My Apologies and Hunting Tips

My apologies to everyone who reads my blog... We just had a LOT of snow, and we got about 18 inches. It messed up my internet connection, and now my computer won't turn on...

I'll try and be here as often as I can. Whenever I have access to internet, I'll be here :)

Just bear with me!!


Anyway... Today I bring a Hunting tip!! Particularly, hunting with a trap:

What I like to do when hunting using traps:

1. Dig a pit 8 blocks deep with desired width. Place a layer of wire-through blocks (wire facing the top) on the 3rd layer from the bottom, leaving the botton 2 layers EMPTY (for now). Also, light this under-area with torches. 
2. Put spiked planks on the layer of wire-through blocks you just created.
3. Wire all of the spiked planks together.
4. Create a staircase leading to your trap. Make it level to the spiked planks.
5. Wire your planks to a button; make it accessable from your staircase. To do this, simply dig BESIDE your staircase, and bring your wires up through there. Attach to button. This makes it possible to contract and spike your spiked planks. 
6. Put a door on your staricase - the area level to the planks. Make sure it is flush to the spikes, this way no predators can find a "safe spot". 
7. Cover the outside of your starcase with trapdoors and the top of your trap with grasstraps.
8. Stand in your hidden staircase at night on a new/full moon to attract werewolves (to farm diamonds), or on any night to attract bears (for fur) or wolves and coyotes (for leather).
9. When an animal falls into your trap and dies, you can contract the spikes, get whatever it dropped, and put more grasstraps on the top of your pit - all without leaving your staircase/trap!!! 

It does take a long time to make, and a lot of materials, but it is WORTH IT!! I have been using this method since 1.24, and I have harvested soooooo many resources!! 

I hope to be able to update this post later and add pictures! I think everyone who uses this method will find it to their liking :)

Solid Coal, Copper, Iron, and Diamond Blocks

Today I just want to discuss each solid block in a bit of detail. Enjoy :)

Solid Diamond Block

• Stackable to 4 - the equivalent to 36 diamonds. 
• Flammable
• Explosion Resilience - 4500
• Uses: Decoration or expensive building material
• Disadvantages: Must be kept safe from lighting, magma, and fire.

Solid Iron Block

• Stackable to 4 - the equivalent to 36 ingots.
• Not flammable
• Explosion Resilience - 1000
• Uses: Decoration or expensive building material.

Solid Copper Block

• Stackable to 4 - the equivalent to 36 ingots.
• Not flammable
• Explosion Resilience - 1500
• Uses: Decoration or expensive building material.

Solid Coal Block

• Stackable to 4 - the equivalent to 36 chunks.
• Flammable - Burns for days
• Explosion Resilience - 40
• Uses: Heating homes, fuel for furnace.
• Disadvantages - Must be kept safe from lighting, magma, and fire.

All of these blocks are very inefficient if you are making them to save inventory space. They only stack to 4, and each one requires 9 of the raw material. 9(4)=36, but each ore will stack to 40. So you should really only make them if you plan to use them as decor/building material.

Solid Diamond and Coal blocks are flammable, so unless you WANT them to burn, they need to be kept safe.

Solid Coal blocks can be used as fuel for the furnace, but it is again, inefficient. One solid coal block has a fuel value of 600, but just 7 coal chunks have a fuel value of 720!! They do, however, offer a lot of heat (and they burn for a LONG time) when Heating Your House.


Hope this helped better your understanding of each solid block :)

Happy Valentine's Day!!

I would like to wish everyone who reads my blog and follows me on Google+ a Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Hope you all have a great day :)







Up next time: Solid Diamond, Iron, and Coal Blocks.

Reminder: It's not too late to enter the SC Valentines Day Building Contest at http://survivalcraftgame.wikia.com/wiki/Building_Contest!!

Torch vs Wicker Lamp

There are many lighting sources in SC, some of which include: Jack O' Lanterns, Christmas Trees, Light Bulbs, Led, and of course: the torch and wicker lamp.

For your basic survival purposes, I find the torch and wicker lamp to be great resources. But which is better??

Torch:

Stackable? To 40.
Emitted light amount? 14 blocks in any direction.
Fluid blocker? No.

Other: Can be placed on any vertical or horizontal space. Small, takes up minimal space.

Crafting: Easy to find materials, cheap to  make.



Wicker Lamp:

Stackable? To 40.
Emitted light amount? 15 directions in any direction.
Fluid blocker? No.

Other: Can be placed on any vertical or horizontal space. Emits more light than a torch. Decorative.

Crafting: Takes more material than a torch, but still cheap to produce.




I will say that for mining, I like to use torches. They are cheap, and my mining caves just don't need decorative lamps. They are also smaller and make it easier to move around.

For lighting my home and horse barns, however, I do choose to use wicker lamps. They are more expensive to produce, but they do make my house and barns look more classy ;)

I didn't really take lighting range into consideration since the difference is only 1 block.

So which to you prefer?? Torches or Lamps??

Would you like to see breeding in Survival Craft??

A reoccurring request on the SC Wiki is breeding. It seems that you cannot look through the comments on a page without seeing someone wanting/asking how to breed their animals!!

And I would like to know: Do YOU want breeding??

There are pros and cons...

Pros:

• Animals will be a renewable resource
• If animals are eaten by predators, accidentally killed, etc. it won't be as much of a problem to replace them
• You can choose what color animals you desire. [ Ex: Breeding 2 palomino horses to yield another palomino, breeding black cows and bulls to acquire more black cows, etc. ] 

Cons:

• It may make the game easier. I like to search for my animals! It offers challenge! 
• May need new crops to farm - if Kaalus were to program breeding similar to MC.
• Overcrowding. Players may get carried away and make too many animals! 

And of course, with pros and cons, problems arise...

Potential Problems:

• Male and Female animals?? [ Yes, this IS already present in cattle for obvious reasons ] 
• How would they be marked as male and female? [ I don't think they can all be unisex because we already have the presence of cows and bulls ]
• Would you be able to breed animals you normally wouldn't keep as pets?? [ Ex: Giraffe, Tiger, etc. - animals that do not drop anything and/or are not necessary for survival ]
• Horse + Donkey = Mule. Could mules be added?? 
• Limit to an animals breeding capabilities?? If you were to keep 2 horses in a tall fenced in area so that they would have a very small chance of dying, could you breed then infinitely?? 

I think that breeding would be a nice addition - but with limits.

What do you think?? Any more pros, cons, or potential problems?? 

Arrows & Bolts vs Throwable Items

As many of you who prefer to hunt from long distances know, good arrows are EXPENSIVE to make. You need 1 diamond for EACH iron arrow!!

There is another way. A much cheaper way. Throwable Items!!

Here is a comparison of the weapon power of all arrows and multiple throwable items:

Arrows:

Wooden Tip Arrow: 1/4
Stone Tip Arrow: 1/6
Iron Tip Arrow: 1/8
Diamond Tip Arrow: 1/10

Bolts:

Iron Tip Bolt: 1/10
Diamond Tip Iron Bolt: 1/14

Throwable Items:

Coal Chunk: 1/10
Stone Chunk: 1/10
Snowball: 1/10


So the most powerful projectile is the Diamond Tip Iron Bolt with a weapon power of 1/14. But they require an iron ingot to make the iron bolt, and then a diamond for EACH bolt! And the problem with bolts is that they will ricochet when they hit your target, and can kill you, or break.

Arrows are slightly less expensive, and they are easy to shoot, unlike the crossbow, which must be reloaded through a show process... Also, the nice things about arrows is that they do not ricochet as bad as bolts, and they do not break.

But why use those when you can use a coal chunk, stone chunk, or snowball that will do the equivalent damage of a diamond tip arrow and iron tip bolt?

These throwable items are easy to obtain, especially the snowballs, and you can retrieve the coal chunks and stone chunks after killing your target!! Although, snowballs will disintegrate after being thrown.

My suggestion to you is to use stone chunks as opposed to arrows and bolts. They do just as much damage, and you do not have to craft a bow/crossbow as well as ammunition.

Throwable Items for the Win!!!!

Top 5 Most Useful Survival Craft Animals to Keep Around

Animals in Survival Craft can make survival a lot easier. The trick is keeping the right ones.

So here is a list I have composed of what I consider to be the Top 5 Most Useful Animals in Survival Craft to Keep Around:

#5 - Ostrich

The ostrich is the largest bird in Survival Craft. It's eggs are very nutritious, especially cooked. One cooked ostrich egg will completely restore the players health.

It is a good idea to keep a herd of ostriches in a pen near your home. Ostriches can be herded with a whistle, making is super easy to direct them into a fence. [Tip: Build your fences 3+ blocks high to keep predators out]

As you start to acquire more ostrich eggs, you can enlarge your herd by throwing eggs into your pen. There is not a 100% guarantee that you will obtain an ostrich for each egg, however. I will try and do some experimenting to find the egg-to-ostrich ratio.

#4 - Donkey

Donkeys are not as fast as horses, but they do offer great rides! If you plan to go on long journeys, I suggest taking a donkey with you rather than a horse. Donkeys can take falls from greater heights without injury, so they are ideal for exploring.

Donkeys do have 1 downfall, however. They can jump single fences, so double fences are ALWAYS needed. Sometimes if I am exploring somewhere I cannot take my animal, like a cave, I just build a small enclosure and leave my animal outside. But even if they are going to be left for a short time, they need to be kept in double fences.

But on another positive note, they can be summoned with a whistle from a range of 30 blocks.

#3 - Black Bull

Black bulls are nice to keep around, as they will fight off predators and protect your herd. Why can't you just keep brown bulls, you ask? That will come later :)

#2 - Horses

Horses are extremely useful when hunting. If you like to hunt on horseback with spears or arrows, then they make great companions. They are fast, easily maneuverable, and they protect you from damage. If you are hunting boars, for example, and one gets too close, it will hurt the horse, not the player.

They can also out-run predators, so as you are returning home from a hunt, you don't have to worry about getting jumped by a bear :P Take the king of the jungle for example - the lion. If you are running through a desert and a lion thinks you look tasty, your horse can easily out-run it. The horse's walk speed is 6.75, whereas the lion's is only 4.5.

And of course, just as all other mountable animals, the horse can be summoned with a whistle from a range of 30 blocks.

#1 - Black Cow

And finally the moment we have all been waiting for!! The black cow. I find these animals to be rather important. They are quite easy to obtain as well. They can be herded with a whistle, right into your awaiting fence.

And where there are black cows, there are black bulls protecting them!! That's why, as mentioned in #3, black bulls are more useful than brown ones. They protect black cows, which regenerate milk faster than brown cows.

The milk regenerates a lot of hunger, which is, of course, vital to your survival. You just need 3 copper ingots to make a bucket, and you are set to go! After milking your cows, you can take a stack up to 12 with you anywhere you go! I just find it convenient to have milk at my disposal whenever I need it.



These 5 animals cover everything you need: food, transportation, and protection. That is why I find these 5 to be the most useful!



Do you agree with my list? If there is an animal you think belongs on here, just let me know in the comments!!

Important Shelter Tip

For obvious reasons, it is extremely important to have a suitable shelter to sleep, store items, keep beasts out, etc.

But even in your home, you aren't 100% safe from the beasts that hunt you at night.

As you can see in the pictures below [which were taken by Stanimus on the SC Wiki], the lion is poking his head through the door and leaf blocks.

 

Now, the shelter is not the problem. Stanimus has made himself a nice beginning shelter made from dirt and leaves, in what appears to be the side of a mountain. The lion - and other predators - can poke their head into your home no matter what material you use!! [This is especially apparent in corners, as you can see in the second pic above, and the spot where two different blocks meet.]

I have experienced this myself. Whenever I slept by my door, a tiger, werewolf, etc. would always injure me in my sleep!!

So it is a good idea to make your house out of 1 material so that the only spot predators can poke through into your home is by your door. Also, just to be safe, sleep in the middle of your floor ;)