Hey guys. I am building a huge castle WITHOUT ANY HACKS. 72x67 if you count the walls. It is going to have a moat too. This is going to take a very long time, and I figured other people may appreciate seeing this project. I got a lot of inspiration from this thread and another one I can't find =(
I will be editing this post constantly and adding new stuff... in case it matters to anything you happen to say...
This castle is A work in progress
Future Projects (to be updated as I go)
-Sauron Tower
-Wheat/Bamboo Farm
-Water/Lava Mountain
-Windmill
-Garden
-Houses for the people of the town
Down to the subject matter
11/6/10: Drew out the floor plan for EVERYTHING. Every brick is planned out. I have a perfect image of it in my head, except for the North wing of the castle.
One thing you'll notice is that most of these graphs have cross sections/side view/sky cam
Chapel/Overview
Chapel back wall
Roof/fountain
Fountain: ground level
Small forge... probably going to be one space down as opposed to ground level.
Sergeikun had an AMAZING room picture, I had to use the design, so credit is his.
My walls will be smooth stone (because I am a glutton for punishment. No really, if it is worth doing, do it up, do it right.) and ~20 bricks high
11/7/10: 5h Found a pretty flat area to build my castle. Wont take much work to level the area.
The four half circled torches show the boundaries of where the outside walls will be.
I spent some time outlining the moat
I also got all the obsidian I'm going to need for my castle from an obsidian farm I made.
11/8/10: 8h Worked on the moat all day, also flattened the land a bit. Still more work to be done flattening and unifying before I can start building the castle.
There is also that lone tree to deal with... but that is a project for another day. My arms hurt. I took a break to play guitar hero for a while.
11/9/10: 2.5h
Not too bad for the meager 2 hours I put in. I'll start construction of the walls tomorrow. How exciting!
11/10/10: 4.5h
Okay... "tomorrow" is a tentative notion. I guess I am getting all the stone I need first, then smelting it all while I gather the gravel I need. I hollowed out my diamond mine like I thought. I widened it a bunch.
11/11/10: 3.5h... my birthday :biggrin.gif:
Well I spent a few hours in my diamond mine and finally managed to polish off my stone collection for the walls. A whopping 10944 pieces. I made my diamond mine even wider, but sadly didn't find any diamond.
TIME TO SWITCH TASKS!! I have to smelt all this stone into smooth stone. I need 21x64 and 24 coal to smelt it all. I think I may end up using wood for much of that. While smelting I need to get the filling for my walls. I am thinking I am going to use sand instead of gravel because I need 9044 blocks, and that much gravel is extremely difficult to find. Not that there is an abundance of sand laying around, but it is easier to find than gravel. I'm going to have to find a desert and strip-dig it. Two large chests plus 33x64 and 20 pieces of sand to let me start building these walls. Unless I do a half and half kind of thing... Gonna check my tunnels to see what kind of coal I can find.
11/12/10: 6.5h
I checked all my tunnels. Very little coal to be found. I need 14x64 and 43 pieces of unprocessed wood to fuel all my fires. I guess I will be spending time with my tree farm. I even made it a bit bigger.
It is 1 AM and I think I should go to bed. But I got SOOO much done today! I gathered about 1/2 the sand I need. I actually found a desert and I'm digging it down until I hit rock or dirt.
I gathered ALL of the wood I need for fuel, and smelted about 1/6 of my stone. I think I need more furnaces. My forge calls for 11 so I might as well make 11 and have them for later. I'm going to be busy all day tomorrow and I don't expect to get much done.
So much sand... everywhere...
11/13/10: 1h
14 and a half hour day... so exhausted. Gathered a little sand, but I am too tired to work on this. 26x64 sand to go. Good night.
11/14/10: 6.5h
Before I started sand-gathering today, I got those 11 furnaces running.
After 34.5 hours of prep, I am FINALLY ready to start building my castle!!! I'm pretty sure I miscounted a few things. I have a little bit of extra wood left over. Then I got thinking. I didn't bother counting how much gravel I am using. I'm also not sure if I counted the blocks on the inside of the corners of the gatehouse. I didn't count the tunnel I have to build around my doors. Granted, I wont be off by much, I probably wont get that sweet feeling of running out of materials with that last block placed.
Actual construction time
Around 9:30, I placed the first block of my castle. I got right to work. I build up to the 4th level, but that way was taking a while so I began a new building strategy that worked really well for me before. Anyway, this is what I have so far.
11/15/10: 5h
I hate it when the server doesn't update the post and I have to type it again. It is never quite as good the second time. Well, I spent a bunch of time working on my walls in any time I could. The raised section of sand on the southern section (bottom right) is the highest it will be. I'm so excited that this thing is coming together. I really want to make push and possibly finish the wall today!
I might also build a hidden path to the top of the wall.... hmmm.
11/16/10: 2h
Polished off what sand and stone I had to place on my walls. Also made a pathway through the sand to get to the top of my walls. No pic today. I'm working on the corners and I'll put up a pic when I am done with the whole wall project. I got Assassin's Creed 3 though, so all my play time will be at school and such...
11/16/10: 2h: Done with the walls!!
As soon as I finished I went to my photo-spot and took this pic.
The product of 46.5 hours of work.
I was soo excited! Then I took a few more from various viewpoints.
I am so incredibly excited that I have finished such a huge step in building this castle!!!
Next thing I will do is my courtyard, then my chapel. Things will start rolling pretty quickly now. I don't know what I am going to do for my actual castle though. Right now I have nothing more original than making the castle out of stone. The inside is going to be all pretty-fied, so it fits that the outside should be too.
I haven't gone to the nether yet. I am going to play around in there a bit before I get moving in case I really like a material I find.
11/16/10: 5.5h
I played in the nether like I said I would. I decided to use redstone instead of cobblestone in my main building. Same-ish texture, totally different look. I pretty much build my courtyard, and spent forever just trying to gather some freaking cloth. I need around 300 (don't remember the number off the top of my head) for my chapel floor alone. I am just running in a huuuuge circle punching sheep.
Spent more time working. Built the chapel floor and wall.
The Sun happened to be rising, so I took a picture of the Sun shining through the center window. (P.S. can you guess what my name is?)
11/19/10: 4h
I wasn't playing much the last few days. I don't know how accurate my estimation is. I pretty much build the entire wall of my chapel, but it is very bland and I am looking for some cool design to incorporate into it. (maybe with lightstone)
11/20/10: .5h
I decided to use Link from the NES games. I gathered the materials. I was super busy though.
11/21/10: 5.5h
Very productive day. Got so much stuff done.
I made link in my front wall.
I started and finished my forge (small as it is). As you can see, I decided to make it 1 space below ground.
And I finished the roof of the chapel, and let the sun line up for the picture.
On tomorrow's list:
tea room and fountain.
11/22/10: 3h
Spent some time working today. I don't feel well right now so I don't have much else to do. I did the fountain.
11/23/10: 4.5h
I finished the tea room. I can't think of any way of making a roof or ceiling that would look good with both the rest of the castle and the inside of the tea room, so I left it as a open-rooved room.
Storage room next, I suppose. I'll make it 3 tiered. I'll have as much storage as I need forever and ever.
I also haven't given a picture from my high spot in a while, so here you go...
11/25/10: 2h
Built my workshop today. I also planned out two later projects. Not going to graph it out, but they will still probably look cool. If I finish decorating my workshop tonight, I will put up a picture. Not likely.
11/27/10: 1h
Finished the workshop in no time at all.
now what?...
12/2/10: 2h
Spent some time planning the Sauron Tower. I have all the stone I need. I need 4 chords (4x64) of wood to make it all into smooth stone. I'm also going to need some glass and lava eventually, but I figure I can just gather that on an as-needed basis.
I was gathering wood and decided it was time to clear my tree farm's canopy.
Ok. I need to gather ~10,000 stone for my walls. This is not an easy task. I have a stone farm (you can see it in the bottom left of the pic I put up under 11/9/10, just above my hearts), but I only get ~16 stone per minute. I may just go into my diamond mine and hollow everything out o__o.
Does anyone know a super efficient way of mining stone? 10 hours to mine the stuff is not cutting it for me.
hmmm, is this a new world? if you haven''t, you should have started in a pre existing world since you probably have the resources to make it, good luck on your castle, i justed finished the walls of mine and i'm quite proud of myself.
No it isn't a new world. The place I'm taking the aerial pics from is actually extending off where I built my first castle; the Castle in the Sky. Between the two is a rather large castle that took 11 hours to make start to finish and consumed most of my resources. When I started this new project I already had a little over a half-chest of stone that I got from my diamond mine. Not much, but better than nothing, right?
I've found when I really need stone I strip mine a mountain. With diamond picks and shovels it's not as hard as it sounds, and you will get the coal and other minerals that are there, but mostly just stone. Just clearing half a mountain will probably net you a double chest or two of cobble stone. What else will you do while you wait for all those furnaces to finish smelting right?
I prefer not to use what little diamond I find for tools. I am a patient man, and I am willing to wait a little bit of time for the purpose of gathering something almost useless. The only time I used diamond was to gather the obsidian I needed.
Thanks Leo. You have no idea how good it feels to hear that. Really I got the idea from someone who made a 100x100 castle. He hacked for his tools (and probably more) so nobody really thought his end result was that great. I wanted to see how much people would like it if someone built something like it with no hacks, so here I am. I build for practicality mostly though, so I thought of any rooms I could, planned them out and built my walls around them. It isn't quite 100x100, but it is still really really big.
Nice, reminds me of the one i tryed and failed on... But i keep forgeting to make a pic thread about my 256x256 ocean castle. Cant see the edges on far render lol. Also it will be legit.
It's a shame you've put your chapel directly in the center, if you had it off to one side you could have done a lot more with the extra space you have around it. If anything I'd suggest maybe making some sort of farm on one side [for wheat], and maybe a fenced farm for animals.
You could also make a towering view...tower behind your chapel. Taller than the walls of your castle, for a better view of your loyal subjects, or invading Creeper armies.
You could also make a small town near the castle, maybe on a lower level of hillside, where the people of your 'land' would live.
It's completely up to, its your project :smile.gif:
I will be editing this post constantly and adding new stuff... in case it matters to anything you happen to say...
This castle is A work in progress
Future Projects (to be updated as I go)
-Sauron Tower
-Wheat/Bamboo Farm
-Water/Lava Mountain
-Windmill
-Garden
-Houses for the people of the town
Down to the subject matter
11/6/10: Drew out the floor plan for EVERYTHING. Every brick is planned out. I have a perfect image of it in my head, except for the North wing of the castle.
One thing you'll notice is that most of these graphs have cross sections/side view/sky cam
Chapel/Overview
Chapel back wall
Roof/fountain
Fountain: ground level
Small forge... probably going to be one space down as opposed to ground level.
Sergeikun had an AMAZING room picture, I had to use the design, so credit is his.
My walls will be smooth stone (because I am a glutton for punishment. No really, if it is worth doing, do it up, do it right.) and ~20 bricks high
11/7/10: 5h Found a pretty flat area to build my castle. Wont take much work to level the area.
The four half circled torches show the boundaries of where the outside walls will be.
I spent some time outlining the moat
I also got all the obsidian I'm going to need for my castle from an obsidian farm I made.
11/8/10: 8h Worked on the moat all day, also flattened the land a bit. Still more work to be done flattening and unifying before I can start building the castle.
There is also that lone tree to deal with... but that is a project for another day. My arms hurt. I took a break to play guitar hero for a while.
11/9/10: 2.5h
Not too bad for the meager 2 hours I put in. I'll start construction of the walls tomorrow. How exciting!
11/10/10: 4.5h
Okay... "tomorrow" is a tentative notion. I guess I am getting all the stone I need first, then smelting it all while I gather the gravel I need. I hollowed out my diamond mine like I thought. I widened it a bunch.
11/11/10: 3.5h... my birthday :biggrin.gif:
Well I spent a few hours in my diamond mine and finally managed to polish off my stone collection for the walls. A whopping 10944 pieces. I made my diamond mine even wider, but sadly didn't find any diamond.
TIME TO SWITCH TASKS!! I have to smelt all this stone into smooth stone. I need 21x64 and 24 coal to smelt it all. I think I may end up using wood for much of that. While smelting I need to get the filling for my walls. I am thinking I am going to use sand instead of gravel because I need 9044 blocks, and that much gravel is extremely difficult to find. Not that there is an abundance of sand laying around, but it is easier to find than gravel. I'm going to have to find a desert and strip-dig it. Two large chests plus 33x64 and 20 pieces of sand to let me start building these walls. Unless I do a half and half kind of thing... Gonna check my tunnels to see what kind of coal I can find.
11/12/10: 6.5h
I checked all my tunnels. Very little coal to be found. I need 14x64 and 43 pieces of unprocessed wood to fuel all my fires. I guess I will be spending time with my tree farm. I even made it a bit bigger.
It is 1 AM and I think I should go to bed. But I got SOOO much done today! I gathered about 1/2 the sand I need. I actually found a desert and I'm digging it down until I hit rock or dirt.
I gathered ALL of the wood I need for fuel, and smelted about 1/6 of my stone. I think I need more furnaces. My forge calls for 11 so I might as well make 11 and have them for later. I'm going to be busy all day tomorrow and I don't expect to get much done.
So much sand... everywhere...
11/13/10: 1h
14 and a half hour day... so exhausted. Gathered a little sand, but I am too tired to work on this. 26x64 sand to go. Good night.
11/14/10: 6.5h
Before I started sand-gathering today, I got those 11 furnaces running.
After 34.5 hours of prep, I am FINALLY ready to start building my castle!!! I'm pretty sure I miscounted a few things. I have a little bit of extra wood left over. Then I got thinking. I didn't bother counting how much gravel I am using. I'm also not sure if I counted the blocks on the inside of the corners of the gatehouse. I didn't count the tunnel I have to build around my doors. Granted, I wont be off by much, I probably wont get that sweet feeling of running out of materials with that last block placed.
Actual construction time
Around 9:30, I placed the first block of my castle. I got right to work. I build up to the 4th level, but that way was taking a while so I began a new building strategy that worked really well for me before. Anyway, this is what I have so far.
11/15/10: 5h
I hate it when the server doesn't update the post and I have to type it again. It is never quite as good the second time. Well, I spent a bunch of time working on my walls in any time I could. The raised section of sand on the southern section (bottom right) is the highest it will be. I'm so excited that this thing is coming together. I really want to make push and possibly finish the wall today!
I might also build a hidden path to the top of the wall.... hmmm.
11/16/10: 2h
Polished off what sand and stone I had to place on my walls. Also made a pathway through the sand to get to the top of my walls. No pic today. I'm working on the corners and I'll put up a pic when I am done with the whole wall project. I got Assassin's Creed 3 though, so all my play time will be at school and such...
11/16/10: 2h: Done with the walls!!
As soon as I finished I went to my photo-spot and took this pic.
The product of 46.5 hours of work.
I was soo excited! Then I took a few more from various viewpoints.
I am so incredibly excited that I have finished such a huge step in building this castle!!!
Next thing I will do is my courtyard, then my chapel. Things will start rolling pretty quickly now. I don't know what I am going to do for my actual castle though. Right now I have nothing more original than making the castle out of stone. The inside is going to be all pretty-fied, so it fits that the outside should be too.
I haven't gone to the nether yet. I am going to play around in there a bit before I get moving in case I really like a material I find.
11/16/10: 5.5h
I played in the nether like I said I would. I decided to use redstone instead of cobblestone in my main building. Same-ish texture, totally different look. I pretty much build my courtyard, and spent forever just trying to gather some freaking cloth. I need around 300 (don't remember the number off the top of my head) for my chapel floor alone. I am just running in a huuuuge circle punching sheep.
Spent more time working. Built the chapel floor and wall.
The Sun happened to be rising, so I took a picture of the Sun shining through the center window. (P.S. can you guess what my name is?)
11/19/10: 4h
I wasn't playing much the last few days. I don't know how accurate my estimation is. I pretty much build the entire wall of my chapel, but it is very bland and I am looking for some cool design to incorporate into it. (maybe with lightstone)
11/20/10: .5h
I decided to use Link from the NES games. I gathered the materials. I was super busy though.
11/21/10: 5.5h
Very productive day. Got so much stuff done.
I made link in my front wall.
I started and finished my forge (small as it is). As you can see, I decided to make it 1 space below ground.
And I finished the roof of the chapel, and let the sun line up for the picture.
On tomorrow's list:
tea room and fountain.
11/22/10: 3h
Spent some time working today. I don't feel well right now so I don't have much else to do. I did the fountain.
11/23/10: 4.5h
I finished the tea room. I can't think of any way of making a roof or ceiling that would look good with both the rest of the castle and the inside of the tea room, so I left it as a open-rooved room.
Storage room next, I suppose. I'll make it 3 tiered. I'll have as much storage as I need forever and ever.
I also haven't given a picture from my high spot in a while, so here you go...
11/25/10: 2h
Built my workshop today. I also planned out two later projects. Not going to graph it out, but they will still probably look cool. If I finish decorating my workshop tonight, I will put up a picture. Not likely.
11/27/10: 1h
Finished the workshop in no time at all.
now what?...
12/2/10: 2h
Spent some time planning the Sauron Tower. I have all the stone I need. I need 4 chords (4x64) of wood to make it all into smooth stone. I'm also going to need some glass and lava eventually, but I figure I can just gather that on an as-needed basis.
I was gathering wood and decided it was time to clear my tree farm's canopy.
ISO Pics
Does anyone know a super efficient way of mining stone? 10 hours to mine the stuff is not cutting it for me.
while I wait, I still have plenty of work to do.
but seriously nice castle up to know if i was making it i would have been using invedit every step of the way cos im lazy
You could also make a towering view...tower behind your chapel. Taller than the walls of your castle, for a better view of your loyal subjects, or invading Creeper armies.
You could also make a small town near the castle, maybe on a lower level of hillside, where the people of your 'land' would live.
It's completely up to, its your project :smile.gif: