Comment by Groxx | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Groxx | Hacker News Reader

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An utterly massive part of the game is through crafting: http://minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Crafting

You can't get anywhere without it, and yes, it's very boring if you're not a total-sandbox-fan playing multiplayer. And the game does utterly squat to inform you that it exists. It took me an hour of poking around before I found that page, and then it all clicked.

So maybe I should warn you: it gets way more interesting when you start crafting. You start planning. Exploring. Fighting back against the zombies. Some caves are massive - light them up and find veins. Earning the ability to build your floating fortress is strangely rewarding.

It's also an oddly beautiful game in its simplicity - your lit caves are visible from a long way off with a soft glow, and you'll quickly find that light means safety... until the spider-riding skeletons start chasing you when you venture too far. And it's kind of creepy how quickly you start to feel ownership over what you've made.

Yeah, I found that page.

The problem is, I don't see any zombies. All I see is terrain and flowers. And the occasional cow/sheep.

Do I just need to keep looking? What am I looking for? How do I get the different types of blocks? I found some by hitting the sheep (or whatever they are) but the same thing didn't seem to work on trees or terrain.

Gah. I do enjoy the freedom of the game. But I need to do something soon or I just lose interest and quit.

Playing... infdev? or alpha? I think only Alpha has enemies. Or whatever the free weekend played.

edit: With only exploration I didn't get any real interest. Personally, I'll probably get hooked when larger mobs come out, and when you start having to defend during the night from mobs which damage your fortress. Otherwise your investment is always secure, and there's no real threat that can't be solved by boxing yourself in and getting a sandwich.

alpha

And no mobs at night (edit: single player?)? Not sure, there might be a glitch, or you've got an old version. It's pretty easy to get killed the first night.

Another possibility is that you're too high up. They seem to cluster in the valleys, the "mountains" sometimes almost empty.

Wait, so I need to kill enemies to obtain something besides flowers, meet?

I just need a HINT. I have no idea what to do! I've seen one day and one night and I am in the same place. Am I looking for something?

General starting point: punch some tree trunks to get wood, press "i" to open your inventory, and turn it into planks => wood. Build yourself a sword and some basic tools (arrangement of items matters), and start digging around in the stone areas / exploring to find caves. Digging totally randomly is unlikely to be too productive, so find caves to start. Find stone blocks with black specks, and use your pick to get coal - combine with sticks to get torches. Enemies spawn at night anywhere it's dark, so lighting caves is important to your safety.

Beyond there, it's mostly an exploration / building / sandbox game. It's not an appealing game model for everyone, though, so it may just be that it doesn't click for you (though give it a bit of time).

I'm starting to think I'm running a buggy version, because punching trees does NOTHING.

Unless i have to punch it 10000 times, in which case, fuck this.

Wow, it was NOT obvious that I needed to hold down the mouse button.

I have a macbook so I just kept clicking. Doh!

Sorry! I should've thought of that; that one took me a minute too.

Same here, on the MacBook. I was actually afraid that the repetitive mad clicking would wake the entire appartment.

And then I realize you have to keep it pressed.

Should probably clarify, as that came out partially wrong (a bit tired at that point). It took me a minute to figure out because I found out entirely by accident when I noticed sand going through multiple stages during a particularly disinterested click.

He really needs to make a tutorial before it gets released :) I suppose it's not surprising in a quickly-changing alpha build, however.

Another important one - four planks in a box together makes a crafting table, which you need to make stuff like swords and picks and axes.

Axes are sort of pointless, since you can knock down wood with any block equipped (even dirt). Your first day's goals are torches and shelter. Make a pick, explore until you find a cliff face with coal (it looks like stone with big chocolate chips), use the coal to make torches. Then, when it gets close to dark, dig yourself a hole to hide in from zombies and skeletons. Light it up with torches and seal off all but a one-square window. Spend the night digging out a proper home, make a few stone tools, and then spend the day chopping wood or hunting or spelunking or just exploring.

This is a pretty good introduction to the game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bh4EexJO4I

Go to options and change "difficulty" from "peaceful" to something else.

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