So, I know this may seem stupid, but I've got a problem.
I can't build a house, and by can't 'build a house', I mean a decent one.
I have a hard time building a house with multiple rooms, I can't do it, it is difficult, I can never find good solid flat ground, I have to waste a whole MC week terraforming the damn mountain to make a flat ground, so I can build a shitty house.
my houses end up as a big, empty, one room building, when I look on this forum, I see all these beautiful mansions, I stare in awe at there creations, but I can't even keep a save for a couple days...
So, is it my creativity? Do I lack something? Common sense? What is it? Why can't I build an awesome house?
My houses are either a big one room building, or a big hole in a mountain.
And why can't I keep enough interest in Minecraft to not delete my worlds, that I've put work into? I've maybe found diamonds probably six times in my WHOLE Minecraft experience, the most diamonds I've ever seen is about six.
People have coined the term 'Re-roll syndrome', which I have, at an extreme degree, I honestly spend more time on here than I do on Minecraft.
So, how do I build a cool house, how do I fix my re-roll syndrome?
Please, I need answers, these things have been chewing at me for a long time now, I just can't take it anymore.
Take a look at your own house, note the size of things like the kitchen and plan the house accordingly. Bookcases and workbenches bring life into the buildings.
The only other thing I can think of is look at a lot of designs people have made in minecraft, and take inspiration.
Also, columns in big rooms are cool.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Welcome to my ice cream store! We got four flavors: Vannila, Chocolate, Strawberry, and AIDS. New Mob Idea
I can share my building process with you, if you like C: It's a little lengthy, and it might be easier with pictures. I can take some time to make a tutorial? Or would a simplified, written out tutorial be better?
I have a hard time building a house with multiple rooms, I can't do it, it is difficult, I can never find good solid flat ground, I have to waste a whole MC week terraforming the damn mountain to make a flat ground, so I can build a shitty house.
my houses end up as a big, empty, one room building, when I look on this forum, I see all these beautiful mansions, I stare in awe at there creations, but I can't even keep a save for a couple days...
First, think smaller. Instead of laying out a huge foundation, first decide what size and shape the INTERIOR of each room will need, to fulfill it's purpose. Alternately, learn to build single room-shapes, that you can make reasonable use out of, without overbuilding. For example, a 6x6 area bounded by a single-course wall, produces a 4x4 room on the interior. This is useful, because it allows you to arrange windows in aesthetically-pleasing ways. IMO, anyway. Also, it's not super-huge. Another useful size is 7x7, with a 5x5 interior. But we'll get there in just a second ... not immediately. :smile.gif:
That's the foundation, and a nice wooden floor. It's not much to look at by itself, though; just a single, small room. We want a nice, multi-rooms-per-floor HOUSE, right? Well, houses need stairs. A single spiralling staircase can fit into a 3x3 space, which needs a 5x5 wall area. Some of those walls can overlap the foundations of the first-story rooms, too. Here's the raw plan for the stairs:
( are stairs, either a wood-slab half block, or actual wooden stair pieces, whichever you like better. Also, I presume the interiors are all three-blocks high, so you need to climb FOUR times, to get to the floor of the next level. That's how *I* build, anyway. Feels less claustrophobic.)
So we're going to add another room, identical to the first one, on the first floor. We're going to place the stairs between them, BUT - and this is kind of important - not CENTERED between them. Not exactly, anyway:
One last final touch on the first floor: we're going to close up the gap at the bottom, between the two rooms ... and put a wood floor in what becomes a hallway. Then we put door spaces into the rooms on either side:
That gives you the first floor of a nice, modest, but still interesting house. You can build straight up from there, as-is, to a height of as much as four floors.
You COULD make it more interesting, though, if you swap off the stairs from front to back with each floor. To do that, you need to accommodate the second flight of stairs, and change the doorway of your house to something like this:
So now, the second floor will look like this:
Do that again, for the third floor. Whenever a stairway reaches the right floor - leave the volume above it empty, except for the exterior walls. That will make the hallway feel a lot less claustrophobic.
And finally, the roof. You can simply build the last stairway, with a wall all around it and a door (see the first plan, for just that). Throw up Fences all around the perimeter, and poof, walkable roof, over a six-room house.
For bonus points, add another, say, four or five levels onto the final stairway - just keep going up past the roof. At the top, widen it out (first by 1, to a 7x7 block, then in the very next layer of wall, by 2, to a 9x9 block). Build the corners into pillars four blocks high, connect the pillars to each other at that four-block height. Use dirt as scaffolding, and put a pyramidal roof on top. If you have any Glowstone, maybe make the very tip-top of the roof out of it. Between the pillars, at floor level, put in some railings.
Poof, STYLISH house, complete with watchtower.
(Don't forget to put in some anti-spider-climbing features - at four blocks off the ground, a simple "ridge" of extra stone all around, should do it.)
Make sure the house, and it's exterior, are well-lit. Punch windows through the walls to suit your tastes, furnish, and ... enjoy!
And just to show you what it might look like, from the outside?
A possible modification: add an additional 4x4(interior)/6x6(exterior) room to either side, making the whole house wider - but cut the main house by 1 floor high, resulting in the same interior volume.
For a really BIG modification? Add another 4x4-interior room onto the first and second floor of one side. Then, extend the other side from 4x4 interior, to 4x9 interior. (This makes both "wings" the same length.) In the wing with the loooong room, DON'T floor it over; leave it with "cathedral ceilings". (You can floor it out 2 or 4 blocks from teh hallway, to make a balcony overlooking it, if you like). And, with those additions, KEEP the third floor as-is.
And finally, build a roof over your additions that slopes up pyramidally from the corners, but produces a linear ridgline ... um, like this:
... where the cross-section looks like this:
The btw, should be the actual top of the walls for the second floor.
GM, I am speechless, thank you SO much, that is really helpful, what I would do is build the whole building, and then build the rooms, never thought of making it room by room, thank you very, very much!
Don't feel bad, my houses STAY boring. I just can't seem to make them "WOW" houses, just "eh" houses. It doesn't bother me, I just make ridiculous castles for "WOW" buildings. All my living quarters' are "eh," though.
That tower a couple posts above me is pretty darn cool.
As for my own builds, I generally focus on small, compact, but incredibly useful.
Usually my stuff only has a small portion visible on the surface, and a complex just under the ground level.
The layout I use is usually to start with a 5x5x3 room (which is a holdover from the old InDev house), where I have enough room to place (usually) 2 large chests (4 if I raise four blocks in the ceiling), a work bench, 4 furnaces, a door and a bed. Honestly, I could cram more in there if I want, but this still maintains a bit of navigability.
Then, I start to branch out. The next room I build is usually an 11x11x3 room, which contains the future doors to other rooms, and a central 5x5 mine shaft, with a spiral staircase that eventually leads all the way to Y level 12 (which is the surface level of natural lava pools). The rooms on the the two sides perpendicular to the entrance rooms serve different purposes depending on how I am playing. If I am doing single player, one is a farm, and the other is a Nether portal room. If I am on SMP, one is a farm, and the other is a storage room.
The door at the far end of the mineshaft room usually ends up leading to a larger final storage room, which I build as the need arises.
If I want to be fancy, I will then build above ground structures which are placed in ways that can only normally be accessed from below ground, and are designed to fit naturally into the environment.
If I am feeling insane, I will sometimes build a 50x50x3 mob spawner at around Y-level 30, off of my main mineshaft.
Usually this whole layout (with the exception of the mob spawner) can be built in about 4 hours.
AUUUGH!!
Something happened and I ended up having to End-Task my Photoshop. The tutorial I was working on is lost... It said that I ran out of RAM! I REALLY REALLY HATE PHOTOSHOP D:<
It shouldn't be too difficult. It all relies with your creativity. Give things a little oompf. For windows, give it a little perch, so the windows are a little out a bit. Make columns at the corners of your house and on the sides of your doors with a different material than the rest of the home is built with. It looks really nice. Keep about a 3 block space per floors, not counting the floor. Start from a rectangle, and then add another rectangle. Then do some diagonals, until you have a pretty outline of a house going. Then build up. Use half steps, stone, cobblestone, wood, logs, whatever it takes to make your house look varied and presentable. For roofing, use stairs. In order to fit the corners of the roof, you'll have to use full blocks, but just keep going up with the stairs for around 2 or 3 blocks, then flatten it out. You'll come up with something. It just takes experimentation.
Plan out your house first, with a floor plan. (Essentially, lay out the stones and wood that will be the outline of your house. Then build up. It's what I do.
Wow, I really enjoyed your guide. It illuminated the fact that building modular homes rather than the whole house from the ground up is the way to go. I usually just build large underground homes but this will have me going to the surface more often. Thank you
From your top post, it sounds like you are making it hard for yourself. If you want to build on a flat place, find a flat place, don't level a mountain :smile.gif:
The worlds are so potentially large, scan around and you're bound to find a lovely spot. Or roll another world until you do.
No harm in re-rolling, the one thing that doesn't delete when you delete a world is your experience, that travels with you to the next place.
Also, big rooms are not bad. A lot of my bases have been set into cliffs. I like glass walls. I say, find buildings you think are cool, and try to make it in minecraft, if you're floundering looking for inspiration. Also, there isn't a whole lot you can currently do in a finished house. Except start building another one.
Thank you all very much, your words have been inspiring and very informative. I can feel the ambition, but don't worry, I will come back Fray and take a look at your guide for sure!
Thank you all very much, your words have been inspiring and very informative. I can feel the ambition, but don't worry, I will come back Fray and take a look at your guide for sure!
Lol, you know what? How about instead of a tutorial, We just play on a server and I can teach you there? xD
I can't build a house, and by can't 'build a house', I mean a decent one.
I have a hard time building a house with multiple rooms, I can't do it, it is difficult, I can never find good solid flat ground, I have to waste a whole MC week terraforming the damn mountain to make a flat ground, so I can build a shitty house.
my houses end up as a big, empty, one room building, when I look on this forum, I see all these beautiful mansions, I stare in awe at there creations, but I can't even keep a save for a couple days...
So, is it my creativity? Do I lack something? Common sense? What is it? Why can't I build an awesome house?
My houses are either a big one room building, or a big hole in a mountain.
And why can't I keep enough interest in Minecraft to not delete my worlds, that I've put work into? I've maybe found diamonds probably six times in my WHOLE Minecraft experience, the most diamonds I've ever seen is about six.
People have coined the term 'Re-roll syndrome', which I have, at an extreme degree, I honestly spend more time on here than I do on Minecraft.
So, how do I build a cool house, how do I fix my re-roll syndrome?
Please, I need answers, these things have been chewing at me for a long time now, I just can't take it anymore.
The only other thing I can think of is look at a lot of designs people have made in minecraft, and take inspiration.
Also, columns in big rooms are cool.
New Mob Idea
EDIT: Off-topic: Darn, now my post count isn't a MEME anymore...
Alright, I'll see what I can do.
This might take a long time xD
First, think smaller. Instead of laying out a huge foundation, first decide what size and shape the INTERIOR of each room will need, to fulfill it's purpose. Alternately, learn to build single room-shapes, that you can make reasonable use out of, without overbuilding. For example, a 6x6 area bounded by a single-course wall, produces a 4x4 room on the interior. This is useful, because it allows you to arrange windows in aesthetically-pleasing ways. IMO, anyway. Also, it's not super-huge. Another useful size is 7x7, with a 5x5 interior. But we'll get there in just a second ... not immediately. :smile.gif:
That's the foundation, and a nice wooden floor. It's not much to look at by itself, though; just a single, small room. We want a nice, multi-rooms-per-floor HOUSE, right? Well, houses need stairs. A single spiralling staircase can fit into a 3x3 space, which needs a 5x5 wall area. Some of those walls can overlap the foundations of the first-story rooms, too. Here's the raw plan for the stairs:
( are stairs, either a wood-slab half block, or actual wooden stair pieces, whichever you like better. Also, I presume the interiors are all three-blocks high, so you need to climb FOUR times, to get to the floor of the next level. That's how *I* build, anyway. Feels less claustrophobic.)
So we're going to add another room, identical to the first one, on the first floor. We're going to place the stairs between them, BUT - and this is kind of important - not CENTERED between them. Not exactly, anyway:
One last final touch on the first floor: we're going to close up the gap at the bottom, between the two rooms ... and put a wood floor in what becomes a hallway. Then we put door spaces into the rooms on either side:
That gives you the first floor of a nice, modest, but still interesting house. You can build straight up from there, as-is, to a height of as much as four floors.
You COULD make it more interesting, though, if you swap off the stairs from front to back with each floor. To do that, you need to accommodate the second flight of stairs, and change the doorway of your house to something like this:
So now, the second floor will look like this:
Do that again, for the third floor. Whenever a stairway reaches the right floor - leave the volume above it empty, except for the exterior walls. That will make the hallway feel a lot less claustrophobic.
And finally, the roof. You can simply build the last stairway, with a wall all around it and a door (see the first plan, for just that). Throw up Fences all around the perimeter, and poof, walkable roof, over a six-room house.
For bonus points, add another, say, four or five levels onto the final stairway - just keep going up past the roof. At the top, widen it out (first by 1, to a 7x7 block, then in the very next layer of wall, by 2, to a 9x9 block). Build the corners into pillars four blocks high, connect the pillars to each other at that four-block height. Use dirt as scaffolding, and put a pyramidal roof on top. If you have any Glowstone, maybe make the very tip-top of the roof out of it. Between the pillars, at floor level, put in some railings.
Poof, STYLISH house, complete with watchtower.
(Don't forget to put in some anti-spider-climbing features - at four blocks off the ground, a simple "ridge" of extra stone all around, should do it.)
Make sure the house, and it's exterior, are well-lit. Punch windows through the walls to suit your tastes, furnish, and ... enjoy!
And just to show you what it might look like, from the outside?
A possible modification: add an additional 4x4(interior)/6x6(exterior) room to either side, making the whole house wider - but cut the main house by 1 floor high, resulting in the same interior volume.
For a really BIG modification? Add another 4x4-interior room onto the first and second floor of one side. Then, extend the other side from 4x4 interior, to 4x9 interior. (This makes both "wings" the same length.) In the wing with the loooong room, DON'T floor it over; leave it with "cathedral ceilings". (You can floor it out 2 or 4 blocks from teh hallway, to make a balcony overlooking it, if you like). And, with those additions, KEEP the third floor as-is.
And finally, build a roof over your additions that slopes up pyramidally from the corners, but produces a linear ridgline ... um, like this:
... where the cross-section looks like this:
The btw, should be the actual top of the walls for the second floor.
VOILA, French chateau! :happy.gif:
http://www.youtube.com/user/GoodManLouieDog
As for my own builds, I generally focus on small, compact, but incredibly useful.
Usually my stuff only has a small portion visible on the surface, and a complex just under the ground level.
The layout I use is usually to start with a 5x5x3 room (which is a holdover from the old InDev house), where I have enough room to place (usually) 2 large chests (4 if I raise four blocks in the ceiling), a work bench, 4 furnaces, a door and a bed. Honestly, I could cram more in there if I want, but this still maintains a bit of navigability.
Then, I start to branch out. The next room I build is usually an 11x11x3 room, which contains the future doors to other rooms, and a central 5x5 mine shaft, with a spiral staircase that eventually leads all the way to Y level 12 (which is the surface level of natural lava pools). The rooms on the the two sides perpendicular to the entrance rooms serve different purposes depending on how I am playing. If I am doing single player, one is a farm, and the other is a Nether portal room. If I am on SMP, one is a farm, and the other is a storage room.
The door at the far end of the mineshaft room usually ends up leading to a larger final storage room, which I build as the need arises.
If I want to be fancy, I will then build above ground structures which are placed in ways that can only normally be accessed from below ground, and are designed to fit naturally into the environment.
If I am feeling insane, I will sometimes build a 50x50x3 mob spawner at around Y-level 30, off of my main mineshaft.
Usually this whole layout (with the exception of the mob spawner) can be built in about 4 hours.
Something happened and I ended up having to End-Task my Photoshop. The tutorial I was working on is lost... It said that I ran out of RAM! I REALLY REALLY HATE PHOTOSHOP D:<
Sorry dude :\ I'll try typing up what to do...
Also, do you have any seeds that would be good for building? Like, flat land?
And, do you have any suggestions on how to keep interested? I play a clean version of Minecraft, I don't use mods.
Plan out your house first, with a floor plan. (Essentially, lay out the stones and wood that will be the outline of your house. Then build up. It's what I do.
The worlds are so potentially large, scan around and you're bound to find a lovely spot. Or roll another world until you do.
No harm in re-rolling, the one thing that doesn't delete when you delete a world is your experience, that travels with you to the next place.
Also, big rooms are not bad. A lot of my bases have been set into cliffs. I like glass walls. I say, find buildings you think are cool, and try to make it in minecraft, if you're floundering looking for inspiration. Also, there isn't a whole lot you can currently do in a finished house. Except start building another one.
Demographics: Age poll!
Nether poll!
Tamed wolf health as indicated by tail position
Gravity?
Herobrine is Real. #NotIntendedToBeAFactualStatement
Lol, you know what? How about instead of a tutorial, We just play on a server and I can teach you there? xD
Please click on my dragon!