Early days with Minecraft for myself and my son

[Zak33]

Hi guys

Happy New Year

I know.. we're late to the party, but Minecraft is going to be a time drain so I decided to keep him away from it for a while... but at 7 1/2 he's ready and all his mates talk about it constantly.

So.. taken in the format of online 3d lego... it works well

His creative mind is working well, his 3rd attempt at a castle build is going really well.... but here's the point of view of a parent, used to serious 3d visuals and not blocks.
It's a good thing... it's a great thing.
And it's clever as hell... so ignoring the idea of starting with no tools and working your way up, a 7 year old wants it all .. now.. and wants to build.

So with all the resources (different building blocks) he's built a fair large castle, fully crenalated and put a small moat by the gate, built a wooden bridge across is.

it's a snow scene.. purely random.. and at the last second he decides to use LAVA in the moat... not water.
Fair enough... it will look good.
10 seconds later.. there is rough 2d smoke coming up,.... I laugh.. and the edge of the oak bridge burns away!
10 seconds more.. and the snow near the edge.. melts and green grass shows through.


OK.. I'm naive.. I didn't know Minecraft was reactive.. yeah it's basic.. but man it's clever!

[Moby-Dick]

Its great fun - my daughter plays in creative mode where you don't have to work for the blocks, but survival mode is good fun too!

[Rob_B]

My 7yr old is all about creative mode too, he's made some awesome stuff and I'm torn between letting him be creative and getting him off the damn PS3 !

Personally I'm more of a survival kinda guy!

Welcome to minecraft, you'll never escape its clutches!

[Zak33]

we're playing on PC.. his PS2 time is Lego Batman/Raiders of the Lost Ark/Starwars

but I'm getting his mouse skills up to scratch with Minecraft and Lego Harry Potter

[Zak33]

and now.. it's SNOWING

[Rob_B]

Haha, who needs 'teh graffix' eh?!

[excalibur2]

How do you guys play minecraft on a PC with a large monitor as the graphics are terrible? I've seen my grandchildren play it on their ipads and it looks ok, is there a ver for a PC?

[DanceswithUnix]

How do you guys play minecraft on a PC with a large monitor as the graphics are terrible? I've seen my grandchildren play it on their ipads and it looks ok, is there a ver for a PC?

The graphics are blocky, but that doesn't seem to slow down a kid's imagination

The PC is the original version, and is the best one to go for. The others are ports of the original Java written version into C++, so they always lag on features.

[chuckskull]

Not played in ages, but there's some great mods out there. If you're not modding yet you need to be.

If you're jonesing for graphics it can be done http://imgur.com/a/EB3b7

You'll want minecraft forge to make it all work. http://www.minecraftforge.net/wiki/I...tion/Universal modding without it can cause migraines. The version for 1.8 is still very beta apparently so back everything up or use a slightly older Minecraft build. I'd recommend going the older build route, guessing a 7 year old won't react well to a corrupted save.

Anyway enough grown up graphic stuff, more lego for the nipper;

Buildcraft, which allows much more complex things like engines. Kinda like going from Lego to Technics http://www.mod-buildcraft.com/

Decocraft great for creative mode, adds a load of decorations as you might have guessed; http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums...r-minecraft-v1

Biomes O’ Plenty, 75 new landscapes for a bit of variety, you wanna build your castle there or ON A VOLCANO!1!one! http://www.minecraftforum.net/forums...lants-and-more

Those 3 should all work together and give the little'un plenty of new toys to be getting on with.

[Zak33]

wow!!!!

it's big then Chuck?

[Pob255]

How do you guys play minecraft on a PC with a large monitor as the graphics are terrible? I've seen my grandchildren play it on their ipads and it looks ok, is there a ver for a PC?

How? simple, it's good game play, sorry but a game that looks "pretty" isn't enough, it will not keep you playing a game.
Good Story and writing can keep you playing through a game but often not multiple times.
It's game play that will keep you coming back.

That all said one thing I must admit is the low res textures (16x16 pixels) on the blocks in minecraft is rather telling and I'll almost always up it to a 32x32 or 64x64 texture pack.

edit: I personally don't like the photo realistic texture packs or textures over 128x128 because I find they clash with the block nature of mine craft.

There are other mods you can addon to improve the appearance.

@zak, yes lava sets fire to things and melts snow and ice blocks.
up to 2 blocks away horizontally and 1 vertically.
So keep the lava down one block in the moat and you should be ok (it might be 2 blocks in any direction)


You'll also find that water blocks exposed to the sky in a snow biome will freeze into ice if left long enough, to keep water liquid you'll need a block above it.

[chuckskull]

Massive mate and I freely admit I only ever scratched the surface. Those 3 just stuck in my head as brill for kids and creative mode(I always make a mental note of things that will shut up a snot factory, I mean beloved younger relative).

The old thread should give you a good idea all 4 years worth http://forums.hexus.net/gaming/192187-minecraft.html

[Zak33]

i didn't dare go into that thread.. I just was.. scared!

still am!

[Zak33]

3D Anaglyph activated.. and red and blue glasses on


WOW!!!!!

[Chadders87]

It is a great learning tool. And it can really do a lot more than you would assume.

This morning I read an article on PC Gamer about a dude that built a working word processor into it. That's one up from the clock and calculator in my books. Genius! (Although it took him 2 years apparently )

[Zak33]

i find it amazing that people still rate a game by it's looks.....

thought we'd passed that by when things like Candycrush and Matching with Friends took the mobile platforms by storm... gameplay is BACK!