S tarting Over, again

[wizardglick]

Well, for the second time in 6 months I've lost a hard drive on my computer, and likely, my current Minecraft world. Thinking about starting a new world, I realized that I pretty much start all my worlds the same way. Spawn new worlds until I find an interesting one, build some tools, plant some seeds build a shack and tunnel the basement down to bedrock.

I was wondering if anyone had some more creative or BTW centric ways to play the very early game? Especially ways that give you a boost later in the game.

[wirer]

get stacks of torches and find a natural cave entrance. go caving.

or find animals and raise a large farm

at least thats what i do. may not be your cup of tea

[StarsintheSky]

On my most recent restart (6 months ago?) I started off building a 500-block road to the nearest plains biome where I set up camp. With my first two diamonds, I crafted a diamond hoe and set about planting the largest wheat field I could be bothered to care for with the hope that I would end up with something vaguely similar to "real life agriculture". I also planted the largest hemp field I could manage around a nearby pool of water. Now, mid-late game, I have a very reliable source of food through the 300+ block wheat field and I can gather two and a half stacks of hemp from my hemp field whenever I leave my castle walls. The road has also proven extremely useful especially with hardcore movement in place, now.

Two early game mistakes that I regret: over-developing my Nether before I had a permanent home which has led to many many portal alignment headaches and not thoroughly scouting the area over which I built my castle: I have since found many extraordinary underground cave systems and structures just outside of reasonable reach of my castle walls/beacons.

tl;dr Early game structures that prove useful later on: roads, wheat fields, hemp fields. Early game headaches that are a pain later on: over-developing the Nether, not building my castle closer to a stronghold/mineshaft/27-intersecting-ravines.

[FlowerChild]

My advice for an interesting experience: don't keep creating worlds until you get one you like.

Play the first one that generates and adapt to whatever conditions you're presented with. I always build my bases wherever I happen to pop up (usually through a nether portal, but same idea as starting a new world), and I find that the differing terrain forces me to think up new base designs to suit it.

[Ulfengaard]

My advice for an interesting experience: don't keep creating worlds until you get one you like.

Play the first one that generates and adapt to whatever conditions you're presented with. I always build my bases wherever I happen to pop up (usually through a nether portal, but same idea as starting a new world), and I find that the differing terrain forces me to think up new base designs to suit it.

How do you manage with HC bucket? I usually just wait for extreme hills to pop. Sometimes I'll wander a biome looking to see if there is a high pond or something.

[FlowerChild]

How do you manage with HC bucket? I usually just wait for extreme hills to pop. Sometimes I'll wander a biome looking to see if there is a high pond or something.

Well, I usually locate myself near water (like a lake or pond), but that's it, and it's rare that you don't have *some* source of water around.

High water sources may be a convenience, but they certainly aren't a necessity, especially since the inclusion of Screw Pumps.

If you're specifically looking for such locations, you're really just bypassing a lot of what makes HCB interesting.

[Ulfengaard]

Ah. Building above-ground is a luxury. I can't believe after all this time I've been playing BTW that I didn't get that until this moment. *sigh* -_-

[FlowerChild]

Ah. Building above-ground is a luxury. I can't believe after all this time I've been playing BTW that I didn't get that until this moment. *sigh* -_-

<shrug> I always build above ground these days.

Again man: screw pumps. They allow you to get water anywhere you want, as long as you're willing to invest the time.

[Rawny]

Suffering from OCsoD (Obsessive Compulsive start over Dissorder) I know the problems well. What I'll say here is about bad hard drives. I use Dropbox and copy my world onto there. Not only does this permit me to continue playing elsewhere, ex work, by copying to a different pc but makes a great and easy safe-er-ish backup.

It's saved my world at least once, so that I could delete it on my own later on.

[wizardglick]

Suffering from OCsoD (Obsessive Compulsive start over Dissorder) I know the problems well. What I'll say here is about bad hard drives. I use Dropbox and copy my world onto there. Not only does this permit me to continue playing elsewhere, ex work, by copying to a different pc but makes a great and easy safe-er-ish backup.

It's saved my world at least once, so that I could delete it on my own later on.

Yeah, I know.. :-(

writing a small script to back up my world saves to the cloud was on my todo list....

[IowaGuy]

Try building underwater only, Atlantis style with columns. Glow stone beacon makes it much more fun. Hat o water breathing and aqua affinity help too.

[ImSheroPsu]

Well, for the second time in 6 months I've lost a hard drive on my computer, and likely, my current Minecraft world. Thinking about starting a new world, I realized that I pretty much start all my worlds the same way. Spawn new worlds until I find an interesting one, build some tools, plant some seeds build a shack and tunnel the basement down to bedrock.

I was wondering if anyone had some more creative or BTW centric ways to play the very early game? Especially ways that give you a boost later in the game.

I recently started building into the side of mountains as only a crude initial base. Some small automation and stuff. I built a road across a desert biome to get to a swamp, forest, and taiga biome quickly. Now I'm working on moving myself into the desert and building above ground facilities. I did have fun using screw pumps to take water to the top of my mountain base and then from the top I've been building a massive aqueduct system down into the desert. There are some initial pictures of it on the aqueduct build thread if you want to check it out.

As for tracking down seeds. The last few posted on this site have been pretty nice and I actually ended up using one of them for my new world when I came back after a long hiatus.

http://www.minecraftseeds.info/

I ended up using Temple which is maybe 3 pages back and settled near the stone arch/desert/extreme hills area. Lots of great features. I haven't gone looking for a stronghold yet so I have yet to see if it was a good choice in terms of location but I very much enjoy desert biomes.

I've also explored 2002414356 which is on the first page. The top of the ravine that is open to the outside world is really need and it intersects a few other ravines. Very cool for exploration.

Good Luck!

[SterlingRed]

I used to always start the same way you did. After some discussion a few months back I decided to take a new approach with my latest restart 2 months ago.

I started with the first world I got, and built around the spawn area. I got a extreme hills biome bordering plain biome. No high water sources though. I usually start mining on the first night. This time I spent time on the surface establishing hemp and wheat farms as well as a small shelter in a cave. I explored my area and trapped some animals in a few holes. I used some surface caves to get the coal and stone I needed. After planning the location and layout for my main base/workshop then I started mining and working my way through the tech tree. I've enjoyed playing this way a lot.

I've also taken a low stockpile approach to this world that has been fun. Previously I've spent weeks on end in game mining and stockpiling resources so that I could spend nearly a month real time without having to mine again. This time I'm using whatever I mine from each trip in my builds right away. Its giving my world a real sense of development as each week multiple projects grow in size and get more completed. My previous method resulted in a finished project relatively quickly but with out a real sense of development and visible progress. One day there was nothing a few days later there'd be an automated hemp farm. Now it's one day there's a base, the next day the first layer is done, then the Redstone is done, etc.

[TheGatesofLogic]

It really depends on what you're looking for. My method is first I explore to my hearts content... Or until I find a village that isn't entirely on a cliffside.

I proceed to gather all the villagers up and move them to a new "house." I then wall the now-unoccupied village until it looks fricken awesome and then I begin to expand downward. I almost always underestimate the amount of space my mechanisms take up so often I end up building things above ground. Above ground aesthetics may be far more difficult but they are definitely far more rewarding in the long run.

Now I'm doing something different, in the beginning of January I started a new world in my normal fashion, however this time I decided that after I've mined out the majority of the area I would build a massive path in the nether and wherever it lead I built a new mining base, and so far I love it!

[devak]

My way?

I usually walk around spawn a bit. look for a desert preferably. Find a good source of relatively high water, and start building. I usually build underground anyways, or at least, under the surface.

I also usually pick a theme. Like, a song name for my world and the same for the seed. Then go play that one.

[Rugaard]

I start a game two different ways, the first is to find a ravine or mountain with overhangs and cliffs and build a mostly underground base, the other way is I search for a flat spot and build a sort of castle. I usually spend a couple game days building and digging before I go mining so I usually have a fairly good base set up by then

unfortunately for me i am required to build in a snow biome as the falling snow doesnt lag me. for some reason when I transition from inside to outside my fps drops for a couple seconds and tends to be lower than usual during the rain

[ThePowerofTower]

I like to build into cliffsides and in the walls of ravines, to help with my cobblestone-gathering problem. It gives you a more organic reason to mine, and an interesting setting. I haven't done that for a while, though, but I'm thinking I'd make a new outpost in one like that. Usually a place with a 'view' is nice too.

[Skwirral]

I started building by taking over a village next to a beach. I really lucked out with this location since there's a mushroom biome only a few hundred yards away. When you see a villagers' farm, you can knock out the ends of the water and extend them by 7 blocks each way, and another two blocks to either side, so you never really run out of room for crops. I'm working on building a screw pump tower to provide water inland via aqueducts, so water's not really a huge concern for me. At the moment my automated systems are pretty dry so I don't really notice any lack of water anyway. I've been spending my time between harvests digging out a huge underground workshop for materials and ores.

[wizardglick]

Well, following ImSheroPsu's suggestion, I generated a world based on "Temple" seed. The big arch (trying think up a cool name for it) looks great and gives me a natural landmark to start off with. I have a small base in the forest at the mouth of a cave that leads back up to the surface in another part of the forest. I've secure both locations and am working on gathering a good cache of wood resources, and scouting for a starter farm (and track down the wolf I saw).

My plan is to build small utility buildings interconnect by roads, covered roads, or tunnels in the vicinity. One house near the mountains for the mine. one in the nearby desert where the windmill will eventually go. One in the forest for the logging operation, and one near the farm.

Later, of course, I will have to go on expeditions to find plains, villages, swamps etc. etc. But i hope to do that from a nice well developed "home territory."

Thanks for everyone's comments !

[TSA]

I have started a new world with my girlfriend a couple months ago.

We started in a desert near an extreme hills biome.

There was a village ~200 blocks away from spawn. We spent the first ingame week there them moved closer to spawn.
We are trying to make a village inside a hollow mountain.
And currently we are working on setting up and manual all kind of wood farm.

so in a basic way of puting it.

1 - reliable food source
2 - some mining to do basic things (iron, coal, and 3 diamonds for nether portal)
3 - reliable wood source
4 - then use your imagination

[IowaGuy]

Not sure how much FCs changes change things, but villages don't really register right without seeing sky and villagers act goofy, in my experience. Might want to test the mountin thing with a few huts.