The State of Customized Worlds

So as you all know with the Update Aquatic coming out, customized worlds - as we know them have been removed; for now. Whilst we won't see them in 1.13, we have been told they will return in future updates, once they have been integrated. This is of course because of the change in world generation in 1.13 as we know it.


Why Buffet worlds won't be enough..
Now don't get me wrong, I like the ideas of buffet worlds very much as it opens up a whole new load of possibilities, however in there current state there is no way they could replace customized worlds.

Although I haven't tried the last few snapshots or pre-snapshots yet, unless something has changed you can still only have one biome type per buffet world, and this is were it falls apart. It's very limiting only having the one biome, especially for builders. In order for buffet worlds to be more substantial i believe they need to be able to add the option to choose multiple biomes for whatever set up they are based on - The end, the nether, underground, caves etc. Playing buffet worlds with multiple biomes on these set-ups would be like a new form of amplified setting and give a much more rich experience IMO.


Why we need customized worlds still:
I created the following pictures in 1.12.2 using customized settings and this is why we need to retain these worlds:

I can only hope they do keep to their word (Mojang), and return customized worlds in a future update; and expand upon the buffet idea.

Return to Podzol

I've gone back to a world I started in February 2014 named the "Podzol Home" (For want of a better name), built in a Mega taiga biome.

I've struggled with this world as I might of had large biomes switched on when I made it. Anyway I made it out of the giant spruce trees around me, but something didn't quite gel with it. In 2015 I changed the exterior walls to snow in March and December and that satisfied me - for a while, but still ultimatetly I wasn't sure what direction the build was going and felt stifled. In 2016 in what little I did play the world it was just concentrating on the storage basement, and although I played a couple of times in 2017, ultimatly there were no major changes.

2014:

2015:

Coming back to it, the Life HD doesn't look like it's getting updated so I switch in these next pics between r3dcraft and the new default (Jappa) textures - but I still dislike those plastic looking plank blocks.

My trouble is I always like to build huge homes, but after starting to watch a slightly modded let's play with a cabin in the woods I decided to make a drastic change an do something very uncharacteristic of me - and downsize the house. It's early days and I've gone for a completetly different plank look, and have also lopped off the kitchen extension of the back - turning it into a back porch/new back entrance.

It's basic at the moment, no detail - I'm just trying to get the main overall look done first. The other thing I did to the right of the front of the house is remove the hill going up against the side of the house - that always bothered me. So I've created this nice little walk-around:

It might be a bit claustrophobic with the walls inside but there's only one bedroom upstairs now the rest is an attic, as opposed to the half-a-dozen rooms there used to be upstairs. Next time I'll try and show the changes inside so far.

Future Ideas (I)

After I hit 7 years in this world, which I believe is on day 2555 (Currently on 2233), there is the question of future projects as well as the ongoing stuff already. So I have a few ideas, but not much so far.

For one, ever since I made the swimming pool in Beta, there has been this ugly diving board:

Slab platforms attached to a snow pole? Basic doesn't even cover it. There is the potential to make a proper olympic/training platform in it's place but there are conditions. For one, I would have to move the back wall behind it further back and create a nook corner, not a problem however. The current platform just looks so - rubbish.

I have also considered removing the fake tennis court as well in favour of a more garden-y area with patrhways?..

The other project - or should I say problem, is the size of the entrance for the under-water minecart tunnel:

Originally this place was meant to be the aquarium but changed into the waiting room for when you take the minecart ride. It's just too big and I'm looking to cut it in half. The proposal is to cut into the wall where I'm looking in picture #2, a few blocks away from the glass wall. With stairs going up this would lead me into the water just outside the villager farm. I'd want to have a glass docking platform, very modern, as if floating on the water, complete with glass tunnel, to lead onto the stairs.

It would mean the only way in from then on would be to leave the home outside via the back, down the stairs to the platform but it's a comprimise.

Hopefully there will be some more ideas, hence this post title ending in (I), but I will keep you all updated as that's all I have for now.

So this is me now...

One post a year on this blog - apparently, or at least that's what happens everytime I go to say "The blog is coming back!!!111".

As I sit here on a rainy Monday morning here in the UK with a week off work for holiday, I am about to open up and play a little Minecraft for a while. It gets me thinking about this place, this blog and my worlds, particularly my main world which will be almost 7 years old soon! At this point I have played Minecraft for 7 years, the longest I've ever played any computer/console game - ever and it blows my mind that I'm still playing this main world 7 years on.

Autumn currently:

So much has changed in this world that it would be impossible to cover them all, this post would be huge otherwise. So I'll just cover a few main features, before I do that however; I'm currently working on a secret mini-project for the 7th anniversary. Something I've never ventured into before. Earlier in the year on a seperate creative world I made a 3D chibi of my Minecraft skin - but just the head. I decided to impliment this for my 7th anniversary of my main world, which says something as it's a functional world - you won't find minecart rollercosters or pixel art everywhere, it's not that kind of world and never has been.

The other month I re-designed it however in a creative copy of my world, to make it look less rubbish and more detailed, the result is a lot more accurate to the actual Transformer toy head. Currently I am re-creating it in survival at the top of a mountain, I under-estimated just exactly how much green wool it would take. So much so, that I have a 2nd temporary pen for sheep at the top of the mountain. (I'll re-dye them white after it's done and let them go free.)

Behold! The big giant head!

At the moment I have yellow wool for the eyes, but I want it to have glowstone behind yellow glass eventually. Part of me has thought about having redstone lamps so the eyes light up automatically at night, but then i'd have to have an open space in the top of the head because of the daylight sensors.

Another big project I was working on - mentioned in the one and only post for 2015 in December, was the Chunk Plaza project. It didn't have that name at the time and was only the basics of a dirt building on the corner, a boardwalk and some apartment windows dug into the chunk wall with a bit of red. The project was left (Through laziness) over the last year & half, but things have picked up pace this year.

DECEMBER 2015:

 

CURRENTLY:

As you can see, ALOT has changed.If you look in the far left of the last picture you can feintly see the outline structure of a third building coming.

The last time this blog saw Mount DOOOooom it was like this:

These days...

Various buildings have been knocked down and re-built, whilst existing towers have more detail and the stone ground inside turned back to nature. As well as this, some months ago the single block oak plaform that stretched across the ocean and carried the minecart rails, has finally been replaced with a proper bridge.

There's also a monument using restone lamps and glass panes to mark the last six years and the versions at the times of the anniversary:

In other areas, the science lab has had it's rooms swapped in recent months the lab being where the "Community room" was and vice versa so it could be extended and made much bigger. The main bridge has been fully re-junvinated after skipping detail after it's last rebuild. Once thing I embraced was the World of Color update, although I would use glazed terracotta only sparingly, I love the addition of concrete as it's fun and easy to make and really makes up for the muted terracotta and less than fire resistant wool - not that I really build in wool ordinarily.

More details can be found on my official "Updates of a 6 years & 11 month" thread on the official Minecraft forums, which includes a world download. Links also to the side.

One year laaaateeerrrr....

Thinking about restarting the blog, but not sure where to start?

Updates of my worlds? Could take a few posts to cover them. What I'm doing at the moment? If I do I will be writing for myself again rather than a wider audience, just what I'm up to.

(Creative.) A new dawn, a new day for this blog?

Continuing the 1.8 Update!

Well it's been just over a year since I last posted and I'll begin exactly where I left off! Last time I was converting the old emergency minecart exit into a bunny home, suffice to say this was completed a long time ago and extended into the back. As was the new bathroom (Former rear lounge over-looking the pool) which last year was only just being started in it's conversion:

Of course it was finished and looks a little more lived in over the last year:

You can read what else changed in my world in the ye old (Now inactive) thread at the official Minecraft forums: Here.

The biggest project I'm working on in my main world however, is a very ugly chunk border I've had for years - pretty near my home:

I've already made a connecting bridge from where the dirt stairs are in the top picture, and am embarking in a massive project to re-generate the chunk in the bottom picture by turning it into, apartments, possibly a hotel and provisionally shops as well:

This project could very well at least take a year, not to mention I had to find new sheep after a creeper jumped down into my temporary sheep pit! I would want the mountain part of the buildings to be white/various hardened clay which also means a lot of travelling to get that much clay.

Currently I've also been converting my mob are at the very base of my home in a mountain. Up until yesterday, I build an indoor battle tower which has been replaced. At the bottom I built a new skinny core up to 24 blocks high with a long cross-ways on top of it that houses 2 block high 3x3 spawning pads for mobs. The sides of these pads have trapdoors making them think it's full block and in between the pads there is running water. They spawn on the pads, try to cross to the neighboring one (Mistaking the trapdoor for a full block) and fall into the water which travels them to the central hole that is the top of the core - leading them to their death (Or 1 heart/half heart) after the fall. Most only require a one shot. Hoppers go into the chests at the bottom.

This was all done from a video tutorial.

As the very bottom floor no longer needs to be covered in complete darkness, I am currently renovating it to make it look better. Up to now it's always been the stone of the mountain with cobble patches.