Almost Me-Proof Mob tower - unnecessarily long and wasteful

And I was going to write it all out but it got really confusing even for me so I decided I'll probably go do this next time with some pictures instead.  It's just a plain old drop type mob tower but being me, I had to complicate it a lot.

So instead maybe I'll just do a look-ahead section to see what I've discovered so far.

the JOY!

Here we have a list of things that can be used right out of the box, so to speak.  They require no additional power or wiring and can be fairly useful from early on in your Agrarian Skies adventure.  Although the use of one of the listed items depends on your play style. All these items just need to be placed and will work automatically. Like the peaceful table which was extremely helpful because I didn't want deal with an escaping enderman running around my little island for the sake of a quest.  All it required was a flip of a switch.  Though I might try something else later on to see if there might have been another way in normal mode.

the DEFEAT q.q

The following list of things would have made life much easier on skyblock also but unfortunately did not come with any batteries included.  So you do have to go and figure out a battery and/or wiring system that will work into your design.  The discovery of these items were a moment of triumph  and defeat.  Never was I so disappointed as when I figured out that the grinder wouldn't work in my mob tower without some assistance. 

But since we did want to have an easier life up here, it seems we must overcome the barrier which would hold us back - the lack of power to run these machines.  And to that end, I was so happy when I discovered this. 

On another skyblock somewhere

A TNT generator. Talk about living dangerously.  I was so glad that I now finally have something to do with all the gunpowder instead of just chucking it at a cactus.  Maybe now it can be of use somehow - if I don't blow myself to smithereens first.  The best thing about this thing was that it didn't seem to need a lot of gunpowder to run at full capacity.  Just 8 gunpowder to be full.  Was that good or bad?  I'm still unsure but it runs my 3 pulverizers fairly well at the moment.  And I did build it a platform a bit off from my main island - just in case.  No real harm so far though it did hurt a bit when you stayed too close for too long.

Hello there.  Just sticking my head out for a bit.

And for those machines that are too far away to connect to at the moment?  Well, it does require some running back and forth but this thing can serve as a portable batteries and back up generators for machines that are not tied into the grid at the moment. 
And no, I don't mean the conduit.

勢い良く潔く

さぁ～モブタワー簡単講座と逝こうとしたのですが勢いを挫かれました。だって、余りにも酷かったんです。自分で書いててチンプンカンプンぐるぐる回りに鳴るばかりで遣っている最中は良かったんですがいざ説明をしようとすると明白に出来ない思考回廊。迷いました。本当に簡単なドロップ式モブタワーな筈なのですが自分式にするとややこしさが。なので本日はちょっと先観をしたいと想います。タワー解説は又今度写真付きで遣っていくかもです。決してメンドクサクナッタナと想った訳ではありません。ハイ。

詳しくは後程又ダラダラと書くことになると思いますが先ず自動式マシン軍に付いてです。有難いことに最初に造った二つの自動式マシンのIE君とAA君、又の名を横暴くん、は実際自動式で電池込みなモノだったので簡単に逝きました。縁だ万退治クエストに困った時に使ったPeaceful Table平和の円卓も設置して待てば縁だ万を無事討伐出来たのですがそうも行かないモノもありました。

失敗の巻。何故の謎でした。

主にgrinder始末屋、Pulverizer又の名をハンマ君、Induction Smelterドロドロ釜、畑の夫婦PlanterとHarvester等等。これらの物を調子に乗って造ってみるも使えませんでした。モブタワー完了で後は生き残りの始末かと思いGrinderもポンっと設置してみたのですが作動しませんでした。何故何故何故？の大嵐の末やっとパンネールGUIを見たのですが緑色の雷が在るじゃないですかと言う事に気付き自動式にも完全自動じゃない式もあるんだという事が理解できた瞬間でした。

で、此処で終われないので。いえ、ですね？ 楽したいじゃないですか？楽の為の苦労なら進んでしょうと思う自分なんです。その為にも色々調べた挙句目に付いたのがTNTGenerator又の名が時限爆弾発電機装置です。ハイ。

火薬を使い発電するのです。今迄困っていた爆薬もこれで役立ち道具に！と言うだけでも有難いのですがどうもこの発電機装置爆薬を然程使わずに満タン状態になる様でこれなら他の機会に十分な燃料を廻せるのではと思わせてくれるモノでした。と言う訳で島からちょっと離れた位置に発電塔を建ててイソイソしているところです。 最近では線を引いてPulverizerを三台程稼動中です。それ迄はバッテリを充電して行ったり来たりをしていました。地味に爆発する発電機なのでチクチクと痛かったです。後爆音が・・・・・・・後でそうゆう装置も施さなければです。ハイ。

The tension's a bit low today

Mom started off in a mad (read crazy) moment today.  Insisted on going home the moment I woke up.  It gets to be a bit tiring.  Hopefully, she'll be improved when I go pick her up from daycare.  But we continue as we must.

Especially since today is the day we start catching up!  Cuz we're finally automating today.  Yes, by the end of today, some real progress shall be made - at least, I hope it will. 

Am I not beautiful? ^.^

At any rate, since the enlightening moment we had yesterday - when we finally remembered that furnaces can smelt ores into ingots - we've managed to hammer out the necessary ores. And looking up the recipe again on NEI, we finally, finally make the Igneous Extruder.  Isn't she lovely?  

Kind of anticlimatic?  But I mean, really, it's not all that hard to make one, it just took some time getting all the mats together to make her with all the turns we took along the way.  She is a lovely sight though - with her front panel showing us the lava and water she has inside.  It took up to four buckets of each to fill her up and I was glad I left the old cobble generator in place with its water just in case.  Because you can click on the machine with a lava bucket to fill it up but if you click it with the wrong button, the lava will pour on to you instead.  Now, which button was it again????

At any rate, we pick this little baby up with its water and lava and set her up where we most need the stones right now - the back of the house where we will extend the platform outward to build our mob tower.  The chest we place at her side so she can spit out the cobble for us to use from there.  You could also do some pipe work and move the stones to your storage system, but I wasn't really ready for piping at this time yet.  After all, you need a lot more mats for building those things.  And luckily, the orange opening on the machine just happened to fall on the side where we could place a chest - so why make life more complicated than it has to be.  I already make it more complicated than it has to be so let's make things that can be simple - simple.

Looking Ahead .....Automation before Smeltery

So while we're waiting for the little machine to build up enough cobble for the platform extension and eventual mob tower, we work along side at the old cobble generator now a converted into a gravel generator.  We see that we need more boxes for storage, more extension on the platform, more stone for walls (wouldn't want to accidently fall off), an area for the smeltery maybe?  What else will we fit in here - kinda depends on all the quests I still haven't done yet.  

And all those automation we saw.  I mean, this automated cobble maker makes life so easy now, if I had all those other automated machines I saw maybe it will be even easier? Hmmmmm, maybe we could even automate this gravel making process.  After all, all I do is press down on the left button and catch the gravel that drops from the generator.  Maybe we could get a machine to kill the mobs too and collect the drops?  Maybe we could sift the gravel, sand and dust automatically too? Or even make the sand and dust automatic too? 

And so on and so forth I went, little realizing that I got lucky that the Igneous Extruder was my first machine automation.  After all, the thing comes with batteries included and little maintenance required............the headache that awaits............but the mob tower first. 

今日はちょっと

朝からお騒がせな母に色々と。ええ、色々と。ちょっと疲れ気味な自分です。でも、今日もガンバです。

と言う訳で今日やっと作っちゃいました。いや、前から造っていたのですが今日やっと造ったことに関して書くことが出来ました。材料が揃えば簡単です。自分思考が難しくしていくだけです。

良く働いてくれるお婿大苺です。あ、いえ、大一号です。水と溶岩をバケツに汲んでIE君に向かってクリックするだけであっという間に４バケツ満タンです。直ぐにも起動できますが横のオレンジ色の開け口にチェストをくっ付けると自動的に丸石を収納してくれます。便利です。自分でお片付けが出来る旦那さまです。素敵です。

又、パイプを使って色々溶岩、水の付け足しとか丸石、SmoothStone, Obsidian黒曜石をそれぞれの収納箱に運んだり出来るかもしれませんがそれをするには未だパイプ材料が・・・・・・それに唯で際事態をややこしくする自分がこの段階でその様な大逸れた事をしようモノなら・・・・自分を知ることも大事だと想うんですよね？ね？

という訳で一号くん設置です。その横で夫婦宜しくな感じで丸石製造機改めて砂利製造機でコツコツと鉱石を発掘しながらこれからの計画を妄想して逝きました。自動式にすれば人生楽に違いないとこの時、勘違いをしていました。

砂利、砂、粉の製造機も造れないかな？餅つきの要領で付く奴と置く奴がいればいいのかな？モブタワー珠に生き残りがいるから始末できるのもいた様な～？落し物片付けも疲れるので拾ってくれるメイドさんも欲しいし、庭の木の伐採をしたり畑に水遣り収穫をしてくれる庭師もいれば・・・と色々人生バラ色の妄想でした。実際は地獄に突き落とす悪魔の囁きだったに違いないと今では想うのです。

でもバラも地獄も後々、モブ・タワーが未だです。次回簡素阿呆でも出来たモブ・タワー。恐怖で数えなくても大丈夫。点と点を目指して後ろ向き前進です。

Progress would be so much faster

If I would learn to concentrate.  So much to automate.  So much to build  yet.  So many quests left.  Then again, if we could just figure out this piping thing with the redstone energy cells, thing would go so much faster.  But we're getting way ahead of ourselves.  After all, we've still yet to automate our cobble production here.  So back to the story as it were.

Our progress yesterday was impeded by the lack of ingots to build our cobblestone generator.  Now, if we had remembered that we could just smelt the blocks of ore in our furnace at the time we were doing this, we would not have had to started on gathering mats to build our smeltery.  But as this miracle did not happen, on to the building of our smeltery.

The Smeltery as its name suggests is a part of Tinkers Construct (TC) where we dump ore in and smelt them into melted metals with which we can cast tool and weapon pieces, make ore ingots and blocks.  It also works on stone and sand but doesn't do well with foods.  And so it is a cooking pot - fairly large - for molten metals that needs lava to cook.

The instructions for building a Smeltery can be found in one of the books give to us when we built our tool station for the TC quest eariler on.  You can also make one - the instructions for which is found in NEI.  Feel free to look it up if you lost the other one.  Basic materials for making the smeltery consist of bricks, bricks and more bricks.  But these are special bricks made from grout.  Grout? You can make bricks out of grout? o.o

Apparently, you can with TC.  All it takes is a bit of sand, gravel and clay ball and we can craft one.  Once we take this block of grout and we smelt it, we end up with a seared brick which when you combine four will turn into a block of seared bricks (plural for the block and different from the singular brick).  You will need several bricks and bricks to build the smeltery.  The Smeltery is fashioned like a big pit with a bottom 3 x 3 square and walls (built out on the 5th block and not on top of the 3 x 3) as high as  you  have bricks.  The four corners can be omitted but placing the casting table and bin there was convenient for later automation.  The only necessary pieces would be the controller, tank, drain, table, and bin.  All other seared blocks placed just have to close off the smeltery to form the pit. 

Two pieces of the smeltery that must be made and placed next to each other are the Smeltery Controller and Seared Tank.  The tank is the interface you need to fill with lava - which you can do by clicking on it with a lava bucket - be ready to pick up the lava if you happen to click with the wrong button.  A pool of water close by is always a handy thing to have (o.o) when you're playing with fire.  You can run some piping into it later on when you're ready too. The controller is the safe way you place the ore pieces you want to melt in the pit.  It also shows you what metals you have melted down in the pit itself.  You would click on the metal you want to pour out and it will be placed on the bottom of the pit ready to pour out from the smeltery drain attachments.  

Having two drains would help make the smeltery work best - one for the casting table and the other for the casting basin.  The casting bin is where you pour out 9 ingots worth of metal to form a block of the metal.  Or glass.  If you melted down your sand in the pit and poured out your liquid sand it would cool and form a clear glass which unlike vanilla glass has nothing to obstruct the view and when broken will drop and not be gone forever like vanilla glass - good if you have a habit of misplacing glass.  

The casting table is where you make your molds, tool and weapon pieces and your ingots.   To make your ingots you need to make a molding cast of an ingot. You do this by pouring aluminum brass over your ingot.

The Smeltery and the reason we want to upgrade - see the block of iron? o.o

  And here we finally realize we need an ingot to make an ingot cast.......... 

At least we didn't actually build the thing.  And goes off to cook up some ores in the furnace............tomorrow automation, maybe..........

 ふらふら～ヒラヒラ～

という進行具合。真っ直ぐ進めばスラスラ～よ。 実際の日記連載よりスラスラと進められているんですよ。唯実際に起きた出来事を記録していくととてもそうと思えないだけです。本当に何時になったらレッド・ストーン謎々コーナを開催できるのやら。昨夜要約レッド・ストーン・電池セルを発動できた感動をお披露目したいのに。

と言う訳で、サクサク工房造りに勤しみましょう。 この時点でインゴット＝竈で焼く方式が思え出せていたら造らなくても良かった工房。愚痴っても始まらないのでサクサクです。

先ずは工房に必要なモノ。Groutです。大抵はタイルの接着剤がTinkers Construct MODでレンガに変身です。造り方は砂少々、砂利追加、後は粘土玉を混ぜて出来あがり。これを更に焼くと焦げレンガSearedBrickに成り四個積めば焦げレンガ同盟Seared Bricksが出来上がります。工房はこのお焦げちゃんたちをグラスと組み合わせて箱式五右衛門風呂を造ること。実際に入ったらいい具合に焼け上がります。

風呂に必要な部品ですが調整室Controller、ボイラ竈Tank、排水溝ならん俳鉱溝Drain、と籠BasinとテーブルCasting Tableです。３ｘ３の焦げレンガちゃん’sSeared Bricksを地面に置いて一段上がったブロックで５ｘ5の壁を作っていきます。ControllerとTankは隣合わせで設置が必要ですが後の部品は大抵適当に置いて風呂の形になる様に焦げちゃんと焦げガラスで埋めていきます。排鉱溝Drainには受け止める台TableかBasinを置きましょう。Drainを二つ設けるとインゴットもブロックも簡単簡単。後一言メモとして四角い風呂ですが実際には角の要らない風呂だったりします。寧ろ角ブロックが無いほうが後々便利でした。ブロックが足りなくて造るのが面倒だった訳ではありません。ハイ。

で、このBasinですが鉱石ブロック作りとクリアー・グラスClearGlassを作るのが主な役割です。Clear Glassとは普通のガラスと違って何の亀裂も曇りも無い皇かなガラスのことです。このガラスは壊しても破壊されず再利用できる便利なガラスです。普通なガラスより損の無い代物です。

又、Casting　Tableを利用すれば道具の部品を作って様々に組み合わせた道具が作れるようになります。 部品を作る為の型も作れます。あとインゴットも作れます。インゴットを作るには台の上にインゴットを乗せてAluminum Brassをインゴットの上に・・・・・・・

で、此処でやっと気付いたのです。インゴット要るじゃんって。で考えて見たんです。どうやってインゴット造るんだ！！！で、結局 竈でインゴット造れる事に思い至り、工房は未だ暫く放置しようという方針に成りました。

さぁー！取り掛かるぞ！自動式初挑戦。

AND...WE'RE BUILDING IT!

No, not the mob tower.  I just finished off the old manual cobblestone/gravel generator.  What were you thinking!? If I were to build a mob tower with this set-up, I'd need a lot more time to gather the mats needed to build it because a mob tower takes a lot of mats to build, whether it be cobble, wood or even snow. NO, no.  I am in no way ready to build a mob tower - even my type of simple, mostly idiot-proof mob tower.  Especially my idiot-proof mob tower because I waste a lot of mats unnecessarily.  However, it's really, really helpful if you have an aversion to heights to build it this way because having to be up high and counting out blocks at the same time can often be an extremely trying ordeal. 

So, first off, I needed some help in gathering more building mat, cobblestone and/or wood, efficiently and as effortlessly as possible.  Efficiently meant that this little helper was going to be easy to build without requiring a lot of resource to keep the production of new material up.  After all, I just started the skyblock and I don't have a lot of work with right now.  Effortlessly meant I needed something that could generate the mats by itself because my attention was currently going to be occupied by the gathering of other materials that this little helper was not going to be making.

And with this in mind, I visited the FTB wiki (here) and searched for Agrarian Skies.  Which resulted in a list of mods used in Agrarian Skies that I could look up.  Why not just look it up in game using NEI, you're thinking?    It's because I was unfamiliar with most of the mods in this pack and it was easiest when I actually had the mod list open in one window to look at and the game running at the same time.  Then I could open my inventory, type in @mod.modname to get a list of items that were available in that mod and look up the things that interested me.

Going down the mod list, I find several mods with machines which might be useful in making life easier up here in the skies.  And I'm all for easy.  But there was one in particular that I really wanted to know how to build - and I already knew what I wanted.  I wanted a machine that made me cobblestones all by its lovely self so I could concentrate on getting gravel from my old generator.  And I know it's in one of these packs.  I just couldn't for the life of me remember what it was called or what mod it was from. ( >.<).  Hence the search.

Applied Energistics, I'm not trying to be a rocket scientist here.  Bibliocraft, no, not into home decorating yet - though those shelves do look nice.  Big Reactors and Blood Magic, spooky stuff can come back around Halloween - I might be ready for you then.  Chickens and Codes.......sigh.  Exs I'm already over you.  Extra Utilities!!!!!! But you don't have it either.  I am coming back to you though <3 And so on and so forth, I went until I hit THERMAL EXPANSION 3.  Wouldn't you know it?  I should have started at the other end.  But the effort was not wasted as I did find some other interesting items that might be useful in making life easier and best to put in some effort early on so you can cruise later on, as I like to say.

Anywayz, in Thermal Expansion (TE) I found the miracle machine I wanted.  Well, I found a lot of other stuff as well along the way but really at this point for faster progression (or as fast as I can go) I really, really wanted the IGNEOUS EXTRUDER.(Why do they have to have these fancy names for these machines?  Makes it so hard to remember what it's called q.q)  Not only does it make infinite cobblestone on just 4 buckets of water and 4 buckets of lava, it can make smooth stone and obsidian - these two will consume the water and lava though so remember to refill the tanks if you haven't put in your piping yet.  

Self Contained Units - all machines should be like this

So what does one need to build an Igneous Extruder in Agrarian Skies?  To make an Ingenouse Extruder (practice makes perfect, repetition makes you remember), you need this. >>>

1 piston, check.  2 glass, check.

2 tin, check.  A machine frame, not yet. A pnuematic servo, what's that?

So, lets look up a machine frame and a pnuematic servo.  Needs 2 iron, 2 glass, 1 redstone for one and 4 glass, 4 iron and 1 gold for the other.
In total making one of these would require:

          3 wood planks

          4 cobblestones

          1+1 redstone

          1+2+4iron ingot

          2+2+4 glass

          2 tin ingots

          1 gold ingot

And then looking at the ingredients, you finally realize.  You can't make the automatic cobble generator yet.  You don't have any ingots.  You only have broken, crushed and pulverized ores.........sigh.  What, you didn't really think we were going to be able to make the generator today, did you?  You know better than that......first, we'll go make our smeltery (well, you could melt the ores in your furnace and proceed but that would be so normal and simple - not something that would occur to us until we finish doing everything the harder way first.  It's not like we forgot we could smelt ore blocks in a furnace too......)

P.S.: I hope everyone had a Happy Mother's Day! 

良い母の日を

お過ごしになられたでしょうか？自分は珍しく母と良い一日を過ごせました。ほぼ寝て過ごしてくれました。徘徊無しで。ささやかながらのお祝いも喜んで戴けましたので良い一日でした。

で、本題に戻りまして。

モブタワーです！駄目です！ハイ。

毎回ながら未だ駄目でした。先ず木材、石材、雪材、成りタワーを造るモノが未だに揃っていません。丸石製造機は出来ましたがこれだと先が長いのです。唯で際長い自分の道程が更に長く成るのです。延々と石集めに来る日も来る日も石石井氏です。其処で今回MODを導入してのプレイしているので折角だからお役立ち機材を探そうと思い立ちました。石集めって面倒だしな～

注意するのは右側です

そこでNEI(Not Enough Items)MODを使う為、先ずはインベントリを開けゴマです。で、右側に見える数々のアイテムを一々調べ・・・・たくないですよね？ページ数だけで116です。アイテム数じゃなくページ数です。なので、先ずFTBのウィキィを調べる事から始めました。 こちらです。 　因みにウィキィで役に立ちそうなMODを調べて、NEIに＠mod.modname　（modnameにはMODの名前を打ち込みます。）と打ち込めばそのMODで使用出来るアイテムだけが見れます。それを更にウィキィで調べていくお勉強会でした。

で、MOD数も半端ないです。先頭からザッと目を通してあれでもない、これでもない。アッッでもこれは欲しい、それも欲しい。と迷いながらやっと探し当てた例のモノ。幻の機材。楽々スカイブロックに先ず必要なお助け君、又の名はIgneous Extruderでした。Thermal Expansion MODからです。で、何ですかこのIngeous Extruder略してIEくん？IEくん又の名は自動丸石製造機です。ハイ。

自動なのです。 作って設置したら最後。何もしなくても丸石を次から次からと製造してくれるんです。楽々第一夫人です。最高なパートナーです。一緒放したくない相棒です。水と溶岩を一度与えれば際限無く丸石を作ってはチェストに収めてくれます。又、水と溶岩を消費しても構わない場合Smooth　StoneもObsidianも造ってくれます。ダイヤピック必要無しにです。ダイヤ持ち腐れに慣れます。

で、ですね？このお助け君を作るにはですね色々と必要になるんですよ。ピストン一式。ガラス2個。Tinインゴット2個。Machine Frame マシン・フレームとpnuematic servo ニュマチック・サルボーとかも。 最後の2個はThermal Expansionで良く使われる機械部品だったりしますので余分に作ってもいいモノだったりします。で、Machine Frameに必要なのは鉄4個、金1個とガラス4個とpnuematic servoに必要なのは鉄2個、ガラス2個とレッド・ストン1個だったりします。

全て合わせると以下に
          3 板

          4 丸石

          1+1　レッド・ストン

          1+2+4　鉄インゴット

          2+2+4　ガラス

          2 tin インゴット

          1 金 インゴット

インゴット・・・・多いですね？初期段階でかなり多いですね？手持ちに無いですよね。タワー駄目ですよね？インゴット大量生産必要ですよね？これからの時代矢張り工房ですよね？タワー遠ざかりますよね？ね？ネ！？念！！

と言う訳で次回工房設置に取り掛かる・・・かもです。

イエイエ、けして鉱石をブロックに固めて竈で焼けばインゴットが作れることを忘れていた訳ではないですよ。ハイ。

With plans in hand....

We really want a mob tower at this point.  We really do.  More than anything.  Because with a mob tower, we would no longer have to do yard work.  I mean, who likes doing yard work, any way?  Unless you're a yardman, of course.  

Chopping down trees.  It is not one of the most favorite things I can do in minecraft because you have to climb up the tree to chop off the occasional errant wood block that is holding up the leaf decaying procedure.  (And it's high up there and it's a rather long way from the ground, but that really has nothing to do with it.)  And you want the leaves all decayed, the sapling dropped and ready for replanting like yesterday.  Now if all trees were to grow a uniform height this would be no problem.  

One solution would be to to limit the growth of trees by placing a block above the tree to stunt its growth.  The other solution would be to chose a different type of wood to grow than oak.  Birch and Spruce trees would not have these errant branching problem that oak trees have.  

But the problem to those solution is..........I like oak tree because they grow so big, bushy and drop apples.  (I know I said I don't like it because it does that but I like it because it does too)  Now if I had someone else to do the dirty work for me, I can tell you, I'd have no problem with it.  But since I do have to do my own dirty work at this point, this overgrowing confused, apple tree is a problem. 

So, my solution?  Is to think on why do I need this abundance of apples, wood and saplings.  You should, after all, have a clear grasp on your problem if you're going to find a solution.  My answer - I need the oak tree's apples because right now it is one of my major food sources.  I need the wood for building mat and fuel for cooking.  I need the saplings because I need to make more dirt.  

Now, do I know what I need?  Yes.  Food, building mats, fuel and composting material.  How do I go about solving this then?  First things first, we need to eat to survive so we take care of the immediate problem first.

Well, we know if we are going to have a consistent source of better and more plentiful food, we are going to need a farm.  For a farm, we need dirt, water and something to plant so we can grow.  We know how to make dirt and since we built the cobble/grave generator we no longer need to sift the dirt for rocks.  This means that any dirt we make from this point on can be strictly devoted to the preservation of life - mainly ours.

before the dirt

And with this in mind, we build a temporary fast food farm area off to the side of the tree farm.  Now, having done this before in my dreams, I already know that when i build this I want to be careful not to block off the river flowing down into the void - so we can continue fishing.  Laying down the wooden slabs and fencing it in so we probably won't fly off the edge, we then lay down all the dirt we made and gathered since the generator was built.  But not all of it because this is suppose to be only a temporary food farm - until we finish our farmsville elsewhere.  

Farming is still a manual procedure at this point so we go and make a vanilla hoe (thank you JadedCat for letting us do that - even if you won't let us make a vanilla axe or sword q.q). 

the finished produce patch

A water source makes things grow faster so along one side between the dirt and rail, we place a source block of water (yes, I know there is a sprinkler...........now) with some slabs to hold it in place.  And of course, the seeds we got from sifting dirt now become useful.  I picked the potato, carrot and grass seeds.  The potato once cooked fills one hunger bar and the carrot eaten raw will replenish some of the hunger bar but was ultimately better when used with the Juicer from Pam's mod as it lets you ultra-satisfy your hunger the more you drink it the longer you stay full.  But maybe we'll cover the details on that a little later when and if we ever get around to setting up a kitchen......

Hi there! Not ready to take in any residence yet but since you stopped by .......

But from the three seeds I chose, you might wonder why on earth I chose the grass seed?
  Well, knowing that Pam's food mod (HarvestCraft) with it's multitude of seeds is included in this pack, I thought it best to be planning ahead - so this patch of fast food can serve me in more than one way now.  Temp food now and future food prep.  And apparently parts of this patch of land also seems to be far enough away from spawn that it will also more often then not spawn the occasional visitor.  Additional food....I mean, visitors are always a welcome sight.  Aren't you glad you had the foresight to plant that grass down so it would spawn those visitors.  Not like you were surprised when you first saw those wolves, cows, sheeps, chickens or pigs and suddenly remembered that grass does spawn animals..........no, not like you forgot those things at all! o.o

一分劇所

『ゴッホン、え～始めまして。オビエル野望です。』

『今日は町方リセイです。本日より一分説明を任される様になりました。宜しくお願いします。』

『さぁ～挨拶も済んだことだし。ヤロウゼェ～！今日からやっとモブタワー建設開始だぜ！』

『その前に食料確保ですね。』

『えぇ！？厭々、丸石製造機を造ったんだし。もうソロソロモブタワーに取り掛かっても・・・・・』

『ボソ・・・・そうね？石を積んでソロソロ上って、休憩場を作って、モブ沸き場も作って、水設置して、トラップドア設置して、屋根遣りつけて、松明消していって命からがら逃げて。全然体力所望しない事ばかりですものね？食べる心配ないですよね？ネ？・・・』

『・・・・・と言う訳で本日より畑作りをしたいと想います。ハイ。・・・・・・　ガクブル』

いえ、本当に先ず一番に第九目標達成に向かってLet's GO!ですね。（九番目が食料確保だったんです。）

本来やっと丸石も順調に手に入るようになったので一刻も速くモブタワーを建設したいんです。だって、木の伐採ってめんどいじゃないですか。ボソっと。

高い処に登って生えた枝の処理や、葉っぱが枯れて苗木が落ちるのを待ったりとか、下を見てグラグラしたりとか。めんどいんです。決して高い処が苦手だからではないんです。ハイ。

お負けに、モブタワーを建てると骨、矢、弓、防具、糸、蜘蛛の目、火薬とゾン肉が手に入るんですよね。材料が一気に増えるんです。その中でも骨で骨分と道具、ゾン肉で土が効率良く手に入るようになるんです。ゾン肉を桶に入れると葉っぱと変わらない程簡単に土が作れるしお負けに登ったり、走り回ったりしないで大人しく立っているだけで、ボウってしているだけで増えてくれる楽々土増え素材です。自分の為にある様な素材です。でも、ですね。先ず食料を充実させてからにします。しないとタワー上り下がりの繰り返しですからね？キッと怖いですよね？ボゾボゾ。

兎に角畑目的で土地を整えました。鍬は普通に作れるので土と水を供えれば簡単に畑が出来ます。畑自体も小さいモノで水1ブロックで良い様に畑の外側に。木の園のすぐ横で川の流れを止めない様に立てて行きました。 植えるのはじゃが芋、人参、草の三種です。じゃが芋は一個に付き肉バーが一つ満たされますので簡単に満腹感を上げるのに食べます。人参はジュースに料理すれば満腹でも過剰気味に食べて満腹感を長い間保存できます。コンビプレイで二石二鳥。

後、草ですが。ASにはHarvestCraftというパムさんのMODが導入されています。此方は食べ物を膨大に増やしてくれるMODです。神MODです。この為にMOD遊びたいと思わせてくれたMODです。でも、初めて遊ぶMODです。他のMODから遊びました。曲がった道しか歩かない自分です。

話し戻して。HarvestCraftですが草ブロックに骨分を振るって草刈を行えば無数の種が飛び出てきます。桃、ミカン、葡萄、茄子、バナナ、筍、苺等様々な植物が、種が取れたりします。自分的にはこれ等を集めて何れ農園城を造りたいと想っているので今の内から畑及び種場を作ることにしました。＜一石二鳥の法則です。

未だ名前貰えないの？

で、ですね？想わんお客様もお見えに成りました。その他にも牛、羊、豚や鶏も頻繁にお見えに成っています。草場ってそう言えば動物発祥の地でした。忘れていた訳ではないです。ハイ。

 

A Brief Interlude and looking ahead

We've done it! The most major accomplishment of this skyblock or of any skyblock! Our very first cobblestone generator.  No skyblock would be complete without one.  This is where it all began (q.q)  At least, though, this skyblock is fairly nice.  You can kill your sourceblock by accident and still not worry about having to start all over again < happens more frequently than you might think, I bet.

Enjoying the sunrise in the newly constructed barrel room

At any rate, it's a major accomplishment.  So, we deserve a little break.  A pat yourself on the back, sort of moment.  Now, we have some time to thank all the little things that were supporting us while we were working to get the generator built but never had a moment where we could let a little light shine on these things that made it happen.  You know, that long, boring speech where they thank all the little plebeians that let them be great sort of thing.  Before moving on to other bigger construction projects.

One of the things that constantly plagues us in the earlier moments of this particular map is the possibility of death by starvation.  It's instant death.  No mercy.  It's a serious threat as food is extremely limited by how lucky you get in having an apple or a piece of protein drop from your tree.  Unfortunately, since apples by themselves don't really resort all that much health and can't be considered a steady supply, another form of food source was always welcomed.  Besides the drops you get from the trees, the other source of food that you might have been able to acquire was fish.  Yes, you could have gone fishing, plain vanilla fishing to supplement your limited food resources.  

One way you could have fished was the heads-up and toss method.  You would be required to stand in the pool of water at the top of the stream, looked up and cast your line up into the sky.  If you were lucky the line would land in the pond of water you were standing in and bob gently so you would know it successfully casted.  A perfectly fine method of fishing if you don't have a tendency to fall into holes (there's a hole where the water flows down into the stream).  Some of us do, you know?  (Some of us still can't complete the first stage of Mario because we keep falling into that last hole before stage one can be completed - it's a blackhole that moves - you can stand on the edge and not move and the thing will still suck you in o.o).

For those of us who do have a tendency to fall into holes, we could do line

See? Can't tell the changes to the landscape.

casting instead.  The stream run uninterrupted and in a straight line after the first corner.  The only problem was that the terrain under the water is a bit uneven so if you were to cast your line without 'fixing' the underwater blocks, the line would get caught in the block and you would be unable to fish successfully.  Now, I am normally against removing blocks from a map that someone went through some difficulty to make - and on such a beautifully made map as this, it would be such a shame to desecrate.  

But ..........it is underwater, after all.  It's not like you're going to see it all the time sticking out like a sore thumb.  The actual flow of the water itself is uninterrupted.........and besides we do need the food.......well, you can guess what happened to a few of the underwater blocks, I guess?  <you could even recover the underwater blocks if you weren't so clutzy with water and water scaffolding.  Could never place a block from water scaffolding without dying a few times for every block.

Anywayz, once we got the fish, we needed to cook it to eat - so it might restore us a little more health than it might otherwise.  Cooked food or food that require more effort to make restore more health or have other benefits on this skyblock.  So with that in mind, we have the choice of the frying pan or a drying rack.  Both are from Tinkers Construct. 

The frying pan (see the picture above) is one of the rewards you can chose from questing.  Most people will chose it as a bonking weapon.  I am not most people.  Once placed (shift click on where you want to place it), you can put a fuel source in the left box and up to 4 uncooked food stacks in one of the eight boxes on the right.  The pan will then cook all four types of food on that single fuel source at the same time.  So if you have 1 coal and 1 mutton, 1 pork, 1 fish and 1 meat, you'll end up with 1 cooked mutton, pork, fish and steak on that single piece of coal.  Thus even if you have four different types of food to cook, you don't have to keep switching it out like a furnace.  And if you don't have a furnace yet, this thing can cook the food for you without it. 

The other 'cooking' implement, which I remembered because I was getting all those wonderful rewards from the greater reward bags, is the drying rack. 

Edible artwork

Made from 3 wooden slab, you can hang things from it so it lets you decorate your house at the same time as drying your food for consumption.  Things like fish jerky, beef jerky, pork jerky and my most recent reward - monster jerky.......wondering if it's edible......might try it just to see what it does.

And in addition to addressing our initial food shortage, we have additional mini construction projects that we worked on and finished so we could make life a little easier in the early days of our skyblock.  Note that plan 8 and 9 is missing from this To-Do list.  Also plan 1 & 6 have been changed from the original list.

So what was Plan 1, 6, 8 and 9 originally?  Why, it was to automate the cobblestone generator, get a mob tower, get better renewable food, and get the smeltery started.

終わりました。

スカイブロック終了です。何って訳ないです。やっと始まったのです。でも、本格的に起動する前に休憩をばと思い立ちました。この場を借りて色々と連載できなかった小さな出来事をちょっと載せていこうかと。

先ず食事事情です。切羽詰まる時も在りました。林檎とかを待っていられるか！という思いもしました。それで他に食料が無いかと見回りますと目に入りました。川です。池です。魚です。ハイ。

そうです。釣りという手がありました。イソイソと竿を造り釣りに勤しみました。池、小さいです。川、浅いです。普通に釣れませんでした。orzな瞬間ですね。では小技を使いましょう。池でのコツですが頭上投げと言う釣り方が在ります。普通に投げると水ではなく地面に刺さる釣り糸が頭上に向かって投げると旨く逝けば水に堕ちて釣ることができます。又、川での釣り方ですが水面下の地形が邪魔になっているのでこれを数個退かせれば問題なく釣ることが出来ます。水面下の地形を弄るので然程気にする様な変化を島に及ぼすこともありませんので島を壊したことにも成らないかと想うことにしました。

次に魚ですが生で食べるわけにも行きません。というかASでは『料理』された食物の方が健康管理により良い影響を自体に及ぼすそうです。ので生で食べるより何か手を加えた方が栄養価値が上がります。それなのに未だ竈も無かった時期では如何すればと思い役に立つ道具紹介です。その名前もFrying PanとDrying Rackです。

このFrying Panですがクエストのご褒美として貰えます。大抵の方は斧の方を選ばれると想いますが自分は敢えて料理道具を選びます。この鍋ですが便利なことに四種類の材料を同時に焼くことが出来ます。お負けに燃料は一種類焼く時と同じ量です。つまり肉が64個じゃが芋64個鶏が64個と魚が64個在っても肉64個を焼くだけの燃料で他の三種類も同時に焼ける経済的お鍋です。有難い一石2兆です。

でも燃料も惜しいと想う方の為に(自分は想いました）Drying Rack（要するに干し竿の様なもの）と言う便利道具もあります。これを家の壁にでも設置してクリックするとモノをぶら下げる様になれます。 大抵のモノをぶら下げるので家の模様替えにも便利です。シュールです。唯食べ物を干した場合燻製品が出来上がります。肉、鶏、羊、豚、魚、果てには怪物燻製も・・・・。と言う具合に家を華やかに飾って美味しく料理してくれる料理具です。一石二鳥です。

さて、家を飾ったり、食事確報に走りながら桶の置け場も作ったり、丸石製造機を造りながら他にも色々と遣っていたわけです。でもって目標的モノも在ったりしました。それが上記した写真の看板設置場で掲げられていました。この写真の段階では既に第一と第六は変更、撤去された第八と第九目標ってのも在りました。次回からこの変更在るいは撤去された目標に触れて逝こうかと想います。モブタワー、即席畑、工房と自動丸石製造機です。

AND WE'RE FINALLY MOVING IT TODAY!!!

Yes, that lava, the essential missing piece of the cobble generator is finally being moved today!  (Well, I am kinda wanting to move it along now and write about some other stuff, for god's sake). How, you say? Why, why with a bucket, of course!

Now, if you did some of your quests up to now (unlike some of us - it's a good thing to have the foresight to follow the carefully planned instructional steps that were laid out for us by the kind creator JadedCat ), the one that required you to make a crucible also mentioned something about a clay bucket made with 3 pieces of clay.  At least I think it did.........it's my mom's Alzheimer's thing, it's really catchy.  And I maintain that story.

Anyhowz, we know that we have the option of a clay bucket at this point.  We also know of the option of an iron bucket from vanilla minecraft.  And we know that we can get some iron ingots by joining 4 pieces of the same type of iron ore into a block and baking it in a furnace to get an iron ingot. 

The clay bucket option.  The only problem with this option is that it's a one-time use only item.  Once you move that lava to the generator and plop the lava down, it's gone for good.  What happens if you miss and plop it down in the wrong spot - like the wrong end of the generator or you miss and the lava flows wildly.......things like that do happen, right?  You gotta think ahead of yourself.  (Of course, you could always make yourself another clay bucket............if you didn't look ahead of yourself too much and make way too many porcelain clays for all the crucibles you were gonna make later......and if you had more water in those barrels because the only way to fill it at the moment is with rainwater - and it doesn't rain much if you're sleeping all the time at night). 

The iron bucket option.  The only problem with this is - I still need enough ores for one more piece of iron ingot.  I have enough for two at the moment.  So, it would take some time - making dirt, sifting dirt, making stone, pounding stone, sifting gravel and so on and so forth until you come up with the iron pieces for the final ingot.  And then you'd need 8 pieces of cobble to make the furnace (yes, I know you can make the slab furnace...........now), so more dirt to make, more dirt to sift.

And the biggest problem with the iron bucket option is - I WANT A PAIR OF SHEERS!  Just your regular, old fashion, plain, old vanilla sheers (you can make them out of other metals but I don't have a smeltery at this point to make the required elements).  That you need TWO iron ingots to make.  And I have two iron ingots - or rather, enough ores to make a pair of sheers (do you count sheers as a pair?  random thought of the moment).  Why a pair of sheers, you ask?  Why to make more dirt, of course.  Because with sheers you can not only sheer a sheep, you can sheer a tree too.  Strip them neked, so to speak. o.o  And those leaves can be used in barrels to make dirt- later when you make your fishing sieve you can also use the leaves to get fish bait, cute little critters.  The process of dirt making would be enormously faster than using a crook to get a sapling to fall.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.  A lot of options (two is more than I want sometimes) does not a happy person make.  And after spending some moments pondering on this problem, I decide.............

To go make a pair of sheers.  To make more dirt.  To wait for rain.  To make more stone.  To make more iron.  To make more sand.  To make more dust.  And let nature decide for me. Mwahahahaha. 

Because with no water in my barrels, no clay to make a bucket, no iron to make a bucket, no stone to make a furnace, I decided to do all of it and let nature decide which bucket I was going to end up with.  If it rained and I had enough water in the buckets, I'd go make a clay bucket.  If it didn't rain and I kept making dirt, I could sift it for stone to make cobble to pound into gravel that I could sift for iron pieces to make an iron bucket.  It was a race to see what came first.  The iron or the rain.  Guess which happened first? (O.O)

And I got to turn in my quest.  And complete my first cobble generator. 

(Yes, it rained first)

サクサクと進みましょう

溶岩です。お引越しです。問題です。ハイ。

サクサクと問題に取り掛かりましょう。いい加減前に進みたいです。他のお話も色々したいです。

と言う訳でバケツです。液体運びの基本道具、バケツです。 其処で質問です。どのバケツにしますか？鉄のバケツにしますか？それとも粘土のバケツにしますか？で又もや迷いました。二択選択でも多いと感じる瞬間です。ハイ。

え？と想うかもしれません。粘土バケツ？ハイ。MOD様々です。どのMODか今はド忘れしてみたりです。母の認知症を貰い受けている瞬間です。よく起こるようになりました。ハイ。

兎に角、粘土バケツです。名前の通りに粘土で作ります。粘土余ってますか？良かったですね。自分は余りませんでした。余りにも先走り過ぎて、先見をし過ぎて、溶岩大量生産の夢の為に大量投資して皆磁器に変換してしまいました。過ぎ去るは後悔、金を水の如きに使うようなことをしたら駄目なような、少しの貯金を残しましょうの教訓です。塵も積もれば山となる人間コツコツが大事です。造り方はクエストの一部としてお勉強できます。クエストを考えてくれた作者親切です。感謝の念を抱きましょう。クエストコツコツとこなしましょう。

続いて、鉄バケツです。鉄インゴットが必要です。既に二個程作れる材料は揃っています。砂利を振るって鉄屑Iron Oreを四個合わせれば鉄屑ブロックに、砂でもDustでも似たような鉄物を四個合わせる鉄何ブロックの出来上がりです。でも、未だ一個足りません。大事なのでもう一度。足りません。そしてその足りない鉄分を集める為に土を造り、石を作り、石を砕いて砂利を造り、砂利を振るって鉄分が出る迄繰り返し作業三昧です。

でも鉄バケツの一番の問題はこの面倒な繰り返し作業じゃないのです。では何かと言うと。自分鉄バサミSheersが欲しいんです！如何しても欲しいんです！ 羊もいないのに欲しいんです。だって鉄バサミって羊を丸刈りするだけでなく木の葉っぱも丸刈りに出来たりもしますからです。ハイ。

在れば土作りも格段と速度が上がります。木の葉っぱ量半端無いです。凄く便利なものです。後に造る魚網ザルも葉っぱを振るってカワキモな餌が取れます。魚釣り放題です。釣り面白いです。便利です。一石二鳥です。人間進化する生き物です。ハイ。

で、ですね？これ等のことを悶々と悩んだ挙句如何したかというと・・・・

鉄バサミを作って、土を作って、雨を待って、石を作って、鉄を作って、砂を造って、 Dustを造って、成り行きに任せることにしました。ワハハハハハハ～

だって、ですね？桶には水は無いし、夜は寝ていたので雨は降らないし、粘土バケツを作るための粘土は残っていないし、鉄バケツを作る為の鉄インゴットは足りないし、竈作る為の石も足りないし、のナイナイ尽くしに無い物はしょうがないと諦めて、備え在れば憂い無しの如く雨が降れば粘土を作れるような準備を調え、雨が降らなければ鉄を揃えて鉄バケツを作る準備を。と準備万端に状況を整えて出たとこ勝負です。で雨は降ったかて？お聞きに成ります？

クエスト無事終了しました。初代丸石製造機無事 完成です。ハイ。

因みに雨が勝ちました。