Not done much for the past week so just a tiny update today.
365 days ago today, we started building a pokey little town, along a river near the edge of a desert. Now it's bigger than everywhere else any of us has ever made, combined, and then tripled or quadrupled, and it's the basis of a thread with nearly 1500 views in slightly over a month. That's pretty crazy, so thanks all for the interest and kind words.
But anyway, Century Tower, my birthday present to Whiteark. Hope you like it.
Haven't done much because i'm lazy and I sort of ran out of ideas for the catacombs. I ended up just playing GTA V most of the time. Plus i'm useless with redstone so i have to rope my younger brother in to help with that. Which is annoying. Anyone gives me a good idea... i'll maybe do some kind of tribute to you somewhere in the town?
Here's what i've done so far.
The outside. Not very exciting.
The previously hidden entrance.
The big-circle-with-torch room. Serves no purpose but I thought it was a nice idea.
Research station, now abandoned... OOH WOW MYSTERY.
Some long dead builder was clearly slacking while constructing this bit.
The sort of central tribute chamber. Big and grand. Once.
Because it wouldn't be a dungeon without an overgrown mossy section with mushrooms.
Also, now that maps go nicely in picture frames and the smallest maps have been much smaller for a while, I played around with making decorative maps. They improve it a lot so i'll be doing many more.
I think the catacombs give a great "abandoned cult" feel (or maybe it's not abandoned! ) And yes, the catacombs should *definitely* have hidden redstone entrances. It would be complicated, but you could use those decorative buttons for a giant combination lock of sorts - you have to have the right set of buttons pressed to open the entrance.
I'm not sure what you mean by decorative maps. Are those flags maps? How do you make them?
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Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
I think the catacombs give a great "abandoned cult" feel (or maybe it's not abandoned! ) And yes, the catacombs should *definitely* have hidden redstone entrances. It would be complicated, but you could use those decorative buttons for a giant combination lock of sorts - you have to have the right set of buttons pressed to open the entrance.
Now that's an idea, turn the decorative buttons into a combination lock, would be great as long as we could get it working. Also, maybe a cult, but not of the living... something like the dragon cult temples in Skyrim perhaps. Would have to think about it but that could work too.
I'm not sure what you mean by decorative maps. Are those flags maps? How do you make them?
Yes, they're maps. Pretty simple to do really (I think maybe there's a tool to do it but i'm not certain). The smallest maps cover an area of 128x128, which is 8 chunks. Once you find the corner, you can cover the entire surface area of the map. I built a floating stone platform in a place I knew would never be visited and just went crazy with coloured wool, sand, wood, all sorts. Once you're done, as long as you never return there with that particular map, it'll stay as it is.
Flags, inn and tavern signs, notices, posters, portraits, custom signs and pictures, even things like window shutters. Maps can show it all
News is i'm still lazy. Plus it's nearly christmas, and i've been writing fiction much of the past week. Not much new to show, but here it is:
Random things.
Just a random house. Been there a while but unfinished until now. Good example of an older upper-class residence, back from a time when I was still developing that style.
Pretty much the first buildings at the port. A slightly more crowded feel... at least when there's more of it. Also red stained clay because hooray.
Most of what i've done lately is start a new area in the farthest south, named Ettam. Was one of the options in the disappointingly unsuccessful poll, but I decided to start it anyway for fun.
Basically, it's a very poor slum, where nearly every structure is in at least some need of maintainance. Buildings upon buildings, upon yet more buildings. It's like a Jenga tower after most of the non-vital blocks are taken away, but with another tower next to it. And another one in front. And another on top. When it's finished... as of yet it's completely raw and unedited, but I might leave it like that for authenticity. I dunno.
Entrance
Street scenes
In the middle is a small load of assorted shops and stalls, centered around an old and partially collapsed watchtower.
An unfinished entrance to a sub-section of the sewers that has been claimed by vagrants, squatters, murderers, and the like.
And here's where the other (roughly) five-sixths of this place will go. Lots of work ahead.
My navigational tool, because I don't teleport or anything fancy.
Next thing i'll probably do is remake the OP, because it's a bit of a mess, unprofessional, and past it's usefulness. Probably be all shiny and exciting this time next month (or year).
Well have a good Christmas everyone, or Midwinter, or something else, or nothing (it's called the holidays in the US or something, right? Well if it is, have a good that).
The "slum" has a nicely jumbled architecture and a closed-in feel, but it needs to look dirtier to be a good slum. It's more like working-class housing in a nice city now. Maybe mix in dirt blocks for the ground and put in some inappropriate stairs for blocks so the buildings look like they have holes. Some "wrong" blocks in the building might add to the effect as well. Not to criticize, it looks great!
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
The "slum" has a nicely jumbled architecture and a closed-in feel, but it needs to look dirtier to be a good slum. It's more like working-class housing in a nice city now.
Well (and i'll post the actual lore behind the area if you're curious) it's supposed to be the thieving underclass, but they are organised and do have leadership which isn't out to rob them for every penny they own. That's not to say they live in a communist utopia, they don't, but they have a strong sense of camaraderie. The whole place may be in states of disrepair that range from 'missing a few bricks here and there' to 'damn near falling down on people's heads' due to lack of building materials, but they have their own clean stream running through their enclave. Water is the one resource they have plenty of, so they keep the place, if not tidy, at least clean.
I'm open to changing my mind though.
Maybe mix in dirt blocks for the ground and put in some inappropriate stairs for blocks so the buildings look like they have holes. Some "wrong" blocks in the building might add to the effect as well. Not to criticize, it looks great!
Dirt didn't occur to me. I've avoided it in most of Whiteark so far, because... it's a desert. But there's a small river in the area, so I could use dirt. Would make sense then.
The stairs thing i've already done on the first bit I made, but not the newer bit. You can see them in a few of the screenshots but the newer bits mainly lack that detail for now.
By wrong blocks, do you mean 'This guy's house is missing a corner so he repaired it with wood', as an example? If so, i've already done that on the wooden buildings; they're mainly oak planks but have patches of old oak.
And criticism is good! It makes me build better. I don't read or watch any tutorials or anything like that, it mainly goes straight from my head to block form, but that mostly comes from memory, so anything getting me to experiment is good for the whole town.
Just jumbling in rough sandstone, smooth sandstone, and sand for the walkways would make it look more tattered. I suggested (some) dirt because in your desert city, dirt is going to look, well, dirty. I missed the patches at first and I like the effect now that I see it but I'd suggest more of it and more obvious patches (like out-of-place stairs and fenceposts, which sometimes look like improvised scaffolding). You could also try wilder wood mixes and sandstone wall "patches" in the sandstone buildings. What is that sandstone brick material anyway? Regular sandstone?
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Yup, it's just regular sandstone. I don't use much smooth sandstone because there are no matching stairs and slabs, which if making a high-end place, makes it look a tad scruffy. Here's smooth sandstone from the old town, when we used it loads because we didn't really think about what we were doing:
It looks like plaster so i'd definitely use it more if there were stairs and slabs, but that being said, the 'half the plaster's come down' look would probably suit the slums. I'll give it a go.
There is actually a place like that already, come to think of it. The Old Bridge House, the third thing built in Whiteark. It was originally plain sandstone, but Dokucraft broke and showed the top-most block of sandstone in vertical stacks as being white. I tried to stop it by replacing some with smooth, but then got bored, left it as it was, and never changed it back. Good look to go for?
Also, the top texture is exactly the same on both blocks, so I just use regular sandstone paths.
As for paths, i've been making them intact first, then replacing (mostly) random blocks with sand.
We also did that in the old town, but that's the only place up until now that's had it.
That's the biggest patch currently. Should I go further than that?
And that's an example of a more worn-away building. I wasn't sure if I should make it any more extreme than that. The only ones that currently are, were made abandoned.
Yes, the smooth/rough sandstone mix does a great job of looking shabby. The doku sand texture is not as different from sandstone as it is in vanilla for for that to create a shabby path you need to take out the sandstone in chunks and in the middle of the path, which will leave obvious missing pavement dividers. I do think the wood should be much more mixed and irregular than that; take a look at this slum building in India. The wear-away is less of an effect than I'd want, although putting in some smooth sandstone could make it stand out. Also, the worn-away elements on the wall shouldn't align vertically with other worn area or the windows.
Your stuff looks so much better than mine though, even accounting for the fact that in my town builds I'm trying to squeeze in doors to get more villagers.
And once again, something called 'life' arrives to slow progress to a snail's pace, but I still did something at least. Only managed to build three things in the past month, which are...
This.
...which is an unnamed lighthouse, specifically one built on a sandbank that would've proved hazardous to ships, so it also has a bridge, which I think is pretty ugly, but ehhh, sometimes stuff just is. More screenshots in this here spoiler.
Also this boat, because... it's a boat. Woohoo.
Finally, something a little less nautical themed, Lalinisa's Literary Emporium, a new fancier take on a somewhat posh design (also decorative anvils because why not).
Your stuff looks so much better than mine though, even accounting for the fact that in my town builds I'm trying to squeeze in doors to get more villagers.
I kinda doubt that. I'm not great at building, just someone who spent most of her past year learning by doing. I reckon most people, given the same amount of time, would end up better.
Auksie it looks very beautiful and well thought out and planned. Your build is looking amazing.
Aww, thanks!
It's kinda not very planned; I have a rough idea where certain areas will be, but the rest is mainly me improvising as best I can
Life should always come first, but who cares if life slows your project, its quality not quantity.
Agreed, but that being said, I would like to finish this before I die of old age. Or Minecraft becomes an obsolete, distant memory. Whichever comes first.
Bad habit i'm getting into, these small updates, but at least i'm doing something. Still not much, but I digress...
So there's this... thing. Don't know what its purpose will be, I didn't think that far ahead, but never mind. I'll come up with something. I'm thinking perhaps a flower market?
Also, canals. This may be the start of them. Perhaps i'll even link them up with the sewers.
A mill on a hill.
But what i'm happiest with is something I started only two days ago, which is a scorching pace to finish something compared to the past few months.
For a long time, The Jewel of Greenstone here has been the only large ship in Whiteark.
Not anymore, I think I might have found something to keep my interest: shipbuilding. So, the newest addition to the port, something just a bit bigger, the Murl warship, Petrin...
It's something I hadn't really considered doing before. The construction is still wood, but the skeleton is iron, which is about as far as the technology in this world has come (I can post some 'under construction' shots if there is any interest).
Yay for enormous static guns and large metal spikes.
And a size comparison, because I enjoy making my own creations look pathetic next to new stuff.
This is a small update? I see *two* large and creative builds. I did a whole thread on something roughly comparable to that possible flower market.
Re sewers and canals - that's pretty accurate for medieval. You could try shallow canal with dirt and podzol bottom if you want it too look a little grody.
This is a small update? I see *two* large and creative builds. I did a whole thread on something roughly comparable to that possible flower market.
I'll probably always compare to the first update. That one added 88 new buildings. This one? Two, and a boat. Small in comparison, but at least i'm back building. Perhaps i'll get a large update of the port in?
Re sewers and canals - that's pretty accurate for medieval. You could try shallow canal with dirt and podzol bottom if you want it too look a little grody.
I'm not sure how far the canals will go. Directly west of 'that building with the canals' is the planned 'central snazzy area', which has lots of hills. Locks or sky-canals, I dunno yet. If I take it all the way to the port, then both. Tunneling out all that sand though, that might tip me towards sky-canals. At least it should be interesting.
Whiteark's squatters use Insanbric script or the Cashmeri alphabet, not Cyrillic...
Well, I had to deal with the forum deleting 80% of it twice, my pictures going haywire all the time, and my PC generally being very screwy, so it took over 24 hours in the end, but finally, I have updated the OP. I still lost two sections of it, and I can't get rid of the poll, but i'd say that's a fair price.
Anyway, onto the OP. It's now a kind of repository. Each geographical area now has its own large section, divided alphabetically into the individual areas of the city. This means that you can simply look at one area, if say, I announce that i've updated it. Saves faffing around in different pages, at least.
And you can ignore places that don't interest you, like say... the whole place? I dunno. I like it all, but I built it, so I would.
There is a fair amount of brand new stuff, mainly the South Port and North Port, as well as Birch Hill, which is new. But there is more stuff that already existed, but there were simply no pictures of. Fixed that. Can't say I didn't provide enough. See the work I do for a little extra convenience for you all?
Nah, i'm just kidding. Feel free to hate everything. I won't mind.
I've found you need to turn off WYSIWYG editing (with the light switch) before you try to edit a complicated post. The pseudo-HTML for images isn't very complicated, so it's usually tolerable to edit in hex. You can save your post to a text editor too.
<edit> Holy ****, I didn't realize the scope of what you've built before. This is seriously amazing. I love the backstory and how you work in the story for your older building styles.
365 days ago today, we started building a pokey little town, along a river near the edge of a desert. Now it's bigger than everywhere else any of us has ever made, combined, and then tripled or quadrupled, and it's the basis of a thread with nearly 1500 views in slightly over a month. That's pretty crazy, so thanks all for the interest and kind words.
But anyway, Century Tower, my birthday present to Whiteark. Hope you like it.
Here's what i've done so far.
The outside. Not very exciting.
The previously hidden entrance.
The big-circle-with-torch room. Serves no purpose but I thought it was a nice idea.
Research station, now abandoned... OOH WOW MYSTERY.
Some long dead builder was clearly slacking while constructing this bit.
The sort of central tribute chamber. Big and grand. Once.
Because it wouldn't be a dungeon without an overgrown mossy section with mushrooms.
Also, now that maps go nicely in picture frames and the smallest maps have been much smaller for a while, I played around with making decorative maps. They improve it a lot so i'll be doing many more.
Made several more flags but not used them yet.
Have to watch out for those mop-haired criminals.
I'm not sure what you mean by decorative maps. Are those flags maps? How do you make them?
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Now that's an idea, turn the decorative buttons into a combination lock, would be great as long as we could get it working. Also, maybe a cult, but not of the living... something like the dragon cult temples in Skyrim perhaps. Would have to think about it but that could work too.
Yes, they're maps. Pretty simple to do really (I think maybe there's a tool to do it but i'm not certain). The smallest maps cover an area of 128x128, which is 8 chunks. Once you find the corner, you can cover the entire surface area of the map. I built a floating stone platform in a place I knew would never be visited and just went crazy with coloured wool, sand, wood, all sorts. Once you're done, as long as you never return there with that particular map, it'll stay as it is.
Flags, inn and tavern signs, notices, posters, portraits, custom signs and pictures, even things like window shutters. Maps can show it all
Random things.
Just a random house. Been there a while but unfinished until now. Good example of an older upper-class residence, back from a time when I was still developing that style.
Pretty much the first buildings at the port. A slightly more crowded feel... at least when there's more of it. Also red stained clay because hooray.
Most of what i've done lately is start a new area in the farthest south, named Ettam. Was one of the options in the disappointingly unsuccessful poll, but I decided to start it anyway for fun.
Basically, it's a very poor slum, where nearly every structure is in at least some need of maintainance. Buildings upon buildings, upon yet more buildings. It's like a Jenga tower after most of the non-vital blocks are taken away, but with another tower next to it. And another one in front. And another on top. When it's finished... as of yet it's completely raw and unedited, but I might leave it like that for authenticity. I dunno.
Street scenes
In the middle is a small load of assorted shops and stalls, centered around an old and partially collapsed watchtower.
An unfinished entrance to a sub-section of the sewers that has been claimed by vagrants, squatters, murderers, and the like.
And here's where the other (roughly) five-sixths of this place will go. Lots of work ahead.
My navigational tool, because I don't teleport or anything fancy.
Next thing i'll probably do is remake the OP, because it's a bit of a mess, unprofessional, and past it's usefulness. Probably be all shiny and exciting this time next month (or year).
Well have a good Christmas everyone, or Midwinter, or something else, or nothing (it's called the holidays in the US or something, right? Well if it is, have a good that).
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
Well (and i'll post the actual lore behind the area if you're curious) it's supposed to be the thieving underclass, but they are organised and do have leadership which isn't out to rob them for every penny they own. That's not to say they live in a communist utopia, they don't, but they have a strong sense of camaraderie. The whole place may be in states of disrepair that range from 'missing a few bricks here and there' to 'damn near falling down on people's heads' due to lack of building materials, but they have their own clean stream running through their enclave. Water is the one resource they have plenty of, so they keep the place, if not tidy, at least clean.
I'm open to changing my mind though.
Dirt didn't occur to me. I've avoided it in most of Whiteark so far, because... it's a desert. But there's a small river in the area, so I could use dirt. Would make sense then.
The stairs thing i've already done on the first bit I made, but not the newer bit. You can see them in a few of the screenshots but the newer bits mainly lack that detail for now.
By wrong blocks, do you mean 'This guy's house is missing a corner so he repaired it with wood', as an example? If so, i've already done that on the wooden buildings; they're mainly oak planks but have patches of old oak.
And criticism is good! It makes me build better. I don't read or watch any tutorials or anything like that, it mainly goes straight from my head to block form, but that mostly comes from memory, so anything getting me to experiment is good for the whole town.
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
It looks like plaster so i'd definitely use it more if there were stairs and slabs, but that being said, the 'half the plaster's come down' look would probably suit the slums. I'll give it a go.
There is actually a place like that already, come to think of it. The Old Bridge House, the third thing built in Whiteark. It was originally plain sandstone, but Dokucraft broke and showed the top-most block of sandstone in vertical stacks as being white. I tried to stop it by replacing some with smooth, but then got bored, left it as it was, and never changed it back. Good look to go for?
Also, the top texture is exactly the same on both blocks, so I just use regular sandstone paths.
As for paths, i've been making them intact first, then replacing (mostly) random blocks with sand.
We also did that in the old town, but that's the only place up until now that's had it.
That's the biggest patch currently. Should I go further than that?
And that's an example of a more worn-away building. I wasn't sure if I should make it any more extreme than that. The only ones that currently are, were made abandoned.
Your stuff looks so much better than mine though, even accounting for the fact that in my town builds I'm trying to squeeze in doors to get more villagers.
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
This.
...which is an unnamed lighthouse, specifically one built on a sandbank that would've proved hazardous to ships, so it also has a bridge, which I think is pretty ugly, but ehhh, sometimes stuff just is. More screenshots in this here spoiler.
Also this boat, because... it's a boat. Woohoo.
Finally, something a little less nautical themed, Lalinisa's Literary Emporium, a new fancier take on a somewhat posh design (also decorative anvils because why not).
And two more...
Thanks, glad you like it. My own brothers don't.
I kinda doubt that. I'm not great at building, just someone who spent most of her past year learning by doing. I reckon most people, given the same amount of time, would end up better.
Aww, thanks!
It's kinda not very planned; I have a rough idea where certain areas will be, but the rest is mainly me improvising as best I can
Agreed, but that being said, I would like to finish this before I die of old age. Or Minecraft becomes an obsolete, distant memory. Whichever comes first.
So there's this... thing. Don't know what its purpose will be, I didn't think that far ahead, but never mind. I'll come up with something. I'm thinking perhaps a flower market?
Also, canals. This may be the start of them. Perhaps i'll even link them up with the sewers.
A mill on a hill.
But what i'm happiest with is something I started only two days ago, which is a scorching pace to finish something compared to the past few months.
Not anymore, I think I might have found something to keep my interest: shipbuilding. So, the newest addition to the port, something just a bit bigger, the Murl warship, Petrin...
It's something I hadn't really considered doing before. The construction is still wood, but the skeleton is iron, which is about as far as the technology in this world has come (I can post some 'under construction' shots if there is any interest).
Yay for enormous static guns and large metal spikes.
And a size comparison, because I enjoy making my own creations look pathetic next to new stuff.
Re sewers and canals - that's pretty accurate for medieval. You could try shallow canal with dirt and podzol bottom if you want it too look a little grody.
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
I'm not sure how far the canals will go. Directly west of 'that building with the canals' is the planned 'central snazzy area', which has lots of hills. Locks or sky-canals, I dunno yet. If I take it all the way to the port, then both. Tunneling out all that sand though, that might tip me towards sky-canals. At least it should be interesting.
Whiteark's squatters use Insanbric script or the Cashmeri alphabet, not Cyrillic...
But drunkards either way.
Anyway, onto the OP. It's now a kind of repository. Each geographical area now has its own large section, divided alphabetically into the individual areas of the city. This means that you can simply look at one area, if say, I announce that i've updated it. Saves faffing around in different pages, at least.
And you can ignore places that don't interest you, like say... the whole place? I dunno. I like it all, but I built it, so I would.
There is a fair amount of brand new stuff, mainly the South Port and North Port, as well as Birch Hill, which is new. But there is more stuff that already existed, but there were simply no pictures of. Fixed that. Can't say I didn't provide enough. See the work I do for a little extra convenience for you all?
Nah, i'm just kidding. Feel free to hate everything. I won't mind.
<edit> Holy ****, I didn't realize the scope of what you've built before. This is seriously amazing. I love the backstory and how you work in the story for your older building styles.
Geographicraft (formerly Climate Control) - Control climate, ocean, and land sizes; stop chunk walls; put modded biomes into Default worlds, and more!
RTG plus - All the beautiful terrain of RTG, plus varied and beautiful trees and forests.
The quality of the builds and the size of it all... man..
have some and keep it up