Monday, December 23, 2013

Mentoring Time

Hey,

Since the last post Kyle and I have gotten Mr. Watson on the server and have gotten lots done with him. When we got him on we had some troubles with the server running and stuff like that, but we ended up getting it working with all three of us on. Mr. Watson taught us stuff about the biomes (different areas thoughout the minecraft world). Since the recent minecraft update they added some new biomes and Mr. Watson showed us a few of them. Mr. Watson also helped us with a few things around our "base area". He helped us with making a mob spawner by Kyle's house. Basically what a mob spawner is, is a big tower that is dark at the top which makes mobs (enemies) spawn at the top of the tower. In the middle of the tower there is a big hole which makes the mobs drop, and when they hit the bottom of the tower they died and you collect the XP points (used for upgrading your weapons and armor) and any items they've dropped. While Kyle and Mr. Watson worked on the spawner, I went out looking for a stronghold since we got enough blaze rods and ender pearls to make eyes of ender which are used to find a stronghold which is where you find a portal to "The End" which is where the Enderdragon is. I ended up finding the stronghold pretty fast, but I couldn't find "The End" portal in the stronghold. Mr. Watson ended up joining me in the hunt to find the portal in the stronghold. It took is FOREVER to find the portal, it actually took us 2 days. Thanks to Mr. Watson we probably wouldn't have ever found it, but we did end up finding it! We will soon be going into the portal to beat the Enderdragon, but at this point we just want to find enough supplies to be able to have a chance against the Enderdragon. Mr. Watson also taught Kyle and I about modding. We made another server that has this mod called Hack n Slash and it's actually really awesome. This mod lets each player to be able to choose a special character such as an archer, warrior, or a wizard. Choosing one of these will give you special abilities. Kyle chose to be an archer, Mr. Watson chose to be a wizard, and I'm the warrior.

It's been really fun playing with Mr. Watson and I'm really excited to try and beat the Enderdragon with him and Kyle. We will soon be going to "The End" and fighting the Enderdragon so stay tuned too see how we do in "The End"!

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

End of November

Hey,

Last time time I posted I explained lots about how Minecraft works. I've also posted a couple different pages on my blog about my friend Kyle's blog, and also the rules that we've made to make things a little bit easier. 

Gotten a lot done this month. I've finished my house. Made an awesome chest room with a lot of resources. 
This is my chest room

Within the last month Minecraft has updated which was a pain because they've added achievements to the game. I lost all of my achievements that I earned. Since the update I've gotten more than I had before I lost the achievements. Right now I have 24 achievements and there are 33. 










































This is a list of all the achievements.

The one thing I haven't really worked on is my enchantment table room. I just haven't had enough time to get the leather to make book shelves. 

This is how you make bookshelves.

It takes a long time to make the books because leather can be hard to find. You need lots of bookshelves for enchantment table because the bookshelves give you better enchantments. 

This is how you make an enchantment table. 

I've recently gone to the nether to find a nether fortress. The reason I wanted to find a nether fortress is because that's where you find Blaze mobs. Blaze mobs are need to get blaze rods which are needed to make blaze powder, which are needed to make eyes of ender, which are needed to find a stronghold, which is needed to get to The End so I can fight the Enderdragon. Yeah, it's quite a process to go through. 

While I was going to find a nether fortress, Kyle went exploring. As he was exploring he found horses! Now for those who don't know, horses aren't very easy to find. They can only be found in certain biomes and at certain times. So finding horses was pretty exciting for us. The com thing about horses is that you can actually tame them and then your able to ride them around! 

Now with this passion project you need a mentor that is supposed to help you through your project. I haven't really said much about it because I haven't had a chance to go on Minecraft with my mentor. The mentor I chose was one of my teachers, Mr. Watson. The reason I chose him is because I feel like he would be a good person to teach me things I don't know about Minecraft. Such as teaching me about how to add mods to the server. Hopefully we are able to get Watson on soon and learn some new things about Minecraft. 

This is my area. I've finished my house and I'm pretty happy with it because it's not like I'm in my house all that much so I'm pretty happy with it. My bedroom also has a nice view of our whole area.
 My bedroom.

My horse. (and Kyle's horse in the background)

My horse barn.

My finished wheat, watermelon, sugar cane, and animal farm.

I think I've been making good progress so far! There isn't that much left to be done before me and Kyle are able to go fight the Enderdragon. I only have about 9 more achievements left that I need to get, which won't be very hard to do. Hopefully we will be able to finish pretty soon!

Monday, November 25, 2013

How Minecraft Works

Hey, 

I realize that some people reading these posts may not know how Minecraft fully works. In this blog post I'll explain how Minecraft fully works. 

Basically what you do in Minecraft is building. There are endless amounts of materials that you can build with. The main tool that you use is a crafting table. 
This is how you make a Crafting table. 

To get the wood to build a crafting table, you pretty much just go up to a tree and punch it until it breaks. 

There are numerous amounts of tools/weapons that you can build too with the crafting table. There are pickaxes, axes, swords, bow and arrows, hoes, shovels, sheers (big scissors), and flint and steel. You can also choose how you want to make these tools/weapons. You can make them out of wood, cobblestone, iron, gold and diamond which is very rare to find. To find these materials you have to dig in the ground. Each of the materials have a certain level in the ground that they usually spawn. Once you find the material that you want to use you get a pickaxe and mine it. When you've mined it you get a crafting table and make sticks for the handle of the tool/weapon. 
That's how you make sticks. 

Once you've made the sticks, you're ready to make your tool/weapon. Here's an example of how you make of a diamond sword. 
Once you've gotten the basics of how to mine materials and craft items it gets really easy to make really cool things. 

Here are some example of what you can make when you get really good at building. 

I hope this helped whoever was wondering about the basics of Minecraft. I will update soon about the progress of my Passion Project. 

Monday, November 4, 2013

Finished October

Hey,

Man I haven't posted in a long time but I've gotten a lot done since my last post. I've gotten 14 achievements done. There are 30 in total so at this point I'm ahead of what I should be. I've also completely finished my house. Inside my house I've made a huge open living room area. When you go to the right there is a hallway with two doors. In one there is my chest room with all my resources that I've organized to find things easily. Then in the other door I have my bedroom with a huge window that looks at Kyle's house across from me. This is a view from the outside of the house. 
I've also gotten quite a bit of diamonds to make some tools with. I don't have enough diamonds to make diamond armour but I will still look for more to make some diamond armour. I've made a big garden that has lots of wheat, pumpkins, and watermelons. 
Kyle and I have also made a animal farm with chickens, sheep, cows, and pigs. 

At this point I feel like I've gotten lots done and me and Kyle seem to be ahead of what we thought we'd be at this point. I think that we'll be able to finish the game by the end of January. 

Monday, September 23, 2013

Passion Project

Hey! 

My name is Braden, and in my Bible class at school we are doing these projects called "Passion Project". The project is basically a project based on something you want to get better at. At the end of the project you want to beat a goal that you set at the beginning of the year. Throughout the semester you blog about what you've done every two weeks. 

My passion project is basically about Minecraft. My friend Kyle like playing Minecraft together, and we've both never beat the game. So we decided that this would be a good project idea.Throughout the semester we will be setting goals for each other to try and beat such as getting all the achievements or getting a certain amount of emeralds. At the end of the semester we will try and beat the Enderdragon (the end boss). I think this project will be a fun project!