The Spawn Chunks 328: Measure Once, Build Twice

Dec 16, 2024 | podcast

Joel, and Jonny run down the holiday schedule for The Spawn Chunks, talk about their latest projects with pale garden blocks, and answer listener email about the benefits of bundle automation, and whether re-building in Minecraft is worth the blocks.

Joel Duggan

Twitter | Twitch | YouTubeVODs |
The Citadel Cafe | JoelDuggan.com

Pixlriffs

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Joel

  • The Citadel | Westhill
    • Went out to raid a pale garden.
      • Took about an hour, and a half to fill up a shulker with pale oak.
      • Only ran into one creaking, which was on purpose to find a creaking heart.
      • The pale garden did not have any eyeblossoms in it at all. Without the eyeblossoms, and just being there for the pale oak, the experience of the pale garden pretty dull.
      • The Citadel – Pale Garden Harvesting (YouTube.com/@JoelDugganVODs)
    • Curtain wall landscaping.
      • Did some landscaping on the green space in front of the north curtain wall of Westhill.
        • A very vasic approach, creating border elements to the paths, adding a simple bush, then blending them all together.
        • Wanted to fill the peripheral view when walking without the choices being distracting.
      • The Citadel – Landscaping The Curtain Wall Green – Part 3 (YouTube.com/@JoelDugganVODs)
    • Pale oak wood blocks.
      • Spent some time playing around with some stripped pale oak logs in the main hall of the Westhill Keep. It works really well as a painted beam, or “fancier beam” than the andesite, helping to elevate the space.

Jonny

  • The Minecraft Survival Guide, Season 3
    • Moss mining experiments!
      • Did a side-by-side comparison of green moss vs pale moss, mostly trying to measure if azaleas (or the lack of them) have a significant impact on the moss mining process.
      • In conclusion they’re mostly identical, but green moss does generate more bonemeal thanks to composting azalea saplings.
      • The major difference between mining with green moss vs. pale moss is visibility. Stone, and deepslate stand out way more using green moss than they do using pale moss. Tuff blends with pale moss more easily.
      • It may also be easier for a team of allays to help you recycle pale moss, since you don’t have to dedicate two to help you with azaleas.
      • Choppin’ Tuesday: Moss vs Moss! – Minecraft Survival Guide LIVE! (Twitch.tv/Pixlriffs)
      • Pale Moss Mining – Minecraft Survival Guide LIVE! (Twitch.tv/Pixlriffs)

Minecraft News

  • The Spawn Chunks News
    • Not much from Mojang.
      • Heading into the holidays, and with The Garden Awakens dropping just two weeks ago, things are pretty light on the news front from Mojang.
    • The Spawn Chunks Holiday Schedule:
      • As with previous holiday seasons, we are pre-recording two episodes to schedule over the holidays.
      • Episode 329 was recorded on December 13, and will publish on December 22, 2024.
      • Episode 330 will be recorded on Wednesday, December 18th at 10:00AM AST / 2:00PM UK, and will publish on December 30, 2024.
      • Both pre-recorded episodes will focus around listener email.
      • If any Minecraft news drops before we record  Episode 330, we will make sure to include it in that episode.
  • Patreon
    • There are changes coming to The Spawn Chunks Patreon page in January 2025.
      • Due to a change in policy in the Apple App Store, Patreon is removing per-episode billing from their platform, and The Spawn Chunks has to follow suit.
      • The Spawn Chunks will be moving from per-episode support, to subscription billing support on Patreon as of January 1, 2025.
    • When Patreon announced the upcoming changes earlier this fall, we went over all of the details, as well as  our thoughts, and plans for the future in detail in a special conversation on Episode 315.5 which is available to our Patrons on our Patreon page.
    • If you are a patron, or thinking about becoming one, thank you!
      • If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to Joel or Jonny I in the Discord, or via DM.
      • Or reach out via email with a clear subject line so it doesn’t get lost in the regular show email inbox.
        • Send any email questions to: SpawnChunkMail@gmail.com

Chunk Mail

SpawnChunkMail@gmail.com

FROM: IQBE
SUBJECT: Automatic Bundle Interactions

Hi Joel, and Jonny,

With the Bundles of Bravery update, I became interested in technical Minecraft again, specifically its storage solutions. I thought the bundles were very cool but feel they lack some functionality when combined with redstone. Bundles could be really useful in an automatic sorting system for farms with a lot of different items. However, the manual interaction needed to take items in, and out of bundles makes them quite limited.

My solution would be to add two crafting recipes: One to put items into bundles, and one to retrieve an item from a bundle. This would make it possible to be automated using the crafter, while still posing a challenge as you would need to recycle partially filled bundles until they are empty.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

Thank you for the fun show.

IQBE suffocated in his bundle while trying to find his redstone blocks.

FROM: Tugi Fox
SUBJECT: Subtraction = Addition?

Dear Jonny, and Joel,

In a recent-ish Hermitcraft Episode, Mumbo, and Grian briefly touch on how removing blocks during building can add to a build, and I was curious as to what your opinions were.

Personally, as someone who doesn’t play Minecraft full-time, when a block is placed it’s placed. I like the challenge of working around old creations, and I find that rebuilding things that I have already created is a massive drain.

What do you guys think? Is an old build an irrevocable testament, and monument to your growth as a Minecrafter? Or is every pixel fluid?

Thanks for the amazing show, I’ve been listening since Episode 30!

Tugi Fox died of old age whilst placing and replacing the same block over and over.

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Revisiting & Rebuilding

Taking the lead from Tugi Fox’s email, Joel, and Jonny expand the conversation around their approach to building in Minecraft when it comes to updating, revisiting, or even rebuilding old builds. Jonny leans towards making constant progress in a world when it comes to The Survival Guide, and while some technical builds do require updates, or complete retrofits, Joel tends to iterate, and build again on The Citadel, rather than reworking the feeling of history on the server.