My most recent derp. I finally decided to give Blood Magic a try for no particular reason. Still haven't figured out why I want to use it except for the reason that I can. Found that beginner's guide by Padfoote - wonderful thing btw - and was able to do my lv1 and lv2 altars easily, np.
So, I thought I'd go on and do the level 3 altar. Well, I looked at the picture and started placing down the blocks and before you knew it, I had a setup that looked just like the picture. So I caught a couple of innocent bystanders and helped them over to the confinement chamber. Did the nasty to them and find that the gold block I put in the altar wouldn't change. Maybe there wasn't enough lp? So I start swigging the bottle and doing myself. Still nothing. So, I finally go get my little black 'book' and swing it at the altar and ...it's still a lvl2 altar?
And no matter how many times I check, it keeps saying level 2. Maybe the glowstones were too high? Nope. Maybe the square was too big? Nope. Maybe I needed more of those fancy stone things with the designs on them? Nope. Got so frustrated
so I went back to that beginners guide and took a looonnng look at the picture. It looked exactly the same. I was about to give up on this thing.
Finally, the following words pop out of the guide and it said, ONE BLOCK DOWN.........
opps.
Moral of the story? You really should read the guide that someone goes to great trouble to put together.