More Interesting Early-game Nights?

[oldmanmike 5]

The beginning of any TFC game, for me, consists of a lot of resource gathering and exploration that spans multiple days - both in-game and irl. After sunset, I too often find myself standing in a thatch hut waiting for the night to pass with nothing to do. This is all solved once I've got a pickaxe and have starting building a permanent house, but until I've established my first copper mine, TFC flips between being amazingly engaging and horrifically boring based purely on where the sun is in the sky. And this is assuming that it's not raining such that all the hostile mobs are still camping my front door after sunrise. All in all, it really kills the flow of the game for me.What do other people do to minimize this idle time, other than go afk or log off the server for a calculated period of time?

[PaoloEmilio 53]

What I often do is to watch videos in youtube that last the TFC night. It's what I do, but if you really want to do ingame stuff to pass the night, sleep in your straw-hide bed, cook off your meat, or knap tools.

[AllenWL 186]

I fence off a large-ish area. light it up, then do stuff like cook, craft, etc. I tend to gather at day, but leave all smelting, crafting, cooking, kiln-firing and all that for the night

[GrantBear 0]

Unfortunately early in the game there is nothing to do at night, knapping tools takes no time, waiting for hours for your kiln to fire ceramics,is tedius  . Until i can make a saw and then build a boat to search for sheep the game oscillates between exciting and boring. Like others I hit the n key then fire up my browser and surf.

The other option is to enable cheats and give yourself a bed, but if we wanted an easy life we would not be playing TFC.

[Omicron 62]

I actually found that I can do quite a lot at night in b77. It seems to me the spawn protection radious is higher these days. Back when I played in 1.5.x, monsters would pop up within ca. 20 blocks of me all the time... but in my current playthrough, I rarely even see a creatrue as long as I stay within my base of operations. Over the course of a six hour play session - many, many nights - I have had a grand total of one creeper walk in at random from the forest, and managed to attract three or four zombies by chopping wood a few steps too far away, but that's it. Believe me - when my game is set to hardcore mode where a single death will delete the world save, and I happily keep working at night, then it's really not a big issue

 

The problems begin when you want to move around, because then you invariably get into areas that monsters spawned in before you got close enough to apply spawn protection. And then, yes, without metal weapons and armor you're dead pretty quickly.

[Kereminde 5]

Use nighttime for firing your pit kilns, build a firepit inside a large thatch hut and cook torches or meat as you sit. Or build a spider trap for some string (for fishing rods). That last one is a productive use of time, too - cooked fish is a real good food source.

[PaoloEmilio 53]

Use nighttime for firing your pit kilns, build a firepit inside a large thatch hut and cook torches or meat as you sit. Or build a spider trap for some string (for fishing rods). That last one is a productive use of time, too - cooked fish is a real good food source.

--

Yeah... with what crafting table if we're talkin' about the stone age?

Well I've suggested the change of their recipe and of the bow as well.

[oldmanmike 5]

I actually found that I can do quite a lot at night in b77. It seems to me the spawn protection radious is higher these days. Back when I played in 1.5.x, monsters would pop up within ca. 20 blocks of me all the time... but in my current playthrough, I rarely even see a creatrue as long as I stay within my base of operations. Over the course of a six hour play session - many, many nights - I have had a grand total of one creeper walk in at random from the forest, and managed to attract three or four zombies by chopping wood a few steps too far away, but that's it. Believe me - when my game is set to hardcore mode where a single death will delete the world save, and I happily keep working at night, then it's really not a big issue

 

The problems begin when you want to move around, because then you invariably get into areas that monsters spawned in before you got close enough to apply spawn protection. And then, yes, without metal weapons and armor you're dead pretty quickly.

 

 

Yeah, I found I could work in my open-air metal shop without much fear of mobs while on hardcore as well, so I installed Zombie Awareness . I know I'm making my problem worse by doing that, but to me Minecraft is supposed to have nights that justify the construction of a secure base. The fact the entire world goes to hell with the setting of the sun was a cool quirk of the game - gives it a survival horror feel. And it makes you very happy that you've got a roof over your head, which given how non-trivial that can be in TFC can be quite a rewarding feeling.

 

What I often do is to watch videos in youtube that last the TFC night. It's what I do, but if you really want to do ingame stuff to pass the night, sleep in your straw-hide bed, cook off your meat, or knap tools.

 

 

I do this too, but once I had played TFC enough that starting out became as routine as Vanilla, the early-game became a wiki-free experience and night time became purely an interruption to the TFC "experience" since much of the early game requires you to be able to roam the outdoors in relative safety. Then again, perhaps this initial grind was intentional by Bioxx and Dunk to make you value actually having something other than a thatch hut to live in.

[Kereminde 5]

--

Yeah... with what crafting table if we're talkin' about the stone age?

Well I've suggested the change of their recipe and of the bow as well.

 

With what crafting table? The one you make from planks you had a saw to make. How do you get a saw? Surface metals and ceramic mold casting.

 

It's not first night but it is still "stone age" since that's referring to the first opportunity. I'd always go for a saw first due to it making the crafting table possible. Over a pick, which will more likely wear out before you can find metal. And a prospector's pick, because without a pick to chase the readings it's just a nice wall hanging  

 

I don't see you as reaching "Bronze Age" until you actually have a good reliable stock of metal to work with. My problem is making the double ingots  

[AllenWL 186]

Yeah, I found I could work in my open-air metal shop without much fear of mobs while on hardcore as well, so I installed Zombie Awareness

 

How did you find zombie awareness 1.6.2? I couldn't find it

 

But if you are really reckless, you can make a giant wall with 4 extrances, somewhat lit up, with towers everywhere, and put your home in the center, don't block the entrances, and fight all mobs that approach. If you have enough food/water and places to heal up at, night can be quite fun and exiting

[oldmanmike 5]

How did you find zombie awareness 1.6.2? I couldn't find it

 

I use  v1.9 for 1.6.4. As far as I can tell, it's backwards compatible with 1.6.2.

[transcengopher 349]

Over a pick, which will more likely wear out before you can find metal. And a prospector's pick, because without a pick to chase the readings it's just a nice wall hanging

That's not true, actually. If you dig in the area you first gathered nuggets, you'll find the vein itself. Nuggets currently aren't just laying around because of gladioli.

[Kereminde 5]

That's not true, actually. If you dig in the area you first gathered nuggets, you'll find the vein itself. Nuggets currently aren't just laying around because of gladioli.

 

 

No, but I've found Casserite in places there shouldn't -be- any. Also, saw means supports making mining . . . well, a little safer. It also means ladders. 

[Omicron 62]

The little surface rocks don't only check the surface layer, contrary to popular belief. They check for a set number of blocks down, which can be enough to hit the upper parts of middle layer.

 

For example, in my current playthrough, the very first tetrahedrite vein I found (and am still using today) showed up in an area with a gneiss surface layer. However, to my great confusion, I was completely unable to find it at first. It can't be that hard, I thought, from the surface samples I found the vein must absolutely gigantic! Yet I still wasted an entire copper pick digging around the gneiss in futility. Only when I made a second pick and a prospector's pick to go along with it was I able to find the vein - in the andesite layer below, about 5-6 blocks deeper than the gneiss went.

 

So you finding cassiterite in places where there shouldn't be any is probably just that - a vein at the upper edge of the middle layer, high enough for the surface rocks to pick up on it even though the surface layer was of a type that can't naturally contain cassiterite.

[transcengopher 349]

 

No, but I've found Casserite in places there shouldn't -be- any. Also, saw means supports making mining . . . well, a little safer. It also means ladders. 

Safer, easier, whatever. I replied to the statement that "you're probably break your first pick before finding any metal anyway". Ores spawning in wrong types of rock is a known bug, which supposedly was fixed along with ore distribution (we'll see).

 

The little surface rocks don't only check the surface layer, contrary to popular belief. They check for a set number of blocks down, which can be enough to hit the upper parts of middle layer.

 

For example, in my current playthrough, the very first tetrahedrite vein I found (and am still using today) showed up in an area with a gneiss surface layer. However, to my great confusion, I was completely unable to find it at first. It can't be that hard, I thought, from the surface samples I found the vein must absolutely gigantic! Yet I still wasted an entire copper pick digging around the gneiss in futility. Only when I made a second pick and a prospector's pick to go along with it was I able to find the vein - in the andesite layer below, about 5-6 blocks deeper than the gneiss went.

 

So you finding cassiterite in places where there shouldn't be any is probably just that - a vein at the upper edge of the middle layer, high enough for the surface rocks to pick up on it even though the surface layer was of a type that can't naturally contain cassiterite.

No, the area's not THAT big. You might dig a fair bit down, but if you were picking the spot carefully enough, you'll end up on top of the vein anyway, it doesn't really matter how deep you were digging at this point. Your exapmle tells just that you weren't thorough enough.

[Omicron 62]

No, the area's not THAT big. You might dig a fair bit down, but if you were picking the spot carefully enough, you'll end up on top of the vein anyway, it doesn't really matter how deep you were digging at this point. Your exapmle tells just that you weren't thorough enough.

 

Hmm? I'm not sure what you're referring to. I was citing a practical example for surface rocks detecting a layer 2 vein, not complaining that finding ore is too hard. The only reason it took me so long was the fact that I intentionally didn't dig into layer 2 because the wiki wrongly states that surface rocks only check the first layer, so I stayed in the first layer. If I had dug a few blocks further down, I would have indeed hit it straight on. That's the point I was making.

[Kittychanley 1,002]

Hmm? I'm not sure what you're referring to. I was citing a practical example for surface rocks detecting a layer 2 vein, not complaining that finding ore is too hard. The only reason it took me so long was the fact that I intentionally didn't dig into layer 2 because the wiki wrongly states that surface rocks only check the first layer, so I stayed in the first layer. If I had dug a few blocks further down, I would have indeed hit it straight on. That's the point I was making.

 

Could you please link me to the page on the wiki where this incorrect information is located so that I can fix it? You are correct that surface ore scans a specific number of blocks in each direction, including down; and that if the surface layer is thinner than that number, the rock will scan the lower layer.

 

An example using all false numbers to not give away the exact calculations:

 

Breaking a surface basalt rock scans 50 blocks in each direction for ore. The dirt and basalt layer combined are only 20 blocks thick. The layer below the basalt is diorite, and the diorite layer has a bismuth vein at it's very top, only 21 blocks below the surface. Breaking the small basalt rock on the surface then gives a piece of small bismuthinite even though it does not spawn in basalt.

[Omicron 62]

Sure, just let me quickly figure out where I saw it... *noisily rummages around the wiki* Nope... Not here... Not here... Aha!

 

The "Ores & Minerals" page has the following as its opening paragraph:

 

"Small ores can be found by breaking the small rocks scattered around on the surface of the ground. Small ores can also be found by using a sluice in an area with ore blocks nearby. These are samples of what ores lie in the first layer underneath the soil, so they're somewhat important."

[Kittychanley 1,002]

I can see how that might have been interpreted incorrectly. I have changed the wording to the following:

 

"These are samples of what ores lie within a certain depth underneath the soil, so they're somewhat important. In the majority of cases, it is a sample of a vein in the top layer of stone. However, in areas where the top layer is thin enough, the vein may be located in the upper levels of the middle stone layer."

[Omicron 62]

Looking good!