I think what makes it stick out more is the fact that you have a straight path charted along the Western-central portion of it, as opposed to it being "evenly" uncharted in the center.
Then it's also much closer to the center of the landmass (at least as the map presents it) than the ones near the edges.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"'Tis foolishness! If all were so easy, why, none would suffer in this world!"
I start in the morning to map the roughly rectangular area on the bottom edge of the map. When I start out I also notice the smaller area on land above it - I hadn't noticed originally on the big map, although now that I'm looking for it I can see it.
I'm coming from the Pantheon, where the green map marker is.
I wasn't considering the unmapped areas out in the Bearclaw Sea as required for my completed map goal, but now that I'm out here I'm going to do them. You can see the smaller one here; the larger is on the next map east.
On the way I pass between the twin Byzantine (Millenaire) and vanilla villages I mentioned last episode. The field in between would be good for soccer. And each village is on a bit of a rise for spectating!
This first area to map is a mix of Plains and low (sub-biome) hills. The area is a bit wide for one pass so I have to backtrack a bit to finish it.
After that I head out to sea. I clip through the lower part of the unmapped water region on this map, then head on to the next map east to map the larger area.
Of course there's a Underwater Temple here. Complications.
I pass south of it, and then turn north, wrapping around it. Eventually I have to get close enough that I can faintly hear the zap, but nothing targets me (or, at least, nothing hits).
Then back to the next map west, taking out the rest of the unmapped water region on that map on the way.
This little unmapped region is also something I planned to get on travels back and forth. I almost finished it because this region is between the Pantheon and the chateau, and that's a trip I made a lot. I probably missed this mostly because it's mountainous.
No monster mountains, but it's pretty rugged.
The last bit is an open mixed Oak and Spruce Forest.
Now I need to get back to the Pantheon. It's getting late and I could just sleep in the field, but for style points I decide to try to get back before dark.
A bit of ice boating speeds me along.
But, as dark falls, I'm still not quite home. I start sprinting, but as you can see I'm "hungry" and soon lose my ability to sprint. Am I going to get killed here, at the very end, in a hunt for style points?
I make it to the fence line but I don't see where the gate is.
So I pillar over and jump down. I go deeper into the secured lawn (for Skeleton fire) and finally eat dinner to fix the starvation.
And now It Is Done - for real. A 12-year ambition - to completely map a large continent - completed. And it was fun, all the way to the end.
With that, I think I'm done with this world. I had a goal; I did it; and now I'd like to do some things I can't do here. My next world will be in modern Minecraft, to experience Better Forests on the ground. I am going to take something of a break first, though, because writing over 200 episodes for 2 big journals has been A Task. I need to work out a modlist too, because mods have changed a lot from 1.12 - many of my go-to mods were never updated past 1.12. It'll be fun to just play around with the new mods for a while.
And now it's time for a Journal Epilogue. I finally get to do one.
I did this journal mostly as a demonstration of my recent changes to RTG and Geographicraft. This is different from my usual combination of mod investigation, demonstration, and just plain playing for fun. The shift ended up having both good and bad effects. I'm glad I did it once, but I don't think I'll do it again.
As a demonstration, I think it worked spectacularly. I wanted to show how much more interesting a world was with noise being used to vary biomes, and with the Geographicraft features of mountain chains and increased sub-biome variety. I used an acid test approach, doing a massive continent with nothing but those mods for biome variety. And it worked. Even in this huge continent, vastly larger than most people would ever explore, I was still marveling over the scenery and wondering what was around the corner, all the way to the very end.
Conclusion: biome variety works. Biomes shouldn't be always the same plants, always the some composition, always the same size, everywhere. Stated that way - it's really obvious, isn't it? And yet, 15 years into Minecraft, it can still have that "another forest" feel, even though uncoupling terrain from biomes has helped somewhat. Mojang, get on it!
Mountain chains are a big win too, creating a structure to the continent and adding some challenge and regional character. I think they would be even better in a continental world, as they would define regions in what on a large scale becomes mush without oceans defining continents. That said, I think there's a bit more mountains than there should be and if I ever work on Geographicraft again I'll adjust it to have somewhat smaller mountain chains.
That said, setting such an insanely ambitious goal made the play and the journalling less interesting than they normally are. Such a huge goal, doing an entire continent, basically required I spend as much time as possible on exploration, with little for anything else. The game, and the journal, would have been more interesting if I'd built some of the many builds which those great landscapes and situations I found called for - the deepwater port on the north end of the continent, something overlooking the great ocean pass I found in my first exploration, a base on the jungle hills overlooking the seaside village, a base in the magnificant Savanna M formations in the southeast, a lakeside resort (too many places to mention), etc. And it would have been fun to work with the Millenaires. But, there just wasn't time.
To be fair, part of the reason there wasn't time was that I didn't realize how well the improvements to biome variety would work. I figured I'd get tired with what was there before I finished the continent - like I have in journals before, even with large biome mods going. But that never happened, and I just kept going. It really makes the point about biome noise variety - 20 (major) biomes with noise variety held my attention better than 80 without.
That said, it's nice to have achieved my longstanding goal of completely mapping out a large continent. And without this goal driving me on, I wouldn't have finished. From a play view, the game would have been much more interesting played out over 3 years or so, with a lot more builds, more learning about mods, and roleplay with the Millenaires. But - I wouldn't have finished it, because the usual drive to start a new game to show off a new or redone mod of mine would have kicked in, specifically Better Forests, my port of the trees to modern Minecraft. So - a price, but a price I had to pay. So I'm glad I did this - once.
To all of you readers, thanks for following! Special thanks to Princess Garnet and Master Caver for all your great ideas. May you all find ways to enjoy Minecraft as much as I have.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Better Forests Varied and beautiful trees and forests, in modern Minecraft.
After twelve years, I'm sure you're satisfied! I hope you enjoyed it, and I tried to just give my opinion and nothing more, haha.
It was fun to see this, especially since my computer didn't like that instance of modded 1.12 for whatever reason, so I could never truly get into RTG and do what I wanted to do (I had a lot of ideas). And it doesn't seem to like Better Forests either, sadly (good news is, it doesn't end as disastrously for my PC but I still don't know what's up), so I'll be just as interested as seeing that, modded or not.
I was wondering why you weren't building things at times to break up the monotony and pacing a bit, but if you have a list of other things you want to do, and you need to finish something before doing them (and this is almost always the case in this game), it does lend to that "I'm glad I'm doing it but I won't mind when it's over" feeling, so I understand not prolonging it any more.
I was building to break things up though, and I found that definitely helped me. I definitely like building a lot though, and since I won't want to invest too heavily in building in a "scratch pad" world that could be lost, it helps prevent me from overdoing it. The builds serve to change up the gameplay but also for outposts to launch explorations from. My world sort of having an "indefinite" end and not a finish line ironically helps against exhaustion, because it means there is no finish line that I get anxious to reach. I was sort of considering stopping once I filled the map room, but that would have been far enough that I'd probably feel happy hanging the world up by that point, and expanding it was always on the table if not.
It's definitely a lot of work making updates for exploration (you don't need told this since you were the one who told me!), and that's part of the reason I haven't continued playing my hardcore exploration world yet. Initially I took a break to play some other things, and while the main game I was taking a break to play is finished, there are others I'm playing, and I am going to be adding more to that as I'm waiting on upcoming games to release over the next two months (and perhaps more are beyond that), so I doubt I'll start back up anytime real soon. I do intend to continue again one day though.
Despite not wanting to commit to that world and its updates just yet though, I've been having a growing interest to play the game again (and not just in my long-term survival worlds). I might have a compromise idea in the meantime. Maybe. It'd have a bit of an interesting twist purpose-wise for my goals (versus "just survive"), and it should have a reasonable end time frame, at least compared to my indefinitely ongoing open ended one. I'd be going back to an older version and not doing it in current versions. All in all, it'd be shorter and a fresh departure from the norm, so maybe I'll decide to have at it. If I do, it'd be interesting timing with you starting a new world, because if I'm not mistaken, you started this one around the time I started mine, and now you finally finished.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
"'Tis foolishness! If all were so easy, why, none would suffer in this world!"
Well, congratulations on finally completing that giant map! I haven't commented on this journal, but I've followed it from the very beginning and each and every episode has been a pleasure to read. It's also amazing to see all those mapping expeditions gradually be put together into one final masterpiece, especially on Hardcore mode.
There's a lot I liked seeing in RTG, especially the giant trees and more "authentic" mountains, and it'd be interesting to see their implementation in the vanilla version of the game. So many more unique places to explore.
I think what makes it stick out more is the fact that you have a straight path charted along the Western-central portion of it, as opposed to it being "evenly" uncharted in the center.
Then it's also much closer to the center of the landmass (at least as the map presents it) than the ones near the edges.
"'Tis foolishness! If all were so easy, why, none would suffer in this world!"
If you're having performance concerns with Minecraft, I hope this may prove useful.
A retrospective of the most important game to me (or, a try to stay awake while I never stop talking about something challenge).
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Curse PremiumThat is a Millenaire Seljuk village. I think the large building outside the wall is a mosque.
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Better Forests Varied and beautiful trees and forests, in modern Minecraft.
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View Posts
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Curse PremiumEpisode 122: The End (no, still not that one)
I start in the morning to map the roughly rectangular area on the bottom edge of the map. When I start out I also notice the smaller area on land above it - I hadn't noticed originally on the big map, although now that I'm looking for it I can see it.
I'm coming from the Pantheon, where the green map marker is.
I wasn't considering the unmapped areas out in the Bearclaw Sea as required for my completed map goal, but now that I'm out here I'm going to do them. You can see the smaller one here; the larger is on the next map east.
On the way I pass between the twin Byzantine (Millenaire) and vanilla villages I mentioned last episode. The field in between would be good for soccer. And each village is on a bit of a rise for spectating!
This first area to map is a mix of Plains and low (sub-biome) hills. The area is a bit wide for one pass so I have to backtrack a bit to finish it.
After that I head out to sea. I clip through the lower part of the unmapped water region on this map, then head on to the next map east to map the larger area.
Of course there's a Underwater Temple here. Complications.
I pass south of it, and then turn north, wrapping around it. Eventually I have to get close enough that I can faintly hear the zap, but nothing targets me (or, at least, nothing hits).
Then back to the next map west, taking out the rest of the unmapped water region on that map on the way.
This little unmapped region is also something I planned to get on travels back and forth. I almost finished it because this region is between the Pantheon and the chateau, and that's a trip I made a lot. I probably missed this mostly because it's mountainous.
No monster mountains, but it's pretty rugged.
The last bit is an open mixed Oak and Spruce Forest.
Now I need to get back to the Pantheon. It's getting late and I could just sleep in the field, but for style points I decide to try to get back before dark.
A bit of ice boating speeds me along.
But, as dark falls, I'm still not quite home. I start sprinting, but as you can see I'm "hungry" and soon lose my ability to sprint. Am I going to get killed here, at the very end, in a hunt for style points?
I make it to the fence line but I don't see where the gate is.
So I pillar over and jump down. I go deeper into the secured lawn (for Skeleton fire) and finally eat dinner to fix the starvation.
And now It Is Done - for real. A 12-year ambition - to completely map a large continent - completed. And it was fun, all the way to the end.
With that, I think I'm done with this world. I had a goal; I did it; and now I'd like to do some things I can't do here. My next world will be in modern Minecraft, to experience Better Forests on the ground. I am going to take something of a break first, though, because writing over 200 episodes for 2 big journals has been A Task. I need to work out a modlist too, because mods have changed a lot from 1.12 - many of my go-to mods were never updated past 1.12. It'll be fun to just play around with the new mods for a while.
And now it's time for a Journal Epilogue. I finally get to do one.
I did this journal mostly as a demonstration of my recent changes to RTG and Geographicraft. This is different from my usual combination of mod investigation, demonstration, and just plain playing for fun. The shift ended up having both good and bad effects. I'm glad I did it once, but I don't think I'll do it again.
As a demonstration, I think it worked spectacularly. I wanted to show how much more interesting a world was with noise being used to vary biomes, and with the Geographicraft features of mountain chains and increased sub-biome variety. I used an acid test approach, doing a massive continent with nothing but those mods for biome variety. And it worked. Even in this huge continent, vastly larger than most people would ever explore, I was still marveling over the scenery and wondering what was around the corner, all the way to the very end.
Conclusion: biome variety works. Biomes shouldn't be always the same plants, always the some composition, always the same size, everywhere. Stated that way - it's really obvious, isn't it? And yet, 15 years into Minecraft, it can still have that "another forest" feel, even though uncoupling terrain from biomes has helped somewhat. Mojang, get on it!
Mountain chains are a big win too, creating a structure to the continent and adding some challenge and regional character. I think they would be even better in a continental world, as they would define regions in what on a large scale becomes mush without oceans defining continents. That said, I think there's a bit more mountains than there should be and if I ever work on Geographicraft again I'll adjust it to have somewhat smaller mountain chains.
That said, setting such an insanely ambitious goal made the play and the journalling less interesting than they normally are. Such a huge goal, doing an entire continent, basically required I spend as much time as possible on exploration, with little for anything else. The game, and the journal, would have been more interesting if I'd built some of the many builds which those great landscapes and situations I found called for - the deepwater port on the north end of the continent, something overlooking the great ocean pass I found in my first exploration, a base on the jungle hills overlooking the seaside village, a base in the magnificant Savanna M formations in the southeast, a lakeside resort (too many places to mention), etc. And it would have been fun to work with the Millenaires. But, there just wasn't time.
To be fair, part of the reason there wasn't time was that I didn't realize how well the improvements to biome variety would work. I figured I'd get tired with what was there before I finished the continent - like I have in journals before, even with large biome mods going. But that never happened, and I just kept going. It really makes the point about biome noise variety - 20 (major) biomes with noise variety held my attention better than 80 without.
That said, it's nice to have achieved my longstanding goal of completely mapping out a large continent. And without this goal driving me on, I wouldn't have finished. From a play view, the game would have been much more interesting played out over 3 years or so, with a lot more builds, more learning about mods, and roleplay with the Millenaires. But - I wouldn't have finished it, because the usual drive to start a new game to show off a new or redone mod of mine would have kicked in, specifically Better Forests, my port of the trees to modern Minecraft. So - a price, but a price I had to pay. So I'm glad I did this - once.
To all of you readers, thanks for following! Special thanks to Princess Garnet and Master Caver for all your great ideas. May you all find ways to enjoy Minecraft as much as I have.
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Better Forests Varied and beautiful trees and forests, in modern Minecraft.
After twelve years, I'm sure you're satisfied! I hope you enjoyed it, and I tried to just give my opinion and nothing more, haha.
It was fun to see this, especially since my computer didn't like that instance of modded 1.12 for whatever reason, so I could never truly get into RTG and do what I wanted to do (I had a lot of ideas). And it doesn't seem to like Better Forests either, sadly (good news is, it doesn't end as disastrously for my PC but I still don't know what's up), so I'll be just as interested as seeing that, modded or not.
I was wondering why you weren't building things at times to break up the monotony and pacing a bit, but if you have a list of other things you want to do, and you need to finish something before doing them (and this is almost always the case in this game), it does lend to that "I'm glad I'm doing it but I won't mind when it's over" feeling, so I understand not prolonging it any more.
I was building to break things up though, and I found that definitely helped me. I definitely like building a lot though, and since I won't want to invest too heavily in building in a "scratch pad" world that could be lost, it helps prevent me from overdoing it. The builds serve to change up the gameplay but also for outposts to launch explorations from. My world sort of having an "indefinite" end and not a finish line ironically helps against exhaustion, because it means there is no finish line that I get anxious to reach. I was sort of considering stopping once I filled the map room, but that would have been far enough that I'd probably feel happy hanging the world up by that point, and expanding it was always on the table if not.
It's definitely a lot of work making updates for exploration (you don't need told this since you were the one who told me!), and that's part of the reason I haven't continued playing my hardcore exploration world yet. Initially I took a break to play some other things, and while the main game I was taking a break to play is finished, there are others I'm playing, and I am going to be adding more to that as I'm waiting on upcoming games to release over the next two months (and perhaps more are beyond that), so I doubt I'll start back up anytime real soon. I do intend to continue again one day though.
Despite not wanting to commit to that world and its updates just yet though, I've been having a growing interest to play the game again (and not just in my long-term survival worlds). I might have a compromise idea in the meantime. Maybe. It'd have a bit of an interesting twist purpose-wise for my goals (versus "just survive"), and it should have a reasonable end time frame, at least compared to my indefinitely ongoing open ended one. I'd be going back to an older version and not doing it in current versions. All in all, it'd be shorter and a fresh departure from the norm, so maybe I'll decide to have at it. If I do, it'd be interesting timing with you starting a new world, because if I'm not mistaken, you started this one around the time I started mine, and now you finally finished.
"'Tis foolishness! If all were so easy, why, none would suffer in this world!"
If you're having performance concerns with Minecraft, I hope this may prove useful.
A retrospective of the most important game to me (or, a try to stay awake while I never stop talking about something challenge).
Well, congratulations on finally completing that giant map! I haven't commented on this journal, but I've followed it from the very beginning and each and every episode has been a pleasure to read. It's also amazing to see all those mapping expeditions gradually be put together into one final masterpiece, especially on Hardcore mode.
There's a lot I liked seeing in RTG, especially the giant trees and more "authentic" mountains, and it'd be interesting to see their implementation in the vanilla version of the game. So many more unique places to explore.
Looking forward to reading your next journal!
damn, they've really changed millenaire's structures hah, i'm still playing on the 1.7 version.
https://www.youtube.com/c/brandynn
Sekai-Chan said:
This video was just as enjoyable as Technoblade’s I’ll sub to you.
*happiness noise*
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSYuZbgeu7Y