4 Pillar Survival - Episode 6

J boley and I acquire access to all four pillars, do some trading, and begin work on our mob farm!

Fossils Server Series Ep 008

This is an important episode, as we divide into two teams to prepare for building the dinosaur parks!

4 Pillar Survival - Episode 5

The adventure in the sky continues as j boley and I expand to more pillars and discover the source of our food and livestock.

Towards the end of the video, you see why I chose not to record for this particular series. Staring at cobble, lava, and water for 20 minutes at a time isn't particularly entertaining. Don't worry though, we're already looking at some other maps to try out that will be exciting for both of us to film.

Fossils Public Server Series Ep 007

In this episode we meet a few more members, hatch baby dinosaurs, and Noble takes to the sky.

We found out that most of our enclosures were too small for our full-grown dinosaurs, and we've expanded since the recording.

Metaworlds - A Truly Unique Mod!

I'm impressed by a lot of things mod creators come up with. Camouflaged blocks, mobs with unique qualities, and items with amazing abilities are all pretty cool and very enjoyable, but often not mind-blowing. Sometimes though, a mod comes along that just defies all logic and really makes you take notice.

Metaworlds looks to be one of those mods. Before I explain any farther, just look at this simple picture:

That is not an optical illusion - some of those blocks really are at an angle. How does that work? Well, according to the description on the mod's forum page, it's basically a game save file within your game save file - a sub-save... or "metaworld" in this case.

These metaworlds can be edited directly in-game, allowing you to move them around, make them rotate or fly, and even scale their size! If that's not crazy enough for you, try this - everything still functions. Chests, furnaces, and yes even redstone all work regardless of position or size!

Here's Captain Sparklez showcase video where he puts the mod in action. It's pretty wild stuff.

I've yet to try this mod for myself, but was so amazed by what it's capable of that I felt I had to mention it straight away! Hopefully, I'll find some time to give this a go... it looks incredible.

4 Pillar Survival - Episode 4

The series continues, and this time j boley and I discuss objectives, adventure maps, and the Fossils/Archeology server while lamenting the rain.

4 Pillar Survival - Episode 3

J boley discovers the contents of a secret chest, and we have a bit of an oops moment.

I'm pretty sure we have some missing footage now, as I swore there was a joke in between episodes 2 and 3 that's just gone. Maybe James is saving it for his jokes series... :-P

4 Pillar Survival - Episode 2

J boley and I continue working on the map challenges of expanding the island and making our way to the pillars themselves. We also get our first set of uninvited guests!

4 Pillar Survival - Episode 1

Here's the first episode of our "4 Pillar" survival series, starring myself and j boley.

I have a fear of heights/falling, so I was a bit nervous. Even though it's just a game, the consequences on this map for losing materials early on could make or break the entire thing. Suffice to say, the shift button was my best friend alongside James!

Remember to check out j boley's channel for other fun Minecraft series and aventures!

Fossils Public Server Series Ep 005

In this episode, we have a friendly competition as we race through an abandoned mineshaft to gather materials!

This was a lot of fun to participate in, and just as much fun to watch! We're currently brainstorming some other competitions for the future. Be sure to check out Jody's YouTube channel for more episodes!

[BONUS] Here's the episode from James' perspective! Be sure to watch his channel for an upcoming team-up series featuring yours truly! 

Coming Soon: 4 Pillar Survival Series!

As mentioned in my last post, j boley and I are going to be producing some Minecraft videos together.

We're kicking things off with a series using a map called "4 Pillar Survival", and we'll be playing it in Minecraft version 1.6.4. It's similar to skyblock, but there are some unique twists.

Off in four different directions are these pillars, each made out of various materials. Inside the pillars are villagers, hidden chests, and other assorted goodies to help us along the way. There's a laundry list of challenges, from the mundane to the fantastic, and our goal is to complete them ALL (at least the non-Tekkit ones)!

The first episode will be out soon, likely within the week, and can be seen on j boley's YouTube channel, which I highly suggest you check out. I'll also be posting the videos here as well once they are released.

If you'd like to know more about the 4 Pillar Survival map or want to try it for yourself, just click here.

F/A Server Series - Ep004

The new episode is here! We show off a few projects, find adventure, and have an inaugural ceremony at the fossil shrine.

We filmed this episode directly after the last one, and as I said before it was a fun experience! We still have room for more teammates, so check out episodes 000 and 001 (on JodyVL's channel) to join us!

Also, AngerPuppet42 (j boley on YouTube) and I are thinking about having some more Minecraft fun in the near future. We're still tossing around ideas, but I'll let you know what we decide on soon!

Fossils/Archeology Server Series

I joined the Fossils and Archeology public server several days ago to be part of a project masterminded by JodyVL/Mandelsage. I've been a fan of his videos for several months now, and when the call went out to participate I felt it would be fun to play along and see how things turn out.

I've been having a wonderful time and have made several friends already! The team, albeit small for now, has some truly talented and friendly people that welcomed me with open arms. You can see my first appearance in the episode below.

Likewise, I've already been helpful to the team, contributing on some projects that will appear in upcoming episodes. If you're interested in joining, please check out the earlier episodes that have all the information on how to apply. Hope to see you soon!

Zombie Rehab Center

Inspired by some fellow youtubers I've had the pleasure of playing Minecraft with, I finally produced my video for the zombie rehabilitation center. Enjoy!

A New Answer to an Old Question

How do you keep zombie pigmen from spawning on/near your rails in the Nether? It's been an issue since the first Minecrafter laid track in hell.

The typical and certainly cost-efficient answer is to place glass, slabs, or stairs directly above the track itself. While in a minecart, players can pass through these blocks without taking any damage or suffocating. It does feel a bit cheesy using this method, and there are a few drawbacks (namely slopes and access to the area without a cart handy).

Konceptum1 decided to try his hand at answering this with a more high-tech approach.

While not the most resource friendly, it does seem to be an interesting take on the subject. It would be a fun way to impress people with your redstone skills!

9-0 The Dream Achieved!

After a personal best of 7-3 (and several horrible 3-3s yesterday) in Hearthstone arena, I achieved the dream, going 9-0!

I played as a mage, though my draft wasn't all that exciting. I had NO legendaries, Pyroblasts, Polymorphs, or even Fireballs! I ended up with two Cone of Cold, one each of Mirror Entity, Mirror Image, Frost Nova, Frostbolt, Blizzard, and Flamestrike for spells. For spell cost reduction and damage boost I had two Sorcerer's Apprentice, one Ancient Mage, and one Azure Drake.

Other notable minions included Venture Co. Mercenary, Frost Elemental, Twilight Drake, two Acolyte of Pain, two Dire Wolf Apha, and a single Spellbreaker.

As usual, it was mage control, but instead of hard removal I focused on locking the enemy down with freeze. I played aggressively with my minions most of the run. Acolytes were clutch here, and in a pinch I'd ping one for card draw to find answers. Sometimes I'd get lucky and have spell damage on the field for larger Cones or Blizzards, which was crucial against a shaman in the 6th or 7th win bracket fielding a swarm of Harvest Golems and Defenders of Argus.

My closest match was in the 5th-6th win bracket against a rogue who had me at single digits with lethal on the field. Fortunately, I was able to drop their health low enough in turns prior to secure the win with an Acolyte-pinged topdeck Frostbolt.

Several of the games were pretty rough, and I saw a good deal of legendaries on the opposing board, including a Ysera that was bounced back to hand once it was low on health only to replayed immediately after. Ragnaros almost had me, but I was able to spam minions for him to target instead... and again, Acolytes were amazing here.

All told it was an amazing run, and my first impression of the deck was not the best. I envisioned it going 5-3, worse if I faced any amazing decks along the way. Suffice to say, my overall opinion of freezing has increased considerably. In the absence of hard removal, simply stalling for time can make all the difference.

New Weekly MMO Live Show Starts Tonight!

YouTuber Corpsealot (aka Larzul) is starting up what sounds like an amazing and entertaining series based on free-to-play MMOs. It will be broadcast live every Friday night, starting 7-7:30pm EST and will run between 1-4 hours.

I could explain the details, but the announcement video does that well enough on its own. Check it out!

Basic Priest Mayhem

While browsing for Hearthstone deck ideas, I found this priest deck that uses all basic cards and plays fairly well in ranked games. The creator (Mayhem Gaming on YouTube) says it even stands up in Masters, and shows a number of games on how to go about using the cards effectively in following videos.

I put the deck together and ran it a while last night, and it went better than I expected. I'm 3-star Diamond, and was having a blast beating people packing all-star rares like Argent Commander or popular legendaries like Sylvanas Windrunner..

The deck is very much control-based, with eight single-target removal spells (Shadow Word: Death/Pain, Holy Smite, Mind Control) and two Holy Nova. That's a third of the deck dedicated to removal. The remainder has a few minion health boosts and is packed with workhorse basic minions like Chillwind Yeti and Gurubashi Berserker and card drawing utility minions in Novice Engineer and Northshire Cleric.

It's important to keep your larger minions healed up, as your win condition is likely an ogre or angry Gurubashi to the face. It's debatable as to the effectiveness of Shadow Word: Death, as it can sometimes be a dead card. Many players have realized that 4-attack minions are the hardest for priests to deal with and capitalize by running as many of them as they can. That said, players also often run Shattered Sun Cleric, Dark Iron Dwarf, and Defender of Argus (all of which booth the stats of other minions), putting their 4-attack minions into Shadow Word: Death territory.

Being control, the deck is also rather slow and can be overwhelmed very quickly by aggro rush. If a warlock or rogue ends up with the Coin, you're probably in for a troublesome start that you may not recover from. Also, you will curse Faerie Dragon's existence because your only means to remove it is via combat or Holy Nova.

In an upcoming patch, Mind Control is going from eight to ten mana, making it a truly late-game spell that won't allow you to cast anything else that turn. This will be a significant problem for this deck, and I'm uncertain the deck will be very viable after that. Mind Control is a bomb however, and can be a huge menace in Arena play, thus the cost increase. If you want to try this all-basic deck, I suggest doing so ASAP.