Minecraft Forums

Quote from neutralmonkey95

no pics no clicks buddy

How is that...
How are you supposed to have pics of a challenge meant to be used in ay world, with any seed...?

Where you on a server?
It may just be an arena underground...
If your on SSP it may just be a kind of cave.

Here's an idea:
Build a scale Empire State Building

Quote from DjInTheD

Ohh I'm not too bright on all the Christian historical stuff, I associate it more with assassins creed yknow with like Eden where the ones who came before and the first civilization and all them, I'm gonna fix that though because now it doesn't seem right

Oh, and thanks :3

No problem.
People just seem to associate it more with Assassin's Creed, and I think it's a good idea to keep them informed that the little warning about religous veiws in the very begining does mean something.

Nice building!
On a side note, The Garden Of Eden isn't from Assassin's Creed, it's a place adapted from the Christian bible, which was then added into Assassin's creed for the ideals of the "Peices of Eden"

Not exactly a masterful work of art...
It's basicly a cave with a diamond deeper in.

In 1.0 animals only spawn on newly generated chucks. Other than that your chances of getting them to spawn on a man-made island are almost non existant...

I'll always try to think of clever names for my buildings, and then I'll build automatic battlefields with barriers that rise and fall, because of redstone
These things always go unused, of course...

Mobs can't spawn on the Mycelium, once you remove it they'll start spawning again.
USE YOUR HEAD.

I hate it when I finally dry up the last of my oil well.
I hate it when my dammed apple tree doesnb't drop saplings
/Technic mod pack/

I'll save you guys wanting to read this. TL;DR, I'm mad because saddles can't be crafted so now this whole release is stupid. Basically, just your standard annoying complaint thread. Nothing to see here.

Twilight Forest mod, I think.

So, there's this realm you want to go to, but not sure how quite to approach it? Go in for a quick look for some Glowstone, leave forever? Well, the Nether can be your friend! It, like any biome, has its ups and downs. Let's take a look at what to do, and what you CAN do. Starting with:

Preparation for the Nether

So, you've come this far to be able to go in.. You've made a portal (either from placed obsidian or cooling placed lava sources, since diamonds elude you so?) and you're ready for your first trip to the Nether. Now, you want to be prepared, so you don't die instantly!

First off: Equipment. What and why?

You want to have at least 3 good stacks of some blast resistant material, stone strength or better. I suggest cobblestone, as it's easy to pick out at a range (but then so is most things in the Nether), it's very easy to harvest and you won't mind wasting it if you die. You can have anything with explosive resistance you desire, but valuables such as bricks may not be good! You can die almost instantly in the Nether, if you get unlucky. Just not dirt!

Armour! A full set of Iron armour should do you good. It has ample hit resistance, good strength, and will protect you from those pigmen should you get in a fight. By the time you're ready to go to the Nether, you should have plenty of iron with which to make a full set of it. This is pretty essential to your survival.

Food, meaty or vege. Have a full stack, or close to, of bread, beef, melon slices, or combinations of the above. You don't want to run dry in the Nether, it's easy to take that last half heart of fall damage. Plus, you want the passive healing from all your little scuffles or falls, or being blown up.

You need some weaponry. An iron sword is your best friend here, as is a bow and a steady supply of arrows. You need a bow or sword to deflect ghast fireballs, by hitting them. These are the main source of pain in the Nether. Swords, with iron armour, should suffice against Zombie Pigmen, if you're running a little low on arrows (which I am all the time..).

Torches aren't essential, but for lighting up where you've been, so you can see better is good. Also a good marker for where you've been, visible from far away. Nether Wart grows better next to a source of light, if you're so inclined.

Starting in the Nether

Now you're prepared, what do you do?
Go through your portal, and take a look around. You'll spawn in one of four main locations.
1) Floating on a small obsidian outcrop next to your portal above the lava ocean or high above land.
2) In the main area of the Nether, in a sheltered cove.
3) In a side cavern somewhere.
4) In the main area of the Nether, in a highly exposed area near the lava ocean.

A portal higher up is better, as you have a higher chance to spawn on a higher level, and thus further away from the lava ocean. A bedrock portal may look awesome but isn't doing you many favours!

So, how do you deal with this?

1) You need to make a cobble path to the nearest "layer" of the Nether. At least cobble or stronger, so ghasts don't blow it up. If there are ghasts nearby, shoot! Shoot to kill! They can easily knock you off. You just need luck here, once you make it to the mainland you're fine. Make a tube of any material to block ghast Line of Sight to your portal from the mainland, as to put yourself out of danger if there are any more ghasts on later visits.

2) You're good! This is an ideal spawn position.

3) You need to dig until you find the main area of the Nether. A few mushrooms won't do you much good! Just don't pass below layer 31 (your eyes are at your feet level + 1.62 blocks). At 31 is the lava ocean, and burrowing into that will be disastrous.

4) Try to get to a bit of a sheltered area, and make a tube as with (1) to that. Safety first.

You're in the Nether now, and you're safe. This is good.

From here, you want to find a body of Netherrack close to your portal. Dig into it, make it as nice as you want on the inside. This will be your base. You need chests in here, for your loot or anything you don't wish to lose (don't venture out in the Nether when you're not prepared to die). DO NOT PUT A BED IN HERE. Beds, upon activation in the Nether, violently explode. Not only that, they set you on fire when they do so. Unless you're mining like a pro with fire resistance potions.. avoid this.

Coat the inside of your home with a blast-proof material. Ghasts live so you do not.

You've established yourself in the Nether now. Excellent!

Harvesting the Nether

Now for the sweet, sweet rewards of this hostile dimension.

Let's take a quick look at the mobs, to know how to handle what.

Zombie Pigmen: Your basic mob in the Nether. Spawns anywhere regardless of light level, will not attack first. They do considerable damage without any armour, and if you attack one, the entire pack will attack. After attacking one, all of them in the Nether remain hostile for a couple of minutes, but time heals all wounds.

Strategy: Just kill them with your sword. Easy done like any other zombie. If you've got Splash Healing Potions, these hurt Zombie Pigmen and heal you.

Drops: Experience, rotten flesh, gold nugget (used for healing potions later!).

Ghasts: Your worst nightmare. They'll shoot explosive projectiles at you. At point blank range, with no armour, they do 10 damage! Instant death! But fear not, they have considerable damage fall-off, that is, the further they travel the less they hurt. Can be reflected back at the ghast, with good aim, by hitting it with a sword or an arrow. Remember to shoot at where it's going to be, not where it is! Fireballs have travel time.

Strategy: Shoot it. Arrows help here, greatly. If you don't have any, hide and wait for it to pass on, since they don't actively follow you, or if you're feeling brave try hit its fireballs back at it. If you manage to hit a fireball with an arrow back at it as it's launched, that's a LOT of damage right there!

Drops: Experience, Ghast Tear (alchemy material), gunpowder.

Magma Cubes: These little guys, or big guys as it may be, behave much like slimes (they have a different model though. They're cute!). When they move, they split into many sections, allowing you to see their lava core (only in singleplayer). They'll try jump on your head to hurt you, but otherwise behave much like slimes. Treat them accordingly.
Remember, though, even the little ones hurt!

Strategy: Smack it 'til it stops moving.

Drops: Experience (each little slime will drop experience. All the more for you).

Blazes: Blazes are perhaps the most annoying mob in the Nether. They shoot volleys of 3 fireballs at you, though these, unlike ghasts' fireballs, are unreflectable. Blazes only spawn in Nether Fortresses, though, from Blaze Spawners, which I'll cover in a moment. Snow Golems can do damage to these guys with snowballs, but they die faster than they can kill Blazes, so several are needed to be effective.

Strategy: Shoot them, and dodge the fireballs. They're not explosive like ghast ones, but will set you alight all the same. If they're close enough, or you've roofed off the spawner location, you can consider your sword. Just make sure to keep an eye on your health. If you managed to get ice in the Nether via hacks or Silk Touch enchant, place and break to generate water. Water hurts Blazes, but they won't drop loot if killed this way!

Drops: Blaze Rods. These are essential in alchemy, for the brewing stand itself and magma cream. Valuable!

And now the blocks!
You've got: Nether Bricks, Netherbrick Fences, Glowstone, Soulsand, Gravel, Netherrack, Nether Wart, Blaze Spawners and LAVA EVERYWHERE.

In order!

1) Netherbricks can be found in Nether Fortresses, which are a rare structure generated in the Nether. To find one, just keep looking! There are no shortcuts, only exploration will do.

2) Netherbrick Fences occur in the bridges leading to Nether Fortresses, as window bars. You can alternate them with fences to create a barrier you, but not mobs, can pass through in the Overworld.

3) Glowstone is the main reason to go to the Nether. It's a lightsource, and a fantastic decoration! The dust is also used in alchemy. They occur in coral-like formations stuck to ceilings, so it may take a bit of effort to get to them. Definitely worth the hassel, though! They make great street lamps, or just to add to the ambiance of your house.

4) Soul Sand is a great utility. It slows anything that walks over it right down, and lowers them partially into the block. It sinks mobs if placed underwater, and if you make your harbor out of them, reduces the angle of collision of boats by some amount of degrees, making it safer to crash (slightly). Also the only thing Nether Wart can grow on.

5) GRAVEL. THE CURSE HAS SPREAD TO THE UNDERWORLD. IT'S THAT BAD.

6) Netherrack is the basic stone of the Nether, once on fire it will never be put out (great for fireplaces!). Netherrack is extremely weak. This means you can harvest copious amounts if you need lots of filler, and fast, though it's blown up easily.

7) Nether Wart. It's the "wheat" of the Nether, par se. It's grown on soul sand, and is needed to create "Awkward Potion"s in alchemy. These form the base for most positive effect potions. You place it on soul sand, put a light source on it, and there's an extremely small chance every 20th of a second it will reach the next stage of growth. Once at stage 3, it yields 2-4 Nether Wart when harvested (though stages 1 and 2 yield one. No wastage). You don't need to worry about water for these (or lava is you assumed that), and they are immune to being trampled. They're tough! These are found in soul sand farms within Nether Fortresses. If your Nether Fortress doesn't have any, bad luck. You just need to keep looking for more Fortresses unfortunately.

8) Blaze Spawners. These only appear in Nether Fortresses, and are the only source of Blazes. You technically can paralyze them, if you place torches on every square in its spawning radius. Build a roof over these to make blazes MUCH easier to fight! Don't destroy these, as if you lose your Brewing Stands when you've got them you can only make more from these! Additionally, Blaze Powder is used in alchemy (you get 2 per Blaze Rod), for Strength Potions. You can combine it with Slimeballs to make Magma Cream, used in Fire Resistance Potions, or with an Ender Pearl to craft Eye of Ender, which is used to locate Strongholds, and activate the portal to The End.

9) Lava. Don't fall in, don't get knocked in, and.. don't jump in. That is all.

I hope this guide helps.

Good luck; have fun; don't fail!

"You must be a chicken breeder, because you sure know how to raise a cock."

I just performed an interesting experiment with melons. This may have been done before, but in case it hasn't, here it is.

I was wondering if the melon farms described on the Minecraft Wiki were limited by each vine having only one available space to grow a melon. The authors make a big deal about how this or that layout is 44% efficient or whatever, but that is in terms of space; what about time?

I set up two plots. The first (group A) was a miniaturized Wiki farm design, and was a 2 x 3 plot of tilled dirt with three melon vines along one long side:

MX
MX
MX


(M - melon vine; X - tilled earth)

The other plot (group B ) consisted of three 3 x 3 plots of tilled earth, with each vine at the center of each.

XXX XXX XXX
XMX XMX XMX
XXX XXX XXX

All squares of tilled dirt were hydrated. I then waited and counted, harvesting melons and re-tilling the ground as they developed.

Result: group B outperformed group A by 15 melons to 4.

The corners of the 3 x 3 plots were not necessary; I expanded the three group B plots to ten plots, and am growing wheat in the corners.