An initial disclaimer. I'm a newb; I've only been playing this game for a couple of weeks. However, in that time, I've initially died quite a lot, and eventually had to start coming up with ways to prevent that from happening.
I thus wanted to contribute some ideas that I've had, and used, to prevent monsters from giving me too much trouble. I've noticed a number of people complaining about the hostile mobs here recently, and so I hope these suggestions help; as they have for me.
Although I'm currently on Peaceful, (and will be until I have established suitable defenses within Hell) as I simply found avoiding/surviving the Ghasts to be virtually impossible, the suggestions here have been tested at Normal difficulty in the overworld, and for me have worked well. I have found that Creepers do not need to cause as severe a problem as some people have experienced, if certain precautions are taken.
Point 1.
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The first tendency I've had, which I've found very useful for base defense in Minecraft, is my overall approach to architecture. Generally speaking, except when it comes to planting, I don't build at all; I dig. I developed this tendency from my first day in the game, when it's more important to get a shelter up quickly, then whether or not it looks good. The only time I will build substantially above ground, is if I overwhelmingly have the higher ground, at the top of a hill or mountain. Even then, however, I generally won't.
I'm aware that the proverbial skybridge/mansion at 50 blocks above sea level which you can show off on YouTube, is something that all of us want, (and I will probably build one myself, eventually) but for every one of those that I've seen, there's also been at least one accompanying, anguished story of how multiple creepers got up onto the beautiful glass ceiling, and effortlessly and momentarily destroyed literal hours of work.
I feel that building primarily underground has the following advantages.
a} It's much faster. If you want to build an entirely above ground, 3x3 structure, you need 45 blocks, and that assumes you're building it out of soil, which usually the most readily available material. If you're building with wood because it looks nice, that will involve cutting down 1-2 trees, then processing those into planks, and then starting to build.
By contrast, I can walk up to a cliff, and with a pickaxe, have a 3x3 hole cut out of it in <2 minutes, and use the blocks I've gained from doing so, to barricade the entrance. The less time before dark that you spend building, the more time you have to locate coal, and during your first day in general, or potentially your first day in any undeveloped area, that matters.
b} It's much less resource intensive.
c} It's more easily defensible. I usually only focus on fairly narrow corridors, and as a result, I have a lot more cover, and places that I can use for things like choke points. If you're running through a 2-3 wide block corridor, and you've got a group of mobs after you, in the best case scenario you can simply block it behind you before they reach you. Giant 12x12 caverns might look impressive, but they are not very practical, and unless they are naturally occurring, are genuine hell to create.
The central message here is that the less space you're in, the lass chance there is for something unpleasant to spawn behind you. This is even more important now that the spawning rate is possibly higher.
d} My mine (at bedrock level) and my storage area, are seperated by a flight of below ground stairs. I don't need to exit an above ground palace first, and walk somewhere else; it's right there. That means less transport time, and less construction time as well; both of which can be used for locating more resources.
Point 2.
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Usually any base I develop, will not only be built into a mountainside, but will often have a river or stream in front of it, and will preferably also have another mountain in front of that. Both of my mines/major storage bases have this configuration, and mob invasions of my base itself, literally never happen.
Mobs approaching my base also are forced to go through water, which the AI does not handle well; this gives me more than enough time to shoot those that do approach before they get anywhere near me. If they come down the opposite hill, that is also fine; I've got that covered in trees which they can spend time maneuvering through, and they will have to avoid a large number of permanent fires as well, which they generally don't. Those trees are sufficiently dense that I can torch them all at a moment's notice for a massive firestorm if need be. I also don't get anything dropping down in front of me either, because I have cacti growing on top of the mountain I'm built into, which catches those.
As it says in the mob science thread, mobs spawn more on flat, open ground at lower elevations. The less even the ground is, the more difficult life for the AI becomes.
Point 3
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Recently I had the idea to develop a cactus farm, and it was the experiences which followed that, which mainly prompted me writing this post. Being in a narrow pass, I didn't have a lot of room immediately in front of my base, and so had to go to flatter ground, behind the opposite mountain. During my first few nights there, for various reasons I died around four times, in total. As the mob science thread says, I noticed that on open/even ground, mobs spawn in much larger numbers, and most of those times when I died, I had 3-4 mobs attacking me at once.
I'd had the idea of the cactus farm in the first place, from watching a video by CanadienBakon, a particularly skilled MC engineer on YouTube.
I didn't have time to try and implement the entire thing before nightfall, when I'd get attacked again, however, so I improvised.
I ended up creating what I've called cactus palisades, across a narrow pass in front of the new area which I needed to keep mobs out of. Although the tradeoff is that it doesn't generate cactus blocks as efficiently, it works very well as a means of blocking a narrow entrance from mobs; and a creeper kept away from you, is a creeper who potentially won't detonate before dying, meaning you can then harvest his gunpowder, as well. A better design would probably use cobblestone rather than the soil blocks shown, and would also be two or three blocks thick, behind the cactus.
Point 4.
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I build primarily for defense, rather than visual appeal. I formerly had a character in World of Warcraft who was a patriotic Orc, and you could say that I've been influenced by Orcish aesthetics. :wink.gif:
That means that if wood is flammable, and is easier for a creeper to blow holes in, I am not going to use it for construction, regardless of how much more visually attractive it is, in comparison with cobblestone. I consider wood a poor choice for a building material in general terms; aesthetic appeal is the only thing it has going for it, and in addition to flammability, its' other major drawback is its' level of labour intensity, and the time required.
This is a partially reinforced, 3x3 cobblestone bunker which I ended up building, in the center of the designated space for the cactus farm. All four walls and the ceiling and floor are single block, but the front and back walls are two blocks thick, and I would consider three blocks truly optimal, as that takes into account the maximum blast radius of a creeper, which I believe is a 3x3 section of cobblestone.
The wedged front reinforcement is not merely for visual effect, either; I had a creeper explode on the left corner of the bunker, and it blew out the furthest left top and middle blocks, in addition to the front reinforcement and the one adjacent block of soil. Aside from that, the structure was entirely unharmed, and repair time was therefore minimal.
The purpose of this bunker is that, when night falls, I can enter it, seal the entrance, and listen to the hostile mobs killing themselves on the cactus lining the walls. At dawn I can then emerge entirely unharmed, to harvest the items that they have dropped near the cactus during the night. In the event of a creeper being close to the entrance, as has happened before, I can simply retreat back down into bunker, allow the creeper to detonate against it, exit, and replace the blocks it will have destroyed very easily. Even if I am partly caught in the blast, the reinforcement of the cobblestone may mean that I incur less damage, than I would from taking the full brunt of it.
When I acquire more resources, I am also going to experiment with cobblestone structures, built around/reinforced with obsidian brackets. You can already see a one block thick obsidian reinforcement, of the front entrance of my main base, pictured above.
In closing, I understand that there are a lot of people here who want to build primarily in architectural terms, without having to worry about how creeper proof their architecture is. I've spent a fair amount of time in Peaceful mode myself, so I genuinely do understand what the appeal is.
At the same time, however, I became bored, and realised I wanted a challenge, or something more interesting to do. For those who have criticised Minecraft's combat system as being too weak, I would respond that the direct combat system is not the point. This game is, as has been said, primarily about construction and engineering. Combat therefore is not primarily about melee or shooting, but about the use of creativity in these two areas, to devise an effective base defense.
I must say.... VERY nice tips. I too got bored of peaceful and and have just entirely gotten rid of my world where I ONLY played on peaceful. I wanted more of a challenge. What I like to do is make a temporary base with a mine nearby to gain my resources for quite a bit. After that is when I try to focus on fancy things, like a minecart system.
Might I ask, how well does that bunker work for you in the sense of gather resources? Do you gain quite a bit every night? Or is it just one or two things here and there?
Great tips. I've also been playing on a peaceful and got bored of it and Im thinking of making a new world. But when I do, I want my base to be as appealing but at the same time with a good defense. But other than that, very, VERY nice tips. Good post.
Might I ask, how well does that bunker work for you in the sense of gather resources? Do you gain quite a bit every night? Or is it just one or two things here and there?
I've had two string, and probably three seperate arrow drops, on one night before. It really depends on whether or not the mobs are actually aware that I'm in there. Sometimes if I really want to farm more, it can be better (although risky) to go to the surface, let them see me, and then dive back down in again, once they have.
As Notch tries to make the game more popular in conventional terms, though, it is inevitable that it will become more combat oriented. While that is going to upset a lot of people who only want to build, (which actually includes me, some of the time) it makes it even more imperative for people to learn to build for defense, and not necessarily for pure aesthetics. Fashion and Survivalism are diametrically opposed. :wink.gif:
Great tips. I've also been playing on a peaceful and got bored of it and Im thinking of making a new world. But when I do, I want my base to be as appealing but at the same time with a good defense. But other than that, very, VERY nice tips. Good post.
Wow, incredible. I will use your tips to increase my base defense! (:
My house is built, too, in a cliff. It's pretty small though. It gets kind of tough when I see creepers following me, plus their penis ejaculating killing my house ):
Pretty good tips, quite a few a bit obvious, but none the less effective. I have recently started building homes on stilts, above endless (Or atleast nearly) pits, and a series of jumps that normal mobs couldnt preform. Easy enough, you have a clear exit at morning, and no enemies can reach you at night.
I take the "classical fortification" approach to defending my stuff; why mess with techniques that have been proven effective over hundreds of years of actual warfare?
The most obvious defense is a nice, thick cobblestone wall. Five blocks high will ensure that nothing can jump high enough to hit you; three blocks thick is sufficient to withstand a Creeper's explosion without a breach most of the time. Crenellations or arrow ports will shield you from skeletons as you return fire.
Ditches are a quick and simple method of stopping mobs in their tracks. For best effect, locate them several blocks in front of a wall rather than directly at the base of one; this provides a buffer of dirt between any exploding Creepers and the wall itself, as well as giving you a better firing angle into the ditch from the top of the wall. Torches along the front of the wall will prevent mobs from spawning on the thin strip of land between the wall and ditch.
Cactus palisades and "spike pits" (3x3 hole with a cactus in the center) work, but are just as effective at barring your egress as they are at barring mobs' ingress. I don't use 'em.
A "swamp" using a layer of water (or of mud post-Halloween) is effective at slowing down mobs, allowing you an easier time of shooting them. Or, of course, you can just lay down a foundation of flaming brimstone, though again, this has the same drawback as the above.
Tertiary: make terrain work for you. Locate or create bottlenecks; build on cliff faces, mesas or raised peninsulas. My first home, on my first map, did not even require the front door to be blocked, because said door was located midway up a vertical cliff face after I had picked my way up a very steep and narrow path (involving diagonal jumping) to get there. A torch on each side of the doorway prevented mobs from spawning nearby, and any that spawned on the ground below simply couldn't claw their way up. That entrance gave a nice view from the balcony, as well...
As far as aesthetics go, I'm a fan of the medieval/martial look, so it works. Your mileage may vary, but I'll just say that it's always possible to make a wall look nice; just gotta choose your materials. (Obviously with some limitations; there's not much point to a defensive wall made of sand...)
Gord and I have apparently been using the same systems for home defense. I full heartily agree with his walled off housing with a trench infront of it. The trench traps the mobs easily and can be outfitted with any homemade trap concoction of your choice. Personally, i dont trap my ditch though. I do, however, build a tunnel (with lots of doors and chokepoints for saftey) from the ditch into my compound, so that I can harvest any spoils of war after a long seige.
Another thing to take into consideration with the walls is having a courtyard. Courtyards are useful for many applications like wheat or tree farms, but they have a unsung use aswell. Animals will spawn throughout the night in your courtyard if it's well lit. On a good night I was able to harvest 16 leather, 12 pork, and 9 feathers in complete saftey.
Only tip I can say that I havnt already seen here that I learned from personal experience... if you are going to use lava to defend your base... HAVE A POOL OF WATER CLOSE BY! Nothing like losing your life as well as your whole inventory from a missed step and no nearby water source to point out a flaw in your defenses.
Here is a link to the item resistance table for TNT. I have no way of knowing for sure, but based on observation, I'm going to assume that this applies to Creepers as well.
From this table, we can see that at 30, both Stone and Cobblestone offer twice the explosion resistance of Logs or Wood planks, which have a resistance of 15. Sand and Dirt's resistances are both the same, at 2.5, and Gravel's is 3. From this, we can deduce some useful information.
a} When building your first structure, in defensive terms, the preference of materials is likely to be first Cobblestone, then Wood, and Dirt only as a last resort, or if you're able to put up some other walls in front of it. I've been doing some more thinking on what could still work as a means of using Wood as a building material, while getting more of the defensive strength of Cobblestone as well, which I will get to in a minute.
b} If you have a heap of Dirt, Sand, or Gravel that you want to get rid of, and you're willing to spend the time stacking it, you can build 4-5 block thick temporary walls out of it. Anything less than 4 blocks will probably be breached by a single Creeper, and such walls won't stand more than one hit, either...but this could still be useful if you're low on Stone for whatever reason, and need to save that for something else.
According to the Wiki, and my own observation, the blast radius of a Creeper also looks something like this:-
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So that would then mean, that as an alternative suggestion for people who still want Wood walls, you could have a pure one block Wood wall, and then simply put a reinforcement of stone or obsidian, in the pattern of the Creeper's blast radius, on either the front or back side; whichever one you weren't going to spend the majority of your time looking at.
Alternatively, you could make a three block thick tunnel, with one block thick wood walls, and then simply fill in the space with the below pattern, so you still had pure wood on both sides.
This would thus make walls that still produced the Wood look that people want, while being more resistant to explosions than either Wood or Cobblestone alone. I only just came up with this, but I think I am going to have to implement some of these in my map, as well. These could also make for great defensive structures in Hell, while still being very efficient in their use of obsidian.
It seems we are opposites when it comes to gameplay style. I focus on aesthetics and then try to build defences later, you focus on defence and then make aesthetic improvements later. Both styles have their merits.
Absolutely, they do. Usually at least a good part of an initial structure is going to consist of soil, which looks nicer than cobblestone anyway; and it then takes me longer to replace all of it with cobblestone, because I either have to mine that out, or get it from somewhere else, and then replace the soil walls with it.
I find that building a surface structure, and then trying to defend it is a lot of fun, and working-in natural defenses whilst keeping to a certain standard of aesthetics is a great challenge.
One design that I've commonly seen is wood with a one block wide log trim. I would probably go for wood with a cobblestone trim myself, (or better yet, obsidian) as log is actually weaker than wood, but they would still achieve the same aesthetic purpose, while allowing people to have primarily wood walls, which were reinforced.
Another element that I've seen, which people primarily do for aesthetics, but which could work in defensive terms as well, is a diagonally stepped/peaked roof on buildings. The reason why this helps is because mobs are less likely to spawn on ground with uneven elevations.
Although I'm fully expecting a creeper to blow a hole in the side of my 1-block-thick castle walls any day now, it hasn't happened yet, thankfully.
Make a path up to them with glass blocks in the centre, trimmed off at the edges with half-step blocks, and that will make it much less likely. Mobs don't spawn on either of those. :wink.gif:
Bump. Apparently people are still asking for this type of information. If the moderators are willing, a link to this thread in the compendium sticky would also be appreciated.
got a few tips/words for you.... FENCES you can never have enough of them. also mobs cannot jump over them, although im not sure of spider riders...... SECOND reinforce like this |
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if you dont like fences or you paranoid
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Why do people point to their wrists when asking for the time, but don't point to their crotch when they ask where the bathroom is?
Interesting. I honestly don't spend much time on defense, because I tend to build in such a way that I get it very quickly and easily. I prefer for my base to be secure before the sun sets on the 1st day of construction and then not have to worry about it any more.
My first base was built on a small island atoll near my spawn. A couple quick modifications and it was impossible for any mob to jump up on it except at a couple stair locations. Chop down a tree, make a door, stick it at the bottom of the stair, and bam, perfectly secure base where I have a clear view of any nasties waiting for me outside.
My second base I built into the side of a mountain. A 2-high wall above my door to prevent nasties from falling on me, a door in the side of the mountain, two lines of fences on either side of the door, and it's perfectly secure and I can tell if any nasties are waiting for me just by looking out the window on the door. I added a little zig-zag path over water past the fences, and now mobs can't even get to the door.
I personally prefer the nuclear bunker style bae - everything I ever need underground, all the time. However, these tips will make surviving the first few nights when I'm still building the underground farms more surviveable.
A decent trap I've found, when building on very large mountains and such, pertains to your observation that the AI sucks at water maneuvering. I've found that if a mob is caught in a waterfall, they will float to the top automatically, but they will be oblivious of any dangers around them while doing so. This means that if they happen to be floating in a pillar of water on the edge of a cliff, they will likely move out of the water and fall to their deaths. I use this on peninsula-style mountains (one approach up a hill, other approaches are drops). The water can be caught in a 1x1x1 hole at the bottom of the cliff to prevent sipllage and life saving pool formation. Also, using 8x2 canals can be useful to dump mobs into kill pits or, to prevent spawning, holding pens.
Dig inside a mountain in a 2x1 4 blocks in. Then dig out a 6x6 area and place torches. Put in 2 doors one on the outside and one on the inside. This is so that if creepers hide and explode, yyoou will still have good protection from the 1 door. Between the two doors I put a torch up with sand so it falls when I hit the torch. This is for panic room. I also dig straight down for farming and hiding my precious things
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I am not a pirate, I don't like disclosing paid info, yet.
Supercalafragilisticpneumonoultramicroscopicvolcanoconiosis.
A disease which is caused by silica dust from volcanos which is very Mary Poppins-ish.
To be honest, I didn't read the whole thing. I'm still gonna try some of this stuff, and finish reading the rest.
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"People don't change, they're changed by the actions of others."
"In the end we're all just chalk lines on the concrete, drawn only to be washed away."
"Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean people aren't out to get me."
I thus wanted to contribute some ideas that I've had, and used, to prevent monsters from giving me too much trouble. I've noticed a number of people complaining about the hostile mobs here recently, and so I hope these suggestions help; as they have for me.
Although I'm currently on Peaceful, (and will be until I have established suitable defenses within Hell) as I simply found avoiding/surviving the Ghasts to be virtually impossible, the suggestions here have been tested at Normal difficulty in the overworld, and for me have worked well. I have found that Creepers do not need to cause as severe a problem as some people have experienced, if certain precautions are taken.
Point 1.
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The first tendency I've had, which I've found very useful for base defense in Minecraft, is my overall approach to architecture. Generally speaking, except when it comes to planting, I don't build at all; I dig. I developed this tendency from my first day in the game, when it's more important to get a shelter up quickly, then whether or not it looks good. The only time I will build substantially above ground, is if I overwhelmingly have the higher ground, at the top of a hill or mountain. Even then, however, I generally won't.
I'm aware that the proverbial skybridge/mansion at 50 blocks above sea level which you can show off on YouTube, is something that all of us want, (and I will probably build one myself, eventually) but for every one of those that I've seen, there's also been at least one accompanying, anguished story of how multiple creepers got up onto the beautiful glass ceiling, and effortlessly and momentarily destroyed literal hours of work.
I feel that building primarily underground has the following advantages.
a} It's much faster. If you want to build an entirely above ground, 3x3 structure, you need 45 blocks, and that assumes you're building it out of soil, which usually the most readily available material. If you're building with wood because it looks nice, that will involve cutting down 1-2 trees, then processing those into planks, and then starting to build.
By contrast, I can walk up to a cliff, and with a pickaxe, have a 3x3 hole cut out of it in <2 minutes, and use the blocks I've gained from doing so, to barricade the entrance. The less time before dark that you spend building, the more time you have to locate coal, and during your first day in general, or potentially your first day in any undeveloped area, that matters.
b} It's much less resource intensive.
c} It's more easily defensible. I usually only focus on fairly narrow corridors, and as a result, I have a lot more cover, and places that I can use for things like choke points. If you're running through a 2-3 wide block corridor, and you've got a group of mobs after you, in the best case scenario you can simply block it behind you before they reach you. Giant 12x12 caverns might look impressive, but they are not very practical, and unless they are naturally occurring, are genuine hell to create.
The central message here is that the less space you're in, the lass chance there is for something unpleasant to spawn behind you. This is even more important now that the spawning rate is possibly higher.
d} My mine (at bedrock level) and my storage area, are seperated by a flight of below ground stairs. I don't need to exit an above ground palace first, and walk somewhere else; it's right there. That means less transport time, and less construction time as well; both of which can be used for locating more resources.
Point 2.
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Usually any base I develop, will not only be built into a mountainside, but will often have a river or stream in front of it, and will preferably also have another mountain in front of that. Both of my mines/major storage bases have this configuration, and mob invasions of my base itself, literally never happen.
Mobs approaching my base also are forced to go through water, which the AI does not handle well; this gives me more than enough time to shoot those that do approach before they get anywhere near me. If they come down the opposite hill, that is also fine; I've got that covered in trees which they can spend time maneuvering through, and they will have to avoid a large number of permanent fires as well, which they generally don't. Those trees are sufficiently dense that I can torch them all at a moment's notice for a massive firestorm if need be. I also don't get anything dropping down in front of me either, because I have cacti growing on top of the mountain I'm built into, which catches those.
As it says in the mob science thread, mobs spawn more on flat, open ground at lower elevations. The less even the ground is, the more difficult life for the AI becomes.
Point 3
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Recently I had the idea to develop a cactus farm, and it was the experiences which followed that, which mainly prompted me writing this post. Being in a narrow pass, I didn't have a lot of room immediately in front of my base, and so had to go to flatter ground, behind the opposite mountain. During my first few nights there, for various reasons I died around four times, in total. As the mob science thread says, I noticed that on open/even ground, mobs spawn in much larger numbers, and most of those times when I died, I had 3-4 mobs attacking me at once.
I'd had the idea of the cactus farm in the first place, from watching a video by CanadienBakon, a particularly skilled MC engineer on YouTube.
I didn't have time to try and implement the entire thing before nightfall, when I'd get attacked again, however, so I improvised.
I ended up creating what I've called cactus palisades, across a narrow pass in front of the new area which I needed to keep mobs out of. Although the tradeoff is that it doesn't generate cactus blocks as efficiently, it works very well as a means of blocking a narrow entrance from mobs; and a creeper kept away from you, is a creeper who potentially won't detonate before dying, meaning you can then harvest his gunpowder, as well. A better design would probably use cobblestone rather than the soil blocks shown, and would also be two or three blocks thick, behind the cactus.
Point 4.
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I build primarily for defense, rather than visual appeal. I formerly had a character in World of Warcraft who was a patriotic Orc, and you could say that I've been influenced by Orcish aesthetics. :wink.gif:
That means that if wood is flammable, and is easier for a creeper to blow holes in, I am not going to use it for construction, regardless of how much more visually attractive it is, in comparison with cobblestone. I consider wood a poor choice for a building material in general terms; aesthetic appeal is the only thing it has going for it, and in addition to flammability, its' other major drawback is its' level of labour intensity, and the time required.
This is a partially reinforced, 3x3 cobblestone bunker which I ended up building, in the center of the designated space for the cactus farm. All four walls and the ceiling and floor are single block, but the front and back walls are two blocks thick, and I would consider three blocks truly optimal, as that takes into account the maximum blast radius of a creeper, which I believe is a 3x3 section of cobblestone.
The wedged front reinforcement is not merely for visual effect, either; I had a creeper explode on the left corner of the bunker, and it blew out the furthest left top and middle blocks, in addition to the front reinforcement and the one adjacent block of soil. Aside from that, the structure was entirely unharmed, and repair time was therefore minimal.
The purpose of this bunker is that, when night falls, I can enter it, seal the entrance, and listen to the hostile mobs killing themselves on the cactus lining the walls. At dawn I can then emerge entirely unharmed, to harvest the items that they have dropped near the cactus during the night. In the event of a creeper being close to the entrance, as has happened before, I can simply retreat back down into bunker, allow the creeper to detonate against it, exit, and replace the blocks it will have destroyed very easily. Even if I am partly caught in the blast, the reinforcement of the cobblestone may mean that I incur less damage, than I would from taking the full brunt of it.
When I acquire more resources, I am also going to experiment with cobblestone structures, built around/reinforced with obsidian brackets. You can already see a one block thick obsidian reinforcement, of the front entrance of my main base, pictured above.
In closing, I understand that there are a lot of people here who want to build primarily in architectural terms, without having to worry about how creeper proof their architecture is. I've spent a fair amount of time in Peaceful mode myself, so I genuinely do understand what the appeal is.
At the same time, however, I became bored, and realised I wanted a challenge, or something more interesting to do. For those who have criticised Minecraft's combat system as being too weak, I would respond that the direct combat system is not the point. This game is, as has been said, primarily about construction and engineering. Combat therefore is not primarily about melee or shooting, but about the use of creativity in these two areas, to devise an effective base defense.
Might I ask, how well does that bunker work for you in the sense of gather resources? Do you gain quite a bit every night? Or is it just one or two things here and there?
I've had two string, and probably three seperate arrow drops, on one night before. It really depends on whether or not the mobs are actually aware that I'm in there. Sometimes if I really want to farm more, it can be better (although risky) to go to the surface, let them see me, and then dive back down in again, once they have.
As Notch tries to make the game more popular in conventional terms, though, it is inevitable that it will become more combat oriented. While that is going to upset a lot of people who only want to build, (which actually includes me, some of the time) it makes it even more imperative for people to learn to build for defense, and not necessarily for pure aesthetics. Fashion and Survivalism are diametrically opposed. :wink.gif:
Thank you. :biggrin.gif:
My house is built, too, in a cliff. It's pretty small though. It gets kind of tough when I see creepers following me, plus their penis ejaculating killing my house ):
The most obvious defense is a nice, thick cobblestone wall. Five blocks high will ensure that nothing can jump high enough to hit you; three blocks thick is sufficient to withstand a Creeper's explosion without a breach most of the time. Crenellations or arrow ports will shield you from skeletons as you return fire.
Ditches are a quick and simple method of stopping mobs in their tracks. For best effect, locate them several blocks in front of a wall rather than directly at the base of one; this provides a buffer of dirt between any exploding Creepers and the wall itself, as well as giving you a better firing angle into the ditch from the top of the wall. Torches along the front of the wall will prevent mobs from spawning on the thin strip of land between the wall and ditch.
Cactus palisades and "spike pits" (3x3 hole with a cactus in the center) work, but are just as effective at barring your egress as they are at barring mobs' ingress. I don't use 'em.
A "swamp" using a layer of water (or of mud post-Halloween) is effective at slowing down mobs, allowing you an easier time of shooting them. Or, of course, you can just lay down a foundation of flaming brimstone, though again, this has the same drawback as the above.
Tertiary: make terrain work for you. Locate or create bottlenecks; build on cliff faces, mesas or raised peninsulas. My first home, on my first map, did not even require the front door to be blocked, because said door was located midway up a vertical cliff face after I had picked my way up a very steep and narrow path (involving diagonal jumping) to get there. A torch on each side of the doorway prevented mobs from spawning nearby, and any that spawned on the ground below simply couldn't claw their way up. That entrance gave a nice view from the balcony, as well...
As far as aesthetics go, I'm a fan of the medieval/martial look, so it works. Your mileage may vary, but I'll just say that it's always possible to make a wall look nice; just gotta choose your materials. (Obviously with some limitations; there's not much point to a defensive wall made of sand...)
Another thing to take into consideration with the walls is having a courtyard. Courtyards are useful for many applications like wheat or tree farms, but they have a unsung use aswell. Animals will spawn throughout the night in your courtyard if it's well lit. On a good night I was able to harvest 16 leather, 12 pork, and 9 feathers in complete saftey.
Only tip I can say that I havnt already seen here that I learned from personal experience... if you are going to use lava to defend your base... HAVE A POOL OF WATER CLOSE BY! Nothing like losing your life as well as your whole inventory from a missed step and no nearby water source to point out a flaw in your defenses.
http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/TNT#E ... Resistance
From this table, we can see that at 30, both Stone and Cobblestone offer twice the explosion resistance of Logs or Wood planks, which have a resistance of 15. Sand and Dirt's resistances are both the same, at 2.5, and Gravel's is 3. From this, we can deduce some useful information.
a} When building your first structure, in defensive terms, the preference of materials is likely to be first Cobblestone, then Wood, and Dirt only as a last resort, or if you're able to put up some other walls in front of it. I've been doing some more thinking on what could still work as a means of using Wood as a building material, while getting more of the defensive strength of Cobblestone as well, which I will get to in a minute.
b} If you have a heap of Dirt, Sand, or Gravel that you want to get rid of, and you're willing to spend the time stacking it, you can build 4-5 block thick temporary walls out of it. Anything less than 4 blocks will probably be breached by a single Creeper, and such walls won't stand more than one hit, either...but this could still be useful if you're low on Stone for whatever reason, and need to save that for something else.
According to the Wiki, and my own observation, the blast radius of a Creeper also looks something like this:-
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So that would then mean, that as an alternative suggestion for people who still want Wood walls, you could have a pure one block Wood wall, and then simply put a reinforcement of stone or obsidian, in the pattern of the Creeper's blast radius, on either the front or back side; whichever one you weren't going to spend the majority of your time looking at.
Alternatively, you could make a three block thick tunnel, with one block thick wood walls, and then simply fill in the space with the below pattern, so you still had pure wood on both sides.
This would thus make walls that still produced the Wood look that people want, while being more resistant to explosions than either Wood or Cobblestone alone. I only just came up with this, but I think I am going to have to implement some of these in my map, as well. These could also make for great defensive structures in Hell, while still being very efficient in their use of obsidian.
Absolutely, they do. Usually at least a good part of an initial structure is going to consist of soil, which looks nicer than cobblestone anyway; and it then takes me longer to replace all of it with cobblestone, because I either have to mine that out, or get it from somewhere else, and then replace the soil walls with it.
One design that I've commonly seen is wood with a one block wide log trim. I would probably go for wood with a cobblestone trim myself, (or better yet, obsidian) as log is actually weaker than wood, but they would still achieve the same aesthetic purpose, while allowing people to have primarily wood walls, which were reinforced.
Another element that I've seen, which people primarily do for aesthetics, but which could work in defensive terms as well, is a diagonally stepped/peaked roof on buildings. The reason why this helps is because mobs are less likely to spawn on ground with uneven elevations.
Make a path up to them with glass blocks in the centre, trimmed off at the edges with half-step blocks, and that will make it much less likely. Mobs don't spawn on either of those. :wink.gif:
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My first base was built on a small island atoll near my spawn. A couple quick modifications and it was impossible for any mob to jump up on it except at a couple stair locations. Chop down a tree, make a door, stick it at the bottom of the stair, and bam, perfectly secure base where I have a clear view of any nasties waiting for me outside.
My second base I built into the side of a mountain. A 2-high wall above my door to prevent nasties from falling on me, a door in the side of the mountain, two lines of fences on either side of the door, and it's perfectly secure and I can tell if any nasties are waiting for me just by looking out the window on the door. I added a little zig-zag path over water past the fences, and now mobs can't even get to the door.
A decent trap I've found, when building on very large mountains and such, pertains to your observation that the AI sucks at water maneuvering. I've found that if a mob is caught in a waterfall, they will float to the top automatically, but they will be oblivious of any dangers around them while doing so. This means that if they happen to be floating in a pillar of water on the edge of a cliff, they will likely move out of the water and fall to their deaths. I use this on peninsula-style mountains (one approach up a hill, other approaches are drops). The water can be caught in a 1x1x1 hole at the bottom of the cliff to prevent sipllage and life saving pool formation. Also, using 8x2 canals can be useful to dump mobs into kill pits or, to prevent spawning, holding pens.
Dig inside a mountain in a 2x1 4 blocks in. Then dig out a 6x6 area and place torches. Put in 2 doors one on the outside and one on the inside. This is so that if creepers hide and explode, yyoou will still have good protection from the 1 door. Between the two doors I put a torch up with sand so it falls when I hit the torch. This is for panic room. I also dig straight down for farming and hiding my precious things
Supercalafragilisticpneumonoultramicroscopicvolcanoconiosis.
A disease which is caused by silica dust from volcanos which is very Mary Poppins-ish.
"In the end we're all just chalk lines on the concrete, drawn only to be washed away."
"Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean people aren't out to get me."
Thank you. :biggrin.gif: