25 April, 2012

we crossed the road and never spoke to another as we flew

CaleCraft, part III!

(from the Minecrafting album)

This is a view of the (now abandoned) mountain base, complete with (former) cat. It was a mutual decision to make as few changes as possible to the basic architecture, both to elude detection (more explanation on that later) and to more successfully "blend in" with the surroundings.

(from the Minecrafting album)

Past the mountain base--at some slight distance to the west, on a diagonal, wandering path--lies the second XP spawner (again, skeleton flavored, they're easier to find). There is a bay in front of the spawner, and that's where I saw this little guy. A couple of times he nearly managed to get airborne.

Keep trying, little squid--you'll be an air kraken someday!

(from the Minecrafting album)

A small look at something found the second week the mountain base was established--we'd discovered someone unknown was coming in and killing all the adult cows. While calves will grow into cows, it's much easier to breed the cows, "replace" them with young calves, then kill half of the remaining cows for meat. Yet night after night, this kept happening. We'd wait until the calves grew up; we'd breed them, getting more calves; we'd kill half the remaining adults; and go back to other projects. The next day, we'd walk out to check on the animal pen, and discover the same thing: no adult cows, only calves. (And sometimes, only one or two, not the six to eight we'd left).

While aggressive mobs will kill passive mobs, if they're between two groups of aggressive mobs, for the most part, pens are safe. This was four blocks down, as you can see, with a running rail fence around the perimeter. About the only aggressive mobs who conceivably could climb in would be spiders, and they never seemed interested. Someone else was killing "our" cows.

Now, when I first joined the Caledon server, that first night when everything was so crazy, I'd staked out a very small house as a base of operations. I didn't have grand plans to transform it into a palace, or a submarine, or a giant lava tower--I was mostly just seeking a shelter from the night. (Even though that first night, I spent more time outside, running around Des in large circles, killing monsters that tried to kill him.)

But that first night, I also put up a sign. I think I spent three hours dividing my time between initial setting up, gathering materials for torches, mining out stone for a forge, and either killing the zombies who were pounding on all the doors, and guarding Des. You would not believe how loud eight zombies knocking on village doors can get, unless you've heard it yourself. At that point, I logged out, slept for a few hours, did everything I needed to do in RL before logging back in--then logged back in to the server to find out how things were going.

The only big change? My sign had been knocked off my house. Now, I am a paranoid and suspicious sort, and I have something of a shadowy reputation in Caledon anyway, but even so, new start, new game, and I tried not to take it personally. I replaced the sign, carved out a small basement under the house, set up a bed and a chest to go with the forge and the crafting table, and a few hours later, logged out again.

When I logged in for my third time, the sign was gone for the second time, and my house had been claimed by someone else. So be it; I decided in that moment my purpose was exploration, and in wandering to find a new base, Fawkes and I discovered the little mountain cave system, so we set up there. I don't know who knocked down the sign, and while I do know who took over that cabin, to be fair, at that time it likely wasn't marked. But sometimes it's the little things, and childish as it sounds to myself at times, I vowed that if people didn't want me in the village, I didn't need to be there. So off I went to further exploration.

(from the Minecrafting album)

Though I do have to say, baby animals--whether they're cows, sheep, pigs, ducken or wolves--still look really odd to me. It's that big head-small body thing. In a game based on a certain proportional base for everything, they throw off the curve.

More to come!

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