Working as Intended

It's only been up for a touch over a day, but apparently my first steps in the weird world of Minecraft were a perplexingly popular one. I've gotten quite a few messages from random players, giving me all sorts of helpful tips (as well as the wise word from some friends). I guess Minecraft players scour the Internet day and night, just waiting for a new player to emerge, so they can pounce and... give them helpful tips?

Yay!

In any case, back to my being horrible at the game.

Right, back at the cave into the deep abyss that I decided was a brilliant idea to build my house over. I need a house for protection against monsters that spawn in dark areas, and then plonk my house over a gigantic dark area. I AM SO SMRT



A friend showed me that there are doors you can make, so I don't have to constantly build up and smash down a wall every night to protect myself. Hurray for doors!



Well isn't that just spiffy?

Apparently you can build pressure plates that'll open the door automatically if you step on 'em, but I think that's a touch too advanced for me at this moment. Plus, knowing my intelligence (or lack thereof) a monster will attack the house and I'll end up stepping on the damned thing, letting him inside to feast on my entrails.



It's still night-time outside, so back to the hole!



Jesus, this thing goes down quite a ways, doesn't it?

Are there mole-people in this game? I'd like to stumble across an ancient mole civilization at least once in my lifetime. Is that so much to ask? Is it?!

Yeah, I guess so. Whatever.



Torches make the trip into the planet's arse all the more pleasant.



I stumbled across some Iron and Coal. Score! These will be very handy for my future plans. All of which consist of making a giant base somewhere at some point in time. Also, why are there mushrooms growing through solid rock?

The strength of these mushrooms pleases me. They shall join my ranks!



Come daytime I decided to try and find some Sand.

It wasn't hard to stumble across if you can find a good vantage point, and I got to see some zombies burst into flames in the morning daylight. I have a good feeling about this day.



"But..." you say, "Why on Minecraft's Vague and Completely Unnamed Planet do you need sand for?!"

Oh, you'll see. You'll all see!



Also, you can't go wrong with more coal!



Unfortunately, however, in my quest for Coal and Sand I managed to become completely lost.

Would I ever find my way back to my home, or would I become prey for the constant evil forces that roam the land come nightfall? What if at some point I managed to fall into a pocket dimension, where everything seems nice and peaceful, but that only hides the true evil within?! An evil universe where everything is constructed out of pure pain and agony, and I'd be forced to toil away in the underground diamond caves for the rest of my existance?!



No, wait, my house was just on the other side of the mound.

Hell dimension averted!



If you build a furnace and then place some wood and sand in it, you can make glass.

The More You Know~

But while my furnace is off making glass, I decided to return to the mines to explore s'more.



I accidently the whole thing build one of my mine's staircases of a potential entrance point. Whoopsie!



Yeah, this looks safe!

Time to check on the glass.



Another helpful tip I was given from someone. If you kill pigs that roam about the land and put the dropped meat on a furnace, you can then eat it and regain quite a bit of heal-..



AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH



I lead both that... thing, and a nearby attacking spider as far away from my home as I could before keeling them. On the plus-side, I got some cool items from both (string and gunpowder) and it let me get a good idea of what to do with my house next.

But still, seeing that face in the window suddenly is not good for your health. Somehow it being a pixelated mess just makes it more unsettling.



Pretty swish looking now, no?

I've decided that since I'm going to be building several bases, I should probably give them names. I shall dub this Gubelbig Base. Because that's how I roll.



The bay windows let me check out the surroundings for monsters, as well as seeing if anything especially nasty is out there waiting for me.



Since it's night-time, and I can't do the first stage in my big plan yet, back to the mines!



Huh. Cool!


I was having a bit of trouble trying to figure out how far into the day/night cycle I was while underground, so I decided to build me a skylight at a few points, so I wouldn't have to keep rushing back to Gubelbig Base just to check. I thought it was pretty cleve--..


AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH KILL IT WITH FIRE



After sealing up the.. thing, down there I decided to build a narrow staircase that'd easily let me reach the top/bottom parts of my maze with ease. Time is an important factor in this game, so anything you can do to speed up the traveling time takes priority.

At least I think it does. I've been playing for a whole hour now, so it's not like I'm a genius yet. I sounded pretty smart though, didn't I? Yeah, I thought so too.



Except that I overshot my staircase and nearly ended up destroying my mine's skylight and digging through my  own goddamn house.

DURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR DURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR



Another deep hole. How far down does this thing go, anyway?



No time for finding that out yet, I had a tunnel system to build! My plan is to try and cover as much of the.. island(?).. place I'm on (I'll have to find a good view of the land later) and connect all the bases together, then build a gigantic central fortress that oversees it all, before expanding onto other islands.



It took me a few nights, but I was really starting to make some progress. When I get the proper materials and number of under my possession I wanna build a rail system that'll let me get between bases quicker. I still have no idea how I go about doing that, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

Or build it, knowing this game.



After a pretty decent amount of distance was covered by the tunnel, I decided to found Bopple Base. My skylight is still uneven, but I left all my glass back at Gubelbig. Drat! Oh well, nothing a quick errand trip can't fix later on.



But that can wait for another day.