Today, we're going to blow up a creeper.
December 29, 2010 11:51 AM Subscribe
A Minecraft Rube Goldberg Machine. Some of the tricks use include:
Controlling Water with Redstone
TNT Cannons
Holding up sand with torches.
That was delightful. I was wondering why he was carrying around all those eggs.
posted by Gator at 12:08 PM on December 29, 2010
posted by Gator at 12:08 PM on December 29, 2010
How is the water flowing so far? Carefully placed cascades?
posted by DU at 12:10 PM on December 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by DU at 12:10 PM on December 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
YES
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 12:18 PM on December 29, 2010
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 12:18 PM on December 29, 2010
Really neat. I'm starting to think I'm Minecraft-impaired. I can build basic structures, but anything more complicated is beyond me. I'm trying to build a mob slaughterhouse right now, and failing miserably.
posted by brundlefly at 12:19 PM on December 29, 2010
posted by brundlefly at 12:19 PM on December 29, 2010
I'm starting to think I'm Minecraft-impaired.
I feel that way too, sometimes. I still haven't tried to build anything more complex than my base tower because I'm afraid of failure. (I did start playing again a couple of days ago, after over a month's hiatus. I have decided to pretend that the Halloween update was just a bad dream, which has renewed my joy in the game.)
posted by Gator at 12:24 PM on December 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
I feel that way too, sometimes. I still haven't tried to build anything more complex than my base tower because I'm afraid of failure. (I did start playing again a couple of days ago, after over a month's hiatus. I have decided to pretend that the Halloween update was just a bad dream, which has renewed my joy in the game.)
posted by Gator at 12:24 PM on December 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
That's probably one of the best uses of the engine I've seen.
posted by codacorolla at 12:40 PM on December 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by codacorolla at 12:40 PM on December 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
I'm going to go use water to knock out torches to drop sand to trigger a wooden pressure plate to redirect lava to burn down my bunk so I won't be in it. Because that was just ... too much.
posted by komara at 12:57 PM on December 29, 2010
posted by komara at 12:57 PM on December 29, 2010
The strange thing is even though I have no interest in Minecraft based on playing the browser version, I am happy some people do. Some peoples creativity and willingness to work for play is inspiring. Good for you crazy Minecraft fanatic.
posted by Keith Talent at 1:02 PM on December 29, 2010
posted by Keith Talent at 1:02 PM on December 29, 2010
That. Was. Rad.
posted by eyeballkid at 1:06 PM on December 29, 2010
posted by eyeballkid at 1:06 PM on December 29, 2010
I thought it was awesome until he got to the part with the chickens. He should have had chickens already in a pen and then had the machine open up a path for them.
So, short of an A+ for me but a damn solid A.
posted by Bonzai at 1:07 PM on December 29, 2010
So, short of an A+ for me but a damn solid A.
posted by Bonzai at 1:07 PM on December 29, 2010
He should have had chickens already in a pen
Ideally, that's what would've happened, but I think because of the way the Minecraft engine manages space and mobs (chickens, zombies and whatnot), it is impossible. From my experience and what I've read, mobs only exist in the area (the "chunk" of the world) around where you currently are in the game. So, the entire machine probably spans a few chunks, and, as such, mobs in the chunk for the chicken finale would pop in and out of existence as the player moves across the entirety of the machine (into and out of the finale chunk) and can't be guaranteed to be in the pen when they need to be.
posted by msbrauer at 1:13 PM on December 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
Ideally, that's what would've happened, but I think because of the way the Minecraft engine manages space and mobs (chickens, zombies and whatnot), it is impossible. From my experience and what I've read, mobs only exist in the area (the "chunk" of the world) around where you currently are in the game. So, the entire machine probably spans a few chunks, and, as such, mobs in the chunk for the chicken finale would pop in and out of existence as the player moves across the entirety of the machine (into and out of the finale chunk) and can't be guaranteed to be in the pen when they need to be.
posted by msbrauer at 1:13 PM on December 29, 2010 [3 favorites]
I thought the same thing about the chickens -- that shooting the eggs was kind of cheating and there shouldn't be any user input beyond the first pushing of the button -- but he explains in the Reddit thread that due to unpredictable lava behavior, sometimes the chickens would disappear before they could be released onto the switch.
posted by Gator at 1:15 PM on December 29, 2010
posted by Gator at 1:15 PM on December 29, 2010
I thought the same thing about the chickens
Honestly though, I'm willing to let him have this one. After all, as mentioned upthread, this is pretty fucking rad.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 1:29 PM on December 29, 2010
Honestly though, I'm willing to let him have this one. After all, as mentioned upthread, this is pretty fucking rad.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 1:29 PM on December 29, 2010
The little touches like the smiley face on the brick floor really added to it.
posted by drezdn at 1:51 PM on December 29, 2010
posted by drezdn at 1:51 PM on December 29, 2010
I highly recommend reddit's creative server (c.nerd.nu) if you want to see a completely built out, amazing world. It inspired me to get more creative in my single player world, and while it's completely unnecessary, the cobblestone generator I built brings me endless amounts of joy.
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 2:02 PM on December 29, 2010
posted by BuddhaInABucket at 2:02 PM on December 29, 2010
I am unreasonably happy that wasn't a real creeper.
posted by JHarris at 2:19 PM on December 29, 2010
posted by JHarris at 2:19 PM on December 29, 2010
Seconding reddit's server for inspiration.
Check out an interactive map of the land. Any of the labels on the map are warp points. Once you've connected to the server type /warp then the name. You could spend days just wandering around and exploring.
posted by inedible at 2:20 PM on December 29, 2010
Check out an interactive map of the land. Any of the labels on the map are warp points. Once you've connected to the server type /warp then the name. You could spend days just wandering around and exploring.
posted by inedible at 2:20 PM on December 29, 2010
I had a pet chicken in my base for about two hours once; it abruptly despawned while I was doing something else, though. Minecraft seems to regard chickens as optional components of local reality.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 2:28 PM on December 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 2:28 PM on December 29, 2010 [1 favorite]
Oh, gawd I wish I could play minecraft. There's no way it's going to run on a netbook with an Intel graphics media accelerator 3150, is there?
posted by dazed_one at 2:37 PM on December 29, 2010
posted by dazed_one at 2:37 PM on December 29, 2010
> Check out an interactive map of the land. Any of the labels on the map are warp points. Once you've connected to the server type /warp then the name. You could spend days just wandering around and exploring.
I'm personally partial to MeFightClub's Aporkalypse server. Check out that map! That's a server that inspires wandering and viewing and building and nothing short of awesome.
posted by komara at 2:55 PM on December 29, 2010 [6 favorites]
I'm personally partial to MeFightClub's Aporkalypse server. Check out that map! That's a server that inspires wandering and viewing and building and nothing short of awesome.
posted by komara at 2:55 PM on December 29, 2010 [6 favorites]
I personally am partial to RawCritics. Here's a map. It's highly modified, has events, NPCs. Well staffed by moderators.
They play a variant of spleef there called "spleof" for lack of a better word (I guess.) It must be seen to be believed.
posted by chemoboy at 3:15 PM on December 29, 2010
They play a variant of spleef there called "spleof" for lack of a better word (I guess.) It must be seen to be believed.
posted by chemoboy at 3:15 PM on December 29, 2010
Oh, gawd I wish I could play minecraft. There's no way it's going to run on a netbook with an Intel graphics media accelerator 3150, is there?
It barely runs at full speed on my cheap-ass $350 laptop if I turn all the graphics options to minimum, but graphics are not the reason you play Minecraft. Try it out with the free Classic version, should give you a fair indication.
posted by JHarris at 3:42 PM on December 29, 2010
It barely runs at full speed on my cheap-ass $350 laptop if I turn all the graphics options to minimum, but graphics are not the reason you play Minecraft. Try it out with the free Classic version, should give you a fair indication.
posted by JHarris at 3:42 PM on December 29, 2010
I'd love find out that it was done without an editor and that he had to reset it by hand every time something needed to be tweaked.
But that would be insane
posted by quin at 4:47 PM on December 29, 2010
But that would be insane
posted by quin at 4:47 PM on December 29, 2010
I could watch Minecraft instructional videos all day long. Then I fire up Minecraft and it's as if all that acquired knowledge leaks right out of my ears and I'm all OH HEY I MAED ANOTHER HOLE IN THE GROUND FOR TO PUT STUFFS IN.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 5:25 PM on December 29, 2010 [10 favorites]
posted by BitterOldPunk at 5:25 PM on December 29, 2010 [10 favorites]
I had some success running Minecraft on my old Dell Inspiron 6000 laptop during Christmas. Basically, turn down the graphics fidelity (don't snicker, you) and turn on the fog. Mine ran a lot better with the Java 7 SDK "early access" release (but it's unstable, so it might not work on your system).
posted by Harald74 at 2:09 AM on December 30, 2010
posted by Harald74 at 2:09 AM on December 30, 2010
I don't know what Minecraft is, but it looks like something out of 1985 instead of 2010. Needless to say, but I was clearly disappointed.
posted by QueerAngel28 at 3:46 AM on December 30, 2010
posted by QueerAngel28 at 3:46 AM on December 30, 2010
BitterOldPunk, I am so with you. And TNT to round it all up. And then lava kills me. Or monsters.
posted by nostrada at 4:07 AM on December 30, 2010
posted by nostrada at 4:07 AM on December 30, 2010
Oh, gawd I wish I could play minecraft. There's no way it's going to run on a netbook with an Intel graphics media accelerator 3150, is there?
No, it probably won't run very well at all. Do yourself a favor and wait until you can get something with a bit more juice. A cheap (<300) desktop with any kind of graphics card should be able to handle it though.
There's no sense in turning yourself off to an awesome game because it's stuttery on a netbook.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 7:20 AM on December 30, 2010
No, it probably won't run very well at all. Do yourself a favor and wait until you can get something with a bit more juice. A cheap (<300) desktop with any kind of graphics card should be able to handle it though.
There's no sense in turning yourself off to an awesome game because it's stuttery on a netbook.
posted by thsmchnekllsfascists at 7:20 AM on December 30, 2010
I don't know what Minecraft is, but it looks like something out of 1985 instead of 2010. Needless to say, but I was clearly disappointed.
I remember someone once saying something about books and their covers. Fuck it, let's play BLACK OPS.
posted by JimmyJames at 7:57 AM on December 30, 2010 [3 favorites]
I remember someone once saying something about books and their covers. Fuck it, let's play BLACK OPS.
posted by JimmyJames at 7:57 AM on December 30, 2010 [3 favorites]
I am kind of afraid of how Beta handles water; I dumped out a bucket last night and ended up with a water feature only Charlton Heston could love running parallel to my base. ONE BUCKET. Enough running water to bridge the ocean to a pond about 35 blocks away.
That was... an awkward ten minutes.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 8:13 AM on December 30, 2010
That was... an awkward ten minutes.
posted by fairytale of los angeles at 8:13 AM on December 30, 2010
> I am kind of afraid of how Beta handles water; I dumped out a bucket last night and ended up with a water feature only Charlton Heston could love running parallel to my base. ONE BUCKET. Enough running water to bridge the ocean to a pond about 35 blocks away.
As far as I know, nothing in water physics (or lava physics) changed with Beta. Tip: if you dumped it from a bucket, there is only one source block. It produces flowing blocks, of course - as you saw - but there's just one source. You can pick that source back up with your bucket. So, next time your one bucket placement turns into a waterfall nightmare, just point the empty bucket at the same place you dumped the water, right-click, and voila! Nightmare is over.
[basic water physics 101: on a totally flat featureless plain, water will run for eight blocks and then stop. If it encounters a drop (vertical change in elevation) before those eight blocks are up, it will descend and the eight-block distance counter starts again. So, if you dump water on a slow slope of 1:7 or sharper the water will just keep flowing downhill forever. There are several ways that these rules can change (water flowing only in one direction when there's a drop in that direction and no others, etc.) but the one rule I've never seen violated is water flowing more than eight blocks in any one direction without a change in elevation.]
posted by komara at 10:13 AM on December 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
As far as I know, nothing in water physics (or lava physics) changed with Beta. Tip: if you dumped it from a bucket, there is only one source block. It produces flowing blocks, of course - as you saw - but there's just one source. You can pick that source back up with your bucket. So, next time your one bucket placement turns into a waterfall nightmare, just point the empty bucket at the same place you dumped the water, right-click, and voila! Nightmare is over.
[basic water physics 101: on a totally flat featureless plain, water will run for eight blocks and then stop. If it encounters a drop (vertical change in elevation) before those eight blocks are up, it will descend and the eight-block distance counter starts again. So, if you dump water on a slow slope of 1:7 or sharper the water will just keep flowing downhill forever. There are several ways that these rules can change (water flowing only in one direction when there's a drop in that direction and no others, etc.) but the one rule I've never seen violated is water flowing more than eight blocks in any one direction without a change in elevation.]
posted by komara at 10:13 AM on December 30, 2010 [1 favorite]
"Fuck it, let's play BLACK OPS."
I think you mean COD:BLOPS.
Sincerely,
Eide:BLOPS
posted by Eideteker at 11:03 AM on December 30, 2010 [2 favorites]
I think you mean COD:BLOPS.
Sincerely,
Eide:BLOPS
posted by Eideteker at 11:03 AM on December 30, 2010 [2 favorites]
Probably not worth opening a new thread, but a modder has independently made an adventure mode (of sorts). Notch has said that the official implementation of this is "upcoming", and it's not a 100% analog, but it seems like it spices up maps a little, and makes overland exploration more worthwhile. The output of the modding community, especially considering what they're working with in terms of source material, never fails to amaze me.
posted by codacorolla at 4:23 PM on January 2, 2011
posted by codacorolla at 4:23 PM on January 2, 2011
Haha, I should probably link the mod, right? Here it is, at the Minecraft forums.
posted by codacorolla at 4:26 PM on January 2, 2011
posted by codacorolla at 4:26 PM on January 2, 2011
« Older Star Light, Star White II | The Loophole Artist Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
posted by Rory Marinich at 12:00 PM on December 29, 2010 [1 favorite]