{"id":9761,"date":"2010-10-25T07:48:31","date_gmt":"2010-10-25T12:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=9761"},"modified":"2011-02-07T09:23:09","modified_gmt":"2011-02-07T14:23:09","slug":"postcards-from-minecraft-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/?p=9761","title":{"rendered":"Postcards From Minecraft, Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Another week, another ill-advised civil engineering project. This time it’s a glass underwater tunnel. <\/p>\n

minecraft_watertunnel2.jpg<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

The statue from last week<\/a> (which is visible on the right edge of the above shot) was built with the help of my 10 year old daughter, while this one was actually devised by my 12 year old daughter. <\/p>\n

minecraft_watertunnel1.jpg<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

It took us a while to figure out how to build the thing. We messed around with building it a section at a time and then trying to “bail” out the water with buckets, which didn’t work at all. In the end we discovered that the best way to do this is to build a solid shaft of stone. Then sheathe the stone in glass block. Then tunnel out the stone, leaving the hollow tube. <\/p>\n

If Notch ever decides to implement a system where you have to worry about budget overruns, we are so screwed. I’d end up with the Big Dig<\/a> on my hands in no time. <\/p>\n

We put an archway every 5 blocks, mostly to give the thing a sense of shape. While you don’t need to worry about physics in this world and are free to construct massive, unsupported structures from unlikely materials, I’ve discovered that things often look more pleasing if you give them visible support. Columns and arches have an innate elegance. <\/p>\n

minecraft_watertunnel3.jpg<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

Having said that, I regret placing the support arches so close together since they block too much of your view when you’re in the tunnel. If I had it to do over again, I’d build it in deeper water and maybe play around with some vertical movement, bringing the tunnel close to the surface in places and going deep in others. <\/p>\n

I wish the game had fish.<\/p>\n

Note how even though we’re in standing water, from in the tunnel it looks like water is flowing down the sides. <\/p>\n

Click for big view.<\/a><\/td><\/tr>
Click for big view.<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

If you teleport to a remote location that the game doesn’t have in memory, you can sometimes get this glitch where you don’t see your immediate surroundings. The ground you’re standing on is missing, and so all of the underground features are laid bare. This view lasts just a moment, and I usually try to smack the screenshot key before it disappears. <\/p>\n

The above view is taken from the grounds near my house. The stairs you see just above center (you may need to consult the large image to make out the detail) are the bottom of a huge spiral staircase that runs from my house to the bottom of the world. Yes, ladders are more efficient, but I really wanted a staircase. <\/p>\n

The black regions are natural caves. They’re black because I haven’t run into them yet and so I haven’t lit them up with torches. <\/p>\n

The straight tunnels are the starting area of my massive branch mining operation. The tunnels are almost all dug right at the bottom of the diamond layer. I’d originally tried to tunnel towards the upper-left, but obviously I kept running into lava. At the time I thought I was dealing with isolated pockets and I just needed to find a way around it. Now I see it’s a massive lava chamber, and so I’ve abandoned those hellish deathtraps and dug in the opposite direction. I wish you could see more of the system so you can see how large it is. (I’ve dug up a full stack of 64 diamonds, plus change. So far. Which is enough to make all the diamond tools I could ever need, but not quite enough to be able to think about using it as a building material just yet.)<\/p>\n

minecraft_myhouse5.jpg<\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n

My “house” is looking less so. It seems to be turning into some sort of hanging gardens boondoggle. For those who were wondering about building on top of the clouds: Alas, no. You can see here that the clouds are passing right through the garden at the top. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another week, another ill-advised civil engineering project. This time it’s a glass underwater tunnel. The statue from last week (which is visible on the right edge of the above shot) was built with the help of my 10 year old daughter, while this one was actually devised by my 12 year old daughter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9761","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pictures"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9761","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9761"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9761\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shamusyoung.com\/twentysidedtale\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}