The story (feel free to skip this part in quotes):
"In the beginning, there were the protogenoi: Khaos, Gaia, Tartaros, and Eros.
Khaos created the airs, and light and darkness to fill it, and saw that it was good.
Gaia created a world amidst these airs, filled with trees, waterfalls, and towering overhangs, and saw that it was good. She created a special race of tree-shepherds to look after her creation. The other protogenoi were perplexed by the idea that Gaia would deem it necessary to create her own race of lesser beings to protect her creation...from whom? Distrust of Gaia's intentions began to grow in the hearts of the other protogenoi.
Tartaros created another world, but this one was filled with lavafalls and glowing stalagtites, and saw that it was good.
Eros was at first as shocked as the other protogenoi concerning Gaia's invention of an independent race, but soon Eros became infatuated with the idea and saw that this race would need emotions in order to properly distinguish it from the mere mechanical elements of the rest of creation. Eros thus filled Gaia's tree-shepherds with emotions of deep-abiding patience and serenity. Eros then created other races: grazing animals filled with simple contentedness, a reclusive race that preferred to nest in the crags and gulches of Gaia's world, a graceful but sad underwater race, and a race that sailed through the airs of Tartaros's netherworld with a fiery and shrill temper. Eros, desiring even more novelty, also created a race with the intelligence to reshape as they saw fit the worlds that Gaia and Tartaros had created. Gaia and Tartaros both found this deeply unsettling, and remained skeptical of these "humans."
Gaia saw what Tartaros had created, and judged it an abomination. She pleaded with Khaos to send her dark mists to dissolve away this hideous Netherworld. But Khaos found much delight in the play of light and darkness from the lavafalls and glowing stalagtites that Tartaros had created, so she refused Gaia's wishes. Gaia then threatened to remake Tartaros's world herself, at which point Tartaros consulted Khaos, and together they turned the creatures that sailed the airs of the Netherworld into paranoid fire-belching defenders of Tartaros's realm. Khaos also helped mutate the pigs that had formerly populated the Netherworld together with the humans there into a deformed human-pig hybrid that would no longer possess the intelligence to tamper with Tartaros's world, lest Gaia convince them to do so.
Undeterred, Gaia instructed the humans in her overworld concerning the creation of portals between her world and that of Tartaros. She told these humans to go forth into the Netherworld, to plunge the hideous materials of this world into the fiery lava lakes to be forever consumed, and to bring dirt, grasses, plants, flowers, and trees into this world to remake it into a new Gaian eden.
Khaos, upon learning of this, was furious. She struck back, deforming all of Gaia's faithful human followers into mutated zombies and soulless skeletons, and she even corrupted Gaia's once-serene tree-shepherds into a grief-stricken, suicidal bane of Gaia's world.
Unfortunately for Khaos, she overlooked one lone human--a faithful follower of Gaia by the name of "Steve." Gaia, in desperation, found this "Steve" and conveyed to him his holy mission, for which he was Gaia's last hope:"
Rules and objectives:
*Thou shalt use the seed "Gaia" (without the quotes, and make sure first letter is capitalized). It's a good seed in its own right: plenty of trees, some really need overhang formations...and I'd like for everyone to use the same seed so that we can compare our work.
*Thou shalt not directly harm a tree. No punching/chopping tree trunks or leaves, and no lighting trees on fire. (However, Gaia will not hold you responsible for damage done to her precious trees by creepers or TNT exploding near them. So: *hint, hint* to get your first wood, lure a creeper near a tree and have it explode. Then, start killing creepers and crafting TNT with the gunpowder they drop. Eventually, you'll want to set up a mob-trap, of course!)
*Thou shalt go into the Nether, and throw at least 1 netherrack, 1 soul sand, and 1 glowstone block into a lava lake as a gesture of good faith towards Gaia that you intend to carry out her plan to terraform the Nether as much as possible.
*Thou shalt then set up a working cactus farm, as well as a little flower garden (of at least 4 red flowers and 4 yelloe flowers). Once you finish these, you may consider the challenge completed.
Hints:
*Consider starting off by building a sandstone house. Gather sand and craft it in your 2x2 crafting square into sandstone blocks. If you want to, you can also surround this house with cactus to try and farm some monsters early on. As for lighting, make your house small enough at first to not really require any lighting while you are in it. (Of course, whenever you return, you might have to kill an occasional monster, until you get that first precious wood for a couple of torches. You could also search for naturally occurring lava and set your house up there).
*Lure a creeper near a tree and get it to explode (far away enough to cause minimal damage) in order to get your first wood to create a crafting table, which will then allow you to craft TNT to get more wood.
*Well-placed lava buckets could prove to be a more cost-effective lighting method than torches, with so little wood to go around. At times it might feel a little bit like the 404 challenge in this way, although you can use torches if you want. But you'll need most of your precious sticks for tools and swords.
*Perhaps find a dark overhang (there is one not far from the spawn point) where you can have a chance of fighting a creeper during the day as well as during the night, to expedite the collection of gunpowder.
*Eventually, set up a mob trap. Once you do this, the challenge will become MUCH easier.
*Thou shalt go into the Nether, and throw at least 1 netherrack, 1 soul sand, and 1 glowstone block into a lava lake as a gesture of good faith towards Gaia.
*Thou shalt then set up a working tree farm (of all 3 types of tree), cactus farm, and wheat farm in the Nether, as well as a little flower garden. Once you finish these, you may consider the challenge completed.
Your offering seems more geared towards Kronos. Or Hades. Or Tartaros.
There is no water in the Nether, it won't work. Therefore, your challenge is invalid.
The idea is that you are working as Gaia's loyal follower and trying to "terraform" the Nether to some extent--at least create a foothold of the Gaian biosphere in the Nether.
I wasn't aware that you needed water to grow trees, wheat, and cacti, or to plant flowers. I know water makes them grow faster, but isn't it possible to grow those in the Nether without water? I know you can grow wheat at the very least, right? Well, whatever you can grow in the Nether, just make that the challenge.
The main challenge will be getting to that point without being able to punch or chop wood.
First, I located cacti not far from the spawn point and built my base there out of sand, sandstone, dirt, and wool, with cacti around the edge. Then I started collecting some items.
Inventory:
First, I lured a creeper near a tree and got 1 tree trunk with which to craft a crafting table. Then I killed several creepers with my bare hands, and had a few killed on my cacti, getting me 5 gunpowder for my first TNT, which netted me 4 tree trunks plus a bunch of dirt and cobble---funny enough, I never had to make any wooden tools because of this. I just went straight to stone tools.
(By the way, I'm not crafting any arrows. These are just what I've picked up from burnt skellies. Once I get a mob trap set up, my bow and arrows will be more prudent to use than swords in most cases because even swords require 1 stick).
Base (inside) :
I've slept in the bed two times now and haven't gotten woken up, so it appears to be secure.
From my little lookout post on top of the base:
A view of my base from nearby mountains:
And a view of those mountains (tons of caves ready to be explored, as soon as I get a bit more wood. I hope to get down to lava ASAP so I can get more lighting and so that I can pour a Nether portal mold and get down to the Nether).
You know, funny enough, this is the first time I've ever had a reason to use TNT, and boy was it awesome! Those 4 tree trunk pieces felt so precious when I picked them up.
I'll test this to see if I'm right but, if I recall properly, farmland requires water to become fertile and if it's not fertile the farmland will unfarm itself turning back into dirt. I'll still try the challenge though :biggrin.gif:
Yes, one must use one's wood rather sparingly. With my first four trunk pieces, I ended up making 32 torches, a bed, a sword, a bow, 2 stone pickaxes, 1 iron pickaxe, and I have a few sticks left over still.
Things that are not cost-effective:
*Branch-mining. Must realistically mine in caves.
*Wooden doors. Oddly enough, iron is more plentiful right now, so I might just make an iron door. Right now I'm using cactus. I just remove the cactus and replace it every time I want to pass through. You can also just wall up the entrance each time. But I think I'm just gonna make an iron door for my base.
My next objective is to gather four more gunpowder, craft another TNT, hopefully get 2+ logs, and craft a storage chest so I don't have to carry around a bunch of miscellaneous stuff, and so I can put my valuables away when I go creeper-hunting.
Speaking of which, it really does not take that long to get 5 gunpowder if you make it a priority. It can be done in a couple of nights.
I'd say this challenge is definitely easier than the 404 challenge. At least you still have unlimited porkchops and leather armor (after you get a crafting table). You can work for half of the time without worrying much about monsters (unlike the constant darkness of the 404 challenge). There's no constant worry about falling in lava. You just have to be good at fighting creepers.
Rules and objectives:
*Thou shalt use the seed "Gaia" (without the quotes, and make sure first letter is capitalized). It's a good seed in its own right: plenty of trees, some really need overhang formations...and I'd like for everyone to use the same seed so that we can compare our work.
*Thou shalt not directly harm a tree. No punching/chopping tree trunks or leaves, and no lighting trees on fire. (However, Gaia will not hold you responsible for damage done to her precious trees by creepers or TNT exploding near them. So: *hint, hint* to get your first wood, lure a creeper near a tree and have it explode. Then, start killing creepers and crafting TNT with the gunpowder they drop. Eventually, you'll want to set up a mob-trap, of course!)
*Thou shalt go into the Nether, and throw at least 1 netherrack, 1 soul sand, and 1 glowstone block into a lava lake as a gesture of good faith towards Gaia that you intend to carry out her plan to terraform the Nether as much as possible.
*Thou shalt then set up a working cactus farm, as well as a little flower garden (of at least 4 red flowers and 4 yelloe flowers). Once you finish these, you may consider the challenge completed.
Hints:
*Consider starting off by building a sandstone house. Gather sand and craft it in your 2x2 crafting square into sandstone blocks. If you want to, you can also surround this house with cactus to try and farm some monsters early on. As for lighting, make your house small enough at first to not really require any lighting while you are in it. (Of course, whenever you return, you might have to kill an occasional monster, until you get that first precious wood for a couple of torches. You could also search for naturally occurring lava and set your house up there).
*Lure a creeper near a tree and get it to explode (far away enough to cause minimal damage) in order to get your first wood to create a crafting table, which will then allow you to craft TNT to get more wood.
*Well-placed lava buckets could prove to be a more cost-effective lighting method than torches, with so little wood to go around. At times it might feel a little bit like the 404 challenge in this way, although you can use torches if you want. But you'll need most of your precious sticks for tools and swords.
*Perhaps find a dark overhang (there is one not far from the spawn point) where you can have a chance of fighting a creeper during the day as well as during the night, to expedite the collection of gunpowder.
*Eventually, set up a mob trap. Once you do this, the challenge will become MUCH easier.
Your offering seems more geared towards Kronos. Or Hades. Or Tartaros.
There is no water in the Nether, it won't work. Therefore, your challenge is invalid.
I wasn't aware that you needed water to grow trees, wheat, and cacti, or to plant flowers. I know water makes them grow faster, but isn't it possible to grow those in the Nether without water? I know you can grow wheat at the very least, right? Well, whatever you can grow in the Nether, just make that the challenge.
The main challenge will be getting to that point without being able to punch or chop wood.
First, I located cacti not far from the spawn point and built my base there out of sand, sandstone, dirt, and wool, with cacti around the edge. Then I started collecting some items.
Inventory:
First, I lured a creeper near a tree and got 1 tree trunk with which to craft a crafting table. Then I killed several creepers with my bare hands, and had a few killed on my cacti, getting me 5 gunpowder for my first TNT, which netted me 4 tree trunks plus a bunch of dirt and cobble---funny enough, I never had to make any wooden tools because of this. I just went straight to stone tools.
(By the way, I'm not crafting any arrows. These are just what I've picked up from burnt skellies. Once I get a mob trap set up, my bow and arrows will be more prudent to use than swords in most cases because even swords require 1 stick).
Base (inside) :
I've slept in the bed two times now and haven't gotten woken up, so it appears to be secure.
From my little lookout post on top of the base:
A view of my base from nearby mountains:
And a view of those mountains (tons of caves ready to be explored, as soon as I get a bit more wood. I hope to get down to lava ASAP so I can get more lighting and so that I can pour a Nether portal mold and get down to the Nether).
You know, funny enough, this is the first time I've ever had a reason to use TNT, and boy was it awesome! Those 4 tree trunk pieces felt so precious when I picked them up.
http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Farmi ... lock_Decay
Anyways, I'll change the objectives in the original post to reflect this.
Things that are not cost-effective:
*Branch-mining. Must realistically mine in caves.
*Wooden doors. Oddly enough, iron is more plentiful right now, so I might just make an iron door. Right now I'm using cactus. I just remove the cactus and replace it every time I want to pass through. You can also just wall up the entrance each time. But I think I'm just gonna make an iron door for my base.
My next objective is to gather four more gunpowder, craft another TNT, hopefully get 2+ logs, and craft a storage chest so I don't have to carry around a bunch of miscellaneous stuff, and so I can put my valuables away when I go creeper-hunting.
Speaking of which, it really does not take that long to get 5 gunpowder if you make it a priority. It can be done in a couple of nights.
I'd say this challenge is definitely easier than the 404 challenge. At least you still have unlimited porkchops and leather armor (after you get a crafting table). You can work for half of the time without worrying much about monsters (unlike the constant darkness of the 404 challenge). There's no constant worry about falling in lava. You just have to be good at fighting creepers.