Hodgepodge

Things have been rather slow lately. Not much desire to really play Minecraft. My laptop just can't handle any of the intensive stuff, which is a real pain.

I've begun a new project on the Hydrocity Gaming server, which I consider my home server. I call it the Palace Youssarian, and I'm going to apply the skills in redstone and design I've accumulated recently to make it at least a little nice. The main building materials for it will be stone brick and lapis lazuli, along with whatever else is appropriate. Since I can't access SMP at the moment I figured I'd spend a little time getting a rough idea of what the place might look like. Here's a shot of the wheat farm.

I don't think I'm going to have the ceiling remain so flat and tall. I might make it bend down so that the ceiling height remains 4 blocks everywhere. The redstone wiring is underneath the farm, which makes it a bit more compact. I want to do a little bit of rough draft work on Creative mode before taking it onto the survival server.

For my singleplayer world, I've scrapped the idea of having a complex rail system. I will use a design based off the MindCrack Nether hub, although modified.

• The Nether brick overheard corner thingy for each track's alcove will be upside-down Nether brick stairs facing outward. The stair at the corner where they meet will change to make it look nice.
• Behind the blocks that distinguish each rail (one user on the MindCrack server has redstone lamps, the other has wool, and so on) will be two blocks of empty space. That's so I can add things like water, redstone, or other things to customize them further.
• I will keep the sandstone half-slab flooring. This will stop mobs from spawning. The upper floor, which is all I will build for now, will feature an ichthys made of stone half-slabs. The roof will be Nether brick with a sandstone outline and probably some kind of pattern with redstone lamps.
• Lighting will be done with redstone lamps.
• This Nether hub is intended to be well-stocked. As such it will have all the kinds of farms you can put in the Nether. 
• I want to detail the outside of it in some fashion. Since it's currently encased in Netherrack I may not get that opportunity.
• Lastly, there will be a double door system to get outside, probably using pistons. Just in case I want to do some local moving around.