Ark's Ark

My Adventuring with Ark Minecraft Build

I’ve more or less finalised my Minecraft build for the promised videos. It took a little poking and prodding of config files to get everything working together properly, but it wasn’t terribly difficult. I needed to wait for a few vital pieces to update to Minecraft 1.5.1. That happy event has now occurred, though some are pre-release versions, meaning there’ll be no shortage of bugs to discover as we go.

I should note that I have not dipped into many of these mods yet. I have only made sure that they are loading up correctly with no conflicts or errors in the log files, and that the world is generating to my liking with no shenanigans, with everything present and correct. As such, I don’t have any in-depth knowledge about them. I’ll be exploring them for the first time during the playthrough. As a result, the descriptions below are quite simplistic.

As new versions are released I’ll be updating my build with them, provided it doesn’t break anything important. Many backups shall be made!

Updated as of 15th May, 2013. Please note that this is a 1.5.1 build. Some mods may have more recent 1.5.2-only versions.

Worldgen

Extra Biomes XL 3.13.0 : A wide range of additional biome types to explore, as well as some new plants. I have all of the biomes disabled right now, so that my initial area will be base biomes.

Biomes O’ Plenty 0.5.2 : Another biome mod. Once again, the biomes are disabled in the main overworld, meaning I’ll only have vanilla biomes. However, when I start journeying the multiverse with Mystcraft, any biome from EBXL or BOP could make an appearance.

Metallurgy 3.0.0.0.9.3 : Adds a wide range of additional metals, and ores. It’ll be dealing with most of the ore generating in worldgen, apart from a few from Tinker’s Construct that it doesn’t include. I’ve turned the rarity of ore up from its default settings which seem rather too generous to me.

Dungeon Pack 1.5.2 v1 : Adds a variety of structures to the land of minecraft. I have a lot of mods which add structures, so I’ve made these pretty rare. I’ve also disabled quite a few structures that I didn’t like the look of, particularly ones that float in the sky. I like my sky clear!

Ruins : More structures added to the world. Once again I’ve turned the rarity right up.

Natura 2.0.21 : Some new trees, and a variety of berry bushes. I particularly like the Eucalyptus tree.

Quality of Life

Not Enough Items 1.5.2.10 : This adds a recipe search system, which becomes increasingly vital the more mods you’re using. It also has quite a few cheat options, but I shall not be using those unless its needed to recover from a serious bug. NEI requires CodeChickenCore, available from the same page. Its tooltip option interacts badly with certain objects from other mods I’m using, so I’ll be keeping that off most of the time.

Rei’s Minimap 3.304: Adds a minimap and full-sized map. I’ll generally be keeping this turned off, but it might sometimes be useful during videos to help viewers visualise what’s going on.

Taigore’s Inventory Saver 2.22: One of the more annoying things about Vanilla Minecraft is that dropped items will vanish after five minutes. That’s useful for keeping things tidy, but rather devastating if you happened to die 6 minutes away, and doesn’t really make any sense. There are some mods that simply allow you to keep your items on you when you die, but that’s a bit too cheap for my liking. Taigore’s Inventory Saver places your gear in a sack where you died, preventing it from despawning.

Travelling House v1.0 : This is a rather ingenious mod that allows to build a device which can be used to scoop up a bit of the world, and plant it down somewhere else. While the suggested use is to always have your home with you as you travel, I think it might be quite interesting to use it to kidnap NPC villagers and buildings, and bring them back to my home area to build my own village.

Enhanced Portals 2.1.2 : A late addition, this mod changes how how portals usually work, allowing you to use any shape, for aesthetic purposes, and more practically, allows you to connect one portal to another. This might come in very handy if I need to connect one base to another.

New Worlds!

Dimension mods can almost be total conversions, with their own creatures, resources, and recipes.

The Twilight Forest 1.18.0 : A dimly lit dimension filled with wonders. This looks pretty huge, and is very well thought of. I’m looking forward to visiting.

The Lion King Mod 1.11.1 : The mod allows you to travel to the Pridelands, a dimension filled with, I assume, amusing meerkat and warthog double-acts, where good and evil do battle in leonine form. Actually I have no idea, but it seems well made and will be fun to visit at some point.

The Lord of the Rings Mod beta 5 : Still very much a work in progress, this mod allows you to journey to a strange dimension of hobbits, orcs, and far too many rings to keep track of.

Mystcraft 10.3 : If you ever played the Myst games, you’ll remember how you travelled from world to world via magical books. A skilled writer could create a new world by describing it in such a book. Mystcraft allows you to do this, allowing you to create a limitless number of dimensions to explore. This is a far from easy process, involving learning the symbols for various aspects of a world, and it is all too easy to create an unstable world at the brink of its own destruction. Exploring infinite realities is not for the faint-hearted!

Furniture

Enhanced Books 1.5.1 : Bookshelves!

Bibliocraft 1.2.0 : More bookshelves! Also armour stands, and some other nice storage furniture.

Mr Crayfish’s Furniture Mod 2.8.2 : A variety of nice chairs, couches, and other furniture.

Beasties!

Given how often I managed to die to ordinary skeletons in the original series, I’m going to have to up my game to survive this lot.

Grimoire of Gaia 1.3.0 : A variety of unpleasant creatures who will be trying to kill me.

Farlanders 0.8a : A range of Endermen variants, some of whom may be friendly. Isolated Farlander buildings may sometimes be found. I ran into one of these during one of my test sessions. It ended badly for me.

Lava Monsters 2.2 : Beings of lava may be encountered deep within the bowels of the earth.

Special Monsters 2.4.2 : Original Minecraft monsters have a small chance of spawning as an even less pleasant variant.

Primitive Mobs 1.3.5 : Some new opponents, but also a few new friendly faces in the form of additional villagers.

Project Zulu 1.0.3.6 : A fine range of extra animals and monsters, along with a number of extra world structures.

Rancraft Penguins : Because Penguins!!!

Mo Creatures Dev 5.2.0 : The latest version of Dr Zhark’s Mo Creatures is far more compatible than previous versions were. It requires some config-fiddling, but I’ve now got it working well enough to include. A good thing, as the rich variety of animals and monsters that it adds would have been tough to miss out on.

Magic!

Thaumcraft 3.04c : This is the mod I was waiting for before I began this playthrough, as it contains worldgen components. Thaumcraft has a rich magic system based upon magical nodes which occur in the world. There are 50 types of magical aspect (such as life, death, fire, and so on), and everything in the world can be broken down into some combination of them, and used to fuel magical effects.

Ars Magica 5.50.010 : Adds a complete magic system, strange beasts, and mysterious structures to explore.

And more!

Buildcraft 3.5.0 : This adds a variety of building and power additions. Pipes can be used to channel resource from one machine to another. Its energy system is a pre-req for many other mods, so it’s pretty much a must-have, even for somebody not known for their building such as myself. Largely, I need it for:

Forestry 2.2.2.2: This adds a variety of automated and manual farms, powered by Buildcraft energy. But I don’t care about automated farms. I care about the BEES!!!! Forestry adds an entire sub-game of bee-breeding, and once you have your bees, you can cross-pollinate your trees to create new species. Both bees and trees use a Mendelian genetics model that I am going to have a great deal of fun with! The bees and trees produce fruit and honey, alongside somewhat more surprising products.

Extra Bees 1.6 prerelease 6: Adds further genetic diversity to our buzzing friends, along with some more machinery.

Thaumic Bees 1.4.7 : Magic bees! This is a crossover mod between Thaumcraft, Ars Magica and Forestry, adding bee-lines which can produce Thaumcraft and Ars Magica ingredients.

Tinker’s Construct 1.3.3.13 : Introduces an alternate crafting and enchanting system. This is additional, rather than replacing the vanilla one, and an item cannot be enchanted by both systems, so hopefully it’s pretty balanced. I’ve turned off most of its ore changes, preferring to let Metallurgy deal with it, but it will add Aluminium, Cobalt, and Ardite.

Ropes+ : This caught my eye as it adds recipes to create grappling hooks, allowing me to get my Batman on. Expect many falling deaths.

Sophisticated Wolves 2.1.2 : Improves the AI of tamed wolves, and changes how you breed them.

Household Gods 5.13.2013 : A new addition to my build. Statues of gods appear in the world, composed of a random selection of a leg, torso, and head piece. Together, those pieces form a language of sorts, and the magical effect the statue will have depends upon the combination. With 4096 possible combinations, pretty much anything could happen. You can also disassemble the statues and make your own out of the parts you’ve discovered. With this mod’s capacity for extremely powerful effects, both good and bad, I’ve made the statues very rare.

On My Shelf

Mods I’ve pulled out of my build for now, for a variety of reasons, but they’re good.

Mob Spawn Controls : This is quite a handy bit of kit for anyone using Minecraft mods. It allows you to add custom creatures to the spawn tables of custom biomes in the case that they don’t have built-in intercompatability.

On Conspicuous Absences

There are other mods I would have liked to use, but for various reasons it has turned out to be a bad idea this time around.

Millenaire, a complex mod which adds villages of different cultures to the world, is incredibly laggy on my machine, and would make for a poor video experience.

Minecraft: The Return

Many moons ago, a young adventurer journeyed through a strange land, punching trees, and dying in a variety of embarrassing ways. Creepers, mostly, as I recall. Some of those adventures were recorded for posterity, and they were kind of popular, at least in comparison to most of what I do here. Took me rather by surprise! Alas, health and other distractions took their toll, and new episodes became rare, and then stopped forever.

Until now. Circumstances have conspired, and the stars have aligned, and once again I am overcome with the desire to delve too deep and too greedily into the land of Minecraft, and I’m hoping you’ll come along for the adventure!!

Since I last played, Minecraft has released properly, and had vast amounts of extra content added to it. Tameable wolves and ocelots! An experience system. The End, and the sinister Endermen. Witches! But beyond that, Minecraft modding has exploded, tempting me with delicious homegrown concoctions, and my deep-seated need to attempt to stack as many mods together as possible has kicked in, for good or ill.

There are quite a number of pre-built mod-compilations out there, the most popular of which seems to be Feed the Beast. But I tend to disagree with compilation’s mod choices, and I’ve also found that going through the process of cajoling other people’s mods into playing nicely together is often a solid foundation in learning how to mod a game myself.

As I’m starting from a base of Minecraft’s current version, 1.5.1, not every mod I’m interested in has been upgraded to function with it yet. I could use an earlier Minecraft version, but I figure I have plenty of mods to work with for now, and can always add more in later when they get updated.

I’ve already got quite a stack of mods working together. I’ll list them with descriptions and links in a later post. Largely, I seek extra challenges, beasts, and lands to explore, or interesting new game systems. As I’m not really much of a builder, as anyone who remembers my ugly but practical base at Hawk Mountain will attest, I’m leaving the range of mods which add pipes and new blocks and various sciencey goodness alone for now. I might add some in later if architectural inspiration strikes. I’m also avoiding mods which seem to simply add more powerful gear or otherwise make the game easier without also providing great threats.

Perhaps you can help me in my search. What are your favourite Minecraft mods?

So, when does this show hit the blocky road? I’m waiting on one particular mod to be updated, which should be in the next few days. Thaumcraft is a huge mod bringing magic and wonder to Minecraft. Because it adds special trees, ore, and aura nodes that are vital to its magic system, I should probably have it installed when I generate the world, rather than adding it in later. I could try to add it later, but there’s a chance that could go horribly wrong, so going to play it safe, considering that breaking my gameworld would be an ignominious end to a video series.

Defiance TV show will be on iTunes

Trion’s upcoming MMOFPS, Defiance, will be launching twinned with its very own television show. Alas, not all of us have access to the SyFy channel (I can’t take them seriously since they did that to their name), so may have been contemplating “other” means of viewing the Defiance show.

However, as I just learned from a tweet by Defiance writer Clark Perry, it turns out that it will be coming out on iTunes. I’d have preferred Netflix to avoid having to pay an extra charge, but iTunes will do. I asked him if he new how much the cost per episode would be, and he guessed $1.99, but we’ll need to wait and see to be sure.

There’s a 15 minute pilot preview and a “making of” documentary available for free.

I’m planning on playing the daylights out of Defiance, so I’m glad I’ll have a simple way to keep up with the show. I think its going to be fascinating to see how well (or badly) running an MMO alongside a parallel television production will work. If it goes to plan, I could see it becoming a standard methodology.

Sim City compensation package is revealed.

I have resisted the urge to post about Sim City, thus far. Suffice it to say that I am deeply displeased, and, anyway, mainstream game journalists are doing a surprisingly good job of covering how broken it is. However, we just got some information on the compensation package, and I thought it might be worth mentioning.

For Our Patient And Amazing Mayors – A Free PC Download From Origin

Fortunately, those of us who are neither patient nor amazing are also getting our choice of one of the following games:

Battlefield 3 (Standard Edition)
Bejeweled 3
Dead Space 3 (Standard Edition)
Mass Effect 3 (Standard Edition)
Medal of Honor Warfighter (Standard Edition)
Need For Speed Most Wanted (Standard Edition)
Plants vs. Zombies
SimCity 4 Deluxe Edition

It’s important to note that we must claim our free game by the 25th of March, or lose it. And it must be downloaded by the 30th of March, or, once again, it will be lost. I guess the electrons go mouldy if they’re left lying around for too long. I’ll probably go for Mass Effect 3.

Sim City buyers were promised a fully functional Sim City, and that’s exactly what we’re going to get. Unfortunately, it’s called Sim City 4 Deluxe Edition.

Update: It appears that EA CEO John Riccitiello has resigned. I’m not sure whether we should consider that part of our compensation package or not. My suspicion is that the sort of people that own enough EA shares to have any power are not the sort of people who actually play many EA games, BUT they do play Sim City. Also, the Sim City fiasco has been covered thoroughly by many publications that they might read, such as the BBC, and the New Statesman. Getting publicly called out for lying, and provably so, is the sort of embarrassment that causes heads to roll. I doubt he’ll be the last.

Riccitiello’s term as CEO began in 2007, and it has not been a particularly happy time. The dismal performance of SWTOR had already left him bruised. He’s credited with being the one that powered through the change in ethos to concentrate on DLC. I expect that legacy will persist.

The Jigsaw of Lord British – What lies beyond the gate?

The timer over at “Lord British Presents” continues to tick down (causing me no end of excitement), but our noble leader has not been idle.

We now know that the announcement relates to his “Ultimate RPG”. I suspect that’s intended as a name as close to “Ultima” as possible, rather that a claim that it will be the last RPG ever made. Let’s hope so, at any rate.

The Ultimate RPG facebook page has been releasing pieces of a map, but a map of what? At first sight, it looks like a fairly generic RPG sort of map. Hardly something that would excite us in itself. The importance of it then must lie in the details of what it shows. Is there something there that a Britannian might recognise?

Sosaria, later named Britannia, has morphed and shifted many times over the years, so looking for any exact matches is probably going to be an exercise in futility.

The third piece is the most instantly recognisable to me. On the northern edge of the map is a settlement that looks an awful lot like Skara Brae, seat of Spirituality, the island town which sat off Britannia’s western coast. On the coast itself was a smaller settlement from whence the ferry would scurry back and forth. With it being on the edge of the map, there is no way to tell if it is truly an island or not.

The first piece is trickier, but the small settlement in a lake makes me think of Castle British, which would make the hint of further buildings to the South-East the tip of the City of Compassion, Britain. The Serpent Spine mountains are a little closer than usual, but within wiggley topography parameters. It looks like there is a dungeon entrance in the SW corner. If it is one of the original eight, then I would suspect it of being Despise, though further South than it used to be.

Regarding the 2nd jigsaw piece, I have nothing. There is a tower, and an awful lot of lava. It’s the sort of tower that might make a fine home for Mondain or one cut from the same cloth, but it does not remind me of any particular place.

The thing is, I’m not sure whether Ultimate RPG could even use a map based on Britannia, given that Electronic Arts has control of the original Ultima games. My guesses above could very well be similar to watching clouds on a lazy afternoon, seeing all manner of dragons and giants within their ever-changing forms.

Still, it’s fun to guess! You can share your thoughts in the comments below, if you’ve got any ideas!

In which my liege doth call, and I do not tarry to answer.

There is but one man which Arkenor of Britain calleth “Liege”. He who called out across Britannia for virtue to be sought above all else, and ushered in an age of peace and learning. There were those who sought to bring us low. The Shadowlords. Blackthorne the usurper. The Guardian in all his guile. But none proved equal to the good people of Britannia, strengthened by our dedication to the Virtues, lead by our wise monarch, Lord British.

Now our Lord calls out once more. I know not to what ends, but it is a call I have never refused. I shall wend my way to that special spot, down the lane beneath my house, where the Moongate shall be waiting. Whither shall it take me? It matters not, for adventure and injustice may be found throughout creation, and I go willingly where I am needed.

But not yet. The time is not *quite* right. When our lonely moon is in just the right place, then, and only then, shall the Moongate open.

There is but one clue. This picture:

By mine eyes it is a stone circle of kind betwixt I hath stepped so many times, but eyes may deceive. I shall prepare for all eventualities. Runestones must be polished and recharged, and my sword sharpened. I had best also reconfigure my old power armour and plasma-rifle, for the paradigm of our destination is unknown.

The Raven see. The Raven saw. And in the corn he sayeth “Cah!”.
We ,too, shall watch, and see. Here.

On Leadership

If I was the leader of a political party, or the leader of anything at all, and I heard “general non-specific allegations” of serious misconduct about a member, they would not remain general and non-specific for very long. They would either become very specific indeed, and dealt with accordingly, or they would be disproven. Those are the only two acceptable results.

While my current ire is directed against Nick Clegg, leader of the UK Liberal Democrats, for his attempts to weasel out of responsibility for what Lord Rennard has been getting up to under his leadership, it’s something we’ve been seeing recently in every part of society, from the well-paid chairmen of global banks, to the leaders of the Catholic Church. When evil-doing is going on within the organisation that you supposedly lead, you don’t get to shirk that by saying “That is an ecumenical matter”.

We’re all part of various organisations or groups, be it as employees, industry representatives, or guildmembers. Our first responsibility is for our own actions, of course, for those are the only one we have complete control over. However, to the extent that we have any agency in the matter, the actions of the groups we are part of reflect directly upon us.

This is one reason why I very seldom join MMO guilds these days. It has become increasingly difficult to find gaming guilds which do not tolerate some degree of bigotry against some group or another. While there are often perfectly nice people even in the worst of guilds, I am unable to perform the necessary ethical gymnastics to stay part of such a guild while still believing my hands to be clean. If nothing else, the presence of hateful behaviour can have a poisonous effect upon the soul. Manners of thinking can be as contagious as any bacteria, particularly when they are supercharged by the opiate of group-belonging, and it is a matter of self-preservation to not bathe yourself in the thoughts of those who hold bigoted ideas in those conditions.

While it is nice to think that it might be possible to stop hateful behaviour within a guild once it has become established, in practise it is almost impossible. The existing members have already come to accept it, and a new member who complains is far more likely to be told to get a sense of humour than to achieve anything useful. No, the only way I have ever seen succeed is for the guild to start off with no tolerance for bigotry, and then for it to guard against it ever-on. And guard you must, for it is all too easy, especially if you care about growing, for new members to start to try to push the boundaries, and for it to be tolerated for fear of causing trouble or driving them out. Once the cancer has found a hold, it will grow roots and metastatise, and you end up with just one more casually misogynistic guild. At that point the only real option is for the non-bigots to leave and try again with a freshly made guild.

Being a leader is not about being popular all the time. It’s about standing up for the ideals of your organisation, whether it is popular or not, and sometimes this will mean that you have to tell a member that they need to stop what they’re doing. Nick Clegg and the other leaders I mentioned earlier have failed because they did not take responsibility for the actions of their members. Turning a blind eye is never leadership, whether you’re a bishop, a managing editor, a pro-gamer team leader, or a guildmaster.