Minecraft

[TheGodBen]

Canadave wrote:

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Yup, that's my place. I actually got lost in a massive cave system myself when I wandered off to the west. Never did get the whole thing explored, so I wonder if it might have been the same one?

I doubt it as I was in newly generated land. Actually, now that the map has updated, I have figured out what happened.



When I logged back in after the server reset, I started walking the wrong way entirely. I had assumed that I was only a few degrees off and that I was somewhere near that yellow circle, I had no idea I had wandered that far off course.

Reverend wrote:

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P.S. Since I only just discovered how to take screenshots, here's some progress on my great western highway.



Needless to say I'm starting to run low on iron!

You must be starting to run low on everything! That bridges looks like it just eats up resources. Looks awesome though.

[Reverend]

^The lava isn't a problem because I stuck a portal at the Fort Binky terminus, which links to the nether literally right next to a lava lake, so it's just a matter of buckets and walking back and forth. I stripped two whole beaches bare getting all the sand for the glass though, but tunnelling though that mountain provided all the dirt needed to fill it all in again, plus plenty of coal and iron so with the addition of a cobblestone generator, it's more or less paid for itself. If you look at this map (taken earlier than the screen shots as you can see the highway had only just made it out of the mountain at that point) you can see that a large portion of it went underground.



Wood is the only tricky bit, but luckily my last project was building a 50x50 monster spawner under the ocean to the east (the excavation of which supplied the iron and diamonds to get me started), so I have a plentiful supply of bone meal to get those saplings growing nice and fast. It's just very laborious. I've actually taken to listening to audiobooks while working so I don't go to bed with the sound of placing blocks ringing in my ears.

[XwarlokX]

Finally got some rain the other night in my SSP game. I also played around a little bit with Eihort, and discovered a massive arch bordering on a snow biome near my spawn point. So I've been working on removing the center of the arch so far and rebuilding it entirely out of glass.

Here's some random pics of my projects. I'm planning on linking all these areas with minecart tracks at some point. I think the most difficult two to link will be the plateau home and the arch.

First up is my plateau home..


Secondly is my spawn point


A look down from inside my glass arch..


An attempted view of the arch from below and to the side..


And finally, a view of Fort Midwater which was built around a solitary tree standing out of the water.

[Owain Taggart]

So, here's another update. I've finished my first floor of my house and it's coming together really nicely and I feel it's coming together even faster now that I've worked on the basics. Here's how it currently looks. What you see there is the start of the second floor.. The wooden beams seen earlier are actually part of the first floor, but I plan on doing the same for each floor.



Here's how it looks inside now:

[XwarlokX]

Oh wow, that house looks great! How long did it take you to gather up all that wood? Makes me wish I could focus on one project at a time, instead of showing off my half-works!

[Owain Taggart]

Not too long, to be honest. It took a lot less time than I thought it would. It helped that I started on a hill and built the structure around the hill and worked from that and dug my floor, so what I've done is I keep extending the walls. Now that I've got my first floor done, it's a lot easier to just keep extending, and I plan on having 5 or 6 floors to it.

The hill used to have a lot of trees on it, which I had to clear away. If you take a look at the last map that Robert posted a few pages ago, you can get an idea of how it looked back then when I was just starting out.

Compare this:

http://gorzek.com/minecraft/serverworld-detail.png

to this from just a few days ago:

http://gorzek.com/minecraft/serverworld-mcmap.png

[Reverend]

^I recommend incorporating skylights and/or an open mezzanine type of arrangement if you're going for multiple floors. Natural daylight can really help the brighten up a house in a way torches or even glowstone can't really manage and exposing multiple floors helps to open the space up a little. Also, I'm not sure how many people have noticed but stairs don't appear to block light, so if you don't want a glass section in the roof, wooden or cobblestone stairs can be used to make a nice authentic looking gable roof.

[Cutter John]

I love what you've done with the different textures Owain. Its really pretty. Now we just need to set you up with a higher rez texturepack.

And yeah, I'll second the skylight. They really do brighten up a place.

Wow I'm jealous guys. Ya'll are building entire cities while all I've done is make a bloody tree. (you can just make it out on the map right under spawn.

Oh, I set out a freebie box on the beach by my place and filling it with stuff I don't need (cobble, some redstone, etc) Feel free to help yourself. And if you happen to have any spare wool blocks, please throw a few in.

[judge alba]

so any tips on the safest way to harvest obsideian?, made a little stretch of it then mine a bit a fell in

started a new house as i found then lost then found my old one so i gave up and built sanother one until i can figure out where i put it.

[Robert Maxwell]

Safest way to harvest obsidian is to build a trench 1 block deep, fill it with lava (hauled with buckets from a source lava pool), then pour water over it. Harvest obsidian!

[137th Gebirg]

Problem with that is that it eventually runs out and you have to go back an get more. I would try to find a cave system where water falls and lava flows are relatively close by. Block them both off and dig the trench between them, with rebuildable and survivable cobblestone canal "locks" between them. That way it's a constantly replenishing source of both resources that can be controlled while mixing. Build a mining station around that area as a secondary base from your primary. Keep in mind that mixing lava and water does not guarantee obsidian (at least in my experience). I was struggling for hours with it and I was only able to harvest one block out of hundreds of cobblestones that were generated with that process. Must be a probabilities thing in the game, like lightning fires, rain and wolves like others have talked about here. I get tons of rain almost every other day and wolves run all over my world. Just the way the biome rolls, I guess.

[Robert Maxwell]

Unfortunately, you cannot make an infinite lava spring. If you could, then you could easily make an "obsidian factory." Alas, obsidian can only be made from lava springs, and lava springs do not replenish the way water springs do.

The reason you get cobblestone instead of obsidian is that only lava spring blocks produce obsidian. If water hits moving lava, it produces cobblestone.

[137th Gebirg]

AH! That explains it then. Thanks - I'm still pretty new to the MC world (into it only about 3 weeks now).

[Robert Maxwell]

I highly recommend you look at the Minecraft Wiki, which tells you a lot about the game mechanics that may not be so obvious--such as how the liquids work, how fire spreads, the importance of light sources, etc.

[Owain Taggart]

Thanks, guys! Been having a lot of fun with it

Yeah, I know I should be running a different texture pack, but I don't really know if my computer would be up to the task, If I end up with a higher resolution one. What would you recommend?

I've thought about a skylight, but I wasn't sure how to incorporate it within multiple floors, but I do have an idea. I think I'll take the middle of the floor and either make it an open space or a glass floor. I'll have to experiment and see what works best.

In doing this, I've been trying to stick to real-world design philosophies. Everything like the tree stumps as wooden beams helps to serve as a framework, that also get incorporated into the interior design. Helps it feel organic and unified. The only thing is, I wish the game would have the ability to rotate blocks, because I'd rather have my stumps sitting horizontally rather than vertically.