Minecraft

[Finsternis]

So, is anyone playing Minecraft? It's the cool person's new indy smash hit!

This is definitely the best new game in ages, especially in the "crappy old-school graphics but fascinating emergent gameplay" category. I love fully-destructible persistent worlds especially with good physics engines. I've heard "it's like Dwarf Fortress in 3D", but I wouldn't know because DF won't run on Windows 7 64 bit. I love the infinite, procedurally-generated random worlds, making forts to hide from zombies, and just generally exploring and building cool stuff.

You can play the "classic" version online for free, but it's pretty old and has far fewer features. You need to buy the game to play the new Alpha version, but it's only ten Euros (about $13) and way better. It's in very active development. But now and get updates for free when it leaves alpha (and alpha is very stable). There's a dev blog and very active community.

If you want to get an idea of what it's about, here's a very basic introduction.

[pinback]

Notch is an asshole! But it does look cool, and now I'm contractually obligated to try it.

(A contract I signed with Finsternis.)

(IN BLOOD!!!!!)

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I'm missing out on a ton of shit because of the time I am taking to finish this text game. When I am done, I have to catch up on four and a half years of entertainment, plus the new Civ game.

[Finsternis]

Well, it's not really a game. It's a virtual sandbox. There's no goal, no timer, nothing specific to accomplish. It's easy to jump in for a couple minutes, fuck around, and quit. It's a great app when you only have 20 minutes for fun.

[Finsternis]

(A contract I signed with Finsternis.)

(IN BLOOD!!!!!)

And I expect to see screenshots of your amazing epic abode later this evening!

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

This will give us a good chance to criticize Pinback for home design choices that he made in a virtual environment. I think this has the possibility to get very personal very quickly.

Let's have the screenshots, Ben.

[Finsternis]

Let's have the screenshots, Ben.

You too, shorty.

[Finsternis]

It's Midnight your time! Yesterday you said you'd get right on it! Where are my screenshots???

[pinback]

Here's a house I built on the side of a hill.



Here's the inside of the house.



Here's the view out the back door of the house:



This took about a half hour, since every few minutes or so a random, unseen bomb would explode and kill me and send parts of the house flying.

No, yeah. Great game. I can totally see what all the fuss is about. U CAN MAKE SQUARE HOUSES AND ASPLODE!!!

Emperor?? CLOTHES???

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

You can just hurl bombs at people from miles away? haha, I may have to get into this.

Nice house, otherwise, Pinback. I expect it to be a bag of rubble the next time you log in. I like the ocean view, though.

[pinback]

Let me just ask this:

Is part of the fun learning what you can craft, or should I just go on a website and learn all the various shit you can build?

[Finsternis]

The "bombs" are monsters. Did you perhaps notice that at night, monsters come out? If there is a "point" to the game, it's survival. That's why you build houses - so you can lock yourself in at night so the monsters don't get you. Keep your eye on the sun. When it starts getting dark, run like hell for home (the sun sets pretty fast). Don't fight the monsters. Some of them blow up, as you discovered, and even with a good sword and some armor, you will either die or take so much damage you'll spend two days just growing/finding food to heal.

As for the crafting, it depends on what you consider fun. I don't find discovering recipes on my own to be that fun, So I just look 'em up on minepedia.

Random tips:

1) My recommendation is that the first recipes you look up (besides the obvious tools like axes and pickaxes, shovels, etc) are torches, doors, (large) chests, and the furnace.

2) Note that you can regain health by eating, either stuff you find, stuff you kill and cook, or stuff you grow.

3) Use the chests as a bank to store stuff in so if you die, you don't have to start all over. Keep all your most rare stuff in there when you're not using it. When you die, you lose all the stuff you had on you. It does stick around for a short while if you an get back to your death spot fast enough.

4) For me the most fun is discovery. Since the world is a) procedurally generated, b) completely random, and c) infinite, you can just head off and explore aboveground, or pick a cliff wall and start tunneling. Just don't get lost! You can discover some really cool shit underground in addition to useful ores. It's great when you're just tunneling along and all of a sudden you break into a huge underground cavern with a giant waterfall, or lava pools, diamonds, etc.

5) DON'T GO OUT AT NIGHT. Use the time to craft stuff, or else starting tunneling indoors to expand your home and/or discover shit.

6) As for homes, building square houses is very dull. For the first day, just find enough wood to make a crafting table and a door, tunnel a short way into a cliff or whatever, install the door, and cower inside for the night. On the second day, explore to find some amazing location for your home - a natural feature like giant cliff/cave or whatever. It's WAY easier (and more aesthetically pleasing) to carve your home out of an existing mountain than to build a castle. Make sure there's water nearby for farming. The terrain generation engine is *awesome*. If the world you created doesn't have anything interesting nearby, just delete it and make another one. Soon enough you'll find some feature that makes you go "WHOA - I'ma build my house THERE!"

7) Craft and place tons of stairs. This makes getting up and down in your house MUCH faster than jumping. It's a very vertical game.

8) Take advantage of the "no gravity" thing. I just built a walkway from my mountaintop home to the top of another mountain.

9) Make and carry tons of torches. Placed around your home, they keep monsters away (I think) and provide light. They are also absolutely required for tunneling/underground exploring. Also, always carry a workbench and a bunch of wood and stone. You never know when you'll need a new pickaxe or whatever. BTW, workbenches are portable. if you destroy your workbench it turns into an object you can grab and put in your inventory.

10) If your home is far from your spawn point, build and stock a little shelter right there in case you respawn there and don't have time to get home before nightfall. You can also clear/build a nice straight, smooth path from spawn point to your front door so you can find your way easily and don't have to detour all over while you're naked.

11) Go to youtube and watch some of the ten thousand "how to do <x> in Minecraft" videos. They're often very helpful. I've discovered a lot of shit that way. Did you know you can make glass, for example?

Tips from others are welcome - especially if you can figure out how to change your spawn point.

[Finsternis]

I think I figured out the daytime bomb thing.

Some monsters can survive the sun - spiders, for example. One of those monsters is a walking green stick that looks kind of like a mobile stalk of broccoli. I'm not sure if they're the ones that explode, but they can survive in the daylight and they're kind of hard to spot because their color kind of camouflages them against grass. They will definitely chase you.

I'm working on making a bow and arrows so I have some ranged defense. BTW, there is so much more to the game - mine carts and tracks, electrical circuits (switches, gates, levers, indicator lights), pressure plates, TNT, and so on. You can make landmines with a pressure plate and TNT. You can make a demolition system with some "wires", TNT, and a switch. You can even make a record player. Very cool.

[hygraed]

I think I figured out the daytime bomb thing.

Some monsters can survive the sun - spiders, for example. One of those monsters is a walking green stick that looks kind of like a mobile stalk of broccoli. I'm not sure if they're the ones that explode, but they can survive in the daylight and they're kind of hard to spot because their color kind of camouflages them against grass. They will definitely chase you.

I'm working on making a bow and arrows so I have some ranged defense. BTW, there is so much more to the game - mine carts and tracks, electrical circuits (switches, gates, levers, indicator lights), pressure plates, TNT, and so on. You can make landmines with a pressure plate and TNT. You can make a demolition system with some "wires", TNT, and a switch. You can even make a record player. Very cool.

The green things are called creepers, and they are indeed the ones that explode.

Some guy made a working 16-bit computer out of Minecraft blocks:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/09 ... -hardware/

[Finsternis]

Why isn't everyone talking about Minecraft? Waaaaahhh!!

My underground empire is built directly above a massive series of natural caves leading down all the way to the bedrock. It's a mess of twisty, confusing, passageways, waterfalls, and minerals. I'm constantly getting lost exploring it and discovering new places I haven't found. I have wheat fields, glass walls, a hot tub, and all kinds of stuff.

[pinback]

Because what is the point?

What is the point, I ask you, Jarvis K. Finsternis?!?!

[Finsternis]

What is the point, I ask you, Jarvis K. Finsternis?!?!

Because it's there.

Because it's fun.

Because sandboxes are awesome, there's shit to find, because it's an infinite and random universe to explore and mold however you want. Because it's way more creative and interesting than most games out there these days.

[Finsternis]

For anyone wondering why people think Minecraft is so cool...

1) Start Minecraft and login (you have to buy the game for $10 first, worth every penny)
2) Click on Multiplayer
3) Enter "Raddafiskie.com"
4) Press "T"
5) Type "/warp att1"
6) That is all.

[Tdarcos]

To get a taste for the game I tried the free version which uses Java and runs in the browser.

I am singularly unimpressed, if by nothing but the tediously slow performance I'm seeing. For a game with such weak graphics runs so slowly, plus uses WASD for the move keys and can't be reassigned to the arrows, I find the game "mene, mene, tekel upharsin" - Daniel 5:25 which translates as "you have been judged and found wanting".

Way, way, way too slow. So slow as to be unplayable and uninteresting.

[Finsternis]

if by nothing but the tediously slow performance I'm seeing.

Um, you do know about something called "lag" on the internet, right? Also, the free/public servers are swamped with players. The local game runs plenty fast.

plus uses WASD for the move keys and can't be reassigned to the arrows

I agree that's a minor annoyance, but the game is in Alpha and being developed by two guys. There are constant improvements and bug fixes. I'm sure key remapping will be along at some point. I didn't like it at first but got used to it pretty fast. I just use the mouse to aim and press w to go forward. I don't even use a/s/d.

Way, way, way too slow. So slow as to be unplayable and uninteresting.

If speed is your major concern, it's a non-issue.

Also, be aware that the free online version is a VERY old version, not being developed anymore, and lacking a huge number of enhancements that the local version has.