Guess Who’s Back?

Entry 15 (January 2, 2023)

Hello! It’s been, uh, a little while. I’ve got a bit to share of recent adventures (I’ve mostly taken a break from the game these last few months, though I did have a burst of inspiration in October and finally set up some auto‐storage after building the same design with friends on our server), but the main update here is the site itself. A lot of the work has been behind‐the‐scenes, but if nothing else it should be easier to read now.

First of all, now that I kind of actually know what I’m doing, I’ve rewritten the CSS more or less from scratch (and with accessibility in mind this time).

It was quite a mess before, having started life as the default Zoner template and then essentially been beat with a stick until it looked right. There was a surprising amount of redundant code in there, in large part because I’d just pasted in a lot of random scavenged examples and Stack Overflow solutions and such without fully understanding how they actually worked. Now it’s… well, okay, it’s still a riff on the default template (I’m not exactly much of a designer; you’ve seen my builds or lack thereof), but I’ve put thought into each rule, and if nothing else it’s at least more organized and consistent (if surely not up to professional standards).

Typography changes should make everything easier to read, and the line lengths are more reasonable now without giving up on those large screenshots. For links, I tried a few different Minecraft‐inspired color schemes in search of something that would work for both dark and light mode, eventually settling on copper and amethyst.

While I don’t ever plan to add a commenting system, I have added a contact form where you can shoot me a quick message. Feedback is more than welcome.

The rail diagram doesn’t break on narrow displays anymore, either! Miscellaneous other improvements include skip links, proper focus indicators, and backlinks from footnotes. I’ve even finally added alternative text for all image content, even in old posts. (It’s probably overly descriptive in places – but again, feedback is welcome.)

Speaking of footnotes, I even finally started picking at Zoner itself a bit. Just because I don’t actually know C# doesn’t mean I can’t edit a few strings here and there. (I’ve tweaked a few things to my preferences and addressed some minor standards/accessibility issues, but mostly I just wanted to enable Markdig’s extensions.) Now instead of jumping back and forth to the bottom of the file to add a note amid a big block of code, I can just reference it with [^1] and immediately follow the paragraph with [^1]: Here’s the actual footnote. Don’t even have to do any renumbering when adding or removing one.

It’s mostly behind‐the‐scenes stuff to make my life a tiny bit easier while editing, but I mean, the dates at the top of these posts are in freedom format now.

And the map! I finally cleaned up at least some of my mess there too, but more importantly, I’ve made a bunch of tweaks I’m super happy with.

The big one is dimension‐hopping. I was never happy with how Papyri handled this – it would simply turn off all overlays and replace the base layer, keeping the view on the same coordinates in the new dimension, often leaving you in unmapped territory. Now, when switching between the Overworld and the Nether, it keeps you on the same relative location – for example, if you’re zoomed in near Intersylva at (−2,200 W / 1,500 S) in the Overworld, then move to the Nether, you’ll now be looking at (−275 W / 187 S) – about the location of Intersylva’s nether portal. (Switching to or from the End just centers the view on Spawn or the exit portal, disrespectively.) And yes, it even keeps your overlay selections instead of clearing them.

The coordinate display is cleaner, and there’s even a scale. The layers menu and legend are tucked away neatly into a sidebar (which actually behaves properly in small viewports). The dropped center pin (for when the map is opened away from Spawn) should be more reliable now, and banner clustering is less aggressive at nearer zoom levels (plus I tweaked the clustered icon’s colors to be easier on the eyes and also more calamitous). I’d still like to figure out how to either separate certain banner colors into their own layer without breaking all the old links – or how to just exclude certain colors from clustering.

One last (non‐Papyri) change is I’ve removed the little seecret I’d added. I just wasn’t super happy with the execution and didn’t see the need to have JavaScript running on every page. Something like it may or may not return someday.

So after my little Endventure last time, I took a break from the world (and site) as planned. It ended up being a break from Minecraft almost entirely, as my friends have had crazy workloads lately and our weekly catch‐up night has dwindled to monthly or so. One night, though, our schedules and mental health aligned once more and we decided to finally tackle a problem we’d been putting off: Building an auto‐storage system.

I’d been interested in gnembon’s design after finding it via Mysticat’s tutorial, so I offered it up as a candidate. This was interpreted as “this is the best thing ever and we’re building it as a group project and I volunteer to lead said group project.”

I love my friends.

Really.

Anyway, we got one full‐size 9×6 module built and went to bed. That gave me an itch to scratch, and I spent some time in Creative the next day building a couple more, looking through gnembon’s world download to see how to chain them together, and figuring out how to (relatively) compactly have it handle shulker boxes. (I ended up using Tinker77’s shulker box filter and KaleHameron’s shulker box unloader.)

The itch remained unscratched.

So I opened up Broken Halo again for the first time in a couple months and got to planning. I decided to build this new storage facility underground – I don’t want all these huge buildings around Roam, after all – and to go deep underground, because it’s already getting a bit crowded just under the surface. Its ceiling is at Y=10, deep enough that the old mine shouldn’t interfere if it extends that far, but close enough that the mining shuttle can be rerouted with little trouble (which in turn removes that from interfering with the map room and future Roam Station). Plus, this contraption is a tall boi – the floor of the redstone room is at Y=−5 – and I think the transition down into the deepslate layers further improves Roam’s lazy traditional “polished up natural stone” look.

I somehow already had more than enough iron to build a full‐size module myself (that’s 162 hoppers, plus more to incorporate shulker box handling)^{note 1}, so I set about clearing space for that. Entry would be via water elevator/drop from the existing vault under the house. I started by digging those shafts, passing through the cave just under the house, a deeper cave, an abandoned mineshaft, an even deeper cave, and a lava pool.

The downside of digging deep: No air, only lava.

A lot of the “construction” time actually went to exploring and lighting up the surrounding cave system. And I mean, it’s still largely unexplored. I covered a lot of ground, but it just goes on and on. And that’s even considering that it intersects with other cave systems I’d already stumbled onto before. (At least the mob grinder seems slightly more productive now.)

It was worth it, though!

Amid the abandoned mineshaft, I found my first cave spider spawner – which turned out to be a double – letting me check those off the Monsters Hunted challenge. (And at one point, on the surface, I saw a husk across the river that somehow hadn’t despawned yet, and managed to get them too.^{note 2} Eight more to go!)

Everyone’s favorite bitey li’l pests. I took as many webs as I could from all through the shafts, partially to decorate the existing spider farm and partially just because I didn’t have any yet.(−288 W / −182 N), looking east.

A double could be handy for a local XP farm… (−274 W / −197 N), looking east.

Then, in a chest cart, I found my second Enchanted Golden Apple! And apparently I was so excited I forgot to loot the rest of the cart – I came back a few days before writing this, to leave banners to map the spawners, and found it still sitting there. Heh.

Now I can flex and put the spare in an item frame! (−273 W / −191 N), looking south.

Even better, just a few minutes after finding the second cave spider spawner, I stumbled onto a skeleton dungeon! Just need one for zombies now…

It had a second copy of “cat”. That’s something, I guess. (−272 W / −262 N), looking southeast.

With all the spawners I’ve found near home as of late, it’s starting to get a little crowded on the map room floor. Good problem to have, I suppose? (−256 W / −189 N), looking north.

And, of course, being deep in the world (well, deep for pre‐1.18 terrain), there were the usual riches to be had, like this wall of diamonds.

Careful; there’s a lava pit on the other side. (−245 W / −245 N), looking northwest.

At the end of it all I had enough iron to build a second 9×6 module. So I did.

After hyperfixating on this for a few days straight, I finally had the system installed and tested, the room polished up, and my stuff moved in.

As mentioned, the entrance is in the old vault under the house. (−249 W / −225 N), looking south.

It’s… kind of ugly if I’m honest, but it’ll improve as I flesh it out. I wanna make some end rods for better lighting, too. (−248 W / −215 N), looking south.

The system can handle anything you throw into it, stackable or not, boxed or not. Most stackable items are sorted automatically; unsorted, overflow, or non‐stackable items simply end up in unused chests at the end of the line.

Dump crap into left chest; empty shulker boxes are returned on the right for reuse. (−246 W / −208 N), looking northeast.

It’s still got room to fill, and I’m sure I’ll rearrange things over time. While probably overkill, my plan is to eventually have at least six of these modules for a total of 324 double‐chests, perhaps with a lower level for truly bulk storage of things like stone and deepslate.

Each array has an indicator lamp to warn you if it’s actively sorting. Rather than using external filters, the system simply tries to push incoming items into each chest in sequence (top to bottom of each column, starting from the left), succeeding whether it adds to a partial stack or just fills an empty slot. This gives the flexibility to mix and match items (instead of dedicating each chest to a single one) at the cost of having to fill the system in order. Since slots cannot be left empty, sticks are used as filler. (−248 W / −208 N), looking southeast.

As usual, there’s maintenance access to the innards of the beast.

View from atop the shulker box unloader, looking at array one. I won’t attempt to explain how it operates, but like I said, it’s a tall boi. (−239 W / −216 N), looking south.

I’ve never actually played Minecraft on Christmas, but since I still hadn’t finished this update I at least opened the world back up to take a look at the machine all wrapped up.

Hope your holidays were happy, explorers.

I recently came across the ambitiously‐named “Better Minecraft” mod pack (purporting to be a “vanilla plus” or “Minecraft 2” experience) thanks to DavidXNewton’s new Stumbling Tour of the same, and it caught my interest enough to give the thing a quick spin myself. It’s quite a bit less forgiving than the base game, even if you spawn away from any of the hostile new structures! Between that and the trouble I’ve had looking stuff up as I encounter it^{note 3}, it reminds me a lot of EverQuest’s early days, what with the sense of wonder and danger – and I’m not sure how I feel about that. It’s a mixed blessing, I think.

I’m not gonna commit to it – the sheer volume of new content is a bit overwhelming (just getting started is confusing; there are at least four actively maintained versions, each with a different and shifting selection of mods), and even the “best performing” (1.19.2 Fabric) version is a lot for my computer to handle. Besides, my Minecraft time is already split between this world and a small SMP with friends (and that one’s not even available 24/7).

That said, I might look at adding some (non‐cheaty) quality‐of‐life mods on top of the Fabulously Optimized pack I normally use, and maybe eventually some that add new content. (By “eventually” I mean, like, I might start considering it once I’ve, say, ticked off all the advancements and also fully explored everything out to and including the Halo. And maybe explored enough of 2022+ Minecraft to have completed Adventuring Time again. This world is still young!) Even then, I’m hesitant to add anything that changes the existing world generation. Maybe some that stick to their own new dimensions? Or just some new advancements?

Next time: idk lol

Nah, I think I’ll go back to the villages and finish their makeovers so I can give them proper pages here. Thought about doing that as part of this big update, but it’s already been so long and I feel like I’d fall into that usual trap of task one turning into task two turning into task three turning into…