Friday, October 26, 2012

Portal Room, Part 1

For as long as I've lived in my cave base, the portal I'd use to get to the Nether was located in a little branch cave more than far enough to not hear its sounds. It would take me to a portal that was a short walk from my Nether fortress, in a nice open space. Upon returning to the overworld I would wind up at the portal of my previous home, which is a bit of a complication when I don't have any kind of teleport commands.

Thus I've begun the process of making a room for a new Nether portal, one that would probably send me somewhere different. It's going to be much more conveniently located, and far enough from anything else that I won't get those annoying portal sounds. You can't hear the noises if you are 16 or more blocks from the portal, which I factored into designing the room. I also went for a bit of creativity in the model I made.

The first step was clearing out a 16 by 20-something area, six blocks in height. In a recent enchantment I had scored another Silk Touch diamond pickaxe so I used that to empty the place. Here are a couple shots taken during the clearing out process.



With the space cleared, I began laying down the stone brick. Most of the room will be constructed with this, although I may try to add other details to break up what would otherwise be a bland looking room. It will have a Nether feel to it, with glowstone for lighting.

The entrance is going to be a 2x2 piston door, using glass. This will give it a sort of technical feel. The room itself is a sort of hallway, which then widens as you arrive at the portal. My first design called for a simple rectangular room but that just looked ugly. Shrinking the width of the front part of the room then angling outward was a nice touch.





The next step calls for making a sort of red carpet going from the entrance to the Nether portal. It will fill up the empty space seen in front of the portal. In order to do this, I'm going to need lots of sheep. Fortunately, there are tons not too far from my base, located on some cliffs and in a valley. I've dubbed it Sheep Valley.