Game Development Reference
In-Depth Information
Tip:
Ding! Your Zombies Are Ready
For extra points and convenience, add a pressure plate to the bottom of your pit,
connected to a redstone lamp sitting somewhere in normal sight. When a mob hits
the bottom of the pit, the pressure plate sends a signal to the lamp, lighting it up.
Note: Use normal wooden or iron pressure plates. Weighted pressure plates only
react to items, not mobs.
If you have no particular interest in collecting mob drops, fill the pit with lava. Keeping a
mob's feet to flame will see the mob off quite quickly, but it also burns up any items. You
can also use cacti in the ninth hole of the ditch for the same purpose, serving up death by a
thousand cuts. Just place a cacti block instead of digging the pit, but keep in mind that the
cacti can also destroy any dropped items.
Thick as a Brick
The defenses previously mentioned are designed to keep mobs at a distance, but the final
line in the sand, or cobblestone, will be your own building's walls. This is also an aesthetic
choice. Design your castle's keep, so to speak, more than one block thick. A direct creeper
hit can take out a couple of layers of cobblestone and up to five layers of other materials.
If you really do want that log cabin look, consider creating a sandwich of wood outside,
an internal cobblestone section, and then a wood interior. Switch these around to suit your
own needs. A couple of layers of external cobblestone with a wood interior is much safer
thanasinglelayerofwood.Sandstonehaslittleblastresistance,sodefinitelycreatea3-ply
if you like the sandstone look.
Keeping with the concept of a castle's keep, attack is also part of any defensive strategy.
Knock out a 1×1 block in a wall and then fill with a slab, leaving just a half block gap. Fire
arrows at targets through the slit. You'll have an excellent field of fire, and skeletons will
have a much more difficult time getting a clear shot at you.
Finally, obsidian is the toughest minable in Minecraft. It's a little difficult to collect, but
you'll find a guide that makes it easy in
Chapter 10
.
The Bottom Line
It takes a little bit of time to build a beautiful home, but it does provide a pleasant interlude
between mining, farming, and fighting mobs. Enjoy the time. As you master the different
techniques, you'll no doubt develop your own and create soaring, graceful masterpieces in
the sky.
