Farmers have a spherical range around their profession block and they will only interact with crops inside that circle. I'm not sure of the exact range but it's definitely under a dozen blocks.
I have very large "L shaped" farms in my main village, and I have two composers at each corner. It's a shared farm where they tend to a small area near their composters and leave the majority to grow for me.
Something to be aware of is that the block directly next to the composter shouldn't be used for farm space unless you cover the top of the composter with something to prevent them from jumping on it. Otherwise, when they climb up on it and then drop down, they tend to trample the spot directly next to the composter. I also leave a block or few between the composter and the actual farmland.
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"'Tis foolishness! If all were so easy, why, none would suffer in this world!"
Taking into account my nickname, it seems strange that I haven't built a bee farm yet. I have a primitive wax farm, thanks to which I can use a lot of waxed copper. But I don't use honey. However, I want to build a honey farm — more to study the concept than out of necessity.
There is little space near the house, so the farm will be built in the flower forest. Although I didn't want to build there, it is a suitable place for bees. I was going to cut down a section of the forest, but then I remembered that there is a surface cave there. The farm is 7 meters deep, so the cave is a suitable place.
I do a little terraforming and start building.
Farming honeycomb using a dispenser with shears is very simple. But farming honey requires tedious fiddling with bottles. I am looking for a scheme that fully automates the process. I am settling on the Machadeon scheme according to the instructions by Cubfan135:
The farm has a complex design consisting of several devices. The first thing to be built is the elevator.
I check its operation using dirt blocks, and it does not function. The blocks scatter in all directions. I review the scheme and watch other videos about dropper elevators. The solution turns out to be simple: I confused droppers and dispensers. I correct the error and continue building.
I understand that this is a block autocrafter and bottle filter. But I'm not sure if the scheme works. I don't have any honey for testing, so I make a backup and load it in creative mode. Of course, nothing works. Worse, I don't understand how it's supposed to work. But I understand what devices the design consists of. I can rebuild it using familiar schemes.
Compactor:
Sorter:
Here's what I've got:
Autocrafter:
Sorter:
Bottles elevator:
My design is some larger than Cubfan's. This is not a problem: instead of copying it, I need to adapt his solution, which will allow me to understand it better. Of course, I made a few mistakes and rebuilt the structure in creative mode, then survival mode several times. There doesn't seem to be much construction work, but I spent several evenings in irl on this project. Here is the almost finished structure (later I noticed that I missed one block above the hive):
I understand the principle of operation, but not all the details. The comparator behind the hive measures the honey level. When the hive is full, the bottle dispenser is activated. I don't understand what role the energy rail plays in this (on the slab on the right, not visible from this angle). The bottle of honey is lowered through the filter into the autocrafter. The filter will not let empty bottles through, only bottles with honey. When four honey bottles have accumulated, the crafter activates and produces a block of honey. The block of honey (crafted product) and empty bottles (side product) are ejected from the crafter in different ways. The order in which the blocks are updated leads to a predictable result, although it is difficult for me to understand exactly how. The honey block falls into the lower hopper and is transported to the chest via a dropper elevator. Empty bottles go into the dropper and are returned to the dispenser via another dropper elevator. Thanks to the cyclical reuse of bottles, this farm requires only a few bottles (6 in the dispenser + 1 in the sorter) for an infinite amount of honey. I don't need infinite honey, but I'm glad that this possibility exists.
It's a modular design. Cubfan builds a farm from 9 such modules. I'll make do with one.
When almost everything was ready, a creeper destroyed the upper part of the farm. I quickly restored it, but missed one torch, which caused everything to work incorrectly again: honey was going to the wrong place, and bottles were getting stuck in the dispenser. As always, such a mistake is very easy to fix, but much harder to find.
Later, I discovered another mistake. I was going to assemble the entire farm within the chunk. But because I reassembled and moved blocks many times, several devices were in a different chunk. This can lead to desynchronization and breakdowns due to devices not loading simultaneously.
I decided to move the wax farm to the same area (the screenshot shows the old farm, which is located near the house).
It's much simpler here: an observer, a dispenser with shears, and hoppers. The observer activates the dispenser every time the honey level changes. If the honeycomb is full, the shears will collect the wax. If the level is insufficient, don't worry, the shears will run idle.
Only one flower per honeycomb is needed for the farms to work. But Happy Bee won't make its bees huddle on one block! They will get a spacious greenhouse enclosure with lots of flowers.
There are redstone machinery in the cobblestone box. I could have spent some time decorating it, but I don't feel like it right now. This wall is not very noticeable in the cave.
Project completion: I need to build a trail to the new farm and fill in a few holes left by creepers.
You may find it useful to fully enclose the honey farm (along with some grass and flowers), just like you did with the wax farm. Bees can easily lose their ability to pathfind back to nests, whether naturally or as a result of being stuck in blocks for too long. I'm unsure if your redstone contraption may cause the latter to occur, but what I can assure you is that a lost bee won't be a very Happy Bee.
With the recent addition of new copper blocks, the wax farm will be considerably more useful than before.
Both hives (honey and wax) are located in the same greenhouse. The wax farm is completely visible, while the honey farm is partially hidden in a cobblestone box. Almost all redstone is isolated, except for a few blocks directly adjacent to the hive (this can be seen in the screenshots where the cherry blossoms are located). I don't think the bees will get stuck there, but I will check the farm periodically.
Edit. I slightly modified the exit from the honeycomb. Now no one should get stuck.
This episode will also be devoted to auto farming.
Let's start with a little work on the main farm. I already mentioned that after building the flying machine, bamboo production became excessive. I manually turn the flying machine on and off to avoid overflowing chests. I had an idea. If I connect the switch to a daylight sensor, the farm will not run continuously, but will turn on twice a day. This should reduce production intensity without the need for manual control. At least, I think so
The Flying Machine has two switches: one on the front of the greenhouse and one on the back. Currently, both have levers attached to them. I decided to replace the lever on the back with a daylight sensor and leave the lever on the front for manual control. After several experiments, I built the following switch device:
Despite the simplicity of the device, I managed to mess up the repeater connection. This broke the farm. It is quite difficult to restart the flying machine after an accidental shutdown: you have to disassemble and reassemble part of the structure. I messed something up again, so I just loaded the backup and reassembled the switch.
Now for the main project of this episode. You may have noticed that I use a lot of bricks in my buildings. There are many brick houses where I live. I also really like mud bricks.
In this world, I have access to clay in a lush cave and mud in a mangrove swamp. But recently, I learned that mud can be farmed using water bottles on dirt. By placing mud on a block with stalactite, you can get clay. Messing around with bottles is quite tedious, but there is a simple semi-automatic farm. I want to learn how to do it. This will allow me to get bricks in new games regardless of the biome.
I am looking for tutorials. After watching several videos, I chose these two:
The designs differ slightly, but the authors show and explain them in different ways, which can be very useful.
First, I build such a device.
The torch powers the piston via redstone dust. Currently, the circuit is disconnected. If dirt or any solid block is placed above the torch, it will be powered by the torch and the circuit will connect. The piston will move the block and disconnect the circuit. The piston will return to its original position.
Now let's build this structure. This is the main device of the farm.
The dispenser applies a bottle of water to the dirt. The empty bottle goes to another dispenser, which fills it with water. The bottle of water returns to the first dispenser through the water stream and the upper hopper.
This device seems simple, but it turned out to be unexpectedly expensive. For full automation, the dispenser and hopper must be filled with 13.5 stacks of empty bottles + 6...9 bottles of water. I have enough sand, but I had to interrupt construction for a short time to smelt glass.
I don't quite understand how to return the bottle. There is a small pool nearby in the happy ghast hangar. I am experimenting with the dispenser. Indeed, applying an empty bottle to a water block creates a bottle of water. If all the dispenser slots are filled with empty bottles, the bottle of water will be thrown out and float up.
What we have built is enough to obtain 11 blocks of mud. But we can get much more by building a series of pistons.
The principle of operation is the same as for the first piston. When the mud reaches the torch, it closes the circuit and activates the pistons. The pistons push the row of mud away and return to their previous state.
The mud farm is ready.
1. The player places dirt in front of the piston. The piston pushes it to the right.
2. The dispenser applies a bottle of water. The dirt turns into mud.
3. When the row of mud reaches the right torch, the pistons activate and push away 8 blocks.
But if we want to farm clay, we need to build a drying platform. I build a platform from 8 * 12 = 96 blocks of polished granite. It has distinct edges, so the blocks are easy to count. But any solid block would do.
Add a signal bulb.
When the entire platform is filled, the observer will give a signal and light the copper bulb. This allows me to avoid turning around to check the platform's fill level. I can place dirt while keeping the bulb in my field of vision. If necessary, the bulb can be reset with a button.
Now I need to place the stalactites. But there's a small problem. I still haven't found any dripstone caves. I only have 20 dripstones that I bought from a wandering trader. Well, that's enough for an experiment. I'll have a mixed farm: 20 clay + 76 mud.
We fill the platform and wait. I check both dirt and coarse dirt. I am pleased to be able to use coarse dirt, as I have a lot of gravel. Clay drying is a random process that takes an average of 6.5 minutes. According to Ilmango's estimate, 95% of the blocks are converted in 20 minutes, and 99% in an hour. I'm going to check on the other farms. I didn't measure the exact time, but it's about 15 minutes or a some more. Рere's what we got:
The farm is working as expected. All that's left is to clean up the dirt and decorate it. What material should I use to build the walls?
This farm is completely legal. It automates the envisaged game mechanics without using dupes or exploits. If you combine it with a bamboo farm and an auto furnace, you can build a brick factory.
The farm is semi-automatic. Player participation is required to place dirt and collect products. Ilmango has a crazy fully automatic Mud And Clay Farming Complex that combines a clay farm and moss farm to grow azaleas and automatically obtain rooted dirt, and uses TNT to obtain products. But for me, it's too complicated.
Nothing is clear, but it's very interesting.
How are my bees doing? I'm running to the forest to check on the honey and wax farms I built in the previous episode.
Honey production is slow, but that's how it should be.
I still have one farm and two construction projects left. But I'm a little tired of building. So the next episode will be about meeting with Wither.
Assuming there is an equal number of bees/hives in each farm, honey blocks are always around twelve times slower to produce than honeycomb. Shearing a hive will yield three honeycomb, whereas only one bottle can be filled with honey per harvest. You'll also need four honey bottles to craft one block.
That shouldn't be too big of an issue though, since honeycomb has a lot more uses than honey bottles or blocks.
For a long time, I didn't want to fight the bosses because I was afraid that failure would prevent me from enjoying the rest of the game and destroy my motivation. But since I decided to finish the world, I can take the risk.
Everything has been ready for the battle with Wither for a long time. I collected 5 skulls while clearing the first fortress. It's interesting that I didn't get a single skull in the second fortress. Apparently, this is because I was inexperienced in the first fortress and spent a long time there, while I completed the second one much faster.
I am studying tactics for fighting the Wither. I understand that I cannot defeat him in a fair fight in open terrain. I have decided to choose to fight in an underground chamber. This suits my style: building rather than fighting.
Where should I build the chamber? I remembered that I have a suitable place:
Remember? This is a temporary base for exploring the deep dark. There is already a shelter and a railway here. I destroyed the shriekers. It's 500+ blocks to the home base. Even if I can't handle the Wither, it won't destroy important buildings.
I'm digging a tunnel to the bedrock and building a chamber out of obsidian. I don't remember why I decided I needed obsidian.
I stash my main armor set and valuable pickaxes in a chest and put on the diamond armor I bought in the village. It has Protection I–III. That should be enough. I have a few decent bows that I found while fishing. I combine them and add Flame. I read somewhere that it helps you aim better. Well, it didn't really help me much. I take a stack of golden carrots and a few golden apples. I have no doubt that I won't succeed on the first try, so I make a backup for training. It's cheating, but I don't expect to win fairly. I decided that I could make a few attempts, but I would save the last result, whatever it was.
At the last moment, I realized that Wither would break the torches and I would be left in complete darkness. I return home and make night vision potions. I remembered that I found regeneration potions in the Trial Chamber. I make extended potions. Here is my final equipment:
The first two attempts were unsuccessful. I realized that I had built the chamber too large. Wither regenerates faster than I can get it out.
I add another layer of obsidian to the ceiling and load the backup. I recorded this epic battle.
Victory!
I'm going back up to the surface. It's nighttime now. My world looks very strange. I didn't immediately realize that night vision was still working.
In the morning, I start building a beacon. To be honest, its range is too small. But the ability to quickly run around the farm, house, and workshops will not be superfluous. I choose a spot on a small hill opposite the house.
I am tired of battles and construction and want to relax. I get on my horse and go for a ride along my roads. I visit places I haven't been to in a long time. I fish a little in an artificial lake in the middle of a cherry orchard. I caught the second Frost Walker II book. I couldn't find this enchantment for a long time, and now I've come across the second book in a short period of time.
On the way back, I met a comically dressed little zombie with a chicken egg. I didn't want to touch him, but he chased after me and got caught by the golem.
Congratulations on defeating the wither. I could sense that moment of tension before you placed down the last skull; it's no easy task to summon something you know has such a destructive potential. This is also why I've never tried fighting the wither in the open, though it may be a more exciting challenge in some regards.
For the two times I did fight it, I made the spawning rooms 5x3x3, following a tutorial online. Perhaps it restricts the wither and so makes it slightly easier to hit as it progresses towards you. As you found out, making the walls obsidian doesn't make that much of a difference since it can be destroyed by the blue skulls.
The wither's initial explosion is also one of the strongest in the game, so you should've stood much further back to avoid that initial damage!
The Flame enchantment kind of helps with long-distance aiming since it shows you where your arrows hit, and thereby how much more you have to move your bow in a certain direction to hit your target. But it's not really useful for fast-moving targets, or at close range.
I have been planning two buildings in Main Village for a long time. First, a museum. I have wanted to build it for a long time, but until recently, I had only a few items to display. However, I have expanded my collection in the Trial Chamber. Now it makes sense to build a museum.
The second is a smithy. There are metalworkers and armourers in Main Village, but they actually work at home. The idea of a specialised building has been on my mind for a long time.
As I thought about these two projects, I realized that they were one and the same. The smithy would be on the lower level, and the museum of armor and weapons would be upstairs.
The new building will be on the edge of the village, behind the houses. The location is not particularly good. But I didn't think about the layout of the village, so the more suitable places are already taken. Later, I thought that I should have made a small artificial hill. But this idea came too late.
I am building a smithy. A future employee is interested in how the work is going:
Building facade:
The smithy is on the lower floor. I arrange workstations and random equipment made of iron and copper.
The hall on the upper floor. I really like how it turned out. Although it's a little pompous for a modest village museum.
We arrange the exhibits.
I should get a creeper head. I completely forgot that I have an enchanted trident.
I was going to build yet another farm, but then I changed my mind because I won't use it anyway. I only have one more episode left in Port Town. Before I go there, I want to try out my new Frost Walker boots. I go to Roadside Village and build a few boats.
There will be much more in the next episode of construction on water.
This is the last large construction project in this world and the last major update to the journal. As usual, some screenshots were taken later, so the buildings may not appear in the order described.
We will spend this episode in Port Tower. This is what the settlement and the coastline look like now.
A little to the right of the center of the screenshot, you can see a sunken ship. The presence of an underwater sightseeing spot near the port gave me the idea of a diving park.
I am building a Conduit. I have some corals that I bought from a trader, and I am installing them.
So, in our diving park, tourists can admire the corals (the stones and dirt in the upper left corner are the end of the village pier, where the seamark is located)
… swim in underwater caves
… play with sea animals
... and explore the shipwreck.
Now let's go ashore. Behind the Sea Cathedral there is a rock with a beautiful view of the sea. I will build a small rotunda there.
^ The screenshots show the same place from different angles. During construction, I traveled home several times to get materials, so you can see me riding a mule or a horse.
Now for the main project of this episode. What port can do without a lighthouse?
I will build a lighthouse on a small island just behind the pier.
The first problem is quite obvious—there is no island there. But there is a small shoal. I can build an artificial rock there.
It seems that a local resident protested against the construction, but I did not give him that opportunity.
The second problem is completely unexpected. I'm almost out of cobblestone. How is that possible? I usually alternate between mining and building sessions. But lately, I haven't been mining, I've been building and terraforming a lot. As a result, I have more sea lanterns than cobblestone. Of course, there are plenty of rocks around, and I can get as many as I want. But digging up one rock to build another is not a good idea. Well, I have a lot of other types of stones, especially deep slate. I decided that the foundation of the rock would be made of deep slate and gravel, and the above-water part would be made of andesite and mossy cobblestones.
I quickly build a rock. The shoal is located at the edge of the Conduit's range, which greatly facilitates underwater work.
The lighthouse will be constructed from concrete. I have already grown beets for red dye, and I have an abundance of bone meal for white.
The lighthouse keeper's office will be on the ground floor.
On the second floor is a living room (of course, no one will live there).
And, of course, a rotating light mechanism is essential for a lighthouse.
At the top is an observation deck.
The rotating lights are activated by cyclically arranged observers. To hide them, I cover them with trapdoors on the outside. On each side, one of the observers sends a signal outside. It is not possible to install a trapdoor there, as it would flap. I put a shelf there. I could have used signs, but I forgot about them. I used pale oak white wood for the cladding. This gave an unexpectedly good effect. The lamps illuminate the wood, making the rotation more noticeable. I don't know if this is due to recent changes in lighting or if it has always been this way?
^ I apologize for the cursor.
Seamark is no longer needed at the pier. I am dismantling it and building a small pergola so that it is comfortable to fish in the rain.
All that's left is to add a few boats to liven up the sea. I need a lot of wood and wool. I'll head home to restock once again. On the way back, I get caught in a thunderstorm. I tie my horse to the bridge railing, grab the Channeling trident from the Ender chest, and run along the rocky shore.
This is my second attempt at getting mob heads. The first one ended in nothing, and I didn't write about it. This time, I have a better understanding of what to do. I need to lure a creeper and another mob at the same time, charge the creeper at the right moment, and trigger the explosion. With my aiming skills, this is borderline impossible. Nevertheless, I managed to get two trophies for the recently organized museum.
I hide my loot and ride to Port. I put on my Frost Walker boots and walk into the sea.
I use lanterns and glowing lichen to make the boats visible at night.
Meanwhile, the domes of the Sea Cathedral have almost oxidized, and I can give them their final look. I clean the edges of the domes and polish them with wax.
The small domes worked out right away, but I made a mistake with the large one and cleared the wrong blocks. Fortunately, I have some oxidized blocks at home that I got from the Trial Chamber, so I quickly corrected the mistake.
This is what the port panorama looks like now.
This episode actually concludes the work in this world. I have brought the main settlements to a state where I don't feel sorry to leave them. And I won't be ashamed to return if I should ever want to. I will release one more small update to summarize the game.
That's very impressive progress in such a short time, especially since you did all the redstone stuff. It reminds me of the first world I played when the game was new to me because it was a period of rapid change in the first year or two. I had other players playing the world with me and I sometimes miss playing like that.
What are your plans going forward? Are you moving to another world, or will you no longer be playing the game as much?
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"'Tis foolishness! If all were so easy, why, none would suffer in this world!"
I really like Minecraft and I will continue playing it. But I also feel a little tired of designing and building. I think I'll take a short break, play in short-term worlds, or do something else. After that, I will start a new game in a new long-term world.
While I'd love to see more of your updates, don't feel committed to them. Updates are a lot of work, and can drain some fun out of the reason we play games, and that is escape, relax, have fun, and get immersed. You can always post smaller, less regular updates in the "what have you done recently" thread as a middle ground between constant updates and no updates.
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"'Tis foolishness! If all were so easy, why, none would suffer in this world!"
I love your final additions to the coastline, including the lighthouse and its rotating light system. The illuminating effect has existed when I first built mine, so no, it probably isn't a new lighting change.
Congratulations on everything you have achieved in this world. It was fun following along too. As said above, that's a huge amount of progress for just several months, which just goes to show your impressive dedication. If you're on the verge of burning out, a break is definitely a good idea, though you can always try short-term worlds with smaller (or less frequent) updates during this time if you wish, before moving to another "formal journal."
While I'd love to see more of your updates, don't feel committed to them.
I can say the same thing. I really enjoy your journals and would love to see more updates from Princess Garnet, Staricle, and other users. But we can't turn the game into work. Besides, we all have responsibilities in real life. I want to take a short break to change my playing style for a time. Also, I want the new world to feel like a new game, not a continuation of the previous one — and for that, I need a break too. Of course, I'm planning a new world and a new journal — and this time, I'll be writing it from the first day.
At the beginning of the game, I didn't know which farms I would build and which ones I would expand. I placed the buildings compactly. It was convenient at that time, but now it's difficult for me to develop my base.
I sit on Ghast and look at my base from above. A half year ago, I did a Tour of the main base, which I ended with a photo of the base at sunset. I decided that a panorama of the base and the village would be a good ending to the journal:
Formally, this isn't my first world, but it's the first one I've played in for a long time. I spent almost a year in this world. I created this world as a relatively inexperienced player. I was afraid of caves and terrified of the Nether. I stacked building blocks in the most bizarre combinations just to see how they would look. I didn't even know you could build a bridge by sneaking backwards.
While playing in this world, I explored different aspects of the game and realized what I found most interesting: building villages and farming. I studied many redstone mechanics, although I often don't fully understand them. I learned how to fight monsters — and avoid unnecessary battles. Perhaps most importantly, I learned how to avoid the aspects of the game that I don't like, that make me uncomfortable and that I dislike. With this experience, it's time for me to move on.
This world will not be abandoned. I will return here to study auto farms, experiment with redstone, and simply take nostalgic walks through carefully arranged places.
Thanks to all you who followed my world, commented on my journal, gave advice — or just read in silence. After a little time, I'll start a new long-term world to go through the path from the first cobblestone to the megabase again. But I'm a bit tired of long-term projects, planning, and designing. I want to play some short-term games for a while and just wander around random worlds with my copper pickaxe.
Formally, this isn't my first world, but it's the first one I've played in for a long time. I spent almost a year in this world. I created this world as a relatively inexperienced player.
Worlds like these are often where players experience the greatest novelty and freshness of the game. As you said, it's the bridge between having little or no knowledge to a proficient understanding of most concepts — where experimentation is the key to progress, occasionally coupled with inevitable failures. It was always interesting to read about your developing knowledge of the game and first-time interactions with various features.
I love how your base turned out in the end. Even by using less common building blocks or combinations, you managed to create a vibrant and fairly organized settlement with a thriving community, as well as a number of established locations elsewhere. It's an impressive accomplishment for your first major world.
Having a break now is totally understandable, and don't feel rushed to move on to your next world. Regardless, I will always look forward to reading your upcoming journals.
For the longest time, my first world was the only one I played. While that's no longer the case, it's still there if I ever want to return to it.
There was a lot that changed with village mechanics in the 1.14 update, and since villages are a big part of the progress of that first world, it feels more like an old Minecraft era world. I did modify the villages in accordance with the changes, but it wasn't always graceful or complete. I only ever updated the world to 1.20 (right before 1.11 made elytra a real thing) and the region I played in was even older 1.6 style terrain generation (different terrain generation eras didn't blend together back then, but had harsh chunk walls), so overall, the world felt weird. I did update it to 1.19 once 1.18 added chunk blending, but I still haven't played it much since then... hence it was never kept up and is still in 1.19 (I should at least bump it up now, since 1.19 has performance issues and 1.20 would further add cherry groves, though I'd have to re-prune the 1.18+ area chunks again, so it's something I'll do but it will need time).
Sorry to carry on, but watching your world as an outside really brings my memories back to my first world. I wasn't as active on the forums back then (which is funny because these forums used to be super active), so making shorter term worlds and making threads for them has helped me find further enjoyment in the game and community.
Edit: If you ever want to consider sprucing the game up, consider looking into mods, namely ones that add new features or change terrain generation. Regarding terrain generation, I have a combination of mods I can recommend if you're interested, which will change terrain generation and even add new biomes and items. As a warning, it will make the world scale larger, but since you play on large biomes, this might be right up your alley anyway. And you appear to be playing at a higher render distance, I presume your hardware would be up to the task (terrain generation mods can make the game more resource demanding, and chunk generation is already the game's most demanding aspect). I was going to make a thread myself for such a modded instance... but time has prevented me from getting around to it. Don't feel pressured to do it for this reason, but watching someone else do it would be a treat.
As for mods that add new feature/system mods, I haven't dug into those yet since they're usually not what I'm looking for, but they do exist.
You might want to consider setting up a 1.20.1 or 1.21.4 instance if you go this route, since some mods haven't updated beyond either version yet due to the game changing a lot beneath the surface since 1.21.5.
Farmers have a spherical range around their profession block and they will only interact with crops inside that circle. I'm not sure of the exact range but it's definitely under a dozen blocks.
I have very large "L shaped" farms in my main village, and I have two composers at each corner. It's a shared farm where they tend to a small area near their composters and leave the majority to grow for me.
Something to be aware of is that the block directly next to the composter shouldn't be used for farm space unless you cover the top of the composter with something to prevent them from jumping on it. Otherwise, when they climb up on it and then drop down, they tend to trample the spot directly next to the composter. I also leave a block or few between the composter and the actual farmland.
"'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).
34. Apiary
Taking into account my nickname, it seems strange that I haven't built a bee farm yet. I have a primitive wax farm, thanks to which I can use a lot of waxed copper. But I don't use honey. However, I want to build a honey farm — more to study the concept than out of necessity.
There is little space near the house, so the farm will be built in the flower forest. Although I didn't want to build there, it is a suitable place for bees. I was going to cut down a section of the forest, but then I remembered that there is a surface cave there. The farm is 7 meters deep, so the cave is a suitable place.
I do a little terraforming and start building.
Farming honeycomb using a dispenser with shears is very simple. But farming honey requires tedious fiddling with bottles. I am looking for a scheme that fully automates the process. I am settling on the Machadeon scheme according to the instructions by Cubfan135:
The farm has a complex design consisting of several devices. The first thing to be built is the elevator.
I check its operation using dirt blocks, and it does not function. The blocks scatter in all directions. I review the scheme and watch other videos about dropper elevators. The solution turns out to be simple: I confused droppers and dispensers. I correct the error and continue building.
I understand that this is a block autocrafter and bottle filter. But I'm not sure if the scheme works. I don't have any honey for testing, so I make a backup and load it in creative mode. Of course, nothing works. Worse, I don't understand how it's supposed to work. But I understand what devices the design consists of. I can rebuild it using familiar schemes.
Compactor:
Sorter:
Here's what I've got:
Autocrafter:
Sorter:
Bottles elevator:
My design is some larger than Cubfan's. This is not a problem: instead of copying it, I need to adapt his solution, which will allow me to understand it better. Of course, I made a few mistakes and rebuilt the structure in creative mode, then survival mode several times. There doesn't seem to be much construction work, but I spent several evenings in irl on this project. Here is the almost finished structure (later I noticed that I missed one block above the hive):
I understand the principle of operation, but not all the details. The comparator behind the hive measures the honey level. When the hive is full, the bottle dispenser is activated. I don't understand what role the energy rail plays in this (on the slab on the right, not visible from this angle). The bottle of honey is lowered through the filter into the autocrafter. The filter will not let empty bottles through, only bottles with honey. When four honey bottles have accumulated, the crafter activates and produces a block of honey. The block of honey (crafted product) and empty bottles (side product) are ejected from the crafter in different ways. The order in which the blocks are updated leads to a predictable result, although it is difficult for me to understand exactly how. The honey block falls into the lower hopper and is transported to the chest via a dropper elevator. Empty bottles go into the dropper and are returned to the dispenser via another dropper elevator. Thanks to the cyclical reuse of bottles, this farm requires only a few bottles (6 in the dispenser + 1 in the sorter) for an infinite amount of honey. I don't need infinite honey, but I'm glad that this possibility exists.
It's a modular design. Cubfan builds a farm from 9 such modules. I'll make do with one.
When almost everything was ready, a creeper destroyed the upper part of the farm. I quickly restored it, but missed one torch, which caused everything to work incorrectly again: honey was going to the wrong place, and bottles were getting stuck in the dispenser. As always, such a mistake is very easy to fix, but much harder to find.
Later, I discovered another mistake. I was going to assemble the entire farm within the chunk. But because I reassembled and moved blocks many times, several devices were in a different chunk. This can lead to desynchronization and breakdowns due to devices not loading simultaneously.
I decided to move the wax farm to the same area (the screenshot shows the old farm, which is located near the house).
It's much simpler here: an observer, a dispenser with shears, and hoppers. The observer activates the dispenser every time the honey level changes. If the honeycomb is full, the shears will collect the wax. If the level is insufficient, don't worry, the shears will run idle.
Only one flower per honeycomb is needed for the farms to work. But Happy Bee won't make its bees huddle on one block! They will get a spacious greenhouse enclosure with lots of flowers.
There are redstone machinery in the cobblestone box. I could have spent some time decorating it, but I don't feel like it right now. This wall is not very noticeable in the cave.
Project completion: I need to build a trail to the new farm and fill in a few holes left by creepers.
Sorry for my English, I use Google Translate.
Or a castle, haha.
"'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).
You may find it useful to fully enclose the honey farm (along with some grass and flowers), just like you did with the wax farm. Bees can easily lose their ability to pathfind back to nests, whether naturally or as a result of being stuck in blocks for too long. I'm unsure if your redstone contraption may cause the latter to occur, but what I can assure you is that a lost bee won't be a very Happy Bee.
With the recent addition of new copper blocks, the wax farm will be considerably more useful than before.
Both hives (honey and wax) are located in the same greenhouse. The wax farm is completely visible, while the honey farm is partially hidden in a cobblestone box. Almost all redstone is isolated, except for a few blocks directly adjacent to the hive (this can be seen in the screenshots where the cherry blossoms are located). I don't think the bees will get stuck there, but I will check the farm periodically.
Edit. I slightly modified the exit from the honeycomb. Now no one should get stuck.
Sorry for my English, I use Google Translate.
35. Clay Farm
This episode will also be devoted to auto farming.
Let's start with a little work on the main farm. I already mentioned that after building the flying machine, bamboo production became excessive. I manually turn the flying machine on and off to avoid overflowing chests. I had an idea. If I connect the switch to a daylight sensor, the farm will not run continuously, but will turn on twice a day. This should reduce production intensity without the need for manual control. At least, I think so
The Flying Machine has two switches: one on the front of the greenhouse and one on the back. Currently, both have levers attached to them. I decided to replace the lever on the back with a daylight sensor and leave the lever on the front for manual control. After several experiments, I built the following switch device:
Despite the simplicity of the device, I managed to mess up the repeater connection. This broke the farm. It is quite difficult to restart the flying machine after an accidental shutdown: you have to disassemble and reassemble part of the structure. I messed something up again, so I just loaded the backup and reassembled the switch.
Now for the main project of this episode. You may have noticed that I use a lot of bricks in my buildings. There are many brick houses where I live. I also really like mud bricks.
In this world, I have access to clay in a lush cave and mud in a mangrove swamp. But recently, I learned that mud can be farmed using water bottles on dirt. By placing mud on a block with stalactite, you can get clay. Messing around with bottles is quite tedious, but there is a simple semi-automatic farm. I want to learn how to do it. This will allow me to get bricks in new games regardless of the biome.
I am looking for tutorials. After watching several videos, I chose these two:
The designs differ slightly, but the authors show and explain them in different ways, which can be very useful.
First, I build such a device.
The torch powers the piston via redstone dust. Currently, the circuit is disconnected. If dirt or any solid block is placed above the torch, it will be powered by the torch and the circuit will connect. The piston will move the block and disconnect the circuit. The piston will return to its original position.
Now let's build this structure. This is the main device of the farm.
The dispenser applies a bottle of water to the dirt. The empty bottle goes to another dispenser, which fills it with water. The bottle of water returns to the first dispenser through the water stream and the upper hopper.
This device seems simple, but it turned out to be unexpectedly expensive. For full automation, the dispenser and hopper must be filled with 13.5 stacks of empty bottles + 6...9 bottles of water. I have enough sand, but I had to interrupt construction for a short time to smelt glass.
I don't quite understand how to return the bottle. There is a small pool nearby in the happy ghast hangar. I am experimenting with the dispenser. Indeed, applying an empty bottle to a water block creates a bottle of water. If all the dispenser slots are filled with empty bottles, the bottle of water will be thrown out and float up.
What we have built is enough to obtain 11 blocks of mud. But we can get much more by building a series of pistons.
The principle of operation is the same as for the first piston. When the mud reaches the torch, it closes the circuit and activates the pistons. The pistons push the row of mud away and return to their previous state.
The mud farm is ready.
1. The player places dirt in front of the piston. The piston pushes it to the right.
2. The dispenser applies a bottle of water. The dirt turns into mud.
3. When the row of mud reaches the right torch, the pistons activate and push away 8 blocks.
But if we want to farm clay, we need to build a drying platform. I build a platform from 8 * 12 = 96 blocks of polished granite. It has distinct edges, so the blocks are easy to count. But any solid block would do.
Add a signal bulb.
When the entire platform is filled, the observer will give a signal and light the copper bulb. This allows me to avoid turning around to check the platform's fill level. I can place dirt while keeping the bulb in my field of vision. If necessary, the bulb can be reset with a button.
Now I need to place the stalactites. But there's a small problem. I still haven't found any dripstone caves. I only have 20 dripstones that I bought from a wandering trader. Well, that's enough for an experiment. I'll have a mixed farm: 20 clay + 76 mud.
We fill the platform and wait. I check both dirt and coarse dirt. I am pleased to be able to use coarse dirt, as I have a lot of gravel. Clay drying is a random process that takes an average of 6.5 minutes. According to Ilmango's estimate, 95% of the blocks are converted in 20 minutes, and 99% in an hour. I'm going to check on the other farms. I didn't measure the exact time, but it's about 15 minutes or a some more. Рere's what we got:
The farm is working as expected. All that's left is to clean up the dirt and decorate it. What material should I use to build the walls?
This farm is completely legal. It automates the envisaged game mechanics without using dupes or exploits. If you combine it with a bamboo farm and an auto furnace, you can build a brick factory.
The farm is semi-automatic. Player participation is required to place dirt and collect products. Ilmango has a crazy fully automatic Mud And Clay Farming Complex that combines a clay farm and moss farm to grow azaleas and automatically obtain rooted dirt, and uses TNT to obtain products. But for me, it's too complicated.
Nothing is clear, but it's very interesting.
How are my bees doing? I'm running to the forest to check on the honey and wax farms I built in the previous episode.
Honey production is slow, but that's how it should be.
I still have one farm and two construction projects left. But I'm a little tired of building. So the next episode will be about meeting with Wither.
Sorry for my English, I use Google Translate.
Assuming there is an equal number of bees/hives in each farm, honey blocks are always around twelve times slower to produce than honeycomb. Shearing a hive will yield three honeycomb, whereas only one bottle can be filled with honey per harvest. You'll also need four honey bottles to craft one block.
That shouldn't be too big of an issue though, since honeycomb has a lot more uses than honey bottles or blocks.
36. Wither
For a long time, I didn't want to fight the bosses because I was afraid that failure would prevent me from enjoying the rest of the game and destroy my motivation. But since I decided to finish the world, I can take the risk.
Everything has been ready for the battle with Wither for a long time. I collected 5 skulls while clearing the first fortress. It's interesting that I didn't get a single skull in the second fortress. Apparently, this is because I was inexperienced in the first fortress and spent a long time there, while I completed the second one much faster.
I am studying tactics for fighting the Wither. I understand that I cannot defeat him in a fair fight in open terrain. I have decided to choose to fight in an underground chamber. This suits my style: building rather than fighting.
Where should I build the chamber? I remembered that I have a suitable place:
Remember? This is a temporary base for exploring the deep dark. There is already a shelter and a railway here. I destroyed the shriekers. It's 500+ blocks to the home base. Even if I can't handle the Wither, it won't destroy important buildings.
I'm digging a tunnel to the bedrock and building a chamber out of obsidian. I don't remember why I decided I needed obsidian.
I stash my main armor set and valuable pickaxes in a chest and put on the diamond armor I bought in the village. It has Protection I–III. That should be enough. I have a few decent bows that I found while fishing. I combine them and add Flame. I read somewhere that it helps you aim better. Well, it didn't really help me much. I take a stack of golden carrots and a few golden apples. I have no doubt that I won't succeed on the first try, so I make a backup for training. It's cheating, but I don't expect to win fairly. I decided that I could make a few attempts, but I would save the last result, whatever it was.
At the last moment, I realized that Wither would break the torches and I would be left in complete darkness. I return home and make night vision potions. I remembered that I found regeneration potions in the Trial Chamber. I make extended potions. Here is my final equipment:
The first two attempts were unsuccessful. I realized that I had built the chamber too large. Wither regenerates faster than I can get it out.
I add another layer of obsidian to the ceiling and load the backup. I recorded this epic battle.
Victory!
I'm going back up to the surface. It's nighttime now. My world looks very strange. I didn't immediately realize that night vision was still working.
In the morning, I start building a beacon. To be honest, its range is too small. But the ability to quickly run around the farm, house, and workshops will not be superfluous. I choose a spot on a small hill opposite the house.
I am tired of battles and construction and want to relax. I get on my horse and go for a ride along my roads. I visit places I haven't been to in a long time. I fish a little in an artificial lake in the middle of a cherry orchard. I caught the second Frost Walker II book. I couldn't find this enchantment for a long time, and now I've come across the second book in a short period of time.
On the way back, I met a comically dressed little zombie with a chicken egg. I didn't want to touch him, but he chased after me and got caught by the golem.
Sorry for my English, I use Google Translate.
Congratulations on defeating the wither. I could sense that moment of tension before you placed down the last skull; it's no easy task to summon something you know has such a destructive potential. This is also why I've never tried fighting the wither in the open, though it may be a more exciting challenge in some regards.
For the two times I did fight it, I made the spawning rooms 5x3x3, following a tutorial online. Perhaps it restricts the wither and so makes it slightly easier to hit as it progresses towards you. As you found out, making the walls obsidian doesn't make that much of a difference since it can be destroyed by the blue skulls.
The wither's initial explosion is also one of the strongest in the game, so you should've stood much further back to avoid that initial damage!
The Flame enchantment kind of helps with long-distance aiming since it shows you where your arrows hit, and thereby how much more you have to move your bow in a certain direction to hit your target. But it's not really useful for fast-moving targets, or at close range.
Yes! Everything was ready for this fight long ago, except me. But I'm glad I finally got up the strength to do it.
Sorry for my English, I use Google Translate.
37. Armory
I have been planning two buildings in Main Village for a long time. First, a museum. I have wanted to build it for a long time, but until recently, I had only a few items to display. However, I have expanded my collection in the Trial Chamber. Now it makes sense to build a museum.
The second is a smithy. There are metalworkers and armourers in Main Village, but they actually work at home. The idea of a specialised building has been on my mind for a long time.
As I thought about these two projects, I realized that they were one and the same. The smithy would be on the lower level, and the museum of armor and weapons would be upstairs.
The new building will be on the edge of the village, behind the houses. The location is not particularly good. But I didn't think about the layout of the village, so the more suitable places are already taken. Later, I thought that I should have made a small artificial hill. But this idea came too late.
I am building a smithy. A future employee is interested in how the work is going:
Building facade:
The smithy is on the lower floor. I arrange workstations and random equipment made of iron and copper.
The hall on the upper floor. I really like how it turned out. Although it's a little pompous for a modest village museum.
We arrange the exhibits.
I should get a creeper head. I completely forgot that I have an enchanted trident.
I was going to build yet another farm, but then I changed my mind because I won't use it anyway. I only have one more episode left in Port Town. Before I go there, I want to try out my new Frost Walker boots. I go to Roadside Village and build a few boats.
There will be much more in the next episode of construction on water.
Sorry for my English, I use Google Translate.
38. Diving Park and Lighthouse
This is the last large construction project in this world and the last major update to the journal. As usual, some screenshots were taken later, so the buildings may not appear in the order described.
We will spend this episode in Port Tower. This is what the settlement and the coastline look like now.
A little to the right of the center of the screenshot, you can see a sunken ship. The presence of an underwater sightseeing spot near the port gave me the idea of a diving park.
I am building a Conduit. I have some corals that I bought from a trader, and I am installing them.
So, in our diving park, tourists can admire the corals (the stones and dirt in the upper left corner are the end of the village pier, where the seamark is located)
… swim in underwater caves
… play with sea animals
... and explore the shipwreck.
Now let's go ashore. Behind the Sea Cathedral there is a rock with a beautiful view of the sea. I will build a small rotunda there.
^ The screenshots show the same place from different angles. During construction, I traveled home several times to get materials, so you can see me riding a mule or a horse.
Now for the main project of this episode. What port can do without a lighthouse?
I will build a lighthouse on a small island just behind the pier.
The first problem is quite obvious—there is no island there. But there is a small shoal. I can build an artificial rock there.
It seems that a local resident protested against the construction, but I did not give him that opportunity.
The second problem is completely unexpected. I'm almost out of cobblestone. How is that possible? I usually alternate between mining and building sessions. But lately, I haven't been mining, I've been building and terraforming a lot. As a result, I have more sea lanterns than cobblestone. Of course, there are plenty of rocks around, and I can get as many as I want. But digging up one rock to build another is not a good idea. Well, I have a lot of other types of stones, especially deep slate. I decided that the foundation of the rock would be made of deep slate and gravel, and the above-water part would be made of andesite and mossy cobblestones.
I quickly build a rock. The shoal is located at the edge of the Conduit's range, which greatly facilitates underwater work.
The lighthouse will be constructed from concrete. I have already grown beets for red dye, and I have an abundance of bone meal for white.
The lighthouse keeper's office will be on the ground floor.
On the second floor is a living room (of course, no one will live there).
And, of course, a rotating light mechanism is essential for a lighthouse.
At the top is an observation deck.
The rotating lights are activated by cyclically arranged observers. To hide them, I cover them with trapdoors on the outside. On each side, one of the observers sends a signal outside. It is not possible to install a trapdoor there, as it would flap. I put a shelf there. I could have used signs, but I forgot about them. I used pale oak white wood for the cladding. This gave an unexpectedly good effect. The lamps illuminate the wood, making the rotation more noticeable. I don't know if this is due to recent changes in lighting or if it has always been this way?
^ I apologize for the cursor.
Seamark is no longer needed at the pier. I am dismantling it and building a small pergola so that it is comfortable to fish in the rain.
All that's left is to add a few boats to liven up the sea. I need a lot of wood and wool. I'll head home to restock once again. On the way back, I get caught in a thunderstorm. I tie my horse to the bridge railing, grab the Channeling trident from the Ender chest, and run along the rocky shore.
This is my second attempt at getting mob heads. The first one ended in nothing, and I didn't write about it. This time, I have a better understanding of what to do. I need to lure a creeper and another mob at the same time, charge the creeper at the right moment, and trigger the explosion. With my aiming skills, this is borderline impossible. Nevertheless, I managed to get two trophies for the recently organized museum.
I hide my loot and ride to Port. I put on my Frost Walker boots and walk into the sea.
I use lanterns and glowing lichen to make the boats visible at night.
Meanwhile, the domes of the Sea Cathedral have almost oxidized, and I can give them their final look. I clean the edges of the domes and polish them with wax.
The small domes worked out right away, but I made a mistake with the large one and cleared the wrong blocks. Fortunately, I have some oxidized blocks at home that I got from the Trial Chamber, so I quickly corrected the mistake.
This is what the port panorama looks like now.
This episode actually concludes the work in this world. I have brought the main settlements to a state where I don't feel sorry to leave them. And I won't be ashamed to return if I should ever want to. I will release one more small update to summarize the game.
Sorry for my English, I use Google Translate.
That's very impressive progress in such a short time, especially since you did all the redstone stuff. It reminds me of the first world I played when the game was new to me because it was a period of rapid change in the first year or two. I had other players playing the world with me and I sometimes miss playing like that.
What are your plans going forward? Are you moving to another world, or will you no longer be playing the game as much?
"'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).
I really like Minecraft and I will continue playing it. But I also feel a little tired of designing and building. I think I'll take a short break, play in short-term worlds, or do something else. After that, I will start a new game in a new long-term world.
Sorry for my English, I use Google Translate.
It's best not to burn yourself out.
While I'd love to see more of your updates, don't feel committed to them. Updates are a lot of work, and can drain some fun out of the reason we play games, and that is escape, relax, have fun, and get immersed. You can always post smaller, less regular updates in the "what have you done recently" thread as a middle ground between constant updates and no updates.
"'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).
I love your final additions to the coastline, including the lighthouse and its rotating light system. The illuminating effect has existed when I first built mine, so no, it probably isn't a new lighting change.
Congratulations on everything you have achieved in this world. It was fun following along too. As said above, that's a huge amount of progress for just several months, which just goes to show your impressive dedication. If you're on the verge of burning out, a break is definitely a good idea, though you can always try short-term worlds with smaller (or less frequent) updates during this time if you wish, before moving to another "formal journal."
I can say the same thing. I really enjoy your journals and would love to see more updates from Princess Garnet, Staricle, and other users. But we can't turn the game into work. Besides, we all have responsibilities in real life. I want to take a short break to change my playing style for a time. Also, I want the new world to feel like a new game, not a continuation of the previous one — and for that, I need a break too. Of course, I'm planning a new world and a new journal — and this time, I'll be writing it from the first day.
Sorry for my English, I use Google Translate.
39. Conclusion
I am returning to home.
I am taking a comparative screenshot for Historical overview.
At the beginning of the game, I didn't know which farms I would build and which ones I would expand. I placed the buildings compactly. It was convenient at that time, but now it's difficult for me to develop my base.
I sit on Ghast and look at my base from above. A half year ago, I did a Tour of the main base, which I ended with a photo of the base at sunset. I decided that a panorama of the base and the village would be a good ending to the journal:
Formally, this isn't my first world, but it's the first one I've played in for a long time. I spent almost a year in this world. I created this world as a relatively inexperienced player. I was afraid of caves and terrified of the Nether. I stacked building blocks in the most bizarre combinations just to see how they would look. I didn't even know you could build a bridge by sneaking backwards.
While playing in this world, I explored different aspects of the game and realized what I found most interesting: building villages and farming. I studied many redstone mechanics, although I often don't fully understand them. I learned how to fight monsters — and avoid unnecessary battles. Perhaps most importantly, I learned how to avoid the aspects of the game that I don't like, that make me uncomfortable and that I dislike. With this experience, it's time for me to move on.
This world will not be abandoned. I will return here to study auto farms, experiment with redstone, and simply take nostalgic walks through carefully arranged places.
Thanks to all you who followed my world, commented on my journal, gave advice — or just read in silence. After a little time, I'll start a new long-term world to go through the path from the first cobblestone to the megabase again. But I'm a bit tired of long-term projects, planning, and designing. I want to play some short-term games for a while and just wander around random worlds with my copper pickaxe.
Sorry for my English, I use Google Translate.
Worlds like these are often where players experience the greatest novelty and freshness of the game. As you said, it's the bridge between having little or no knowledge to a proficient understanding of most concepts — where experimentation is the key to progress, occasionally coupled with inevitable failures. It was always interesting to read about your developing knowledge of the game and first-time interactions with various features.
I love how your base turned out in the end. Even by using less common building blocks or combinations, you managed to create a vibrant and fairly organized settlement with a thriving community, as well as a number of established locations elsewhere. It's an impressive accomplishment for your first major world.
Having a break now is totally understandable, and don't feel rushed to move on to your next world. Regardless, I will always look forward to reading your upcoming journals.
I agree, the first world will always be special.
For the longest time, my first world was the only one I played. While that's no longer the case, it's still there if I ever want to return to it.
There was a lot that changed with village mechanics in the 1.14 update, and since villages are a big part of the progress of that first world, it feels more like an old Minecraft era world. I did modify the villages in accordance with the changes, but it wasn't always graceful or complete. I only ever updated the world to 1.20 (right before 1.11 made elytra a real thing) and the region I played in was even older 1.6 style terrain generation (different terrain generation eras didn't blend together back then, but had harsh chunk walls), so overall, the world felt weird. I did update it to 1.19 once 1.18 added chunk blending, but I still haven't played it much since then... hence it was never kept up and is still in 1.19 (I should at least bump it up now, since 1.19 has performance issues and 1.20 would further add cherry groves, though I'd have to re-prune the 1.18+ area chunks again, so it's something I'll do but it will need time).
Sorry to carry on, but watching your world as an outside really brings my memories back to my first world. I wasn't as active on the forums back then (which is funny because these forums used to be super active), so making shorter term worlds and making threads for them has helped me find further enjoyment in the game and community.
Edit: If you ever want to consider sprucing the game up, consider looking into mods, namely ones that add new features or change terrain generation. Regarding terrain generation, I have a combination of mods I can recommend if you're interested, which will change terrain generation and even add new biomes and items. As a warning, it will make the world scale larger, but since you play on large biomes, this might be right up your alley anyway. And you appear to be playing at a higher render distance, I presume your hardware would be up to the task (terrain generation mods can make the game more resource demanding, and chunk generation is already the game's most demanding aspect). I was going to make a thread myself for such a modded instance... but time has prevented me from getting around to it. Don't feel pressured to do it for this reason, but watching someone else do it would be a treat.
As for mods that add new feature/system mods, I haven't dug into those yet since they're usually not what I'm looking for, but they do exist.
You might want to consider setting up a 1.20.1 or 1.21.4 instance if you go this route, since some mods haven't updated beyond either version yet due to the game changing a lot beneath the surface since 1.21.5.
"'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).