Friday, September 14, 2012

Hardcore Minecraft: Day 2

I'm still alive! Though I can't say that for my teammates. Tragedy and mystery came to Minecraft as an unknown party infiltrated our base and killed one of our team. Then later, Erik logs in and is killed within seconds by the same assailant. The complete story is here, but suffice it to say that we still have no idea how that guy got into our base. We still don't; all the doors were closed, and the guy seemed to be stuck INSIDE our base for that very reason.

This may have had to do with our needing a roof. As I said before, our wall would be great for warding out all but the most determined players who built some kind of siege tower to get over our walls. I always knew that an open-air courtyard was a temporary solution, but boy did I not know how temporary. After his first death, my friend had bought an extra life or two (apparently you can do that, with real money) and come back to make things more secure. Then, a little purple ball comes whizzing over the wall. Before he knows it, a dude has teleported into our apparently-not-so-secure base and killed him AGAIN. This was no doubt frustrating.

That little purple ball was something called an Ender Pearl, which apparently allow users to throw it and teleport to the pearl's location. On a hardcore PVP server, this is just goddamn crazy. While it doesn't allow players to teleport through our walls, it does let them bridge onto our territory without risking fall damage or needing a real siege tower.

So, our castle needs a roof. If a structure is completely enclosed, that should keep out the riffraff and the murderous home invaders and their ilk. I get to work, choosing what I think is a nice little pattern for the ceiling.


I think it looks pretty decent, and it'll keep out the rain and the teleporting jerks. At this point I should note that Chrome does not include "teleport" or its conjugations in its spell check dictionary. For shame, Google. For shame. Anywho, a bit of work later, and I've got a finished product, complete with cozy lighting and a workbench.


There are doors out onto a balcony, which is protected by fencing. The windows, coupled with the now-adjoining observatory dome, provide a commanding view of the surrounding countryside. I'm feeling pretty proud of myself, especially after I finish the upgraded tree farm.


This configuration may look odd, but the little alcoves give us taller, straighter trees that are easier to harvest. We're still facing quite a lumber shortage, but hopefully my farm will help alleviate that.

Around this time, I notice another player poking around the base of our castle. I don't recognize him, but he messages me in-game to ask me to fight. Unlikely, sir! I can see your fancy glowing sword and armor from here, and damned if I'm going to throw my life away. Still, he's friendly enough. I explain that my trepidation has to do with Erik's early demise at the hands of a guy with an Ender Pearl. Oxbudy, as this fellow's name, says he doesn't know what Ender Pearls do, and seems surprised when I tell him of their teleportation ability.

This door is safer than it looks.

I'm not sure I trust this guy.

I go up to my fancy new balcony to get a better look. He backs off a bit, probably wary of me shooting him with arrows. No uncalled for aggression from me, I assure him, and I go back inside. He makes a crack about Romeo and Juliet, which kind of makes sense with me being on a balcony. He begs me to come outside and help reenact the balcony scene, so he can "record it and get lots of karma". Reddit likes blocky Shakespeare, I guess? I should be pretty safe from up here, so I return to the balcony, keeping my back to the door and close to safety. He doesn't have a bow out, but...permadeath server.

I'm still not sure I trust this guy.

Oxbudy builds up a quick dirt pillar from which to quote Shakespeare, which he proceeds to, poorly. I respond with: "Whether tis nobler to shout from a dirt pillar or to suffer the slings and arrows of magical weaponry." Yes, I know that's Hamlet. I couldn't remember the balcony scene; sue me. We shoot a few lines back and forth, I say something about sending Tybalt after him, and everyone in the chat channel has a good laugh at the weirdos butchering Shakespeare on a Minecraft server.

Then that motherfucker throws a purple ball at me.

Moving with about as much grace as is possible in an extremely clumsy computer game, I turn and open the door. I'm hit by two sword blows from behind. I duck inside and whirl, barely managing to slam the door shut behind me.

Oxbudy is outside, and he totally knew what Ender Pearls do, given that he just assaulted our castle with one.

I HAVE SURVIVED!

I heal up as he paces around the balcony. There's no real enmity. I crack more Shakespeare jokes to Oxbudy, who I'm increasingly certain knows nothing about Romeo and Juliet beyond that there's a balcony in it at some point. I stray too close to the picture window, and suddenly I'm being hit!


Thankfully the glass held. I think it's some kind of glitch. He was able to hit me through the window, but that was it. At this point I just really wish I'd been recording it all, but my little blog narrative will have to suffice. Eventually I logged off, wanting to put it to paper while it was still fresh in my mind.

Before I did, though, I went up to the top of the observation dome for a glamour shot of our castle. I got a pleasant surprise. See that white terrain in the distance?


That's snow.

I can build a snow fort.

3 comments:

Kate C said...

I quite enjoy the fact that you guys are having such bro-time with this game!

Anonymous said...

Slight corrections: the ender pearl will cause the thrower to take some damage, but if they have feather fall enchanted boots (which almost everyone from those super factions does) then the damage is lessened.

And you aren't supposed to be able to glitch through glass to attack like that.

Peter said...

It's pretty awesome, Kate! It's like Legos and Hunger Games combined.

And good to know that the Ender Pearl isn't without its drawbacks, but still.