Category: Games

Minecraft Farm

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PS4Leave a comment

farm

I just love building in Minecraft because it sort of reminds me of putting together Lego pieces, like when I was a little boy. Although, I don’t have all of the pieces at my disposal, so I have to go mine for them. Like I have to chop down literally hundreds of trees, and dig for sand and gravel and I even had to bring down a mountain to give me the space to build a farm.

reworked_farm_1_by_coltcoyote-d68plaoOf course, this farm is not my design, I found it on Google images. I have found many houses, but this was an actual farm which allows me to grow many things, like wheat, potato, carrot, watermelon and pumpkin in their own plots. It also has a chicken coop, a livestock barn and 2 storage silos. The silos and the livestock barn took me longer to make because they are both made out of sheep wool, which I had to go to extra trouble to get since the dogs kept murdering the sheep that came near them. They drop 1 wool when killed, but when I use my shears, I may get 1 to 3 wool, that is if I can find any lol.

Besides leveling a mountain, this was a pretty fun project. I love the house, it is much bigger than the one I built for myself, which I surrounded with castle walls and 4 round towers on all 4 corners. I’m considering dismantling that now that I have this farm so I can replace it with a fun rollercoaster, that is if I can find an easy design.

One good thing about this farm is it is right next to where my current mine is, and I found another one when I leveled the mountain. It has an opening behind the house where the livestock barn is, so I’ll have to check that out soon.

Tomorrow is another day, and I look forward to what it will bring me.

Here is the chicken coop and a some of the crops.

farm back

Update: I removed the original picture at the top and replaced it with the picture of the finished farm. The silos are supposed to have black roofs, but I got tired of waiting for the black sheep to produce, so I decided to use blue since I had a cache of it. I’ve filled one silo with chests on every floor and have already filled the cobblestone and dirt ones to the max. Since I have so many of each material, I decided to dedicate a floor to a particular item. In the first silo, the top floor is all cobblestone, next one down is dirt, then wood, then sand/glass and then wool on the very bottom floor. I was considering using the 2nd silo for food from the crops, but I honestly don’t eat the food since I’m always in peaceful mode, so I don’t really have a need for that, but perhaps I may decide to use that silo for food and fill each floor with a specific item, like pumpkins/jack-o-lanterns, watermelon, carrots, potatoes and wheat. That just leaves meat from cows and chickens, but I have that in the kitchen, and there isn’t that much of it since I don’t kill the animals unless I absolutely have to, like for books (cow hide) or arrows (chicken feathers).

I’ve already moved on to building a fishing boat which will have its own chests for storing fish. Again, I don’t eat the food, but I may decide to do it for the future when I decide to start fighting scary mobs for the purposes of getting to the end, which I am not counting my chickens before they hatch, because I’m having way too much fun building.

Minecraft Blueprints

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PS4Leave a comment

Minecraft land map with castle

When most people (I assume) plan out their castle, or house, or whatever it is they want to build, they just go into Minecraft under creative mode so they have a complete inventory of materials that they don’t have to mine for days or months to get. I would go there, but I’d rather have the option of getting all of the trophies.

I have been researching a way of downloading a program that will allow me to create a Minecraft building with a full list of materials on the computer, so it gives me a blueprint. It doesn’t have to be a 3D blueprint, I just don’t want to have to keep building, then have to go run back to the mine for materials, then build more, then mine and also go through so many pickaxes if I decide to go a different way. It takes more time to dismantle your structure than it does to build it.

I did find a website that allowed me to do just what I was looking for. I found it on a message board, and the actual website is www.minedraft.net. Unfortunately, it became a huge time suck for me because the website would freeze up on me. I don’t know if it was the website itself, my computer or my processor, but it didn’t allow me to get very far. I also tried it on my Nook, which was awesome because I could tap on the material, then tap on the screen and it went a little faster. Unfortunately, that became slow over time, so I didn’t get very far there either.

One of the comments on that message board was that you could do the very same thing with Microsoft Paint. All you have to do is make a grid and snap to grid. I assume they were using Windows XP and that it was an old comment because I went to MS Paint and it didn’t offer a grid, so the next best thing for me was Gimp.

I opened Gimp and clicked view and show grid and snap to grid. I zoomed in to 800% and the grid squares weren’t too big. I downloaded some icons of the materials, like the dirt, grass, water, sand, wood planks and cobblestone, and made them into brushes, which helped a lot. The icons don’t look exactly like they should because instead of using 100% of the icon, I had to drop it down to 10%, but I honestly don’t have to see them as perfect as they are in Minecraft, it’s just a general idea of how to build my castle.

Minecraft land mapMinecraft land map castle

With Gimp you can create layers, so first I laid out the land that I am building on, then I created a 2nd layer for the castle, this way if I make a mistake, I don’t have to worry about losing the land, just the castle parts. As you can see they are separate.

castle

I have built the walls that I made in Gimp, but it is far from finished because guess what? I have to mine and mine and mine to get all that cobblestone to build the walls up. I’m actually building the walls around my existing home, which is like a tiny 2 story cobblestone castle like structure. There is my beacon behind the house. When the walls have been built up, then I can work on getting the inside of the castle built, which will take a lot of time and patience and creativity. I built the catwalk along the top of the wall. That is where I will finish that wall, but the 4 towers are going to go up twice as much to provide me with 4 beacons rather than 1. You can see a beacon way behind my house, and there are several beacons to let me know where to find home, but when I see 4 beacons, then I will know for sure that this is home.

minecraft icons

Here are the icons that I found online that I turned into gimp brushes with the .gbr file extension. So far I’ve only had to use the sand, grass, water and cobblestone, and only because that’s really all I needed for this project. I have the rest just in case I might need to use them in the future. I may not, but never say never.

So I figured if anyone in the future was looking for a way to make a blueprint, this should give them an easy idea of how they can make it.

Minecraft Beacons and Railroads

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PS4Leave a comment

I have had a very busy couple of days since I had a Minecraft CE-34878-0 error. I had lost 10 whole days of mining and building underground tunnels for my railroad. Since I uploaded the back up file from my 4gb USB drive, I’ve noticed some things I hadn’t noticed before, even after the recent update, and that is the horses and a few bad guys like witches, bats and these blue or green blobs bouncing around. I didn’t have those before.

So I now have 5 or 6 beacons built that will help me find my way back to my home if I ever get lost. One thing I am thinking of doing is adding an above ground railroad encased in glass. Before I had an above ground railroad that I hated using because the animals would stand on it. It’s easier to travel when there aren’t any animals stopping me and preventing me from getting to my destination. I put the railroad in below ground, but the only problem with that was the constant digging. I enjoyed the under water tunnels encased in glass, but I think I might want to try something different since I have to start all over again.

Today I found out that right under my house there is a massive mine. Who knew that all that time I had all that coal and iron? I haven’t found anything else, but those are still 2 good things to have. I use the iron for my armor and for the railroad. I have already started rebuilding the underground railroad from the first mine I was in all the way to under my house, so I will keep going through the mine under my house which exits in the water in front of my house. That’s actually how I found it, I nearly drowned and discovered it wasn’t completely wet under there. So I will bring the tunnel out of the water and make it go up, up, up in the sky to a beacon I built across the water from my house where there are more tunnels. I’ll have to make more railroad going over to another beacon which is where I had ended my underground railroad tunnel before.

If the beacons aren’t easy to help me find my way home, then the over ground glass railroad will guide me to the beacons which I can just climb to get on the railroad and ride the train back home.

I mentioned that I finally see horses, well I don’t know if this is a major bug or not, but it bugs the hell out of me. I found a horse, tamed it, put a saddle on him and rode him home where I built a pen for him to prevent him from escaping. Well, I felt sorry for him (I know, it’s not real lol) so I didn’t keep him there against his will. I went into the house to make a leash and when I came back he was gone. It took me a very long time to find another one and it was very difficult to tame him but once I did I felt like I found a good horse. I leashed him to the post and all was good. I brought him in the house when the bad guys came out because I was afraid he would either get blown up or spooked. When the sun was out I took him over to where the cactus are and put a fence in the ground, it was more of a pole because I only used 1 fence. I leashed him to the fence pole and went cutting down cacti and when I returned to the pole, the horse was gone. The leash was attached to the pole, and that was the last straw for me. I found 3 saddles and 2 are gone, so I have 1 more saddle and 1 more chance, which I am not going to take until I can build a barn, but even then I’m not so sure he will stay with me.

I know, I’m still a newbie and have quite a lot to learn still. I will figure it all out in time.

Minecraft CE-34878-0 Error

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PS41 Comment

Well, call me disappointed tonight. I have spent a lot of time digging tunnels, and making and placing glass around my tunnels under water and mining and this and that and the other, and now all of that is gone because of an error on my brand new PlayStation 4.

I was so proud of myself for making all this progress and it is all gone, well, mostly anyway because thankfully I had made a back up on my 4GB USB memory stick on January 29. Unfortunately that was 10 days ago, and a lot happened in 10 days. So all of that work is gone and I am back to where I used to be. My other file is still there, I just cannot access it because it crashes as soon as it loads.

This sucks, but on the other hand all of my trophies are still there, so at least I don’t have to go through all that work just to get the trophies again. This does give me the opportunity to do things again, but since I know where everything is, I can get what I had a lot faster.

When I make my railroad going back to the mines I went to before, I can now make them go up or down, I can make them any way I want. The tunnels in my first mine had wood platforms with tracks laid out, but they were scattered and it didn’t seem like they had a plan for them, but now I can probably connect them since I know how to lay the tracks up and down. I think it will make things a lot easier to avoid getting lost in the mines… hopefully.

One other thing I would like to do is to find some good plans for cool Minecraft houses so I can make a better looking house. Mine is okay, but I know it could be a lot better if I tried. I would also love to move it over the water so I can make a glass house on the bottom floor with a bottomless floor for fishing lol. I think that would be really neat. I could also have a dock for my boat and of course I would have my railroad tunnel going from land to the house so I don’t have to worry about how I’m getting back to land. I think that would be cool.

So I don’t see this as a bad thing necessarily, I see it as a way of doing things differently and more efficiently.

By the way, here is that video that I made of my tunnels. I was so proud of all the work I had accomplished, and I have the pain in my right arm and shoulder to prove it.

Playing Video Games is Painful, So I Use Aspercreme

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PS4Leave a comment

aspercreme

I have been playing video games my whole life. I have never experienced this pain. First of all, my right forearm feels like I’ve been squeezing one of those spring hand grips at the gym for hours and hours every day. The muscles are so tight and it hurts like hell. The reason that is happening is because I am pushing the buttons and using my thumb to control the right stick on my new PlayStation 4 game controller. My left hand is constantly controlling the left stick, and I don’t have this issue with my left arm.

Yesterday I found a Icy Hot stick in the medicine cabinet and used that on my arm and shoulder, but unfortunately there wasn’t enough stick, so the plastic was scraping my skin lol. I decided to go to the grocery store to find something else, something not a stick, but a cream. I have always used Aspercreme in the past because that is what my mother always used. If anyone knew pain, it was my mother, so I trust her judgment when it comes to things like this.

It actually did the trick for awhile. I played Lego The Hobbit for an hour or 2, then DC Universe Online and then Minecraft, so I did play for quite some time before I went to bed. Believe it or not, I woke up this morning with no pain. The pain is usually a constant thing from when I wake up until I go back to sleep, and I woke up feeling refreshed.

I know that this is not something I should be using all the time, because it is medicine, and medicine takes a toll on your body if you abuse it too much, but I would just like to continue using it until my muscles are actually used to the torture of pushing a button lol.

Minecraft Handbooks

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, Pain, PS4Leave a comment

image

It is one thing to be a nerd and play a video game and enjoy it, but when you go out of your way to spend money on actual hard cover books, you know you are addicted and a hard core gamer.

I’ve only been playing Minecraft on my PlayStation 4 since the week before Christmas and I think I’ve made some headway, but there are still a few things I think I need to know before I continue. I can look them up on the Minecraft Wiki page or just Google whatever I am looking for, but somehow I think reading these official handbooks might help give me a better understanding of the game I am playing. Or it could be that they are only like 60 to 80 pages each and won’t help me at all. It’s okay because they were only $5 each.

lego marvels super heroesWhile I was on Amazon today I decided to buy another game. I absolutely love the Lego games. I have all of the PSP Lego games, and now that I have a PS4 I would love to own all of the PS4 Lego games. I already have Lego The Hobbit that I bought as a digital download, but I bought Lego Marvel Super Heroes on disc because it was cheaper to buy the disc than the download. It’s $40 on the PlayStation store and I only paid $23.89. Last week it was on sale on the PlayStation store for only $25, but I didn’t have the money for it. I could have used my credit card, but I would much rather have the disc to run the game because it installs less on the PS4 hard drive. It’s a matter of between 500mb from the disc or 3GB as a download. The more games I download, the less games I can buy, so I would just rather buy the discs if I can.

I would love to buy the Lego Movie Videogame and Lego Batman, but I can buy those in the future when I am ready for a new game. I haven’t even made a dent in Lego The Hobbit, so I don’t want to overwhelm myself with all these games lol.

I am having fun with my PlayStation 4, but my right forearm is in a lot of pain from using the R3 stick with my thumb and pressing the buttons. My left arm isn’t having any issues for some reason, but perhaps it’s because I’m not doing as much work with my left thumb lol. Who knew that something as simple as pushing buttons with my thumb would cause so much pain. I need to limit myself to only an hour or 2 a day rather than 4 to 8 lol. Perhaps that’s the problem. But I’m just having fun since it’s a new thing. I’m sure the novelty will wear off and I won’t play the game as often. Maybe when my shows come back on I will pay more attention to watching TV.

Destiny for PS4

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PS4Leave a comment

character

Video games have changed so much since I started playing way back in 1982. Destiny was the choice that I made when I got my PlayStation 4 for Christmas. I had 1 choice of 4 and I chose this one. I regretted that decision because I absolutely hate shooter games. I really wanted Little Big Planet 3, but I have Little Big Planet on my PSP and I was afraid it would just be the same old stuff, but on a larger screen and with a 3 at the end. I was mainly afraid I would get bored with it and never play it again, much like the PSP version.

The first time I played Destiny, it was a bit overwhelming because all of a sudden I’m having to learn how to kill aliens who are trying to kill me with guns. I have some of the Star Wars games that are similar, but not really like Destiny. I was walking around going in the direction I was told to according to the circle in the top left of the screen and shooting anything that was in range. I would hit L2 to aim and R2 to shoot and R1 to use some kind of magic power to push them away from me, which sometimes kills them. After dying several times I gave up and turned the game off and I just decided to play Minecraft instead.

I always give things a second chance. I decided to give Destiny another chance, mainly because I can’t sulk forever that I made the wrong decision when choosing which game I wanted with my PS4. The decision was made and I can’t go back, so suck it up buttercup and play the damn game! So that’s what I did. I had to start all the way over from the very beginning and I actually finished the level and left on a space ship and I was laughing because I couldn’t believe I actually lived through all of that mess. Finally it put me in a social base where I can relax, buy things, and use a vault to store things and not worry about getting killed.

I did my 2nd mission and could not believe I made it out alive. I was supposed to enter a certain section, and it told me that if I died, I would have to start over. I don’t know if it meant all the way at the beginning, or back to the social base. Either way, I had like an army trying to kill me, and I was alone and had to keep changing the clip on my gun. I had shelter where I would be safe, but occasionally they would run in front of me trying to murder me, and I would use the force field to push them away, which sometimes killed them. Other times I used a grenade that I had earned and that would damage and kill some of them. I was in so much shock when I finished that quest with my life and was able to continue to the base.

So my character is level 3 and all I have to do is keep going back to Russia to do whatever quest is next so can I can earn whatever it is they give you. It’s basically the same thing, different day, right? But, at least I don’t hate it and I haven’t gotten bored… yet… I’m even  considering buying the $20 expansion pack, but I’ll wait for a PSN sale.

So I’m no longer mad at myself for choosing the wrong game. I would eventually like to get Little Big Planet 3, but at $60 it ain’t happenin’. Sorry, no can do at that price. I’ll just keep downloading the free games from my PSN membership and buy games that I can afford because PSN gives them a HUGE discount. I saved big bucks on the Walking Dead games. They are normally $25 each, but they were on flash sale this week for $6.25 each. I haven’t had a lot of luck with the first game, but I’ll figure it out. It’s off my list, and that’s all that I wanted. I’m just hoping more games on my list are either free or have a huge discount.

So… back to gaming!

Minecraft Maps

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PS4Leave a comment

Minecraft maps

Last night I was searching the web for ways of getting the map to my world, but of course I couldn’t find any help since Minecraft for Playstation 4 seems to be a new thing. I figured the best way I am going to do this is to just do it, like make a map, then just go travel the world and keep an eye on where I am on the map so I can find my way back home.

When you first start playing Minecraft, you get a map in your inventory automatically. Unfortunately for me that disappeared the first time I died and couldn’t find my body to retrieve my inventory. One doesn’t appreciate something as simple as a map when one gets lost and has no way to find their home.

The only way I am able to even do this is to have my game in peaceful mode. If I had zombies and skeletons trying to kill me left and right, I wouldn’t have a chance in hell. I find it easier to build my life (house, armor and weapons) first, then bring in the bad guys to give me some fun. I don’t even think I can mine as long as there are bad guys trying to eat me at every turn. I’d get so lost in the tunnels trying to get away from them that I would never find my way out. It’s bad enough that sometimes I get lost down there, I can’t imagine there being some other threat. So as long as I am in peaceful mode, hopefully I will be able to map out the world and eventually find all of my old belongings.

The map on the far right was the first map that I made, then as the arrow on the map turned into a circle, I brought out my crafting table to make another map, which is the middle map. I went all the way across to the left of the map, then up, then when I was at the top and was already in another map zone, I decided to make another map, but didn’t go far because I didn’t want to really get lost lol. I finished the map in the middle and then went back to my home.

I find it nice if the maps are hanging on the wall. They are easier to find when they are hanging on a wall than if I put them in a chest and don’t really know which map is which. When I take them out to go exploring, I put them in my inventory in the order they are on the wall, that way I know where I am going.

There are 3 maps so far, but how many are there going to be going east to west? I’m only working on the west and east for now, but eventually I will have to work my way south and then north. I wonder how exhausting it’s going to be to constantly be running around the planet trying to locate my lost home lol. Is it even worth it? My old belongings have long been upgraded, so it’s really not even worth the hassle, but it would bring closure. It would also be nice to have the maps so that if I ever decided I wanted to visit a certain place, or explore, then at least I’d have maps to help me return home.

Yeah, that’s what I will do. Just forget about my old home because my new home is so much better and everything I have is better. Sometimes it’s just a good idea to leave the old stuff from the past and just focus on what I have now and look forward to how much more awesome it will be in the future.

Lost in Minecraft

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PS4Leave a comment

So here’s the thing. Yesterday I went exploring, and I saw something interesting, so I went to have a closer look. I saw what was beyond that, so I went in for another closer look, and next thing I know I can’t find my way back home. I ran all over Minecraft world for literally 2 hours trying to find home. I live right on the beach, so it’s not hard to find if I stay along the water, but I just could not find it. I built a boat and sailed because I thought it would be faster, but it wasn’t because I was still lost. I was riding in that boat all over the planet for another few hours and I just couldn’t find home. I decided that I would just build a new home, and this is it.

The house I built on the beach was originally made with sand and a dirt roof with a wood fence around the property. Then I decided to build it with wood and I added some windows and I built a stone fence. This new house is all stone with a wood door and windows. I haven’t built a fence around the property yet, but I will. I’m in peaceful mode right now, so there isn’t a danger of being attacked, but as soon as I get comfortable and go back into survival mode, all bets are off.

Here is my view from the inside of the house. I can still see the ocean. I don’t want to be in the middle of nowhere, I like to be on the beach because, well, hello, beach front property! Also, it’s easier to find.

If I ever decide to go exploring and I find my old home, I will just dismantle it for the materials and for all the items I left in the chests, which is a lot since they were both full. I had built 2 large chests, 1 for material like wood and stone and the other for food and other materials like sheep wool and cow hides etc. Thank goodness I’m wearing all the armor I made.

I had a thought last night that perhaps it would be a good idea to build train tracks leading away from my house so that if I ever did decide to explore, all I would have to look for is the train tracks and I would be able to find my home faster. Also, I could make train cars with chests to fill with materials that I foraged while I was on my adventure. That way if I were to be attacked and died, the materials would be safe on the train car.

So back to adventuring!

Minecraft for PlayStation 4

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PS4Leave a comment

Minecraft

It took me a long time to get on the Minecraft bandwagon because it never really interested me. I knew it was available for the PC, but it reminded me too much of the pixelated games from the beginning of games and I just didn’t want to go back. But when my partner bought me a PlayStation 4 for Christmas this year, then bought me Minecraft, I had to give it a try.

After dying about a trillion times from zombies, spiders and skeletons, oh and the occasional fall off a cliff, I finally figured out how to play without dying. First off, look down when going down a mountain lol. Second, when you are first starting out with nothing, dig into the ground or the side of a mountain and hang onto the dirt, because as soon as the sun goes down, you will need to use that dirt to bury yourself so the bad guys can’t kill you. When the sun goes up, dig yourself out and go kill some sheep and chop down some trees. Build a workbench and then build a bed. Once you have the bed, you can literally sleep on it out in the open and you won’t die. As soon as you see the sun going down, hit the bed and go to sleep and wake up and start hunting, digging, chopping and killing lol.

house from a distanceinside my house

This is where I built my house. I built up the walls with sand first, then the more trees I chopped down, I was able to build a fence which I put all the way around the island with a gate. Nothing can jump over the fence, not even me, so that works out great. I put the sand walls up against the fence to ensure nothing bothers me. I also dug really deep on the beach so I had a high ceiling. I also have a + shape on the ceiling/roof so I can see if the sun is up or if it is dark outside. Although, now that I have a bed it doesn’t matter.

I have 2 beds, one in my little sand castle and one in my inventory for those times I stray a little too far from home looking for resources. That way if I cannot sprint home fast enough, I can just place the bed down where I am and go to bed and wake up with a whole new day, which is what, 10 minutes? LOL!

Anyway, I’m still a beginner, or as some may say a HUGE NOOB! All I can say is this is very addicting and I look forward to the giant castle I will eventually build.

I bought 1 pack, it’s the holiday pack which allows me to change my look so I can look either like Santa, a snowman, an elf or whatever. Right now I’m a snowman lol. It’s fun, but it really doesn’t do anything for me. I will eventually buy some other packs that will change the look of some things in the game, assuming that that is what they do. I don’t know, I just know that I am having a really fun time with this game.