New TU9 Scoring System

Alright. In honor of the newest update to Xbox Minecraft, I am deploying a new and streamlined scoring system designed to allow me to keep my sanity. The newest version that just came out doesn't change the terrain at all, so it's my understanding that all 1.8.2 seeds are still valid. However, I will refer to all seeds going forward as TU9 (Title Update 9) seeds because the photos and videos I take will contain TU9 material.

Scoring

The RIM Scores will consist of three different component rankings on a scale of 1-10:

• Realism: a measure of how realistic the board is. Any seed that has a patchwork quilt of all five terrain types will be severely docked for the unrealistic nature of the seed.
• Interest: lots of villages, abandoned mineshafts, dungeons, diamonds, lava pools, etc.
• Magesty: visual splendor, big mountains, deep valleys, snowy arctic conditions, tons of water, anything unusual

I will add these three scores together to create the total score (MAX: 30) upon which the seeds will be ranked.

I still refuse to try names like "boobies" and I still refuse to try any of the Top 200 seeds that PC users crow about because there's already plenty written about them and most of them suck. This blog is for unique seed names only.

Achievements

I've disbanded achievements as most of them are moot with the new terrain generator. I will mention in my descriptions when a seed has great waterfalls, villages, and such.

Procedure

When possible, I generate a full map by walking the entire board. Sometimes if I see a board is obviously awful, I'll quit early and post without a map. I take photos using my screen capture device. I also post videos from time to time. I wrap it all up in a nice neat bow and post them on the blog.

I do my best to find as many amazing things to see as I can, but I'm not Zeus. Every seed has a dungeon somewhere; but most aren't easy to find. If you play a seed long enough you will find all kinds of great stuff. But I'm looking for seeds that have a bunch of amazing things, not just dungeons or diamonds.

Understanding Seed Names

Seed names are case sensitive; my seeds are always lowercase and contain no spaces unless otherwise indicated. And I do make a fuss when it happens. The current build is:

Ratings

I refer to the seed's "rating" as the type of player I think should be playing it:

• Beginner - perfect for a noob; boring for experienced players
• Intermediate - a challenge for noobs; some interesting features for experienced players
• Advanced - a bad experience for noobs; a good experience for the experienced
• Expert - only for experienced players looking for a solid challenge
• Suicidal Expert - only for demented sociopaths who want to cry and rend their pajamas

Terms

So, having done this for over four months 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.
• cave dive - anyplace where you can leap into a cave and land in water
• cliff dive - anyplace where you can leap off a cliff and 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 - 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
• mushroom - special biomes that spawn huge mushrooms and cows with fungus growing on them
• plains - all green, no trees, lots of grass and flowers, flat
• rivers - an area divided by a long, thin stretch of water
• 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
• swamp - forests full of vines
• 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

• deep water - water that reaches y=60 or lower
• small/medium/large - pertains to islands, flatland, villages, and buttes.
• shallow/medium/tall - pertains to ravines, waterfalls, and lava falls.
• caves: hidi-hole - this is a cave that only goes in a few steps to a few meters. The smallest cave.
• caves: medium - any cave that has more than one level but doesn't reach Y=24
• caves: deep - any cave confirmed to reach y=24
• cave complex - any pair of caves that intersect to form huge caverns that you can get lost in

Definitions - Land Formations

• basin - imagine the shape of a cup. Now imagine four mountains whose sloping sides create a cup shape in the land
• butte - a steep rock formation that towers into the sky surrounded on five sides by air that cannot be climbed without renovation. If it helps, think of it as a massive, fat spire.
• 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
• 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
• 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 - an 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. Think of it as a really skinny butte.
• stalactite - unsmooth cave ceilings made of sandstone
• valley - an area of flatland between two mountains

Definitions - Water Formations

• archipelago - multiple neighboring islands
• bay - water surrounded by land on three sides, wide, open mouth
• cove - water surrounded by land on three sides, narrow, obstructed mouth
• lagoon - water ringed with islands or sandbars
• ocean - significant water that touches the entirety of at least one edge of the map
• river - narrow stretch of water that divides an otherwise homogenous landmass; separately, there are also "river" biomes that I will refer to as "river biomes"
• 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
• dungeon - a specific location in caves where mobs spawn; recognizable by the moss covered floor and centrally located spinning pig
• dungeon farm - a zombie spawn located at the base of an open-air pit with sheer sides that prevent the spawned bad guys from leaving
• pit - a tiny crater full of an otherwise out-of-place material; sand, lava, gravel can all have pits

Enjoy the blog and feel free to friend me on Xbox Live (ANGELIKMAYHEM -- in all caps). You can also e-mail me at angelikmayhem [at] yahoo.com if you want to chat.