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New server, new journal!

One of the benefits of running the server myself was being able to specify the world seed used, and I spent hours looking for just the perfect one. It has to be wintry a good distance around the spawn, of course, and it had to be interesting. It seems to me that since they changed map creation in 1.7 the maps it generates just aren't as interesting. But I must say, this is one of the most beautiful maps I've played on, with something that should interest everyone...within sight of the spawn there are hills, mountains with ice spikes which are absolutely beautiful, a wintry forest, and plains with a lava pit for good measure.

On the last server, it was a struggle to find interesting terrain to build in...this time the problem was there were so many awesome possibilities! After thinking about it, I decided to go for the hills. It's nice how they rise above the plains, and a nearby forest will ensure plenty of wood for projects in the future. While looking at the hills in the area, I also decided I wanted to build something more small-scale to start out with this time around. While it was fun building a plantation last time, it doesn't really fit with the winter theme, so I want to build something that's still imposing from the outside while being cozy from the inside.

And eventually I found my hill! It's a short distance from the spawn so hopefully I won't be out in the middle of nowhere this time around. Also means I need to look at server security asap.

But as they say when you're buying a house, nothing is going to be absolutely perfect. In this case my hill needed some remodeling in order for it to accommodate a longer hilltop to support the things I want to build. This took nearly two full inventories of dirt to fill out, and I will need to get a few more to make the hill look natural again. The top of the hill in this direction will be ringed with a small wall to create a courtyard, which you can see taking shape here.

I was fortunate to find the pumpkins very early on while looking for the right hill, and I'm just using them at the moment to mark the center so that the courtyard is symmetric. In the future, walls will ring this area, and there will be a few small buildings on each side that will give access to the area on top of the wall and overlooks down the hill. And the area I'm taking this picture from?

This was an area where the hill naturally gave rise, which I sculpted into a tower shape and put wood planks on top of for now. This will be a small tower overlooking the courtyard, and will have an upstairs area with my bed (I saw sheep somewhere around the spawn!), chests, etc. In keeping with the cozy theme this will also be small. I don't really have a desire for a large house. Actually everything behind the tower is on the same higher level too, which I plan to use as a sort of outdoor garden that will be for looks, though I haven't figured out the plans for doing that in the winter theme yet. I will probably place a larger underground farm for food underneath the courtyard, with rooms for additional storage and such. I already have the seed (and the pumpkin!), I just need to find iron to make the bucket to transport water in.

That's where things stand as of now. I think this is going to be a very fun project to do, and I hope to hear more of your own travels and projects on the server!

My, how things have changed!

This is roughly the same view as the last picture in the previous post. Since then, I've extended the walls around the entire courtyard, planted some trees, spread out the pumpkins, and built a wood structure at the head. The bottom of that structure is still dirt as shown in the past post, but I've put wood around it to give it the appearance of being a taller structure. The pathway is made of glass with cobblestone beneath it, and not only keeps snow from accumulating on it, but just looks really, really cool. The two stone buildings on both sides of the courtyard will give access to the walls themselves as well as the underground farms, which you can see here:

This is directly below the courtyard, and allows me to stave off starvation and keep a surplus of bread. Initially I had a hard time finding enough food due to the climate and my squeamishness at going into a cave to find iron to make a bucket to water my farm, but I happened to run into some iron ore exposed on the surface, and all is now well! This uses the same farming technique as both the plantation I did on Denth's server and the single player project I did before that. Not only is it supposedly the most optimal way to get wheat growing, it also looks cool and keeps the room lit real nice to keep the baddies from spawning. I started putting in a glass walkway between the two sides of the farm, but it doesn't look as cool here as it does in the snow, so I'll probably replace it when I find the right material.

Going through the center tower, you come into this large room which is currently empty, but I plan to use as some sort of general meeting and reception area. With all the cobblestone used in the exterior, I think the wood offsets this nicely...

Out that back door, you come to a largely undeveloped area that will eventually be my winter garden or private seclusion area...well, not like there will be anything to stop people from coming here, but it's zoned as my private outdoor area. Go out the door and around the corner and you come to a set of stairs which leads up and back to the front of the building, which is the entrance for my actual house! Where I will put my bed and stuff. Currently it's a room with walls but no roof, but it will be the center of my housing area eventually.

But what lovely views! You can also see the incomplete status of the courtyard at this point. From this angle you can see the 'gatehouse' at the end, which is where you come through the mountain and enter the area to start with.

I may have cheated and used my op abilities to get this screenshot overlooking the entire area. You can definitely tell that this is incomplete, but it also shows the lovely potential that this project has. You may be able to see that I've started building the mountain out to make the structure look more natural, and I've also started planting some (happy little) trees on the right side to camouflage it further and make the whole thing appear more 'in-tune' with its surroundings. I think it's coming along well and so far it's just as I wanted it...impressive, but at the same time cozy and not expansive.