Welcome to The Chronicles of Midgard, a record of my vanilla, large-biome, single-player survival world began July 2, 2014 in version 1.7.10. In Old Norse and various other ancient tongues, Midgard means "middle" abode, yard, garden, enclosure, or Earth. I named my world "Midgard" because the castle that serves as my first and main base once stood in the middle of my explored world.
---Castle Midgard---
The Tower of Midgard
The Castle Keep
The Approach and Main Entrance
The Barbican and East Courtyard
The Small Garden Courtyard and Colonnade Map Viewing Area and Elytra Hub
Skeletons in my Closet
Spiders in the Basement
Ages of Midgard
These eras are just sentimental chronological milestones that mark dramatic shifts in my play style, accomplishments, and objectives, and are used by me to estimate roughly when certain structures were built and areas were explored. They may be of little interest to the reader, but are briefly explained here in preface so the reader may understand my later references.
I learned how to play Minecraft in this world, and I've learned a whole lot in the nigh five years since it was created. At the same time, Minecraft has also changed dramatically over the course of versions from 1.7 to 1.12, and as soon as OptiFine for it is released, 1.14. My experience didn't come easily, and it didn't come quickly by way of the wiki—which I almost never read—nor by speaking with others about the game, either in person or online. I learned to play Minecraft under the proverbial rock.
As such, my growth was severely hindered, prolonging each shift in play style into its own epoch. When I create a new (hardcore) world now, I have diamond equipment in the first few days—it certainly doesn't take 10 months as it did in this world!
How can I be so sure of the dates, when given? For one, I keep very detailed text files. For another, I have a tremendous amount of screenshots: 12,000 of them weighing in at 12 GB! At the same time, I have almost all my backups (the ones that weren't lost from hard drive format), 200 of them, taking up a whopping 470 GB of storage space on an external hard drive. My current world folder is a modest 5.5 GB. For the last couple years, I've made a new backup every couple weeks on average. Before that, much more often.
The Stone and Iron Ages
(July 2, 2014 to Jan. 29, 2015)
When I first spawned above cloud level atop Mount Olympus, not far east of where Castle Midgard now stands, I would like the reader to imagine I stepped down out of the clouds and descended the mountain like Zeus of Greek mythos, but nothing could be further from the truth. When the world formed, I could see nothing but a misty, white void. I stumbled around blindly, unsure what strange circumstances had befallen me. Was this this world glitched? Why is everything white?
Until I suddenly tumbled from the sky, crashing hard onto a tiny rock jutting from the sheer cliffside, I had no idea I was at such high altitude. Looking down over the edge at my feet, I saw the ground far below me; a perilous drop was mere inches away. Of course, I managed to climb back up and eventually hike down the mountain at a much slower pace—but more importantly, of my own volition!
Never would I have imagined that five years later, I would still be adventuring in the same world!
(Above) Though I have save files that are older, this is actually the earliest picture I have of the "castle"—taken Aug. 28, 2014, the Day of Dragon's Death—back when it was still a fort on a precipice between an extreme hills biome and birch forest hills. The Olympian Mountains and Bleach Bone Forest, they're called. This is my first (and only) "large biome" world and back then, I didn't really know how big the biomes would be. It was a time when Minecraft was still mysterious and exciting for me. I didn't read the wiki or forums very much. I didn't know what was out there. I didn't know what was beyond the mountains to the east or the massive plains to the west. I didn't know what was on the other side of the 10 km-wide Dead Sea to the north or the shadows of the Dark Forest's roofed canopy to the south.
I had sheep, cows and pigs all on one side, chickens (too far away to render) on the other. I kept a lot of chickens because in addition to being a good food source, I needed feathers for arrows to slay the Ender Dragon, which I accomplished the day the above picture was taken.
(Above x3) All three of the above pictures were taken on another historic day for the Kingdom of Midgard, October 13, 2014—the first Witherfall. It was the day I first summoned and slew the Wither. It was the day I placed my first-ever beacon. Before that day, I had never done either of those things in any world.
It was also really the first time I used diamond equipment other than picks—I think I slew the dragon clad in iron. At that time, way back then, it felt like, "Oh, boy! Wearing diamond armor! How powerful!" Of course, over the years since, I've become more accustomed to playing with max-enchant diamond armor than anything else. I don't still have all of my original suit, but it wasn't anything special. The helmet was Protection III and Respiration III only, and pants were Projectile Protection III and Unbreaking III, for example.
In the Stone Age, I thought I was conserving iron by using stone tools. I was, but I had also not discovered branch mining techniques, nor did I have any idea how long a diamond pick would last. Hard to believe, but iron was still semi precious, while diamonds were invaluable to me—diamonds were to be cherished in treasure chests, not sullied by use! What if I were to die and lose them? The horror! Of course, I know better now, plus there's Mending, which seriously debased diamonds. "Saving" iron to fully power my first beacon greatly prolonged my transition from Stone Age to Iron Age. Again, I didn't watch YouTube videos, read the Wiki or even talk to others about Minecraft, so I didn't realize just how terribly inefficient it was to use stone (and even iron) picks and equipment.
Now, when I make a new (hardcore) world, I get full diamond equipment as soon as I can, as any experienced, goal-oriented player will do.
By the way, the wheat by the pool of water in the first of the three pictures was my first "farm." I used wheat to breed cows and seeds to breed chickens. The horses came from a far-off plain about 3 km to the west, the first plains I encountered in that direction. My first horse, a black destrider named Kitt, is around there somewhere in gold armor, but I don't think he's visible.
Diamond Age
(Jan. 30, 2015 to Dec. 6, 2015)
Work in progress about the Diamond Age.
New Castle Era
(Dec. 7, 2015 to May 29, 2016)
Work in progress about the New Castle Era.
Age of Flight
(May 30, 2016 to July 11, 2017)
Work in progress about the Age of Flight.
Rocket Age
(July 12, 2017 to ? 2018)
Work in progress about the Rocket Age.
Old Fort Becomes Old Tower
In the spoiler below are some pictures taken from the roughly same spot using copies of backup save files. I put these in order to show the rise of Castle Midgard throughout the years. These are screenshots of years past, but all taken July 2, 2018, in 1.12.2, the current version. I'm going to try to keep commentary very brief.
Again, captions are below the images. Render distance 32, 1920x1080.
July 12, 2014, ten days after the world's creation. My first backup save file. In these early days, I spent most of my time about 1 km to the north at Brinemire Grotto, a base inside an underground ravine intersected by an abandoned mineshaft far below Brinemire Swamp.
Oct. 13, 2014, the first Witherfall. It marked the end of the Stone Age and rise of the Iron Age. I always wore iron armor and carried an iron sword, of course, but most of my picks, shovels, and axes up to this point were stone.
Nov. 5, 2014, after deforestation of the dangerous and obstructing Bleach Bone Forest immediately surrounding the fort. This was the heart of what I consider my Iron Age. All my regular tools were iron, though I had a few special-purpose enchanted diamond tools including the Efficiency IV, Unbreaking III axe that I used to clear the trees. That same axe—my first diamond axe in any world ever—still hangs on the wall in Old Tower today. With it, I cleared a wide path from the Old Fort to Skullgorge about 1 km to the west, and Brinemire Grotto about 1 km to the north. I call that path King's Road.
Jan 30, 2015, having terraformed the environs. More importantly, though, this was the groundbreaking day I began the westbound branch mine, thus marking the beginning of the year-long Diamond Age. It was a time of great subterranean adventure punctuated by heavy mining in search of diamonds. The world's third base, Skullgorge, about 1 km to the west, was fully operational. It had more resources than the Old Fort at the time, but more importantly, it was the location of my first skeleton XP farm. All my enchanting, even through the next era, was done at Skullgorge. Previously, what little enchanting I did happened in the End dimension. I even classify equipment by enchantment location: the very eldest are "End-forged" but most are "Skull-forged." Modern equipment is "castle-forged" because the castle is now the site of multiple XP farms. Just a funny little thing: notice the red flower and lilac above the creeper: they're in basically every screenshot (though the red flower gets moved).
Dec. 10, 2015, three days after the construction of the "new" castle began and thus, three days into the fourth age, the New Castle Era. As I've explained previously, I classify the ages because they represent a significant shift in my play style as well as my knowledge of Minecraft. Naturally, I set the dates of the ages long after they began. I wouldn't know at the time that an event would later become a historical milestone, of course. The New Castle Era, despite being named after the castle, was a time of distant exploration and expansion. Despite not yet having the off-hand slot introduced in the later version 1.9, I did a lot of mapping on horseback.
Jan. 4, 2016; Kitt is beside his mate, Frostwind (the white horse), but is just a bit too far to render. This is before I began a long and arduous construction of the keep. Glitches and crashes and mistakes would plague that soon-to-come process.
March 16, 2016, the first version 1.9 save. Construction of the keep began at the end of January but was not finished until mid-Febuary.
March 29, 2016 began construction of Midgard Tower, which was to be a dual-purpose addition: dark-room mob farm and elytra launch platform. Neither came to fruition, but the tower still marks the castle's location from any outside spot within render distance. I still might make a gunpowder farm out of it.
Also May 18, 2016. The small house is an AFK fish farm. I only used it perhaps a half dozen nights of 4-6 hours each. Of course, I was searching for Mending, but one pulls all sorts of stuff out of the water each night. I averaged one Mending book a night.
Oct. 24, 2016. No more torch spam. The green carpet covers blocks of glowstone and is considered transparent to light.
Also Oct. 24, 2016. View at night.
July 12, 2017. Right after the third anniversary. Doesn't look like much has changed, but a closer inspection will show a major expansion to the back of the castle. I'll cover the barbican in a later post.
July 2, 2018, the fourth anniversary of Midgard.
July 2, 2019, the fifth anniversary of Midgard.
Original post from July 2, 2018:
For at least two years, I've threatened to make a thread on these forums about my world's first and main base, Castle Midgard. Midgard is my vanilla, large-biome, survival single player world and today, July 2, 2018, is its fourth anniversary. It began in version 1.7.10 and I've continued to update it to the current version, 1.12.2.
I wasn't able to put the time and effort into making a big thread with lots of pictures and a video (or three), but I want to do something. So, I thought I would finally start a thread about the castle, and slowly update it with pictures of the past and present of my world.
I'm so sleepy, but I don't want to fail at my objective to start a thread tonight. So, I opened Minecraft, flew down to the base of the castle, and snapped a really quick picture, which I uploaded. It's not much, but it's a start!
This is the best survival world I've seen on the forum. You've managed to create a base that is huge, asethically pleasing, functional, and you've done it with no cheats on a large biome world. These timelines just make it even more epic. Wow.
Recently, I posted Castle Midgard's map viewing area and what I'm calling an "elytra shaft" or "elytra hub" to Reddit. I've posted about it here before, as it's probably my favorite room in the castle. The shaft is a vertical chamber descending from the castle's ground floor at Y=68 (just above sea level) all the way down to bedrock (Y=5). It's bridged thrice: a three-way 'T' intersection on the ground floor; again on the villager farm, gold farm antechamber and Nether portal's level (Y=43); and lastly at lava level (Y=11). Lava level is the location of the old treasury vault and entrance to the extensive branch mine. What I call the North-South Passage connects to the branch mine, but I don't consider the branch mine actually part of the castle, of course.
This is the heart of the castle. This is the center thoroughfare and has been for a long time. Coincidentally, it's also practically always been the map room.
Captions are below the images. Render distance 32, 1920x1080.
It's hard to see from the image unless opened in full screen (right click the image, "open in new tab" to do so), but there are three bridges.
Fun fact, it's less distance from the highest walkway (Y=68) to the middle bridge (Y=43) than it is from the middle bridge to the bottom one (Y=11), though it certainly doesn't seem like it looking down.
Lots more pictures:
(Above) Rocket-powered elytra have made cartography easy, but most of those fully zoomed-out maps were done old school: on horse, boat, or by foot! I've just never bothered to finish it yet; still tossing around the idea of riding my old horse around while mapping. I'll decide some day or year when and how I want to finish it. There's a flush redstone piston door in the bottom-left corner that gives access to the maps.
(Above) Looking down at the B1 crossing. Up leads to the gold farm antechamber, among other things. Down goes to the skeleton XP farm as well as the new area of the castle, which includes the zombie spawner.
(Above) Once, this corridor was an area of high traffic, but . . . not so much anymore. Rocket-powered elytra means I fly into in the castle, I don't walk or ride a horse.
(Above) Looking up from the middle bridge.
(Above) Looking at the gold farm antechamber, a subject for another post.
(above) The door to the left leads to one of a number of storage closets. The door to the right leads to the villager farm.
(Above) A view of the storage closet. This is a typical closet. Most the chests are full of stone, some are full of cobble, dirt gravel, etc.
(Above) Looking away from the gold farm toward the skeleton XP farm. The map is high above that iron door. To the left is the villager farm. To the right is a bunch of stairs and halls and such.
(Above) A view on the lowest bridge looking toward the treasury vault and bottom of the gold farm (the kill/collection area). My lighting is set to default, "moody." There are a number of dark, eerie places in Castle Midgard. Darkness and iron doors indicate that the area connects to natural caves. While no monsters can spawn anywhere in the castle, it's not impossible for them to spawn in caves. Most are very well lit, but one should be on guard. Of course, this low, there's also the possibility of lava—though none is ever exposed anywhere in the castle.
(Above) Same view, but with brightness turned up to where probably 90% of people have it, the highest setting. Blech. Not only does it look bad, night vision potions become useless. No thanks.
(Above) If I'm seeing this view, it's because I fell in the water. Oops! Notice how close the top and middle bridges appear when looking up despite being quite far apart!
Thanks for reading!
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My short story-like journals; quick-and-easy reads:
Your world, story, and castle always fascinated me. At first glance, it has a rather basic appeal (not a bad thing at all, especially since this is survival and not creative), but if you look deeper or follow the story, you can see all the different planning and adding over time that went in to it. I feel my own builds are similar in a way; not the absolute most detailed of a given thing you'll find around, but something that evolves over a survival worlds life to becomes something really telling, and with it's own story. You even name locales like I do. You're probably one of the other players I started noticing with a play style rather similar to mine and that is partly why I think I am drawn to it, but also, funny enough given my name, I never ever did make a castle proper in my world, and yours is one of my favorite survival ones I've seen.
Also, that story about the tree; I am looking forward to it! If I am remembering right, you commented on a post I made about my world (which, looking back, I wish I would have posted here in similar fashion, but it's initial post was sort of a collection of screenshots and one that hugely grew, so it went in the screenshot forum) that you were sad when I cut one of my older trees down.
(Above) Brinemire Swamp is north and north-east of Castle Midgard (the green dot).
Brinemire Swamp is not a terribly interesting location separate from Midgard, but it is a very important piece to the puzzle of the kingdom’s history. The base there, Brinemire Grotto, was founded in the first ten days of the world's creation and is located one kilometer directly north of Castle Midgard. The swamp stretches several kilometers to the castle's north-east. It’s where I spent much, if not most of my Stone-Age time before the first Witherfall (Oct. 13, 2014). While Old Fort Midgard was still my “home,” and though the cloud-level peak of Mount Olympus is the world spawn, I consider Brinemire to be a primordial marshland. The brackish waters derive their name from the salty Dead Sea that bifurcates it from the north. It’s really two (technically three) swamp biomes, and in a large biome world, that makes it roughly 4,500 blocks wide east-to-west (with 1,000 being ocean in the middle).
It was one of the first biomes I encountered in Midgard. When I struck out from the world spawn atop Mount Olympus, I first traveled west and reached the Bleach Bone Forest, a birch forest biome, on the edge of which I built the Old Fort. Had chance or fate's guidance led me north instead, I would have first crossed into the Brinemire. Nevertheless, within days after establishing the Old Fort, I pushed north to the rocky shores of what I considered the “known world” at the time. Along that journey, I spotted a ravine. It was the first ravine I had ever discovered.
Stone sword in hand, I waded into the in the swamp in a time before I really knew much about Minecraft. Everything about the game was fun and often a new occasion. I barely knew the Ender Dragon existed, let alone had I ever been to the End and slain her. So, when I spotted the first ravine ever in the world, despite it being very, very small, I explored it, of course.
It was a deep, dank hole in the ground, but I carved into its rock side with my stone pickaxe and made a small outpost.
Screenshots are 1290x1080 and were taken tonight in version 1.12.2 from a copy of the first backup file made July 12, 2014. Render distance 32. Captions are below the images.
(Above) Looking down into the world's first ravine and the tiny outpost inside it.
(Above) The top-side view of the ladder from the surface leading to the outpost in the ravine. Being new to the game and having a short render distance on my laptop in version 1.7.10, I made a lot of cobble markers, standing stones, and obelisks.
(Above) The outpost's entrance. It's oak instead of spruce because it was hung in version 1.7.10 before doors had wood types. It's wooden rather than iron because I didn't know zombies could break it down!
(Above) Typical plain Stone Age shelter. The door to the right of the image leads out to the ravine, but the doorway to the left descends down into what was going to be my world's first branch mine, though I later canceled that idea.
A couple days after making the first tiny Brinemire outpost, for some reason I've long since forgotten, I vacated it. I think I stumbled upon an abandoned mineshaft running through another ravine, which led me to build the second base right beside it—what would become the actual Brinemire base, Brinemire Grotto:
(Above) Brinemire Grotto on July 12, 2014, or rather, the farms and "skylight" that's above it. Not very impressive, I know! It was a Stone Age base built within the first ten days of starting this world.
Brinemire Grotto has been abandoned for years now, but it's quite large and has all the common features of a self-sustaining, long-term survival home. It has farms and storage and is well stocked with supplies such as brewing ingredients. I consider it an actual "base" rather than a more simple "outpost" for a couple reasons. The first is because it contains an enchanting station, which puts it above a common rest stop. The second reason is because it is one of only four or so locations that are connected to the Nether railway, the others being Castle Midgard, the End portal to the castle's south, and the Witherfell base farther to the north.
The world's third base is Skullgorge, but it isn't connected by Nether railway; it's connected directly to Castle Midgard by a one-kilometer railway and branch mine running west.
Brinemire Grotto is a bizarre and labyrinthine maze of corridors and stairs connecting the natural chambers of the caverns intersecting with the ravine inside of which it is located. The ravine is also crossed by the first abandoned mineshaft I had ever discovered. I had no idea how common they were and I explored the subterranean area around the base very extensively. When it came time to offload my adventure's gains, I wouldn't have wanted to return all the way to the Old Fort—not only because it was a 1,000-block trudge, but because much of that distance was through swampwater. Without Depth Strider boots (or any knowledge of that enchantment's existence), the trip home was a taxing and arduous slog, not to mention filled with danger should night fall while traveling! No, I wasn't making many trips back to the Old Fort from Brinemire Base back then!
I won't bore the reader with much more of the subject, nor many more pictures, but here are a few more of the base as it is currently with brief descriptive captions:
(Above) Looking up at the base, which spans the top of the ravine. I cut a hole in the roof to allow for natural light.
(Above) Looking down at the Grotto's highest underground level.
(Above) Looking down at the intersecting mineshaft that I believe first led me to the ravine.
(Above x2) The inside of the Grotto's main chamber. I never finished it. I used dirt to mock up pillars because taking cobble back down would take too long with a stone pick!
(Above) My first ever (in any world) redstone contraption! Pull the lever to lower the piston which releases water which breaks loose the nether wart. I would then collect it on the far side of the pit without having to step into the soul sand. I didn't know about automatic collection methods.
(Above) Like I say, the Brinemire Grotto is a confusing maze of corridors, stairs, and bridges. I'm surprised I can navigate it at all any more, but I can still make my way around.
(Above) Nether portal leading to the unnamed, lesser of two Nether outposts. However, due to the frustrating mechanics of Nether portals, this is unfortunately not an exit, only an entrance to the Nether. The exit is outside the base over by the first ravine outpost (visible in the next screenshot).
(Above) A look at the Brinemire Grotto complex as it currently stands July 26, 2018. I planned to eventually turn those cobble crossings into real bridges, but it never happened. As this base is long abandoned and rocket-powered elytra rather than horseback is my most common mode of travel, I doubt I'll get around to making those bridges anytime soon! All those obelisks mark the entrances to underground locations I wanted to explore. One leads to the Forgotten Outpost at the north end of the North-South Passage, which will be detailed in a later post.
Thanks for reading about a piece of Midgard's ancient history! The Brinemire Swamp Base is far from glamorous—it's a look back at Midgard's Stone Age. I'm not embarrassed to show it just because it's so primitive. It's obviously from a bygone era before I knew much of anything about Minecraft. I leave it not for posterity but because I have no need to make any improvements. Since 2015, I only very rarely ever visit it and then only for a one-night layover on my return flight to the castle. It shall remain frozen in the past for the foreseeable future.
This is the best survival world I've seen on the forum. You've managed to create a base that is huge, asethically pleasing, functional, and you've done it with no cheats on a large biome world. These timelines just make it even more epic. Wow.
Such kind words! Thank you! I'm honored!
I'm very glad you're enjoying my SSP journal. I know this latest post about Brinemire isn't the most interesting, but I'm starting from the beginning and working my way forward through time, chronicling my past as well as the present.
Your world, story, and castle always fascinated me. At first glance, it has a rather basic appeal (not a bad thing at all, especially since this is survival and not creative), but if you look deeper or follow the story, you can see all the different planning and adding over time that went in to it. I feel my own builds are similar in a way; not the absolute most detailed of a given thing you'll find around, but something that evolves over a survival worlds life to becomes something really telling, and with it's own story. You even name locales like I do. You're probably one of the other players I started noticing with a play style rather similar to mine and that is partly why I think I am drawn to it, but also, funny enough given my name, I never ever did make a castle proper in my world, and yours is one of my favorite survival ones I've seen.
Also, that story about the tree; I am looking forward to it! If I am remembering right, you commented on a post I made about my world (which, looking back, I wish I would have posted here in similar fashion, but it's initial post was sort of a collection of screenshots and one that hugely grew, so it went in the screenshot forum) that you were sad when I cut one of my older trees down.
What high praise! Thank you very much!
Your world features far greater builds than mine—no doubt about it. Like Leangreen76, you're a much better builder than I. Your world is one of the few that I follow and enjoy, and it's because I can tell you're a very creative an imaginative person who puts a lot of heart into her world. It's not just a collection of builds and farms and such. Because of that, your world is in many ways a "real" place, just like Midgard. Very interesting, indeed.
You're very right about the Castle Midgard's plain appearance from the outside. It's not a spectacular sight, especially when compared to some of the truly great SSP castles that one can find on the 'Net. It's imposing, but it's not the very biggest out there—though it's also only the tip of the iceberg. Most of its mass is hidden below the surface. It's ominous, but it's not a magnificent palace like many other large four-year-old SSP castles.
As I've said in the past and will repeat again here in this thread, the castle's form is a direct result of its function as a (decorative) traffic controller. It grew over time little by little like a giant ant hill. Had I set out from the beginning with the intentions of making a tremendous castle, I'm sure it would look a whole lot better. It would also be a whole lot less useful!
An appreciation for Midgard is likely an acquired taste, I'll wager. Like you say, at first glance, there's not a whole lot special about my world. It's no where near as advanced as, say, Mr_N_Derman's or Courageous_Marinade's. Sure, there's a big castle in the middle of it, but that's nothing uncommon for a four-year-old world.
What makes this world special is how it is a reflection of my own unique play style. That's a lot more subtle and difficult to encapsulate, as you've noted. It requires some investment on the reader's part. However, it's my greatest hope that I'll make it worth everyone's while!
Thanks again, everyone, for your interest!
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My short story-like journals; quick-and-easy reads:
I don't know about praise, but thank you? If anything, I feel like this inspires me. This thread would have been an ideal way to do my own world, but at the time it was still a bit young, and my initial showcase was literally one main town (and before it tripled in size). Since that thread got far too ballooned with images (the page is actually slow to load and edit), I've been intending to re-do it, but like with old locations, maybe it's best to leave it be as an image repository and just start a new thread like this. I might do that...
Anyway, it was easy to spot, because my own play style is one I've lately come to term as a mix of that of a builder, a story-maker, and a (casual)survival player, and I can't speak for your own play style (may contain more and may lack some of those), but I drew some similarities. I'm not too familiar with those other names you threw out either (haven't been too much of a regular to the forums the last few years, more so for the What Have You Done thread), but back in 2013, 2014, etc., you had one of the worlds I'd closest say seemed similar to mine in how you approached and played it (leangreen76 being another). My world started receiving far less play around that time, too. I still play, and my world has grown a ton since even 2014 and 2015, but for a while there it was really limited and spread out, and my updates and show-casing of it here fell behind (atop needing to be redone due to the page being image heavy and slow). Um... long story short, you've been an inspiration for me, haha, and sorry to elaborate on your post about it. Maybe one day I'll procrastinate less and make my own.
Real feedback time...
I don't think the swamp stuff was boring. More the opposite, and I am the same in that I'll usually not go back an totally redo something, unless it is to become a more prominent location I bring back from time in my world. Otherwise, I think it is far better to add on than to redo (as in, learn and improve as you go, and make the next thing that much better, rather than re-perfecting the same few places over and again). I also left one of my places of origins, and the cave that was near it (I'd say it was well explored but TheMasterCaver would have a laughing fit, haha) was one that I went back and unlit with torches, as I was done with it. I sort of wish I hadn't, but oh well. So in that way, it was interesting to read of an early place, and, again, draw parallels.
Per the castle, again, it's still iconic to me. It might not be the grandest, I don't know, but in the parallels I drew, it was iconic and made me think... "I never even built one proper"! That's sort of only... half true though. I did make something more akin to a small fort (which now belongs to my nephew; I directed the build but we both built it), and that is something I can showcase when I make my own thread.
As for not re-doing the bridge, I have one vote for, and one vote against it. I use Elytra, but rarely. I just prefer ground travel. In that way, I love networking stuff by ground and ensuring it's up to par. On the other hand, "insert repeating about not redoing old stuff here". But, there are exceptions (I did rebuild my original biggest bridge and it's now my favorite one), and if it's really just a cobblestone path, I'd probably consider that grounds for redoing.
Edit: one last quick add. As someone who also plays at a render distance of 32, but once played on "low" which was like... 4 chunks (?), it's amazing how much more open your scope becomes as a builder/planner (or even explorer) when you're not stuck at less than 16 chunks. Your maps impress me. I never did that, either. Sadly, I just use UnMined.
Nice castle man! Keep up the good work. So cool to see how it progressed. I never even made a castle in my world until years after I started. I have a similar survival world and wish I had more pictures of the process. Check out my final product. (Is it ever final?)
ATTACHMENTS
castleview
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See my Minecraft world (100% Survival), Dirty Baker City here:
Have you thought of making a download available, or is world size a concern? If that's it, I'd understand, as I have to manually trim mine down as it's over 11 GB every time I want to update my download (and it's in need of that actually). While it's hard to find myself "playing" another world as I'm just far too involved with mine in what time I do play, there are certainly a few others in particular, this being one, I'd jump at the chance to be able to play for the purpose to explore and discover.
Getting a nostalgic Lord of the Rings vibe from all this... I particularly enjoy how you've used survival Minecraft to tell a story. I feel as though this facet of the game's many sandbox possibilities is often undervalued.
Keep writing!
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LP series? Not my style! Video series? Closer, but not quite. Survival journal, maybe? That's better. Now in Season 4 of the Legends of Quintropolis Journal (<< click to view)!! World download and more can be found there.
Nice work so far Mr Sharp! You've inspired me to possibly create my own thread about my world, although mine doesn't have the richness of a story that yours has - yours is more like the epic of a Bayeux Tapestry, whereas i think mine would be more like a technical manual for a car lol .. I got too much Ego, not enough Id in Freudian terms!
I think one of the reasons i tend to make multiple, smaller bases is because i like to have everything to hand, guess its more practical for me (and too much redstone stuff in one place can eat into your FPS). With such a mega large base as Midgard, I've often wondered what the furthest you'd have to go between two points of the base to accomplish a task, like, as an example, you want to enchant a book, but you have none to hand, so you have to obtain leather from a cow, paper from sugarcane, and then go to the enchantment table. Would these things be close together, or would you have to go from one end of the castle to the other to obtain the different items? I'm guessing Midgard is so cavernous you can just Elytra from point to point, so distance is not a problem for you
Late at night on a weekend is not the best time for me to post. I have an active social life filled with a great deal of good friends who all enjoy alcoholic beverages. At the same time, my Internet connection is so poor that I can't view this or other threads.
I live on a rural horse farm and my Verizon unlimited plan is very much limited. Earlier today, I took an opportunity to upload a video I made on another connection in town.
I made this video in reply to a recent thread about combat. My Internet connection is so slow that I can't even link to the thread; I'm sorry.
This is the first video I've ever uploaded. Please realize that I'm no Youtuber. It's late at night on the weekend and I'm really not fit to post. However, I've sat on this video for some time and in my current state, I've decided to make it public. Here it is:
I've received some really good feedback that I very much appreciate, but I'm just in no position to reply to anyone's comments at this time. Please believe me, I really want to do so, but the words on the screen are blurring together and I just can't do so at this time.
Thanks for your interest,
— Sharpe
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My short story-like journals; quick-and-easy reads:
I rather enjoyed that! It's at least better than my first ever video, (I don't make them now, I think the last was 4 years ago); where I was "Umm"ing and "Err"ing alot. Don't worry though with the talking whilst playing - you do get used to it. By the time I made the last lot of videos I had at least got comfotable talking/with my own voice. It'll come.
The only advice I would give is maybe turn down the volume of the mobs a little so it doesn't over power your voice. Look forward to part II
Like Minecraft forums or interested in my world? Try My message board, it's better moderated because I run it directly and have run Internet message boards for 21+ years! Better software and I have much more control to keep the content more up to date. Free to join, 13 years+.
As your world is in Large Biomes world type (and considering last time you found a jungle), if you find any areas of interest (i.e. any rare biome), you could build a Nether portal in there and link it to your main one. That way you will avoid walking long distances in the Overworld. Oh and keep in mind that 1 block in the Nether = 8 blocks in the Overworld.
Other than that, you're doing nice work in your world! Never give up! (By the way, why don't you update to 1.13? I mean, I find 1.12.2 a bit boring and 1.13's features are pretty cool. But it's up to your choice after all.)
Edit: I just watched your video and I really liked it!
Just figured out that when I'd turn 8 years old, the 23th of November 2011, my parents could have offered me Minecraft as a birthday gift. Sigh...
Fun but frustrating platformer. Saves me of boredom when I don't feel like playing Minecraft. Knowledge of 8-bit old-school videogames is optional tho'.
I love the story you've created for your world. Just reading about it on the forum and later watching that video you posted made me feel excitement for minecraft I haven't felt in a long while, even despite starting a new survival world recently. I think tomorrow I'll be giving my town a name and logging recent progress into a book n' quill, all thanks to you
Video wise I love both your voice and personality. It's a good break from the common MC youtuber formula. I'm looking for another series to watch, and I think if you started uploading I'd definitely hop on for the ride.
This started out as a post on the What Have You Done Recently thread, but that thread is active and this is a bit long-winded, so I think it's best if I post it here. The screenshots are taken in-game (rather than a creative-mode copy for this thread) and I wrote the following post as if the reader would never have heard anything about my Minecraft survival single player world . . .
Usually, I only play Minecraft during the summer months and as such, I hadn't played Minecraft since September 23 last year. After six months of inactivity, I reinstalled it a few days ago to pass some time.
I don't plan on resuming regular game play or posts to this forum for a couple more months.
My first and main base, Castle Midgard, was founded in this vanilla, hard-difficulty, large-biome world on July 2, 2014. In the past four years, I've explored a great deal of territory both above and below the surface leaving little, if anything, left to explore around the castle. Of course, since I don't use spectator mode or anything other than what I personally consider "legit," I have had some somewhat-recent surprises, but it's safe to say the area for several hundred blocks around the castle is completely caved-out.
So, I flew to a nearby outpost where adventures can still be found within the depths: the Twilight Watchtower, erected Oct. 6, 2016.
It juts out of the surrounding Bleach Bone Forest, a large-biome birch forest a few thousand blocks square. Strangely, there's a small pocket or peninsula of regular forest hills in one area of western Bleach Bone. It had the highest hill around, so I built a tower on it. Good lookout point, but it also makes for a convenient storage and refill area, so I use it as a small outpost.
I consider it cursed.
In a way, I really, actually do. We've had our go-arounds, that tower and I. It was first called the Twilight Watchtower because it sits on the west horizon when viewed from Castle Midgard, just on the very edge of a 32-chunk render distance. I'm not going to look up the link to my thread, but I had so much trouble building it because of a lighting glitch. (I lied: here is a link to the thread.) Practically the whole south side tower was painted black. I could not get it fixed until TheMasterCaver told me I would have to cover it in something like spiderwebs or moss, which I did. So, thanks again, TMC!
During those years it stood marred, I called the tower Shadowspire, but I never talked about it and never took any screenshots of it. Really, I didn't even look at it; it just became this black spike in the sky. It became like a symbol of Minecraft's glitch-infested nature to me—but I refused to tear it down. I tried not to really even think about it until, like I say, TMC told me how to fix it. I promptly did so after two years of it standing like an evil wizard's abandoned tower or something.
It stood on prime real estate for an outpost. It's close enough to the castle that most of this area was generated in version 1.7 or sometime a little later in 1.8. However, it's just far enough away that taking materials, valuables, and junk hauled up from adventuring in the deepest layers of the world was a time-wasting annoyance. It's exactly 625 blocks away from Midgard's Old Tower as the elytra flies, but on foot or hoof, it was a lot farther than that. More like 1,500-2,000 blocks if you didn't want to go climbing mountains and swimming through sizable lakes. Again, large-biome world. From the Twilight Watchtower, it takes about one night, dusk to dawn, to walk on a road with bridges there or back from Castle Midgard.
With the "curse" lifted, I have been enjoying exploring the underworld of the farthest reaches of western Bleach Bone for more almost a year now.
Venturing into the caves beneath the Twilight Watchtower all the way from the castle on foot, underground was unlikely—not this far out. However, the outpost I call Ranch 34 wasn't too far away; a few hundred blocks through rough terrain, though. At the same time, I had mapped this area during one of my extensive cartography campaigns. I mapped more than a 4x4 area of fully zoomed-out maps mostly by foot, hoof and boat, much of that before version 1.9 added a left hand. Before elytra, let alone rocket-powered elytra, in other words. Big difference.
Anyway, a few days ago, I flew to the Twilight Watchtower, then circled, looking for a spot to land and explore.
This is what I do when I'm just passing time. I just fly out and look for anything at all that I might find interesting. It might be a rock formation. It might be a cave. It might be a ravine. It could be something as insignificant as a grove of large trees. Sometimes, I'll just look around for a little while, then fly off again, looking for something else that catches my attention. Other times, I find adventure, and that's what I'm really seeking. I don't remember every single cave and ravine and crater I've ever found, but I do have a plenty of good memories of many hours of fun playing Minecraft. You can't put that in a chest, but that's what I'm seeking. Found a whole lot of it, too!
Once again, I digress. I've played very casually for a few days now centering each short session of two or three hours around the Twilight Watchtower. I delve until I fill up a couple shulkers, then head back to the surface. I dump the stuff off back at the tower, saving a trip all the way back to the castle. It's probably only three or four first-level rockets to fly back and forth, but it adds up. Remember, I built this tower before rocket-powered elytra, too. Those made everything a whole lot closer.
I've spent most my time in caves. I don't know how many diamonds I've found, but that's what I like to do, work my way down to lava level and look around for diamonds. I just take them in ore with Silk Touch now anyway. With full max enchant armor including Mending, and even backups of it all anyway—hell, treasure vaults decorated with stands of full suits of pre-Mending enchanted armor—I'll never have to mine another diamond ever again, as far as I can tell. But, I go down looking to find a few before I head back up.
I place all my torches on the right-hand side. So, I can almost always make my way straight back, no problem. I could be hundreds of blocks from where I started and have no issues returning. At the same time, I know the underworld for more than a thousand blocks in all directions from Castle Midgard pretty well. I could give underground directions to one random location to another within 2,000 blocks of the castle. When tunnels start to intersect from one trip to another, I sometimes place signs or other markers to help me understand which path I should take. If there's something I find that's pretty special, like "Biggest cave in the world?" or "Biggest ravine in the world?" I'll put several signs and markers up. Things like double mob spawners would get marked as well. I've found a few of those. With this world being so old, there are a lot of locations that I consider interesting for a wide variety of reasons, and I know where they all all. I may forget, but it's recorded somewhere, in my in-game journal, for example (I even have a text file for horses).
Well, last night, I came upon a spot I thought was important four years ago. I have no idea why. "The Diamond Mine?" I have a thousand-block branch mine now, but according to the torches, I didn't come form below, I came from above.
I thought it was funny. I had a really good time caving in an adjacent cave to one that was far, far away from home four years ago. I must have had a really good time that day, too. Something to do with finding diamonds. Might have been some of the first I unearthed. Jan 27 is three days before I started my branch mine, so diamonds were still scarce and valuable to me. That would have been in java version 1.8, I think.
I had a great time last night caving as well. So, with a laugh, I put a sign beside it:
"I was here again!"
Not realizing I wasn't too far from the mouth of the cave that led me down here four years ago, I walked out and was surprised to find one of my obelisks. I'm not even sure now what it was I discovered!
The above screenshot shows why and I built the tower where I did. Perfect location for high visibility. This was very, very far from the castle with no roads and iron equipment. The "castle" was really just a small fort back in January of 2015. I never, ever use F3 to find my way. Back then, I didn't even know about F3! I use it now only to make measurements when building and to mark locations for record keeping, but not to find my way between points, or even what cardinal direction I'm facing. That's a lot harder to do when you're on foot or horseback several thousand blocks from home. In-game maps certainly help then, and I mapped everything.
My screenshots folder (and sub-directories of it) is where I keep a lot of records, and I wanted to record what this obelisk is, so I snapped one in-flight. That obelisk at the very top-right of the screenshot on the horizon marks a hill that is about half way between Ranch 34 (that area to the left of the screenshot) and where the edge of Bleach Bone Forest meets the grassy plains where I found my first horse, Kitt, and my first town. Back then, horses were fantastic finds. They were new-ish features of Minecraft and by far the best modes of overland transportation in rough country, especially in a large-biome world where things are spread much farther apart. For example, I had to travel more than 25,000 blocks to find my first jungle, all by land with no idea how long it was going to take me or how far away from the castle I would be. I rode Kitt the whole way there and the whole way back. The village, I wasn't so interested in finding. I knew better than to stick around it at night and at the same time, I didn't really want anything from it. I was more into exploring than figuring out villager mechanics—and I rarely ever looked stuff up about Minecraft online. Villagers were a bit of a mystery to me, one that I didn't care to unravel at the time. Of course, now I have a villager breeder below Castle Midgard, but I've still not done much with it. I have one vendor that sells Mending, but for twice as much as one that spawned naturally in the world—it's just that he's, like, more than 10,000 blocks away. He's also in a glass bubble, so I'm even less worried about losing him than the one in a glass bubble below the castle (due to MC-2025).
***
I ended tonight's session by writing the above post, but I also made a creative copy of the world for the sole purpose of taking pictures for this thread.
Here they are:
(Above) The distance between the Castle of Midgard and the Twilight Watchtower is considerable by foot or hoof, but insignificant for rocket-powered elytra.
(Above) I keep an in-game journal at the Twilight Watchtower just like I do at Castle Midgard. Not every day for sure, but I'll record what I'm doing for long blocks of time. For example, "March 17: Caved below tower for a few days." Most journals are less than five pages of short notes. I call them "guestbooks" at most locations other than the castle, but there are a couple other places with journals. I find it interesting sometimes to pick up a "guestbook" for some far-flung place and see when I slept there last. I'm quite nostalgic!
(Above) From the copula, one can see Longbridge on the left (east), Rose Hill Bridge on the right (west), and Ranch 34 would be more to the right of that.
(Above) The view from Longbridge.
The view from Longbridge was a lot different before it was covered:
(Above) Taken Oct. 5, 2016 during the tower's construction.
The Old Fort Becomes Old Tower
Brinemire Swamp and Grotto
Ranch 34
Skullgorge
Shadowspire, The Twilight Watchtower (March 18, 2019)
The Tower of Midgard
The Castle Keep
The Approach and Main Entrance
The Barbican and East Courtyard
The Small Garden Courtyard and Colonnade
Map Viewing Area and Elytra Hub
Skeletons in my Closet
Spiders in the Basement
(Above) Though I have save files that are older, this is actually the earliest picture I have of the "castle"—taken Aug. 28, 2014, the Day of Dragon's Death—back when it was still a fort on a precipice between an extreme hills biome and birch forest hills. The Olympian Mountains and Bleach Bone Forest, they're called. This is my first (and only) "large biome" world and back then, I didn't really know how big the biomes would be. It was a time when Minecraft was still mysterious and exciting for me. I didn't read the wiki or forums very much. I didn't know what was out there. I didn't know what was beyond the mountains to the east or the massive plains to the west. I didn't know what was on the other side of the 10 km-wide Dead Sea to the north or the shadows of the Dark Forest's roofed canopy to the south.
I had sheep, cows and pigs all on one side, chickens (too far away to render) on the other. I kept a lot of chickens because in addition to being a good food source, I needed feathers for arrows to slay the Ender Dragon, which I accomplished the day the above picture was taken.
(Above x3) All three of the above pictures were taken on another historic day for the Kingdom of Midgard, October 13, 2014—the first Witherfall. It was the day I first summoned and slew the Wither. It was the day I placed my first-ever beacon. Before that day, I had never done either of those things in any world.
It was also really the first time I used diamond equipment other than picks—I think I slew the dragon clad in iron. At that time, way back then, it felt like, "Oh, boy! Wearing diamond armor! How powerful!" Of course, over the years since, I've become more accustomed to playing with max-enchant diamond armor than anything else. I don't still have all of my original suit, but it wasn't anything special. The helmet was Protection III and Respiration III only, and pants were Projectile Protection III and Unbreaking III, for example.
In the Stone Age, I thought I was conserving iron by using stone tools. I was, but I had also not discovered branch mining techniques, nor did I have any idea how long a diamond pick would last. Hard to believe, but iron was still semi precious, while diamonds were invaluable to me—diamonds were to be cherished in treasure chests, not sullied by use! What if I were to die and lose them? The horror! Of course, I know better now, plus there's Mending, which seriously debased diamonds. "Saving" iron to fully power my first beacon greatly prolonged my transition from Stone Age to Iron Age. Again, I didn't watch YouTube videos, read the Wiki or even talk to others about Minecraft, so I didn't realize just how terribly inefficient it was to use stone (and even iron) picks and equipment.
Now, when I make a new (hardcore) world, I get full diamond equipment as soon as I can, as any experienced, goal-oriented player will do.
By the way, the wheat by the pool of water in the first of the three pictures was my first "farm." I used wheat to breed cows and seeds to breed chickens. The horses came from a far-off plain about 3 km to the west, the first plains I encountered in that direction. My first horse, a black destrider named Kitt, is around there somewhere in gold armor, but I don't think he's visible.
Work in progress about the Diamond Age.
Work in progress about the New Castle Era.
Work in progress about the Age of Flight.
Work in progress about the Rocket Age.
In the spoiler below are some pictures taken from the roughly same spot using copies of backup save files. I put these in order to show the rise of Castle Midgard throughout the years. These are screenshots of years past, but all taken July 2, 2018, in 1.12.2, the current version. I'm going to try to keep commentary very brief.
Again, captions are below the images. Render distance 32, 1920x1080.
July 12, 2014, ten days after the world's creation. My first backup save file. In these early days, I spent most of my time about 1 km to the north at Brinemire Grotto, a base inside an underground ravine intersected by an abandoned mineshaft far below Brinemire Swamp.
Oct. 13, 2014, the first Witherfall. It marked the end of the Stone Age and rise of the Iron Age. I always wore iron armor and carried an iron sword, of course, but most of my picks, shovels, and axes up to this point were stone.
Nov. 5, 2014, after deforestation of the dangerous and obstructing Bleach Bone Forest immediately surrounding the fort. This was the heart of what I consider my Iron Age. All my regular tools were iron, though I had a few special-purpose enchanted diamond tools including the Efficiency IV, Unbreaking III axe that I used to clear the trees. That same axe—my first diamond axe in any world ever—still hangs on the wall in Old Tower today. With it, I cleared a wide path from the Old Fort to Skullgorge about 1 km to the west, and Brinemire Grotto about 1 km to the north. I call that path King's Road.
Jan 30, 2015, having terraformed the environs. More importantly, though, this was the groundbreaking day I began the westbound branch mine, thus marking the beginning of the year-long Diamond Age. It was a time of great subterranean adventure punctuated by heavy mining in search of diamonds. The world's third base, Skullgorge, about 1 km to the west, was fully operational. It had more resources than the Old Fort at the time, but more importantly, it was the location of my first skeleton XP farm. All my enchanting, even through the next era, was done at Skullgorge. Previously, what little enchanting I did happened in the End dimension. I even classify equipment by enchantment location: the very eldest are "End-forged" but most are "Skull-forged." Modern equipment is "castle-forged" because the castle is now the site of multiple XP farms. Just a funny little thing: notice the red flower and lilac above the creeper: they're in basically every screenshot (though the red flower gets moved).
Dec. 10, 2015, three days after the construction of the "new" castle began and thus, three days into the fourth age, the New Castle Era. As I've explained previously, I classify the ages because they represent a significant shift in my play style as well as my knowledge of Minecraft. Naturally, I set the dates of the ages long after they began. I wouldn't know at the time that an event would later become a historical milestone, of course. The New Castle Era, despite being named after the castle, was a time of distant exploration and expansion. Despite not yet having the off-hand slot introduced in the later version 1.9, I did a lot of mapping on horseback.
Jan. 4, 2016; Kitt is beside his mate, Frostwind (the white horse), but is just a bit too far to render. This is before I began a long and arduous construction of the keep. Glitches and crashes and mistakes would plague that soon-to-come process.
March 16, 2016, the first version 1.9 save. Construction of the keep began at the end of January but was not finished until mid-Febuary.
March 29, 2016 began construction of Midgard Tower, which was to be a dual-purpose addition: dark-room mob farm and elytra launch platform. Neither came to fruition, but the tower still marks the castle's location from any outside spot within render distance. I still might make a gunpowder farm out of it.
May 18, 2016. The tree, Yggdrasil, was planted May 4, 2016. I made a post about it back then to the "What Have You Done Recently" thread: https://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-java-edition/survival-mode/297957-what-have-you-done-recently?page=244#c5025
Also May 18, 2016. The small house is an AFK fish farm. I only used it perhaps a half dozen nights of 4-6 hours each. Of course, I was searching for Mending, but one pulls all sorts of stuff out of the water each night. I averaged one Mending book a night.
Oct. 24, 2016. No more torch spam. The green carpet covers blocks of glowstone and is considered transparent to light.
Also Oct. 24, 2016. View at night.
July 12, 2017. Right after the third anniversary. Doesn't look like much has changed, but a closer inspection will show a major expansion to the back of the castle. I'll cover the barbican in a later post.
July 2, 2018, the fourth anniversary of Midgard.
July 2, 2019, the fifth anniversary of Midgard.
Original post from July 2, 2018:
For at least two years, I've threatened to make a thread on these forums about my world's first and main base, Castle Midgard. Midgard is my vanilla, large-biome, survival single player world and today, July 2, 2018, is its fourth anniversary. It began in version 1.7.10 and I've continued to update it to the current version, 1.12.2.
I wasn't able to put the time and effort into making a big thread with lots of pictures and a video (or three), but I want to do something. So, I thought I would finally start a thread about the castle, and slowly update it with pictures of the past and present of my world.
I'm so sleepy, but I don't want to fail at my objective to start a thread tonight. So, I opened Minecraft, flew down to the base of the castle, and snapped a really quick picture, which I uploaded. It's not much, but it's a start!
Thanks for reading!
My short story-like journals; quick-and-easy reads:
My Quest for Elytra Complete! (Pic Intense, End-Game Spoilers)
[Journal & Pics] After a Year and a Half, I Finally Found a Jungle
FrozenCore: Hardcore Death; 3/20/15 to 5/3/15; Eight Weeks on a Frozen World in Pictures
HAHA, looks like some sort of a giant battleship in the water at first glance!
I wait to see more of USS Midgard
Mintutor now works in 1.13!
MrKite & Mc_Etlam ... I salute you!
I like it. I look forward to more.
Reserved
My short story-like journals; quick-and-easy reads:
My Quest for Elytra Complete! (Pic Intense, End-Game Spoilers)
[Journal & Pics] After a Year and a Half, I Finally Found a Jungle
FrozenCore: Hardcore Death; 3/20/15 to 5/3/15; Eight Weeks on a Frozen World in Pictures
This is the best survival world I've seen on the forum. You've managed to create a base that is huge, asethically pleasing, functional, and you've done it with no cheats on a large biome world. These timelines just make it even more epic. Wow.
Recently, I posted Castle Midgard's map viewing area and what I'm calling an "elytra shaft" or "elytra hub" to Reddit. I've posted about it here before, as it's probably my favorite room in the castle. The shaft is a vertical chamber descending from the castle's ground floor at Y=68 (just above sea level) all the way down to bedrock (Y=5). It's bridged thrice: a three-way 'T' intersection on the ground floor; again on the villager farm, gold farm antechamber and Nether portal's level (Y=43); and lastly at lava level (Y=11). Lava level is the location of the old treasury vault and entrance to the extensive branch mine. What I call the North-South Passage connects to the branch mine, but I don't consider the branch mine actually part of the castle, of course.
This is the heart of the castle. This is the center thoroughfare and has been for a long time. Coincidentally, it's also practically always been the map room.
Captions are below the images. Render distance 32, 1920x1080.
It's hard to see from the image unless opened in full screen (right click the image, "open in new tab" to do so), but there are three bridges.
Fun fact, it's less distance from the highest walkway (Y=68) to the middle bridge (Y=43) than it is from the middle bridge to the bottom one (Y=11), though it certainly doesn't seem like it looking down.
Lots more pictures:
(Above) Rocket-powered elytra have made cartography easy, but most of those fully zoomed-out maps were done old school: on horse, boat, or by foot! I've just never bothered to finish it yet; still tossing around the idea of riding my old horse around while mapping. I'll decide some day or year when and how I want to finish it. There's a flush redstone piston door in the bottom-left corner that gives access to the maps.
(Above) Looking down at the B1 crossing. Up leads to the gold farm antechamber, among other things. Down goes to the skeleton XP farm as well as the new area of the castle, which includes the zombie spawner.
(Above) Once, this corridor was an area of high traffic, but . . . not so much anymore. Rocket-powered elytra means I fly into in the castle, I don't walk or ride a horse.
(Above) Looking up from the middle bridge.
(Above) Looking at the gold farm antechamber, a subject for another post.
(above) The door to the left leads to one of a number of storage closets. The door to the right leads to the villager farm.
(Above) A view of the storage closet. This is a typical closet. Most the chests are full of stone, some are full of cobble, dirt gravel, etc.
(Above) Looking away from the gold farm toward the skeleton XP farm. The map is high above that iron door. To the left is the villager farm. To the right is a bunch of stairs and halls and such.
(Above) A view on the lowest bridge looking toward the treasury vault and bottom of the gold farm (the kill/collection area). My lighting is set to default, "moody." There are a number of dark, eerie places in Castle Midgard. Darkness and iron doors indicate that the area connects to natural caves. While no monsters can spawn anywhere in the castle, it's not impossible for them to spawn in caves. Most are very well lit, but one should be on guard. Of course, this low, there's also the possibility of lava—though none is ever exposed anywhere in the castle.
(Above) Same view, but with brightness turned up to where probably 90% of people have it, the highest setting. Blech. Not only does it look bad, night vision potions become useless. No thanks.
(Above) If I'm seeing this view, it's because I fell in the water. Oops! Notice how close the top and middle bridges appear when looking up despite being quite far apart!
Thanks for reading!
My short story-like journals; quick-and-easy reads:
My Quest for Elytra Complete! (Pic Intense, End-Game Spoilers)
[Journal & Pics] After a Year and a Half, I Finally Found a Jungle
FrozenCore: Hardcore Death; 3/20/15 to 5/3/15; Eight Weeks on a Frozen World in Pictures
Your world, story, and castle always fascinated me. At first glance, it has a rather basic appeal (not a bad thing at all, especially since this is survival and not creative), but if you look deeper or follow the story, you can see all the different planning and adding over time that went in to it. I feel my own builds are similar in a way; not the absolute most detailed of a given thing you'll find around, but something that evolves over a survival worlds life to becomes something really telling, and with it's own story. You even name locales like I do. You're probably one of the other players I started noticing with a play style rather similar to mine and that is partly why I think I am drawn to it, but also, funny enough given my name, I never ever did make a castle proper in my world, and yours is one of my favorite survival ones I've seen.
Also, that story about the tree; I am looking forward to it! If I am remembering right, you commented on a post I made about my world (which, looking back, I wish I would have posted here in similar fashion, but it's initial post was sort of a collection of screenshots and one that hugely grew, so it went in the screenshot forum) that you were sad when I cut one of my older trees down.
(Above) Brinemire Swamp is north and north-east of Castle Midgard (the green dot).
Brinemire Swamp is not a terribly interesting location separate from Midgard, but it is a very important piece to the puzzle of the kingdom’s history. The base there, Brinemire Grotto, was founded in the first ten days of the world's creation and is located one kilometer directly north of Castle Midgard. The swamp stretches several kilometers to the castle's north-east. It’s where I spent much, if not most of my Stone-Age time before the first Witherfall (Oct. 13, 2014). While Old Fort Midgard was still my “home,” and though the cloud-level peak of Mount Olympus is the world spawn, I consider Brinemire to be a primordial marshland. The brackish waters derive their name from the salty Dead Sea that bifurcates it from the north. It’s really two (technically three) swamp biomes, and in a large biome world, that makes it roughly 4,500 blocks wide east-to-west (with 1,000 being ocean in the middle).
It was one of the first biomes I encountered in Midgard. When I struck out from the world spawn atop Mount Olympus, I first traveled west and reached the Bleach Bone Forest, a birch forest biome, on the edge of which I built the Old Fort. Had chance or fate's guidance led me north instead, I would have first crossed into the Brinemire. Nevertheless, within days after establishing the Old Fort, I pushed north to the rocky shores of what I considered the “known world” at the time. Along that journey, I spotted a ravine. It was the first ravine I had ever discovered.
Stone sword in hand, I waded into the in the swamp in a time before I really knew much about Minecraft. Everything about the game was fun and often a new occasion. I barely knew the Ender Dragon existed, let alone had I ever been to the End and slain her. So, when I spotted the first ravine ever in the world, despite it being very, very small, I explored it, of course.
It was a deep, dank hole in the ground, but I carved into its rock side with my stone pickaxe and made a small outpost.
Screenshots are 1290x1080 and were taken tonight in version 1.12.2 from a copy of the first backup file made July 12, 2014. Render distance 32. Captions are below the images.
(Above) Looking down into the world's first ravine and the tiny outpost inside it.
(Above) The top-side view of the ladder from the surface leading to the outpost in the ravine. Being new to the game and having a short render distance on my laptop in version 1.7.10, I made a lot of cobble markers, standing stones, and obelisks.
(Above) The outpost's entrance. It's oak instead of spruce because it was hung in version 1.7.10 before doors had wood types. It's wooden rather than iron because I didn't know zombies could break it down!
(Above) Typical plain Stone Age shelter. The door to the right of the image leads out to the ravine, but the doorway to the left descends down into what was going to be my world's first branch mine, though I later canceled that idea.
A couple days after making the first tiny Brinemire outpost, for some reason I've long since forgotten, I vacated it. I think I stumbled upon an abandoned mineshaft running through another ravine, which led me to build the second base right beside it—what would become the actual Brinemire base, Brinemire Grotto:
(Above) Brinemire Grotto on July 12, 2014, or rather, the farms and "skylight" that's above it. Not very impressive, I know! It was a Stone Age base built within the first ten days of starting this world.
Brinemire Grotto has been abandoned for years now, but it's quite large and has all the common features of a self-sustaining, long-term survival home. It has farms and storage and is well stocked with supplies such as brewing ingredients. I consider it an actual "base" rather than a more simple "outpost" for a couple reasons. The first is because it contains an enchanting station, which puts it above a common rest stop. The second reason is because it is one of only four or so locations that are connected to the Nether railway, the others being Castle Midgard, the End portal to the castle's south, and the Witherfell base farther to the north.
The world's third base is Skullgorge, but it isn't connected by Nether railway; it's connected directly to Castle Midgard by a one-kilometer railway and branch mine running west.
Brinemire Grotto is a bizarre and labyrinthine maze of corridors and stairs connecting the natural chambers of the caverns intersecting with the ravine inside of which it is located. The ravine is also crossed by the first abandoned mineshaft I had ever discovered. I had no idea how common they were and I explored the subterranean area around the base very extensively. When it came time to offload my adventure's gains, I wouldn't have wanted to return all the way to the Old Fort—not only because it was a 1,000-block trudge, but because much of that distance was through swampwater. Without Depth Strider boots (or any knowledge of that enchantment's existence), the trip home was a taxing and arduous slog, not to mention filled with danger should night fall while traveling! No, I wasn't making many trips back to the Old Fort from Brinemire Base back then!
I won't bore the reader with much more of the subject, nor many more pictures, but here are a few more of the base as it is currently with brief descriptive captions:
(Above) Looking up at the base, which spans the top of the ravine. I cut a hole in the roof to allow for natural light.
(Above) Looking down at the Grotto's highest underground level.
(Above) Looking down at the intersecting mineshaft that I believe first led me to the ravine.
(Above x2) The inside of the Grotto's main chamber. I never finished it. I used dirt to mock up pillars because taking cobble back down would take too long with a stone pick!
(Above) My first ever (in any world) redstone contraption! Pull the lever to lower the piston which releases water which breaks loose the nether wart. I would then collect it on the far side of the pit without having to step into the soul sand. I didn't know about automatic collection methods.
(Above) Like I say, the Brinemire Grotto is a confusing maze of corridors, stairs, and bridges. I'm surprised I can navigate it at all any more, but I can still make my way around.
(Above) Nether portal leading to the unnamed, lesser of two Nether outposts. However, due to the frustrating mechanics of Nether portals, this is unfortunately not an exit, only an entrance to the Nether. The exit is outside the base over by the first ravine outpost (visible in the next screenshot).
(Above) A look at the Brinemire Grotto complex as it currently stands July 26, 2018. I planned to eventually turn those cobble crossings into real bridges, but it never happened. As this base is long abandoned and rocket-powered elytra rather than horseback is my most common mode of travel, I doubt I'll get around to making those bridges anytime soon! All those obelisks mark the entrances to underground locations I wanted to explore. One leads to the Forgotten Outpost at the north end of the North-South Passage, which will be detailed in a later post.
Thanks for reading about a piece of Midgard's ancient history! The Brinemire Swamp Base is far from glamorous—it's a look back at Midgard's Stone Age. I'm not embarrassed to show it just because it's so primitive. It's obviously from a bygone era before I knew much of anything about Minecraft. I leave it not for posterity but because I have no need to make any improvements. Since 2015, I only very rarely ever visit it and then only for a one-night layover on my return flight to the castle. It shall remain frozen in the past for the foreseeable future.
My short story-like journals; quick-and-easy reads:
My Quest for Elytra Complete! (Pic Intense, End-Game Spoilers)
[Journal & Pics] After a Year and a Half, I Finally Found a Jungle
FrozenCore: Hardcore Death; 3/20/15 to 5/3/15; Eight Weeks on a Frozen World in Pictures
Such kind words! Thank you! I'm honored!
I'm very glad you're enjoying my SSP journal. I know this latest post about Brinemire isn't the most interesting, but I'm starting from the beginning and working my way forward through time, chronicling my past as well as the present.
What high praise! Thank you very much!
Your world features far greater builds than mine—no doubt about it. Like Leangreen76, you're a much better builder than I. Your world is one of the few that I follow and enjoy, and it's because I can tell you're a very creative an imaginative person who puts a lot of heart into her world. It's not just a collection of builds and farms and such. Because of that, your world is in many ways a "real" place, just like Midgard. Very interesting, indeed.
You're very right about the Castle Midgard's plain appearance from the outside. It's not a spectacular sight, especially when compared to some of the truly great SSP castles that one can find on the 'Net. It's imposing, but it's not the very biggest out there—though it's also only the tip of the iceberg. Most of its mass is hidden below the surface. It's ominous, but it's not a magnificent palace like many other large four-year-old SSP castles.
As I've said in the past and will repeat again here in this thread, the castle's form is a direct result of its function as a (decorative) traffic controller. It grew over time little by little like a giant ant hill. Had I set out from the beginning with the intentions of making a tremendous castle, I'm sure it would look a whole lot better. It would also be a whole lot less useful!
An appreciation for Midgard is likely an acquired taste, I'll wager. Like you say, at first glance, there's not a whole lot special about my world. It's no where near as advanced as, say, Mr_N_Derman's or Courageous_Marinade's. Sure, there's a big castle in the middle of it, but that's nothing uncommon for a four-year-old world.
What makes this world special is how it is a reflection of my own unique play style. That's a lot more subtle and difficult to encapsulate, as you've noted. It requires some investment on the reader's part. However, it's my greatest hope that I'll make it worth everyone's while!
Thanks again, everyone, for your interest!
My short story-like journals; quick-and-easy reads:
My Quest for Elytra Complete! (Pic Intense, End-Game Spoilers)
[Journal & Pics] After a Year and a Half, I Finally Found a Jungle
FrozenCore: Hardcore Death; 3/20/15 to 5/3/15; Eight Weeks on a Frozen World in Pictures
I don't know about praise, but thank you? If anything, I feel like this inspires me. This thread would have been an ideal way to do my own world, but at the time it was still a bit young, and my initial showcase was literally one main town (and before it tripled in size). Since that thread got far too ballooned with images (the page is actually slow to load and edit), I've been intending to re-do it, but like with old locations, maybe it's best to leave it be as an image repository and just start a new thread like this. I might do that...
Anyway, it was easy to spot, because my own play style is one I've lately come to term as a mix of that of a builder, a story-maker, and a (casual)survival player, and I can't speak for your own play style (may contain more and may lack some of those), but I drew some similarities. I'm not too familiar with those other names you threw out either (haven't been too much of a regular to the forums the last few years, more so for the What Have You Done thread), but back in 2013, 2014, etc., you had one of the worlds I'd closest say seemed similar to mine in how you approached and played it (leangreen76 being another). My world started receiving far less play around that time, too. I still play, and my world has grown a ton since even 2014 and 2015, but for a while there it was really limited and spread out, and my updates and show-casing of it here fell behind (atop needing to be redone due to the page being image heavy and slow). Um... long story short, you've been an inspiration for me, haha, and sorry to elaborate on your post about it. Maybe one day I'll procrastinate less and make my own.
Real feedback time...
I don't think the swamp stuff was boring. More the opposite, and I am the same in that I'll usually not go back an totally redo something, unless it is to become a more prominent location I bring back from time in my world. Otherwise, I think it is far better to add on than to redo (as in, learn and improve as you go, and make the next thing that much better, rather than re-perfecting the same few places over and again). I also left one of my places of origins, and the cave that was near it (I'd say it was well explored but TheMasterCaver would have a laughing fit, haha) was one that I went back and unlit with torches, as I was done with it. I sort of wish I hadn't, but oh well. So in that way, it was interesting to read of an early place, and, again, draw parallels.
Per the castle, again, it's still iconic to me. It might not be the grandest, I don't know, but in the parallels I drew, it was iconic and made me think... "I never even built one proper"! That's sort of only... half true though. I did make something more akin to a small fort (which now belongs to my nephew; I directed the build but we both built it), and that is something I can showcase when I make my own thread.
As for not re-doing the bridge, I have one vote for, and one vote against it. I use Elytra, but rarely. I just prefer ground travel. In that way, I love networking stuff by ground and ensuring it's up to par. On the other hand, "insert repeating about not redoing old stuff here". But, there are exceptions (I did rebuild my original biggest bridge and it's now my favorite one), and if it's really just a cobblestone path, I'd probably consider that grounds for redoing.
Edit: one last quick add. As someone who also plays at a render distance of 32, but once played on "low" which was like... 4 chunks (?), it's amazing how much more open your scope becomes as a builder/planner (or even explorer) when you're not stuck at less than 16 chunks. Your maps impress me. I never did that, either. Sadly, I just use UnMined.
Nice castle man! Keep up the good work. So cool to see how it progressed. I never even made a castle in my world until years after I started. I have a similar survival world and wish I had more pictures of the process. Check out my final product. (Is it ever final?)
See my Minecraft world (100% Survival), Dirty Baker City here:
https://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft/show-your-creation/2915825-dirty-baker-city
Have you thought of making a download available, or is world size a concern? If that's it, I'd understand, as I have to manually trim mine down as it's over 11 GB every time I want to update my download (and it's in need of that actually). While it's hard to find myself "playing" another world as I'm just far too involved with mine in what time I do play, there are certainly a few others in particular, this being one, I'd jump at the chance to be able to play for the purpose to explore and discover.
That's nice! I don't even have a castle either (just a stronghold), and no... no! It is NEVER final, haha.
Getting a nostalgic Lord of the Rings vibe from all this... I particularly enjoy how you've used survival Minecraft to tell a story. I feel as though this facet of the game's many sandbox possibilities is often undervalued.
Keep writing!
LP series? Not my style! Video series? Closer, but not quite. Survival journal, maybe? That's better. Now in Season 4 of the Legends of Quintropolis Journal (<< click to view)!! World download and more can be found there.
Nice work so far Mr Sharp! You've inspired me to possibly create my own thread about my world, although mine doesn't have the richness of a story that yours has - yours is more like the epic of a Bayeux Tapestry, whereas i think mine would be more like a technical manual for a car lol .. I got too much Ego, not enough Id in Freudian terms!
I think one of the reasons i tend to make multiple, smaller bases is because i like to have everything to hand, guess its more practical for me (and too much redstone stuff in one place can eat into your FPS). With such a mega large base as Midgard, I've often wondered what the furthest you'd have to go between two points of the base to accomplish a task, like, as an example, you want to enchant a book, but you have none to hand, so you have to obtain leather from a cow, paper from sugarcane, and then go to the enchantment table. Would these things be close together, or would you have to go from one end of the castle to the other to obtain the different items? I'm guessing Midgard is so cavernous you can just Elytra from point to point, so distance is not a problem for you
Mintutor now works in 1.13!
MrKite & Mc_Etlam ... I salute you!
Late at night on a weekend is not the best time for me to post. I have an active social life filled with a great deal of good friends who all enjoy alcoholic beverages. At the same time, my Internet connection is so poor that I can't view this or other threads.
I live on a rural horse farm and my Verizon unlimited plan is very much limited. Earlier today, I took an opportunity to upload a video I made on another connection in town.
I made this video in reply to a recent thread about combat. My Internet connection is so slow that I can't even link to the thread; I'm sorry.
This is the first video I've ever uploaded. Please realize that I'm no Youtuber. It's late at night on the weekend and I'm really not fit to post. However, I've sat on this video for some time and in my current state, I've decided to make it public. Here it is:
I've received some really good feedback that I very much appreciate, but I'm just in no position to reply to anyone's comments at this time. Please believe me, I really want to do so, but the words on the screen are blurring together and I just can't do so at this time.
Thanks for your interest,
— Sharpe
My short story-like journals; quick-and-easy reads:
My Quest for Elytra Complete! (Pic Intense, End-Game Spoilers)
[Journal & Pics] After a Year and a Half, I Finally Found a Jungle
FrozenCore: Hardcore Death; 3/20/15 to 5/3/15; Eight Weeks on a Frozen World in Pictures
I rather enjoyed that! It's at least better than my first ever video, (I don't make them now, I think the last was 4 years ago); where I was "Umm"ing and "Err"ing alot. Don't worry though with the talking whilst playing - you do get used to it. By the time I made the last lot of videos I had at least got comfotable talking/with my own voice. It'll come.
The only advice I would give is maybe turn down the volume of the mobs a little so it doesn't over power your voice. Look forward to part II
Closed old thread
Like Minecraft forums or interested in my world? Try My message board, it's better moderated because I run it directly and have run Internet message boards for 21+ years! Better software and I have much more control to keep the content more up to date. Free to join, 13 years+.
16yrs+ only
Do you mind if I give you any advice?
As your world is in Large Biomes world type (and considering last time you found a jungle), if you find any areas of interest (i.e. any rare biome), you could build a Nether portal in there and link it to your main one. That way you will avoid walking long distances in the Overworld. Oh and keep in mind that 1 block in the Nether = 8 blocks in the Overworld.
Other than that, you're doing nice work in your world! Never give up! (By the way, why don't you update to 1.13? I mean, I find 1.12.2 a bit boring and 1.13's features are pretty cool. But it's up to your choice after all.)
Edit: I just watched your video and I really liked it!
Just figured out that when I'd turn 8 years old, the 23th of November 2011, my parents could have offered me Minecraft as a birthday gift. Sigh...
Fun but frustrating platformer. Saves me of boredom when I don't feel like playing Minecraft. Knowledge of 8-bit old-school videogames is optional tho'.
http://iwbtg.kayin.moe
Words of Warning: - You need a software (Clickteam Fusion 2) to run this game.
- The game will probably crash a lot.
- You will rage so much.
- This game is too easy for me. \_(^_^)_/
Glad to see you've uploaded something to Youtube! I really hope you will continue making these, even if they're sparsely made.
It's been very nice to get a look at your world in picture form; I think it'd be even better to get to see it in video.
I love the story you've created for your world. Just reading about it on the forum and later watching that video you posted made me feel excitement for minecraft I haven't felt in a long while, even despite starting a new survival world recently. I think tomorrow I'll be giving my town a name and logging recent progress into a book n' quill, all thanks to you
Video wise I love both your voice and personality. It's a good break from the common MC youtuber formula. I'm looking for another series to watch, and I think if you started uploading I'd definitely hop on for the ride.
This started out as a post on the What Have You Done Recently thread, but that thread is active and this is a bit long-winded, so I think it's best if I post it here. The screenshots are taken in-game (rather than a creative-mode copy for this thread) and I wrote the following post as if the reader would never have heard anything about my Minecraft survival single player world . . .
Usually, I only play Minecraft during the summer months and as such, I hadn't played Minecraft since September 23 last year. After six months of inactivity, I reinstalled it a few days ago to pass some time.
I don't plan on resuming regular game play or posts to this forum for a couple more months.
My first and main base, Castle Midgard, was founded in this vanilla, hard-difficulty, large-biome world on July 2, 2014. In the past four years, I've explored a great deal of territory both above and below the surface leaving little, if anything, left to explore around the castle. Of course, since I don't use spectator mode or anything other than what I personally consider "legit," I have had some somewhat-recent surprises, but it's safe to say the area for several hundred blocks around the castle is completely caved-out.
So, I flew to a nearby outpost where adventures can still be found within the depths: the Twilight Watchtower, erected Oct. 6, 2016.
It juts out of the surrounding Bleach Bone Forest, a large-biome birch forest a few thousand blocks square. Strangely, there's a small pocket or peninsula of regular forest hills in one area of western Bleach Bone. It had the highest hill around, so I built a tower on it. Good lookout point, but it also makes for a convenient storage and refill area, so I use it as a small outpost.
I consider it cursed.
In a way, I really, actually do. We've had our go-arounds, that tower and I. It was first called the Twilight Watchtower because it sits on the west horizon when viewed from Castle Midgard, just on the very edge of a 32-chunk render distance. I'm not going to look up the link to my thread, but I had so much trouble building it because of a lighting glitch. (I lied: here is a link to the thread.) Practically the whole south side tower was painted black. I could not get it fixed until TheMasterCaver told me I would have to cover it in something like spiderwebs or moss, which I did. So, thanks again, TMC!
During those years it stood marred, I called the tower Shadowspire, but I never talked about it and never took any screenshots of it. Really, I didn't even look at it; it just became this black spike in the sky. It became like a symbol of Minecraft's glitch-infested nature to me—but I refused to tear it down. I tried not to really even think about it until, like I say, TMC told me how to fix it. I promptly did so after two years of it standing like an evil wizard's abandoned tower or something.
It stood on prime real estate for an outpost. It's close enough to the castle that most of this area was generated in version 1.7 or sometime a little later in 1.8. However, it's just far enough away that taking materials, valuables, and junk hauled up from adventuring in the deepest layers of the world was a time-wasting annoyance. It's exactly 625 blocks away from Midgard's Old Tower as the elytra flies, but on foot or hoof, it was a lot farther than that. More like 1,500-2,000 blocks if you didn't want to go climbing mountains and swimming through sizable lakes. Again, large-biome world. From the Twilight Watchtower, it takes about one night, dusk to dawn, to walk on a road with bridges there or back from Castle Midgard.
With the "curse" lifted, I have been enjoying exploring the underworld of the farthest reaches of western Bleach Bone for more almost a year now.
Venturing into the caves beneath the Twilight Watchtower all the way from the castle on foot, underground was unlikely—not this far out. However, the outpost I call Ranch 34 wasn't too far away; a few hundred blocks through rough terrain, though. At the same time, I had mapped this area during one of my extensive cartography campaigns. I mapped more than a 4x4 area of fully zoomed-out maps mostly by foot, hoof and boat, much of that before version 1.9 added a left hand. Before elytra, let alone rocket-powered elytra, in other words. Big difference.
Anyway, a few days ago, I flew to the Twilight Watchtower, then circled, looking for a spot to land and explore.
This is what I do when I'm just passing time. I just fly out and look for anything at all that I might find interesting. It might be a rock formation. It might be a cave. It might be a ravine. It could be something as insignificant as a grove of large trees. Sometimes, I'll just look around for a little while, then fly off again, looking for something else that catches my attention. Other times, I find adventure, and that's what I'm really seeking. I don't remember every single cave and ravine and crater I've ever found, but I do have a plenty of good memories of many hours of fun playing Minecraft. You can't put that in a chest, but that's what I'm seeking. Found a whole lot of it, too!
Once again, I digress. I've played very casually for a few days now centering each short session of two or three hours around the Twilight Watchtower. I delve until I fill up a couple shulkers, then head back to the surface. I dump the stuff off back at the tower, saving a trip all the way back to the castle. It's probably only three or four first-level rockets to fly back and forth, but it adds up. Remember, I built this tower before rocket-powered elytra, too. Those made everything a whole lot closer.
I've spent most my time in caves. I don't know how many diamonds I've found, but that's what I like to do, work my way down to lava level and look around for diamonds. I just take them in ore with Silk Touch now anyway. With full max enchant armor including Mending, and even backups of it all anyway—hell, treasure vaults decorated with stands of full suits of pre-Mending enchanted armor—I'll never have to mine another diamond ever again, as far as I can tell. But, I go down looking to find a few before I head back up.
I place all my torches on the right-hand side. So, I can almost always make my way straight back, no problem. I could be hundreds of blocks from where I started and have no issues returning. At the same time, I know the underworld for more than a thousand blocks in all directions from Castle Midgard pretty well. I could give underground directions to one random location to another within 2,000 blocks of the castle. When tunnels start to intersect from one trip to another, I sometimes place signs or other markers to help me understand which path I should take. If there's something I find that's pretty special, like "Biggest cave in the world?" or "Biggest ravine in the world?" I'll put several signs and markers up. Things like double mob spawners would get marked as well. I've found a few of those. With this world being so old, there are a lot of locations that I consider interesting for a wide variety of reasons, and I know where they all all. I may forget, but it's recorded somewhere, in my in-game journal, for example (I even have a text file for horses).
Well, last night, I came upon a spot I thought was important four years ago. I have no idea why. "The Diamond Mine?" I have a thousand-block branch mine now, but according to the torches, I didn't come form below, I came from above.
I thought it was funny. I had a really good time caving in an adjacent cave to one that was far, far away from home four years ago. I must have had a really good time that day, too. Something to do with finding diamonds. Might have been some of the first I unearthed. Jan 27 is three days before I started my branch mine, so diamonds were still scarce and valuable to me. That would have been in java version 1.8, I think.
I had a great time last night caving as well. So, with a laugh, I put a sign beside it:
"I was here again!"
Not realizing I wasn't too far from the mouth of the cave that led me down here four years ago, I walked out and was surprised to find one of my obelisks. I'm not even sure now what it was I discovered!
The above screenshot shows why and I built the tower where I did. Perfect location for high visibility. This was very, very far from the castle with no roads and iron equipment. The "castle" was really just a small fort back in January of 2015. I never, ever use F3 to find my way. Back then, I didn't even know about F3! I use it now only to make measurements when building and to mark locations for record keeping, but not to find my way between points, or even what cardinal direction I'm facing. That's a lot harder to do when you're on foot or horseback several thousand blocks from home. In-game maps certainly help then, and I mapped everything.
My screenshots folder (and sub-directories of it) is where I keep a lot of records, and I wanted to record what this obelisk is, so I snapped one in-flight. That obelisk at the very top-right of the screenshot on the horizon marks a hill that is about half way between Ranch 34 (that area to the left of the screenshot) and where the edge of Bleach Bone Forest meets the grassy plains where I found my first horse, Kitt, and my first town. Back then, horses were fantastic finds. They were new-ish features of Minecraft and by far the best modes of overland transportation in rough country, especially in a large-biome world where things are spread much farther apart. For example, I had to travel more than 25,000 blocks to find my first jungle, all by land with no idea how long it was going to take me or how far away from the castle I would be. I rode Kitt the whole way there and the whole way back. The village, I wasn't so interested in finding. I knew better than to stick around it at night and at the same time, I didn't really want anything from it. I was more into exploring than figuring out villager mechanics—and I rarely ever looked stuff up about Minecraft online. Villagers were a bit of a mystery to me, one that I didn't care to unravel at the time. Of course, now I have a villager breeder below Castle Midgard, but I've still not done much with it. I have one vendor that sells Mending, but for twice as much as one that spawned naturally in the world—it's just that he's, like, more than 10,000 blocks away. He's also in a glass bubble, so I'm even less worried about losing him than the one in a glass bubble below the castle (due to MC-2025).
I ended tonight's session by writing the above post, but I also made a creative copy of the world for the sole purpose of taking pictures for this thread.
Here they are:
(Above) The distance between the Castle of Midgard and the Twilight Watchtower is considerable by foot or hoof, but insignificant for rocket-powered elytra.
(Above) I keep an in-game journal at the Twilight Watchtower just like I do at Castle Midgard. Not every day for sure, but I'll record what I'm doing for long blocks of time. For example, "March 17: Caved below tower for a few days." Most journals are less than five pages of short notes. I call them "guestbooks" at most locations other than the castle, but there are a couple other places with journals. I find it interesting sometimes to pick up a "guestbook" for some far-flung place and see when I slept there last. I'm quite nostalgic!
(Above) From the copula, one can see Longbridge on the left (east), Rose Hill Bridge on the right (west), and Ranch 34 would be more to the right of that.
(Above) The view from Longbridge.
The view from Longbridge was a lot different before it was covered:
(Above) Taken Oct. 5, 2016 during the tower's construction.
For more about the tower's construction, see my post in the What Have You Done Recently thread from Oct. 5, 2016: https://www.minecraftforum.net/forums/minecraft-java-edition/survival-mode/297957-what-have-you-done-recently?comment=5456
Thanks for reading!
My short story-like journals; quick-and-easy reads:
My Quest for Elytra Complete! (Pic Intense, End-Game Spoilers)
[Journal & Pics] After a Year and a Half, I Finally Found a Jungle
FrozenCore: Hardcore Death; 3/20/15 to 5/3/15; Eight Weeks on a Frozen World in Pictures