Rules, Codes, and Definitions for X-Box Minecraft Seed Evaluation

So, I have fallen in love with Minecraft on the X-Box. I think it's fabulous and due to a lack of seed sites on the Web that deal directly with the X-Box version of Minecraft -- as well as the proliferation of infantile jackasses who recommend seed names like "boobies" even though they suck because it's fun to say "boobies" -- I'm starting this blog.

Scoring

I'm going to pick random seeds that I think of and evaluate them using the following seven categories, each on a scale of one to ten, for a total score of between 0 and 70:

• [MH] - Mountains and Hills are interesting to look at and adventurous to climb. Answers what percentage of the board is covered in hills and mountains and how steep/difficult are they to climb?
• [DW] - Deep Water is any lake or ocean with significant depth. I love diving deep down under the surface of the water to discover underground entrances to secret caves and extract coal, iron, and diamonds at the bottom of a lake.
• [C] - Caves include both concave depressions in the side of a cliff and plummeting holes buried in the ground. I also include any "shortcut caves" (caves with an entrance and an exit). Rating reflects both quantity and quality of caves.
• [W] - Wood is essential in Minecraft -- especially in the first fifteen minutes. The availability of wood is a key determinant of whether a seed is for beginners or more seasoned experts.
• [SP] - Spawn Point is the point where I spawned. The game remembers your spawn point and puts you there if you die. So it's important to have your house/town/castle somewhere near your spawn. Though the spawn can change from X-Box to X-Box and instance to instance, generally speaking you'll be somewhere in the area of the coordinates I post. If this location is suitable for building your dream house, it gets a high score; if it's in the middle of a sandbar in the middle of the ocean, not so much.
• [VR] - Visible Resources includes coal, iron, diamonds, gold, redstone, and other extractable resources normally found in caves that can be seen right on the surface of cliffs and things while walking around. Bonuses are added for zombie spawns. It does not include sugar, wool, feathers, eggs, or other collectables.
• [AF] - Amazing Features incorporates all the really interesting, weird, and unusual land formations like overhangs, waterfalls, cliffs, caves, craters, sea floor quirks, land bridges, and other anomalies that are either visually striking to look at or strategically significant.

There are certain score milestones that earn awards. You can search for seeds that have scored significantly in any category by using the following phrases in the search box:

• Rolling! - 8.0 or higher in mountains and hills
• Abyssal! - 8.0 or higher in deep water
• Spelunked! - 8.0 or higher in caves
• Treemium! - 8.0 or higher in wood
• Born Free! - 8.0 or higher in spawn point
• Cakewalk! - 8.0 or higher in visible resources
• Anseled! - 8.0 or higher in amazing features
• Perfection - a seed has registered a perfect ten points in one or more categories.
• Premium - a seed has accumulated a total score of 40.0 or higher
• Golden - a seed has accumulated a total score of 50.0 or higher
• Legendary - a seed has accumulated a total score of 55.0 or higher

Procedure

I spend a single day/night cycle on each seed. I don't bother building any houses or improving any hidi-holes; I simply hoist myself into the air to get a birds-eye view of the area, pick a direction, and then I wonder around with the map jotting down coordinates of landmarks and resources.

If I find a seed that has something truly interesting or unique or I determine that the seed is of top quality, I will continue to navigate the seed until I unlock the entire map. I then post those maps.

Understanding Seed Names

Seed names are sensitive, so I always pick seed names that are lowercase and contain no spaces unless otherwise indicated. All seeds being tested are from the current build of Minecraft for the X-Box. These rules will be reposted (and possibly changed) with each version change. The reason for this is that seeds are specific to each version, so when the version changes all of the seed names I've tested become worthless and we start again. The current build is:

Xbox Minecraft version 1.1.1
(equivalent to PC version 1.7.3)

Terms

So, having done this for over a month now, I have developed a certain lingo that might be confusing to new players. So here are some common terms I use and their meanings.

• balanced - equal parts awesome and horror; forests and desert; water and land
• Can't Miss - this is an incredibly rare event that I want to highlight. It gets it's own section
• cliff diving - anyplace where you can descend rapidly and safely from the top of a cliff into water
• day-walkers - enemies shaded by overhangs or trees that can survive and kill you during the day
• landmark - a visually unique object or landmass that can be seen at great distances or that can be used for navigational purposes
• scenic - any level that is visually beautiful

Definitions - Biomes

• desert - all sand, cacti, no rain
• forest - any location where tree density is so thick it causes shade
• grassland - all green, no trees, lots of grass and flowers, not flat
• plains - all green, no trees, lots of grass and flowers, flat
• savanna - vast stretches of grass, mud, and/or rock with small shrubs or few trees
• shadows - any land that is covered in shade as a result of another land mass above it or high tree density. Enemies lurk in shadows
• tundra - any location where ice and snow cover the land

Definitions - Quantitative Ratings

• tiny - about 8x8x8 cubes
• small - about 16x16x16 cubes
• medium - about 24x24x24 cubes
• large - about 32x32x32 cubes
• massive - about 40x40x40 cubes
• epic - immeasurable
• shallow - four cubes deep or less, pertains to islands, ravines and crevasses.
• deep caves - this rating denotes that a cave has been confirmed to reach down to y=30 or lower or contains a pitfall or contains multiple downward-trending branches
• deep water - water that reaches y=58 or lower

Definitions - Land Formations

• basin - imagine the shape of a cup. Now imagine four mountains whose sloping sides create a cup shape in the land
• cavern - a cave whose ceiling is far above your head
• cliff - any sheer-rock mountainside that cannot be climbed without renovation
• craters - deep, sheer-walled depressions in the land; they appear as perfect circles at the top and have flat or rounded bottoms
• crevasse - a deep, open-air trench cut into flat land
• dead drop - any hole in the land so deep it will kill you if you fall into it
• gorge - a deep, open-air trench cut between two mountains
• floaters - Minecraft can create floating chunks of land that hover above the terrain without touching anything
• hidi-hole - a tiny cave with no enemies suitable for an initial dwelling at the start of the game.
• island - small landmass completely surrounded by water
• land bridge - a narrow, elevated stretch of land that connects two larger land masses
• overhang - any shelf-like land that protrudes outward from the top of a cliff
• pitfall - any hole in the land that you can fall through yet survive
• quarry - any location where land inexplicably strips away exposing the stone underneath
• ravine - a shallow, open-air trench cut into flat land
• sandbar - tiny sand formations visible just above the water line of gulfs and oceans
• spires - sheer rock formations that stretch upward into the sky surrounded on five sides by open-air that cannot be climbed without renovation
• stalagmites - unsmooth cave ceilings made of sandstone
• valley - an area of flat land between two mountains

Definitions - Water Formations

• cove - water surrounded by land on three sides, narrow mouth
• gulf - water surrounded by land on three sides, open mouth
• lagoon - water ringed with islands or sandbars
• ocean - significant water with no bordering land on at least one side, may contain islands
• river - narrow stretch of water that divides an otherwise homogenous land mass
• waterfalls - any water source that pours through open-air for more than two blocks of height.

Definitions - Resources

• cacti - plural of cactus
• deposit - a collection of coal, iron, diamond, or other resource squares
• pit - a tiny crater full of an otherwise out-of-place material; sand, lava, gravel can all have pits
• spawn farm - a naturally-formed zombie spawn located at the base of an open-air pit with sheer sides that prevent the zombies from leaving
• zombie spawn - any location where enemies spawn regardless of light levels

So that's it. Hope you enjoy the blog and feel free to friend me on Xbox Live (ANGELIKMAYHEM -- in all caps). You can also message me through this site or leave a comment on a page if you find something interesting that I missed or if you'd like to contribute a seed. Note: I do not recommend the seed "boobies" since I am not a 12-year-old boy.