So what did YOU do today?

Today I checked the area around the moon pool exit for clay. Found enough deposits that, combined with yesterday's meager hall, I was able to make a complete stack of brick blocks. I also did a small amount of digging out for the atrium apartments. But mostly I helped Trainman in his project to extend the main mining tunnel and extend the tracks to a new branch-mining start point. In the process we broke into a huge yet fun ravine and together we lit it up and mined it out. He died 3 times, I managed to not die even once, a pleasant switch from my usual habits when spelunking with others. Came out with a crapload of iron and coal, some lapis and redstone, and a little gold. Then we went back to extending the tunnel, even moving it up to level 12 as some had been loudly demanding.


Whose ides were those stone-pressure-plate-based cart launchers on the rail line out along the left side of the cross-trunk of the branch mine? And what is the point of that particular design?

I dug out more of the mines tunnel and went spelunking/mining with Spectrumwars.

Spectrumwars the stone launcher plates were my idea. I figured it would make moving stuff easier and what not.

Spent the night setting up the upper level mine since other dwarves seem to be so keen on mining above lvl 12 just so they can avoid having to deal with lava like real dwarves

Please remember that when we started we agreed on the three tier approach the levels that diamonds can be found start are lvl's 2-18 now since we are going for max ore instead of the original 3x2 branch tunnels with 2 block spaces i have switched over to a 3x1 with 3 block spaces.

The idea being that the branches can eventually be widen to 3x2 at a later time

So if you don't like mining and having to deal with lava please just go up the stairs at the entrance of the mine

and work up there I was intending to shift the currently open trunk up there once i finished extending the current left hand side of the lava level trunk 2

The instructions for working the upper lvl mine are simple please work only on the right hand side of the mine.
this way everyone know where to go and we are all on the same page. I have fenced off the close sections of the upper mine level

There is a 3x3 stop tunnel (future trunk) at Z1705 and a smaller 1x2 stop tunnel at z1499

Most of the tunnels on the left hand side of the trunk (when looking down the trunk) do not go as far as the stop tunnel Feel free to even them all out.

There is steps leading down to the main line just off the 3x3 stop tunnel.

if by some magic you do mange to find lava use gravel don't use water.

Digging through obsidian is a pain.

use cobble if place tunnel walls if you dig through a ravine.

I dug 4 or 5 branches and got a decent haul of 1 1/2 stacks of iron, a stack of coal, a bunch of lapis, 4 stacks of redstone, and 8 diamonds. I broke the efficiency 4 pick though

at least it got good use

attempted to find a stronghold, and whilst going through the caves, got blown up, with great plunders in hand... Depressed with the loss of 14 eye of ender, as well as all the other valuables, I have resorted to sitting in the double grinder

Why didn't you just go on the surface until you found the stronghold? You wouldn't get anywhere near one going through caves. xD

i did go over the surface... then the eye of ender went down... do I dug down (beneath the ocean)... Then never managed to find the stronghold

so*

and honestly, I'm probably not the one to go searching, but since i was the only one online, i took the opportunity

But you at least marked the coordinates?

Nope, cause i couldn't actually find the stronghold itself

Well I was on for a bit today, doing some mining, looking at what everyone else has done, and working on the store room a bit, and the whole time I didn't see a single person on, I don't know if people have real work to do, or are just bored of the server, and I don't care, but the point is, if we don't get more participation, I fear this attempt at the dwarven city is going to fail like the previous attempt(s?), which would be a real shame seeing as we've got so far. I assume at least some other people share my worries?

When I was on over the weekend I was mainly on with req... My playing has dropped off significantly with uni... And I can't post big right now either... So I'll reply properly later

I've found the same thing you can play for quite a long time and have no one show up then at other times there can be 4 or 5 people on at the same time.

Well after a few too many horrible accidents involving lava over the course of the last week (We really need to have a big clock with number of days accident free

I've decided that unless people really enjoy filling underground lava lakes with gravel im going to declare the lava level mines closed.

I am also very sorry to say that I lost a fortune pick in the last accident so it looks like i will be in the grinder for a while to see if i can replace it.

in the next few days i will re do the mine entrance to people can get out at the upper level which should be mostly lava free

Well, I got bored sitting in the double grinder and cut my grinding session short, blowing the 41 levels I'd accumulated on a Power IV bow for myself. Probably shoulda held out for 50 levels and a new diamond pick, but I hadn't heard of Req's accident yet. Ah well. Went and did some more digging in the darkroom item grinder. Finally got that corner finished where I had THOUGHT I'd filled in enough of the lake above. Ooops. Anyways, the rest of the digging will be under the mountain, so no more worries about the ceiling collapsing on you, hopefully.

I took a look at the start of that a while ago, and it is MASSIVE!!!

fixed the lag door in the store room you have about 6 sec to get through before it closes on you now.

I also widened it to 3 across.

if you want to decorate it differently, theres redstone running in the blocks above the door so be careful.

What did I do today? Fail.

First, I fell down my stairs in real life and got racked up but good. Multiple abrasions and the wind knocked out of me. Was carrying my laptop at the time, but it escaped without serious injury. That would have to pass for "the good news".

Played a bit on my other server, but that got connection difficulties, so I logged into Dwarf City. I decided to go work some more on the darkroom spawner, and got kitted out for the task. Heard a bunch of slimes in the throne room, went to kill them first. That went fine, but I kept hearing one very loud slime that I couldn't find. He sounded like he was in the crawlspace cavern above the throne room entranceway, so I went in there looking for him. I promptly got a bit lost in the immense and confusing cave system up there. I found and killed a bunch of other slimes, but not the one I was looking for. So I kept exploring until I came across a mostly-lit-up ravine that still had a couple of dark side passages and two big waterfalls still flowing. I lit up things a bit better and tried to swim up one of the waterfalls to stop it at its source far above.

A skeleton shot me and the knockback dropped me down into the plunge pool at the bottom, which was a heck of a lot deeper than it had looked at first. Naturally there was another skeleton trapped down there that started shooting me. I killed that with no problems, but the first skeleton was still shooting me from above and I couldn't see him to shoot back, due to the water. He eventually fell in and I could kill him with my sword, but I was still trying to find a way to swim up and out of there when a third skeleton began shooting me from above, and this one finished me off before I could escape or anything.

Respawning in the warehouse, I quickly grabbed an item retrieval kit and headed out...and soon realized that I'd forgotten to bring torches, blocks, or tools, just armor, weapons, and food. So I had to turn back and get a more complete kit of gear, since I'd be likely to get lost trying to retrace my steps in the twisty and unfamiliar caverns.

Now better equipped, I headed back into the caves...and after a few wrong turns, I eventually did find the spot where I'd died...to find I was too late. My stuff had despawned.

A fortune III diamond pick. My Sharpness IV diamond sword. My Power IV bow. A full suit of iron armor. All gone. I was too depressed to make a new set of gear or go work on the darkroom, so I ragequit and came here to vent about it.

What a sucky day.

EDIT TO ADD: Well, I did come back to make myself a partial new kit and do a round of digging on the spawner after all. Getting close to finishing the first chamber, except for the control room with wiring to turn off the lights.

Started sitting in the grinder while doing assessment...

I then started to do some more work on the store room. I created a new bed with a quick drop, and a quickgrab chest, with the mob loot dropping down into the area (for when it happens). Sleep in the new bed... I will remove the old one later.

More subtle decorating has ben done, sorting is partly done, and a few signs are up around the place.

I had a fun idea to make the Quick grab chest faster.

What if we make a room of dispensers and a button, All the dispensers fire once at the center of the room.

Each dispenser is full of 1 type of item

helms
armor
legs
boots
sword
bow
pick
minecart
food (we make a mellon dispenser above the room.)
blocks (maybe 5-10 dispensers fire at once)

Arrows (fires into a wall ?)

The idea is with one press you are armored and ready to fight, i like this idea for an armory too.

The problem with a dispenser-based emergency equipment room is you have to very carefully set the order in which dispensers fire so as to put stuff in the right slots...and we probably don't all have the same preferred slots. If you have to stop and re-order stuff in your inventory, you don't really save much time. And you have to stop to put armor ON anyways.

True but most of the time you have a mine cart ride back to your body.

I played with the idea on creative and i got something cool, a 4 by 4 room lined on both sides with dispensers and as the floor.

I have 4 dispensers in the floor pointed at each other firing arrows in bursts of 3-5 giving you 12-20 arrows. this was the only good and safe way I came up with for getting them.

then the next level i have 4 2 each side firing blocks also on the burst 3-5 giving 12-20 cobble.

Then all the dispensers above that fire once per press. for your armor weapons etc.


I like the firing order idea i'll see what i can come up with. i wish armor auto equipped.

Maybe i can make it work with a mine cart. short trip on a cart to re-arm?

I got on for the first time in almost a week today. I spent the first half hour trying to figure out what to do. I ended up XP grinding for another half hour. Afterwards I decided to finish the floor of the portal room hallway.

With the help of others we turned the floor into a mini nether with lava and fire. During the building I lost the XP I had grinded in a vicious Enderman Attack. I also replaced the jack O' lanterns in the hallway which was a much needed change. It now looks less like Halloween and more evil.

Today I finished the first spawning chamber for the darkroom item grinder. It's got a working lighting system and running water in all the canals and everything. The inner corners of the neighboring chambers didn't have quite as much clearance as I'd hoped, but the overlap is extremely minor and easily dealt with using a 2-block-long diagonal wall where they meet. Rather than the steel doors I originally planned, Splated is gonna install some piston doors for cleaning/maintenance access.

I do like the changes to the nether portal room hallway, and the improved warehouse doorway.