I made a platform to start my village on, blocked in my two villagers there and just left them alone for a bit. I just went back to check on them and build a couple more houses, only to discover the priest was missing. I know I need villagers to reliably farm iron... but I need to get to the nether and kill blazes to cure villagers.
I lost a villager, does that mean I'm up the creek without a paddle?
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Shiny!->
I was gonna make a cool signature pic...But then I got bored and discovered Dragon Cave.
I love in particular how in this map torches, buckets, and frickin' COBBLESTONE feel like major achievements.
Yes, just got my cobblestone generator up and running, it felt like a major accomplishment (because it WAS a major accomplishment!). Finally! As many torches as I want!
I have been a big fan of Skyblock, most of my time playing Minecraft has been playing (or building and playing) Skyblock maps (on both XBox and PC). I think OceanBlock is a great, fresh challenge, so similar to SkyBlock in some ways, so different in others. What I like about it:
You can get most to all of the possible blocks in the game, with enough patience, determination, and ingenuity.
No lava/stone at the beginning requires a pretty radical rethink of the normal "just make more cobblestone" strategy.
Requires the use of some strategies I haven't ever used before on random maps (building and expanding villages, animal breeding, evading iron golems, sprinting frantically away from iron golems, sneaking around to pick up all my stuff after being pummeled by an iron golem).
The clever use of biomes to allow rare creatures to spawn. (I saw you were testing mooshrooms, did you ever get them to spawn?)
Redstone!
I think the arrangement of the original island is pretty well thought out, I even appreciate the inclusion of the "emergency cache", although I haven't had to use it yet.
Funniest moment so far:
Up until recently, my island was one big 45x45 fenced-in square, and villagers and animals wandered about at their whim. I finally got some iron, harvested the diamond and obsidian, and built and lit a nether portal on one side of the map, inside the fence. I checked the nether out briefly, grabbed some lava, and headed back.
Pleased with my new lava, I spent some time building a cobblestone generator, harvested a couple of stacks of cobblestone, built a furnace, cooked some wood, etc. I started to notice some of my animals had going missing, and then witnessed a cow wander into the nether portal and disappear.
I went back through the nether portal, and was met by the cow, and pig, a sheep, and a wild ocelot, all sharing the tiny original nether platform. I tried to shoo them back home, I think I got the cow back, but the others didn't make it.
Later on I was carefully avoiding a wandering Golem, and saw him step up into the portal and disappear into the nether as well. Rather than coax him back home, I just pushed him into the lava
I made a platform to start my village on, blocked in my two villagers there and just left them alone for a bit. I just went back to check on them and build a couple more houses, only to discover the priest was missing. I know I need villagers to reliably farm iron... but I need to get to the nether and kill blazes to cure villagers.
I lost a villager, does that mean I'm up the creek without a paddle?
yep. did you use fences to block them in? or maybe they just wandered off somewhere? you could try boxing them in first before building the platform. Use a door as a lure.
yep. did you use fences to block them in? or maybe they just wandered off somewhere? you could try boxing them in first before building the platform. Use a door as a lure.
I had let them wander for ages down my one block wide pathways, and they never had a problem. Eventually I got close to completing my farm hub so I shoved my villagers out of my base over to their platform, with one finished 3x3 house. I assumed that since they had a much larger area to wander they wouldn't have any issues... I'm going to go fence in the last nuisance before she kills herself.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Shiny!->
I was gonna make a cool signature pic...But then I got bored and discovered Dragon Cave.
I know it just doesn't make since to me.
I'm not using too many items mod so I'm stuck at growing one of ehcne tree at a time.
Why does Too Many Items (or not using it) mean you have to grow trees one at a time? There is enough dirt on the starting island to grow all 16 trees that the challenges says you should have. And there's tons more dirt... somewhere
I lost a villager, does that mean I'm up the creek without a paddle?
That sucks! You are in for a hard time, that's sure, but you can still do it without cheating. You have two options:
1) Go to the Emergency Cache and get some eggs.
2) Kill zombies for iron, use an iron pick to mine the diamonds, then a diamond pick to mine the obsidian. Then make a nether portal and light it using more iron and the gravel (that you have to find). THEN get some blaze rods to make a brewing stand, and some gold from zombie pigmen. Make some weakness throwing potions and a golden apple, and then find a zombie villager and cure him.
I must say, does no one EVER read previous posts? I mean how many times have people asked how to get sand and dirt? and how many times have we answered and/or gave hints? People really need to read the previous posts before asking...
Please if anyone asks this question again, please direct them to this post...
HOW TO GET SAND AND DIRT IN OCEANBLOCK (no spoilers!)
At first, you may think the little bit of sand and dirt you find on the island is all you have, you are wrong! Try figuring out how to get to the bottom of the ocean...then all your answers will be answered!
Okay guys sorry! No Too Many Items mod (or not using it) Is not why it's because I didn't know how to get sand and dirt now I do. I'll be read more new posts. Oh and I've been reading the past posts for 2 days!
Mooshrooms only spawn in the Mooshroom Biome itself now if my memory is working correctly. While you can grow giant mushrooms on any Mycelium blocks you have around the Mooshrooms won't spawn unless they are in the correct biome. I had thought last night of a couple of challenges to possibly add in but this morning I have no idea what they were. If I remember I'll post them up though.
One addition I think would be amusing would be a second quill and pen book to use as sort of a journal for ourselves. Just little notes or whatever about our experiences and we could make it as amusing or pedantic or dull as we wanted to.
Day 1: Chopped down trees. Got no Jungle saplings. Restarted 3 times.
Day 2: Watched trees not grow - prayed villagers didn't drown themselves.
Day 50: Was murdered multiple times by a pigman army invading from the nether...
Mooshrooms only spawn in the Mooshroom Biome itself now if my memory is working correctly. While you can grow giant mushrooms on any Mycelium blocks you have around the Mooshrooms won't spawn unless they are in the correct biome.
Well, that's the question under consideration, should 5thHorseman add a Mushroom Island Biome to the next iteration of the OceanBlock map (or perhaps replace the desert biome with mushroom, since the desert doesn't spawn any unique animals)?
And if he did, is there a way to get new mooshrooms to spawn there? Would they need grass, or mycelium, or both?
5thHorseman indicated that in his custom flatland testing, he couldn't get mooshrooms to spawn at all in a mushroom biome, on any surface. Have you found something different?
No but it should work right? or is it only in "new" chunks? Like for example in FTB if you make a flat world mooshroom biome single biome world they spawn in like crazy but I don't really know exactly how their spawning mechanics work. Personally I'd prefer witches over mooshrooms because I've been having a really tough time getting redstone to appear since my initial villagers went POOF thanks to a creeper. Of course I've also been only getting sheep to spawn instead of cows too so having leather would be nice.
I should think Mooshrooms would need Mycelium to spawn but again I don't know that for sure :/
Speaking of spawns though - I know there is a swampland area for slimes to spawn but is there also an actual slime chunk? If there is a slime chunk would either "count" for the Challenge or should we only use the swampland area? Just curious on this one.
I haven't played OceanBlock in a while, sadly. </3 I plan on restarting. I've been following the topic diligently, however I read that the map was changed to be flattened out completely? I'm not sure if I'm making the mistake of assuming it was updated...
Mooshrooms only spawn in the Mooshroom Biome itself now if my memory is working correctly. While you can grow giant mushrooms on any Mycelium blocks you have around the Mooshrooms won't spawn unless they are in the correct biome. I had thought last night of a couple of challenges to possibly add in but this morning I have no idea what they were. If I remember I'll post them up though.
As MegaTrain said, that's exactly what I tested. I tested mycelium in a plains biome, mycelium in a mushroom biome, and grass in a mushroom biome. The first 2 never spawned ANY animals at all. The grass-in-mushroom spawned one batch of regular cows and then nothing else. The cows *may* have spawned at chunk creation, or a couple seconds after.
One addition I think would be amusing would be a second quill and pen book to use as sort of a journal for ourselves. Just little notes or whatever about our experiences and we could make it as amusing or pedantic or dull as we wanted to.
Day 1: Chopped down trees. Got no Jungle saplings. Restarted 3 times.
Day 2: Watched trees not grow - prayed villagers didn't drown themselves.
Day 50: Was murdered multiple times by a pigman army invading from the nether...
Hahah! I actually plan on having 2 books, one signed, with the 7 pages or so that start the current book, and one still writable with the challenges. I see a lot of LPers balking at the book when they see it's 20+ pages long, and never even going to the challenges.
Incidentally, I've never seen anybody delete the challenges as they get them, so maybe the entire idea of the writable book is a bad one
Speaking of spawns though - I know there is a swampland area for slimes to spawn but is there also an actual slime chunk? If there is a slime chunk would either "count" for the Challenge or should we only use the swampland area? Just curious on this one.
MegaTrain also already addressed this (Thanks!) but I'll say, I am very unhappy with how rarely slimes spawn in that little swamp patch. If you want to use it for that purpose, you may want to make a multi-floor tower to give them extra room to spawn. And expect a lot of other hostile mobs as well. But using a slime chunk is perfectly okay. I don't know where they are offhand but (as MegaTrain said) there's a map somewhere in this thread.
I haven't played OceanBlock in a while, sadly. </3 I plan on restarting. I've been following the topic diligently, however I read that the map was changed to be flattened out completely? I'm not sure if I'm making the mistake of assuming it was updated...
It sounds like you were playing 3.0 before. It was in a "regular" world that I just created a huge square of ocean chunks. This one is a true, custom-made flatland so the map you download is actually only 4 chunks.
That's why it can be laggy the first time you load it up. Your computer is actually generating all of those ocean chunks
I've been loving the map and the twitch stream has been great - I've gotten a bunch of questions about the map each night so I direct them here! Hopefully we'll see even more people posting about it soon!! If I think of some more questions or w/e I'll drop them in later tonight xD
yup, if you watch my LP series (click ) you can see an interesting way to mine all the goodies down there.
(Video 3, about 3:30 in, shows the method, if case someone is looking for just that...)
I've thought about the best way to do that, I actually prefer wooden slabs to signs or fences, they are a bit more cost-efficient: (a stick costs half a plank, since 2 planks gets you 4 sticks)
3 signs costs 6 planks and 1 stick, or 6.5 planks, a cost of 2.167 planks per sign.
2 fences cost 6 sticks, or 3 planks, a cost of 1.5 planks per fence.
6 slabs cost 3 planks, a cost of only 0.5 planks per slab.
I'm surprised you didn't use slabs, considering your generous use of them up above (excellent method, btw!).
BUT, I have an even better method, that (after a small startup cost), should cost you no planks at all, for as much dirt as you want to mine!
(Hidden behind the spoiler if you don't want to spoil the secret of where to find the extra dirt.)
In addition to whatever you are using to get to the ocean floor (fences or planks and ladders), bring 3 ladders and a half stack to a full stack of wooden slabs, depending on how big you want your preliminary room. (I'm using a 7x7 for my example, which requires 49 slabs). You'll also want shovels and torches, probably.
Lay your half-slabs in a square on the bottom of your ocean, then use ladders to dig down next to the square, giving you your entrance/exit. Dig out everything under the slabs you placed, this is your initial room.
You should now have 49 sand, 49 dirt, and a whole bunch of clay balls. Combine the clay balls back into 49 clay blocks.
At this point, you can mine an infinite amount of dirt for no extra planks! (besides the cost of shovels). Here's how:
Pick a spot on the wall
Dig the dirt first.
Dig the clay next. The sand will fall and the water will start to flood in.
Quickly switch in your inventory to the clay block, and place it where the sand was, stopping the water.
Dig the sand.
Repeat. Infinite sand and dirt.
You will run out of clay blocks eventually, but by that time you will have picked up an equivalent amount of clay balls, which you can craft back into clay blocks.
Also, don't forget that you can dig an extra row of dirt out from under the clay around the edge of your room/hallway/mineshaft. More dirt!
I just learned, via the wiki, that no mobs (slimes included) can spawn directly on bedrock!
(this also explains why my vast cavern has no hostile mobs spawning...)
So if you want to create a slime spawning area, you will need to place a layer of blocks down (maybe sand?) on the bedrock. This also makes your cavern vulnerable to hostile mob spawning, so don't neglect to light it up if you haven't already! (Maybe jack-o-lanterns in the floor?)
Look 3 posts up above yours (6 I think above mine) for a hint.
Did you know I write Science Fiction? Well I do. Check it out at http://planetretcon.com/books/
I'm not using too many items mod so I'm stuck at growing one of ehcne tree at a time.
I lost a villager, does that mean I'm up the creek without a paddle?
Yes, just got my cobblestone generator up and running, it felt like a major accomplishment (because it WAS a major accomplishment!). Finally! As many torches as I want!
I have been a big fan of Skyblock, most of my time playing Minecraft has been playing (or building and playing) Skyblock maps (on both XBox and PC). I think OceanBlock is a great, fresh challenge, so similar to SkyBlock in some ways, so different in others. What I like about it:
I think the arrangement of the original island is pretty well thought out, I even appreciate the inclusion of the "emergency cache", although I haven't had to use it yet.
Funniest moment so far:
Up until recently, my island was one big 45x45 fenced-in square, and villagers and animals wandered about at their whim. I finally got some iron, harvested the diamond and obsidian, and built and lit a nether portal on one side of the map, inside the fence. I checked the nether out briefly, grabbed some lava, and headed back.
Pleased with my new lava, I spent some time building a cobblestone generator, harvested a couple of stacks of cobblestone, built a furnace, cooked some wood, etc. I started to notice some of my animals had going missing, and then witnessed a cow wander into the nether portal and disappear.
I went back through the nether portal, and was met by the cow, and pig, a sheep, and a wild ocelot, all sharing the tiny original nether platform. I tried to shoo them back home, I think I got the cow back, but the others didn't make it.
Later on I was carefully avoiding a wandering Golem, and saw him step up into the portal and disappear into the nether as well.
Rather than coax him back home, I just pushed him into the lava
you can get lots of dirt and sand - you're just not looking at the right place.
That's why I gave a very obvious hint: try not to drown.
Where's the only place in the map where you can drown?
yep. did you use fences to block them in? or maybe they just wandered off somewhere? you could try boxing them in first before building the platform. Use a door as a lure.
I had let them wander for ages down my one block wide pathways, and they never had a problem. Eventually I got close to completing my farm hub so I shoved my villagers out of my base over to their platform, with one finished 3x3 house. I assumed that since they had a much larger area to wander they wouldn't have any issues... I'm going to go fence in the last nuisance before she kills herself.
Why does Too Many Items (or not using it) mean you have to grow trees one at a time? There is enough dirt on the starting island to grow all 16 trees that the challenges says you should have. And there's tons more dirt... somewhere
That sucks! You are in for a hard time, that's sure, but you can still do it without cheating. You have two options:
1) Go to the Emergency Cache and get some eggs.
2) Kill zombies for iron, use an iron pick to mine the diamonds, then a diamond pick to mine the obsidian. Then make a nether portal and light it using more iron and the gravel (that you have to find). THEN get some blaze rods to make a brewing stand, and some gold from zombie pigmen. Make some weakness throwing potions and a golden apple, and then find a zombie villager and cure him.
If I were you I'd go for option 1
No, I never did. I think they just won't spawn.
Did you know I write Science Fiction? Well I do. Check it out at http://planetretcon.com/books/
Please if anyone asks this question again, please direct them to this post...
HOW TO GET SAND AND DIRT IN OCEANBLOCK (no spoilers!)
At first, you may think the little bit of sand and dirt you find on the island is all you have, you are wrong!
Try figuring out how to get to the bottom of the ocean...then all your answers will be answered!
yup, if you watch my LP series (click ) you can see an interesting way to mine all the goodies down there.
One addition I think would be amusing would be a second quill and pen book to use as sort of a journal for ourselves. Just little notes or whatever about our experiences and we could make it as amusing or pedantic or dull as we wanted to.
Day 1: Chopped down trees. Got no Jungle saplings. Restarted 3 times.
Day 2: Watched trees not grow - prayed villagers didn't drown themselves.
Day 50: Was murdered multiple times by a pigman army invading from the nether...
You know stuff like that haha
Well, that's the question under consideration, should 5thHorseman add a Mushroom Island Biome to the next iteration of the OceanBlock map (or perhaps replace the desert biome with mushroom, since the desert doesn't spawn any unique animals)?
And if he did, is there a way to get new mooshrooms to spawn there? Would they need grass, or mycelium, or both?
5thHorseman indicated that in his custom flatland testing, he couldn't get mooshrooms to spawn at all in a mushroom biome, on any surface. Have you found something different?
I should think Mooshrooms would need Mycelium to spawn but again I don't know that for sure :/
Speaking of spawns though - I know there is a swampland area for slimes to spawn but is there also an actual slime chunk? If there is a slime chunk would either "count" for the Challenge or should we only use the swampland area? Just curious on this one.
As MegaTrain said, that's exactly what I tested. I tested mycelium in a plains biome, mycelium in a mushroom biome, and grass in a mushroom biome. The first 2 never spawned ANY animals at all. The grass-in-mushroom spawned one batch of regular cows and then nothing else. The cows *may* have spawned at chunk creation, or a couple seconds after.
Hahah! I actually plan on having 2 books, one signed, with the 7 pages or so that start the current book, and one still writable with the challenges. I see a lot of LPers balking at the book when they see it's 20+ pages long, and never even going to the challenges.
Incidentally, I've never seen anybody delete the challenges as they get them, so maybe the entire idea of the writable book is a bad one
MegaTrain also already addressed this (Thanks!) but I'll say, I am very unhappy with how rarely slimes spawn in that little swamp patch. If you want to use it for that purpose, you may want to make a multi-floor tower to give them extra room to spawn. And expect a lot of other hostile mobs as well. But using a slime chunk is perfectly okay. I don't know where they are offhand but (as MegaTrain said) there's a map somewhere in this thread.
It sounds like you were playing 3.0 before. It was in a "regular" world that I just created a huge square of ocean chunks. This one is a true, custom-made flatland so the map you download is actually only 4 chunks.
That's why it can be laggy the first time you load it up. Your computer is actually generating all of those ocean chunks
Did you know I write Science Fiction? Well I do. Check it out at http://planetretcon.com/books/
(Video 3, about 3:30 in, shows the method, if case someone is looking for just that...)
I've thought about the best way to do that, I actually prefer wooden slabs to signs or fences, they are a bit more cost-efficient:
(a stick costs half a plank, since 2 planks gets you 4 sticks)
BUT, I have an even better method, that (after a small startup cost), should cost you no planks at all, for as much dirt as you want to mine!
(Hidden behind the spoiler if you don't want to spoil the secret of where to find the extra dirt.)
Lay your half-slabs in a square on the bottom of your ocean, then use ladders to dig down next to the square, giving you your entrance/exit. Dig out everything under the slabs you placed, this is your initial room.
You should now have 49 sand, 49 dirt, and a whole bunch of clay balls. Combine the clay balls back into 49 clay blocks.
At this point, you can mine an infinite amount of dirt for no extra planks! (besides the cost of shovels). Here's how:
Also, don't forget that you can dig an extra row of dirt out from under the clay around the edge of your room/hallway/mineshaft. More dirt!
I just learned, via the wiki, that no mobs (slimes included) can spawn directly on bedrock!
(this also explains why my vast cavern has no hostile mobs spawning...)
So if you want to create a slime spawning area, you will need to place a layer of blocks down (maybe sand?) on the bedrock. This also makes your cavern vulnerable to hostile mob spawning, so don't neglect to light it up if you haven't already! (Maybe jack-o-lanterns in the floor?)