The Rialto

Block of the Day

Posted at Apr 09, 2015

We do virtual standups for $WORK, mostly so we know what everyone else is working on, we can let the people back in Vancouver know what’s going on, communication is good, &c. Each person gives their answers to three questions:

  1. What did I do yesterday?
  2. What do I plan to do today?
  3. What are my blocks?

Because #3 is almost always “no blocks”, I started adding my own touch to the standups. And thus I present to you the “Block of the Day” archive.

SNOW!

April 9th, 2015

  • It’s snow.
  • Crafted using four snowballs.
  • Place a pumpkin atop two snow blocks to create a snow golem.

TORCH!

April 8th, 2015

  • They give off light, eh.
  • Gravity affected blocks (like sand and gravel) will break if they fall on a torch.
  • They’re automatically generated in abandoned mines and villages.

FENCE!

April 7th, 2015

  • Fences are actually 1.5 blocks tall, meaning most mobs cannot jump over them.
  • Umm. The recipe changed in version 1.8. It was really confusing.
  • Also in 1.8, they started keeping the colour of the used wood. This is an oak fence.

DIRT!

April 3rd, 2015

  • Dirt is a block found abundantly in the overworld.
  • Using a hoe on dirt will turn it into farmland.
  • When a dirt block is adjacent to a grass block and is exposed to a light level of at least four, it will eventually be converted into a grass block at random intervals.

LAVA!

April 2nd, 2015

  • The nether contains naturally generated lakes of lava. The nether is terrifying.
  • Lava source blocks can ignite nearby flammable blocks.
  • A bucket of lava will burn for 1000 seconds in a furnace.

TNT!

April 1st, 2015

  • You can use TNT to make landmines. This game is evil.
  • You can also make cannons.
  • Boom!

PUMPKIN!

March 31st, 2015

  • For some reason they grow naturally with a jackolantern face.
  • Can be worn as a helmet (no armour value).
  • Can be used to build snow and iron golems.

BLOCK OF GOLD!

March 30th, 2015

  • Decorative mineral block.
  • Naturally generated in ocean monument structures.
  • Can be used as a crafting ingredient for enchanted golden apples.

GRANITE!

October 20th, 2014

  • Added in Minecraft 1.8
  • Pretty much just for decorative purposes.
  • Yarr.

PULVERIZER!

August 11th, 2014

(From the Tekkit modpack, specifically the Thermal Expansion mod.)

  • It’s from the Thermal Expansion mod.
  • Grinds ores down to powder with can be smelted (or used for other stuff). Somehow this results in twice as many ingots as smelting the ore directly. This doesn’t make any sense.
  • I tried making one of these last night but I can’t find any gold ore.
  • Plus there’s a lot of crazy shit in the Tekkit modpack.

MONSTER SPAWNER!

July 23rd, 2014

  • Found in dungeons, abandoned mineshafts, strongholds, and nether fortresses.
  • Placing torches around the spawner will prevent it from spawning new creatures.
  • Monster spawners are often used to farm experience and drops.

CHEST!

July 22nd, 2014

  • It’s where you keep your stuff.
  • Two adjacent chests get automatically combined into a large chest.
  • On December 24th and 25th, chests have the texture of presents.

WOOL!

July 21st, 2014

  • Can be dyed to various different colours.
  • Used to craft beds.
  • Can be crafted from string if necessary,

STONE BRICK!

July 18th, 2014

  • To get: Use your pickaxe to mine stone, which drops as cobblestone. Smelt the cobblestone back into smooth stone. Then craft the smooth stone into stone brick.
  • As Stone Bricks offer no real advantage over Cobblestone, their main use is decoration, and are commonly used as a building material for castles by many players, due to the medieval look not found in Stone and Cobblestone.

BOOKSHELF!

July 17th, 2014

ICE!

July 16th, 2014

  • Water can only freeze if there is at least one horizontally adjacent non-water block. This makes ponds, rivers, etc. freeze from the edges in to the middle.
  • If an ocean biome is beside a snow biome, “ice shelves” may be formed.

CRAFTING TABLE!

July 15th, 2014

  • This is one of the most essential blocks in Minecraft.
  • Without the crafting table, you’re restricted to crafting items with 2x2 recipes. The crafting table allows you to make items with 3x3 recipes.
  • Can occur naturally in libraries in NPC villages.

SAND!

July 14th, 2014

  • Sand is a block naturally found on coasts and deserts.
  • Sand is one of six blocks to which gravity applies.
  • Sand will fall through torches without breaking if there is air below the torch.

DIAMOND!

July 11th, 2014

  • Diamond blocks are crafted from nine individual diamond gems, and are thus one of the hardest blocks to acquire in game.
  • Diamond gems are needed to craft enchanting tables and jukeboxes.
  • Tools made from diamond are the most durable in the game.

FURNACE!

July 10th, 2014

  • Furnaces can be used to smelt objects; for example, iron ore into iron ingots.
  • Valid fuels include wood planks, coal, and lava.
  • One bucket of lava can smelt 100 items!

WOOD PLANKS!

July 9th, 2014

  • Wooden planks can be crafted into 23 items, second to iron ingots.
  • The value of building with wood planks is disputed. Structures built of planks can be burned down easily, either by accident or by griefers. It is often used, regardless of the dangers, due to its abundance in trees and its aesthetically pleasing appearance.

MELON!

July 8th, 2014

  • When a melon block is pushed by a piston, it will break into melon slices.
  • The block form is square, yet the slices are round.
  • Melon slices suck as a food source.

COBBLESTONE!

July 7th, 2014

  • Did you know?
  • Cobblestone is a basic building block, required for the crafting of many essential tools and items.
  • Cobblestone was the very first block added in Minecraft, but its data value is 4.
  • Cobblestone, moss stone, and Netherrack can be used for navigation, even underground, because they always orient themselves in the same direction when placed.

Dispenser!

July 4th, 2014

  • A Dispenser is a special redstone-powered block. When right-clicked, a menu allows you to place items inside it. Each time the block receives power from a redstone circuit, a random item from its inventory drops out.
  • Most importantly, dispensers can be used to make crazy fireworks displays. IE: http://youtu.be/j-Lr8keRTKA

Leaves!

July 3rd, 2014

Fun facts:

  • Leaves are blocks in Minecraft. It’s a strange game.
  • Leaves were the first block in the game that gave you a different item depending on what tool you used to harvest it (shears or hands).
  • Despite being highly flammable, leaf blocks cannot be used as fuel for a furnace.

Coal ore

July 2nd, 2014

Fun facts:

  • Coal Ore is a mineral block that drops coal lumps when mined.
  • Smelting the ore instead of mining it is highly inefficient, as it would require fuel to acquire the coal, which is the exact purpose of obtaining this ore in the first place.
  • One can also acquire large amounts of experience by mining coal.

Obsidian!

July 1st, 2014

Fun facts:

  • Obsidian is one of the hardest blocks to destroy in Minecraft. In reality, obsidian is glass-like in texture and quite fragile.
  • Obsidian cannot be moved by pistons.
  • Obsidian is the only block that can appear naturally in all three dimensions.

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