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Been re-working the Egg Farm inside the Spire. The chicken pond is high enough you don't hear the splashing as they swim around (a must!). There's a hole at the base of the Spire where you toss eggs, and the hatching chickens are ushered up to the pond to grow and lay eggs. I've got one spot where a chicken refuses to move on, so I need to tear it open there and see if I can set it up to be a bit more mandatory.

Nothing really spectacular, but I made a mockup in Creative of how the egg farm lifts the chickens from the ground to the Egg Farm in the Sky, in case any MCPE users out there hadn't already seen one of these. The real version is about 20 blocks high and made of Netherbrick, so it isn't very good for showing how it works. This one is shortened and made of glass.



This is the view from inside the Spire. You're standing on the other side of the Obsidian wall. You toss your eggs through the hole at the bottom right. Any chickens that hatch drop down into the tunnel. Eventually they walk into the water and swim to the surface (I left holes for visibility, you'll want to put blocks all around the water to prevent them from jumping out). They reach the top of that water, and the only way out is into the water shaft next to it. When they get to the top of it they're immediately in pushing water that pushes them around the corner and into the last water shaft that takes them up and drops them into the chicken pond (not shown here).

Other than just the planning and arranging needed, the only neat trick involved is the shaft straight into rushing water. Lay your trough over the top of your vertical shaft, blocking the shaft with a solid block. Pour in the water so it flows through the whole thing. Then destroy the block at the top of the shaft and water flows down it, but doesn't reroute the flowing water.

Working on the house again. I don't have any specific plan in mind. I'm just assembling bits as I think they look okay, and there's been a fair amount of ripping stuff back up again. I'm not using a single material as the concept (all wood, all marble, all metal, etc). I'm going to try for a mix of all if I can. Here's a few screens of it in progress. None of this is permanent.

Here's the inside. Pretty much all I've done is lay the support beams and finish off the far wall. It had been wood that burned in the fire, and I hadn't ever replaced it.

And here's the front deck. I'm fairly satisfied with it so far, although I may give metal bars underneath a try instead of fence posts.

The fire in the water out front was just a for-fun thing. I've killed a couple of creepers with it, but I don't get any drops from them. Looks like the fire destroys those too. Oh well.

I haven't figured out yet what I'm going to do with the waterfall into the main lobby, if I'll keep it or find a way to get rid of it. I'm not going to replace the water mob trap that was there is all I know.

I know some of you have been sitting at your computers frantically refreshing this thread hoping for an update from me. Well, here's your fix, hopefully it's enough to last you until 2015. I don't expect I'll have anything significant to report on until then.

This week's update: ArkRail. A monorail system linking Rackpoint with South Fort, so I don't have to spend 5 minutes walking there anymore. I have to spend 2.5 minutes riding a railcar. This monstrosity took a fricking TON of cobblestone to make. And 36 entire blocks of iron. And half my gold reserves to make a power rail to go every 32 spaces to keep the railcar moving at a good clip. I still have a god-awful amount of support poles to make. The 4 shown in these images below are the only ones built at this point. The rest of the monorail is floating magically in the air, as things do in Minecraft. The power rails are spaced with the support poles. On top of every pole is a power rail.







Here is how I'm currently inserting the support beams. Sand balanced on signs, so that when I break the bottom one they all fall down. I got tired of manually digging lots of dirt out of the sky. It takes about a full daylight cycle to make one pole and set of supports. This'd be so much easier in Creative...



Here is the rail station at South Fort. Just a spiral staircase leading up to the rails. The Arkrail is level all the way across. I didn't feel like paying for enough powered rails to accelerate uphill.





And just for fun, here's the view of Yggdrasil from the rail as it passes:

Let's hear it for dreaming up building designs while half-asleep in the mornings! This railway station is ugly as sin, but it's an interesting design for me. 3 levels. The bottom level is the ticket seller. I figured out how to port a villager all the way across from South Fort to RackPoint using the railway, just so I could have a ticket seller. Past the Sales Counter and up 2 flights of stairs to the Departure level (also known as the roof). Incoming railcars come in on the second floor. There's a chest in the ceiling to store the rail cars in so that people on the Departure level can pick them up. Departing cars shoot off the roof and drop onto the railway and head off to South Fort. I haven't redesigned South Fort's terminal into a similar layout yet, although I did install a ticket seller there too.



Arrivals leave on the staircase. Departures enter through the door at the bottom right, then up a staircase at the back of the building.


And here is our adorable curmudgeon ticket seller in action:



And here's a view from the back side of the building, where you can sort of make out the staircase leading to the Departure Deck:

I've completed the posts and supports for the pillars on the first leg of the ArkRail. I went through and counted, and there are 12 pillars on the first leg (going south), 16 pillars on the second leg (going east), and 13 pillars on the last leg (going south). With 32 or so rails between each pillar, that comes out to roughly 1408 pieces of rail, and 49 pieces of powered rail.

Oops. Ignore this comment

Quote from Master_TMO»

I know some of you have been sitting at your computers frantically refreshing this thread hoping for an update from me. Well, here's your fix, hopefully it's enough to last you until 2015. I don't expect I'll have anything significant to report on until then.

This week's update: ArkRail. A monorail system linking Rackpoint with South Fort, so I don't have to spend 5 minutes walking there anymore. I have to spend 2.5 minutes riding a railcar. This monstrosity took a fricking TON of cobblestone to make. And 36 entire blocks of iron. And half my gold reserves to make a power rail to go every 32 spaces to keep the railcar moving at a good clip. I still have a god-awful amount of support poles to make. The 4 shown in these images below are the only ones built at this point. The rest of the monorail is floating magically in the air, as things do in Minecraft. The power rails are spaced with the support poles. On top of every pole is a power rail.







Here is how I'm currently inserting the support beams. Sand balanced on signs, so that when I break the bottom one they all fall down. I got tired of manually digging lots of dirt out of the sky. It takes about a full daylight cycle to make one pole and set of supports. This'd be so much easier in Creative...



Here is the rail station at South Fort. Just a spiral staircase leading up to the rails. The Arkrail is level all the way across. I didn't feel like paying for enough powered rails to accelerate uphill.





And just for fun, here's the view of Yggdrasil from the rail as it passes:

Good job! By the way, the best spacing for powered rails, assuming a full speed start of four, is actually 37.
This might save you a few rails. : )

Quote from kittykattykat»

Good job! By the way, the best spacing for powered rails, assuming a full speed start of four, is actually 37.
This might save you a few rails. : )

Thanks for the info!

I'd done a quick search, but couldn't find anything, so I came up with 32 by trial and error, and it's conveniently half a stack of rails. I also don't have 4 power rail starters at each end. I'll keep those numbers in mind for the northern stretch. I've run the cobblestone north to the Wool Mill (only had to drill through one mountain along the way), and am currently mining under Belhatom to try and replenish my stores before laying rail. The only interesting thing about it so far is that I found a Zombie Spawner and Spider Spawner practically right next to each other. I died several times before I managed to plant enough lights to shut them down. I haven't converted either into a mill, since the drowning idea doesn't work so well anymore with the latest update. The Spider Spawner under the Wool Mill is dangerous now - the spiders can swim down and bite at me occasionally. I haven't put any time into redesigning the concept into something that works.

Not that I really need to turn either of them into a Mill. I already have a Spider Mill, and Zombie drops are kinda pointless. It's faster and more efficient to grow them than try to mill them.

Quote from Master_TMO»

Thanks for the info!

I'd done a quick search, but couldn't find anything, so I came up with 32 by trial and error, and it's conveniently half a stack of rails. I also don't have 4 power rail starters at each end. I'll keep those numbers in mind for the northern stretch. I've run the cobblestone north to the Wool Mill (only had to drill through one mountain along the way), and am currently mining under Belhatom to try and replenish my stores before laying rail. The only interesting thing about it so far is that I found a Zombie Spawner and Spider Spawner practically right next to each other. I died several times before I managed to plant enough lights to shut them down. I haven't converted either into a mill, since the drowning idea doesn't work so well anymore with the latest update. The Spider Spawner under the Wool Mill is dangerous now - the spiders can swim down and bite at me occasionally. I haven't put any time into redesigning the concept into something that works.

Not that I really need to turn either of them into a Mill. I already have a Spider Mill, and Zombie drops are kinda pointless. It's faster and more efficient to grow them than try to mill them.

Cool! By the way, how to you normally mine? Do you explore caves? I did some tests, and I found that strip mining is very efficient. Just go to about 11 blocks above bedrock, and mine a straight tunnel. You should get plenty of gold, redstone, lapis, emeralds, and diamonds.

Quote from kittykattykat»

Cool! By the way, how to you normally mine? Do you explore caves? I did some tests, and I found that strip mining is very efficient. Just go to about 11 blocks above bedrock, and mine a straight tunnel. You should get plenty of gold, redstone, lapis, emeralds, and diamonds.

I've mined several different ways over time. The original mine under Rackpoint I dug a grid of tunnels, each 4 blocks in height, spaced 5 blocks apart. So any larger ores are very likely to be spotted, unless they just happen to hide within a 2 block cube. I've explored the caverns under Rackpoint, the Grassland Grottos and Ironzed, as well as the two big named ones (that I can't currently think of- it's been awhile since I've been in either). The Belhatom mines I dug a spiral staircase down to bedrock, then backed up to about 10 or 11 and dug straight out, two shafts one on top of the other, with 2 block width separating them. Then every three blocks I shoot a side tunnel in each direction as far as 1 stone pick will take me. It should be a 100% coverage mine covering a very large area. I've only hit lava once. Dying in that cost me a brand new iron pick, too. I've only encountered one set of caverns, and one underground pond.

I've found a fair chunk of iron and gold, and some diamond too. But not enough yet to replace everything I spent laying rail to South Fort. This will be a shorter distance to cover though. I've probably got enough now to do it, but am still mining while I'm here.

If tnt was easy to make in large quantities, it'd be tempting to lay a whole bunch of it down here in the exposed areas and just clear it out all at once.

Minor update. I found a second cavern system that has been pretty rich in iron and coal, and one underground pool in it had seams of iron, coal, gold and diamond ore, all in one spot. I'm still exploring the farther reaches of this cavern. It's got lots of gravel which makes cave-ins a recurring threat. I've accidentally kicked off two smaller ones, but fortunately nothing's fallen on my head yet.

Quote from Master_TMO»

I've mined several different ways over time. The original mine under Rackpoint I dug a grid of tunnels, each 4 blocks in height, spaced 5 blocks apart. So any larger ores are very likely to be spotted, unless they just happen to hide within a 2 block cube. I've explored the caverns under Rackpoint, the Grassland Grottos and Ironzed, as well as the two big named ones (that I can't currently think of- it's been awhile since I've been in either). The Belhatom mines I dug a spiral staircase down to bedrock, then backed up to about 10 or 11 and dug straight out, two shafts one on top of the other, with 2 block width separating them. Then every three blocks I shoot a side tunnel in each direction as far as 1 stone pick will take me. It should be a 100% coverage mine covering a very large area. I've only hit lava once. Dying in that cost me a brand new iron pick, too. I've only encountered one set of caverns, and one underground pond.

I've found a fair chunk of iron and gold, and some diamond too. But not enough yet to replace everything I spent laying rail to South Fort. This will be a shorter distance to cover though. I've probably got enough now to do it, but am still mining while I'm here.

If tnt was easy to make in large quantities, it'd be tempting to lay a whole bunch of it down here in the exposed areas and just clear it out all at once.

There are no creeper spawners, but you could make a general mob farm. You would get plenty of creeper drops from it. Keep in mind TNT doesn't drop all the blocks you destroy.

Quote from kittykattykat»

There are no creeper spawners, but you could make a general mob farm. You would get plenty of creeper drops from it. Keep in mind TNT doesn't drop all the blocks you destroy.

Didn't know there weren't creeper spawners. It sounds terrifying, but a nice way to collect gunpowder. I'm actually almost done with a general mob farm under Belhatom, roughly based on this video:

If I've got it spaced right, the mobs will spawn even if I'm in my house in Belhatom, ride up the central column and get dropped through a lava blade.

And I knew TNT didn't drop all of the blocks destroyed, but I was talking about using in the area already cleaned, so the only drops left would be stone and redstone (which I'm not collecting).

Hmph. The Mob Farm is finished, but no mobs are spawning in the underground farm I built them. Ungrateful little beasts.

What is the proper distance? If I read correctly, mobs won't spawn within 24 spaces of the player, and could despawn if more than 32 blocks away, so I built the farm 25 blocks below the surface.

Quote from Master_TMO»

Hmph. The Mob Farm is finished, but no mobs are spawning in the underground farm I built them. Ungrateful little beasts.

What is the proper distance? If I read correctly, mobs won't spawn within 24 spaces of the player, and could despawn if more than 32 blocks away, so I built the farm 25 blocks below the surface.

You have it right, maybe your light level is too high? Make sure to wait a while before traveling back in the no spawn range.

Even though you already know, here's a cool picture for future refrence.

Well, it turns out I need to do a bit of redesign of the farm anyways. Looks like mobs don't fall through a lava blade, but try to swim in it. A zombie did show up in the feeder. Oh well, such is life. As far as why not many are showing up, I probably have some caves somewhere siphoning off the mob spawns.

I've redesigned it into a drown tower and lit up the cave underneath, but mobs still aren't spawning in the dark farm room, even in daylight. So I've probably got another cave system undiscovered somewhere in the area. *sigh* It's tempting to just move over to an empty plain and build a mob farm in the air, so I can control all the variables. Problem is I don't want this huge structure just floating in the air, so I'd probably cover it with an artificial mountain. And that sounds like so much work.

I've sunk 3 shafts straight down from the surface looking for any missed caves, but so far no luck. I seem to get about 1 or 2 mobs per day cycle actually spawning in the mob farm. I'm wondering if it's somehow too close or too far away to the surface. It's 24 blocks from the surface to the ceiling, and then 2 more to the floor. *shrug* I don't know. I did notice that my mob farm has 4x4 blocks of open area, while the video above used 6x6, so my surface/water ratio down there is lower. I might go in and tweak that, and maybe lower the whole thing one more block.

Welp, I've found some branches of the cavern with the Zombie and Spider spawners that hadn't been explored, so I've been lighting those up. Found a fair chunk of mobs down there, but they could have spawned while I was close, not necessarily while I was at the surface. But, I did have a blast pouring lava down a dark tunnel and incinerating a half-dozen mobs that were lurking down there.



Some of the tunnels seemed to go pretty far up, so even though I first intersected this cavern at about 11 from the bedrock, it's probably the main cause of spawn hijacking. And this morning I was exploring to make sure explored areas were fully lit, and realized a vertical shaft was dark at the top, and might have other branches leading out from higher up. And then a skeleton shot me from up there... It's tricky trying to build a dirt tower to climb a vertical shaft while you're being shot at by skeletons. And then a zombie jumped on my head and knocked me off it...



But I cleared those mobs out and am now exploring a new set of caverns. I don't know how far they extend yet.