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Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Skygrid

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Asterisk Section; actual post is below


*I believe I just contradicted myself, people kill themselves a lot.  After all, there's /home.

**You may recall that non-hostile mob spawners need grass blocks to spawn their mob on.  Sheep eat grass.  Therefore, over time, sheep may kill all of the grass in their spawning area.  You would need a sizeable chunk of dirt blocks for the grass population to spread and be able to sustain itself.  My suggestion: Put a fence on the grass block you want to stay uneaten.  Grass can spread from under fences.  Therefore, your sheep will still have their woolen coats without killing off all the grass.

***Exception being more blocks.

****Cobblestone is actually quite valuable in Skygrid.  In MelonCraft, it can be sold for currency, and it provides a way to quickly expand and develop your land without having to actually jump around uncharted areas and dig your blocks.  That's why I have a cobblestone generator.
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I forget sometimes that there are other ways to play Minecraft other than your regular old world.  Superflat's a good example (running away from Slimes in hope of finding a village).  But there's more than just that.
There's the widely popular Survival/Hunger Games (what's the difference between the two?).  There's CTF, or Capture the Flag.  There's Skyblock, which is pretty well-known, too.  There's even that Super Craft Bros map by Sethbling (how did he make it?).  And then there's Skygrid.

Not too many people know about Skygrid.  Basically, it's blocks suspended in midair, placed at specific intervals to create a grid pattern.  You just have to survive (refer to beginning of post).*
Now, when I first tried Skyblock (literally first, I didn't know what I was doing), I didn't know why the hell I had a Sponge.  Of course, I didn't know what to do, so I ended up falling into the Void and not caring about that.  As it turned out, Sponges (at least in this server) were used for land protection (you know, against griefers).  So when I realized what it was for when I actually started playing, there was only one way to express my feelings (/facepalm).
But I bought another Sponge block, and all was well.


So about finding a good place for a home.  First, I would like to point out that I did not know this when I set my home (/sethome).  I did not know this when I placed my sponge block.  But if you are reading this and want to try out Skygrid, read on.
Make sure your home/land is within close proximity of a mob spawner.  This is the most common way that nonhostile (no hostile spawners) mobs enter the world.  But I do have a special note about sheep.**  Besides, spawners are a good and reliable source of food (not counting sheep; but lambchops should be added).  And a spawner can easily be turned into an XP farm.
But spawners do need a few things to spawn.  They need a sufficient light level.  On the server I play on, it is never night in Skyblock, possibly to discourage hostile mob spawning (more on that later).  But the second requirement is more important.  Mob Spawners need grass to spawn things on.   I do not recommend breaking any Grass Blocks close to the mob spawner unless you happen to have a Silk Touch tool (good luck with that).  Instead, you want to surround the grass block with dirt so that
1) The mobs will have more spawning space when the grass spreads.
2) So that the grass spreads.
3) You can make the spawning area bigger than 1 block, and besides, you need space to walk.  There isn't between the block you're standing on and the Void.***

(Oh, and this is why stacks of dirt blocks and grass blocks are precious.)
Basically, the more mob spawners you are closer to, the better.


Okay.  Now that you have a home/base of operations, you might want to start searching for resources now.
Go look for Oak Wood (no other type of wood is included in world generation).  After all, 1 wood= 4 planks, and you might have that feeling that 1 block is a bit too small for your home.  You might want to expand.
If you find a chest, by any means necessary get to it (I hope you don't make a dumb mistake and fall into the Void- it's a very clear drop).  Why?  In Skygrid, chests are so much more than containers you can take back home and use for yourself.  Chests have randomly selected items within.  This could range anywhere from a spawn egg (hostile mobs are included here) to other types of saplings (only Oak saplings can be naturally found).  In general, you can bet that there will be at least one good thing inside Chests.  And you can always break the Chest to take home after you've looted it.
Eventually, you'll get to the point where your home is prosperous and thriving.



One of the more appealing things about Skygrid is that resource collection is easier and more fun.  Got efficient jumping skills and the right tool?  Good.  You see diamond ore in the distance.  Go for it.
In Skygrid, we don't have to spend hours digging and accumulating chests full of cobblestone.****  We can just look for whatever we want.  I abuse the random teleport portal in my server's Skyblock lobby often.  (It took me several teleports to find sugarcane.)

Also, the initial challenge is harder (I mean, you start out from one freaking block), but over time, it turns out to be just like any other survival.  Of course, you can still search for your shiny diamonds.

Mob spawning, especially hostile mob spawning, is limited in this mode of play.  Passive or non-hostile mobs can only spawn via spawn eggs, regular eggs (in the case of the chicken), or a mob spawner.  You can take advantage of this (for instance, I have a Mooshroom locked up behind a fence.  I like getting free food.  Also, my friend locked up a pink sheep (that had just spawned) in a one-block cell.  The same happened to a blue sheep).

Just remember to sneak.
~ReconnaisX

PS:
When I was just starting out, I did not know what Lockette was.  I didn't lock my chest.  Soon after, someone came along and stole all my stuff.  I had to start over.
Remember to put those signs on your chests (and any other interface blocks you don't want anyone else to access).

Oh, and a shoutout to hat_0987_ROCKS, my good Skygrid friend!
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IP: play.melonmc.com
On MelonCraft,
1)/server sky
2) Enter the random teleport portal
3) Find a place and set your sponge down
4) Good luck!
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