Decisions, Decisions..

So literally just the other day I did a big update on the resource packs I use, or at least as many as I could that have updated to 1.7X.

AzazArid, unfortunatley has not updated nor has Misa's Realistic. AzazArid is a nice modern-ish pack with really soft colours, not modern in  as in modern style just very fresh feeling. Misa has been awol for 6 months on the forum and like a lot of Minecrafters, the concern is more that she is safe and well more than anything. I have upgraded HerSommerDye, LB Photo Realism, Modern HD, Real Life and Sphax; all to 1.7.2 or 1.74. With a majority upgraded it was tiime to go through some of the more recent worlds and decide which pack to use for which world. For my Strongholm II world - the conversion of a stronghold to a home, I have decided to change it to the Modern HD resource pack and got for an ultra modern look.

 

As you can see I've still got a lot of work to do changing a lot of stonebrick. The darkish grey wall in the living room behind the newly install sofa, is actually cracked stone bricks. For now it makes a nice contrast from the regular stone brick. Sandstone around the exit door (Down to the End portal and the way up to the surface, and a placemark tv which will be substituted for something better later.

For my newest world, my Podzol home; I have decided to use the Real Life resource pack. Although not a great has changed recently, apart from a couple of lanterns out the front. I did finish all the floor with birch planks (For now), so at least I have a hard floor for most of the house:

Yes, I have started putting a ceiling on - even though I still can't decide what to make the walls so it complements the podzol area. I've considered a wooden house with reguards to the podzol biome around me, but the only one that might look good is jungle wood, and the nearest jungle I still haven't found yet as this Podzol area is HUGE! The stone brick corners are just temporary, (They look like conerete breeze blocks!), but for a while it looks like more of a building site! I did orgainze my chest into chest(s) plural however, behind the door with the sign above it. After levelling out the tree farm to the rear of the building (I hated how some land was a block higher!); I had lots of wood and so made more chests and finally began seperating my collection of stuff so far.

Future kitchen:

Some worlds have not changed however, World #1 (Underground, old alpha world) is still the same, World #2 (Main world, old Alpha world) is still painterly, World #3 (Rebuild, beta) is still Soartex and AllBases is still John Smith's Legacy.

For my Ravine Home 2014, I shall be using AzazArid (Which hasn't updated yet), although I haven't done much to this world latetly. I did add a one sided piston wall to the stairs down to said ravine, and add proper stairs down to the second ravine. I also began sprucing up the abandoned mine which will become one big minecart storage facility.

Part #4 of my main world update will come soon, however, I have a special post for my next entry which has been a very sudden event (I.E. today) so that will be next. Most likely part #4 will be the next post after.

MAIN WORLD: Three Month Update! Part #3

  Main world, survival.
Begun in 2010 in Alpha, I found a mountain with a hollow front and lava pouring down the front, round the back a single block waterfall coming out of the wall.. I decided it was a nice place to make a home! In 2012 after 2 years and developing my building style I began a mass re-generation scheme of my world, inside and outside. This is the story of my main world...

During my three month break from this blog, I have also had loss - with my first horse and my first donkey. Being an old Alpha world, I have to travel an extremly long way to get them in the first place, but both met their end in an unfortunate demise. If I recall correctly, my first horse, Pond (Come along Pond!) suffocated in a wall when it accidently got nudged into a minecart. The project for the tunnel (Underwater, then underground) is three blocks wide and plenty room enough, but at the very end of the line where it broke off - by Mount. DOOOOooooom, the tunnel reduces to one block width when it goes back into a mountain. I did everything I could! I tried breaking the rail in front of the horse, I even turned on creative and tried to fly ahead to cut her of by destroying the rail ahead, but the minecart was too fast for creative flying which is sooooo slow! Pond met her end, and I couldn't do a rollback that time to a back-up save as I had done a lot of work elsewhere I didn't want to have to do again.

My first donkey, Taylor Swift (I knew she was trouble when she walked in! Well I first saw her!), died on the way back from a long travel. Instead of going up onto the ice, she went under and started to drown. I tried to pick the ice but to no avail. I wish I had thought quicker and used my silk touch pick to get the ice clear. Or just gone back the way I had came so she came to the surface. So that is how they met their fate, if not that way round then reverse for the horse and donkey. I now have a second horse, Mr. Spankles, and a new donkey named Mulekey.

Recenty I have also started converting the inside of the old pub/tavern into a horse breeding building, something I will need eventually later on. Plus as a tavern It's nice and all, but I would never go in there, it served no other purpose other than to look nice. As a horse breeding farm, it will be a more functional building.

The building in question:

As it was inside:

 As it now currently is:

The big gap is were the stairs going up/under-stairs cupboard used to be! (on the right.)

It looks so big without the upper level now!

Although it's not a new idea, I've had the plan since last year; I have finally started an enchantment area on the landing down to storage. This area used to be the original science lab before a creeper did irreprible damage, by which time I was already considering moving it to the big cave system behind storage, where it now is. (Formerly the original mob area.) After I took the old lab apart however, I had blocked it all up with cobblestone so nothing could spawn in there, so - yeah; I had fun undoing all that work from long ago! Here is how it currently looks, including a huge new world map I have started after being inspired by a well known Minecraft YouTuber.

The almost-completed map!

Yes, the walls still need changing, not sure what too yet; maybe just fill with bookcases? It's getting there though. Suffice to say I've been saving up my xp and got an Unbreaking III, Silk Touch I enchantment at level 30, which I think is a pretty standard - average enchant. Was pleased to finally get a legit Silk Touch pick though, although it's wearing badly now so the level 50 I'm saving up for might have to go towards another one. I also started two new mines elsewhere (Glassing over the entrances to the exhausted ones in my immediate home area) in: the mountain area whre I get my horses, and 2) a new one by Mount DOOOOooooom. This has enabled me to get all diamond equipment again for the first time in a very long time!

Down at the very base of my mountain home, the portal moved from the stairs down to the bottom to the very back on the lowest ground floor. This means to get to the portal I now have to go past my mob area and through a door across an area with lots of lava pools to get to it.

Behind the obsidian wall of my mob area, I've created a cobblestone tube in the centre and am trying to hollow it out. The idea is - that eventually it will be dark enough that mobs drop from a great height (May have to create a ledge to spawn on?) and die upon impact. Eventually I hope to have chests beneath the floors and hoppers on the surface so that hopefully the mob drops will go into a chest. At at least that's the plan.

One final thing that should have been in update #1 was the change in the observation deck, from a rectagle build to one that's more shaped thanks to a change to an oval-ish window using glass panes.

Before:

After:
*Taken during the winter, hence the chage in texture of grass to snow.

Coming up in Part #4: The underwater/underground minecart project, Mount DOOOooooom and other current & future plans!

One Previous Idea + One New One

Over the last few days I have been busy with Minecraft. I finally settled on the Azaz Arid resource pack for the 1.5 Ravine world, and started to get some work done but had a decision to make.

I had decided not to change the walls to snow and keep it as stone - but all stone, no dirt or gravel, mainly because the stone looked alright in this resource pack. I also smelted a lot of cobblestone to turn into stone brick, and decided to use this as the base material for the wall borders. Once again however, I wondered if I should just start again. This ravine is poor, no off-shoot caves for rooms, (So I have to dig out rooms), no abandoned mines, just a very straight ravine. Not even a curve. The other thing to keep in mind, and this is the main thing; I started this world in 1.5. This is a long time before the new biomes and woods and a lot of the recent changes in Minecraft, let alone pre-Amplified.

So I have decided to re-start in the latest snapshot, fully taking advantage of modern Minecraft. The hunt for a great ravine, begins!...


Podzol Home! NEW!
Whilst looking for a new home I was flying about, (I usually fly about to find good stuff then when I find an adequate spot, turn it to survival mode.), and I passed this huge Pozol area! It's the modern biome with the really tall trees, leafy dirt and dirt blocks that don't grow into grass, as well as being littered with clumps of mossy cobblestone. So massive was this biome, and this was just on an ordinary world setting - not amplified, that I felt compelled to start a new world there! After I continued to look around I found an area I thought might be good and landed, and changed to survival mode. It was night-time however, so I spent most of it hiding.

In the morning, despite finding a good area, there were aspects of it that were a block higher than the rest, so some of the area had to be levelled out. I did not plan the shape however, and used the natural lines of the ground, the edges wherever it went up a block, to decide on the shape of the house. I think it's going to be a modest sized home.

The shape of the house is more longer and not as square as I thought, where I didn't measure it out. A lot of trees in the home to remove at first. Along one side I did consider building out to the side as well. Just because it's a rectangle now, doesn't mean it will stay one. I will try to shape the house more so it's not to squarish or rectangular. I placed some more rough markers in dirt outside one of the doors that I deemed to be the front, for a future porch and over-hanging roof:

Since these pictures, I have used more dirt temporarily to try and shape some walls inside and try and get an idea where everything is. I'm still not sure however what material I will use for the actual outside walls. I considered making it "Natural" in wood, but it's an ovious choice, too much so. I now have more dirt walls, one hard floor to the back door (Birch) and a small enclosed hallway entrance, in which I have stairs going up as well. They don't go up to anywhere yet, but they go up! I have also transformed one of the clumps of mossy stone outside into a source of infinite water, created a small pond, and gone adventuring, planting standard seeds and melon seas on a shore for now. Whilst travelling I eventually went far enough to find standard trees and brought back Birch and Oak saplings to bring back and start a farm.

 

We have glass! I also found a nice cave behind the back of the house full of the new stone types, after testing some in my inventory crafting area (For what the polished versions would look like), I grabbed loads of the Andesite (grey one not speckled) and some of the pink standard granite for the kitchen work tops. The Andesite, as you can see I have used as a decorative border at the bottom of the outside walls..

These stairs don't go anywhere yet, but never-the-less, we have a small hallway just inside the front door!

This will either be the front room/main living area or a gigantic hallway!

The extension to the side (Did go head with it in the end.), will be the kitchen. Of course I will alow spaces for chests, sinks, fridges and ovens etc.

The back room, a temporary bedroom now, just to set the spawn point, but at least I have some company!

A better view of the layout and more noticable over-head shot of the only hard floor so far! It's going to be a pretty nice sized house, and with an upstairs as well it's going to be very comfortable! I long for the day when these temporary dirt walls become soild already!

What should I use for the main exterior walls? If you have any ideas please let me know! So this is my exciting new project! It wasn't planned, but oh well, a new project! Ironically, not that far away is a decent ravine however I eventually found one on a new world...

This very unassuming ravine, on a new world doesn't look very interesting from above either - but is decpetive. It actually splits into at least 3 - 4 other ravines, and has an abandonded mine! By those statistics, it's a perfect choice for my new ravine home using the latest snapshot! Already I have started planting trees around the edge to hide all the glass that will be covering over the top. I think the man-made stairs where I dug to the surface, a little way away, is just out of shot here.

MAIN WORLD: Three Month Update! Part #2

  Main world, survival.
Begun in 2010 in Alpha, I found a mountain with a hollow front and lava pouring down the front, round the back a single block waterfall coming out of the wall.. I decided it was a nice place to make a home! In 2012 after 2 years and developing my building style I began a mass re-generation scheme of my world, inside and outside. This is the story of my main world...

One of the other major changes in Minecraft, was the introduction of stained glass; a very big welcome introduction for me. At first I didn't think I would use it and experimented with a three coloured window somwehere within my home, but the crafting process convinced me I wouldn't really use it. After all, you can only colour the glass blocks, but; you still can get colored panes by then crafting them, in the ususal way into window panes.  As nice as my almost clear glass is in my Painterly texture pack, compared to the satined glass it doesn't compare. One of the first areas I began experimenting in was the huge sun windows in the main living area.

As it was:

 Today:

As a result, I have also made other changes with the glass as it just looks so much nicer, and smoother than my regular painterly glass. The following changes were also made to the bedroom with darkened glass (Black) for privacy, the re-built bathroom shower, and to the glass in the science lab.

Yeah, the rest of the decor is still a "to do" project!

To show the bathroom shower, I should mention that I finally began the major upgrade on the decor. Apart from some very minor changes from a long urinal to a new location for the bath/hot-tub, nothing has changed in this room for a very long time! The old sandstone decor was very tired, out-dated and not imaganitive enough in any way:

Blurgh! Bland!

All this has changed however with an adventerous plan to change the walls and floors to Nether Quartz. The idea being for the walls to be the more decorative Quartz with the plain quartz for the floor, and a last minute decision to have the same basic quartz block as a border to the bottom of the walls. Also to have pillars.  There's still some work to do as it takes a lot of Quartz! as well as being constantly harrassed by Ghasts in the local neighborhood of the Nether!

Still work to do..

As you can probably tell by the wider front, the shower (Still a working shower!) was completely rebuilt. Although I'm not very good with redstone, I have become much, much more better (or at least confident?!) in hiding redstone. In the old shower you could visably see the piston in the ceiling holding the water back. The logistics with the redstone was a bit of a nightmare, but I love the results. Now, (Also to help light levels); one of the glowstone lights retracts back up into the ceiling to release the water then neatly slides back down into place after the shower.

The other change was of course stained clay, and after finding a Mesa biome 5000 Minecraft miles from my Half-way house (Last post) I have gone a bit crazy with it! I changed the light grey wool passage way down to storage to it (Same color in stained clay), and have changed walls that use to use sand as a decorative block. Back in the day, before I got my "Stop enderman stealing blocks" mod, this use to be a major problem and I would often find one block holes. Although it wasn't a problem after the mod, after a long time I did tire of the sand walls myself. So the walls in the main living area were changed from sand to yellow hardened clay, the open hall-way ajoining to the dining room, from sand to orange stained clay.

The passage-way to the dinning hall:

Now I should mention that yes, that is a dark oak floor; and yes in the earlier shot of the bedroom that was acacia floor planks. When I found that Mesa biome I also found a savana biome with acacia trees. I did go further and also found the dark oak trees. After a lot of chopping down, I brought back some sapling specimens to replant; but his would intern mean I needed new areas for tree farms.. So far I had on a nearby mountain - the mix of spruce and jungle trees, and near the actual food farms the two tier regular tree farms:

As eagle-eyed readers might see I have a new second set of stairs going up.. I flattenned some of the bumpy mountain wall out, to create a limited area for arcacia trees to grow. At first it was just a three tree-farm but I took the mountain wall back even more to double my supply:

Spin around where I am stood above, and I had to dig into the mountain (Being very weary of where the maze was up there!), and created a new 2nd route to the top of the mountain for the new Dark Oak plantation:

Note to self!: Remove that redstone torch! I was low on torches and had redstone on me okay!

On the subject of farms, I have also in the last week, finally switched my potatoe and carrot farms to automated harvesting like the wheat farm. More about that next time however as, if I don't stop writing now I never will! This post is already long.


Coming up: Enchantments, horse & donkey shenanigans, the mob area and portal relocation, enchantment rooms, diamonds and silk touch picks, that underwater/underground minecart project, Mount DOOOooooom and more!