In this post I’m going to talk about the parameters for Let’s Play – Season 1. If you missed my post on how I got here; check that out now.
More through Less
One of the cornerstones of this season will be self-imposed limitations. Minecraft is a game of endless possibilities. Despite this, game play (or at least content) seems to default to what is “best”, most efficient or fastest.
Fair enough if you approach the game in the same way. Minecraft is very time consuming and please take advantage of anything that makes this game more accessible for you.
I’ve found that for me that chasing these things doesn’t lead to time saved. I’ve also found that by avoiding some of the games normal meta you gain other things. These gains keep me coming back vs what might drive clicks on content.
No end
I’m not going to the end in season 1. Without shulkers and elytra; horses, mules and llamas gain relevance (okay maybe not llamas). You also have to create good XP sources other than enderman farms in the end.
Enderman farms are easy to build, but the resources they generate aren’t a huge advantage. Other farms might be a trade off in XP but can provide more usable resources. Bones from a skeleton farm, string from a spider farm or other drops have wider uses than enderpearls. (though enderpearls help significantly without elytra, could you an enderman farm in the Nether?)
Designing your own farms is interesting and the mechanics of building an enderman farm over the void is not that complicated. While the benefit is significant I found that it meant I didn’t build other farms for useful resources or have fun exploring other ideas or options.
Simple and or small Redstone devices
I’ve been using a small sorting system that uses a hopper mine-cart to feed a couple chests and barrels for storage. I’ll get into this in a bit more detail in a future post. Having individual item sorters is great, but takes huge amounts of hoppers and I spend more time sorting my sorters than using the items in storage.
You can tell from the image above I have already built a furnace array. This thing is very basic and took very little time to build but has big impact. There’s a sugar cane farm just out of the shot that’s completely manual and will probably stay that way. I can do a manual harvest and get enough for single player usage without having to add a collection system and flying machine.
I’ll follow up soon with a post on what I’m calling the techno-cave and I’ll talk a bit more about redstone/farming and keeping it simple as things progress.
No trading hall
There will be minimal use of villagers. This makes fishing more useful (enchanted books), armour collected through adventure and mob farms are now relevant (let me live my lie). For me it’s now worth it to combine the armour I get from mob’s or chests to make good armour rather than getting diamonds and playing with the enchantment table.
Really I just don’t want to deal with villager mechanics. Not to any significant degree. I already have 1 villager and might convert a few more from zombified villagers as they cross mt path. But I can’t find the patience to breed and move around a bunch of villagers even for the huge benefits they bring.
I might try to add them to builds to add life, which will be frustrating to do and maintain. But for some reason that seems worth it. I guess I can get an epic sword on my own and I’ve done it a few times before but It turns into a grind if you’re trying to get all the best trades.
1 Chunk builds
For anyone who is unaware, minecraft is made up of 16×16 squares called chunks. On Java edition pressing F3+G will highlight the chunk boarders. The game in all versions loads a number of chunks, spherically around the player depending on your render distance.
1 Chunk builds became popular because it sets a small yet use-able footprint to build a structure. There are numerous 1 chunk challenges and tutorials anywhere you can find minecraft content. These builds are replicable for someone who plays this game recreationally and introduce a fun challenge in a game where bigger scale makes adding detail easier.
I’ll be limiting myself loosely to the 1 chunk limit throughout this series (loosely). Paths for example will not be subject to that limit. It’s not a hard rule, but a guideline I’ll use to avoid a stack of unfinished projects.
Limitation can stimulate creativity and I’m looking forward to the ways building within 1 chunk will teach me new things as a Minecrafter.
Is modded Minecraft cheating?
You can’t cheat in minecraft. You can cheat in your presentation of Minecraft to others. Do what makes this game accessible or enjoyable to you and be honest about it in your presentation.
I’ll be using 4 simple mods that help enhance my Minecraft experience but do not expand the available palette I have as a builder or technical player.
I’m using the CurseForge launcher to run the mods I’m using. The 4 mods I’m using right now are:
Freecam and Journey map can be “cheaty” and I use them in ways that are cheaty. I use freecam to look through blocks and explore underground regularly (but not buried treasure :P). This saves me time and allows me to take advantage of points of interest that are already near the other things I’m doing.
Freecam is a must for building and is the real reason I use it. Being able to place a few blocks and then step back and hold a perspective on your build is essential. If you don’t use free cam you need an elytra or scaffolding to do the same thing.
Journey map is cheaty in that it highlights mobs and hidden caverns in real time. I do take advantage of both of these things. I look to make sure I don’t have a creeper sneaking up on me if I’m around something important. This can be turned off, but I will continue to use this advantage.
The real reason I include this is the perspective the map gives and the ability to place way-points. It’s excellent from a planning perspective and adds immersion for me. It’s got old 8 bit gaming vibes with the top down pixelated perspective it provides.
Tool tips is intended to keep me from breaking tools… which I still do 😦
JEI is great when you can’t decide what block you need when something just seems to be missing from your build. I occasionally use it rather than going to the Minecraft Wiki to find out how something is crafted. But my main use is quickly looking for pieces of a palette for a build.
I also use Chunk Base to look for structures or biomes. Exploring can be fun but it comes with the downside of loading chunks that won’t contain updated content. Right now I’m anticipating the trial chambers and it would be great if I could have 1 close by. By avoiding loading areas that aren’t points of interest; hopefully I won’t have to go as far to find trial chamber.
By identifying a point of interest to get a heading before I start exploring; I get to have some fun without compromising future fun.
The near perfect seed
Considering my vision for this series, I found a near perfect seed on my first attempt. I had planned on loading a few random seeds looking for something that peaked my interest. My first random seed spawned me on an island large enough to separate into a few sections with a distinct ring of mountain tops at its centre. This was a pleasant surprise.
There is a small second island that was a perfect place to build a starter base that wouldn’t interfere with whatever I ended up planning for the larger island. The interior of the island housed a couple large caverns and the deep dark. Had there been an ancient city this I might consider this the perfect seed.
There are a number of spawner’s that I can take advantage of and a ocean monument very close to shore. The split between the two islands is a river biome meaning I get squid and drowned spawing there.
The snow capped peak is a little weird but I’ve got a good plan to make it look natural that I’ll tackle in a later post.
Some people might think spawning in a basalt delta when they step through their nether portal to be terrible. I was ecstatic!
I love the ambience created in that biome by the particles and the ambient sounds. This is where I’m building my storage so that I can access it easily from all builds I start.
Seed: -3576869775629377160
Types of posts going forward
Let me know what you want to see more of or less of in the comments below. Do you want to see more building tips or do you want to have more discussion around game-play thoughts?
Don’t expect too many options on game-play additions. I am generally happy with the way the developers have gone with the game and even if I don’t like the way something is implemented; there’s so many things to do that you just don’t do that thing.
My goal is to post twice a month. Once on the 15th and once on the 30th (give or take a day). Season 1 will take about a calendar year or 24 posts.
I want to do something sustainable and something that gives me value. There will be some kind of end to season 1 and a pause to reflect on what’s after season 1.
- JourneyMap by techbrew ↩︎
- Just Enough Items (JEI) by mezz ↩︎
- Durability Tooltip by SuperMartijn642 ↩︎
- Freecam (Fabric/Forge) by hashalite ↩︎
ChunkShift.com 
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