will only buy so much.. then it can cost 2+ emeralds for one item. I mostly use them for a way to get specific enchants (if they have any good ones) or 1 leather helm (which instantly gets turned in to 5 glue) for about 2 emeralds.

Oh if you can build your windmill in a desert it will not break your gearbox when it rains, that may have been the case when you played before.. Unless that has changed and i have missed it..

Removed spawn portion due to ninja. :p

[Kain Magin]

Well, 1st death out of the way (zombie horde if anyone cares lol). Lets see if I get this right. till earth for hemp seeds? gods its been too long....

well, there's distance limit and it's random within this limit(I think), but the limit is so big, it's better not even considering it.

Oh, ok, thanks, thats actually quite helpful. I was actually planning on looking for my chest of goodies i had before i died but NIX to that idea, unless i just happen across it.

Yeah they can sell you stuff, but you will need to trade them a fair amount of hemp, wool, raw meat, coal, or wheat to get one emerald, 10+ at least. and they will only buy so much.. then it can cost 2+ emeralds for one item. I mostly use them for a way to get specific enchants (if they have any good ones) or 1 leather helm (which instantly gets turned in to 5 glue) for about 2 emeralds.

Oh if you can build your windmill in a desert it will not break your gearbox when it rains, that may have been the case when you played before.. Unless that has changed and i have missed it..

Ugh, MC economy sux.... lol. Wait, enchants? hadn't read about that? know the wiki link? (n/m, found it, pretty kool ^^) And yea, i "knew" about windmils in deserts (read "knew"), thanks for reminding me, totaly forgot hehe. kinda sux im in a winter wonderland but meh. I also read there are now vertical windmills, do they suffer the same problem as regular windmills?

Edit: Another question. Did they revamp sunrises and sunsets? It seems to look like there is a lot more color involved. In some instances it looks over done, but in others its really pretty ^^. And are dropped items, not blocks, but like seeds and sticks and stuff like that a bit more 3Dish? <-- Not BTW but just curious

[RalphKastro]

I also read there are now vertical windmills, do they suffer the same problem as regular windmills?

yes, they do

And are dropped items, not blocks, but like seeds and sticks and stuff like that a bit more 3Dish?

1.4.6 feature. Every item is 3d in fancy graphics

[tom_savage]

EDIT: omg, love dropping pumpkins! MWAHAHA! oh, btw, anyone ever pissed off an Enderman on their day 1? rofl... was all, whats all that purple particle crap :got closer:: ::ENDERMAN-RAGEFACE!:: OH CRAP! never seen endermen within 3 minutes of starting a game before lol.

Yeah, melon's drop too. Also, be warned, if you aggro 1 Endermen, any other Endermen in the vicinity also aggro. Glad you're enjoying it so far!

[Kain Magin]

And are dropped items, not blocks, but like seeds and sticks and stuff like that a bit more 3Dish?

1.4.6 feature. Every item is 3d in fancy graphics

Thats kool.

EDIT: omg, love dropping pumpkins! MWAHAHA! oh, btw, anyone ever pissed off an Enderman on their day 1? rofl... was all, whats all that purple particle crap :got closer:: ::ENDERMAN-RAGEFACE!:: OH CRAP! never seen endermen within 3 minutes of starting a game before lol.

Yeah, melon's drop too. Also, be warned, if you aggro 1 Endermen, any other Endermen in the vicinity also aggro. Glad you're enjoying it so far!

Yea, I've played MC since it was in beta, just got side-tracked due to real life (aka too much work, not enough free time, that has FINALLY gotten back to normal at work, thank god).
Now I'm just trying to figure out how best to use my 1st 9 diamonds... found a bit of lava, but with HC Buckets, only way to get water down to it is to dig another tunnel down and connect it to the nearby lake... hmmmm, might just do that ^^.

[Eriottosan]

Actually, with hardcore buckets you can still pick up water and place it long enough for the water to convert lava to obsidion before disappearing (you can even collect your water before it disappears), though chanelling water to a lava lake is much more enjoyable, I find (:

[RalphKastro]

Now I'm just trying to figure out how best to use my 1st 9 diamonds... found a bit of lava, but with HC Buckets, only way to get water down to it is to dig another tunnel down and connect it to the nearby lake... hmmmm, might just do that ^^

You can get a bucket of water, and put it above the lava, then quickly pick it again before it vanishes.

Edit:Ninja'd

[Kain Magin]

Actually, with hardcore buckets you can still pick up water and place it long enough for the water to convert lava to obsidion before disappearing (you can even collect your water before it disappears), though chanelling water to a lava lake is much more enjoyable, I find (:

You can get a bucket of water, and put it above the lava, then quickly pick it again before it vanishes.

Edit:Ninja'd

Oh kool, didn't know you could pick it up again. must now play around with water some. got another lava lake near where i tunneled my water stream to get to the 1st lava lake that i could easily branch the water off to, but now that i know this, i might just play a bit 1st (hopefully i don't die a horribly gruesome lava death, or lose too much obsidian in the process, but meh, that's trial and error for ya ^^)

[Kain Magin]

This should be my last question for a while and I'll be good to go. Been trying to descide what to do with my 1st few diamonds (had 9, used 3 to make a pick to get obsidian, gonna make a nether portal once i get a steady food supply ready, prolly sheep since i have a ton nearby, just getting the area ready now ^^ and waiting for a few more wheat to grow so i can start breeding the moment i get em.) Anyways... Only thing I could find BTW wise that used Diamonds was the Lens which looks end gamey (or at least like something I prolly will never find a use for outside of something highly impractical... and probably ludicrously hilarious ^^, and probably involving the nether and pigmen ^^), Is there anything else BTW wise that uses diamonds? or are they only really for vMC?


Oh, and if anyone has any kool and practical uses for the lens (that don't involve giant penis') can ya link em? I'm prolly gonna be doin a youtube search for lens vids here in a min.

[RalphKastro]

This should be my last question for a while and I'll be good to go. Been trying to descide what to do with my 1st few diamonds (had 9, used 3 to make a pick to get obsidian, gonna make a nether portal once i get a steady food supply ready, prolly sheep since i have a ton nearby, just getting the area ready now ^^ and waiting for a few more wheat to grow so i can start breeding the moment i get em.) Anyways... Only thing I could find BTW wise that used Diamonds was the Lens which looks end gamey (or at least like something I prolly will never find a use for outside of something highly impractical... and probably ludicrously hilarious ^^, and probably involving the nether and pigmen ^^), Is there anything else BTW wise that uses diamonds? or are they only really for vMC?

aside from the lens, I don't think there's much uses for diamonds in BTW (just the infernal inchanter, I think).

Oh, and if anyone has any kool and practical uses for the lens (that don't involve giant penis') can ya link em? I'm prolly gonna be doin a youtube search for lens vids here in a min.

I don't know a link, but lens can be used in conjunction with DBs(they detect the light beam) to do various things, including a daylight detector(put a len in a place where only daylight will hit it's input and the output directed at a DB), transmiting "wireless redstone signals"(redstone powers lightblock with lens, wich powers DB) and player/mob/block/whatever detector(any entitie can stop the light beam, so use a lens DB combo to detect a in larger area)

[Kain Magin]

aside from the lens, I don't think there's much uses for diamonds in BTW (just the infernal inchanter, I think).
I don't know a link, but lens can be used in conjunction with DBs(they detect the light beam) to do various things, including a daylight detector(put a len in a place where only daylight will hit it's input and the output directed at a DB), transmiting "wireless redstone signals"(redstone powers lightblock with lens, wich powers DB) and player/mob/block/whatever detector(any entitie can stop the light beam, so use a lens DB combo to detect a in larger area)

Infernal inchanter? must look that up. Thanks. Lens gets turned on by daylight? I suppose it has to be facing down for that to happen. Hmm, nifty, must remember that. Lens + DB? guess you mean detector block? ok, that makes a bit more sence now. Was just thinking "lens" = profit. and wasn't getting it lol. its lens + DB = profit, gotcha. Thanks alot. Yea, that should sate my curiosity for a while now, least untill i get into steel, havn't even SEEN a wolf yet lol... or a cow for that matter.... just sheep and chickens lol.

To everyone who posted suggestions and helpful tips:

Thanks for all the help guys!

[ThePuzzleMasher]

.... just sheep and chickens lol.

You might already know what i mean but try killing some sheep and see if they drop anything different...

[Kain Magin]

.... just sheep and chickens lol.

You might already know what i mean but try killing some sheep and see if they drop anything different...

If youre talking about mutton then yea. Happened to read that when i was skimming over the past BTW release notes on the wiki. That one was a deffinate "YES!" moment. Specially since I always liked breeding sheep for wool. Then once i had a huge amount of wool i no longer needed the sheep... it was sad there wasnt any other use for them...

[Mr_Hosed]

I always wondered why sheep didn't drop meat in vMC. Seems like such an obvious feature.

One major thing to be aware of that's changed the progression of the BTW tech tree significantly, there are now 'elements' and 'filaments' in the game. Filaments are like they were before, redstone+glowstone+hemp fiber(string), but now they're only used on light blocks. Elements are redstone+blaze powder+hemp fiber(strong) and are necessary to make hibachis. Anotherwords, to progress into bellowed recipes (steel or glue for instance) you have to first find a netherfortress. Fortunately blazes now spawn anywhere in a fortress.

[Kain Magin]

Note to self: never ever set "Large Biomes" again.... While I'm particularly happy I started in a snow biome... I'm right in the center of Antarctica, there is a jungle biome about a 1000 clicks away... but that's all I've found so far, and I've been looking the last few days since I got my windmill up... Of course, moment I put up my windmill, what happens, it effin snows.... roflmao. Thankfully I had already set up a on/off power switch for the gearbox, jumped right off the top of my windmill (lost 3 hearts) and hit the lever, whew.

Now that I got that up, gonna have to set up an auto hemp farm, and an auto cow farm. Anyone got the btw-wiki link for "vine trap" or the recipe? I didn't see the item link on the front page anywhere. I wanna use some vine traps in my cow farm so when baby cows grow up, they'll be big enough to jump a 1 block high wall and fall through vines into a water stream to saw blades... or thats the plan.

Some of the geography has been rather pretty (specially since I'm using Panda's Doku Pack), might have to post some pics later.

[Ulfengaard]

Three vines in a horizontal row.

I rather like large biomes. I get all my farms harvested and stockpile filled. Then, I put together a pack of items and set off into the world to see what I can find. It's rather like a real adventure.

[Siege Wizard]

Just a quick advice. You should get between 2 or 5 saws powered and with vine traps over them and a hopper to recolect all that vines. Or maybe you prefer walking 1000 blocks from your base hundreds of times to get full inventories of vines. I'm regreting not having it done til too late in my world and only have two of them when I finally did it. Uses for them are left to you. But get them, before any of the others automatic farms, a vine farm and make sure you have enough space to recolect it. I dont think that 2 full large chests of vines would be enough for me and I have no animal automatic farm but the chicken one yet, and that one doesn't use vine traps.

P.S.: Ask the others if you think I'm making numbers look greater that what they really are, I'm not.

S.W.

[Kain Magin]

Three vines in a horizontal row.

I rather like large biomes. I get all my farms harvested and stockpile filled. Then, I put together a pack of items and set off into the world to see what I can find. It's rather like a real adventure.

Thanks a lot ^^. I love snow biomes, and not long after I posted the above I happened on a swamp biome (pic in spoiler below)

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I love the fact that there is a literal wall between the snow biome and the swamp biome. I think it is trying to say "you do not simply WALK into swamp biomes" lol.

Just a quick advice. You should get between 2 or 5 saws powered and with vine traps over them and a hopper to recolect all that vines. Or maybe you prefer walking 1000 blocks from your base hundreds of times to get full inventories of vines. I'm regreting not having it done til too late in my world and only have two of them when I finally did it. Uses for them are left to you. But get them, before any of the others automatic farms, a vine farm and make sure you have enough space to recolect it. I dont think that 2 full large chests of vines would be enough for me and I have no animal automatic farm but the chicken one yet, and that one doesn't use vine traps.

P.S.: Ask the others if you think I'm making numbers look greater that what they really are, I'm not.

S.W.

Hmmm, never used vine traps before now so I'll take you're advice, have yet to make a saw as i have yet to find a single wolf anywhere yet, im praying to find one in the swamp I just came across. But about vines I got a stack out of the "nearby" Jungle and was already planning on saving some to make at least a room full where I had to manually collect it if I needed it until if/when I wanted an automated system.



Just gotta love the people here, so helpful ^^ thanks as always


Edit: WOOOOOOOT!!!!!!!!! Found a Taiga biome! 2,451 clicks from home! through the swamp, then through a massive jungle! and right on the edge of that taiga biome, at LEAST a dozen wolves! if not more! only had 4 bones on me, so I waited till nightfall and killed every skellie i saw and managed to get 4 wolves!!!!!!! Soooooo happy right now!!!!! And just for shits-n-Giggles, I came out of the jungle right on the corner of a Taige and a normal Forest biome, so I also got a few Spruce/Birch Saplings ^^ I gets ta make me a tree farm off in a nearby mountain thats hollowed out. Expand my property ^^.

[Siege Wizard]

Hmmm, never used vine traps before now so I'll take you're advice, have yet to make a saw as i have yet to find a single wolf anywhere yet, im praying to find one in the swamp I just came across. But about vines I got a stack out of the "nearby" Jungle and was already planning on saving some to make at least a room full where I had to manually collect it if I needed it until if/when I wanted an automated system.

Was a nice idea. When you get the saws nedt you only would need to make w water current recolect the vines and put some saws in the wall to make it automatic. That plus a hopper and you have your first full automatic with no-maintainance-nedt farm.

Just gotta love the people here, so helpful ^^ thanks as always

You're welcome :)

Edit: WOOOOOOOT!!!!!!!!! Found a Taiga biome! 2,451 clicks from home! through the swamp, then through a massive jungle! and right on the edge of that taiga biome, at LEAST a dozen wolves! if not more! only had 4 bones on me, so I waited till nightfall and killed every skellie i saw and managed to get 4 wolves!!!!!!! Soooooo happy right now!!!!! And just for shits-n-Giggles, I came out of the jungle right on the corner of a Taige and a normal Forest biome, so I also got a few Spruce/Birch Saplings ^^ I gets ta make me a tree farm off in a nearby mountain thats hollowed out. Expand my property ^^.

Yes taiga are the best places to find wolves, being forest the second biomes. I have never found a wolf in a biome that is neither a forest nor a taiga. Remember you can always breed two wolves so you actually don't need more than 2. 4 will speed up the process saving you more or less 25 mins. I actually only have 4 wolves pooping and I need a huge amount of cows to keep up in leather production so if you haven't found cows yet, it's time to go for them.

S.W.