Light changes..

 So as I plan a build (On my creative copy) for the horrible chunk error wall next tot the hotel at the Chunk Plaza development, i've been doing much more smaller things in the meantime. Such as adding more lamposts within the perimeter - mainly round the back and also brightening up this drab foyer out the back of the science lab reception:

To this:

I've also been finally adding more details to the plain dark oak roofs of the horse/donkey barn and sheep farm. This also included pulling down the circular back of said horse/donkey barn as detailing that was a bit of a nightmare, so I've opted for a circular back wall rather than circular walls like picture two here.

Although I'm not one for challenges:

I wasn't going to bother but I like to farm a lot of the nether trees for the shroom light which I'm using to replace ceiling glowstone inside the home. I just find it so much nicer than the rough texture of the glowstone and looks so much nicer.

On the bigger front I did also rip down the top and all of the back of the church roof. This is because I re-did the roof in nov/dec 2019 but still had the log roof arches inside supporting it from the 2015 roof. After removing the log roof trusses I noticed towards the back how things didn't line up and were very unsymetrical to the point of jarring. Thus, this is why I redid half of the roof for a better inside look. I also replaced the stone on the roof with some nice smooth sandstone.

Before:

After:

More updates to follow I shall end with this image taken today:

Main World Changes

So it's been a year since I last posted about the my main world, instead continuing to post updates on the Unofficial Minecraft forums constantly. IF however, you don't frequent those forums, here is what has changed since I last posted about it on this blog.

Where to start...

The best way to put it into words is explain how things have changed in stages. In 2010 on java like a lot of people I built mostly in cobble, throughout BETA my style changed, I experimented but mostly with interiors. Having walls of  sandstone or sand/snowblocks with a log trim at the bottom. Things changed. By the end of 2014/early 205 things started to change... And I think it came from solving a chunk border issue around the castle.

For a long time I had already created a perimeter wall around the place, which helped; but then decideing to add corner towers to 3/4 corners (4th would come a year later than others) and making them round - as well as adding a front entrance gate. The circular towers became nicknamed the "Rocket towers" because of their shape and how after a few floors then went in a bit in shape giving them that unplanned "rocket like" appearance. From then on as they grew circles became the order of the day.

From 2015+ became known as the "Re-generation" era, and "Oh I can build that better nowadays" giving life to much old builds which had stood the same since Java Alpha, when the world was started. This lasted to 2020, and now has entered a new phase, which now consists of better roofs. mixing materials in my walls and detailing but not in a way that is too overkill.

And it started with the roofs....

Yes a few cosmetic things changed - reverting the cobblestone back to default, moving the central tower back so it just wasn't floating in mid-air, but the roofs I feel have defined it. Designed in a creative copy and done on the fly, they are uniquely mine with an almost bell-shaped design you won't see anywhere else. The front/side/back bits, all four of them were easy as they were the same but designing the inbetween bits joining them up (Especially flipping and mirroring them for other sides) was at times frustratingly angry, annoying and troublesome. However, I persisted.

This then set of a chain-reaction to other roofs, like the church, which was done in a custom textured blue red sandstone blocks. (As if it'd been in a kilm). This however looked very blobby and misshapen where I had also tried to add the odd slab/block of that building material and I wasn't happy with it. Not after what I had done to the castle's roof. So it was time for a change, based on a slight design I found on a Google images of a real-life actual roof.

Even the old mountain top which was surrounded by a low brickwall:

 

I just wasn't happy with the way the brick wall was just sat on top and the way it connected with the flat dirt sides underneath. I tried a few changes, but none of them good. Instead I removed the brickwall, bushes, the shed and lowerd it a coulple of blocks right down as far as I could. Then built up new walls in concrete and added an a-frame roof, effectivley giving my self a new attic space..

Other things have popped up of course like the beacon monument, where the old notice board was, improvements to the roof of the everyday stable, and to the well as well as landscaping around the lighthouse (Not seen in first overview picture) and original alpha watch tower #2 to make the landscape around it like it was in Alpha instead of the false pyramid stepped grass banks they became, restoring nature.

As well as encasing the old pumpkin melon farm (Which itself was re-done so it stacked on top of itself) with a building:

The Half-way House

This has mostly stayed the same bar roof improvements, a new kitchen, improved lighting inside on the floor, but most notably outside by the farms, there is now the monorail (W.I.P.):

This is the final link in the transport system. You can get the minecart to the Chunk Plaza station (And onto the Chunk Plaza development one way, the Half-way House the other) and, to the St.Primus Church and Mount DOOOoooom the other way via the underwater tunnel. Now, you can also get the monorail by the Half-way House which links back to the fourth back corner tower of Mount DOOOooom!

The Chunk Plaza Development

As of March 2019 when the left picture was taken, I was still digging the inside of the mountain out for the hotel out. (Extreme left in the distance) With just the window holes in the mountain side. Since then I settled on a colour as you can see and added grey girders, for the last 3 floors I upgraded a pick from Efficiency IV  to V which helped massively with the beason and clearing and also added the glass. Despite a PC crash a month+ ago and having to re-do 6 months of work It's gone well. Almost 8/14 apartments have a basic birch floor, currently I am decorating the inside of the reception.

 

There are numerous other things of course such as improving the roofs to the donkey/horse barn and sheep farm, as well as changing those sheep pens inside the building to an actual farm with a minecart hopper colection system. In the last post, was the start of the new dock building in the sea by the church, plans are to re-vamp the underwater minecart tunnel (Speifically the floor) and minecrat tunnel to the trading house (Former iron farm) as well as continuing to mix walls for Mount DOOOooom, which eventually mean having to do the towers as well!

The last world download was in November, and I hope to have a new one out very soon!

Something New...

 My main Java single-player survival world is currently at the grand old age of 9 years and 10 months, recently something new has appeared on the water side near the church... (W.I.P.)

Based on this real-life location:

Image by: http://www.beardsley.com

BETA Base??? (Java)

I was looking through a folder on my desktop labelled "Minecraft Other" and saw a folder called "World2", what I called my main world of 8 years+ in the early days. I thought it strange as I have a back up folder on a different drive so I don't keep saves there, and when I looked inside the folder it was definitely an alpha files set up. Now I know this is not an original because I never kept (if any) back ups in my early days, but I was curious.

I opened it up in the last Alpha version available and came across this:

I really didn't remember building this at first, but obviously did at some point. I guess I took a copy of my main world back to the past using old versions and tied to go to alpha, but the furthest I can go back is beta 1.4 because the worlds had a few accidental deletions back in the early days. (One due to a power cut, the other I'm still not sure but I always guess with my tower lower down then I accidentally kneed the power button?)

I guess I tried to go back to alpha or re-use the seed, but as it so often doesn't work out I usually don't keep the save, odd that I should this time and store it somewhere like that. I'm not sure whether to keep it now or what I'd do with it. I moved it to beta 1.0 then after a play and growing tired of a chest bug moved it to b1.0_01 but whether I keep it or not remains to be seen.

There's also a spider dungeon in the opening of a cave situated at the bottom of a mountain opposite my home, when I get to the point were XP comes in; I will convert it to a mob farm.

Yesterday I continued it after getting the idea to create a modular home - a series of 4 by 1 circular modules linked by a 4 long 2 wide corridor. This being the circle:

At first I just added one out the front for a new entrance and one to the side as a future bedroom moving the game into beta 1.02

I decided that I needed at least two more modules - one for a living area and another for storage, as well as using the back one as a way down into the mine, creating a very odd looking shape out of the front now:

Cow Levi-OSA!

One problem I had was I had already moved the way down to the mine from the middle of the floor to the side but on the left side of the very back module, had an infinite water source I had put along side a wall - both of which had to be relocated to add the two extra corridors and modules either side.

Before:

After:

The fencing here is wrong and has since been changed, the way down
is on the left not the right so the gap is corrected to the left side now.

Also created a furnace wall on the landing to the mine:

Also, inadvertently - have a little center court because of the nature of the modules. Completely unintentional. Some of the tops of the buildings also have cobble stairs as an extra detail.

As of today:

The outside is rapidly expanding with modules:

As you go in we have a living area module to the left..

The corridor leads to the back module featuring two corridors left and right for a further two modules for the bedroom (Left) and storage (Right):

Finally a view of what it looks like from the top to give you an idea of size.

I'm slowly working my way up to Beta 1.3 - that's the goal. With leaf decay re-written and redstone repeaters according to the notes, but most importantly beds! It gets tiresome keep walking from spawn (Across what would be the sand farm islands by the Half-way House in the 8 year old current version. No chunk wall here though these days.) Especially when you have to wade across water - the Update Aquatic was a God send!

I need to set my spawn!

Looks like I'm keeping the world for now, without a doubt as I get into further updates and make it more a home it will not stay at three high walls inside. I'm kind of interested to see how it might develop from this very basic modular structure and the world around me. There are currently a lot more pigs, sheep and cows in the area now.

Changes are afoot!

Further to previous posts, alot of work is taking place!

I was back in 1.12.2 recently - just to take comparison shots of how my worlds looked in those last versions (Yes I still have the 1.12.2 saves), but I ended up turning on creative on the copy of the world. After an afternoon of it, some of the changes I made and what it could be has got me all fired up to start make significant changes.

Before

:

Currently:

Before:

Currently:

I've already mentioned the kitchen and adding an extension to the side, now it's the turn of the docks that I always wanted to do. Back in 2012 I did a very basic cobble design with no real clue or idea about what I wanted to actually do or how I wanted it to look. It was always a "I'll come back to it later" project. Following the afternoon on the 1.12.2 creative copy however, I found something I liked on Google images and wanted to emulate.

As you can see I'm squeezing an actual room and build above the docks, and the platforms have been turned into birch slab platforms. (For which I started a birch tree farm where the old cobble neutral mob farm used to be - might as well make use of the space now!) The use of cobble for the stairs up is only temporary for now I may use stonebrick or maybe continue in birch. (I wish they had metal stairs). It is actually going to look like something now though, and it connects into the side extension of the kitchen via a stair way off the room.

For the main home, I was tired of the other door to going outside on to cobble steps down to nowhere, so I am putting a new birch balcony there. I have actually had to bring the brick wall out by 1 block, hence the dirt where the window is that needs to be replaced. I've replaced all the standard doors with nice birch doors and done a little stonebrick cladding to the side of the front balcony down the side. Eventually the polished diorite around the basement storage windows (Below said balcony) will cover all of that lower front and round the sides.

I have done the same to the sides of the mountain at the top rear where the mountain is and bathroom is located inside, extending it internally. All of the dirt mountain there will eventually be brick as well with a roof not just a dirt hovel of a mountain. All roofs will also be re-worked and below the new side balcony the built out area - which is the farm, will also receive a roof.

End note: Just before spell checking this I did some more works including glass round the side (kitchen) and the roofs. Currently smelting clay!

Future Plans

I've been playing a little less lately, but it has given me time to reflect and think; specifically about my worlds. The future, and future plans of my worlds..

Main World

After going back and playing a little Beta recently, I do miss getting an idea and just digging into a wall in my main home. That said, I don't think the inside is going to change much any more. I still have my other projects scattered away from the home - continuing interiors of Mount DOOOooom, The Chunk Plaza (Will I ever decide on the look of the outside of the hotel?!) and the new minecart tunnel to the mesa biome. I do have plans for that tunnel now, but I'll post that in a separate update, I also still need a LOT more gold for the rail boosters.

I did also fix the collection for the kelp farm, so none hang 3/4 of the way up.

AllBases

I'm a bit stuck with this one. After completing the new roof I'm a bit unsure where to go next with this project. The original goal was to just build a home on top of this great natural mound of land sticking out in the ocean, but I never really had any goals beyond that, so now I'm a bit stuck as to what to do next. I would like to continue it however.


1.9.5 home

This one I will continue to make improvements, however I recently lost all my inventory so I have to do a big grind again (As you do), so I need time before I'm ready to go at it again. I was on the way back out after a big mine session and died to unexpected lava. The old neutral mob pens cobble monstrosity - to the right of the pic is coming down in favor of the new modern barn. Right now I just have the cows in there but I figure I only need to keep maybe a couple and one chicken for eggs. I might move the cows and just have the sheep in there and divide the new barn up.

Still modifying the kitchen, I want to re-work the very old roofs, possibly the balcony, I have a skeleton far,m, a zombie far x2 and, I still have the big "eye" project holding the portal in the mountain across the water behind my home to continue.

Podzol Home

After changing the exterior dramatically, I am currently working on the inside but am a bit stuck. I started dividing the area of into separate rooms but then it felt too claustrophobic, so just the other day I undid this and have completely gutted the inside except for the kitchen.

Ravine Home

Really not sure about this one. It's a double dip ravine (One ravine leading into another, the second being the main home) and there's still a lot to do to try and make it look like a home and less like a ravine. That said, I do like using the upper level of the first entrance ravine as food farms and using the bottom abandoned mine as storage whilst retaining rail tracks around it.

Let me know if you have any ideas.