Random minecraft post

So in the way long past I've bought into Minecraft alpha. Back then it was mostly due to a few friends playing it and the prospect of it becoming multiplayer. Normally sandbox games are not my thing, I like a lot of direction in my game. Being given a world canvas and told to do what I want leaves me messing around for a few minutes then going to another game where I could be railroaded in eye rolling ways but just continue. May just be my lack of imagination but I'd rather have the developers show me the features of a gaming world than to fumble around like an idiot trying to entertain myself.

This all said, I do enjoy Minecraft. For a sandbox game with little content in it there is just something very satisfying about building rudimentary structures and being able to walk around them. lately I haven't done much with it. Played a few things called "castle runs" with a friend where we try to make above ground villages as fast as we can then expand from there. None of that find coal vein and that's your new home, nope your first night is usually spent scared in a wood hut with one torch, but we're just weird that way.

Now on to why I have a Minecraft post. 1.7 just came out with Pistons. The single thing that is likely to get me building in Minecraft again. They've had redstone for a while which didn't appeal to me, you could certainly make complex things but it just seemed too troublesome and hard to do if you got material normally. With pistons though, I get a bit more sense of accomplishment making gates and doors, and other things moprh like a transformer into their final form. I have not done much with them beyond make a test bridge and a few other pointless tests but it has been one of the best developments in Minecraft in a long time. I'd get the full effect but it seems I need to go slime hunting before I can make my piston powered contraptions work just the way I want them too.

One last thing to mention. You may notice my image lacks any piston use whatsoever but there is a reason. Long long ago when I made that map it was a time when snow was a finite resource. Me being an odd case of OCD when it comes to limited or hard to get materials had cleared the entire fort ground of snow with a shovel, making them all snowballs then eventually snow blocks as to not waste them. After going about mining for redstone I returned to my main base to stick the iron and the few bits for redstone in a chest and an in game snow storm started up. I had not heard about this being added in any patches and thought it was just a nice visual addition to the game. A few seconds later I noticed all my clear green field of my castle grounds starting to get snow tiles on them. So all my tedious hard work was rendered useless, only now I can completely disregard snow blocks and destroy them however I want, they'll just come back now.