Skyblock Survival Episode 2 - Cactus Farm

In this episode we tackle the remainder of the automatic cactus farm.

Skyblock Survival Episode 1 - Tour

Hey guys, just wanted to let everyone know that because of the difficulty of doing a Minecraft series by describing it in writing and with a few pictures, I've opted to instead create a Youtube channel and do videos. The one below is the launch for my Skyblock survival series and of course I'll continue posting the videos on here and on my channel at: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUUcCAtpI8wCCDIt7lU57Yw so be sure to keep watching, thank you for your patients during this transition period and I'll talk at you later.

What I'd like to See Next in Minecraft

If you hadn’t figured it out by now, I really have come to love the game Minecraft which was developed by the game company Mojang. The game is an open ended sandbox game that basically gives the player all the tools and resources they need to create most anything they want and delivers it in a way that is challenging, yet easy to pick up for new players. The game has systems built into it to create unique biomes, develop simple and complex electronics, build small or even massive buildings and make them look good to boot. Like most players I was very excited to have horses added to the game in the 1.6 update and I’m already getting pumped for the extra biomes, enchantment options, and other cool new surprises in store with the 1.7 update, but I feel like there’s one area that really needs to be addressed that the developers have yet to touch on, which is understandable given the scope of what needs to be added for it.

Well isn't this exciting?

Most of those who have played Minecraft for any length of time have run into one or more ocean biomes which as you might imagine are rather large bodies of water some with the occasional island tossed in the middle for good measure. While I’ll be the first to admit that these are necessary topographical features it seems that they and their cousins, the deep oceans coming with update 1.7 are severely underdeveloped areas in the game. So far we have a couple helmet enchants that allow for longer stays under water and even faster mining, and of course they are adding some new fishing mechanics with 1.7, but there’s still so much that could be added. Most notable among the needed additions is of course some kind of ship, or at least larger boats that are (please Mojang) less fragile than their smaller counterparts. To this end I believe there is hope for those eagerly awaiting this change as mods currently exist for the game that allow such things and as the developers at Mojang were willing to work with mod developers to implement horses into the game, maybe they’d be willing to do something similar with ships. Even just making it possible to build on top of several boats (as though they were normal blocks) would be a step in the right direction.

Now that's a bit more like it

Of course what is adventure on the high seas without some sort of creature to be feared in the ocean depths? So far the oceans in Minecraft have actually served as a kind of sanctuary for players. Stuck far from home at night? No problem! Swim out into the ocean and tread water for a while. It’s a little inconvenient yes, but no more so than being shot, chewed, bitten, and exploded to death by mobs. Of course we have the fearsome squids to contend with, but what we really need are some hostile mobs down in the depths and maybe a deep sea boss or two somewhere down there… The kind of boss you need to shoot TNT cannons at to defeat maybe (just a suggestion).

Adding some more life and features to the ocean biomes would definitely go a long way toward adding much needed content to the game and would open up so many new options for current and future players to develop and create with the tools they’re given (I mean really, just think of the mini-game options, not to mention multi-player).

So if you’re on board for adding some seafaring features to the official version of Minecraft, be sure to pass this article along to any of your other friends and family who’d be interested as well and of course to the staff at Mojang; not to pester them, but just to let them know what we’re hoping to see in update 1.8 here at the N3rd C0rn3r.

Rising Sun

So I had this crazy idea one night while watching a Minecraft let's play on YouTube about writing this story. I noticed for the first time that the NPC villagers have churches in some of their villages, but as a sandbox game the creators of Minecraft haven't created a great deal of official lore to go with the world. As I am very familiar with religious texts I thought it might be fun to give them a hand and write up a religion for the villagers that could easily be official lore as it's based entirely off of the games development and mechanics, but from the perspective of the villagers. The story that follows is what resulted from that idea. Read, share, and enjoy!

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In the Beginning was chaos, energy seeking order, purpose, and unity. Trying instinctually, desperately to become part of something more, but alone there was no hope and every attempt was met with only disorder and eventual darkness. Then came

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the greater being James Gosling who wrote into being the structure for the Java giving rise to order where before there was none. After four years James Gosling was satisfied with all his work and moved on to other things beyond our

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understanding leaving the Java to become what it may. The Java remained untouched and unspoiled for nearly fourteen years until it had structure written into it once more. A great being called Notch found a small corner of the Java with the

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potential to be far more than it was and wrote out of what was there the whole land. All that you can see, touch, and hear he made, adding as he saw fit and taking away as was deemed neccessary. But the touch of Notch brought with it unforeseen

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consequences. The raw creative forces brought with them roving dimensional rifts. These weak points in the fabric of space and time allowed monstrous things to cross over and possess Notch's creation. This angered the great being Notch and so he

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fashioned from all the material and all the power he had remaining in him a mighty guardian to watch over the land. Sadly this guardian was only powerful enough to guard the land during the day and had to retreat to replenish its strength each

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night. While this didn't stop the creatures scourge on the land, it did grant the people of the great being's creation a fighting chance against them. Into the vacuum left by the greater being Notch stepped his apprentice the greater being

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Jeb. The great being Jeb continued his teacher's work adding to the world and giving its people many gifts. Among the most blessed were the mighty warriors that arose from amongst the people. To them the greater beings granted the ability

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To craft, to build, and to fight. However their greatest gift and their curse was their immortality. Even when the enemy overcame one of these mighty warriors the greater beings would restore their life and allow them to carry on. Death however

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was not without its costs. Even the mightiest warriors would find themselves as weak and feeble as a newborn after death forcing them to train and work that much harder again to continue the fight. This is their blessing. This is their curse.

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There are those however who rise up without the blessing of the greater beings. Their torch burns bright and quick. These heroes do not linger on as do others. They are honored in song and legend for their courage despite the odds against them.

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It is these heroes both immortal and not that protect the children of the greater beings during the long nights. These heroes however are not immune to corruption and some do fall, becoming champions of the dark. These lost souls seek only

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to bring about pain, suffering, and destruction. They would seek to undo all that the greater beings have sought to accomplish. To prevent all of their order from falling, the last of the heroes established a code of conduct that would

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protect them from their own weakness. First the heroes pledged to watch over the creation of the greater beings, preventing damage where possible, fixing damage where necessary, and improving where desirable. Next they pledged to

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train and learn to fight the creatures that plagued the land. They became experts in melee and ranged combat using technique and strategy to overcome their foes. They pledged also to master their worlds, gathering the elements around

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them and repurposing them to aid in the fight against the dark. The heroes learned not only how to create light, but how to fight the scourge even in the deepest darkness. They pledged to use every advantage given them in their fight, even the

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arcane arts to better their chances. Finally they pledged to guard the weak from the creatures of the night even fighting through the very depths of the underworld to cure those once thought lost for all time. This order of heroes was known as

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the order of the players and it continues in its quest to this day. Each player is said to be a volunteer from among the great beings who becomes like unto one of us to save us from the darkness. We honor their courage and sacrifice with

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our prayers and the humble assistance we can offer them when they are here with us. Thankfully the greater beings are a generous people and ask little from us in return. They are also a pragmatic people, not wishing for us to become lazy or

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complacent and as such they do not grant our every request. Take comfort in the knowledge that you shall not ever want for what you need and be satisfied with what you have been blessed with. To desire the riches and power of the greater beings

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is to dishonor what good things they have given you. Do not be like the fools who built their homes deep underground, seeking the riches hidden there for they have all come to unfavorable ends. Instead place the entry to your home where it

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can be seen by the great guardian of the day so that he might know of your devotion to the greater beings and so that you might be remembered and protected by them. Likewise do not stray too far from the homes you've been blessed with, lest you

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become cursed to roam the land until the night takes you. Be fruitful and fill your village, town, and city with the sounds of children playing until all the homes you've been blessed with have been filled. Only the priest, clothed in a

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purple robe may use the dark stones, for they are a holy material of the greater beings and will lead only to the destruction of those not sanctified to make use of their power. Avoid the creatures of the night, the creepers who sneak

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up behind the unaware, the skeletons who will shoot you from afar, the zombies who seek to make you like them, the slimes who are never truly alone, and especially the enderman who will seek to destroy any who is brazen enough to gaze upon

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them. All these however pale in comparison to the dragon. So powerful is he that our realm would have been utterly destroyed should he have been left to roam free. Not wishing to see their creation ruined the greater beings imprisoned

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the dragon in a pocket dimension they called "the end," but they knew this was only a temporary solution. The greater beings foresaw a great hero from among the order of the players arising and venturing into the dragon's cage to end the

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threat of the beast once and for all. To facilitate the fulfillment of this prophecy the greater beings left three portals to the prison dimension scattered throughout the world. These were left inactive to prevent all but the prophesied one

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from finding their way into the dragon's lair. The portals were locked in their inactive state and the 12 keys destroyed and the pieces scattered to the far ends of creation. Some fell into the hands of the endermen and granted them unnatural

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teleportation abilities. The other pieces where cast into the Nether, an infinite garden dimension where every manner of tree and plant could be found. The key pieces set this idyllic dimension ablaze and gave rise to creatures of pure flame

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who desire nothing more than to spread the eternal flame forever across the Nether's now charred and barren surface. The prophesied one must not only defeat the powerful enderman and capture their pearls, but also journey into the very depths

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of the Nether itself and capture the concentrated essence of flame from the creatures of pure fire. They must then combine these elements and set them aloft that they might lead the prophesied one to the nearest of the portals, for the keys are

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always seeking to return to their locks. The greater beings did secure the beast so very well for it is no simple foe. No fortification can stand in the way of its strength and the beast will not be taken by surprise. The beast knew full well

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that the greater beings would not simply leave it be and so it did it's best to prepare for the final battle. The beast made pillars of the holy stone to hold aloft mystical crystals with the power to heal their possessor and he learned to

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see even that which doesn't appear to be there. Never the less, the prophesied one will enter into the beast’s prison and they will bring the beast to its end with their sword and their bow and even their axe if necessary. When the greater

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beings see that the beast has been destroyed they will open a new portal to return the prophesied one home, leaving in their care the dragon's egg that’s contents is a mystery even to the greater beings. The destruction of the beast will

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not be the end of the danger however, for while it alone stands as the greatest threat to the safety of the people a dark shadow lurks in the depths of the Nether waiting to be unleashed. The sands of the once idyllic realm hold the souls of

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its former inhabitants, those who burned in the fires of the creatures of pure flame. Their anger was trapped in the sands sprouting warts of a blood red hue. The souls of those lost blame the greater beings for what became of their home and

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sit idly for now, just waiting for their moment of vengeance to come. Only the unified wills of three deadly withering foes can give purpose to the anger and bring about the revenge that the lost souls so deeply crave. Sadly the threat will never

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truly disappear, for the anger contained within the sands is as plentiful as the sands themselves and anyone who comes into possession of the wills could summon the power that lay there in. Yet this truth brings with it some hope. For being

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the summoner of one’s own enemy gives one the unique opportunity to choose and prepare the field of battle which can often times assure victory over ones foes. The prize for such a victory is but a small crystal that lay at the heart of the

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creature. This crystal is formed when the beast is and contains the purified souls of those lost to the blaze at last freed from their hate, having released it into the beast’s destructive purpose. Now while it is but a small thing, proper

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reverence for the souls within can turn their power into a force for immense good giving strength, speed, and even rejuvenation to those who come to pay their respects. Finally when a villager’s work is complete and their life does come

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to an end, by whatever means, their spirit departs from their bodies leaving creation behind and travels to an eternal village made of the holy stone and much gold. There will the villager find all their relatives gone before them and an

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abundance of all that which they hold dear. They shall want for nothing and shall have no fear of the night for this village exists free of the night and all the evils it bears along with it. At last the villager shall rest in peace

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knowing that their life has been well lived and that the long struggle with the night, while not over, is no longer their burden to bear. Blessed are those however who live to see the final days of creation, for their struggle will end suddenly

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and without any pain. Very suddenly a darkness will fall over the world, but unlike night. This darkness will swallow up the world whole leaving little more than a ghost of creation behind to mark its passing. Yet even in this end there is

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hope. For the eternal village will escape the end of creation and even the consuming dark of creations end holds the hope of new creation where once the world had been. And thus the cycle will begin again; creation, correction, consumption, and

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back to creation repeating endlessly, over and over again for so long as the greater beings will it to be so.

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If you liked this story and would like a copy that you can copy/paste into your own Minecraft world or would like to read more original Minecraft themed stories like this one you can find them at: http://www.n3rdc0rn3r.blogspot.com

The Old Republic - A Game worth Waiting for

I’m sure many of you have heard of the relatively new MMO from Bioware and EA called Star Wars the Old Republic. The game has been out for a little over a year now and I have longed to play it since day one. I made a fair attempt when it first came out running it on my then 4 year old laptop however even on lowest settings the graphics card just couldn’t handle the game’s level of detail. Determined to play anyway I started overclocking my laptop’s modest graphics card and managed to make the game playable, if extremely laggy. I made it to level 19 before I could take no more and decided to take a break from the game until such a time as I could put together a computer capable of running it. As those who read my last post now know, I finally completed that computer and naturally I wasted no time at all installing the game and beginning my adventure in a galaxy far, far away.

As it had been nearly a year since my last experience I decided to make a new character and come back to my old one later. I had initially regretted not going with my initial instinct and choosing Jedi Knight, so this time around I followed my gut. I’ve got to tell you I couldn’t be more pleased. It took a little while to get accustomed to the idea that my character has almost no ranged ability what-so-ever, but you quickly grow accustomed to that. It wasn’t long at all before I was hacking my way through hordes of enemies trying to save the people of the Star Wars galaxy from all manner of threats and growing more proficient as a character and a player through the whole thing.

The new computer is so much better in fact that I decided to run the game on highest settings which it is breezing through and I must say I’m very pleased with my experience thus far. I was always of the opinion that story was more important than graphics, but now that I’ve seen them at their best I do have to appreciate what they bring to the table.

The game itself is very well done of course. For me the intellectual property, story, and crafting system are what makes or breaks a game. World of Warcraft for instance has a great crafting system and a decent story, but having never played the Warcraft games I couldn’t get into the intellectual property and as such I got bored with it. Star Trek Online did a fantastic job with story (at least initially) and their space combat system was very well done. The crafting system however was appalling, not surprising considering that it was added after the fact and was completely superfluous (by the time you could craft something it wasn’t as good as what you already had) and the ground combat system was just as bad which really ruined it for me. The Old Republic however manages to avoid these pitfalls by focusing on what they do best. Naturally I love the IP; Star Wars is a great universe to play in no matter what kind of character you prefer to play. They give you the choice between playing for the Republic and the light side and the Sith Empire and the dark side, but that doesn’t mean you have to be all good or all bad. You can play the pragmatic hero if you’d like or the noble villain, whatever floats your boat is available. Moving on we have the story itself which in typical Bioware style is a branching story with multiple dialog options that will move it one way or another. Interestingly each story is custom tailored to the class and advanced class you’re playing which means that there are 24 fully developed stories that currently exist within the game and of course there’s no shortage of side quests for them either. Finally there’s the crafting system which I have to say is even better than the one in W.o.W. There are 6 different crafting skills and since you can only have one crafting skill per character that means to do it all you’ll need six different characters. However you can also choose gathering skills to collect the materials for your crafting skill and mission skills which help you to acquire the harder to find materials that let you make blue and purple items as well as occasionally grant you schematics for items you can’t otherwise learn to build. Naturally the crafting skills and their related gathering and mission skills are interrelated which generates the need to trade one craft for another thereby fostering a thriving virtual economy and a cooperative player experience.

The only downside to The Old Republic that I’ve come across so far is their subscription system. Presently the game is free to play, but as a free to play player you’ll end up being heavily restricted initially. You can always improve your lot by purchasing cartel coins to unlock extra features typically available only to subscribers or you could subscribe and get everything right away (including cartel coins to permanently unlock certain features in case you can’t remain a subscriber). Still if you really like the game, it’s not too much to ask that you support it in some way and I’m certainly happy to do my part here at the N3rd C0rn3r.

New Computer

As you all may have guessed from the title, that glorious day in the life of a nerd has finally come and I find myself writing this on a brand new computer! This fact is made that much more satisfying because I didn’t order this computer from some manufacturer as a stock model, nor did I even customize an available computer, but rather I bought the parts and put this one together myself.

It’s been a dream of mine since my last year of high school (and I’ll not tell you how long ago that was, but suffice to say it’s been plenty long enough) to build my own custom computer and thanks to a rather large tax return and some left over money from cashing in my vacation at work I was finally able to achieve that dream. Now I’ll give you a tour of the new rig and what exactly I have in store for its future upgrades.

The Case

Apparently you can teach an old case new tricks

The most obvious feature is the case and unfortunately this is where I had to cheap out a bit. Thankfully I already had an excellent case that I had purchased for a previous computer that was large enough to accommodate the new system components for the time being. Naturally I intend to upgrade this later, but for now it will do nicely. The case sports front mounted USB 2.0 ports and front mounted audio inputs. It has two rear mounted fans as well as a side mounted fan (all 80 mm) on the window and has enough space behind the motherboard securing plate to tuck away cables to keep airflow patterns unobstructed. Naturally the case is made of aluminum to help dissipate ambient heat and it has space for 4 80mm fans for a front intake system, though given that I’m keeping the whole thing sealed save for the output fans and the front vents the negative pressure created makes these somewhat unnecessary.

The Motherboard

Knowing as I do that the motherboard is the backbone of a computer system I dropped the, at the time $300+ to get what I considered to be the best board offered with the greatest potential for forwards compatibility allowing me to upgrade, rather than replace the system to keep it competitive for several years at least. I went with the Asus ROG (Republic of Gamers) Crosshair V Formula board offering AMD chipsets, 3 PCI-E slots (for graphics cards), USB 3.0, Giga-bit Ethernet connection speeds, and most importantly an on board hardware raid controller. This board is not only incredibly fast and well built, but offers great options for expansion, upgrade, and of course overclocking that will more than pay for themselves over the lifetime of the rig.

The Processor

Knowing that when it comes to the processor there’s no real upgrade option, just overclocking or replacing I opted for something that was reasonably powerful, but not so expensive that it would prevent me from finishing the computer right away (other things did that, but we’ll look at that later). As such I went with the AMD FX 4170 which actually comes ready to be overclocked so the need to upgrade would be well in the future. You may have noticed that I have chosen AMD for this system instead of the more popular Intel solutions. That’s because AMD is better. Essentially the two companies accomplish the same thing using different processes with the main difference being that AMD’s method produces less heat than does Intel’s. Less heat means faster processing and thus I have been a fan of AMD since the K7 and I’ve never looked back. While it may not be the very best processor out of the box, 4.2 GHz is nothing to scoff at and the room for overclocking is there (not that it really needs it so far).

The Graphics Card(s)

Now we get to the best part. Keep in mind that I started building this computer about a year ago and at the time, one of the best graphics chipsets you could get was the AMD HD 7850 which I decided to get on an Asus board to maximize compatibility in my system, the theory being the fewer companies involved the less likely I was to encounter compatibility and driver issues that so often plague custom builds. So far that strategy has paid off quite nicely. The issue came with the first graphics card not working right out of the box. The screen displayed only intermittently and would otherwise just scroll up over and over, too fast and too blurry to accomplish anything with it. Unfortunately I couldn’t confirm that the issue was the graphics card until I could get another one to test the theory. One year and $200 later I finally managed it and low and behold it was in fact the graphics card, so now I have a working one and the old one will get sent back to Asus (as it’s under warranty) and I’ll get a second one to add to the system giving me for the first time in my life a dual graphics card computer and unparalleled performance. Initial tests are promising as Starmade now runs at close to 600 fps (where on the old laptop it was around 60) and I can run The Old Republic on highest settings without more than a minor hiccup in the graphics whereas the laptop needed to be heavily overclocked to barely run the game on lowest settings. The best part is that’s just one card.

The Memory

Wanting the best I went with Corsair as my memory company and currently have 16 GB installed. Later, when I have money to buy the second set of sticks for it I’ll upgrade this from the vengeance model to the high performance Dominator series for superior performance and overclocking potential.

Future Upgrades

Naturally I’d like to eventually add a third graphics card to the system, though I’ll likely hold off on that until the two I have start having trouble. As I mentioned already a memory upgrade is already planned as is a case upgrade. The current power supply is more than sufficient for all my power needs so It will remain for the time being, though given what I’m planning the new case will likely need room for two power supplies, just in case. Eventually the processor will need an upgrade, though better heat-sink solutions will come first allowing me to overclock the processor further. First up though is the solid state raid array using Corsair’s solid state hard drives and the on board raid controller to really truly maximize read/write performance all of which will be mirrored to a large external drive using more conventional recording technologies. Given some time and a good deal more money, you can expect to see some awesome upgrades to the new system in my N3rd C0rn3r.

MC PvP 6: Rich

Hey there guys and gals. I’m sorry it’s taken so long to get a new article out to you. I just started a new job and wouldn’t you know it the day I get my first check is the same day my computer starts being uncooperative. As a result of both events I’m going to have to scale back my blogging just a bit to a single article each week, but this also means I’ll have a little more time to work on each one hopefully resulting in better and lengthier content with more to update you about, and boy do I have some updates for you today.

My farm is completely finished with the possible exception of wanting to add a chicken farm, but that’s a little ways out. After camping out a group of four chickens for nearly fifteen minutes I’ve determined that the chicken egg laying has been disabled on the server which means getting the feathered foul up into my base is going to be a little trickier than merely tossing some eggs at the wall. Now the reason I actually do need the chickens is for the feathers so I can make a couple book and quills every now and again to publish my Minecraft themed stories on the server, but I’ve got a stockpile for the moment that should hold me over until I can get the materials to build a temporary staircase and lure some chickens up it into my secure home.

Since the last update I’ve managed to completely finish the cactus farm which will now produce well over a full double chest of cactus over the course of 8 continuous hours of afk farming (essentially while I sleep) which for the moment usually earns me around 50k dollars by selling it in the shop at spawn. I’ve used this wealth to purchase 6 skeleton spawners, 2 zombie spawners, 2 diamond blocks, and a full set of diamond gear which I’m enchanting using the recently set up mob farm and enchanting areas of my base supplemented by the also recently set up potions brewery which has already produced a full double chest worth of potions to help tip the tide in PvP combat. I’ve also used a few of these (namely fire resistance potions) to help in the set-up of a hidden base somewhere deep in the Nether. I’m working on plans for a gold farm, but the limitations of the Nether are making the process a little slow. I did however manage to cover the whole thing with lava though making it virtually TNT proof as the lava-monster raid strategy is completely useless in the Nether. I may ultimately set up a zombie pigmen farm at my main base and use the Nether base as a secure chest storage location.

I’ve also managed to expand my tree farm to six spots instead of just four despite the fact that the spawner room now takes up a large portion of the free space that once existed in my base. Of course I’m also still producing carrots, watermelon, netherwart, and sugarcane for use in potion making and enchanting and I’ve set up a small brown mushroom farm to help make fermented spiders eye. So far my efforts to procure a cave spider spawner have been thwarted repeatedly, but I’ll continue trying regardless. Additionally since it looks like I’ll have to build a staircase to get chickens up into my base I’d might as well try and get some cows up there as well so I don’t need to keep buying leather at the shop and so I can eat some tasty steak instead of carrots.

Well that’s about it guys. I’ve got a new story in the works so hopefully I can get that out to all of you soon and I look forward to getting you guys up to date once more sometime next week. Until then continue to “pown” in your N3rd C0rn3r.