The Spawn Chunks 260: Old Minecraft, New Tricks

Aug 28, 2023 | podcast

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Joel, and Jonny share where they are with their current Minecraft projects, field listener feedback about items despawning, and Deep Dark mending, then discuss if Minecraft players want the game to be easier, and how to decide on the right mod for the job.

Joel Duggan

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Pixlriffs

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Joel

Jonny

  • The Minecraft Survival Guide, Season 3
    • Exploring
      • An Ancient City resides under the mountain, just beyond the main survival area in the world.
      • The mountain also has a large dripstone cave, and a lush cave isn’t too far away.
    • Farming
      • With all the dirt dug up from the storage system, changing some of it to mud with a small dirt-to-mud converter seemed like a natural step.
      • An amethyst geode has been water logged for easy amethyst shard gathering with plans to add allays for amethyst shard collecting down the line.
      • A sixteen colour wool farm showcasing some basic redstone interactions has been set up.
      • The first iron farm has been constructed, and is quite streamlined using modern iron farm designs, and techniques.

Minecraft News

Chunk Mail

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FROM: Jay W.
SUBJECT: Why Five Minutes?

Hey Joel and Johnny,

Since the lighting changes there has seemed to be an uptick in conversation around the adjustment of legacy features in Minecraft. With the introduction of minor updates being included in the dot releases, there is now a system in place to enact such changes. The legacy feature I wonder about the most is the five minute despawn time for item entities. Is there a reason behind this specific time limit, or is it an arbitrary time that has room to be adjusted? I understand entities need to despawn at some point to avoid lag, but I wanted to hear your thoughts on changing the five minute despawn time as a way of adding interesting game mechanics.

What if Mojang added a smithing template that allowed echo shards to be combined with diamond armor, and tools adding a buff to these items similar to netherite except instead of lava protection the item would have despawn protection. This would also add synergy with the recovery compass because now, no matter how long it takes you could follow the compass to your most important items. Not to mention the cool aesthetic opportunities, and appeal of “echo armor”.

Always enjoy hearing your opinions!

Jay W. breathed a sigh of relief after recovering his favorite echo hoe from an ancient city that wasn’t quite cleared of shriekers.

FROM: DragonMasterDan
SUBJECT: Deep Dark Mending

Hi Joel and Jonny,

I’m a long-time listener – been around since around episode 130 – and I’ve listened to all prior episodes as well, and I finally found a reason to write in. 

While listening to your discussion in Episode 259 on mending, and how to potentially change it to make it accessible to all, while still challenging for those who try and rush it, what about utilizing the Deep Dark? I was thinking mending could either be found in a loot chest item (either a template or just a book), or a crafting recipe with echo shards, and amethyst. Where amethyst is currently being used to calibrate skulk sensors, why not use these with echo shards to make your tool or armor “resonate” with experience orbs? 

For crafting, I was thinking of amethyst in the corners, echo shards at the cardinal directions, with a bottle of enchanting in the middle to create a new item like a “calibrated shard” that can be added to tools and armor in the smithing table. This can be taken further to add control to enchanting. Maybe replace the bottle of enchanting with TNT to calibrate to blast protection, a cactus for thorns, etc.? This way, enchanting can be random, and get you progression-wise to the point that you can make it through the Deep Dark safely and gain control over your enchants. 

What do you think?

DragonMasterDan was sonic boomed out of the Ancient City by a Warden because his armor wasn’t calibrated correctly, but at least he used chicken feathers on his boots for feather falling and survived.

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August Roundtable

With Mojang revisiting older Minecraft mechanics, and making changes to the way players have done things for a long time, they’re often met with negative feedback. Why though, is the feedback generally a plea for Mojang to make the game easier? Jonny explores the idea of moving Minecraft forward, while maintaining, or even increasing the level challenge in the game.

Joel is on the hunt for a furniture mod to replace the Tables and Chairs data pack currently being used on The Citadel, and  heavily used in the medieval town build of Westhill. Even with a focus on just furniture mods, the choice of mods, and items available within each mod can be a tad overwhelming. The Citadel has always set out to be a vanilla gameplay experience first, with mods, and data packs added with a focus on improving performance, the game UI, and overall quality of life. Joel is on the fence about how far down the modded Minecraft rabbit hole he wants to go with his adventures in Minecraft furniture.