Normally the way I approach safety in MineCraft is to build a huge light-filled fort, with crenellations, panic rooms, all that. But I have just invented a way to make your villages look really nice, without any formidable fortress behind them, but still having an extreme sense of safety. Behold, The Subterranean Fortress!
The basic idea is that you create a main "Mansion" or whatever you want to call it, in my case built into a mountain, and then a pathway out from the entrance. Beside the pathway you have little buildings and houses and whatever you want. But here's the cool part: Under the pathway, there's another subterranean route! This route connects to all the buildings in your village, so you can't get stranded in one! Now I know people have already done this to some degree, but I thought I'd present it as an advanced safety method. It can also be used for the underground farm, as the subterranean route is only separated from the surface by one layer of cobblestone or dirt. This allows for skylights built into the main path, so you can look down on the subterranean route. I've used this and it works extremely well, since monsters can't see anything beneath them. And if you do it properly, it can look so freaking epic. I'll put a youtube video up A.S.A.P. so I can show you what it looks like, since it's a bit hard to explain the finer details.
The Subterranean Fortress!
The basic idea is that you create a main "Mansion" or whatever you want to call it, in my case built into a mountain, and then a pathway out from the entrance. Beside the pathway you have little buildings and houses and whatever you want. But here's the cool part: Under the pathway, there's another subterranean route! This route connects to all the buildings in your village, so you can't get stranded in one! Now I know people have already done this to some degree, but I thought I'd present it as an advanced safety method. It can also be used for the underground farm, as the subterranean route is only separated from the surface by one layer of cobblestone or dirt. This allows for skylights built into the main path, so you can look down on the subterranean route. I've used this and it works extremely well, since monsters can't see anything beneath them. And if you do it properly, it can look so freaking epic. I'll put a youtube video up A.S.A.P. so I can show you what it looks like, since it's a bit hard to explain the finer details.