Snapshot 14w21b

The latest snapshot of Minecraft includes some small but interesting features. The major feature of this snapshot was the world border. The world border can be customized to slowly get larger or smaller. If you get trapped outside of the border, you will start to take damage and die within a few seconds. This world border feature can be very useful for many types of maps and mini games. One minigame is very interesting to watch. It is called UHC, short for ultra hardcore. In this mode, your health doesn't regenerate. I like watching Etho, a famous youtuber, play it with other youtubers. It is very entertaining and suspenseful to watch.

Here is episode 3: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=creeCiAGMR4

Minecraft snapshot 14w17a

This is the latest snapshot for minecraft. If you don't know what a snapshot is, it is a test version of the game before the actual update comes out, these snapshots are released to the public every week or so, so that we can see what Mojang has added to the game so far. This snapshot added a lot of new features for world generation. There is a new "Customized" option when creating a new world. This setting allows you to chose many different things, for example biome size, lake rarity, sea level, and even how and where ores spawn throughout the world.


This is just one of the four pages of options you can choose from. This allows for very customizable worlds and i cant wait to see what some people will be able to create with them.

Also new is this thing called a "World Border". A world border is basically just a world border...you cant cross it. You can choose the size and location of the world border, and you can even make it move slowly over time. Minecraft update 1.8 is coming soon! Here is a video explaining the latest snapshot: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTqqUX6Tx0U

Going to Mars

Tekkit is a modified version of Minecraft. There are many different mods all bundled up into one pack. Tekkit is only one of those packs. One of the cool things you can do is go to mars, which Shawn, James, and I have done in the video. You can also go to the moon and make your own space station. To get to mars, you will need some space gear so you don't die. Dungeons and villages spawn on mars too. The dungeon in the video was supposed to have a giant creeper boss in it, but it wasn't there, so James spawned one in. Going to mars is fun, but it is expensive to make the rocket ship and all the other things that you need to survive. This was my first time going to mars and it was really cool there. Tekkit in general is vary fun because there are so many new items and features in the game. You should really try it out for yourself, i'm sure you will like it!

Tekkit download: Click here

Video: Click here (sorry my voice is a bit low)

Diamond Defender

Diamond defender is a mini game where you have to defend diamonds from creepers. You spawn on a platform with a diamond on every block. The diamonds are invincible and never despawn. The objective of this minigame is to keep the diamonds from falling off the edge of the platform. In order to do so, you are given a stick enchanted with knockback. The knockback enchantment makes mobs get knocked back farther when you hit them. In the video however, it glitched and we didn't get any sticks in the beginning. I think we did pretty good for not having any sticks. Here is the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3U1vxOZels&feature=youtu.be

Survival Games

This is a video of me and Shawn playing the Survival Games. The Survival Games is basically a Minecraft version of the Hunger Games. You all start around the cornucopia, which has a lot of chests with random items in them. Usually when I play, I get one chest, then run away because everyone is in the middle and it's a dangerous place to stay, especially in the beginning of the game. After about 5 minutes, the blitz star gets put into a random chest. If you find it, you get to choose a bonus power up. The power ups can help you a lot. One of them can insta kill someone with your bow for 10 seconds. So if you find the blitz star, you have a great advantage, however a firework gets launched from you every 30 seconds or so, so people can find you very easily. If the game lasts longer than 15 or 20 minutes, everyone gets put into the death match. The death match arena is a floating circular platform above lava, which gets smaller every few seconds. Whene there is only one person left, they win.

This is a video of me winning and Shawn getting mad because he died in the first few minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfVmyfhlvD0&feature=youtu.be

World Tour!

Unfortunatley, the video I made wasn't working properly, the audio was off and it wouldn't load right. So, I won't post it now. However, I do have the world download available if you want to check it out youself. In the video, we showed off most of the builds on our old survival server. Me, Shawn, and a few other friends played on the server. I hosted it myself and put it online every time some of us wanted to play. We spent quite a lot of time on the server, we all did. In the video, we showed my castle, Shawn's castle, and a few other great buildings. Personally, I like my castle/village the best. Probably because I build it. There was also an unfinished airport near my castle. I wanted to make it out of obsidian but that takes FOREVER to mine. With the new updates, there are new blocks that are easier to obtain. So I could finish it but we don't play on that server anymore.

If you want to check out the map for youself, you can download it here: http://www.filedropper.com/world_9

If you don't have Minecraft and wish to download it for free, you can download it at Minecraft.net

1.8 Update

Yet again another update comes to us. This update is the 1.8 update. This update is planned to change the entire enchanting system, some new blocks, and a few other things. The previous update added a lot of new biomes and a few new blocks like stained clay and stained glass. This update there will be a new "slime block". Apparently you will be able to bounce on it or something like that. This seems like a pretty cool new block. The enchanting system is being completely changed also. Currently, it costs 30 levels of xp to enchant an item to have the best chance at getting something good. With the new update, enchanting will cost xp and some items, probably gold. However, it will cost less to enchant. You will need to have 30+ levels, however the actual enchant will only cost 3 levels and some gold. Also, it will only cost 1 level to rename an item with an anvil. This will make it a lot easier to rename lots of things. Another new block that they are going to add is a granite block. It's main use is just for decoration. Here is a link to all the planned features for future updates: http://minecraft.gamepedia.com/Upcoming_features

Exploring the world

As you progress in the game, you might want to explore the world around you. There are various reasons you might want to explore. You might want to find more resources, maybe you want to build a new base or house there, or maybe you just want to look around and find some villages or desert temples. All of these are reasons why people go exploring.

When you go exploring, you should always have a pickaxe, a good sword, a and enough food. You can also bring torches, blocks, maps, a compas, and more. When I go exploring, I usually take these items:

• Pickaxe
• Sword
• Shovel
• Axe
• Blocks
• Food
• Torches
• Map(s)
• Bed

I usually bring a bed so that when it turns night, I can sleep before the mobs spawn because I don't like exploring at night. Its dark and dangerous at night. Just make sure you don't die if you took your bed or you will spawn at the first spawn point, not where you last slept because you broke the bed.

There are many different biomes you can find especially with the new 1.7 update, they added a lot of new biomes. You can find more information on biomes HERE. There are a lot of different biomes each containing different materials and structures. That is why I like exploring. There are so many cool things you can see.

Diversity

This is a video of me and Shawn playing a mini-game called Diversity. The objective is to collect 10 different colors of wool. Every time you complete a mini-game, you get a block of wool. Once you have all the wool, you win the game. All the mini-games are different. This one we did on camera was the Arena. We have also done the Parkour mini-game and the Trivia one. I liked Parkour the best because i'm pretty good at it. Shawn, not so much. The Trivia one was also fun. You had to answer a bunch of questions about Minecraft and if you got one wrong, you would have to start over from the last checkpoint. You get a checkpoint every 10 questions that you successfuly answer. We did mess up quite a lot but it was still fun. We tried the Maze mini-game but that one was way too hard so we used the one and only freebie for it.

Sorry, the sound is a little off.

Farming

Farming is a very important part of surviving. With the new 1.7 update, your hunger goes down a lot quicker so now it's even more important to have decent farms. The first thing you need to do, is find some seeds by breaking the tall grass. I also suggest finding some carrots and potatoes. You can find those by killing a zombie (it's a rare drop though). You can also find them in a village. Next, you want to craft a hoe, which is done like this:

After you have made a hoe, just right click some dirt or grass and then right click it with some food like seeds. If you want the crops to grow faster, you need to "hydrate" the soil. You can do that by placing water within 6 blocks. 

The hydrated ones are the darker colored ones.

Farms can also be automated with redstone to make them more efficient.