Elevators & Ravine Homes

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...

This will be the last update for a little while on my main world as I'm giving my older worlds a little rest so that when I return to them, I'll have a bit more motivation. So I was watching a YouTube video about Minecart elevators and started to wonder if I had room for one. Which is pretty funny as some weeks ago in a creative copy I was recreating the beta era look and ended up recreating this picture in the corridor next to the old water elevator:


Original:

Creative 2014:

Anyway back to 2014, and I am putting it in the same place, the exact same place, in the exact same corridor! Only difference of course is it's going up not down. (Although that might be fun too.. Now there's an idea!..)

So the door would go on that left side towards the back door, where the first painting is roughly. There where a few concerns however, as I needed it to be 6 blocks back according to the tutorial. That means going into the corner of the front room extension. I was also worried about what rooms I might hit going up. Due to this, I tested it on my creative copy (World #2 in da future!) first of course. The first problem, wasn't so much so; but I did cut through a corridor (Going up from the back of the front room extension) and came out in the side of my observation deck. Never-the-less, I was happy with it; it could be done. So happy that it spurred me to do it for real in my actual survival world.


Unintentionally, I must've started a few blocks nearer the timber log trim on the wall because I came out a bit more outside the observation deck. The extension room wasn't a problem, I made the window in that corner smaller where the wall latched onto it and continued the existing wall along to meet using snow blocks and stone brick trim for the bottom border. Added some stained white glass so you could see the lift from that side too - as I was using so much of it for the elevator. Also managed not to carve through the corridor like in the creative copy.

One problem though. Where I decorated the rest of the walls with snow blocks to blend it all in and match, it showed on the outside of the mountain. So now I guess I will have to just make that whole side of the mountain outside smooth snow blocks too!


Work in progress:

What you may or not see up the top is new safety railings and I've also added some "Bushes" up the top on the edging to cover some of the redstone work needed. Also had to move the door coming out to the Observation Deck, and the door to the observation deck itself on that side; as the elevator comes out literally right outside the side of said area.

Ravine Home 

Made some more advances on this world! Whilst I rest from the old worlds I am concentrating on the newer ones (Including Podzol home!), and so got to work on this project. Up to now I had only glassed over the top of the ravine and lined it with trees, and created piston doors to seal up the stairs down to my home from mobs. (Piston doors are also behind actual doors.) Also walled up the side of where the redstone was for said pistons to hide it all. (Neither shown in the first early picture.)

Resource Pack also now changed to Modern HD after first picture.

First job was to start ripping up the ravine floor. As this was just going to be a main corridor to the other ravine below (At the far end of this ravine), I opted for Birch planks, edged off with acacia planks.

Then subsequently changed the cobble walls around the doors/piston doors to sandstone:

This chest is nearly empty now as I slowly move things downstairs into the abandoned mine Storage Bay.

There is so much of the new granite types about - Granite, Andesite and Diorite. At first in these next few pictures, I still wasn't sure about what to do with the floor, but I began creating lots of alcoves for future chests. Each with polished granite blocks either side and a backing behind the chest (Also underneath) of raw Diorite:

Eventually for the floor I decided to keep the abandoned mine wood plank edges - except changing it to birch planks, and for the middle underneath the tracks - polished Andesite.

I figured I needed an armory and a bit nearer to the stairs as I have to walk half-way along the ravine to get to this storage. So at the bottom of the first stairs from the upper ravine, I have got this upcoming area for a future armory room:

I wanted it to be like a big vault, but wanted something to represent iron blocks as I didn't want to waste the ingots right now. Detailing needed of course.


Also have a little farm up on the surface of the ravine, in a small dip pond:

Notice the abundance of birch trees nearby where I've been replanting and replanting each time I chop one down!


The big push on the abandoned mine storage area has got me really pumped for this world now! Want to do as much of this as I can like the Podzol home, of which I'm starting feel "meh" about the design. Can't wait to see what changes there are by the next time I post!

Losing Inventories // 1.7.5

Unfortunately, this world is going to have to be put on hold as is any world in the latest snapshot, due to the inventory / ID change.

Now I know better than to accidently open a world in the latest snapshot then go back to a previous version and loose all my stuff, but it seems even just going into a snapshot can loose you everything thanks to the new ID system being implemented. Such is the case with World #3 - the one where I knocked down my old beta home and rebuilt it in a more modern style. Not only did I lose everything in my inventory, I lost everything in every single chest in the house. Including all the sand sandstone from the previous building. So much so that even in my back up folders now I have separated the saves into pre 1.8/post 1.8. If I do want to attempt one of the later worlds I have to take the existing saves out (Just in case, and I now only keep the saves I need in there) before popping in a snapshot world and starting it up. Before going back to a previous version, I will load it up in that version with no saves in my save folder at all, do that first; before putting them back in after a re-opening Minecraft. I am being that careful now/am that paranoid. 

In other news I have upgraded my three worlds that I use Sonics Unbelievable Shaders on; (World #1 - Underground home and original Alpha world, World #2 - Main world and World #3 mentioned above.) Now the shaders have updated I've gone from 1.7.2 to 1..7.5, slowly getting nearer to modern Minecraft!

No real news on my main world, although I have continued the sky-lights theme; this time in the science lab.

I can't work out the problem with the stained glass not being see-through as it's supposed to be, something to do with the shaders I guess.

That's about it for now, quick post today, will have more news soon. =)

New World Generation // More World 2 Info

So when the terrain sliders were first introduced, this is way before they were actually in the game; I was very dismissive about them. For me at the time, it just seemed to be pandering to all these constant complainers about the terrain generation, so when this new feature came out in Minecraft, initially I was not that bothered.

I decided to try it though, and my first attempt wasn't very remarkable - mainly due to the fact I didn't notice the "Next Page" in the top right hand corner. When I did though, I had one other funny spawn when I spawned in the ocean and the water height was so high - I was literally half-a-heart away just as I got under the surface. I shall continue to try new world attempts though, but in my non-attempt that I first mentioned I did come across a nice little isolated mountain that I decided to make a home or base in. (Not sure which yet.)

As you can see I made some dirt stairs up to where I thought would be a good entrance would be and a small little bridge going in, made of granite. Well Dorite, polished Dorite. I had ramped up the dungeons however from the 7 it was set to default as, to 50, as soon as I got into the mountain it dropped into caves and there was a dungeon around the corner! A skeleton one, so now i have an armory of sorts with a never-ending supply of bows and arrows to grind.

As the cave dipped down it also ran into a ravine! Not just one, but a double dip ravine!  I got lots of Lapis, iron, little bit of gold, loads of coal, 5 diamonds and 4 emeralds so far! I think I'll make this more of a "base" than a home. Functional rather than aesthetic.

First ravine:

It wasn't very interesting though, unlike....

Second ravine, just below it:

I also have a little farm going on outside the back of the mountain, just a "Starting farm" for now. The crop on it's own is potato main: wheat.

Strangely excited for this world!

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...

To stop myself from getting too bored with my "Big projects" on my main world, I occasionaly take breaks and switch to another project, which is what I have done here. So for now, I've taken a little pause on the new tower for Mount DOOOOOooooom. Last time, I was about to do the final top floor and roof of the new tower, and where I left it - I've just started the roof. I have however added the window ledges (Upside down cobble steps) and the security walls around them (Cobble fences) to stop me falling out - so with those it's certainly looking very different now! At least however, it's not as bland as it used to be.

 

So I've switched to another project, well two, for a while and the main one was finally getting back to the half-way house development! (Home inside a big hole in a chunk border.) Last time I had extended to the sides, left and right of the chunk wall, and made them part of the house:

I said I was going to add a roof overhang over each side to make it better, so I got busy chopping down lots of spruce trees nearby to make the stairs and this is the result:

A big improvement! You'll notice I turned one set of windows: two wide | three wide | two wide, into one big window and that's because the window shutters were sat right next to each other and it didn't look good. There wasn't room to space out the windows more, and reducing would've made it a three | one | three combination, and I did not want a one-width in the middle! Due to low light and shaders, there was a small bit of damage inside by the stairs up when a creeper spawned, I patched it up though and although I didn't look at any previous pictures I can't tell the difference. Think I got it spot on.

That's not all however!

I did say 2 projects, as a new one opened up. I started thinking about a second minecart ride, this one going to the half-way house as it's always quite a lug over. Okay I do have more horses now after breeding, (Did I mention I did that a long while ago too? I acquired a new horse after the usual 5000+ Minecraft mile journey and named him Artax. I then bred him but the fowl is yet unnamed.) So I do have horses but what gave me the idea was this strange splodge of mountain behind the main mountains that lie behind the swimming pool and tennis court round the back. It's always been strange, and over the years I've wanted to do something with it but wasn't sure what. I leveled out bits but it's been the same more or less for the last almost 4 years:

So that strange squared of blob of a mountain that has been nothing for years will become a minecart station. I've used the 5 block width of the front as the basis of the width of the tunnel leading from it - all the way through the mountain to the back of my home.

So here's the back of my mountain home:

Then if you turn around, here's the very long tunnel that leads to the minecart station

It doesn't stop there however. I've tested this on my creative copy of the world, and beyond the proposed minecart station the rail/tunnel will continue from there, through various chunk borders (! Making them useful!) all the way to my Half-way house! In the creative version, I couldn't have planned it better if I had actually planned it! Some of the areas where it goes through the chunk borders are perfect and it comes out right by the half-way house! If I had planned it, (I was just following my instinct), it may not have been as good. But it's what gave me the push to do it in my survival world!

It took between an hour & half - two hours just to dig the first part of the tunnel and the next part after the minecart station will take even long but will be soooo worth it! It will also take tonnes of iron for the rails but hey-ho.

So that's what's keeping me busy!

The Update Thread

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...


The BIG push! 
I've been working very hard lately on making a major push to the "big projects" on this world. in an attempt to get them done or really get somewhere with them.

Firstly is the apartment block. After changes to the decor on the outside and adding more enhancements (Log trimming, window hatches and window sills) it became abandoned a bit again. When I looked again I realized although I had done the log trim on all 4 sides, I only did the extras (mentioned) on the front side, so I set to work growing spruce trees in the apartment block's back yard so I could give the other three sides their window hatches and window sills. (Trap-doors and upside down stairs respectively.)

Yes I realise I've missed one bot or log trim and window shutters!

I still have the back of that new roof I was doing to finish off, but that's because I changed the top penthouse ceiling from snow to wool like all the other floors, and that was a feat! (It has snow walls so snow ceiling as well would not be good. The rest now includes making sure each floor has a better bathroom and kitchen.

The other big thing I've been pushing, is phase #2 of the underwater/underground minecart tunnel - decoration. Phase #1 (Underwater) had either end decorated with sandstone walls with colored carpet running through the middle (Named the "Green line". For the "Red Line" of the redecoration of the underground tunnels I decided not to use sandstone. It's a pain getting it (Long way away) and they you have to convert it into sandstone and it's very resource hungry. I switched instead to the more natural stone-brick. And as I have many double chests full of cobble I might as well put it to use! So I've been smelting like mad and redecorating the rest of the tunnels all the way to Mount. DOOoooooooom!

Just the red wool to fill in now, and it's done!

Speaking of Mount. DOOoooooooom(!) I've been busy on that as well. Here is a picture back in the day:

 
When I changed the front tower from ladders up to stairs (Taking up almost all of the inside of the tower itself.:

Just this week:

Yes, no tower at all! Besides that the fact that I am also using shaders full time for this world now (like-wise for world #1: underground home and world #3), the whole stairs in the tower thing wasn't really working for me at all. So, literally this Easter weekend I stood on the roof and demolished it top to bottom so I can rebuild it! I noticed that whilst it was only 8 blocks across width, it was only 7 blocks across the other way, so I evened it out and began building again in all weathers. No big fat bit in the middle this time, and I've rounded the corners off so they're diagonal:

A straight tower, the next level up will be the final one and slightly protruding out from the tower. (IE a bit bigger.) As you can see, at the base I've also extended  a wall back from the stairs up onto the sand, to try and hide some of that nasty chunk border wall. I think I will continue this round by the stairs, along and round the corner; so there's an "Inner" fort wall like the main outside one. Also, (After trying it out on my creative copy of the world); I will make that back building that's very high up and set back from the front tower, double height. I tried on my creative copy and liked it, so will implement it on survival, I have the cobble I've horded the the past 3 years 7 months.

This time, to get up the tower; I've built stairs again but on the outside this time! Round the back though as obviously there will be lava flowing down round the front, so they've tucked away round the back and go up one side to each level. This also means plenty of room inside the tower now with the stairs removed to the exterior!

I've also been in the kitchen and dinning room! Back in (2012/2013?) when I raised the dinning room ceiling up 2 blocks and I gave it a completely new look, I didn't add the sky-lights back in. This was a choice and done on purpose. I thought it'd be alright with lots of glowstone and some torches - but it was not. It was far to dark in the day, So working from the ground above the dinning room (As I have lots of paths up there so doing it from below would mean lots of holes in unwanted places); I brought back the sky-lights.

The above picture is day time and already the different is quite noticable! A few dark patches still but very light! With the kitchen - even though it's only half done, I implimented it here as well with the same size in each corner:

Forgive the snow on the ground, I have put a snow golem to work for the snow blocks I need for the ceiling. With that said, I'm likekly to change the wall deco now completetly.

Yes we have a banner now!

Not much to report here, but the major change was turning the outside that I done, from dark Oak planks to the surrounding spruce tree planks in the Mega Taiga. This is because I only have two dark oak trees and being in the middle of a Mega Taiga, the spruce trees are everywhere!

The future living room ceiling is completed with wool now (just need glowstone for lighting!), so I have started the upstairs.

Still a long way to go however.