Minecraft Forums

I've noticed a lot of talk about the larger nether portals. I didn't read every post, so this question may have been asked, but...

Has anyone wondered why we would need larger nether portals?

The old 2 X 3 worked perfectly fine. Is there something coming down the pike we will want to take into or out of the nether that requires a 23 X 23 portal? Why the odd size of 23 X 23? Why not 15 X 15 (based on a 16 X 16 frame)? Why not something base-8 like the stacks in our inventory and chunk sizes? Just wondering.

I like the fact that this block condenses the function of a BUD switch down to

a single block. Redstone wiring takes up so much space, it can get frustrating

trying to figure out how to wire something in a small space. I know it isn't

needed, but it is nice to have. It also doesn't exploit the programing in the

way a BUD switch does, but actually is a light sensor.

I am hoping they do the same with t-flip-flops, xand, xor, and a number of other commonly used circuits. It would be great if these only took up a single block of space.

For those who prefer the traditional way of constructing the same redstone circuits, that should still be an option for you.

Chests aren't working. I can't get a starter chest to generate either. Plus, the new daylight sensor block is destroyed when you break it (remove it). Anyone else having these issues as well?

Hopefully, the Mojang crew gets a c snapshot out, and we don't have to wait until Thursday to get this fixed.

I tried to generate a new survival world using the 13w01b snapshot. As I have explored the Nether extensively in my current game, I figured I'd start a new one to increase my chances of finding Nether Quartz. My first attempt at a new world gave me a snow biome with snowless stripes. My second attempt put me close to a jungle wherein trees and foliage were missing in stripes. As I explored I found incomplete trees, and ran into several invisible objects that did damage (half heart). My third attempt yeilded similar results, including an invisible object underground.

I like the new stuff, but don't like the world generation glitches.

Anyone else have this problem as well?

Yeah, I tried it in a well-lit underground room, and it grew just fine. I grew 64 patches without problem. Now, I am rolling in the netherwart (metaphorically, not literally). Thanks.

There was a time when I had very rigid objectives for the first day. As I've become more experienced as a player, I've learned to adapt and play it by ear. I have priorities and preferrences, but I can adapt and reorginize my priorities as needed. My preference is a free-standing wood house with glass windows and a minimum 7X8 floor plan. I can usually acheieve a single story house of that nature with torches, crafting table and furnace the first day. That doesn't mean I don't take advantage of villagers houses, or open caves, or carve a home into the side of a mountain. I've even gone into a lake, put a couple of signs in the entrance (thus stopping the water from entering) to an underground home.

If I have a village nearby, building a 2-block high wall around it, and lighting it up becomes something of a priority, to keep zombies out. This puts off some of the other mining and food gathering tasks I often put higher up on the priority list. In such cases, I harvest and re-plant the villagers wheat, until the wall is done and I can plant my own crops. I usually make the initial wall of dirt, and then eventually replace it with a much higher stone wall. Preserving the villagers for trading purposes can be a great boon. In my current game I got melon seeds from the villagers early on, and I like melons.

I get a bed when I can, and often not until the fourth of fifth night. I usually pass the nights mining and do some combination of gathering wood and sand, and building surface structures during the day.

My point is: While it is nice to have nice neat little lists like those above (and there is absolutely nothing wrong with them), knowing your game and being flexible can work quite well.

I don't name my village or homes, but sometimes I name parts of cave systems. Often they are names like "Spider Cave 1" and "Spider Cave 2," but sometimes I name specific chambers or tunnesl things like: "The Great Cathedral," "The Bounce," "Waterspout Hall," and so on. The name usually has something to do with something that happened there, or some characteristic that fits the area. Putting up signs helps me navigate as I explore extensive cave systems. I have been tempted to name villages and homes, but just haven't gotten around to doing it yet.

In my current game, there are spider caves (aka. abandoned mines) below a nearby extreme hills biome. I have a Fortune III pick axe, and have managed to gather about 27 emeralds through cave exploration. I agree that mining for emeralds probably won't get you many, but spelunking for them has been luckrative for me.

12w30c Glitch? SSP; returning from the Nether to the normal world, I found myself exiting through a brand new portal about 25 blocks +/- from my already established portal. Anyone else have this problem? Did the attempt to fix portal placement create a new bug?

I've never gotten the zombie farm to work consistently. Some always die. Some take one hit ot kill with a bare hand, and some take two hits. I didn't ever consider that too much of an inconvenience. I did have problems with a skeleton spawner and found that I'd left too much room over the spawner. Some skeletons were spawning four blocks up and taking damage when falling. I reduced the clearance over the spawner area to two blocks higher than the spawner, making a two-block maximum fall and it seemed to help.

Good luck with your problem.

If you have any dirt blocks available, you can connect blocks to the one you are standing on, to get out of the lava, or up. If you fell straight down into your predicament, jump up and place a block beneath you at the heigh of your jump. It takes a little playing around to get the timing right, but that should get you up to where you fell.

...Of, you can move horizontally by holding the left shift key down while easing in the safest direction. Once you can see the side of the block you are one (even if it is a tiny amount sticking out of the lava), you can place a block.

I've gotta say thanks for those who've contributed to this forum, and made it easier on the rest of us.

I just used a compact XOR gate design I found on here, using a sticky piston. It is just what I was looking for, and operates faster than the standard XOR gate design found in the minecraftwiki. Even better, I get how this one works, while the other designs just leave me completely confused. I am going to replace at least two more XOR gates with this same design to save space, elsewhere in my world.

If anyone else wants to express a little gratitude for the people who've contributed to this forum, this would be the place to do it.

Where to Build:


While the debate rages on about free-standing shelter vs. cave shelter, I thought I would insert some advice about where to build. Whether you build a cave dwelling by tunneling into a mountain side, squat in a pre-existing village, build a tree-house in a giant jungle tree, or set up a wood cabin on an open plain, not all biomes or even locations within a biome are suitable places for a beginner to start out playing in survival mode. If important resources are scarce, or non-existent, in an area it may cause you a great deal of frustration trying to find what you need or want. You don't want to have to explore several days journey in every direction so you can have certain resources. This can be a game killer in the end.

Resources to look for:

• Trees - Trees are going to be the first resources you look for. You will need a few to start. As you cut trees the leaves will drop sapplings you can use to plant more trees. Each tree will likely drop two, three or more sapplings each of which can grow a new tree, so you can create an ever expanding forest, if you like. Initially, you will probably need a dozen to twenty trees. You can get by with fewer trees initially, but your ability to develop your base will be slowed by waiting for sapplings to grow. The wood from trees is critical to make doors, trapdoors, ladders, tool handles, torches, swords, bows, and arrows. Logs from trees can be used to make charcoal, which can substitute for coal. It burns just as well as coal. Putting logs in the top slot of a furnace and putting some fuel source (usually logs or planks) in the bottom makes charcoal. You will use wood throughout your game.
• Chickens - I like to have chickens around. Chickens are the only sources of feathers needed to make arrows. Without chickens you will be forced to rely on arrows dropped by skeletons when they die. Skeleton drops are not a reliable source of arrows, and you might find yourself with arrow shortages.
• Sand - Sand is used for making glass. Glass makes glass panes, and also glass bottles for brewing potions later in the game. You don't need a whole desert, but you might want a beach, or at least several ponds or rivers about.
• Sheep - You are going to need sheep to gather wool to make a bed. You don't need sheep in the immediate vicinity of your front door, but it is nice to know where some are, within reasonable travel distance (no more than half a day).
• Water - water is not usually a concern. Even desert biomes have ponds in them. Just double check to see that there is a water source nearby. You will need water when you start farming.

These represent what I consider a minimum for a beginner. Be careful not to kill off your chickens or sheep right away. Chickens can be bred by leading them with a stalk of wheat into an enclosure, and then fed wheat. You will want to capture chickens and breed them. Killing off a few for arrows as your population gets large, and then breeding them again for a continuous supply of feathers for arrows.

Secondary Resources: These are things that really make the game a whole lot easier to survive, but aren't as critical as those listed above:

• Cows - Cows are a great source of food (dead cows drop steaks, which can be cooked and eaten). Cows are also the only source of leather. Leather can be constructed into armor. While leather armor does not offer near the protection of iron, it is better than nothing, and may save you in a pinch. Like chickens, cows can be lured into captivity and bred (with wheat also). This means they are a constant renewable resource. I prefer cows to pigs, because pigs only drop pork chops and no other usable material.
• A village - It is just plain handy to have a village nearby. Villagers grow wheat, which you can harvest to make bread, as a quick source of seeds, and to help with luring and breading animals (make sure you replant). Village houses can give you an emergency shelter, if for some reason you can't build your own, or if you are cut off from your own. Since 1.1 village blacksmiths (the flat topped stone buildings with a lava pit outside) have chests in them which often contain vaiuable resources. In best case scenarios, there are diamonds in the chests, but there might be iron, an iron tool or sword, or just bread. Either way, these are free resources, and food can be hard to find when you first start out.
• A jungle biome - Jungle biomes give you the biggest trees. These trees are often covered with vines which can be used to scale the tree to the top and chop your way to the ground. A single tree often yeilds 50 or more logs (200 wood planks!). Vines harvested with sheers in a jungle or swamp biome grow just about anywhere (including underground), and can be used in lieu of ladders in just about any situation. It is just plain nice to have a jungle biome close at hand.
• Pumpkins - Pumpkins are only good for one thing - making jack-o-lanterns. Place a stack of pumpkins anywhere on a crafting grid above a stack of torches and get jack-o-lanterns. Jack-o-lanterns give off a higher light level than torches alone. This means you can place light sources father apart, and in the end you use less torches which means you use less coal to light a given area. Each pumpkin will give you four seeds. Seeds can be planted in soil that has been tilled with a hoe, next to a water source. There must be a dirt block with no grass on it next to the block on which the pumpkin seed is planted for a pumpkin to grow. The seed block will produce a vine. Once a vine is fully grown, it will continue to produce pumpkins periodically.
• A Water Way - Having a way to use a boat to travel to other areas and tap resources in other biomes can help if you are short on resources in your immediate vicinity. A boat travels much faster than walking. I once built where there were no chickens, but found them on a small island nearby. I enclosed them there until I gathered enough eggs to bring back to my base. One in eight eggs thrown to the ground will produce a baby chicken (a chick). Boats can be tricky to use. Have at least one spare with you when you travel. Hitting any land block or a mob (such as a swimming chicken or squid) will cause your boat to break.

It is nice to build in areas where biomes come together. By doing so, you will be able to easily tap the resources of the various biomes without having to travel and possibly establish multiple shelters. (You may eventually have multiple shelters, but initially you are going to want to focus on the one you have). I like to build near a village where plains, jungle and desert come together, but that's my ideal.

Where Not to Build:

There is one major consideration other than resources on where not to build - your frustration tolerance. Bouncing all the way up a mountain to get home after a day of chopping wood might get old. Building right on the brink of a chasm might seem like a cool idea until you've fallen for the eighth time,had to respawn and go down and get all your gear you dropped when you died. Having to travel for a quarter of the day to get to trees and only being able to spend half the daylight period chopping wood might get frustrating. You are best off building with convenient access to the most resources available, in places where a lapse of paying attention for a second doesn't mean a major set back.

Don't put yourself in a position where you need to do major terraforming to make a decent place to live, or to expand your base. You are going to want to expand (either above or below ground). You don't want to have to rebuild the map in your area to have the base you want. You are going to want to spend the time setting up farms, mining coal, iron, and eventually better materials (gold, redstone, diamond), exploring caves, and eventually moving on to the Nether, and maybe the End.

Your frustration level is completely subjective. It is unique to you. You might not mind hitting the space bar 27 times in a row to jump up a narrow mountain path to your house, while to someone else it just gets annoying after awhile. You might like having seven different buildings as part of your base, each with a different function (maybe storage, smelting, crafting, etc.), while others just want everything in a single room. It is up to you. Just remember, if it get's annoying, you probably need to make changes. Playing is supposed to be fun, not tedious or bothersome.

I hope this part of this thread helps you spot a good place to set up your first base.