Minecraft 1.8 Would-Be Sneak Peak

In Minecraft, I found how to access special development "Snapshots" to play on unreleased versions. I began writing this blog entry as a sneak peak of update 1.8. But Mojang released it the day after I began writing this post and I got discouraged for a few days.

1.8 is an amazing update, possibly even rivaling the Redstone Update. I have access to the development builds through my own secret means so I would have been able to give you a preview of what to expect.

The first thing that you might notice in the game is the render distance meter has extended all the way to 32 chunks at max. When you do crank it up to max though, it virtually breaks the game. What I think is happening is that each chunk switches with the one that is rendering and you get lots, and lots of switching, identical phantom chunks:

I have found that a render distance of 12 (at least on my computer) is the maximum stable setting.

The second thing I discovered is in my hand. Yes, it's a spawn rabbit.

Unlike horses and cats, the only other animals with a random texture, rabbit textures are all pre-defined. Rabbits can drop three new items: Rabbit Hide, Raw Rabbit, and Rabbit's foot. Rabbit Hide is kind of boring because all you do with it is put four in a square to get a leather. Raw Rabbit can be cooked in the furnace to get cooked rabbit, which can then be combined with a bowl, carrot, a baked potato, and a mushroom of any kind to get Rabbit stew. Here's the cook's secret stew recipe:

In the inventory there are four rabbit hides, a raw rabbit, and a cooked rabbit. Due to the huge number of ingredients I decided to do a test to see if it is more effective to eat the ingredients separately. Here are the results: The rabbit stew restored five chicken legs vs. Cooked rabbit + carrot + baked potato restored 6.5 chicken legs. These are strange results because even without the mushroom and bowl, the Rabbit stew's fate is sealed. Nobody in survival will ever make it. I'm sure that the devs will fix this, it was a development version when I tested it after all. Rabbits get very excited when you pull out a carrot and will even ignore the chance to have babies for the very chance of getting just one delicious carrot (This reminds me very much of my dogs). Remember that rabbits act like cows in their mating, they don't get tamed.

R.I.P. Two innocent rabbits, because my sister told me to tame them. (The diamond sword was involved)

Next in the update there are more varied doors and fences. Basically there are doors and fences for each different type of wood.

The Spruce door looks most like a door I would expect to find in a jungle attached to a tree trunk. Next is a screenshot of all the different fences!

The generic Stick!

When I opened my creative inventory for the first time, I noticed that there are some new stone types: Diorite, Andesite, and Granite. All of these new blocks are related in that they can be crafted with the one before them:

Stone + Nether Quartz = Diorite
Diorite + Stone = Andesite
Diorite + Nether Quartz = Granite

They also are mineable in the overworld so crafting, in my opinion, is wasteful. You can also create polished versions of these blocks to make nice buildings.

My nice, new, expensive, granite countertop kitchen! I can cook the new mutton!

One of the more scary mobs they added was the ender mite. The endermite has a chance of spawning when an ender pearl is used, if it is an enderman, the endermite will have a diminishing chance of spawning where the enderman teleports. The endermite looks a lot like a fat, purple maggot with one red eye.

They aren't very good swimmers and will easily drown.

I've experimented and found that it spawns where you teleport from, meaning that spamming ender pearls into an enemy castle will probably give them some nuances to deal with.

I believe it is time for the grand finale. 1.8 has added Ocean Monuments. Over four times larger than a desert temple it has lots of randomly generated rooms and Guardian mobs. The guardians zap you and squids with their lasers and reflect some damage back to you with their spikes. They drop fish and prismarine.

Look at all the guardians swimming around!

Bows don't work very well under water, so it's a good idea to forget about it and just go in with a sword. Inside are many inter-connected rooms that are randomly generated. Around the center of the monument is a treasure room, it has a large cube of dark prismarine with a core of gold blocks. However, getting to it will be a problem for many people. Firstly, mining your way in is nearly impossible because the Elder-Guardians (Only three per monument and no respawns) give you mining fatigue. Next, you will have to fight your way through the corridors and kill all the dangerous (though somewhat funny) Elder-Guardians along with their babies.

The Elder-Guardians have tons of health and occupy two by two by two blocks, sometimes I see their tails glitching through the roof. The noises they make sound very much like they are burping, and that lead me to name the first one I met Burpy... and then all of the others... Anyway, their scales are much lighter than the other guardians' and they don't like anvils landing on them from a specific person in creative who I will not name.

Now that you have patiently read this long, long, long post I will show you how to use development snapshots:
1. In the launcher window you will click on the button in the bottom left that says "Edit Profile".

 

2. Make sure a checkmark is in the "Enable experimental development versions ("snapshots")" check-box.

3. Use the drop-down box and select the snapshot that is highest on the list (If there is an official version above this one, like in the picture, you will be using a buggy version of the current update).

4. Click the "Save Profile" button (indicated by the green arrow) and play.

To undo this, simply repeat step 1, change the version to the one that you want, and repeat step 4.

Kerbal Space Program wish list

Since Kerbal Space Program is currently in alpha and there are a lot of things to add to it I came up with a few things that I thought should be added:

- MULTIPLAYER!! Use Steam profile so my friend and I can play together. (I just want to secretly de-orbit his space station. >:) )

- Options for RCS thrusters to assist rotation or translation, or both. This would really increase the RCS efficiency for docking because the reaction wheels can handle the rotation... for the most part.

- Biomes on other planets Thank you!

- Re-entry heat and damage (I can currently send my Kerbals straight down in a capsule, hitting the atmosphere at 10 kilometers per second and they still touch down in one piece, not to mention uncooked.)



Mission Control... I don't feel like I'm burning any fat at all...

 

- Gas planets 2, 3, and 4 with their moons.

- Rings around some of the gas planets that yield lots of science from many of the science modules (crew report, impossible to EVA maybe, gravity scan resulting in lots of small fluctuations, perhaps even another module similar to the deep impact data collector.)

- Something that makes it worthwhile to make planetary bases. Currently space stations are the most efficient method of storing fuel and kerbals due to the better ease of access. Thanks for the contracts!

- Better aerodynamics.

Here are some ideas that I had for existing and future planets that may be slightly unrealistic, and that I won't be disappointed if they aren't added to the game.

- A double planet with two planet sized bodies acting as moons circling a "center of gravity" which in turn orbits the sun. If there has to be a physical object at the center then it can be super small with the F3 log message being "ship was torn apart by gravity of double planet" when you crash into it.

- Tilted planets, so we could have seasons, and Uranus!

I will update this post continually as I get new ideas for what could be added and as my old ideas get implemented.

I hope Squad sees these ideas and finds them interesting and worthwhile.

Updated 3/10/2015

Space Engineers, Update 01.041

On Thursday (well... last Thursday, I'm very late) Space Engineers had another update and, contrary to every single update previously, I actually have mixed feelings about it.

Update 01.041 made it possible to control parts via the tool bar, as well as weapons through rotors. Controlling parts with the toolbar, I'm all for, it will allow faster docking via connectors, quickly turning auto lock for the landing gears on, and even deciding which gravity weapon you want to fire.

Weapons being controlled through rotors is the less beneficial part of the update. I have made large, player-operated turrets to mount onto large ships and stations and this is where the difficulty is. Say you are manning a... a heavy destroyer, and you and your crew are escorting a large trading or convoy ship. You have three of these, each manned by one player:



They are in standard position (all facing forward) when you are attacked by space pirates (something I want the developers to add). Only the front of these turrets is currently manned, and the person controlling it aims and fires at the hostiles...

DISASTER...

the fire command zips through the rotor the turret is mounted on, into every launcher on ship and turret alike. The other turrets, still facing directly forward, blast a big hole into whatever is in front of them (their friend's turret). The carnage doesn't stop at that, doing any or all, depending on what is fitted, of the following:

Broadside rocket launchers, these just so happen to be pointing straight at the convoy you are supposed to protect.

Retracted forward launchers, causing an unintended self destruct in only one section of the destroyer.

Uhh... Oops

Smaller secondary turrets, that say are admiring the design of the cargo ship when the signal zips through and horrifies the gunner by creating big gaping holes in the beautiful convoy vessel.

After such a mishap the pirates will have a huge advantage, as both the morale of the crew, and the structure of the ships will be severely compromised.

It seems that the only way to counter this is to spam landing gears on the bottom of the turret, which in turn has to be an entirely new ship. This has lots of problems. Firstly, moving the ship will probably cause severe vibrations, sparks from only one player's perspective, and overall discomfort. The second problem (or complete pain) is maneuvering the turret into the platform, just a small slip might damage something. Next up is volume, to cover up the landing gears you will need to create a "lip" and/or depression where it is to be placed, this could impede space in maybe the engine room of the ship. Last but certainly not least up is survival compatibility. All of those landing gears will empty your entire component stash to build. Ooh! and don't forget that when you try to accelerate in your prized battleship, the turret stuck on the top (or wherever) will make it try to pitch up more than you will want.

Devs, if you are seeing this I have two ideas for you that should be able to fix this and still allow control through rotors and pistons:

Idea 1 (Preferable): Add a new setting to rotors and pistons that will allow weapon control through it.

Idea 2: If Idea 1 is not an option then create a new setting for each cockpit that is called something like "weapon control on this grid only" when it is on (or off, your choice) the cockpit only controls weapons on that grid.

Thank you for reading this and I hope you found it useful.

Geckos aren't mammals!

It appears that Eddie, my gecko, has grown himself a moustache. He's been shedding, so today we looked, and he suddenly has a very nice shed-skin moustache.

Is that a... geckos aren't mammals... they don't have hair!

The Destroyer Turret Mk I

A few days ago I was working on my first big turret in Space Engineers. My intent was that maybe it could be used as a primary weapon on heavy space destroyers, and maybe as a secondary weapon on cruisers.

Here's a screenshot of it in the late development stage with a yellow respawn ship for scale.

Since this picture I have changed part of the barrel extension to blast door blocks so that I could fit bulletproof glass to the sides and between them. The heavy armor on the top is completely optional. I had put it there when paper sensitivity at the controls would easily smash the barrels through the roof.

Here is a more exact readout of it's capabilities and features:

Firepower: Two large ship rocket launchers, quite devastating when firing rapidly.
Rotational Characteristics: Full 360 degree horizontal turning, 0 - 45 degrees of vertical angle.
Power Requirements: A tiny fraction of a small reactor's output.
Gyroscopes: 7 total, 6 of which control horizontal rotation (may change).
Tips: Use arrow pad to rotate accurately, with a bonus of looking both realistic and cool!
Potential Modifications: Could replace side windows with armor for added protection but would have to add another pilot to call out targets from third person view.

Cockpit view. I couldn't finish the center and left glass strips because the rotor displacement stubbornly wouldn't change.

If you have any suggestions to fix it please leave them in the comments, Thank You.

Damage Test on 5x5x3 block of light armor. Further examination revealed that many of the first layer blocks had been destroyed and that the second layer had been heavily damaged.

I like Ike

Going through some files of Kerbal Space Program, probably my favorite game, I found a few screenshots of my landing on Duna's moon Ike. This had been in version 0.23.5, but nonetheless, I decided to make a post about it.

I had just gotten my Kerbals back from a flyby of Dres, and I decided that it was time to do a landing. The ship design itself was fairly simple, a more recent screenshot is below.

The SRBs (Solid Rocket Boosters) would send it up for a while then they would detach and the liquid fueled rockets would take over. They are hooked up in asparagus staging so the outer ones feed into the central tank, allowing more mass to be jettisoned sooner and increasing efficiency. I only added the RT-10 Solid Fuel Booster just below the LV-N for fun, it is completely unnecessary, it wouldn't be smart in 0.24. Up at the top is the lander with droppable fuel tanks below the side tanks. These aren't hooked up with fuel lines so I had to transfer it all manually. The lander itself, I think, is self explanatory.

The launch went perfectly. Orbit was no problem. The LV-N cowls and RT-10 separating looked super awesome. I followed my standard interplanetary handbook (the only copy is in my head) and matched apoapsis with Duna's orbit and waited to adjust when I got a close approach. I think this is the launch where I was over-aggressive with time warp and zipped through Duna's gravity in half a second, got mad, and readjusted back in. I had come in at horrible inclination and was in a polar orbit but, for once, timing was on my side. I encountered Ike on my first orbit around. My manual transfer tanks had been jettisoned when I had been fine tuning the orbit. I just had to slow myself down to land, wait with time acceleration till I was ~5000 meters above sea level, then decelerated more. I guess instead of sea level I should say something like average ground height, since Kerbin, Eve, and Laythe are the only planetary bodies that have standing liquid. Anyway, I landed at a nice 2 meters per second after nearly freaking out because the speedometer hadn't automatically changed to surface speed. Bob got out, did science, and planted a flag with a heroic plaque he copied off of an email we sent him. (Standard Kerbal thing to do.)

I took off and quickly got myself into an orbit. When Ike was aligned properly with Duna's orbit I achieved escape from Ike, and shortly Duna. Once again I used my interplanetary handbook to return to Kerbin. This time to land I used a maneuver to simply redirect my momentum towards the planet. When I was getting close I saw that I still had a lot of fuel left, much more than I had intended. I had to ditch the external fuel tanks and watch them crash. I was still thinking about where I could have cut down the parts of the rocket to increase the efficiency when I had to thrust to cushion the touchdown... Well... I kind of did, but the LV-N still exploded, and then the fuel tank just above it followed suit, another bad thing for 0.24.

The only thing Bob had to say when he was found and brought back to the space center, a few seconds later was, "I like Ike."

An exciting day in Minecraft

Earlier today I was playing survival Minecraft with my sister and a friend, and quite a few interesting things happened.

First off, we had an encounter with a witch very early in the game. We had only two bows, four arrows, and stone swords. All of us had low health and two people were freaking out... well, I kinda joined in when the witch detected me and chased my sister and me across a small field. From the safety of the hidey hole my friend and I split the arrows between us (we were the only ones with bows), and launched the attack. It would have been a perfect victory if my sister hadn't stepped in front of me just as I released the arrow and promptly died. My second arrow fared better. We charged in, and finished it off as it was trying to drink healing potions. Sorry, I didn't get any screenshots.

Afterwards, my friend and I went off exploring a vast plains biome. My sister got blown up several times by naughty creepers. When we were pretty far away night fell and we got involved in some fun mob fights. After a fight with two skeletons, the arrow teleporting bug (which puts arrows on the wrong part of you when you are hit) did something very funny. An arrow that hit around the front, found it's way to my friend's backside and stuck up... forming a perfect tail. (Screenshot!)

After finding it impossible to edit the brightness via paint, I did a little photo editing.

 

The next battle took place near the beach in the background. A couple of creepers took the chance to blow my friend up, scattering his inventory everywhere. I took his iron sword to finish off a skeleton that was dominating me from the high ground. I took what my inventory would allow me, his iron stuff, and swam for my life from the army of monsters coming at me. Because I was lost, I had to go to my sister's computer to get the coordinates for home. When I got home, I returned the iron to it's excited owner.

Just a little bit later, my friend and I were in a huge ravine with no escape route (my sister was farming). As we were going along the ridge my friend was educating a confused me on the subject of Y.O.L.O. You Only Live Once. I think my confusion was understandable because, after all, we weren't on hard core mode. After some strip mining and getting terrified out of our minds by silverfish stone, we decided to leave. With him at one heart, and me at three hearts, we spiral mined up... without help from the two skeletons across from us. At about 50 y height I noticed that I had no chicken legs, "This is a horrible way to die. trapped under ground," I told my friend. Finally, at over 100 y height we heard sheep, and at 126 we got out, finally! After that we split up, desperately searching for food. We met up at the hidey hole, and started smelting the ores.

That concluded our first couple hours of the new game.