First of all, don't let yourself be bothered by the dramatic title, I'm just here to talk about the end of my foray into Redstone. They aren't going to remove Redstone from the game.
Basically I've been dipping very carefully into Redstone and awesome things you can do with it since I bought the game of Minecraft. Made some Powered Rail networks, some secret piston doors, some traps and basic automatic doors, etc etc. But one thing I really wanted to do with redstone that has always evade me was to do something that would be both elegant and practical with it.
So in my latest castle built, I wanted to include 3 redstone powered castle gates, also known as portculis. I've had some cool ideas about elegant designs that looked cool but then I asked myself, is it possible to make them work?
The obvious answer is no. After hours of trial and error, searching the youtube for tutorials and looking at different design, the closest thing I've found to my vision was a flat 3 to 7 high gate that used a combination of pistons and gravel/sand tendency to take gravity into account to make a gate that was too bulky to use (if you tried and hide all of them circuits) and looked really arkward, especially when you would raise it.
Basically I've chosen to let redstone aside in order to make something that looks amazing, but doesn't actually open and close like I wanted it to. I don't have the time or patience to learn how to make a song, or the equivalent of a basic calculator with Redstone, so that means I've pretty much done everything I wanted to do with it. I'm going to use it only for basic things like closing small doors, making stuff go boom and moving carts and that will be it.
Thank you if you read all the way down to here, really I just wanted to express some of my sadness regarding Redstone's limitations. Feel free to leave comments, maybe show me something that could still be made with Redstone that I haven't thought about that could be cool and relatively simple. Otherwise I wish you a good day, have fun with your crazy inventions and look out for pictures or maybe of video of my Castle built once it is complete. The gates won't move but it will look cool!
TL;DR : Redstone can't be made to look pretty, I'm going for a more artistic approach for my future builts.
Redstone can be made to look pretty. I ask you not to give up on it entirely just yet. But rather, plan out what you wish to make next time, including all the redstone. There are many limitations, but not being able to look pretty is not one of them.
Redstone can be made to look pretty. I ask you not to give up on it entirely just yet. But rather, plan out what you wish to make next time, including all the redstone. There are many limitations, but not being able to look pretty is not one of them.
I would love some example of that. It seems anything that is more complex than a set of rails or a wire linking to TNT (because hey, explosions are pretty :P) requires extensive circuitry. And hiding all of that always ends up taking some much space it ruins the initial concept. I know I can't make a castle gate that looks the way I want, I know that, but if there's something cooliing looking that works on redstone you guys want to share, go ahead and make this thread more positive
I would love some example of that. It seems anything that is more complex than a set of rails or a wire linking to TNT (because hey, explosions are pretty ) requires extensive circuitry. And hiding all of that always ends up taking some much space it ruins the initial concept. I know I can't make a castle gate that looks the way I want, I know that, but if there's something cooliing looking that works on redstone you guys want to share, go ahead and make this thread more positive
Block swappers can be really really nice. Pop a crafting table up. I can't give you an example of something that looks pretty, but rather than trying to find something pretty, work on finding out how to hide all of your redstone nicely.
Play through a vechs' map. There is a LOT of redstone in those, and they're pretty damn pretty.
Not really, it's just him saying redstone doesn't look pretty, so I'm not going to use it and i don't want to learn anymore.
I see it as him asking us to prove him otherwise. Show him that redstone can be pretty. Show him the amazing creations that can be built, and the contraptions that can be used.
I have an idea for you; build underground. Like you, I've always been very interested in redstone, and wanted a practical way to use it. At the same time, I wanted very nice looking builds and for redstone to never look bulky or in the way. The obvious issue with combining good builds and redstone is hiding the wiring all the time. To avoid this issue, I just built primarily underground. I would still have a nice house on the surface, but my focus was always on making an extravagant underground base. You have infinite space to work with and can build around areas where you will need to be hiding a lot of wiring for the more complex stuff. It does obviously take a bit more work in survival, but I feel the outcome is well worth it.
Also I have an idea for your castle gate if you still want to make a fancy piston door for no reason. I recently made a 2x2 door that can appear in a wall of fences. It is 100% seamless and all of the redstone is underground. I realize it doesn't have the same effect as a portcullis for a castle build, but it would allow you to incorporate a piston door without the issue exposes/bulky redstone above ground. .
Hope you don't give up on redstone and perhaps give underground building a try. Regardless, just do what is most fun!
This may not be true in your case, but I personally think exposed redstone looks nice. (in some cases) I suppose it wouldn't look so "pretty" sticking out of the front of a castle, not to mention very out of place. Then again, I'm not a guy who builds redstone machines that are practical in the survival aspect of Minecraft.
Redstone can be made to look pretty. I ask you not to give up on it entirely just yet. But rather, plan out what you wish to make next time, including all the redstone. There are many limitations, but not being able to look pretty is not one of them.
Gah why did you use a double negative? Why so complicated
but if there's something cooliing looking that works on redstone you guys want to share, go ahead and make this thread more positive
Part of the challenge of redstone is not in just making the contraptions, but making them compact. In fact I'd argue that almost all the actual challenge with redstone is in doing so. By which I mean making different gates in different configurations as needed to "make it fit".
I have a few redstone things around, the obvious example being 2x2 piston doors, which are quite easy to make. I usually either hook a lever on either side to a Xor, make it accessible from either side, or just use a button connected to the same circuit.
On servers or server worlds with PvP in combination with things like griefprotection, you can create ornate traps for your "visitors" that would come snooping about. One of my early constructions in my base is simple, a retractable staircase so I can escape:
Nothing interesting here! somebody 'visiting' my base might wonder what the ladder is for, but might assume it is a remnant from earlier, abandoned constructions. Not so. The small inset to the left has a Lever, and there are a few other Lever's in similar inset "decorations"; some are not connected to the redstone at all, while others are hooked in such a way that only a specific combination will expand the staircase. And when that happens:
Also, the roses are there for more than decoration, and are in fact markers that show two things, first they show where a few hidden dispensers generally impact, and additionally they reveal the location of several "endgame" stores of TNT. the first is activated from an area where I can see unwelcome visitors wandering, and press a button to activate a repeater which fires all the dispensers, making that area dangerous to be in. This gives me the advantage of knowing where they are, since there are only two placed they could go from there without the ability to press buttons. the TNT is rigged to a button in my "panic room". it is only one of several caches of TNT rigged to explode from the button, designed to clear out or at least seriously damage anybody not inside the panic room. (again, thanks to plugins the TNT only causes damage to players and not the architecture, though I could easily immerse them in water for the same effect).
Now of course these are more functional contraptions than designed to look good. However there is something else visible in the screenshots work noting. In the room in the background, there are two pieces of glowstone. These are at the center of a secret piston door, which I made to hide my early acquired valuables. The button is hidden, and the circuitry is hidden by the use of upside-down staircases.
Again though, this is mostly functional- the door is designed to be hidden, so it is essentially just a "wall" that opens up when a button is pushed. I have experimented with fences and cobblestone walls as doors, for weird effects based on how they connect in SSP, but not very much.
First of all, don't let yourself be bothered by the dramatic title, I'm just here to talk about the end of my foray into Redstone. They aren't going to remove Redstone from the game.
Basically I've been dipping very carefully into Redstone and awesome things you can do with it since I bought the game of Minecraft. Made some Powered Rail networks, some secret piston doors, some traps and basic automatic doors, etc etc. But one thing I really wanted to do with redstone that has always evade me was to do something that would be both elegant and practical with it.
So in my latest castle built, I wanted to include 3 redstone powered castle gates, also known as portculis. I've had some cool ideas about elegant designs that looked cool but then I asked myself, is it possible to make them work?
The obvious answer is no. After hours of trial and error, searching the youtube for tutorials and looking at different design, the closest thing I've found to my vision was a flat 3 to 7 high gate that used a combination of pistons and gravel/sand tendency to take gravity into account to make a gate that was too bulky to use (if you tried and hide all of them circuits) and looked really arkward, especially when you would raise it.
Basically I've chosen to let redstone aside in order to make something that looks amazing, but doesn't actually open and close like I wanted it to. I don't have the time or patience to learn how to make a song, or the equivalent of a basic calculator with Redstone, so that means I've pretty much done everything I wanted to do with it. I'm going to use it only for basic things like closing small doors, making stuff go boom and moving carts and that will be it.
Thank you if you read all the way down to here, really I just wanted to express some of my sadness regarding Redstone's limitations. Feel free to leave comments, maybe show me something that could still be made with Redstone that I haven't thought about that could be cool and relatively simple. Otherwise I wish you a good day, have fun with your crazy inventions and look out for pictures or maybe of video of my Castle built once it is complete. The gates won't move but it will look cool!
TL;DR : Redstone can't be made to look pretty, I'm going for a more artistic approach for my future builts.
I would love some example of that. It seems anything that is more complex than a set of rails or a wire linking to TNT (because hey, explosions are pretty :P) requires extensive circuitry. And hiding all of that always ends up taking some much space it ruins the initial concept. I know I can't make a castle gate that looks the way I want, I know that, but if there's something cooliing looking that works on redstone you guys want to share, go ahead and make this thread more positive
this has been icefox302 and good day
this has been icefox and as always have some fun out there
Block swappers can be really really nice. Pop a crafting table up. I can't give you an example of something that looks pretty, but rather than trying to find something pretty, work on finding out how to hide all of your redstone nicely.
Play through a vechs' map. There is a LOT of redstone in those, and they're pretty damn pretty.
It's a discussion on redstone.
Not really, it's just him saying redstone doesn't look pretty, so I'm not going to use it and i don't want to learn anymore.
I see it as him asking us to prove him otherwise. Show him that redstone can be pretty. Show him the amazing creations that can be built, and the contraptions that can be used.
I'm sorry, but I think you are flat out wrong.
I have an idea for you; build underground. Like you, I've always been very interested in redstone, and wanted a practical way to use it. At the same time, I wanted very nice looking builds and for redstone to never look bulky or in the way. The obvious issue with combining good builds and redstone is hiding the wiring all the time. To avoid this issue, I just built primarily underground. I would still have a nice house on the surface, but my focus was always on making an extravagant underground base. You have infinite space to work with and can build around areas where you will need to be hiding a lot of wiring for the more complex stuff. It does obviously take a bit more work in survival, but I feel the outcome is well worth it.
Also I have an idea for your castle gate if you still want to make a fancy piston door for no reason. I recently made a 2x2 door that can appear in a wall of fences. It is 100% seamless and all of the redstone is underground. I realize it doesn't have the same effect as a portcullis for a castle build, but it would allow you to incorporate a piston door without the issue exposes/bulky redstone above ground. .
Hope you don't give up on redstone and perhaps give underground building a try. Regardless, just do what is most fun!
To me, this looks gorgeous:
Gah why did you use a double negative? Why so complicated
Would look pretty decent with your glass gateway decending/ascending at a click of a button.
Really is possible to do elegant and functional. I prefer working with farms myself, but the sky's the limit.
Part of the challenge of redstone is not in just making the contraptions, but making them compact. In fact I'd argue that almost all the actual challenge with redstone is in doing so. By which I mean making different gates in different configurations as needed to "make it fit".
I have a few redstone things around, the obvious example being 2x2 piston doors, which are quite easy to make. I usually either hook a lever on either side to a Xor, make it accessible from either side, or just use a button connected to the same circuit.
On servers or server worlds with PvP in combination with things like griefprotection, you can create ornate traps for your "visitors" that would come snooping about. One of my early constructions in my base is simple, a retractable staircase so I can escape:
Nothing interesting here! somebody 'visiting' my base might wonder what the ladder is for, but might assume it is a remnant from earlier, abandoned constructions. Not so. The small inset to the left has a Lever, and there are a few other Lever's in similar inset "decorations"; some are not connected to the redstone at all, while others are hooked in such a way that only a specific combination will expand the staircase. And when that happens:
Also, the roses are there for more than decoration, and are in fact markers that show two things, first they show where a few hidden dispensers generally impact, and additionally they reveal the location of several "endgame" stores of TNT. the first is activated from an area where I can see unwelcome visitors wandering, and press a button to activate a repeater which fires all the dispensers, making that area dangerous to be in. This gives me the advantage of knowing where they are, since there are only two placed they could go from there without the ability to press buttons. the TNT is rigged to a button in my "panic room". it is only one of several caches of TNT rigged to explode from the button, designed to clear out or at least seriously damage anybody not inside the panic room. (again, thanks to plugins the TNT only causes damage to players and not the architecture, though I could easily immerse them in water for the same effect).
Now of course these are more functional contraptions than designed to look good. However there is something else visible in the screenshots work noting. In the room in the background, there are two pieces of glowstone. These are at the center of a secret piston door, which I made to hide my early acquired valuables. The button is hidden, and the circuitry is hidden by the use of upside-down staircases.
Again though, this is mostly functional- the door is designed to be hidden, so it is essentially just a "wall" that opens up when a button is pushed. I have experimented with fences and cobblestone walls as doors, for weird effects based on how they connect in SSP, but not very much.