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Minecraft Helping Students Preserve Their Hometown Digitally

by Stone Marshall | Jun 3, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized | 0 comments

In most circles, Minecraft usually serves as some form of entertainment, allowing players to create whatever they seem fit just because they feel like it. But in some scenarios, it actually serves a purpose — like, in this situation, helping students preserve their hometown in a unique manner.

Per this report from Bournemouthecho, a group of 15 students in New Milton are actually using the Mojang-produced game in an attempt to recreate their town’s post World War II history by putting together streets and buildings as they’re represented in the real world.

And with that, others can jump in and help. The students are inviting young people to take part in what’s known as a Block 2 Block project, put together by the Heritage Lottery Fund and the Hampshire Cultural Trust and Forest Arts Centre. The workshop is set to take place in the city’s Memorial Hall on May 30 and 31.

The project is expected to be completed in July, with the students interviewing members of the city, including the school’s chair of governors and the mayor. They also paid a visit to a nearby pair of museums to learn more about the history of the town.
The head teacher for the class, Nigel Pressnell, noted, “This is an amazing opportunity for our students and is a very exciting project for them to be part of. Not only are they learning so much about their hometown but they are also finding out more about computer techniques. We can’t wait to see New Milton’s history brought back to life.”

Microsoft has gotten involved as well. The company was so impressed with the work done by the students that they’ve been invited to share their plans with the company’s London headquarters.

And what’s more, they’re documenting their work. The students are actually adapting certain filming techniques when it comes to recreating the town, so that they can tell stories about its creation while having some video to serve as their back-up.

This is a rather ambitious project that no doubt has a lot of work that needs to be put into it, but the kids certainly look to be up to the task. We wish them the best of luck!

Minecraft is available now for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch and PC, as well as mobile and various older platforms.

Minecraft: How to Teleport

As you’ll probably know if you played much Minecraft, a lot of the game is based on exploring the massive world. Of course, if you’re able to get to far away sections of the map quickly you’re going to be able to see different sections of the map. To do so, you’re going to want to know how you teleport to different places.

First of all, make sure the world you’re in is in Creative Mode. Then, work out where you want to go to using the coordinates in game and open the console and press ‘/’ and typing in ‘teleport, your name, and then the coordinates’. Coordinates are in X, Y, Z, with sea level being Y:63. Once you’ve done so and pressed enter, your character will teleport to that location.

On mobile, you do the same thing but you need to enable cheats before hand and type the command into the chat box. On console, you need to enable host privileges and select ‘teleport player’ from the Host menu.

That’s all you need to know about how to teleport in Minecraft. For more tips and tricks on the game, be sure to search for Twinfinite.

Has Death Stranding’s Setting Been Revealed?

by Stone Marshall | Jun 2, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Death Stranding’s setting may have been revealed after a connection was made between a real-world location and one of Hideo Kojima’s frequent teasers.

Just a few days ago, Kojima shared an image from his upcoming PlayStation 4 exclusive that showed moss covering some rocks on the ground. He mentioned the Decima engine that the game will be running on, so many took it as a preview of the game’s graphics ahead of the E3 content that’s also being teased. While it’s entirely possible that that was one of the purposes of the tweet, it also seems that Kojima might’ve been hinting that the game would take place in Iceland.

Not long after Kojima shared the tweet, another Twitter user responded with a side-by-side comparison of two images that looked quite similar. Comparing Kojima’s image on the bottom to the one at the top, Rafael Andrade pointed out that the moss-covered field resembles lava fields in Iceland.

View image on Twitter
View image on Twitter

Rafael Andrade
@YamatoDT
Mosses on top of lava fields in Iceland and the new Decima/Death Stranding image are very similar. 🤔 @HIDEO_KOJIMA_EN @Kojima_Hideo #DeathStranding #Decima #E32018

7:54 AM – May 23, 2018
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The two images together definitely encouraged speculation, but the Iceland theory was fueled even further the same day by Kojima himself. The game creator retweeted Andrade’s comparison without a comment attached, and many have taken this as a silent confirmation that the user may be onto something.

Once the Iceland comparison had been made, another user chimed in with an additional comparison that looked at the in-game and real-world locations. Sure, a crater can just be a crater anywhere, but the second Iceland comparison does lend more credibility to the possible reveal of the game’s setting.

View image on TwitterView image on Twitter

BlueHarvey
@BlueHarvey1
Replying to @YamatoDT and 2 others
Also Iceland

9:46 PM – May 23, 2018
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This doesn’t mean that Kojima’s confirmed the setting yet, thought it’s an interesting juxtaposition made even more intriguing by the fact that he noticed it. With how mysterious and confusing the game has looked so far, it’s not hard to believe that those waiting on Death Stranding will take their news anywhere they can get it.

It won’t be long before that desire for more info is satisfied though with more content coming at E3. Kojima has teased more than once that the game will be shown off during this year’s E3 and confirmed that a new trailer will be unveiled.

Kingdom Hearts Meets Minecraft With This Incredible Fan Creation

With Kingdom Hearts III news on the horizon (that release date, Square Enix – we're waiting!), we've all got a little more Goofy on the brain than we'd like to admit. Though we don't have our hands on the newest title just yet, that doesn't mean we can't explore some of our favourite worlds within Minecraft!

This awesome creation comes from user “Water Block” over at PlanetMinecraft and the project is impressive. With familiar locations such as the Olympus Coliseum, Halloween Town, Wonderland, and tons more – this is the perfect way to get your Kingdom Hearts fix in before E3's big announcement.

You can see all of the different nooks and crannies this creator implemented in the Minecraft Kingdom Hearts Adventure in the video above, it's even fun trying to spot the more subtle nods tucked away in there.

This user is also responsible for even more creations, including The Battle of Scarif, Kingdom Hearts II Adventure, and more! You can follow them over on the Minecraft creation site right here, where you can also find monthly updates on the playable area's progress and what's continiously being added! With over 36,000 downloads, you definitely wouldn't be the only one excited to delve into this magical, albeit blockier, world.

In other Minecraft news, the “Better Togethe” update is coming to Nintendo Switch next month!

Making the cross-play play jump makes it even easier to do just that so that platform of choice doesn't have to mean missing out. Currently the “Better Together” update applies to the mobile, VR, PC, and Xbox One versions of the game, with the Switch coming later.

In addition to the update going live next month on the 21st, the physical version of the popular building title is also set to release the day before on June 20th. You can learn more about popular questions asked concerning this update and what that means for current platforms right here though the game's official website.

1
COMMENTS
Excited to squad up with friends and family? Here's what you can experience together with this expansive update:

“Explore randomly generated worlds and build amazing things from the simplest of homes to the grandest of castles. Play in creative mode with unlimited resources or mine deep into the world in survival mode, crafting weapons and armor to fend off the dangerous mobs.”

Minecraft Marketplace
For the first time, skins, textures, and worlds designed by the community are available in the store. Buy once and enjoy across Xbox, Windows 10 and mobile devices!* (and soon, the Switch)
Endless exploration
Create and explore your very own world where the only limit is what you can imagine.
Build almost anything
Crafting has never been faster, easier or more fun!
Co-op play
Play with up to four players in split screen for free, or invite hundreds of friends to a massive gameplay server or your own private Realm!

Minecraft reaches 100 million downloads in China

by Stone Marshall | Jun 1, 2018 | Awesome Book News, Free, Intro, Minecraft News, Minecraft questions, news, parent-news, State of Stone, Stone Marshall Book News, Stone Marshall Books, Stone Marshall Club, Stone Marshall Minecraft Adventures, Uncategorized | 0 comments

Minecraft has reached over 100 million registered users in China less than 12 months after it launched.

The free-to-play version of Mojang's genre-defining builder was brought to China on PC in August 2017, quickly followed an iOS release in September, and finally an Android version in October; there is no console version available in the region.

Daniel Ahmad
@ZhugeEX
Minecraft now has over 100 million registered users in China across the free to play versions of the game on PC & Mobile.

12:40 AM – May 23, 2018
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Published by tech giant NetEase, in collaboration with Microsoft, the free-to-play downloads are in addition to the 144 million sales figure announced earlier this year, putting Minecraft on around 250 million downloads worldwide.

Developer Mojang recently announced however that it won't be releasing anymore significant updates for the last-gen console versions of Minecraft.

A Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia hands-on — Fighting in the bloody woods

Sega recently launched a new type of Total War game, Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia, as the latest in a long-running series of strategy titles for the PC.

I gave it a whirl and checked out how it offers a new take on real-time combat with a meta-layer of strategy and diplomacy. Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia dwells on a particular historical period, with the battle for the British Isles during the Viking invasions. It starts after Alfred the Great wins a victory over the Nordic invaders at the Battle of Edington in 878 A.D. It is available on the Windows PC.

I played the Viking Sea Kings on the normal level. It was easy for me to grasp, but I’ve been playing the franchise since it started in 2000 with Total War: Shogun. The strategy series now has 15 entries that have combined sold over 20 million units. Developer The Creative Assembly, the studio behind Total War, also made Halo Wars 2 for Microsoft. The fantasy-themed Total War: Warhammer II debuted in September, but Britannia takes the series back to history.

I wish I had time to play it more. But you can check out a sample of it in the video. By the way, I’ll be interviewing Rob Bartholomew, studio brand director at Sega’s Creative Assembly, next Wednesday in London at the Casual Connect Europe event in London. We’ll be talking about catering to both the hardcore and the mainstream, and pivoting into new business models such as free-to-play.

Above: Thousands of soldiers can fight in real-time combat in Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia.

Image Credit: Sega
Unlike the Total War games that can span huge eras, Total War Saga games will explore key flashpoints at distinct places and times in history. Time progresses at about one season per turn, and a game might take about 200 turns to finish. That’s a lot of time.

The strategic map is built on Total War: Attila, which is about the fall of the Roman Empire. But while Attila covered much of Europe, the Britannia strategic map is much more concentrated. The whole geographic area is under a much tighter microscope. You move your armies around the strategic map, and when you meet another army in battle, the action zooms into a 3D landscape where the enemies clash.

When I first zoomed into a battle, I noticed that I could see the individual shops in a bazaar in the middle of a small settlement. I zoomed out and could see the few square miles of battlefield where the armies could maneuver. That represented an astounding amount of detail.

The game depicts a defining moment in British history, when Alfred the Great defeated rival Viking factions. While he beat the Vikings, he subsequently made a deal with them. He converted the Viking leader Guthrum to Christianity, and then he used the Vikings as allies to become the dominant ruler in England. For the first time in 80 years of Viking raids, the territories enjoyed a measure of peace. That, in short, is your own task in the game, to become Britain’s ruler.

As the game begins, you face a series of choices that can branch the story in different historical directions. You can achieve victory by aggressively expanding through war, by increasing your fame through construction, achieving technological innovations or influence, or by completing a series of objectives for your particular faction’s history.

Other factions include the English, the Gaels, the Welsh, or the Great Vikings. The last time, I played King Flann of the Mide clan, one of the Gael factions.

Above: Rule Britannia. That’s the goal of Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia.

Image Credit: Sega
The tech tree is divided into eight military and six civic branches. You have to research things like Missile Specialists to get better ranged units. When you do it, those units are available for you to recruit in the pool.

Each province on the map consists of a provincial capital and a series of minor settlements. Capitals have walls and garrisons for defence, have six building slots, and tend to house structures relating to finance, trade, infrastructure, production and the military. Capitals also house larger religious centers, and famous cathedrals can be built in the appropriate towns, granting fame for your leader. Your leader gains traits such as “passionate” or attributes such as zeal, inspiring better performance from followers or armies.

As your leaders gain experience, you can customize how your faction develops. You can add more Champions as your followers to improve the leader’s combat abilities, or you can add Quartermasters to improve your logistics. So your leader doesn’t really change. But the followers behind your leader determine the unique characteristics of what the leader is capable of doing. You can tune the followers for combat or for running a province with bureaucratic efficiency.

I played the Dyflin clan, known as the Giant Slayers, led by my king Bardr, and squared off in battle against the Laigin clan. We were pretty evenly matched, but my soldiers had the better training.

In the battle I included in the video, I had a pretty large army, with plenty of ax soldiers, some spear units, a just a couple of bow units. It was a bit difficult to keep track of things because the entire battlefield was covered with thick woods. I had to zoom in periodically to see what was happening, bu the broke up into a bunch of mini battles as units retreated or charged in different directions. I tried to divide and

Like I said, I wish I had more time to check it out. If I get time to revisit my pile of shame, I’ll pick this one up.

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