Today, we finally complete the long-outstanding Starlight Treehouse, bringing us closer and closer to the full version of Starlight HQ 3.0. This build has proven one of the most challenging projects to construct, but it brings so many amazing features to Starlight, and I'm quite satisfied with how it has turned out.
NOTE on photos: There are lots of photos in this session and in most sessions - but this session is exceptionally massive. If you're having issues loading the photos, let me know as this information is useful for me to consider dialing back (I tend to make very large chapters, because I get a lot done in each one, but with each one I write there is also a PDF I create that could be potentially used as an alternative to the image hosting services). One thing you can do is to open up the spoiler of the session you want to read, and then refresh the page - this has been helpful for me as it tells your browser what photos to load.
Session 285 - "The Treehouse"
What in the world is this??
Lily of the Valley? Never heard of it in Minecraft before – that means it must be a new plant, or new enough that I wouldn’t have encountered it previously.
We’re in western unincorporated territory of Starlight City today. Why?
Because I need a lot of wood – much more than the tree farm can provide without using tons of bonemeal. Today, we’re finishing Starlight Treehouse. Finally, once and for all.
Two masons in this village? That’s amazing! I’ll be adding this village to our trade network – it’s within render distance of our primary Starlight City village across the chunk border if it is high enough.
Sweet berries? And FOXES – welcome. Can we bring one home??
It’s a tough challenge, as these guys are not adamant on getting anywhere near me.
However, I have very persuasive methods. By breeding two together, the bred fox becomes trusting of me, and thus will not dart from me. But I need to name her in order to make sure I know who she is (as she will follow the parents, who will dart from me).
STOP attacking all the animals!!
Admittedly, it’s quite entertaining to see Garma pounce on the sheep.
A couple rides later, and she has been successfully brought back to Starlight HQ!
For now, she will rest here by Outback Station, while we work on the treehouse.
Ah, so this project is now the longest-running incomplete project of the season, having been started several years ago now. The reason I haven’t completed it is because my plans for it have evolved over the years. See, back when it started, I was still playing in Minecraft 1.12. Such things as bamboo, sweet berries, composting, and bees were not even in the game. But when I learned they had, I conjured plans to include all of these things within the treehouse. And from there my plans just expanded. How would we do this? Well, it’s a pretty big update.
First: composters and a cartography table are being added to the map room.
An anvil is also being added to the enchanting room.
^ This is where the unfinished part of the treehouse starts. As you noticed from the outside, a huge chunk is missing from the right side. That’s what we need to finish today.
…But first, I’ll enjoy a beautiful sunset from the bedroom, and we’ll start in the morning.
This will be the first room in the treehouse’s new addition: The Ecosystem. In this expansion, we’ll be including all the following farms to Starlight Treehouse: bamboo, sugar cane, sweet berries, wheat, carrot, potato, cocoa bean, mushroom stew, flowers (every type), bees, bonemeal, melons, and of course a variety of items from our librarian (mainly emeralds).
I’m very grateful that lanterns exist. They’re an amazing addition, and while most of the treehouse’s lighting has been hidden – I’m very open to utilizing lanterns in the design as well.
Another block I am absolutely loving is the regular wood which covers all six sides with the log texture. This adds a much more natural feel to the outer “branch” parts of the treehouse.
This entire area is a tricky aesthetic challenge, and easily one of the more difficult that I’ve had to face because while working on it, I have to pay equal attention to both the interior design and exterior. In a build with so little symmetry, every block is important, and requires careful attention to detail.
^ I’ve installed the first of our micro farms – the sweet berry farm! It’s a simple observer clock-based design. These berries are neat because to harvest a single plant, you just need to right-click it (and so the plant itself is akin to tilled soil for berries).
Bamboo is being added in the corners of this hub – this is our bamboo farm as well! You’ll notice these are all micro-level farms. That’s the idea. Starlight Treehouse is very much a Skyblock-inspired build, with all survival essentials being packed up into here.
^ Here’s another great use of the wood block. Hopper chains will be used to automatically transport items from the farms above down into the storage room. Using wood, I can cover these hopper chains so they look like branches!
Only a few lighting sources are needed on the outside, as glowstone does the job in most places, hidden in the leaves.
From here, you just need to drop all sweet berries and bamboo into the hoppers, and they’ll automatically go down into storage.
Adding the sugar cane farm is tricky only because I need to make sure not to block the beacon beam.
With some maneuvering, this is done, and now we have a small micro sugar cane farm that automatically collects the sugar cane. It’s not going to nearly sustain efficient production of emeralds, but it will be another passive source of sugar cane in this area which will build up over time.
Dealing with the beacon beams has proven a challenge, but it’s one we have successfully faced!
Coming along beautifully! And, you get a nice view of Starlight Castle out to the right side. I’m loving the design of this room, and this approach will continue throughout the rest of the Ecosystem.
We’re moving to the second hub next door, which is the first you’ll enter. This hub will simply collect storage from the farms that will go above this room.
Also, I’m adding an automatic micro melon farm, with its own automatic storage collection. It does not need to be visible, so it will be hidden from sight:
^ All our current farm items will cycle to the bottom-most room in our storage.
I’m adding more bamboo around the treehouse too, because I think it looks nice.
^ Here you can clearly see the challenge that comes with this type of build. All this needs to be enclosed, and it needs to be done right.
So, I’m starting at the beginning, working my way outwards, to connect everything down below. Leaves, slabs, stairs, fences, lanterns, and other wood items are used in mostly coherent combinations to make this look right.
From this area, the final hub will be located above the two I just built.
Utilizing a similar aesthetic approach, I have also decided to add a tree farm up here. It feels appropriate since I’m in a treehouse after all.
The first farm to be located up here is the cocoa bean farm – a fast micro farm which will be replicated downstairs in the SRF at some point.
Before I add any campfires to the treehouse, I just needed to verify that they cannot catch fire on anything. I’ve had several nightmares about the treehouse burning down – that is not a day I want to ever see.
Thankfully, nothing happened, so we’re safe to move forward with the addition of bees.
I planted a small tree just to see the size we’re dealing with – I have decided to enclose this area with a leaf dome. I think that will look cool.
Yeah, it does look cool.
The campfires make this area feel so cozy! That’s a great feature in itself.
^ Here, you can see me decorating the outside of the cocoa bean farm’s redstone. I am using spruce leaves to give some contrast to the lush greens of the oak leaves.
This fenced dark oak area will be reserved for a very unique addition to Starlight Treehouse, and to Starlight HQ as a whole: brown mooshrooms. To get these, you need to strike a regular mooshroom with lightning. Only then can you use them to get suspicious stews! Of course, we can also use them to farm mushroom stew, which is far more efficient than crafting it. It thus provides an endless food source while up in the treehouse.
That’s a waiting game for now, so I’ll be moving on to the final farm area: the wheat/carrot/potato farm.
This is another classic micro farm design, but using observers, and I have to be cautious about how I cover it up because there are pistons involved.
Nice, and I’m using barrels to store these particular items. The same goes for cocoa beans, which you can see neatly tucked on the right side.
From this room, a few specific “hopper branches” will be added: honey items, which will all be included in one chest, and bonemeal.
An automated composter will be added here, and the idea is to use cookies as the composting ingredient of choice. Cookies have an 85% chance of increasing the compost layer, and because you get eight cookies per two wheat and one cocoa bean, this makes it highly efficient compared to using the sum of its parts. The bonemeal created here can then be recycled right back into the farms themselves. That’s why this is an ecosystem!
Finally, I am adding the bee nests, which I had been putting off because bees could very easily exit the treehouse and become lost forever. This area has now been secured.
^ Well, almost secured. It seems the bees have done a great job at exposing security flaws in my treehouse.
Oh yeah, here is the final storage room beneath the top layer, with the bonemeal and honey chests automatically receiving their respective items from above. The barrel of emeralds does not have such a hopper chain, but this is also not an automated item that needs to be sorted as such.
In the tree farm, I’m adding all two-high flowers, poppies, and dandelions. These flowers can be duplicated using bonemeal, meaning we could technically also farm them.
Okay Garma! Time to go to your new home!
Welcome to Starlight Treehouse! I don’t want you jumping out of the treehouse, so I’ll be keeping you up here in this area for now (it is the most secure part now).
Looking good… except that I need to deal with all the exposed glowstone! If you couldn’t tell, I really do not like the look of regular glowstone. That’s why I always use glowstone lamps instead.
Also, I need to deal with this whole top section. The best way to do so?
A leaf dome, obviously. In fact, I think I’ll do that everywhere.
Oh yes, that really does a great job covering up all the robust redstone. Let’s dome the rest.
As part of this process, I need to cover up all the glowstone from underneath.
Leave it to me to not use scaffolding at all on this build until right now. Hey – better late than never!
Finally, I need to slab the entire treehouse with Nether brick slabs. Have you guessed why?
In the event that lightning ever struck the treehouse in the wrong spot, it would rapidly burn the entire thing down, even during the rain. 95% of this build is highly flammable, and I do not even want to risk this happening. Nether slabs look the closest to dark oak wood from afar, which is why I am using them.
To be fair, this is still not foolproof, but it protects the treehouse far better than leaving it with no covering. The domes all look good, and overall, I am happy to say that this monstrous build is finally complete!!
At long last, the Lapis Hall of Fame gets a new addition, as we celebrate one of the season’s biggest projects finally meeting its completion.
The Ecosystem is working wonderfully, and I’ve been spending quite a lot of time just hanging out inside the treehouse, enjoying what I have accomplished here. I am quite proud of this build, so much so that I would say it is probably my best build to date. A full ecosystem, a complex redstone house, the full control center for the Night Lights outside, a home for all my pets, our map room – and let’s not forget this is the Overworld hub for the Gold Grinder, which also makes this the best place to craft golden carrots now that we have a carrot farm up here – this build is just an amazing addition to Starlight. I can’t wait to see its use grow throughout the rest of this season and the seasons to come.
Starlight Treehouse's completion really does make this base start to feel much more completed, and that's exactly the goal, because we're almost there. And with the treehouse itself done, it's now time to focus on the rest of the landscape around it.
Diamond armor isn't necessary but can be helpful, especially since armor these days is far less protective than in older versions. If you've encountered any raids yet, fewer mobs are present in the mansion (vindicators and evokers, but no ravagers or pillagers). Though, many parts inside are not properly lit, so you'll get other regular mob spawns as well. My top recommendation is a bow - ideally with Power V, and don't run out of arrows. Then just be careful - if you're not careful, you'll probably die.
Ocean monuments are the only structure that can generate in existing chunks (blocks are only placed in a chunk if its inhabited time is less than 3 minutes), presumably explaining why you can get spawns in areas without a structure
This makes sense, and I didn't even think about this being a probable reason for why the guardian bounding boxes are created regardless. As the game still tries to generate monuments in any chunks it should be in, regardless of whether they are new or old, it would still generate the bounding box as part of this process.
In fact, this was the case in my world as well - these are all 1.7 chunks which generated 3/4 of a monument after updating to 1.8 - you can see the chunk borders which show that dirt/stone/gravel was heavily replaced during generation of it. However, it must have been the case that the top-left chunk was occupied more so than three minutes - guardians still spawn in this area nonetheless (all three elders spawned as well, but I'm guessing these must require the monument structure in order to spawn, in which case their spawning spaces were left in tact).
I have just made an amazing discovery in my SSP of over eight years - one that would be difficult if not pretty much impossible to find without some external tools... except that I have done it by pure chance, again.
So, this world was originally generated in 1.5, but the total surface area that now exists of those old chunks prior to the 1.7 generation is roughly 2.5 square kilometers (basically an island, with ocean separating it from the ugly chunk borders). If you're not aware, stronghold locations also changed with 1.7, with eyes of ender no longer taking you to any strongholds that may have existed in preexisting chunks (rather, they would only take you to the locations of new strongholds - or rather, where the strongholds should be, which may not be there if said chunks were already loaded in 1.6.4 or before).
The first stronghold I found in my world was discovered entirely by accident while caving. Through later analysis, I recognized that this stronghold was a 1.7 stronghold - however, because stronghold generation changed again in 1.9, that means even the 1.7 strongholds have become lost as eyes of ender would no longer recognize them (meaning an eye would not take me here, but rather lead me to where strongholds should be as of 1.9).
Well, by purely another accident, I stumbled across a second stronghold from old chunks - but not only that, it turns out this was the only stronghold that generated in my original 1.5 chunks more than eight years ago. And not only that, but its ridiculously close proximity to the 1.7 chunk border kept most of the stronghold from generating, except for the end portal itself.
Take a look:
I hopped into spectator mode just to have a closer look, and indeed - this is all that exists of the stronghold, with the 1.7 chunk border right behind it:
How did I find it? Oh, this is the best part:
Notice that most of the caving area around it is lit up, but the stronghold is completely isolated. I had recently gone on some intense caving explorations in old chunks, as I missed the pre-1.7 cave generation. I knew that areas near the border had not been explored, which is why I chose to cave there.
I then headed above the surface, and began swimming around to collect some clay. In this next screenshot, take a look at the bottom right:
While swimming around, I heard silverfish!! It didn't take long to get into the stronghold, which was barely a couple blocks underneath the dirt:
I was absolutely amazed to see not only that a stronghold was here, but that it was barely here. Had the 1.7 generation started just two chunks further north, this end portal would cease to exist at all. The game no longer recognizes it as a stronghold, which means neither eyes of ender nor using the /locate command would work to find it. See here:
The game doesn't even know about the first stronghold I found, which I've now made a base from. But to find one like this in such old chunks? I had entirely believed that there were no old strongholds left in my world. Clearly, I was mistaken. This means there is still a third (possibly even a fourth) old stronghold out there, as the 1.7 strongholds are in slightly different locations than 1.5 (this means it is actually a likely possibility that a 1.7 stronghold is not far from here beyond the chunk border - but again, eyes of ender won't take me there, as you can see by the coordinates of the closest stronghold above). The easiest way I can find them is probably by using spectator mode - but I say, if I can stumble across two by accident, then by using trigonometry, I bet I can find the third (in fact, since I know where these two are, I have a pretty good idea where the third one could be, but it also would be in 1.8 chunks, not 1.5, so the math would not be exactly correct - FWIW the world origin at 0,0 only loaded in 1.8 chunks, which is how I know generally the direction the third stronghold would be).
This discovery has led me to believe there is definitely at least one, possibly two, more "lost strongholds" in my world, generated in 1.7 chunks (if there is a second in addition to this one on this "corner" of the triangle, I am betting it's probably just beyond this exact chunk border somewhere, but that exploration will be left for another day) - I prefer the personal challenge of finding them without external tools, because finding these two strongholds by accident has so far given me the type of excitement that I don't get from exploring anymore (this one even more so due to how close it was to not existing, and because it is the only one in pre-1.7 chunks - this I am 95% sure about given the coordinates and layout of my 1.5/1.6 chunks against how and where strongholds generate from the world origin).
Now, I think I have enough information to search for the others, if they exist. But that's for another day.
Out of curiosity, I started a new world in 1.15 with the same seed as my existing world, which was originally generated in 1.5.
I discovered that a pillager outpost exists in the new generation at a location which is currently ocean in my seed's original generation. I understand that pillager spawns are governed by bounding boxes similar to ocean monuments, and I've seen instances where the game places guardian bounding boxes in locations that should contain ocean monuments if the world were generated in new terrain. Would this also apply to pillager outposts?
I hopped into a creative world backup, and tried testing this by placing a platform of grass at y-level 68 - but I've not seen any spawns. The grass pillar in the middle represents the center of the outpost in the new generation.
Is there another way I can check to see if the bounding box does exist? Or perhaps I am not meeting the spawn conditions in some way.
FWIW when I use the /locate command, it tells me that the nearest outpost is 3,000 blocks away. Does the game check for the structure itself, or for the bounding box? If it's the latter, then I guess that answers my question about whether such a box exists here (though, this does not work for strongholds, of which there are two in my old 1.5 chunks, and a third in some 1.8 chunks, that are no longer understood by the game).
You dont understand. Yes, I can look for seeds but that wont change the fact I like flatter terrain. And the lag would still be present.
1.18 is the worst update for me. Hopefully I can reverse this stupid change
Game optimization is the biggest issue at the moment, especially with the additional height, meaning more block spaces - it's just getting worse, and I doubt any sort of refactoring is taking place based on the decreased performance I've noticed with each update (despite their claims that it is improving - I just don't see that and wonder how others do). The code is getting really bloated with features, and without an update focused on optimizing it, the performance will continue to get worse.
But regarding the terrain - you will still find flat terrain in 1.18, and an abundance of it. You would just need to look for it more so than you would in 1.17 for example. It's not all hills and mountains. Alternatively you could make a world in 1.17 instead, and update it later on after you've loaded a good portion of the chunks (maybe when 1.19 is released).
And what? Bedrock is forced to update? That alone is a reason I would never play it (I still play in 1.15).
1. Fully formed Continents, instead of the Endless Sponge pattern of Land and Ocean generation.
2. A larger volume of Islands and Archipelagos to populate the dull monotony of ocean.
I really miss this part of 1.6.4's generation and prior versions, and unfortunately the only way to replicate some feeling of it today is to use Large Biomes (which I understand does not replicate the generation at all, but the increased size of the "oceans" can at least make it feel a little more spread out, since that's exactly what it is). Thankfully in my main world I still have some 1.5 chunks - but, this is such a small portion of the world (only about a square mile estimated) that it makes no big difference except for the caving.
Additionally it would be ideal to have such continents maintain some consistency in temperature/biomes - this would make other continents worth exploring, in the event that your main continent is home to temperate/colder biomes (as opposed to deserts and jungles).
Archaeology was confirmed to not be coming in 1.19.
In any case, I'm against any addition of lore to the game, because the whole point of it being a sandbox experience is that you create your own lore. Mojang mentioned during Minecon that one purpose of archaeology was to exist as another avenue for players to create their own stories, and I think that the focus should remain on that. As such it is highly unlikely that anything lore-related will ever be added.
Following the events of the previous session, how will we move forward?? Well, I always say that with great trauma comes the opportunity for great therapy.
That's where Starlight Compressor comes into play.
Session 284 - "The Compressor"
I wake up and wonder what is going on.
“Staz! Staz, where is everyone?? Is Mayor Sensha okay??”
“Joey, what’s this troubling you? Did you have a nightmare again?” he asks.
“Is Drexel still alive??” I ask, unable to differentiate what’s real and what’s not.
“Joey, are you okay? Come inside – let’s make you some tea,” Staz’s comforting words always help me in times of trouble.
“Böshtok, Joey is having a manic episode again…” he says as he brings me inside the Council Clubhouse – as though I have these episodes often. But I’ve no knowledge of that.
Böshtok already has tea and milk waiting for me. Ibram closes the doors and alerts Shadrack and the golems outside. Staz brings me to the bed. This is all some kind of ritual that I’ve never seen before, even though it has everything to do with me. They’ve done all this before – many times before. Which means so have I.
“Joey, what’s the last thing you remember?” Böshtok asks as I drink the tea.
“Everyone. Dead,” is all I can conjure at the moment, my heart still racing with the vivid picture of everyone drowning to Enderquin’s terrorizing chant still fresh in my mind.
“Okay…” Böshtok heads outside while Staz stays to watch. I don’t see Drexel, so that must have actually happened. But where did I fall asleep? The fact that I cannot tell where my life ended and where my dreams began is the part that terrorizes me.
Böshtok returns with some potions and a golden apple from Maker’s Wellness Center.
“Here, take these and sleep here for the night.” He gives me a potion of weakness and a golden apple – the same tools that I use to cure villagers who have been zombified (a trauma I do not wish to experience). Böshtok is a genius – of course, it could have the same restorative effects on me.
I take the medicine and rest, letting the chemicals do their work to fight against the raging voices in my head, which have been completely thwarted by “All hail Enderquin.”
The next day, I feel refreshed – almost a little too much. The council has been incredibly hospitable for me. Although we disagree on a lot, when they see I am in a state of turmoil, all of them are quick to help. This is what friends are for, superseding any political and spiritual conflicts that exist. And it didn’t end there…
“Joey, maybe you should go back to Starlight HQ today. I know that building the base calms your mind. Take a break from us – we’ll be okay,” Böshtok reassures me. He has notoriously been against the creation of Starlight HQ, yet here is, telling me to do exactly what calms my mind and brings me peace.
“That’s a good idea. Thanks, Böshtok.”
I take the railway back to Starlight HQ, which is very quiet. Only after building the Inner Circle do I realize just how quiet the base is – Tetraquin will fix this, however we need to complete the Tetraquin Project first before we introduce that. But for now – we have work to do.
All this comes at a weird time, because while we’re very close to completing Starlight HQ 3.0, there is still a lot of work to do – most of it technical stuff. Today, we’re going to focus on the biggest part of that technical work: Starlight Compressor.
This plugin has been a pain in my ass for a long time because its functions are very broad, with the contraption being quite complex. If I leave it for long periods of time, as I’ve done now, then I tend to forget what everything does and have to spend time relearning the mechanics. That’s exactly what I’ve just spent a great deal of time doing. Thankfully, reading back over Session 259 was helpful (this was the last time we really did work on the project).
To recap, the entire purpose of this plugin’s existence is rooted in two main necessities for Starlight HQ:
The need for an automated storage/smelting system to control large quantities of items
The modular functionality’s desperate need to have regulation when it comes to consistently changing modular states
The former functionality has already been achieved – it’s the latter stuff that we need to work on, which requires a deep dive into some rather complex redstone.
First, while going through the plugin’s mechanisms, I realized that somewhere between updating from 1.12 to 1.15, comparator detection was broken such that single items moving vertically through hoppers move too quickly to be detected – however, they can be detected if moving horizontally. What the hell is that about?
It’s a huge issue here, because there is literally no space to move things around, and the entire basis for this plugin is hopper comparator detection.
OKAY, thankfully I was able to adjust that – otherwise this entire machine would need to be reworked, and this bit was frustrating enough (it took me a long time to realize it was broken, because it worked perfectly fine in 1.12).
We’re moving into the Dropbox now. I mentioned in a previous session that hooking up Starlight Compressor to Dropbox was going to be a little more involved. That’s because I intend to use Dropbox as an input for Starlight Compressor should it be plugged in.
Basically, Dropbox is supposed to be a drop-off point for such high-volume items as stone, cobblestone, etc. What if you want to smelt those? Well, you would need to use Starlight Compressor. By plugging in Dropbox, Starlight Compressor will unlock a separate hopper chain for the items to funnel through. They will funnel directly into Starlight Compressor from Dropbox, and from there will be processed according to the settings of Starlight Compressor.
From here, all items will make their way down to the furnace room to smelt as normal. Note that there isn’t a way for me to send these items back to the Dropbox storage room – this would require a very complicated setup which is not necessary right now. I do plan to eventually install the Dropbox’s own version of a smelter – but again, this is not necessary right now.
Recall that Starlight Compressor also activates pulse limiters at the end of each output. This has not yet been hooked up to Dropbox, but we’re about to do that now. To reiterate, this means that regardless of the length of the incoming pulse, Compressor will reset the output after seven or so ticks. This is useful especially for Dropbox because a constant stream of items flowing through would cause pistons in our farms to remain extended, not allowing new pumpkins and melons to grow (as an example).
^ Above, I am installing a new redstone line that locks all incoming inputs from the MISC. This makes Starlight Compressor the most invasive modifier because it directly locks the machine from use during active compression. ‘Active compression’ refers to the state that the Compressor goes into after reaching a certain threshold of items (this is decided through the threshold and amplitude levers), causing the pistons in the plugin to extend (a visual indicator that active compression is taking place), see here:
I am retesting all the Compressor’s modes, and there have definitely been some bugs which I have done some work fixing, mostly related to switching consistently between ‘amplitude’ and ‘hold’ mode. In general, the machine is still fragile in the sense that you shouldn’t switch any levers too quickly, or all the time (especially during compression). I think I’ll put this note on the handbook.
Aha, the destination swapper was broken, too. And due to the comparator detection bug I noted earlier, I had to add another hopper at the end of the line just so that it would work:
Maybe you’re wondering: what’s the point of locking the plugins from being used during active compression? Isn’t that just confusing?
It’s necessary to ensure that the modular state is preserved, which is especially important when I choose to log out of the world. See, one major issue (and also a source of some bugs) has to do with leaving chunks, logging out while some contraption is busy, and other things like that. Starlight Compressor’s ‘active compression’ mode does the job of keeping everything stable, such that it becomes safe for me to log out without worry of anything breaking, because anything still working will complete its cycle, and nothing new will start during compression.
Unfortunately, this is a side effect of having an extremely advanced redstone base. Starlight Compressor has only become necessary as a result of this, and for right now it’s the best way to ensure that Starlight HQ remains as bug-free as possible. But I imagine that I’ll be fixing bugs underneath the hood all the way up until the world download.
^ One other such function that active compression will have is preventing overlap among multiple modular functions. This means that, for example, if the potion brewer is activated by the MISC, then all other modular outputs for the MISC (like the SRF farms) will be blocked – and vice versa. This is another method regulating and reducing lag in the base.
On another note, I found a zombified villager which I actually have some plans for; I’ll be keeping him in the SCPC until we expand on this at a later date.
I’m starting the process of over-stocking Starlight HQ as I prepare for the season’s end and imminent completion of Starlight HQ. Even the small stuff like the flower farms is important because flowers make dye, which is extremely versatile (from terracotta to concrete among other things).
Additionally, I’m adding bamboo shoots as decorations around HQ.
Turning my attention back to functionality, the sugar cane farm has long been in dire need of an improvement. Recall that the farm was built back in 2015 before the advent of observers, which meant that it used this messy and ugly BUD-switch based design:
It’s such a mess! I’ve been able to update it for a while and have not done so (in fact, I’ve already made new sugar cane farms in the Inner Circle utilizing the popular observer-based design).
Say goodbye to all that old garbage. We’re saving a lot of pistons, too.
The new design is not only much better, but it saves a ton of space. Real estate is a major issue now, with little to no room left within the Starlight Faction to build new farms/machines. I’ve had to start using spectator mode in a backup copy of the order every time I plan to build a new redstone contraption.
Of course, I needed to hook back up the on/off switch, which is also automated by Dropbox.
I am also getting better at labeling all the various AND gates underneath HQ so that I am not completely lost when running new redstone lines. Yes, it has become an event trying to sneak new wires throughout this area. Tear down literally any wall, and you’ll see a web of wires infesting as much block space as possible.
I’m building up supplies here at the SRF food hub, which is going to be updated in the coming sessions as well. An old farm built way back in Season 2, it’s actually still very powerful, producing crops faster than the villager-run crop farms. The only downside is that it requires a lot of bonemeal – it also requires player input, which the modular farms do not.
I’m making a mental note that our cocoa bean farm no longer works, so I’ll need to build a new one later.
One way I have been dealing with the overflow of bone drops from our mob farm is by turning it into bonemeal and stocking every farm to hell. It’s a bit of grind work, but it’s necessary.
Today’s final task will be completing an old piece of the MISC that I started a while ago but never finished: hooking up the mushroom farm! The old automatic farm from Season 1 is now the oldest farm that I still use in this world, and we’re upgrading it to be used automatically through the MISC. Why build a new one when it still works just fine? Besides, I already have new ones through Starlight Overdrive. I can then plug in Starlight Overdrive if I want to activate them.
What you’re seeing is the installation of the farm’s MISC output wire, with all associated modifiers built into it (Limiter, Echo, and Compressor being the main ones required here). This is a process, because I then need to run redstone lines from each of those modifiers down to toggle whether they’re used, and the mushroom farm’s location in-between the Power Museum and SRF isn’t exactly the easiest to get new wires into.
…and I’m doing the exact same thing for the bamboo farm!
Thankfully, its location is much easier, being mostly out of the way. The SCPC is basically the outer limits of underground HQ at the moment, meaning it’s unlikely that I will run into anything other than STAS and a couple wires running to the Night Lights and iron farm.
With that, I can now finish adding the remaining MISC links for these farms (and other targets I’ve just been neglecting). I won’t bother writing on these here because this process is grind work at this point. Check out Session 270 if you want to see the whole process of adding a new link. Each and every link is a process with multiple components, and then with each one introduces the possibility of new bugs I need to iron out.
It’s as I said, I’ll be fine tuning the MISC until the end of the season and even beyond most likely.
But for now, I’ve made major progress, finally completing all of Starlight Compressor’s functions and improving many core components of Starlight HQ. Now that the principal technical features of the base are effectively done, save for finishing some MISC links, I’m ready to get the rest of the base done, too.
Finally completing Starlight Compressor, and improving a broad range of Starlight's core components, the base is officially in fine-tuning phase as we look through the entire Starlight complex aiming to complete all the unfinished projects that have accrued throughout Season 3. And on that note, one in particular immediately comes to mind...
it is clear why Mojang isn't going to spend that much time on optimizations because people want regular updates.
This is exactly why, and also why they didn't release Caves and Cliffs as a single update that would've been fully released around this time. But even in splitting the update, people still aren't happy (I still see complaints everywhere that "1.18 adds nothing," and it's being treated as a complaint). Although Mojang's practices here are definitely terrible (the game has run worse with every update), there is definitely something to be said about its fanbase. Mojang has conditioned its players to expect regular huge content updates every 6-9 months, and by doing so it is immediately considered disappointing if they were to put out an "optimization update", for example (like 1.15). It's frustrating because they're ultimately going to do what they think the fanbase wants (though maybe not perfectly), because they're a business after all; yet this negatively impacts the game which just gets more bloated with each update.
It would be great if they spent an entire update focused on optimization and refactoring, not on "new stuff." But they're not going to do that because in their minds, it will be disappointing to players who consistently expect bigger and better every single time. This stems from the culture of instant gratification that has consumed most facets of modern society, such that we (speaking generally) expect the latest and greatest in the shortest amount of time, and the idea of patience and waiting causes us to completely lose interest (my laptop which I've only had for four years is considered old now, the same way old iPhone versions are considered obsolete immediately when a new one comes out, which is just absurd to me).
I think Mojang fears that should they do an optimization update, this is exactly what would happen - people would suddenly get bored, because that's what happens every time not even a month after a new update drops. Not even a day will go by after November 30th, and people will start talking about 1.19, which will put immense pressure on Mojang to churn out snapshots before people get bored. It's really unfortunate, but also Mojang conditioned players to be this way especially with the new tradition of announcing future updates at Minecon Live before the current one is even released, with no discussions on optimization at all. What I want to see is the fanbase getting on the same page about what's necessary in terms of optimization and actually improving what is already here, but that's never going to happen (I would love to be wrong though).
Wait, any biome can be flat or mountainous? The heck do you do with flat mountain biomes or mountainous swamps? Huh?
Yes, here is a better explanation:
Basically, terrain generation is independent of biome generation now. Prior to 1.18, you had all kinds of biome variants like Forest Hills Plateau, etc., with the only differences in these variants being related to terrain generation. Those variants no longer exist. 1.18 uses a new algorithm that generates terrain first - then, biomes will adapt to the terrain that exists. This means that mountainous terrain will be generated before it adopts the mountain biome type. Check out the following photo of this Plains biome:
It is actually the exact same biome as this, not too far away:
Here's the seed if you want to see this in practice: 7911647233737562058
You spawn in what feels like amplified terrain, but it's just a Plains biome. Head north and then west, and you're given about 1,000 blocks of flatland, plus a village! A little further north and you get the beautiful river gorge in the first photo.
Now, if you want to see flat mountain biomes, you actually can! It's a bit rare in normal worlds, as biomes adapt to the terrain generating, however if you create a single-biome world (maybe do jagged peaks as an example), you'll see the same type of terrain generation: mountains here, peaks here, then flatlands, sometimes for hundreds to thousands of blocks. This is more common for Grove and Meadow biomes in a normal world, but it's possible for the more extreme variants as well. In fact, just for fun, create a single biome with that seed I listed above - you may be surprised to see that it's the exact same world (well close enough) in terms of the terrain generation!
With these changes, 1.18 is the real Exploration Update - it encourages you to explore and find new areas that you do like. The two photos above can foster wildly different home bases, cities, etc. - but they're in the same biome. It's pretty incredible IMO, because it's no longer easily possible to predict what you're going to find (this was the issue with terrain before, because if I find a forest biome, I pretty much know what I'm getting, and it's quite boring).
Some of you really need to take the time making some seeds. Worlds are incredibly varied now, seeds are no longer like one another. If you take the time to generate some seeds and actually explore them you're probably going to find what you want because there's a good balance of everything now.
"Too hilly" is a weird complaint when hills didn't even exist before because they were tied to a biome and could not organically appear anywhere like alpha and beta. Pre-1.18 terrain was too predictable, every biome was flat except for artificially made biomes which made things even more predictable (extreme hills, foresthills, etc). The presence of natural hilly terrain in 1.18 does not mean it is too much, it means we are now striking a better balance and worlds aren't going to be looking the same anymore when it comes to terrain features. They did not remove terrain that looks like 1.17, they only added more possibilities and unshackled the terrain.
There are plenty of mountains with plenty of flat land in between them, or even just thousands of blocks with no mountains to be found. The multi-noise per seed is completely random, but landscapes that resemble 1.17 were not removed can still be found. It's just very random and unpredictable, as it should be. You shouldn't be able to guess what a random seed looks like before you generate it, and that was their goal.
Exactly - I think some folks might be forgetting that biome and terrain parameters have been separated, such that any biome can be as flat as it can be mountainous. It's not that terrain is more mountainous - it's that the parameters that used to govern mountainous terrain (i.e. Extreme Hills biomes and "shattered" variants of biomes) have been separated from biome-specific code. This makes exploration more interesting, and despite some of my gripes about game changes on a micro scale (i.e. some of the nonsensical changes that have taken place across the years mostly related to redstone and mechanics) - this is a good one.
I think they re-added Amplified so that you could have that experience if you wanted, but by no means is terrain generation amplified by default. People who don't like 1.18 terrain may not like certain parts of the terrain, perhaps - that just means you need to keep exploring to find terrain you like (because yes, flat lands do exist, and actually in some seeds they exist for thousands of blocks before you see any mountains!).
Oh man, this is the session I have been waiting to release for a very, very long time. It's a completely different reading experience that will propel our story to some new levels, and it should play some mind games with you... that's what Enderquin does best.
If you thought the previous session had a dark ending, well, things are about to get a lot worse for Quintropolis.
Session 283 - "The Community"
“And so, on this day, we commemorate Drexel’s influence on Starlight, the Inner Circle, and Quintropolis as a whole. He fell victim to unfortunate circumstances which cannot be explained, but he will always be a hero in perpetuating the development of our sacred island.”
Staz rushes outside, with Ibram chasing him close behind. “Joey, is it going to happen to me, too? Please don’t let it happen to me!”
Staz’s fear is something I did not expect. One could say that it’s a wrinkle in my plans. But it’s a wrinkle I should probably start acknowledging, because otherwise the entire world will collapse to Enderquin’s control. Something very cryptic is happening.
“Staz, I am here to protect you. You’re safe here – don’t worry,” I try to reassure him.
“Drexel wasn’t!” he quickly retorted. “What is the GAUNTLET?? You owe us an answer!!” he starts yelling.
“Staz, you’re panicking – here, let me brew you a potion.”
“No, you’re dodging the question. Tell US why Drexel went insane.”
Staz has me in a box, and neither Ibram nor Boshtok are fighting his request. They stand alongside him, waiting for me to speak on what they think I know… what I do know.
“You all know that Quintropolis was created by gods. Celestial beings without a corporeal form. Yes?” I first need to know if they will even be able to conceive the concepts about which I consider sharing.
“Of course – you never stop talking about how much you plan to destroy them, and now look at what has happened!” Staz responds.
“Yes… We’ve all been trying to warn you, Joey,” Boshtok joins in. “Please tell us what is going on here. We know that you have an idea.”
I wait for a moment to decide how to best approach this delicate situation.
“Enderquin is here,” I answer. “I thought I defeated him… I did defeat him, a long time ago, in a sky dimension which he claims home. I slayed him with my own hand. Violet helped me get there, and then she died. Ever since my visit, I’ve been experiencing hauntings of my own. They’re the same hauntings that eventually drove Violet to her death.”
They all pause in disbelief, then hurry inside the clubhouse without another word. I knew this was not going to end well. What I did not realize was the extent to which Enderquin’s power has grown. Why did I think the dragon was his physical form? Perhaps it was my pride.
There is not much I can do now to reason with the council. They’ve already decided long ago that I am a villain. Perhaps it is best I accept that no matter how much I try to help them, I will forever be the bane of their existence, and my own.
I’ll continue my work on the Inner Circle, and maybe they will come around to rejoin this discussion.
Today, we need to complete Maker’s Wellness Center. This will be home to Maker – our recently acquired cleric. It will house all the materials which he trades, and a brewing stand to brew potions. I also intend to have potions of weakness and golden apples stored in here. After all, it’s clear that we need them on standby all the time.
The challenge here is making sure that Maker doesn’t attach himself to one of the barrels instead. Needless to say, this part took a bit of trial and error.
Boats are actually an easy way to transport villagers around – so long as you don’t have any elevation changes.
Look at that! Michelle offers Feather Falling books! Not that we need those, since we have a double chest full of them already, but still.
Thinking about the best way to integrate trades with Maker (a cleric), I’m reminded that the Mob Processing Hub, which we built way back in early Season 2 (this was in 2015), is not more than 200 blocks east from here. What if we were to install an underground connector to this build, such that we could easily transport mob drops?
Obviously, it’s the zombie flesh that comes to mind. Actually, trading that with clerics is probably its only use at this point in the game.
Still, bonemeal is also good to have here, and since this hub is home to our original skeleton XP farm, we have ridiculous amounts of bone drops here.
Please also welcome Moosa, a fisherman who just appeared out of nowhere… In any case, coal is a useful trade as well, if not slightly wasteful. I’ll keep Moosa’s things here in Jacque’s Agricultural Center.
Now then, although I’ve no interest in fully completing the connector today, I am interested in getting started with the trades. As such I will be moving a significant amount of zombie flesh from the MPH over to the Inner Circle. This is a great way to revive the utility of the MPH, which has gone largely unused throughout Season 3.
Welcome Maker to the shop!
Moving on down, there is one more major shop I want to install: the Inner Circle Produce Market. This will be a useful source of pumpkins, melons, beetroot, potatoes, and more carrots to increase trading volume with our farmers.
The market is largely carved into the mountain here, which is great as it keeps things nicely hidden from the outside.
Maintaining stone themes with the overall look, but I’m also adding bricks and clay where appropriate.
Here we have the new beetroot and potato farms – however, some of the new farmers have gone over to Shadrack’s plot and have since acquired carrots in their inventory spaces. This is evident as I notice carrots and things popping up in here!
Finally, I am adding the pumpkin and melon farms here. I was going to make an automatic farm for each, but I think this will be fine for now (an automatic farm requires much more space here, which I am not prepared to dig out or house above ground).
And here is the completed produce market! With our new farmers.
Having done more work on the roof for Michelle’s Paper Shop (though it’s still not done), overall the Inner Circle’s downtown strip is coming along quite nicely.
There is still one more important addition I’d like to make before concluding my work here today.
Bees have been in Quintropolis for a while, but I’ve not bothered to utilize them and make a farm that brings honey, honey blocks, honeycomb, and honeycomb blocks into the world. That’s about to change.
Next to the underground connector that takes us to the MPH, I’ll be building the small but cozy new Honey House, which will house several bees to begin our resource production of honey. This will be a manual farm for now – I’ll look into some automated options later.
I don’t like the look of the crafted beehives, so I’m going exploring out west to find a total of seven additional bee nests to add to the house.
That took less time than I expected, but elytra make everything fast nowadays.
A small storage area underneath the hill here, and I think that’s pretty good for now.
WHAT? How did you get in here??
Aha – sneaky little *******. I’ll be patching that up nicely.
Suddenly, I notice everyone in the Circle trying to leave…
STAZ!! OH NO!! What happened??
Ibram?? Where’s your librarian outfit?
Nobody is responding to me. This is very strange – I need the mayor’s help.
“Mayor Sensha! We need to hurry. Something strange is happening on the island…”
“Joey, thank goodness you’re here. I’m afraid I don’t understand what’s going on!” he speaks in sheer terror.
“Wait, where is everyone??” I ask… because nobody else is here.
“They’re gathering at the chunk border. Everyone is at the chunk border. From everywhere.”
“The chunk border? What are they doing there??”
“Come, let me show you.”
Mayor Sensha walks me to the chunk border, and I feel my heart begin racing at an uncanny pace as I hear what I can only describe as a chanting of sorts.
…The kind of chanting that echoes for hours in the air miles and miles away, carrying from community to community, until everyone has received the message.
We inch closer, but Mayor Sensha cannot believe what he is seeing. He stops for a moment. He is having a panic attack.
“I’m here, Mayor.” I grab him and lay him against the cliff wall. “How can I help??”
“Joey… I… I- AHHH!!” he startles and jumps back from me. “GET AWAY!!”
“Mayor, it’s me!! It’s Joey!”
The mayor does not appear to recognize me at all. He shakes in agonizing terror as he backs into a corner but has nowhere else to go. He starts clawing away at the rock wall with such passion to escape whatever he sees in place of me. I try to inch closer and comfort him, but it is of no use.
“STOP!! Please, please just kill me,” he screams.
“What? No! Can you hear me??” I ask. “Mayor Sensha – do you hear me??”
“Yes,” he responds, eyes wide and breath heavy. “But that’s not you anymore.”
Oh no. He is hallucinating. The only way to save him is to leave. I am not losing two friends today.
“I’m leaving, Mayor. Just turn away – don’t look at whatever it is you see. Close your eyes, and breathe. It’s not real. Please, just… just breathe and keep breathing.”
In the background, I hear the chants. They’re louder. I leave the shriveling mayor to rest in hopes that he will be able to overcome this mental game Enderquin is playing. In the distance, I see everyone that the mayor was talking about. They’re standing in a line – a straight line, completely unwavering, not more than a block from the chunk wall border which separates them from the deep waters below. Not a single movement.
As I get closer, the thunderstorm worsens. I’m close enough to make out the words they are saying, and to say that I have been shaken with such fear would be an understatement.
“All hail Enderquin.”
“All hail Enderquin.”
“All hail Enderquin.”
“All hail Enderquin.”
Mayor Sensha!! Where are you??!!
“All hail Enderquin.”
“Mayor Sensha! Snap out of it!!”
The mayor is no longer responsive to anything I say or do. He might as well be a puppet just like the rest of them. Enderquin has taken everyone – every single villager that I have met and made relations with – and brought them here to the border of Quintropolis Island. But why??
Mayor Sensha begins walking to the border with everyone. I push him away, but he pushes me back with a force that could only be described as… supernatural.
“All hail Enderquin.”
“All hail Enderquin.”
“All hail Enderquin.”
I have no power here. All I can do now is watch as these people’s minds and bodies have become entirely violated, many of them now zombified.
“Tell me, is this a dream? Or is it a vision?” The voice of Enderquin emerges, as does the chilling hallucination of multiple dragons encircling the edge of Quintropolis Island. I call it a hallucination, because I refuse to believe this is real.
“Enderquin! You’re alive! But how??”
“You did not listen. You never listen. And now, you will need to answer for your sins.”
One by one, the villagers jump off the chunk wall border, drowning to their certain demise as their last words echo across the entire world, much to Enderquin’s sadistic pleasure.
“NOOOOO!!!”
I sprint to save them, but I can’t. They’re already dead. The chanting ceases, as does the rain, the sun rising and the birds chirping as if nothing had happened at all. Because maybe it didn’t, and maybe this was just a dream. And I am still asleep.
Here is a night view from the front (I've also been working on the landscape surrounding it, and here you can see five of the six Night Lights):
And from the back:
Thankfully this is an SSP so no worry of any griefers (I would never build this on an SMP for that reason). However, if you're curious what a lightning strike would do, well, I did a test in a creative copy backup, and this is what happened by just one strike in the wrong place:
It is for that reason that I went the extra length to secure it with nether brick slabs on top, though the only way to fully protect it is probably to put a glass dome over it or something. A strike to cause this would be rare, but it's still possible even with the slabbing, and not something I want to risk given that 95% of the treehouse is flammable. So I am continuing to run tests to try reducing the chances of this happening to an infinitesimal percentage. If I do need to build a giant glass dome around the treehouse to protect it, then that's what I will do (just depends how much the nether brick slabbing will ultimately impact the look from the outside).
Surely some of y'all have some things to share, too.
But I've been particularly active as of late (still very behind in my journal but I'll catch up eventually), and have just completed what I would say is easily my best build to date.
Introducing Starlight Treehouse:
A little context about this project:
This has been one of the longest-running incomplete projects in my world now, started somewhere in 2018 at the beginning of the journal's Season 3. Only now has it been completed at the end of the season, because the scope of the project far exceeded what I originally intended. The aesthetic challenge of this build was insane, because it goes against rules of orderly, cube-oriented symmetry that are so easy to fall into. There is an incredible amount of detail, but the challenge was focusing on the exterior just as much as the interior (since I build underground a lot, it's easy to forget about that). This treehouse looks like your average clubhouse, but it's actually a complex redstone house disguised as a primitive treehouse. It features more than 15 micro farms, all my pets, the "map room" that houses all my adventure maps for various lands, the full control center for the Night Lights (those glowstone pillars you see surrounding the treehouse, which can be connected to anything in the base as a visual indicator of their use), and serves as the Overworld hub for my gold XP farm on the other side. Indeed, it was designed as its own ecosystem - although it is part of the larger Starlight HQ complex (which I will show in a different post later), you actually get everything you need inside the treehouse itself, as it's completely self-sustaining. Think of it like a Skyblock base... kind of.
The entire treehouse is slabbed with Nether brick slabs to protect it from lightning. I am playing in 1.15, so I don't have lightning rods. It's not 100% protected, but I always sleep during thunderstorms anyway.
A closer look inside (lots to see!):
You'll start by entering the slime block elevator at the base of the treehouse:
You will be greeted by Greta - our librarian - and a bountiful view of Starlight HQ. There is also a block swap contraption that reveals a crafting table in this main meeting area:
The treehouse is wound together by three main central floors and lots of winding paths:
^ The paths above take you to the homes of my cats and dogs, respectively.
On the second floor, you have a few choices:
The main canopy is a great place to watch the sunset, and is home to my parrots who tell us if mobs spawn anywhere on the branches (I have about 15 parrots). Of course you have a jukebox for jamming - and all the music discs in the game as of 1.15.
Take the path to the left, and you'll head to the Ecosystem:
The Ecosystem is where most of the farms are - above, you can see a view of Starlight Castle on the right, and the split paths which place some farms on top of others (this is how I get the automated storage to work). Let's check everything out:
^ Automated storage for melon, sweet berry, bamboo, and sugar cane farms, plus regular storage for various other items. These farms are all in the room directly above this. On the right side wall is the full world map, but it isn't done yet.
^ Here, you have bees (honey, honeycomb), wheat, potatoes, carrots (also supports beetroot farming), and cocoa beans on the right. A suspicious stew farm is also on the right tucked behind those ladders (one for night vision and one for saturation). On the far right, you have our fox friend, and an automatic composter. The best practice is to craft cookies, which make for high-efficiency compost (you get eight cookies per craft, and each cookie has 85% chance to generate compost):
I don't like leashing any animals, but I also don't want to see her accidentally fall to her death outside the treehouse. So this is the solution for now until I secure every possible guardrail, etc.
^ Small tree farm, with all two-tall flower types directly underneath (these are easily farmable with bonemeal).
Above, you have bamboo, sugar cane, and sweet berries. The melon farm does not need to be seen, so it's completely hidden. A nice view of Starlight Castle is out to the right.
Below, the bonemeal from the composter and honey items funnel directly here:
Storage is automated - with the hopper chains hidden in these branches from the room above:
You get amazing views of some other builds inside HQ from the bedroom:
During the day, the bedroom does not need to be lit - so, the lights are controlled by a daylight sensor to conserve energy - this is the case with 90% of the lamps in the treehouse, including the ones in the floor.
^ The portal to the Gold Grinder, and my map room (which is yet incomplete, since I need to finish mapping the world out).
^ Night Lights control panel, with a book telling you how to use it and what all the buttons do. Various methods of vertical transmission are used here, such as utilizing observers, and droppers which drop items all the way underground to a mechanism that further controls the lights. These lights can be hooked up to any of Starlight HQ's farms so that you can see when it is running.
On the top floor, you have a sun roof - press a lever to toggle the horizontal 3x3 piston door:
The top floor is mostly for the Gold Grinder. In addition to the Nether portal that takes you there, we have:
Enchanting room and anvil station.
Full gold storage room - I have stacks and stacks of gold blocks, ingots, and nuggets, plus full enchanted golden armor, tools, weapons, etc. Even though I'm not playing in 1.16, this area will become incredibly useful when (or if) I upgrade to deal with piglins. This also makes the treehouse my main source of golden carrots as I can make them pretty quickly.
Finally, we have this feature:
If I have large amounts of items that I want to transport back to my main storage facility underground (closer to central HQ), all I must do is drop the items down this hatch. A hopper funnel collects them at the bottom, then a minecart takes them away to the storage facility.
...oh yeah and my charged creeper pet that I obtained prior to 1.13 named Sparky lives up here. Don't make him angry.
1
Today, we finally complete the long-outstanding Starlight Treehouse, bringing us closer and closer to the full version of Starlight HQ 3.0. This build has proven one of the most challenging projects to construct, but it brings so many amazing features to Starlight, and I'm quite satisfied with how it has turned out.
NOTE on photos: There are lots of photos in this session and in most sessions - but this session is exceptionally massive. If you're having issues loading the photos, let me know as this information is useful for me to consider dialing back (I tend to make very large chapters, because I get a lot done in each one, but with each one I write there is also a PDF I create that could be potentially used as an alternative to the image hosting services). One thing you can do is to open up the spoiler of the session you want to read, and then refresh the page - this has been helpful for me as it tells your browser what photos to load.
What in the world is this??
Lily of the Valley? Never heard of it in Minecraft before – that means it must be a new plant, or new enough that I wouldn’t have encountered it previously.
We’re in western unincorporated territory of Starlight City today. Why?
Because I need a lot of wood – much more than the tree farm can provide without using tons of bonemeal. Today, we’re finishing Starlight Treehouse. Finally, once and for all.
Two masons in this village? That’s amazing! I’ll be adding this village to our trade network – it’s within render distance of our primary Starlight City village across the chunk border if it is high enough.
Sweet berries? And FOXES – welcome. Can we bring one home??
It’s a tough challenge, as these guys are not adamant on getting anywhere near me.
However, I have very persuasive methods. By breeding two together, the bred fox becomes trusting of me, and thus will not dart from me. But I need to name her in order to make sure I know who she is (as she will follow the parents, who will dart from me).
STOP attacking all the animals!!
Admittedly, it’s quite entertaining to see Garma pounce on the sheep.
A couple rides later, and she has been successfully brought back to Starlight HQ!
For now, she will rest here by Outback Station, while we work on the treehouse.
Ah, so this project is now the longest-running incomplete project of the season, having been started several years ago now. The reason I haven’t completed it is because my plans for it have evolved over the years. See, back when it started, I was still playing in Minecraft 1.12. Such things as bamboo, sweet berries, composting, and bees were not even in the game. But when I learned they had, I conjured plans to include all of these things within the treehouse. And from there my plans just expanded. How would we do this? Well, it’s a pretty big update.
First: composters and a cartography table are being added to the map room.
An anvil is also being added to the enchanting room.
^ This is where the unfinished part of the treehouse starts. As you noticed from the outside, a huge chunk is missing from the right side. That’s what we need to finish today.
…But first, I’ll enjoy a beautiful sunset from the bedroom, and we’ll start in the morning.
This will be the first room in the treehouse’s new addition: The Ecosystem. In this expansion, we’ll be including all the following farms to Starlight Treehouse: bamboo, sugar cane, sweet berries, wheat, carrot, potato, cocoa bean, mushroom stew, flowers (every type), bees, bonemeal, melons, and of course a variety of items from our librarian (mainly emeralds).
I’m very grateful that lanterns exist. They’re an amazing addition, and while most of the treehouse’s lighting has been hidden – I’m very open to utilizing lanterns in the design as well.
Another block I am absolutely loving is the regular wood which covers all six sides with the log texture. This adds a much more natural feel to the outer “branch” parts of the treehouse.
This entire area is a tricky aesthetic challenge, and easily one of the more difficult that I’ve had to face because while working on it, I have to pay equal attention to both the interior design and exterior. In a build with so little symmetry, every block is important, and requires careful attention to detail.
^ I’ve installed the first of our micro farms – the sweet berry farm! It’s a simple observer clock-based design. These berries are neat because to harvest a single plant, you just need to right-click it (and so the plant itself is akin to tilled soil for berries).
Bamboo is being added in the corners of this hub – this is our bamboo farm as well! You’ll notice these are all micro-level farms. That’s the idea. Starlight Treehouse is very much a Skyblock-inspired build, with all survival essentials being packed up into here.
^ Here’s another great use of the wood block. Hopper chains will be used to automatically transport items from the farms above down into the storage room. Using wood, I can cover these hopper chains so they look like branches!
Only a few lighting sources are needed on the outside, as glowstone does the job in most places, hidden in the leaves.
From here, you just need to drop all sweet berries and bamboo into the hoppers, and they’ll automatically go down into storage.
Adding the sugar cane farm is tricky only because I need to make sure not to block the beacon beam.
With some maneuvering, this is done, and now we have a small micro sugar cane farm that automatically collects the sugar cane. It’s not going to nearly sustain efficient production of emeralds, but it will be another passive source of sugar cane in this area which will build up over time.
Dealing with the beacon beams has proven a challenge, but it’s one we have successfully faced!
Coming along beautifully! And, you get a nice view of Starlight Castle out to the right side. I’m loving the design of this room, and this approach will continue throughout the rest of the Ecosystem.
We’re moving to the second hub next door, which is the first you’ll enter. This hub will simply collect storage from the farms that will go above this room.
Also, I’m adding an automatic micro melon farm, with its own automatic storage collection. It does not need to be visible, so it will be hidden from sight:
^ All our current farm items will cycle to the bottom-most room in our storage.
I’m adding more bamboo around the treehouse too, because I think it looks nice.
^ Here you can clearly see the challenge that comes with this type of build. All this needs to be enclosed, and it needs to be done right.
So, I’m starting at the beginning, working my way outwards, to connect everything down below. Leaves, slabs, stairs, fences, lanterns, and other wood items are used in mostly coherent combinations to make this look right.
From this area, the final hub will be located above the two I just built.
Utilizing a similar aesthetic approach, I have also decided to add a tree farm up here. It feels appropriate since I’m in a treehouse after all.
The first farm to be located up here is the cocoa bean farm – a fast micro farm which will be replicated downstairs in the SRF at some point.
Before I add any campfires to the treehouse, I just needed to verify that they cannot catch fire on anything. I’ve had several nightmares about the treehouse burning down – that is not a day I want to ever see.
Thankfully, nothing happened, so we’re safe to move forward with the addition of bees.
I planted a small tree just to see the size we’re dealing with – I have decided to enclose this area with a leaf dome. I think that will look cool.
Yeah, it does look cool.
The campfires make this area feel so cozy! That’s a great feature in itself.
^ Here, you can see me decorating the outside of the cocoa bean farm’s redstone. I am using spruce leaves to give some contrast to the lush greens of the oak leaves.
This fenced dark oak area will be reserved for a very unique addition to Starlight Treehouse, and to Starlight HQ as a whole: brown mooshrooms. To get these, you need to strike a regular mooshroom with lightning. Only then can you use them to get suspicious stews! Of course, we can also use them to farm mushroom stew, which is far more efficient than crafting it. It thus provides an endless food source while up in the treehouse.
That’s a waiting game for now, so I’ll be moving on to the final farm area: the wheat/carrot/potato farm.
This is another classic micro farm design, but using observers, and I have to be cautious about how I cover it up because there are pistons involved.
Nice, and I’m using barrels to store these particular items. The same goes for cocoa beans, which you can see neatly tucked on the right side.
From this room, a few specific “hopper branches” will be added: honey items, which will all be included in one chest, and bonemeal.
An automated composter will be added here, and the idea is to use cookies as the composting ingredient of choice. Cookies have an 85% chance of increasing the compost layer, and because you get eight cookies per two wheat and one cocoa bean, this makes it highly efficient compared to using the sum of its parts. The bonemeal created here can then be recycled right back into the farms themselves. That’s why this is an ecosystem!
Finally, I am adding the bee nests, which I had been putting off because bees could very easily exit the treehouse and become lost forever. This area has now been secured.
^ Well, almost secured. It seems the bees have done a great job at exposing security flaws in my treehouse.
Oh yeah, here is the final storage room beneath the top layer, with the bonemeal and honey chests automatically receiving their respective items from above. The barrel of emeralds does not have such a hopper chain, but this is also not an automated item that needs to be sorted as such.
In the tree farm, I’m adding all two-high flowers, poppies, and dandelions. These flowers can be duplicated using bonemeal, meaning we could technically also farm them.
Okay Garma! Time to go to your new home!
Welcome to Starlight Treehouse! I don’t want you jumping out of the treehouse, so I’ll be keeping you up here in this area for now (it is the most secure part now).
Looking good… except that I need to deal with all the exposed glowstone! If you couldn’t tell, I really do not like the look of regular glowstone. That’s why I always use glowstone lamps instead.
Also, I need to deal with this whole top section. The best way to do so?
A leaf dome, obviously. In fact, I think I’ll do that everywhere.
Oh yes, that really does a great job covering up all the robust redstone. Let’s dome the rest.
As part of this process, I need to cover up all the glowstone from underneath.
Leave it to me to not use scaffolding at all on this build until right now. Hey – better late than never!
Finally, I need to slab the entire treehouse with Nether brick slabs. Have you guessed why?
In the event that lightning ever struck the treehouse in the wrong spot, it would rapidly burn the entire thing down, even during the rain. 95% of this build is highly flammable, and I do not even want to risk this happening. Nether slabs look the closest to dark oak wood from afar, which is why I am using them.
To be fair, this is still not foolproof, but it protects the treehouse far better than leaving it with no covering. The domes all look good, and overall, I am happy to say that this monstrous build is finally complete!!
At long last, the Lapis Hall of Fame gets a new addition, as we celebrate one of the season’s biggest projects finally meeting its completion.
The Ecosystem is working wonderfully, and I’ve been spending quite a lot of time just hanging out inside the treehouse, enjoying what I have accomplished here. I am quite proud of this build, so much so that I would say it is probably my best build to date. A full ecosystem, a complex redstone house, the full control center for the Night Lights outside, a home for all my pets, our map room – and let’s not forget this is the Overworld hub for the Gold Grinder, which also makes this the best place to craft golden carrots now that we have a carrot farm up here – this build is just an amazing addition to Starlight. I can’t wait to see its use grow throughout the rest of this season and the seasons to come.
Starlight Treehouse's completion really does make this base start to feel much more completed, and that's exactly the goal, because we're almost there. And with the treehouse itself done, it's now time to focus on the rest of the landscape around it.
Next up... Session 286 - "The Outback"
0
Diamond armor isn't necessary but can be helpful, especially since armor these days is far less protective than in older versions. If you've encountered any raids yet, fewer mobs are present in the mansion (vindicators and evokers, but no ravagers or pillagers). Though, many parts inside are not properly lit, so you'll get other regular mob spawns as well. My top recommendation is a bow - ideally with Power V, and don't run out of arrows. Then just be careful - if you're not careful, you'll probably die.
0
This makes sense, and I didn't even think about this being a probable reason for why the guardian bounding boxes are created regardless. As the game still tries to generate monuments in any chunks it should be in, regardless of whether they are new or old, it would still generate the bounding box as part of this process.
In fact, this was the case in my world as well - these are all 1.7 chunks which generated 3/4 of a monument after updating to 1.8 - you can see the chunk borders which show that dirt/stone/gravel was heavily replaced during generation of it. However, it must have been the case that the top-left chunk was occupied more so than three minutes - guardians still spawn in this area nonetheless (all three elders spawned as well, but I'm guessing these must require the monument structure in order to spawn, in which case their spawning spaces were left in tact).
0
I have just made an amazing discovery in my SSP of over eight years - one that would be difficult if not pretty much impossible to find without some external tools... except that I have done it by pure chance, again.
So, this world was originally generated in 1.5, but the total surface area that now exists of those old chunks prior to the 1.7 generation is roughly 2.5 square kilometers (basically an island, with ocean separating it from the ugly chunk borders). If you're not aware, stronghold locations also changed with 1.7, with eyes of ender no longer taking you to any strongholds that may have existed in preexisting chunks (rather, they would only take you to the locations of new strongholds - or rather, where the strongholds should be, which may not be there if said chunks were already loaded in 1.6.4 or before).
The first stronghold I found in my world was discovered entirely by accident while caving. Through later analysis, I recognized that this stronghold was a 1.7 stronghold - however, because stronghold generation changed again in 1.9, that means even the 1.7 strongholds have become lost as eyes of ender would no longer recognize them (meaning an eye would not take me here, but rather lead me to where strongholds should be as of 1.9).
Well, by purely another accident, I stumbled across a second stronghold from old chunks - but not only that, it turns out this was the only stronghold that generated in my original 1.5 chunks more than eight years ago. And not only that, but its ridiculously close proximity to the 1.7 chunk border kept most of the stronghold from generating, except for the end portal itself.
Take a look:
I hopped into spectator mode just to have a closer look, and indeed - this is all that exists of the stronghold, with the 1.7 chunk border right behind it:
How did I find it? Oh, this is the best part:
Notice that most of the caving area around it is lit up, but the stronghold is completely isolated. I had recently gone on some intense caving explorations in old chunks, as I missed the pre-1.7 cave generation. I knew that areas near the border had not been explored, which is why I chose to cave there.
I then headed above the surface, and began swimming around to collect some clay. In this next screenshot, take a look at the bottom right:
While swimming around, I heard silverfish!! It didn't take long to get into the stronghold, which was barely a couple blocks underneath the dirt:
I was absolutely amazed to see not only that a stronghold was here, but that it was barely here. Had the 1.7 generation started just two chunks further north, this end portal would cease to exist at all. The game no longer recognizes it as a stronghold, which means neither eyes of ender nor using the /locate command would work to find it. See here:
The game doesn't even know about the first stronghold I found, which I've now made a base from. But to find one like this in such old chunks? I had entirely believed that there were no old strongholds left in my world. Clearly, I was mistaken. This means there is still a third (possibly even a fourth) old stronghold out there, as the 1.7 strongholds are in slightly different locations than 1.5 (this means it is actually a likely possibility that a 1.7 stronghold is not far from here beyond the chunk border - but again, eyes of ender won't take me there, as you can see by the coordinates of the closest stronghold above). The easiest way I can find them is probably by using spectator mode - but I say, if I can stumble across two by accident, then by using trigonometry, I bet I can find the third (in fact, since I know where these two are, I have a pretty good idea where the third one could be, but it also would be in 1.8 chunks, not 1.5, so the math would not be exactly correct - FWIW the world origin at 0,0 only loaded in 1.8 chunks, which is how I know generally the direction the third stronghold would be).
This discovery has led me to believe there is definitely at least one, possibly two, more "lost strongholds" in my world, generated in 1.7 chunks (if there is a second in addition to this one on this "corner" of the triangle, I am betting it's probably just beyond this exact chunk border somewhere, but that exploration will be left for another day) - I prefer the personal challenge of finding them without external tools, because finding these two strongholds by accident has so far given me the type of excitement that I don't get from exploring anymore (this one even more so due to how close it was to not existing, and because it is the only one in pre-1.7 chunks - this I am 95% sure about given the coordinates and layout of my 1.5/1.6 chunks against how and where strongholds generate from the world origin).
Now, I think I have enough information to search for the others, if they exist. But that's for another day.
0
Out of curiosity, I started a new world in 1.15 with the same seed as my existing world, which was originally generated in 1.5.
I discovered that a pillager outpost exists in the new generation at a location which is currently ocean in my seed's original generation. I understand that pillager spawns are governed by bounding boxes similar to ocean monuments, and I've seen instances where the game places guardian bounding boxes in locations that should contain ocean monuments if the world were generated in new terrain. Would this also apply to pillager outposts?
I hopped into a creative world backup, and tried testing this by placing a platform of grass at y-level 68 - but I've not seen any spawns. The grass pillar in the middle represents the center of the outpost in the new generation.
Is there another way I can check to see if the bounding box does exist? Or perhaps I am not meeting the spawn conditions in some way.
FWIW when I use the /locate command, it tells me that the nearest outpost is 3,000 blocks away. Does the game check for the structure itself, or for the bounding box? If it's the latter, then I guess that answers my question about whether such a box exists here (though, this does not work for strongholds, of which there are two in my old 1.5 chunks, and a third in some 1.8 chunks, that are no longer understood by the game).
3
Game optimization is the biggest issue at the moment, especially with the additional height, meaning more block spaces - it's just getting worse, and I doubt any sort of refactoring is taking place based on the decreased performance I've noticed with each update (despite their claims that it is improving - I just don't see that and wonder how others do). The code is getting really bloated with features, and without an update focused on optimizing it, the performance will continue to get worse.
But regarding the terrain - you will still find flat terrain in 1.18, and an abundance of it. You would just need to look for it more so than you would in 1.17 for example. It's not all hills and mountains. Alternatively you could make a world in 1.17 instead, and update it later on after you've loaded a good portion of the chunks (maybe when 1.19 is released).
And what? Bedrock is forced to update? That alone is a reason I would never play it (I still play in 1.15).
0
I really miss this part of 1.6.4's generation and prior versions, and unfortunately the only way to replicate some feeling of it today is to use Large Biomes (which I understand does not replicate the generation at all, but the increased size of the "oceans" can at least make it feel a little more spread out, since that's exactly what it is). Thankfully in my main world I still have some 1.5 chunks - but, this is such a small portion of the world (only about a square mile estimated) that it makes no big difference except for the caving.
Additionally it would be ideal to have such continents maintain some consistency in temperature/biomes - this would make other continents worth exploring, in the event that your main continent is home to temperate/colder biomes (as opposed to deserts and jungles).
1
Archaeology was confirmed to not be coming in 1.19.
In any case, I'm against any addition of lore to the game, because the whole point of it being a sandbox experience is that you create your own lore. Mojang mentioned during Minecon that one purpose of archaeology was to exist as another avenue for players to create their own stories, and I think that the focus should remain on that. As such it is highly unlikely that anything lore-related will ever be added.
0
Following the events of the previous session, how will we move forward?? Well, I always say that with great trauma comes the opportunity for great therapy.
That's where Starlight Compressor comes into play.
I wake up and wonder what is going on.
“Staz! Staz, where is everyone?? Is Mayor Sensha okay??”
“Joey, what’s this troubling you? Did you have a nightmare again?” he asks.
“Is Drexel still alive??” I ask, unable to differentiate what’s real and what’s not.
“Joey, are you okay? Come inside – let’s make you some tea,” Staz’s comforting words always help me in times of trouble.
“Böshtok, Joey is having a manic episode again…” he says as he brings me inside the Council Clubhouse – as though I have these episodes often. But I’ve no knowledge of that.
Böshtok already has tea and milk waiting for me. Ibram closes the doors and alerts Shadrack and the golems outside. Staz brings me to the bed. This is all some kind of ritual that I’ve never seen before, even though it has everything to do with me. They’ve done all this before – many times before. Which means so have I.
“Joey, what’s the last thing you remember?” Böshtok asks as I drink the tea.
“Everyone. Dead,” is all I can conjure at the moment, my heart still racing with the vivid picture of everyone drowning to Enderquin’s terrorizing chant still fresh in my mind.
“Okay…” Böshtok heads outside while Staz stays to watch. I don’t see Drexel, so that must have actually happened. But where did I fall asleep? The fact that I cannot tell where my life ended and where my dreams began is the part that terrorizes me.
Böshtok returns with some potions and a golden apple from Maker’s Wellness Center.
“Here, take these and sleep here for the night.” He gives me a potion of weakness and a golden apple – the same tools that I use to cure villagers who have been zombified (a trauma I do not wish to experience). Böshtok is a genius – of course, it could have the same restorative effects on me.
I take the medicine and rest, letting the chemicals do their work to fight against the raging voices in my head, which have been completely thwarted by “All hail Enderquin.”
The next day, I feel refreshed – almost a little too much. The council has been incredibly hospitable for me. Although we disagree on a lot, when they see I am in a state of turmoil, all of them are quick to help. This is what friends are for, superseding any political and spiritual conflicts that exist. And it didn’t end there…
“Joey, maybe you should go back to Starlight HQ today. I know that building the base calms your mind. Take a break from us – we’ll be okay,” Böshtok reassures me. He has notoriously been against the creation of Starlight HQ, yet here is, telling me to do exactly what calms my mind and brings me peace.
“That’s a good idea. Thanks, Böshtok.”
I take the railway back to Starlight HQ, which is very quiet. Only after building the Inner Circle do I realize just how quiet the base is – Tetraquin will fix this, however we need to complete the Tetraquin Project first before we introduce that. But for now – we have work to do.
All this comes at a weird time, because while we’re very close to completing Starlight HQ 3.0, there is still a lot of work to do – most of it technical stuff. Today, we’re going to focus on the biggest part of that technical work: Starlight Compressor.
This plugin has been a pain in my ass for a long time because its functions are very broad, with the contraption being quite complex. If I leave it for long periods of time, as I’ve done now, then I tend to forget what everything does and have to spend time relearning the mechanics. That’s exactly what I’ve just spent a great deal of time doing. Thankfully, reading back over Session 259 was helpful (this was the last time we really did work on the project).
To recap, the entire purpose of this plugin’s existence is rooted in two main necessities for Starlight HQ:
The former functionality has already been achieved – it’s the latter stuff that we need to work on, which requires a deep dive into some rather complex redstone.
First, while going through the plugin’s mechanisms, I realized that somewhere between updating from 1.12 to 1.15, comparator detection was broken such that single items moving vertically through hoppers move too quickly to be detected – however, they can be detected if moving horizontally. What the hell is that about?
It’s a huge issue here, because there is literally no space to move things around, and the entire basis for this plugin is hopper comparator detection.
OKAY, thankfully I was able to adjust that – otherwise this entire machine would need to be reworked, and this bit was frustrating enough (it took me a long time to realize it was broken, because it worked perfectly fine in 1.12).
We’re moving into the Dropbox now. I mentioned in a previous session that hooking up Starlight Compressor to Dropbox was going to be a little more involved. That’s because I intend to use Dropbox as an input for Starlight Compressor should it be plugged in.
Basically, Dropbox is supposed to be a drop-off point for such high-volume items as stone, cobblestone, etc. What if you want to smelt those? Well, you would need to use Starlight Compressor. By plugging in Dropbox, Starlight Compressor will unlock a separate hopper chain for the items to funnel through. They will funnel directly into Starlight Compressor from Dropbox, and from there will be processed according to the settings of Starlight Compressor.
From here, all items will make their way down to the furnace room to smelt as normal. Note that there isn’t a way for me to send these items back to the Dropbox storage room – this would require a very complicated setup which is not necessary right now. I do plan to eventually install the Dropbox’s own version of a smelter – but again, this is not necessary right now.
Recall that Starlight Compressor also activates pulse limiters at the end of each output. This has not yet been hooked up to Dropbox, but we’re about to do that now. To reiterate, this means that regardless of the length of the incoming pulse, Compressor will reset the output after seven or so ticks. This is useful especially for Dropbox because a constant stream of items flowing through would cause pistons in our farms to remain extended, not allowing new pumpkins and melons to grow (as an example).
^ Above, I am installing a new redstone line that locks all incoming inputs from the MISC. This makes Starlight Compressor the most invasive modifier because it directly locks the machine from use during active compression. ‘Active compression’ refers to the state that the Compressor goes into after reaching a certain threshold of items (this is decided through the threshold and amplitude levers), causing the pistons in the plugin to extend (a visual indicator that active compression is taking place), see here:
I am retesting all the Compressor’s modes, and there have definitely been some bugs which I have done some work fixing, mostly related to switching consistently between ‘amplitude’ and ‘hold’ mode. In general, the machine is still fragile in the sense that you shouldn’t switch any levers too quickly, or all the time (especially during compression). I think I’ll put this note on the handbook.
Aha, the destination swapper was broken, too. And due to the comparator detection bug I noted earlier, I had to add another hopper at the end of the line just so that it would work:
Maybe you’re wondering: what’s the point of locking the plugins from being used during active compression? Isn’t that just confusing?
It’s necessary to ensure that the modular state is preserved, which is especially important when I choose to log out of the world. See, one major issue (and also a source of some bugs) has to do with leaving chunks, logging out while some contraption is busy, and other things like that. Starlight Compressor’s ‘active compression’ mode does the job of keeping everything stable, such that it becomes safe for me to log out without worry of anything breaking, because anything still working will complete its cycle, and nothing new will start during compression.
Unfortunately, this is a side effect of having an extremely advanced redstone base. Starlight Compressor has only become necessary as a result of this, and for right now it’s the best way to ensure that Starlight HQ remains as bug-free as possible. But I imagine that I’ll be fixing bugs underneath the hood all the way up until the world download.
^ One other such function that active compression will have is preventing overlap among multiple modular functions. This means that, for example, if the potion brewer is activated by the MISC, then all other modular outputs for the MISC (like the SRF farms) will be blocked – and vice versa. This is another method regulating and reducing lag in the base.
On another note, I found a zombified villager which I actually have some plans for; I’ll be keeping him in the SCPC until we expand on this at a later date.
I’m starting the process of over-stocking Starlight HQ as I prepare for the season’s end and imminent completion of Starlight HQ. Even the small stuff like the flower farms is important because flowers make dye, which is extremely versatile (from terracotta to concrete among other things).
Additionally, I’m adding bamboo shoots as decorations around HQ.
Turning my attention back to functionality, the sugar cane farm has long been in dire need of an improvement. Recall that the farm was built back in 2015 before the advent of observers, which meant that it used this messy and ugly BUD-switch based design:
It’s such a mess! I’ve been able to update it for a while and have not done so (in fact, I’ve already made new sugar cane farms in the Inner Circle utilizing the popular observer-based design).
Say goodbye to all that old garbage. We’re saving a lot of pistons, too.
The new design is not only much better, but it saves a ton of space. Real estate is a major issue now, with little to no room left within the Starlight Faction to build new farms/machines. I’ve had to start using spectator mode in a backup copy of the order every time I plan to build a new redstone contraption.
Of course, I needed to hook back up the on/off switch, which is also automated by Dropbox.
I am also getting better at labeling all the various AND gates underneath HQ so that I am not completely lost when running new redstone lines. Yes, it has become an event trying to sneak new wires throughout this area. Tear down literally any wall, and you’ll see a web of wires infesting as much block space as possible.
I’m building up supplies here at the SRF food hub, which is going to be updated in the coming sessions as well. An old farm built way back in Season 2, it’s actually still very powerful, producing crops faster than the villager-run crop farms. The only downside is that it requires a lot of bonemeal – it also requires player input, which the modular farms do not.
I’m making a mental note that our cocoa bean farm no longer works, so I’ll need to build a new one later.
One way I have been dealing with the overflow of bone drops from our mob farm is by turning it into bonemeal and stocking every farm to hell. It’s a bit of grind work, but it’s necessary.
Today’s final task will be completing an old piece of the MISC that I started a while ago but never finished: hooking up the mushroom farm! The old automatic farm from Season 1 is now the oldest farm that I still use in this world, and we’re upgrading it to be used automatically through the MISC. Why build a new one when it still works just fine? Besides, I already have new ones through Starlight Overdrive. I can then plug in Starlight Overdrive if I want to activate them.
What you’re seeing is the installation of the farm’s MISC output wire, with all associated modifiers built into it (Limiter, Echo, and Compressor being the main ones required here). This is a process, because I then need to run redstone lines from each of those modifiers down to toggle whether they’re used, and the mushroom farm’s location in-between the Power Museum and SRF isn’t exactly the easiest to get new wires into.
…and I’m doing the exact same thing for the bamboo farm!
Thankfully, its location is much easier, being mostly out of the way. The SCPC is basically the outer limits of underground HQ at the moment, meaning it’s unlikely that I will run into anything other than STAS and a couple wires running to the Night Lights and iron farm.
With that, I can now finish adding the remaining MISC links for these farms (and other targets I’ve just been neglecting). I won’t bother writing on these here because this process is grind work at this point. Check out Session 270 if you want to see the whole process of adding a new link. Each and every link is a process with multiple components, and then with each one introduces the possibility of new bugs I need to iron out.
It’s as I said, I’ll be fine tuning the MISC until the end of the season and even beyond most likely.
But for now, I’ve made major progress, finally completing all of Starlight Compressor’s functions and improving many core components of Starlight HQ. Now that the principal technical features of the base are effectively done, save for finishing some MISC links, I’m ready to get the rest of the base done, too.
Finally completing Starlight Compressor, and improving a broad range of Starlight's core components, the base is officially in fine-tuning phase as we look through the entire Starlight complex aiming to complete all the unfinished projects that have accrued throughout Season 3. And on that note, one in particular immediately comes to mind...
Next up... Session 285 - "The Treehouse"
0
This is exactly why, and also why they didn't release Caves and Cliffs as a single update that would've been fully released around this time. But even in splitting the update, people still aren't happy (I still see complaints everywhere that "1.18 adds nothing," and it's being treated as a complaint). Although Mojang's practices here are definitely terrible (the game has run worse with every update), there is definitely something to be said about its fanbase. Mojang has conditioned its players to expect regular huge content updates every 6-9 months, and by doing so it is immediately considered disappointing if they were to put out an "optimization update", for example (like 1.15). It's frustrating because they're ultimately going to do what they think the fanbase wants (though maybe not perfectly), because they're a business after all; yet this negatively impacts the game which just gets more bloated with each update.
It would be great if they spent an entire update focused on optimization and refactoring, not on "new stuff." But they're not going to do that because in their minds, it will be disappointing to players who consistently expect bigger and better every single time. This stems from the culture of instant gratification that has consumed most facets of modern society, such that we (speaking generally) expect the latest and greatest in the shortest amount of time, and the idea of patience and waiting causes us to completely lose interest (my laptop which I've only had for four years is considered old now, the same way old iPhone versions are considered obsolete immediately when a new one comes out, which is just absurd to me).
I think Mojang fears that should they do an optimization update, this is exactly what would happen - people would suddenly get bored, because that's what happens every time not even a month after a new update drops. Not even a day will go by after November 30th, and people will start talking about 1.19, which will put immense pressure on Mojang to churn out snapshots before people get bored. It's really unfortunate, but also Mojang conditioned players to be this way especially with the new tradition of announcing future updates at Minecon Live before the current one is even released, with no discussions on optimization at all. What I want to see is the fanbase getting on the same page about what's necessary in terms of optimization and actually improving what is already here, but that's never going to happen (I would love to be wrong though).
1
Yes, here is a better explanation:
Basically, terrain generation is independent of biome generation now. Prior to 1.18, you had all kinds of biome variants like Forest Hills Plateau, etc., with the only differences in these variants being related to terrain generation. Those variants no longer exist. 1.18 uses a new algorithm that generates terrain first - then, biomes will adapt to the terrain that exists. This means that mountainous terrain will be generated before it adopts the mountain biome type. Check out the following photo of this Plains biome:
It is actually the exact same biome as this, not too far away:
Here's the seed if you want to see this in practice: 7911647233737562058
You spawn in what feels like amplified terrain, but it's just a Plains biome. Head north and then west, and you're given about 1,000 blocks of flatland, plus a village! A little further north and you get the beautiful river gorge in the first photo.
Now, if you want to see flat mountain biomes, you actually can! It's a bit rare in normal worlds, as biomes adapt to the terrain generating, however if you create a single-biome world (maybe do jagged peaks as an example), you'll see the same type of terrain generation: mountains here, peaks here, then flatlands, sometimes for hundreds to thousands of blocks. This is more common for Grove and Meadow biomes in a normal world, but it's possible for the more extreme variants as well. In fact, just for fun, create a single biome with that seed I listed above - you may be surprised to see that it's the exact same world (well close enough) in terms of the terrain generation!
With these changes, 1.18 is the real Exploration Update - it encourages you to explore and find new areas that you do like. The two photos above can foster wildly different home bases, cities, etc. - but they're in the same biome. It's pretty incredible IMO, because it's no longer easily possible to predict what you're going to find (this was the issue with terrain before, because if I find a forest biome, I pretty much know what I'm getting, and it's quite boring).
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Exactly - I think some folks might be forgetting that biome and terrain parameters have been separated, such that any biome can be as flat as it can be mountainous. It's not that terrain is more mountainous - it's that the parameters that used to govern mountainous terrain (i.e. Extreme Hills biomes and "shattered" variants of biomes) have been separated from biome-specific code. This makes exploration more interesting, and despite some of my gripes about game changes on a micro scale (i.e. some of the nonsensical changes that have taken place across the years mostly related to redstone and mechanics) - this is a good one.
I think they re-added Amplified so that you could have that experience if you wanted, but by no means is terrain generation amplified by default. People who don't like 1.18 terrain may not like certain parts of the terrain, perhaps - that just means you need to keep exploring to find terrain you like (because yes, flat lands do exist, and actually in some seeds they exist for thousands of blocks before you see any mountains!).
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Oh man, this is the session I have been waiting to release for a very, very long time. It's a completely different reading experience that will propel our story to some new levels, and it should play some mind games with you... that's what Enderquin does best.
If you thought the previous session had a dark ending, well, things are about to get a lot worse for Quintropolis.
“And so, on this day, we commemorate Drexel’s influence on Starlight, the Inner Circle, and Quintropolis as a whole. He fell victim to unfortunate circumstances which cannot be explained, but he will always be a hero in perpetuating the development of our sacred island.”
Staz rushes outside, with Ibram chasing him close behind. “Joey, is it going to happen to me, too? Please don’t let it happen to me!”
Staz’s fear is something I did not expect. One could say that it’s a wrinkle in my plans. But it’s a wrinkle I should probably start acknowledging, because otherwise the entire world will collapse to Enderquin’s control. Something very cryptic is happening.
“Staz, I am here to protect you. You’re safe here – don’t worry,” I try to reassure him.
“Drexel wasn’t!” he quickly retorted. “What is the GAUNTLET?? You owe us an answer!!” he starts yelling.
“Staz, you’re panicking – here, let me brew you a potion.”
“No, you’re dodging the question. Tell US why Drexel went insane.”
Staz has me in a box, and neither Ibram nor Boshtok are fighting his request. They stand alongside him, waiting for me to speak on what they think I know… what I do know.
“You all know that Quintropolis was created by gods. Celestial beings without a corporeal form. Yes?” I first need to know if they will even be able to conceive the concepts about which I consider sharing.
“Of course – you never stop talking about how much you plan to destroy them, and now look at what has happened!” Staz responds.
“Yes… We’ve all been trying to warn you, Joey,” Boshtok joins in. “Please tell us what is going on here. We know that you have an idea.”
I wait for a moment to decide how to best approach this delicate situation.
“Enderquin is here,” I answer. “I thought I defeated him… I did defeat him, a long time ago, in a sky dimension which he claims home. I slayed him with my own hand. Violet helped me get there, and then she died. Ever since my visit, I’ve been experiencing hauntings of my own. They’re the same hauntings that eventually drove Violet to her death.”
They all pause in disbelief, then hurry inside the clubhouse without another word. I knew this was not going to end well. What I did not realize was the extent to which Enderquin’s power has grown. Why did I think the dragon was his physical form? Perhaps it was my pride.
There is not much I can do now to reason with the council. They’ve already decided long ago that I am a villain. Perhaps it is best I accept that no matter how much I try to help them, I will forever be the bane of their existence, and my own.
I’ll continue my work on the Inner Circle, and maybe they will come around to rejoin this discussion.
Today, we need to complete Maker’s Wellness Center. This will be home to Maker – our recently acquired cleric. It will house all the materials which he trades, and a brewing stand to brew potions. I also intend to have potions of weakness and golden apples stored in here. After all, it’s clear that we need them on standby all the time.
The challenge here is making sure that Maker doesn’t attach himself to one of the barrels instead. Needless to say, this part took a bit of trial and error.
Boats are actually an easy way to transport villagers around – so long as you don’t have any elevation changes.
Look at that! Michelle offers Feather Falling books! Not that we need those, since we have a double chest full of them already, but still.
Thinking about the best way to integrate trades with Maker (a cleric), I’m reminded that the Mob Processing Hub, which we built way back in early Season 2 (this was in 2015), is not more than 200 blocks east from here. What if we were to install an underground connector to this build, such that we could easily transport mob drops?
Obviously, it’s the zombie flesh that comes to mind. Actually, trading that with clerics is probably its only use at this point in the game.
Still, bonemeal is also good to have here, and since this hub is home to our original skeleton XP farm, we have ridiculous amounts of bone drops here.
Please also welcome Moosa, a fisherman who just appeared out of nowhere… In any case, coal is a useful trade as well, if not slightly wasteful. I’ll keep Moosa’s things here in Jacque’s Agricultural Center.
Now then, although I’ve no interest in fully completing the connector today, I am interested in getting started with the trades. As such I will be moving a significant amount of zombie flesh from the MPH over to the Inner Circle. This is a great way to revive the utility of the MPH, which has gone largely unused throughout Season 3.
Welcome Maker to the shop!
Moving on down, there is one more major shop I want to install: the Inner Circle Produce Market. This will be a useful source of pumpkins, melons, beetroot, potatoes, and more carrots to increase trading volume with our farmers.
The market is largely carved into the mountain here, which is great as it keeps things nicely hidden from the outside.
Maintaining stone themes with the overall look, but I’m also adding bricks and clay where appropriate.
Here we have the new beetroot and potato farms – however, some of the new farmers have gone over to Shadrack’s plot and have since acquired carrots in their inventory spaces. This is evident as I notice carrots and things popping up in here!
Finally, I am adding the pumpkin and melon farms here. I was going to make an automatic farm for each, but I think this will be fine for now (an automatic farm requires much more space here, which I am not prepared to dig out or house above ground).
And here is the completed produce market! With our new farmers.
Having done more work on the roof for Michelle’s Paper Shop (though it’s still not done), overall the Inner Circle’s downtown strip is coming along quite nicely.
There is still one more important addition I’d like to make before concluding my work here today.
Bees have been in Quintropolis for a while, but I’ve not bothered to utilize them and make a farm that brings honey, honey blocks, honeycomb, and honeycomb blocks into the world. That’s about to change.
Next to the underground connector that takes us to the MPH, I’ll be building the small but cozy new Honey House, which will house several bees to begin our resource production of honey. This will be a manual farm for now – I’ll look into some automated options later.
I don’t like the look of the crafted beehives, so I’m going exploring out west to find a total of seven additional bee nests to add to the house.
That took less time than I expected, but elytra make everything fast nowadays.
A small storage area underneath the hill here, and I think that’s pretty good for now.
WHAT? How did you get in here??
Aha – sneaky little *******. I’ll be patching that up nicely.
Suddenly, I notice everyone in the Circle trying to leave…
STAZ!! OH NO!! What happened??
Ibram?? Where’s your librarian outfit?
Nobody is responding to me. This is very strange – I need the mayor’s help.
“Mayor Sensha! We need to hurry. Something strange is happening on the island…”
“Joey, thank goodness you’re here. I’m afraid I don’t understand what’s going on!” he speaks in sheer terror.
“Wait, where is everyone??” I ask… because nobody else is here.
“They’re gathering at the chunk border. Everyone is at the chunk border. From everywhere.”
“The chunk border? What are they doing there??”
“Come, let me show you.”
Mayor Sensha walks me to the chunk border, and I feel my heart begin racing at an uncanny pace as I hear what I can only describe as a chanting of sorts.
…The kind of chanting that echoes for hours in the air miles and miles away, carrying from community to community, until everyone has received the message.
We inch closer, but Mayor Sensha cannot believe what he is seeing. He stops for a moment. He is having a panic attack.
“I’m here, Mayor.” I grab him and lay him against the cliff wall. “How can I help??”
“Joey… I… I- AHHH!!” he startles and jumps back from me. “GET AWAY!!”
“Mayor, it’s me!! It’s Joey!”
The mayor does not appear to recognize me at all. He shakes in agonizing terror as he backs into a corner but has nowhere else to go. He starts clawing away at the rock wall with such passion to escape whatever he sees in place of me. I try to inch closer and comfort him, but it is of no use.
“STOP!! Please, please just kill me,” he screams.
“What? No! Can you hear me??” I ask. “Mayor Sensha – do you hear me??”
“Yes,” he responds, eyes wide and breath heavy. “But that’s not you anymore.”
Oh no. He is hallucinating. The only way to save him is to leave. I am not losing two friends today.
“I’m leaving, Mayor. Just turn away – don’t look at whatever it is you see. Close your eyes, and breathe. It’s not real. Please, just… just breathe and keep breathing.”
In the background, I hear the chants. They’re louder. I leave the shriveling mayor to rest in hopes that he will be able to overcome this mental game Enderquin is playing. In the distance, I see everyone that the mayor was talking about. They’re standing in a line – a straight line, completely unwavering, not more than a block from the chunk wall border which separates them from the deep waters below. Not a single movement.
As I get closer, the thunderstorm worsens. I’m close enough to make out the words they are saying, and to say that I have been shaken with such fear would be an understatement.
“All hail Enderquin.”
“All hail Enderquin.”
“All hail Enderquin.”
“All hail Enderquin.”
Mayor Sensha!! Where are you??!!
“All hail Enderquin.”
“Mayor Sensha! Snap out of it!!”
The mayor is no longer responsive to anything I say or do. He might as well be a puppet just like the rest of them. Enderquin has taken everyone – every single villager that I have met and made relations with – and brought them here to the border of Quintropolis Island. But why??
Mayor Sensha begins walking to the border with everyone. I push him away, but he pushes me back with a force that could only be described as… supernatural.
“All hail Enderquin.”
“All hail Enderquin.”
“All hail Enderquin.”
I have no power here. All I can do now is watch as these people’s minds and bodies have become entirely violated, many of them now zombified.
“Tell me, is this a dream? Or is it a vision?” The voice of Enderquin emerges, as does the chilling hallucination of multiple dragons encircling the edge of Quintropolis Island. I call it a hallucination, because I refuse to believe this is real.
“Enderquin! You’re alive! But how??”
“You did not listen. You never listen. And now, you will need to answer for your sins.”
One by one, the villagers jump off the chunk wall border, drowning to their certain demise as their last words echo across the entire world, much to Enderquin’s sadistic pleasure.
“NOOOOO!!!”
I sprint to save them, but I can’t. They’re already dead. The chanting ceases, as does the rain, the sun rising and the birds chirping as if nothing had happened at all. Because maybe it didn’t, and maybe this was just a dream. And I am still asleep.
So, it’s okay.
Next up... Session 284 - "The Compressor"
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Here is a night view from the front (I've also been working on the landscape surrounding it, and here you can see five of the six Night Lights):
And from the back:
Thankfully this is an SSP so no worry of any griefers (I would never build this on an SMP for that reason). However, if you're curious what a lightning strike would do, well, I did a test in a creative copy backup, and this is what happened by just one strike in the wrong place:
It is for that reason that I went the extra length to secure it with nether brick slabs on top, though the only way to fully protect it is probably to put a glass dome over it or something. A strike to cause this would be rare, but it's still possible even with the slabbing, and not something I want to risk given that 95% of the treehouse is flammable. So I am continuing to run tests to try reducing the chances of this happening to an infinitesimal percentage. If I do need to build a giant glass dome around the treehouse to protect it, then that's what I will do (just depends how much the nether brick slabbing will ultimately impact the look from the outside).
3
Surely some of y'all have some things to share, too.
But I've been particularly active as of late (still very behind in my journal but I'll catch up eventually), and have just completed what I would say is easily my best build to date.
Introducing Starlight Treehouse:
A little context about this project:
This has been one of the longest-running incomplete projects in my world now, started somewhere in 2018 at the beginning of the journal's Season 3. Only now has it been completed at the end of the season, because the scope of the project far exceeded what I originally intended. The aesthetic challenge of this build was insane, because it goes against rules of orderly, cube-oriented symmetry that are so easy to fall into. There is an incredible amount of detail, but the challenge was focusing on the exterior just as much as the interior (since I build underground a lot, it's easy to forget about that). This treehouse looks like your average clubhouse, but it's actually a complex redstone house disguised as a primitive treehouse. It features more than 15 micro farms, all my pets, the "map room" that houses all my adventure maps for various lands, the full control center for the Night Lights (those glowstone pillars you see surrounding the treehouse, which can be connected to anything in the base as a visual indicator of their use), and serves as the Overworld hub for my gold XP farm on the other side. Indeed, it was designed as its own ecosystem - although it is part of the larger Starlight HQ complex (which I will show in a different post later), you actually get everything you need inside the treehouse itself, as it's completely self-sustaining. Think of it like a Skyblock base... kind of.
The entire treehouse is slabbed with Nether brick slabs to protect it from lightning. I am playing in 1.15, so I don't have lightning rods. It's not 100% protected, but I always sleep during thunderstorms anyway.
A closer look inside (lots to see!):
You'll start by entering the slime block elevator at the base of the treehouse:
You will be greeted by Greta - our librarian - and a bountiful view of Starlight HQ. There is also a block swap contraption that reveals a crafting table in this main meeting area:
The treehouse is wound together by three main central floors and lots of winding paths:
^ The paths above take you to the homes of my cats and dogs, respectively.
On the second floor, you have a few choices:
The main canopy is a great place to watch the sunset, and is home to my parrots who tell us if mobs spawn anywhere on the branches (I have about 15 parrots). Of course you have a jukebox for jamming - and all the music discs in the game as of 1.15.
Take the path to the left, and you'll head to the Ecosystem:
The Ecosystem is where most of the farms are - above, you can see a view of Starlight Castle on the right, and the split paths which place some farms on top of others (this is how I get the automated storage to work). Let's check everything out:
^ Automated storage for melon, sweet berry, bamboo, and sugar cane farms, plus regular storage for various other items. These farms are all in the room directly above this. On the right side wall is the full world map, but it isn't done yet.
^ Here, you have bees (honey, honeycomb), wheat, potatoes, carrots (also supports beetroot farming), and cocoa beans on the right. A suspicious stew farm is also on the right tucked behind those ladders (one for night vision and one for saturation). On the far right, you have our fox friend, and an automatic composter. The best practice is to craft cookies, which make for high-efficiency compost (you get eight cookies per craft, and each cookie has 85% chance to generate compost):
I don't like leashing any animals, but I also don't want to see her accidentally fall to her death outside the treehouse. So this is the solution for now until I secure every possible guardrail, etc.
^ Small tree farm, with all two-tall flower types directly underneath (these are easily farmable with bonemeal).
Above, you have bamboo, sugar cane, and sweet berries. The melon farm does not need to be seen, so it's completely hidden. A nice view of Starlight Castle is out to the right.
Below, the bonemeal from the composter and honey items funnel directly here:
Storage is automated - with the hopper chains hidden in these branches from the room above:
You get amazing views of some other builds inside HQ from the bedroom:
During the day, the bedroom does not need to be lit - so, the lights are controlled by a daylight sensor to conserve energy - this is the case with 90% of the lamps in the treehouse, including the ones in the floor.
^ The portal to the Gold Grinder, and my map room (which is yet incomplete, since I need to finish mapping the world out).
^ Night Lights control panel, with a book telling you how to use it and what all the buttons do. Various methods of vertical transmission are used here, such as utilizing observers, and droppers which drop items all the way underground to a mechanism that further controls the lights. These lights can be hooked up to any of Starlight HQ's farms so that you can see when it is running.
On the top floor, you have a sun roof - press a lever to toggle the horizontal 3x3 piston door:
The top floor is mostly for the Gold Grinder. In addition to the Nether portal that takes you there, we have:
Enchanting room and anvil station.
Full gold storage room - I have stacks and stacks of gold blocks, ingots, and nuggets, plus full enchanted golden armor, tools, weapons, etc. Even though I'm not playing in 1.16, this area will become incredibly useful when (or if) I upgrade to deal with piglins. This also makes the treehouse my main source of golden carrots as I can make them pretty quickly.
Finally, we have this feature:
If I have large amounts of items that I want to transport back to my main storage facility underground (closer to central HQ), all I must do is drop the items down this hatch. A hopper funnel collects them at the bottom, then a minecart takes them away to the storage facility.
...oh yeah and my charged creeper pet that I obtained prior to 1.13 named Sparky lives up here. Don't make him angry.