I could have the world save and be trying it out but I would still not believe this is real. It's still hard to believe Verizon pulled off their in-game video call thing, and this seems like a similar level of complexity.
-
- Landmine
- Registered Member
-
Member for 12 years, 10 months, and 22 days
Last active Tue, Oct, 20 2020 17:47:21
- 4 Followers
- 518 Total Posts
- 304 Thanks
0
Even though Minecraft has no story, I would still consider the Enderdragon and Wither villains as much as bosses. I mean there would be a reason they are bosses; who else rallies all the Endermen to the Overworld, and The Wither could explain the ruined Nether Fortresses.
0
I'm doing a survey of the players of Minecraft as a school project. I thought it would be interesting to find out a bit about the players and what they like. I can't promise anything from it, but completing it would be appreciated.
Link to the survey
Feel free to make comments if you got them. I also forgot a space for your favourite gamemode, so feel free to discuss that if you don't have another comment. Though, we all know creative is the best mode; where would all the mini-games be without it?
0
You have to add the texture pack with the map download which you can only do if it is your texture pack or you have permission from the owner of the pack. Otherwise you'll have to link it with the city map download.
As for this thread, I'm still looking to update it but time is a problem. I'm aiming for a complete update by it's anniversary next March, but I'm considering smaller section updates leading up to then (I do have quite a bit of content rewritten). We'll see how things go.
0
I already have a couple images hosted there for this guide, yet they seem to have been deleted from the account's gallery, so I don't know. I'll probably use my website, Glitched Graphics, which already hosts the Hints&Tips series.
0
It's because the images I uploaded back then have since been removed from Image Shack; not entirely sure why. I'll be privately hosting the images when I release the next update for this guide.
0
Pre-Notes:
Hints&Tips Managing a Project v1.0
TABLE OF CONTENTS
[Click the section to skip to it]
INTRODUCTION
There are no surprises as to what has been made in Minecraft; from the astonishing castles to the sprawling cities, Minecraft is as much a building tool as it is a game. But what is behind each and every creation is a team that saw an idea turn into the final product. But what is a project?
The technical definition is that a project is a temporary endeavour where a team reaches set goals to produce a unique final product. In layman’s terms, any Minecraft creation that is planned, built, and has a final product is a project. A creative build, an adventure map, or server zone are all examples of projects. The process of working on a project is a defining point as there is always a stage for planning, developing, and concluding the project. The purpose of project management is to make sure things stay organized and productive during these three stages. Often, a project manager is brought in to take care of this.
Smaller teams can get away without having a project manager, but big projects with large teams can quickly turn into chaos without having at least one. A project manager watches over the project with eyes on the schedule opposed to being in the trenches, working. They have a broad knowledge covering many jobs in the project so they can help tackle problems and understand how complex some tasks will be. Project managers will also motivate the team, track new ideas during development, control the quality of the project, and keep in constant communication with people invested in the project. The job is definitely not for everyone as it is far from easy, but the project manager is a very valuable role that makes or breaks projects.
Now that you have a firm understanding of what a project is, who the project manager is, and what they do it is time to learn about the process through which a project goes. It is important to know that every project is different and that other strategies may be used for many reasons. For Minecraft, a good project structure has three stages with two phases each: Defining is the first stage where an idea is created and plans are made for the project. The second stage is development in which the plans are executed and progress is kept constant. The final stage is closing the project and it concludes the endeavor by launching the product and reviewing what occurred during the project's development.
DEFINE
A project cannot exist without an idea, and the first stage is just that: define the project. This isn't always easy, as a goal is to have a unique product that people want and enjoy. Once this idea is acquired and built up the planning phase begins. At the end the project will reflect the planning phase: poor planning will show and great planning will not (it is said that if you do your job right, nobody will notice).
Projects must start with an idea, their purpose is to create a product somebody envisioned. Yet having an idea isn't everything, this idea must be turned into something that can carry the project. Inventing another wheel is not going to get much attention and having improving the looks of an old project is a very tough sell. The end of a project has a product, and this product needs to earn back what was spent; an idea needs to cater to the players to do this. Having a unique twist or innovation are great ways to get a person’s attention. The two important things to have by the end of defining an idea include: a Project Design Document that outlines the entire project in detail with as little text as possible. The other is a statement that describes the idea in a nutshell; form a single sentence that well describes your project. Remember that the end-product needs to earn what was spent, so a unique idea with a one-sentence description is a great way to gather interest.
Once the idea is created, the second phase of defining a project is to plan the future. That means creating a project timeline and selecting a team. The priority is always on having a plan; time is extremely valuable during development. Build a plan that leaves no grey areas so that the team has no reasons to ask for the next step. Set deadlines and milestones to mark progress, and by doing this, give the people who are interested in the project specific days that they can look forward to like testing periods or release dates. Do not forget, planning is not just so the team knows what they need to have done by which date, but it easily allows information to be given to the public. And do not think these plans are unchanging; project managers of any level will make mistakes; the secret is being able to correct them quickly and with as little time loss as possible.
DEVELOPMENT
While the planning process never truly ends as projects require change, there is a point in time where enough planning has been done to begin development. It is up to the project manager to decide when that is or the project may forever be in the planning stage. The development stage is the longest portion of a project in which the final product is being worked on, tested, and checked for quality following the set timeline; the team is actively working on the next milestone and making sure the project works. For large projects, the teams are split into small groups working on individual pieces. This can cause disorganization as these groups do not have constant communication; the project manager acts above these groups by ensuring they are on track and focusing on what is the most important. This monitoring keeps the project on schedule and ensures everybody is following the plan.
Depending on the type of project, the size of the team and the man organizing everything, this phase of executing the plans will work differently. Adventure maps may be split into levels or by the terrain and redstone functionality. Creative builds may be separated into structure or by camera location. What is consistent is that the project stays on time and there is frequent testing of quality and functionality. Both of these require communication between the smaller teams. Knowing that the camera is having difficulties and so the build order is being changed, or that another team is not nearly as far as the others is a big deal. Projects are guaranteed to face conflict, so communication is important to know what is being fixed, how, and what is changing.
Monitoring and controlling the development of a project is the phase where project managers catch problems and solve them with as little change and loss as possible. Communicating regularly with the whole team and smaller groups will uncover issues and keep everybody up to date on the overall progress of the project. It is good practice to regularly ask these questions: “Where is the project at?”, “How can we get back on track?”, and “What issues are we having?” This will allow problems to be discovered quickly and be dealt with before they result in massive losses. Controlling a project is not just about quality control or testing, it is also controlling the damages and team resources. When a problem does arise, a project manager has to plan how to fix the problem with as little impact to the plan as possible. If a group is slow, the other groups might pick up some of their work to stay on time, or maybe a couple members will switch groups so everyone works at the same speed and the weaker members learn from the stronger ones. Monitoring and controlling is all about keeping everyone on track, avoiding problems before they grow in size, and making sure the team's resources are not wasted.
CLOSING
Once development completes, the final stage of a project is to close it. Closing a project means launching the product to the public and reviewing how the project did as a whole. Projects often have a final close date, but bigger projects continue on to create Downloadable Content. The important part is that all good projects feature an effective launch and spend time with every team member to reflect on how the project went and how future projects can be improved.
When launching the final product, the last thing you want is a “silent release” where very few people know about the project and even fewer will decide to look into it. The first couple days after release are what will make or break a project and a silent release says, immediately, the creation will not do very well. Therefore it is important to build up a project launch and gather interest and hype. Videos, screenshots, promises of content, interesting stories, and good writing can attract people when used right. When you upload a video or screenshot, link it in a variety of places so people will notice it and make sure to use titles and phrases that will attract attention. Remember the one-sentnce description for the project? A creative statement that gets people thinking about a fun experience is the perfect way to ensure people will have a look at your project. Avoiding a silent release means attracting people's attention and giving them something they will enjoy.
The big launch is a one-time thing, however, and so is the entire project. It is important to acknowledge when a project has reached its end so that the team can reflect at the ups and downs during the three stages of the project. What went well? Reflecting on the good not only points out people’s strengths but also shows what aspects the entire team is strong in. Maybe the redstone went flawlessly as the engineer knew how to carry out the complex ideas, or perhaps that tower turned out much more detailed and effective than imagined. What went poorly? Teams need to learn from their weaknesses as much as build their strengths so that future projects avoid the same issues. Maybe the timeline was a little too ambitious and left many members burnt out and tired, or maybe the server was a constant problem that had to be dealt with every other week. What can change in the future? Knowledge is experience and having solutions to problems makes future planning and developing easier. Having more time to test next time will ensure the release is playable, and a trusted server host, although it may cost more money, means somebody does not have to locally host a server all the time. Learn from the past; the ups, downs and the solutions are ways the team can gain experience and become stronger for next time.
CONCLUSION
Projects are big endeavours that will take lots of time and effort, but that does not mean they have to be complicated and confusing. The job of a project manager is to keep things moving along, working with the team throughout development, and ensuring the final release is a success for the community, team, and investors. While small teams may not need one, project managers are integral for bigger projects. During planning, they define what the final product will have and how the team can work towards that; the development cycle is a repeating process of communicating, monitoring, and controlling the team to help overcome obstacles that happen; during the final closing stage, project managers will prepare a successful launch and speak with the team afterward to learn from the good and bad.
CHANGE LOG
Interested in tracking what has changes? Every time substantial changes are made they will be noted in this log with a corresponding version number. Please note that updates can have quite the time frame between them.
-Public release
FINAL NOTES
Thanks for reading through this guide and hopefully it has become a source of knowledge to refer back to. It is because of the readers that any guides get updates, so please add a comment. Feedback, questions and even ideas to add to the guide are all welcome responses.
This guide was fully created by Landmine752 as part of the Hints&Tips Guides.
Check out more Hints&Tips Guides!
Find Hints&Tips elsewhere
0
I can say there's been more updates as recent as a few months ago (including on the previous page), so there's still work happening.
1
Yes, Minecraft has changed quite a lot since I created this some 2 years ago and a lot of this information has not kept up (hello broken image links); luckily I'm working on a complete overhaul that will update the entire guide plus some extras. Unfortunately, the update will still take quite time to complete, but it is coming.
0
Link to colour-fix picture
I made 10 changes to try and make the place look more accurate to the Halo 3 map, and I think they work quite well. Most of the changes are in the center/right area of the screenshot as I did not change the whole map. I also discovered that you have used stone monster eggs in some places (the lift structure on the right, especially).
-Stone beams > Cobblestone wall
-Coal floor > Grey wool
-Green walls > Dark green clay
-Cyan clay panels > Stone blocks
-Light blue clay panels > clay blocks
-Lift structure (right) clay floor > Stone slabs
+UNSC text on stone wall
+Wooden pallet at rear yellow wall
+Bomb point on lift structure (right)
+Rusty spot at yellow wall (bottom-left) substituted with sand
0
A new look is a good thing considering the demo is slate grey and now there are many, many more building blocks to work with. Looking forward to see new things, whenever they occur.
0
Most of the work I do is vanilla Minecraft with some help from MCEdit and filters, actually. If anything changes, it's the textures so that they resemble what I'm working on.
0
There are modern buildings both blocky and organic; really the shapes are determined by the type of city as tourist cities will have very interesting architecture and industry cities would be very square and boring. Skyscraper designs are going towards eco-friendly designs with roof gardens or building the structure to have natural air currents; the point being that designs are different than the stock office complex. Houses, however, are white/grey/black and very block-like but are built in intricate ways (I don't understand it, so I suggest using Google). They are very flat and feature many windows that replace entire walls.
0
Am I the only one who can't see the image or are other people just not saying anything?
0
Oh, and welcome back. You guys still looking for structures? (Aside from DrKinkles work)
0