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I've done some googling, but not found a game that's quite what I'm looking for.

I'm looking for a multiplayer game (I want to play with exactly one other person, although massively multiplayer might be fine as long as we can find each other and ignore everyone else). My long distance girlfriend and I don't have the time or energy for a serious MMO, but we want something fun and casual we can play together for a half hour at a time.

Needs to work on a Mac.

I think the idealized version of what we're looking for would be something akin to Journey, primarily focused on exploration and occasional problem solving, as opposed to relentless hack-and-slash. Except for the "work on a macbook" thing and the "want to get paired with a particular person instead of random person" thing.

(Minecraft might be sort of close, at least with some playstyles. I wouldn't have time to get really invested in it, and would honestly prefer more straightforwardly pretty graphics than the particular style they got going)

Anyone have thoughts?

Raemon777 said:

I've done some googling, but not found a game that's quite what I'm looking for.

I'm looking for a multiplayer game (I want to play with exactly one other person, although massively multiplayer might be fine as long as we can find each other and ignore everyone else). My long distance girlfriend and I don't have the time or energy for a serious MMO, but we want something fun and casual we can play together for a half hour at a time.

Needs to work on a Mac.

I think the idealized version of what we're looking for would be something akin to Journey, primarily focused on exploration and occasional problem solving, as opposed to relentless hack-and-slash. Except for the "work on a macbook" thing and the "want to get paired with a particular person instead of random person" thing.

(Minecraft might be sort of close, at least with some playstyles. I wouldn't have time to get really invested in it, and would honestly prefer more straightforwardly pretty graphics than the particular style they got going)

Anyone have thoughts?

Click to expand...

If you don't want to put in the dedication for minecraft, and want something more explorey and adventury than buildy and sandboxy, I'd recommend Terraria!

Though, I'll be honest, no idea if it works on macs.

Had considered Terraria. Doesn't appear to work on Mac. I know there are workarounds (right now neither of us has Windows installed. It wouldn't be the worst thing to get installed, but part of the issue is that we're really busy and just wanted something to chill with).

A browser-based game that's Terraria-like might be best, if that were a thing.

I'd seriously consider Borderlands/Borderlands 2. It's been one of the most positive co-op-with-the-woman experiences I've had to date, and there is a mac version. Only drawback is the Mac patch updates are done by a 3rd party, and they tend to run a week or two behind the PC patches. During that period, the two will have different versions that can't play together.

Might also give portal 2 a shot.

Other games we've enjoyed that might not meet your exact criteria -

Orcs must Die 2 - You be the warmage, she be the sorceress, cooperatively build traps in hallways to slaughter hundreds of oncoming orcs. Good stuff.
Demigod: MOBA game with a more sedate pace, and better bot customization - great for 2 people who want to play with the other slots filled in with bots. Might not be for mac though.
Saint's Row series - From 2 to 4, it's hard to go wrong. Little bit shooty-centric maybe for your requirements.
Minecraft - I know it looks cheesy, but don't knock it til you've tried it together. We did some amazing things in minecraft. We built incredible structures, cooperated, argued, had fights and even make up sex over things that happened in minecraft.
Guild Wars 2 - highly instanced MMO that lets you shut out everybody else, basically, when you want. No subscription fee.

Less interested in combat and more interested in exploration. MMOs are potentially good because it's fairly easy to do exploration with the combat being sort of incidental.

I think minecraft is your best bet. After a little while you won't even notice the blocky graphics.

While you're waiting for the ideal game to pop up, you should play portal in two player coop mode.

Another vote for Minecraft, and maybe try Castle Crashers.

Heh. Portal 2'd be great, but I've played that before and it's kind of infuriating to play when one person knows all the puzzles. (Although... haven't paid attention to it since it came out. Dunno if there's DLC now or user generated content or somesuch)

It's a shame the LEGO games don't support online multiplayer (or Mac).

Are you guys willing to try text-based MMOs? Something like a MUD might work, although naturally you'd have to deal with the fact that there are absolutely no graphics.

We both tried single-player minecraft tonight and liked it a lot more than we expected. (I hadn't thought I was in the mood to build stuff, but the complexity-curve and exploration elements were both closer to what I was looking for than I had expected)

If anyone happens to think of something even better, that's cool, but assuming we can get a private server set-up, this seems good.

Raemon777 said:

We both tried single-player minecraft tonight and liked it a lot more than we expected. (I hadn't thought I was in the mood to build stuff, but the complexity-curve and exploration elements were both closer to what I was looking for than I had expected)

If anyone happens to think of something even better, that's cool, but assuming we can get a private server set-up, this seems good.

Click to expand...

If you both install Hamachi (which is a free, really easy to use dedicated gaming VPN software, and yes, it supports mac) and one of you joins the other's group, you should be able to simply use the LAN feature to play multiplayer without having to bother with a server. Basically, one of you would just go in their single player world, then click "open to lan" and the other should then see it on the multiplayer menu to join.

Oh, cool. Thanks!

Raemon777 said:

Oh, cool. Thanks!

Click to expand...

It works for just about any game that supports LAN play, incidentally.

Late to the party, but I have to say that for scratching that "I want to explore" itch, nothing else can really touch Minecraft.

My suggestion was going to be to give Wizard101 a shot, though you would have trouble keeping it down to only two people.
Dungeons and such max out at 4 people, but the lower level areas always have swarms of young 'uns running around, unless you play during school hours or well after hours. I don't know enough about their other game Pirate101 to know how it compares (except that I know it's aimed slightly older than Wiz101).

--Patrick

Had a lot of fun with minecraft the first few days.

It's sort of weird that this is the first game I preferred to *start* in Hardcore mode, rather than build up to it later. (First few rounds were just getting the hang of things, and it was neat to see different worlds as I did so).

In the joint-world my gf and I share (which is *not* hardcore ) I've started to feel a bit frustrated with dying and losing stuff a lot. But I suppose that gets better when I just stop doing dumb shit and getting killed. We also keep settling down and building a nice home... and then finding another, cooler place to build just a little bit farther away.

Raemon777 said:

Had a lot of fun with minecraft the first few days.

It's sort of weird that this is the first game I preferred to *start* in Hardcore mode, rather than build up to it later. (First few rounds were just getting the hang of things, and it was neat to see different worlds as I did so).

In the joint-world my gf and I share (which is *not* hardcore ) I've started to feel a bit frustrated with dying and losing stuff a lot. But I suppose that gets better when I just stop doing dumb shit and getting killed. We also keep settling down and building a nice home... and then finding another, cooler place to build just a little bit farther away.

Click to expand...

If you're interested I think I still have the map files lying around somewhere from the now-defunct Halforums minecraft server.

Raemon777 said:

I suppose that gets better when I just stop doing dumb shit and getting killed.

Click to expand...

You haven't lived until you're underground and a creeper blasts a hole through the floor into lava below, burning up the zombies that were chasing you but also catching you on fire until you manage to pull out that bucket of water you save for just such an emergency and dump it on the ground in front of you to put out the flames just before your last 1/2 heart disappears.

Intense!

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

You haven't lived until you're underground and a creeper blasts a hole through the floor into lava below, burning up the zombies that were chasing you but also catching you on fire until you manage to pull out that bucket of water you save for just such an emergency and dump it on the ground in front of you to put out the flames just before your last 1/2 heart disappears.

Intense!

--Patrick

Click to expand...

And then the gravel falls on you and you suffocate.

GasBandit said:

And then the gravel falls on you and you suffocate.

Click to expand...

Dude, I'm the admin on our server, but I don't play in admin mode (that would be cheating!). I can't tell you how many times I've done The Panic Ride Into The Depths when I step out onto a freshly discovered desert and a big section of the ground decides to give way and fall into some underground pit. Landsliiiiiide!

--Patrick

So far I haven't had anything quite that intense or dramatic. But my favorite moment so far:

Playing by myself on hardcore mode. Couldn't find any coal. Didn't know about furnaces or doors yet, or various other things I've since realized would have been a better solution than....

...to climb up a snowy cliff, dig a hole in the wall (basically creating the cave in "The Grinch"), and then destroying the path that led up there,so monsters couldn't follow me... and then a skeleton archer showed up and started shooting at me, and in a panic I sealed myself shut.

And then I couldn't see, and lost track of which way was out, and started digging randomly but couldn't tell where I was going. After 10 minutes of random digging into the darkness, heard the sounds of running water and monsters nearby.

And then realized I could turn up the brightness setting, and then I could see fine (I had dug out quite a cavern).

Then as soon as I could see, I got shot and died.

Hah, I forgot I still had these up and running:

http://gasbanditry.com/minecraft/

maps of the worlds we used on the minecraft server, using a google maps API.

Unfortunately, the map file for the Caprica map is MIA, and only the Ragnar map remains - and it'd be real easy to starve to death on ragnar since most of it was there before mojang invented food, or even animals. But if by some miracle you make it to Castle Gasbandia, there should be food in the chests in the kitchen off the main feasting hall.

Ragnar 332.6 megs

What? There are plenty of farms on Ragnar. There were animals, too.

figmentPez said:

What? There are plenty of farms on Ragnar. There were animals, too.

Click to expand...

Oh yeah, I forgot about the farm you built right there at the spawn. Nevermind.

I had avoided minecraft for a long time because I knew it would get me hooked something fierce. My GF's daughter has started playing it, and I was thinking of giving it a go for something to do together. I finally broke down and started playing it last night. I should have gone to bed early, since I'm sick, but that didn't happen. Damnit, I'm sucked in.

Anyone know if it's possible to make a private server that both android and pc versions can play on?

Shakey said:

I had avoided minecraft for a long time because I knew it would get me hooked something fierce. My GF's daughter has started playing it, and I was thinking of giving it a go for something to do together. I finally broke down and started playing it last night. I should have gone to bed early, since I'm sick, but that didn't happen. Damnit, I'm sucked in.

Anyone know if it's possible to make a private server that both android and pc versions can play on?

Click to expand...

Nope, Pocket edition is totally different from the PC edition which can't even play nice with the Xbox edition.

GasBandit said:

Nope, Pocket edition is totally different from the PC edition which can't even play nice with the Xbox edition.

Click to expand...

Yeah, I was hoping for a way around that. I did find Blue stacks, which is an android emulator. So you'd have to run the PE version inside that to play together.

Correct. The versions aren't (currently) cross-compatible. There have been some rumblings about changing this, but nothing has yet come of them.

PC version is probably the most versatile (Mac/Win/Lin) but not portable, and the portable versions (And/iOS) are much more limited in size/scope. XBox is XBox.

--Patrick

Heh.

So, end result: She's more addicted to Minecraft than me, but I take it way more seriously than her. This produces a set of issues I hadn't anticipated.

We played a bit over the week. Saturday I wanted to... go outside, and explore the *real* world for a bit. And she was like "but... but... Minecraft!"

And then we played for 8 hours.

It ended with us finding a dungeon, getting our asses kicked, but then mining a bunch of iron, smithing ourselves a full suit of armor and weapons, making down into the depths of the dungeon, slaughtering everyone who stood before us....

....and then, right before we were going to haul everything upstairs, and then log off and go to bed, I lagged, and fell in the lava, and died.

And then I wanted to move my respawn point closer to the action, so I grabbed a bed from the top of the dungeon, and brought it down with me. I took the rest of the iron we had hidden in a chest, made myself more armor.

Then *she* died, and I had accidentally stolen her bed, so she respawned a continent away.

Then I died again.

And then we had lost basically everything we had spent the past few hours working for. And I was really sad and stressed out. And she was like "dude, it's just a game, chill out!" and I'm like "but... but... so much iron! And horrible separation cliffhanger!"

We almost went to bed on time, like responsible adults. And then she's like "so.... we could play some more..."

And then we played for another 3 hours.

My god, what have I done?

Raemon777 said:

My god, what have I done?

Click to expand...

Just wait till you start having arguments about design decisions on large construction projects. Though, I have to say the make up sex was pretty boss.

My husband makes giant walls and mines, I get to build the houses. Problem solved!

Dei said:

My husband makes giant walls and mines, I get to build the houses. Problem solved!

Click to expand...

Heh, we both like to build, is the thing, not merely dig. And some of our projects really, really needed more than one person to complete.

Like this one was the last major one we completed on the HF server, loosely based on Belvedere Palace in Austria:









Various indoor shots from the first floor:

Final aerial shot:

That's pretty awesome.

... I miss it.

Yeah I always felt very inadequate with Gas on that server with me. Here I'm still building cube houses and that fucker has a palace and a ship.

Dave said:

Yeah I always felt very inadequate with Gas on that server with me. Here I'm still building cube houses and that fucker has a palace and a ship.

Click to expand...

Do we even need to bring up the stuff DRIFTER built? He didn't even have slave labo... er, spousal help!

Dave said:

Yeah I always felt very inadequate with Gas on that server with me. Here I'm still building cube houses and that fucker has a palace and a ship.

Click to expand...

I feel ya, Dave. Here's what I have to put up with other people building on my server.



That was all done by one person.
Meanwhile I'm building a dirt and stone hovel on the river.



Sure, it has an attached boat launch around the side, but I still feel...inadequate.

--Patrick

... I built a wooden box, and hid inside it. One day I added a window and felt like I had accomplished something.

GasBandit said:

Do we even need to bring up the stuff DRIFTER built? He didn't even have slave labo... er, spousal help!

Click to expand...

I don't think I'll ever top that railway station. So satisfying.

drifter said:

I don't think I'll ever top that railway station. So satisfying.

Click to expand...

Cerberus Station was a work of art no doubt, but the flying chinese dragon palace ship that you built next to it is the only structure that was visible from orbit on Ragnar.

Been playing quite a bit. I was a bit curious about what you could make with redstone, and some of the contraptions people have built are simply amazing.

Also, I found the videos from this guy great. http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=ELrEaSFdKWSGs. They cover just about everything you need to know to get started, and lots of neat tips and tricks.

Is there any *good* Minecraft music?

I have found the game hauntingly beautiful, and am disappointed that all I can find are silly pop parodies.

Raemon777 said:

Is there any *good* Minecraft music?

I have found the game hauntingly beautiful, and am disappointed that all I can find are silly pop parodies.

Click to expand...

No, they're pretty much all silly pop parodies and/or cheesy folk tunes.

I may have to fix this.

Raemon777 said:

I may have to fix this.

Click to expand...

More power to you.

I assume you mean ambient music? Or do you mean music inspired by Minecraft?

--Patrick

I assumed he meant inspired by Minecraft, because the music IN minecraft is all very ambient and haunting, and not at all silly pop parodies.

I suppose it all depends on what you call "good."



--Patrick

Holy.. is that a direct sequel to Fallen Kingdom?

I mean, the music is still a goofy pop parody, but that (and by extension, this) is one of the best written and executed minecraft videos ever made.

Also, those are some uncommonly pissed off zombie pigmen.

I got a really Knights of Cydonia vibe off it, except a bit less goofy.
As to the pigmen, have you ever annoyed one?
The pig ogre and lava boss were nice touches, and I wasn't expecting the end boss.

--Patrick

Yeah, I meant music-with-vocals, that made me feel the way the music in the game does.

I like the idea behind Take Back the Night - and people with different aesthetic senses than mine may find it genuinely poignant in the way I'm looking for. I found the music style a little too bland-pop and the lyrics not quite as good as they wanted them to be.[DOUBLEPOST=1383840855,1383840650][/DOUBLEPOST](Listening to "take back the night" again, I think I like the musical style just fine, but I was looking for something that felt like it blended seamlessly into the style of Minecraft's original soundtrack.)

First thing that came to mind. No vocals, though.


--Patrick

Huh, so the latest patch (1.7.2 now) added a whole bunch of new stuff. I might get back into playing minecraft again.

I started my first "big" project, which is a floating tower. The only way up right now is to swim the waterfall I made. The way down is just as fun, it's over a lake so you can just dive down. It also made for a forgiving construction. I only fell twice, and landed in the water both times.

I still have a lot to do, roof on the secondary towers, maybe some supports for the secondary towers going diagonally to the main tower, adding a bottom to the upper tower, and cleaning some mistakes I see now up. The hardest part for me is interior decorating.

Oh, and it may be hard to tell in the picture, but the secondary towers point pretty close to the compass points.

Shakey said:

Oh, and it may be hard to tell in the picture, but the secondary towers point pretty close to the compass points.

Click to expand...

Given that their mountings/balconies are straight, don't they pretty much have to?

GasBandit said:

Given that their mountings/balconies are straight, don't they pretty much have to?

Click to expand...

I ... Guess I didn't even think about that. No wonder why it was so easy to get right.

Just a quick reminder for construction: hold shift. If you're holding shift you "can't" fall off of blocks. It'll let you kind of "hover" to let you perpetually build "outward" if you want to.

Caveat: you CAN fall, but you usually have to really REALLY try.


And I agree. Pair building projects are great fun for couples.

Ugh. Started in on a server, built a bunch of stuff with people, and I think they may have quit. Now I'm all alone and I don't know who to trust not to bash my pretty house to rubble...

Embrace the chaos and opportunities to start over! You've learned a lot, and while the places you've built are neat and you feel some connection to them, you must keep looking forward. Embrace the future, and let the dead servers bury their dead buildings.

I've learned not to step on the pressure plate next to the chests in the desert temples!

I'll probably start over somewhere else soon. Building is the funnest part anyways.

Would there be much interest in starting a new halforums server?

I've debated opening mine up to the group, or at least setting up a secondary server on my server (so there's no overlap), but I don't install any mods, so it'd have to be a vanilla server.

--Patrick

That's what I prefer actually. There are a couple people I'd like to invite from off the boards that I've met on other servers too. If you don't want to, I wouldn't mind doing it either. Never run one before though.

It's not that hard to set one up, really. So long as you know how to open the ports to the outside world, the server portion is pretty easy. You just have to watch your bandwidth if a lot of people end up playing.

--Patrick

I kinda burned out on building in Minecraft, but it'd be fun to check out another server

My problem is I doubt my ISP will give me a static IP if I'm not on a business plan. :-/

Shakey said:

My problem is I doubt my ISP will give me a static IP if I'm not on a business plan. :-/

Click to expand...

Check out No-IP. You run their little program on your computer and it checks your dynamic IP address, and then they redirect your ____.no-ip.biz address to your current IP address.

There are a number of ways to manage Dynamic DNS (DDNS), and No-IP is one of them. DynDNS used to pretty much be the standard until they started charging money for it. There's a (2yr-old) list of providers here.

--Patrick

I wasn't sure how reliable those services were. I may give it a try though since I probably don't have any other choice.

You DO have another choice, but it means connecting to your server via IP address rather than FQDN, so if your IP address changes, you have to get the new numbers out to everybody before they'll be able to get back in. This is what I'm doing (since we're on the Internet so much that our DHCP lease never really expires), but there's always that possibility that our dynamic IP might get reassigned.

--Patrick

Most ISPs change user IP addresses very infrequently - weeks to months, often only when the modem is reset. Just try handing out your IP address, and when people complain that they can't connect, find the new one and do it again.

That's kinda clunky and not very user friendly. I know it's not a big thing to change maybe once a month, but it would bug me.

My IP address didn't change for the 5 or so years I had Uverse, if that helps you at all.

--Patrick

Well, I found out I probably won't have home internet until at least the beginning of the year now, so I guess we'll see. Slow bastards.

That's...kind of a requirement.

--Patrick

Yeah. My inet is through my phone right now, not the best way to do it. I was supposed to have fiber by the end of November, December at the latest. Now they're talking the beginning of January. I'm pretty sure the tossers are past the government set deadline to bring it live, but whatever.
I may just buy a hosted server temporarily. There's some pretty good christmas deals right now for the first month.

Oh yay. Found out that out of all the pedestals in the 30 mile area that is getting the new fiber service, the one serving me has some hardware problems. Expected date to be fixed, March 2014....

Back to minecraft though. @PatrThom, do you run 1.7.2 on your server? It seems like every vanilla server running it that I've played on is having issues. Wondering if it's the new release or just crap servers.

I haven't had any issues with 1.7.2, but I run exactly 0 mods (and I haven't had time to really play in about a month). Aside from issues accessing the server (which are all due to the crappy ISP router which I will be replacing ASAP), the most serious problems we are dealing with are the stupid terrain mismatches due to terrain generation changing between server versions.
We are running on dedicated server hardware (i.e., that box only does server things) and we never have more than 5-6 people in at one time, so that may also have something to do with it.

I can give server specifics if you like, but our actual "playtime" server has been run on Fedora CentOS, on WinXP, and on OSX, and I've never had any problems that weren't ultimately due to a buggy release or networking issues.

--Patrick

Good to know. I actually got a server up and running, but just on my internal network. I'm using MSM to automate backups and restarts, but that's it. It's a dedicated server running Lubuntu so it should have plenty of resources. I'm hoping the lady will let me stash a noisy rack server at her place for the time being since she actually has decent internet.

I only avoided *buntu (and the other Debian releases) because it was hard to get the genuine, Sun/Oracle-based Java to work with them (no package-based install), and MineCraft at the time was *ahem* "less reliable" with the OpenJDK (this was according to Mojang...dunno if this has changed). At the time, I had no separate Windows license for a server machine, which is why I chose CentOS* (since there was an official "sponsored" RPM version of Java for RHEL, and CentOS is a RHEL fork). Once I got a Mini, though, everything got moved there and it has been smooth sailing since.

A warning about the backups. I would manually make them on the CentOS machine (Time Machine handles my OSX backups for me now), but you have to remember that Minecraft will have problems if it can't access the data files, so if you're running some sort of script, you want to make sure you turn saving of world data off while you make your copy and then reenable saving once you're done. Alternatively, you can shut down the server long enough to copy everything, but then people complain about the 15min of downtime...

--Patrick
*I know I said Fedora earlier, but I meant CentOS. I just got the name of my "Free Version of RHEL" fork mixed up.

Ubuntu has official installs of java now, so that wasn't a big deal. Ubuntu just feels bloated now, so I prefer to stick with Lubuntu. It's a nice clean lightweight distro with the software and hardware support of Ubuntu.

That's why I'm using MSM. It takes care of all that for you. You just need to schedule the MSM commands in Cron and you're set.

I decided to just us a host for now. I don't want to try and mess with the server being somewhere else.

I didn't get much response on people interested, but if you are either post here or pm me. It has a white list so I'll need to know your MC name.

Address is 184.164.151.82:26057

I'd like to check it out sometime: username mr_bogus

drifter said:

I'd like to check it out sometime: username mr_bogus

Click to expand...

You're in! I haven't had time to do much in it yet. Just added a house at spawn to get people a start so far.

I might be interested as well.

Username: Cheesy1

Aw, you beat me to it.

Just got a new router yesterday, gotta set everything back up, then maybe I'll invite a few folks in for a look-see.

--Patrick

Cheesy1 said:

I might be interested as well.

Username: Cheesy1

Click to expand...

Done!

@PatrThom You're always welcome on this one too!

Hmm, says I'm not white-listed yet. I'll recheck the address address again to be sure.

Cheesy1 said:

Hmm, says I'm not white-listed yet. I'll recheck the address address again to be sure.

Click to expand...

I took the capital c out. Not sure if that matters.

Guess I neede to restart the server for it to take effect. It should be good now.

I can get in, but unfortunately I think that spawn protection is on. It's making it so that I can't open the DOOR to the hut you made. So... ya. But I can get in. I'll be on later tonight to "claim" turf.

Should be good now. I moved the spawn point a little.

I'm in! And I have claimed a mountain... I shall build a lair.

Shakey said:

I took the capital c out. Not sure if that matters.

Click to expand...

It doesn't.

Shakey said:

Guess I neede to restart the server for it to take effect. It should be good now.

Click to expand...

Yup. There is a "reload whitelist" command but it has never worked for me.
Same thing for the MOTD, it won't change until you restart the server, no matter how many times you edit the server.properties file.

Eriol said:

I can get in, but unfortunately I think that spawn protection is on. It's making it so that I can't open the DOOR to the hut you made.

Click to expand...

You can also dial the radius of spawn protection back. Smallest is one block, dunno how large it can go.

--Patrick

I guess if you edit the whitelist file directly, you need to restart. Adding them in game you have to do the reload command after. It worked for me anyways.

Thanks for hosting this. Having fun already. I have penetrated down to near-bedrock (level 10) and have commenced mining operations. Also have a nice tree & wheat & pumpkin farm on the surface.

I'll fence off what I consider "mine" eventually, but for now, just stay off of my side of the river.


Mining enough, I think I should consider cobblestone fencing. I have enough of the stuff!

You two are crazy fast. I've got a little mud hut and a small farm and you guys have a huge compound! I did get lucky and landed on top of an abandoned mine shaft though. I think I know what I'm going to build for a house now, so I'm going to have to get going on it next.

Never worry about "envy" man. As I said on the server, at least I'm not GasBandit!

Also, I'm taking the idea of "water defense" to the next level. People on the server will see what I mean!

My problem is I keep getting distracted. Once I start on building something, I'm pretty good at finishing it. It's the getting started that is tough. I was once again distracted tonight by a not so quick trip to the nether. Couldn't find a fort though.

Eriol said:

As I said on the server, at least I'm not GasBandit!

Click to expand...

X(

I've learned how to keep up w/Eriol. He's freaking nuts.

I, on the other hand, ate my last carrot, and now I has a sad.
I'm also littering the desert with Creeper Craters.

Dirona said:

I'm also littering the desert with Creeper Craters.

Click to expand...

This needs to be made into some sort of music video/Lego Minecraft/Indiana Jones-style video.

--Patrick

GasBandit said:

X(

Click to expand...

We love you man, but you really do build "Big" like few others. That's all I meant. We'd love to have you on the server I'm sure.

I'm amazed that I am apparently the "wow" guy on this server (so far at least). Make a big window, and people notice? I dunno.

Eriol said:

We love you man, but you really do build "Big" like few others. That's all I meant. We'd love to have you on the server I'm sure.

I'm amazed that I am apparently the "wow" guy on this server (so far at least). Make a big window, and people notice? I dunno.

Click to expand...

I can't play minecraft anymore. I just... can't.

GasBandit said:

I can't play minecraft anymore. I just... can't.

Click to expand...

Have you considered having a printout made? It's something more ... tangible.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

Have you considered having a printout made? It's something more ... tangible.

--Patrick

Click to expand...

Maybe someday. Not today.

I'd like to be added to the server if there is room. Been getting the itch to craft some mines again lately, username is Farwielder.

Far said:

I'd like to be added to the server if there is room. Been getting the itch to craft some mines again lately, username is Farwielder.

Click to expand...

I added you, but I paid the price!
I logged in to do it, and decided to take poke my head out since the sun was coming up and the coast looked clear. One step out and a flying spider from my roof. No biggie, I got this. BOOM! Crap. Creeper blowed a hole in my house. BOOM! Son of a bitch. Two of them and all my chests are spilled all over the place and half my hut is gone. Time to move underground and get going on the house.
Let me know if you can't log in.[DOUBLEPOST=1386681545,1386681490][/DOUBLEPOST]

Eriol said:

I'm amazed that I am apparently the "wow" guy on this server (so far at least). Make a big window, and people notice? I dunno.

Click to expand...

You just got a head start on us.

GasBandit said:

I can't play minecraft anymore. I just... can't.

Click to expand...

I understand man. Well, I really don't (emotionally), but I "get" why you can't. Maybe someday it'll remind you of the good in a good way. Or something.


Man I suck at this.

It is painful to visit the things built with one who is gone, but the joyful memories made while building it will eventually be greater than the pain.

Also btw, there's an update to 1.7.4. So we may want to migrate to that.

The good news is that the new clients appear to connect no problem to the old server, so it's not a big deal to update or not if you're a client. Go ahead.

My name is StrawberryTea if you want to add me.

stienman said:

It is painful to visit the things built with one who is gone, but the joyful memories made while building it will eventually be greater than the pain.

Click to expand...

I tried starting a new map in single player late last week, just to test the waters. Even with a fresh start, it's no go. There's a gaping void in the creative process, and digging/building alone feels like being the only person who showed up to the tennis court. And every new thing that comes along is a new torment. She would have loved all the new flower types and the stained glass.

Eriol said:

Also btw, there's an update to 1.7.4. So we may want to migrate to that.

The good news is that the new clients appear to connect no problem to the old server, so it's not a big deal to update or not if you're a client. Go ahead.

Click to expand...

The new client is a lot better about archiving old versions. That would have been handy, back when we were running a server on multiplay.

stienman said:

It is painful to visit the things built with one who is gone, but the joyful memories made while building it will eventually be greater than the pain.

Click to expand...

That's why I suggested the printout. Allows the important parts of a virtual world to assume physical, tangible form, and helps separate the memories from the game itself. For that matter, it should not be at all difficult to include a pocket/notch in the printout to hold a flash drive or optical burn of the world files (as well as any other mementos), enshrining the whole thing so long as nobody goes and gets clumsy around the fireplace/cabinet/wherever.

--Patrick

Dei said:

My name is StrawberryTea if you want to add me.

Click to expand...

You are added! Let me know if you have troubles getting on.

Eriol said:

Also btw, there's an update to 1.7.4. So we may want to migrate to that.

The good news is that the new clients appear to connect no problem to the old server, so it's not a big deal to update or not if you're a client. Go ahead.

Click to expand...

Should be updated now.

PatrThom said:

include a pocket/notch

Click to expand...

I would like to say that I just realized this and that it was totally unintentional.

--Patrick

Anybody run across a jungle or swamp biome?

drifter said:

Anybody run across a jungle or swamp biome?

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I haven't found one yet, which is a bit disappointing.
I did go on a bit of a boat ride to explore, which got a little out of hand. Here's a quick map. It's nothing special, but it's quick and easy to make. The spawn is towards the upper right, and I circled it. @Cheesy1, @Eriol, and @Dirona are to the left of it. I'm to the right. Still lots to explore.
Map

Ah, that brings up another question: should we be limiting the amount we explore, lest the map get bloated? I can't quite recall, but I think it caused some problems with the old Halforums server.

I'm not sure that you can with a vanilla server. It might not hurt if we can.

Shakey said:

@PatrThom You're always welcome on this one too!

Click to expand...

Apparently not.

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

Apparently not.

--Patrick

Click to expand...

Did you post your minecraft name? I didn't see it. Or is it the same as your forum name.

Shakey said:

Did you post your minecraft name? I didn't see it. Or is it the same as your forum name.

Click to expand...

My forum name is my name pretty much everywhere and everywhen.
Adding me now would kick Cheesy off, though.

EDIT: Thanks!

--Patrick

PatrThom said:

My forum name is my name pretty much everywhere and everywhen.

--Patrick

Click to expand...

You should be added now!

drifter said:

Ah, that brings up another question: should we be limiting the amount we explore, lest the map get bloated? I can't quite recall, but I think it caused some problems with the old Halforums server.

Click to expand...

Most of the problem it caused was because we were using remote hosting (which did full backups every single day and kept them all, meaning a 200 meg map quickly took up 2 gigs in less than 2 weeks). As this is being hosted on a machine local to Shakey, most of those concerns are alleviated. The only issue is actual hard drive space.

I.... should probably invest in a PC version, if I want to get in on this...

GasBandit said:

Most of the problem it caused was because we were using remote hosting (which did full backups every single day and kept them all, meaning a 200 meg map quickly took up 2 gigs in less than 2 weeks). As this is being hosted on a machine local to Shakey, most of those concerns are alleviated. The only issue is actual hard drive space.

Click to expand...

I'm actually hosting it too. When I finally get decent internet at my place I may host it at home. My host only keeps one backup, which I pull off automatically and keep. Depending on how big the world gets we'll see how many days of backups I'll keep.

Officer_Charon said:

I.... should probably invest in a PC version, if I want to get in on this...

Click to expand...

You should!

I wonder if I should start a new thread with the server info in the first post.

Ooh, got a great idea for what I want to build! Now to see if I have the patience to build the damn thing...

Shakey said:

I haven't found one yet, which is a bit disappointing.
I did go on a bit of a boat ride to explore, which got a little out of hand. Here's a quick map. It's nothing special, but it's quick and easy to make. The spawn is towards the upper right, and I circled it. @Cheesy1, @Eriol, and @Dirona are to the left of it. I'm to the right. Still lots to explore.
Map

Click to expand...

Great detail on this. I suggest that you keep and DATE these. Then later post a "time lapse" of them, as those tend to look really cool.

Btw, which tool did you use for this? Can you provide a link? As I said, great detail on it. A "reverse" orientation may also be cool to see. For reference for those not playing, the image is north to the upper-left.

That looks like either Cartograph G (isometric) or MCMap.

--Patrick

I will. It's pretty quick, and I just run it on the backups I make of our server. I can swing it around and have north at the top. It's called MCMap. I'm sure there's more with more features, but this was quick and easy and like you said you can keep a history of them.

Lots of people on tonight. It'll be interesting to see what tomorrows map brings! I spent most of my time in the nether trying to trap a blaze spawner and grab some brick. Those bastards spawn quick and I had tons to kill off before I knew it. If you want to wander around the fort you can use my portal. I have a tunnel built to it now, so you don't have to go outside. Otherwise the coords for it are x:133, y:72, z:-67.

OK, a few comments/questions.

1. Where's your house on the overworld for the portal? Co-ordinates are best. I'm glad you have it covered to the fortress, though I'm OK with running from ghasts. As long as the portal itself is enclosed (no disabling of it by ghasts) it's all good IMO.
2. The map is awesome. Keep it as isometric. I prefer those to top-down or anything, and by definition north is "not up" and it's fine. As long as it's consistent, it's all good. Thanks for the link too. I may use on my own stuff.
3. I'll be trying in the Nether for sure. I'll also likely build a portal at my place, even if it's a trivial distance in the nether. I'll make them "link up" perfectly so I won't disable yours or anything.

Thanks again for hosting this man! It's always good to see what other people can do!

I think I may have found a small swamp out past the desert by my place... I forgot to check was F3 said the biome was when I was there though. There were vines on the trees, mushrooms under them, and lily pads in the many ponds.

EDIT: Eriol assures me that it is indeed a proper swamp. I'll leave it to him to post coordinates.

I did find a roofed forest though, which is very funky.

FYI, I started a new thread for the server. That way we can have a bit more descriptive title, and the info in the first post.
https://www.halforums.com/threads/halforum-minecraft-server.29993/

Eriol said:

The map is awesome. Keep it as isometric. I prefer those to top-down or anything

Click to expand...

As do I. Isometric maps are awesome...except for when the thing you want to see is behind a mountain (in which case you just put a different cardinal as "up" and you're good).
They're big memory hogs, though. As an example, MCMap can create a map of my current personal server, but at 46,000x28000 or so, it's too big for any of my graphic programs to open it (on a 32-bit OS, at least).
Haven't tried 64-bit yet (been sitting on Win7/64 for the past year+, still haven't installed it yet).

--Patrick

At the end of the previous minecraft server, I was doing mapping with Tectonicus. It's kinda like Google maps in that it's very detailed and you can zoom way in, but it's still isometric.

Seems the latest version works with the new map dimensions, too: demonstration