Well it looks like my post broke. I hope this thread dies soon, look at this mess. If an admin could lock this, that would be great.
Edit: It's getting better. You can see the improvements on the first post on the second page. I'll be posting updates every now and then. Thanks for your suggestions everyone.
Second Edit: This bloggy thread has come to its conclusion. Title changed from "My Sad, Sad Survival Castle" to "My Not So Sad Survival Castle" //static.minecraftforum.net//public/style_emoticons/default/smile.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://static.minecr...ault/smile.png" />
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, you might be asking yourself "what's so sad about this guy's castle?" Well the thing is, after a half year of working on my survival castle (not every day, but beginning in November), it's still as ugly as ever. The theme that I was going for was ancient, barbaric, and unwelcoming. Nothing says unwelcoming like big, plain, grey walls, right? So that's what I did. And still, as it always has been, big plain walls are ugly. You'll see what I mean in the pictures.
But the walls aren't the worst part. No ho ho (Santa?), that was just the introduction to the eyesore that is my castle. The worst part, by far, is the layout. Let me explain: the whole interior of the castle is based around the throne room. It's huge room that takes up nearly half of the space of the castle, forcing all the rest of the castle interior to circle around it. The result is castle that has rooms and hallways awkwardly squeezed into tight spaces, circling around an unwanted throne room. By the time I realized this though, it was already too late. And with such little room to work with, all of the rooms and hallways ended up looking ugly and cramped. Every single last one of them. Once again, you'll see what I mean in the pictures.
Why am I telling this sob story, you may ask? For two reasons: the first is to share my creation (which I originally intended to do with successful castle, that never came to be), and the second reason, more importantly, is to ask for help. I'm all out of ideas to fix my castle. I've tried many new things with no luck. If you have any suggestions, please share them. Help a Minecrafter out. 2014.
tl;dr - You play with cobblestone, you get burned.
Actual tl;dr - Always plan your large builds carefully, or you'll end up like me.
Enough walls of text, here's the castle. I'm leaving out some minor parts to keep this from dragging on.
The Outside
The Front View//i.imgur.com/djDrP8q.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/djDrP8q.png" />The Diagonal Bit on the Right//i.imgur.com/UBQx9YR.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/UBQx9YR.png" />The Right Side//i.imgur.com/bQptTsa.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/bQptTsa.png" />The Back (Don't mind the lighting glitch)//i.imgur.com/7Yu4cUV.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/7Yu4cUV.png" />The Left Side (cinematic, huh?)//i.imgur.com/1MZSx1O.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/1MZSx1O.png" />The Secure Entrance (Creepers won't even come in because of the cats, and nothing else gets through thanks to the iron golems. It's pretty safe to hide behind the fences. There is an opening at each of the corners that are hard to see from this angle.)//i.imgur.com/jDqB58B.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/jDqB58B.png" />The Front at Night//i.imgur.com/NW4ouvR.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/NW4ouvR.png" />
The First Floor
I'll show you the castle counter-clockwise (the layout is a circle around the throne room after all)This is what you see when you walk in://i.imgur.com/WuA2OJT.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/WuA2OJT.png" />Here's the forsaken throne room up close://i.imgur.com/S6bAkCR.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/S6bAkCR.png" />This is what it looks like coming out of the throne room://i.imgur.com/oyZIOR6.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/oyZIOR6.png" />Those netherbrick arches lead to the inside of the walls. Two picture should sum it up.//i.imgur.com/Hvvr56X.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/Hvvr56X.png" />This is inside one of the towers://i.imgur.com/btARPpJ.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/btARPpJ.png" />Back to the entrance, this is what the path left of the throne room looks like.//i.imgur.com/aQld4Gv.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/aQld4Gv.png" />This is my strategy room, as I like to call it.//i.imgur.com/qfOgGrq.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/qfOgGrq.png" />This is the room at the back-left, where I write down all my important coordinates (not very many at the moment)//i.imgur.com/vty8WPl.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/vty8WPl.png" />Back to the hall, it turn to the right. Here's a perfect example of a cramped design.//i.imgur.com/aiPhXIo.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/aiPhXIo.png" />At the middle-left side of this hall is my storage room//i.imgur.com/coWemQB.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/coWemQB.png" />//i.imgur.com/R1rp7De.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/R1rp7De.png" />This entrance leads to my smithy//i.imgur.com/YRQoic7.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/YRQoic7.png" />It looked a lot cooler in my head.//i.imgur.com/qVsCwpH.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/qVsCwpH.png" />In the back are two sets of stairs, one leading to my sanctuary and the other to my mine. I'll just show the sanctuary, as the mine is fairly uninteresting.//i.imgur.com/teIRRMB.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/teIRRMB.png" />//i.imgur.com/qC1F64I.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/qC1F64I.png" />//i.imgur.com/6RGpqgx.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/6RGpqgx.png" />//i.imgur.com/6sm6iUs.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/6sm6iUs.png" />Here's the staircase on the right, leading to the mine://i.imgur.com/8erBRk3.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/8erBRk3.png" />Behind all the furnaces in the smithy is a staircase, leading up to my obsidian farm//i.imgur.com/ZZl1tG8.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/ZZl1tG8.png" />This is where the hallway turn right. I'm very sick of this spot. Here you can see how badly the throne room affects the rest of the castle. I tried filling in the hallway in the back with that oriental looking thing, but as you can see it's just not making the cut.//i.imgur.com/ZzQbEKp.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/ZzQbEKp.png" />//i.imgur.com/NifRmQt.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/NifRmQt.png" />The hallway turns right again, looping around the throne room. I'll show the dining hall to the left in a moment.//i.imgur.com/JAJ5HkS.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/JAJ5HkS.png" />This is the final part of the loop, at the end of the hallway shown above, leading back to the first room.//i.imgur.com/AAB4PJ9.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/AAB4PJ9.png" />The dining hall as promised (inspired by Runescape)://i.imgur.com/2z3rZq1.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/2z3rZq1.png" />(The dining hall is from Relleka in Runescape, in case you were wondering).Here's the courtyard on the right of the picture://i.imgur.com/r01yVIu.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/r01yVIu.png" />It's quite the cozy fishing spot//i.imgur.com/R60Mu8p.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/R60Mu8p.png" />Here's the hallway at the right of the dining hall://i.imgur.com/FkowYNN.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/FkowYNN.png" />The first door on the right and the courtyard path lead to the same spot://i.imgur.com/KtYJbHO.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/KtYJbHO.png" />The staircase leads here://i.imgur.com/8dTblPq.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/8dTblPq.png" />The door downstairs on the right goes here://i.imgur.com/cmrMGHj.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/cmrMGHj.png" />That exit in the back just leads to the inside of the castle wall.There's another exit next to the dog room that leads to my farm. Hopefully this isn't too confusing. There's an overview of this area soon to clear things up.Anyways, that raised wooden path is to get my horses outside the castle.//i.imgur.com/64049ct.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/64049ct.png" />To the left are the horses//i.imgur.com/yknSCTo.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/yknSCTo.png" />Here's the overview (taken from the second floor)://i.imgur.com/RkGtoJU.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/RkGtoJU.png" />This is what the area at the bottom of the screenshot looks like://i.imgur.com/RpbYvj8.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/RpbYvj8.png" />Tool Shed://i.imgur.com/WR69fZt.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/WR69fZt.png" />//i.imgur.com/QFdAjri.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/QFdAjri.png" />The wall on the right in the tool shed leads directly into my kitchen://i.imgur.com/674TdVL.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/674TdVL.png" />When you turn right://i.imgur.com/70rhhJp.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/70rhhJp.png" />When you turn left://i.imgur.com/diKcicC.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/diKcicC.png" />It leads outside to a secretive part of the farm://i.imgur.com/NxbVBwA.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/NxbVBwA.png" />//i.imgur.com/a9pFEid.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/a9pFEid.png" />//i.imgur.com/GAS9xrE.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/GAS9xrE.png" />Going back inside it looks like this://i.imgur.com/oqhEMsM.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/oqhEMsM.png" />Back at the large wooden staircase://i.imgur.com/Xr4e3BZ.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/Xr4e3BZ.png" />
The Second Floor (and why it's evil)
There isn't much to see here, for a very good reason. This floor lags monsterously. Placing or removing any block causes a several second long lag spike. It takes minutes to build something that should take seconds. This might not seem like much, but take my word for it, it's very frustrating. It takes a huge amount of motivation to get anything done here. The funny thing is, I have no clue why it lags so much up here.Anyways, this is the hallway at the top of the staircase//i.imgur.com/A2nrbHa.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/A2nrbHa.png" />The brewing room to the right://i.imgur.com/QjIu3iA.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/QjIu3iA.png" />//i.imgur.com/Zg9EQ26.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/Zg9EQ26.png" />Here's all the empty space on the second floor, mostly due to not knowing what to put here//i.imgur.com/PpnUyuL.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/PpnUyuL.png" />//i.imgur.com/SVcWrWP.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/SVcWrWP.png" />//i.imgur.com/KF5fmSj.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/KF5fmSj.png" />Here's the inside of one of the towers://i.imgur.com/DVFx8aC.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/DVFx8aC.png" />At the back of the throne room, there's a little entrance that's hardly noticeable.//i.imgur.com/24PqVV9.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/24PqVV9.png" />It leads to what would have been my bedroom, had it not been so laggy.//i.imgur.com/6z16VVd.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/6z16VVd.png" />I have invented the functional large bed.//i.imgur.com/YpXgImI.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://i.imgur.com/YpXgImI.png" />
That's the bulk of my castle. Let it be a lesson learned: plan carefully. See how nooby every room turned out? Mmhmm. I could really use some suggestions right about now. A lot of suggestions actually. Better room designs, fixing the layout, things to add, or anything really. That's all folks. Cya<
/p>
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
3/5/2012
Posts:
205
Member Details
My suggestion is to use a resource pack,they really help when looking for making buildings prettier.
one that i recommend is Pixel Perfection,it's a really great fantasy 16x16 pack.
Good luck
And about the drab walls, I have a few suggestions:
*Paintings
*Glowstone lamps, (You know, with the fence, and the trapdoors?)
*Lava behind iron gates (Looks really cool)
*Chairs, tables, chambers, etc.
*Chandeliers
*Bookshelves
*Cobwebs (Silk touch, on shears, I believe)
*Wither skeleton heads (A pain in the butt to get, but might be a creepy centerpiece)
*Huge netherrack torches
*Chests
You're being a little hard on yourself. There's a big mismatch between the throne room and the rest, but either is serviceable.
Specific recommendations - decorations on the exterior walls. Use stone walls and stairs, and make some windows (arrow slits would fit).
Also - while it looks good - rip out the throne room and replan the interior. The throne room looks great, but you won't get to see it much because there's nothing to do there. Make the areas you spend time in the ones that look good. A fancy non-functional room is best as an entrance, so you at least get to walk through regularly. One alternative is to convert the throne room into a main hall that connects to all the rooms directly, which will free up the space in the corridors.
The lag is probably from all the item frames, plus the brewing stations. Knock them down and it should improve a lot. Fast graphics is a help too.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
I think you've done pretty good. I'm not a master builder or anything but you have some really nice things going on inside the castle. There are a couple of areas that are a little sparse, but it can all be spiced up with a little patience. In my opinion, pretty much everything you build is practice for the next thing you're going to build. You'll get better and better with each one. Cheers!
Lighting is big. You could add some torches or lamps to select places on your ramparts. You could also add some different color blocks to the outside walls as an accent. For instance the indents in your walls could be lined with blocks of red clay, giving it a window like effect.
And on that note you could add some windows about in places. More too come later if I have time to browse your pics on my computer and not my phone.
Your interior designs look good.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Yes i know, my spelling sucks.
Check out my You-Tube Channel (BringerofKaos) for plenty of Minecraft Content and my Lets Play series:
Stagger the cobble with smooth stone to make it look like the cobble is framed with smooth stone. You could also replace the cobble slowly with stone bricks to make things look better. Cap tops of things off with half slabs, mix and match what looks best so you have a half slab bottom on top of things. This will give you more flexibility with using lower light levels since mobs can't spawn on lower half slabs and stairs used as toppers for things and enhance the atmosphere of the place.
Maybe mixing smooth stone with the cobble, or try stone bricks with smooth stone, plain cobble walls are a bit ugly, you could also try adding some bushs, or vines, to give it a messy look, and would bring a touch to the walls.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
In a fight there is no such thing as "being a coward", you either live or die, so use everything at your disposal to stay alive.
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
Join Date:
8/5/2010
Posts:
63
Minecraft:
Matt_T
Member Details
You may think this is a sad and ugly castle, but I love it. I think it's because I like the simpler end of minecraft. I don't fancy using all of those detail blocks and such. Awesome world.
I also think you are being a bit hard on yourself. You've made a serviceable structure you can embellish to effect. Start with the battlements. Make arrow slits in the walls and bastions to make it more castle-like. The suggestion above regarding the use of colored clay to simulate shadows and mixing it up with stone bricks will also make it more realistic. I like it, myself. I tend to shy away from medieval-type structures. Not sure why, to be honest.
Thanks for the suggestions/comments everyone. I'm going over and considering everything said. I got lots to play around with now. The second floor lag seems to resist any effort to stop it. Well whatever, it's not the end of the world.
That’s not all that bad actually. Sure, it could use some sprucing up here and there, but generally, it isn’t bad or un-savable. LOL
One, add some pictures to those large expansive vertical interior walls. Add some relief (as we call it), to break the vertical faces up a bit. Similar to what you did to the exterior wall. I always try to incorporate realistic function to my builds. (comes from my engineering mindedness LOL) ‘Most’ things must have a reason for being, and areas need to include the right parts. Stables, need stables, hay storage, work area (with anvil), kitchen needs work tables, storage bins (water, coal, wood), dinning area near kitchen, etc.
Turn the carrot garden into a green house, Add some wood supports, and cover in glass.
Pond needs a small wooden landing (dock) for fishing.
Add more wood materials throughout. Add balconies to large tall open areas.
With some different them patterns, the walls and floors won’t look bad.
As for castle layout, plan a remodel. Combine a couple rooms, knock a hallway wall out, and expose the rooms behind to the hall. Use other materials to divide spaces besides cobble. A wall of iron bars, or fencing, bookshelves, glass, wooden buttons can look like pegs in stone, and stone buttons look great against wood.
There are tons of pictures out there to get ideas from.
I don't think this is as bad as you think. Maybe it could use some minor additions to make it look less plain on the outside but really, not bad at all.
Here's the first update of hopefully many. I've made some major improvements. The first floor has become much more airy and less cramped. Plus it looks great. I think you're going to like what you see:
Turn the carrot garden into a green house, Add some wood supports, and cover in glass.As for castle layout, plan a remodel. Combine a couple rooms, knock a hallway wall out, and expose the rooms behind to the hall. Use other materials to divide spaces besides cobble. A wall of iron bars, or fencing, bookshelves, glass, wooden buttons can look like pegs in stone, and stone buttons look great against wood.
To everyone saying that my castle isn't as bad as I say, I'm glad that you like it. As for myself, I've gotten sick of how nooby and cramped it looks. We have different tastes I guess.
It's amazing how much better it looks after a couple of hours of building.
Edit:
It's getting better. You can see the improvements on the first post on the second page. I'll be posting updates every now and then. Thanks for your suggestions everyone. Second Edit: This bloggy thread has come to its conclusion. Title changed from "My Sad, Sad Survival Castle" to "My Not So Sad Survival Castle" //static.minecraftforum.net//public/style_emoticons/default/smile.png" target="" data-ensure-absolute>http://static.minecr...ault/smile.png" /> ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now, you might be asking yourself "what's so sad about this guy's castle?" Well the thing is, after a half year of working on my survival castle (not every day, but beginning in November), it's still as ugly as ever. The theme that I was going for was ancient, barbaric, and unwelcoming. Nothing says unwelcoming like big, plain, grey walls, right? So that's what I did. And still, as it always has been, big plain walls are ugly. You'll see what I mean in the pictures.But the walls aren't the worst part. No ho ho (Santa?), that was just the introduction to the eyesore that is my castle. The worst part, by far, is the layout. Let me explain: the whole interior of the castle is based around the throne room. It's huge room that takes up nearly half of the space of the castle, forcing all the rest of the castle interior to circle around it. The result is castle that has rooms and hallways awkwardly squeezed into tight spaces, circling around an unwanted throne room. By the time I realized this though, it was already too late. And with such little room to work with, all of the rooms and hallways ended up looking ugly and cramped. Every single last one of them. Once again, you'll see what I mean in the pictures.
Why am I telling this sob story, you may ask? For two reasons: the first is to share my creation (which I originally intended to do with successful castle, that never came to be), and the second reason, more importantly, is to ask for help. I'm all out of ideas to fix my castle. I've tried many new things with no luck. If you have any suggestions, please share them. Help a Minecrafter out. 2014. tl;dr - You play with cobblestone, you get burned. Actual tl;dr - Always plan your large builds carefully, or you'll end up like me. Enough walls of text, here's the castle. I'm leaving out some minor parts to keep this from dragging on. The Outside
/p>
one that i recommend is Pixel Perfection,it's a really great fantasy 16x16 pack.
Good luck
Have you tried Optifine to fix the lag? It helps me a lot.
You can just call me Canary.
How not to look like a total fool in the forum games
*Paintings
*Glowstone lamps, (You know, with the fence, and the trapdoors?)
*Lava behind iron gates (Looks really cool)
*Chairs, tables, chambers, etc.
*Chandeliers
*Bookshelves
*Cobwebs (Silk touch, on shears, I believe)
*Wither skeleton heads (A pain in the butt to get, but might be a creepy centerpiece)
*Huge netherrack torches
*Chests
All I can think of right now.
Specific recommendations - decorations on the exterior walls. Use stone walls and stairs, and make some windows (arrow slits would fit).
Also - while it looks good - rip out the throne room and replan the interior. The throne room looks great, but you won't get to see it much because there's nothing to do there. Make the areas you spend time in the ones that look good. A fancy non-functional room is best as an entrance, so you at least get to walk through regularly. One alternative is to convert the throne room into a main hall that connects to all the rooms directly, which will free up the space in the corridors.
The lag is probably from all the item frames, plus the brewing stations. Knock them down and it should improve a lot. Fast graphics is a help too.
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
And on that note you could add some windows about in places. More too come later if I have time to browse your pics on my computer and not my phone.
Your interior designs look good.
One, add some pictures to those large expansive vertical interior walls. Add some relief (as we call it), to break the vertical faces up a bit. Similar to what you did to the exterior wall. I always try to incorporate realistic function to my builds. (comes from my engineering mindedness LOL) ‘Most’ things must have a reason for being, and areas need to include the right parts. Stables, need stables, hay storage, work area (with anvil), kitchen needs work tables, storage bins (water, coal, wood), dinning area near kitchen, etc.
Turn the carrot garden into a green house, Add some wood supports, and cover in glass.
Pond needs a small wooden landing (dock) for fishing.
Add more wood materials throughout. Add balconies to large tall open areas.
With some different them patterns, the walls and floors won’t look bad.
As for castle layout, plan a remodel. Combine a couple rooms, knock a hallway wall out, and expose the rooms behind to the hall. Use other materials to divide spaces besides cobble. A wall of iron bars, or fencing, bookshelves, glass, wooden buttons can look like pegs in stone, and stone buttons look great against wood.
There are tons of pictures out there to get ideas from.
I'm back from my hibernation. Most likely gone so don't pm me.
Formerly known as ORabbit around these parts.
Thanks to this guy in particular:
To everyone saying that my castle isn't as bad as I say, I'm glad that you like it. As for myself, I've gotten sick of how nooby and cramped it looks. We have different tastes I guess.
It's amazing how much better it looks after a couple of hours of building.
Stay tuned.