21 November 2011

Minecraft Monday #1

I know, I know - I've done a post about my immense love for Minecraft before. However, as of this day - a couple of days after Minecon, when Minecraft 1.0 was finally released - I've decided to make a regular feature of new minecraft updates, and my exploits, creations, joys, and frustrations therewith. This is partially inspired by Gaygamer's Minecraft Monday articles, where we would be treated to some snazzy Minecraft creations and updates, as well as visits to two Minecraft servers, "Sigil" and "The Redfields". Unfortunately, the feature seems in hiatus, so in lieu of that, I present Hyp/Arc Studio's own Minecraft Monday!
At the moment, I'm not sure if this will be a weekly, fortnightly, monthly or sporadic feature - we'll soon see!

Alexander Province

Shortly before "Pre-Release 1.9", I was playing on a single-player survival map called "Alexander Province". The Adventure Update had only just been released, and I had made a map specially for it - and, luckily for me, ended up finding a village not far off from where I had made my base (which in every map I made was around the x:0, y:0 area, purely because I loved building temples at the origin). I spent a few weeks building a new base in the village, upgrading the area so that when villagers were implemented in the next update, they would spawn to find their quality of life boosted by a railway station, traveller's inn, and a complex series of underground evacuation tunnels in the event of an invasion by hostile walking bombs!




Sadly, that day never came; I later upgraded to Pre-Release 1.9 expecting to load up Alexander Province surrounded by the friendly gaze of my townspeople, delirious with joy over the inclusion of a public house (replete with jukebox!). I spawned inside my town manor, and rushed outside - the streets were empty. The upgraded homes I had built remained unoccupied. The public house lay silent but for the twinkling tunes coming from the jukebox in the corner, playing to no audience. It was a ghost town.

As I later discovered - and I'm still not sure if it's actually true or not - villagers would not appear in worlds generated in the Adventure Update, even when you upgraded to Pre-Release 1.9, until the Pre-Release was released as a Beta. I didn't know how long that would be,  and as much as I hated the idea of throwing away all those hours working on the village, I really wanted to make a base inside an area populated by villagers.

And so, I left Alexander Province. The houses never afforded security or shelter for anyone, the gravel streets never paved the way for any feet but mine, and the watchtowers never fought away the darkness of the night for anyone but me. It was a lonely sort of farewell - there was no-one to say goodbye to.

Alexander County

I was intent on starting my new game in or near a village; luckily, Reddit has a list of great Minecraft seeds, including one - "July" - which creates a map with four villages all within walking distance of one another! And so, "Alexander County" was created. I'll save my report on the progress of the County until the next Minecraft Monday, though - I think the inaugural post for the feature should commemorate what has come before.

It's been exactly one month since I left Alexander Province behind - I never went back to it, but the saved map remained until November 18th, the day Minecraft 1.0 was released. To be honest, I miss some of the stuff I'd created for the village that never was. The well that led down to passage into the village's main mineshaft. The Origin Line, a railtrack that took its passengers back to the Temple at Origin (x:0, y:0, remember?). And of course, the Birchtree pub, with its jukebox in the corner, playing a single melody on loop to an empty room.

NEXT - MINECRAFT MONDAY #2: The Little Town of Remedy »