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I decided to split the Hardcore commentary out of the Arkel thread, so that if/when I go back to it, it won't be as confusing for readers trying to keep track.

Arkel wasn't really holding my attention, probably because the biggest problems were solved, and it was mostly just made-up large scale projects or little tweaks. I haven't ended it, but I'm not spending much time there recently.

Instead, I'm playing in self-imposed Hardcore mode. My first world was Hardcore 1 (in all cases, the name and the seed are identical). I lived for about 10 in game days, until I was headed back to the safety of my cubby hole from the mines and turned the corner right next to a creeper. I ran past it, it blew up, and the blast tossed me into a pit with ... another creeper. That blast pulped me.

Hardcore 2 I enjoyed a lot more. First off, it was right on the border between the standard forested hills biome and a desert biome. I don't have much experience with deserts, they just don't show up in my seeds for some reason. I dug into a hill right next to the spawn point and began converting it into a nice fortress. I topped it with a temple that was supposed to act as a mob mill, although I never quite got them to spawn up there. I'd actually started on hollowing out the entire hill when I got careless. I was working on the outside of it, replacing the sand with sandstone for stability, and didn't go inside when it got dark. I thought being on the side of a hill with no flat surfaces nearby would keep me safe. I got knocked off the side of the cliff by a spider and into the river below in the middle of a band of waiting zombies. I almost managed to get away, but couldn't see where I was running clearly and they cornered me and ripped me apart. *sigh* I might just post some pics of this world some time.

Hardcore 3 is back to the standard hills biome. I took over a cavern with a flooded floor as my house and walled off the entrance. To get in, you have to swim underwater. And for giggles my bed and all of my chests, crafting tables and furnaces are also underwater. Sleeping is funny. You wake up and have to swim to the surface to get air. The main points of interest are that I've had a hard time finding resources. I had to burn wood to make charcoal for quite a while before I found my first coal ore. The other thing is that I've had to start clearing all the grass from the pasture next door so the creepers can't hide from me anymore. Those little creeps almost snuck up on me a few times out there.

Hardcore 4: I'm not real excited about this world yet. Another standard Hills biome, which frankly is getting a bit boring. I may have to start varying up my seed pattern to try and find more interesting worlds to build in. It took me most of the first day to find a place I wanted to camp in, a small cavern at the corner of a hill with two entrances. Over time I've excavated and walled it in for safety. I've gotten several wounds along the way that I've never healed, so one mistake somewhere and I'd die pretty easily. I'm working on building up a small farm to provide bread reliably. I'm thinking I might build my walls up to the build limit.

YESSS, really great that you separated the two. Take more screenshots!!

I have them, I just had something come up that interrupted creating the thread.

Hardcore 3 has been fairly mob-free. It's strange. At the beginning, I had some problems with creepers hiding in the tall grass out by the trees, but once I moved my tree farm inside, that hasn't been a worry. I have run into lots of silverfish though, which is a new problem for me. As I mentioned in the posts in my other thread, I don't know that I've run into any silverfish for real before. My guess is that either the silverfish hiding in the rock are eating up all the mobspawn slots for my area, or there's a dark cavern somewhere holding an army of mobs.

Also, Emeralds! Tons of them! (okay, not literally tons, but still..) I've got 47 of them right now, and they don't show any signs of slowing down. Do silverfish spawn near emeralds? Maybe that's why I have so many of each.

Netherrack Fortress hat. My Hill House has a Hat! I had to drop my original placement of it down a square or two, as it apparently went above the block limit. I need to get up there and see about putting a signal light on top of it. I'll start with a torch, and see if building a new fortress erases it, or if it stays. If it stays lit, I'll swap it to glowstone, or maybe even put a square of lava to flow down the inside. That ought to make things interesting... maybe too interesting for a Hardcore game. I'm not ready to die and move to a new world yet, even though I've been down to a half heart a few times.

Well.... shucks. I went outside to corral some sheep as a wool source, and got myself killed by a creeper. Thus ends Hardcore 3. *sniff*

I've started Hardcore 4. Another standard hill biome.starting point. I roamed around until I found a cave. Don't know if I'll keep the cave as my main base, but it had some iron showing that I mined.

Added Hardcore 4 to the initial post.

I'm mostly digging downward instead of building upward, but same overall effect. Nothing special found, just plugging away.

I left a couple of one-space gaps in the outer wall, and chickens and baby pigs have been coming through sporadically. The chickens live and multiply, but the pigs keep killing themselves by falling off the staircases. So I have a small supply of pork now at least.

Hardcore 4 isn't a particularly exciting world. The most interesting thing about it is how gunshy I am now about going outside the safety of my walls after spending almost of 3 and 4 cooped up safely inside. If I weren't playing Hardcore the chance of death wouldn't bother me, but since I am...

I've opened up the top of the tower and brought it almost level with the top of the hill I'm digging in. Creepers don't seem to mind jumping down, but they take so much damage one hit is enough to kill them. I have added safety rails to the outside of most of the stairs, and I now have some cows, sheep and pigs roaming around and getting in my way. The pigs still kill themselves falling off the stairs though.

With the announcement of 0.11 being submitted for release, I'm thinking I'll drop the Hardcore gaming when it's released, and do a new standard Survival blog like Arkel, since it has a lot of new things in it. I'll have to look for a good seed though, with an ocean nearby, to take advantage of boats, squid and fishing.

I think you'll be able to carry over old worlds into the new version

Oh, I'm sure you can. But starting fresh is it's own brand of fun, and exploring all the new additions while I do is an added bonus. And since I'm planning on having an ocean or large lake nearby already, I'm thinking I might just indulge myself in some more underwater construction.

Understandable. I'll be keeping my world, but I will tweak it to add things like boat docks, nether portal rooms, and whatever else. But I can't wait to see what your future world will be like.

More pics uploaded from worlds 3 and 4:

• The underwater room, converted into breathable space by overhead baffles:
• One of the beds with a room divider around it:
• View from outside at night:
• Outdoor daylight views:

My downward digging finally intersected a cavern, and I've been off exploring and caving. I pulled in about 75 blocks of iron ore and coal so far. I've found a few blocks of gold ore, but haven't mined them yet. I'm doing something a bit odd with this map: I'm not using coal in my furnace or torches. I'm saving it all for building material and making charcoal to run everything else. It means I have to keep a tree farm going, but that's not too difficult. Charcoal is a 100% renewable resource, while coal isn't, even though it is a common find.

Also, assuming the map generation doesn't change with the new build of MCPE, I've found the seed I'm going to use for the next blog. The spawn point is in a small bit of green surrounded by ocean, desert and snow, with a savannah not too far away. The seed is Rhageos (I pronounce it RRAH-jee-ose, with the R's rolled or trilled a bit). I've laid out a sketch of my main base in a flat creative world, although gathering the materials will be interesting.

Still digging downward, haven't hit bedrock yet, but I suspect I'm close. Wonder if I'll finish this before v0.11 is released? I've been lucky not to hit a lava bed in my digging, although I saw a flash of one due to a clipping error. It may have been off to one side of the shaft though.

I reached bedrock alright. Then I moved to the top to start building upwards. That worked out okay until a spider knocked me off the top. At any rate, this world wasn't very exciting, and it became more about how much of this tower I could build. So I'll go ahead and close out the Hardcore blog at this point, with the expected arrival of 0.11 soon.

Back to Arkel?

Quote from epcm»

Have you put your brightness on 0?

Yes. I prefer to play with darkness at 0 unless I just can't see the screen due to bright light. With brightness at full, I don't actually need torches to explore caves. Gives the game more atmosphere to not always be able to see what's up ahead.