I have upgraded to 1.2.5 to take advantage of the new sandstone and plank types. I feel this could look better, however. The elevator is located on the second floor of the central hub, that sort of balcony that made me like this place.
The elevator itself is the design that Etho came up with, a compact spiral system.
These planks hold the redstone wire needed to get the pistons to extend when I step on the pressure plate. You would not believe how many times I had to tear down the wires to get it right. Originally the wire was on dirt blocks because it was just a temporary setup. I made error after error but eventually, after reviewing the model on my Creative map, I got it down pat. Just as Thomas Edison is believed to have said he found several hundred (or thousands) of ways to not make a lightbulb, I found half a dozen ways to not make a functional piston elevator!
Inside the elevator, I went ahead and alternated between glowstone and jack o'lanterns for lighting. I hoped I could use them to indicate what level I was on but at 5 blocks per second, there's no chance of that. Ah well, the variety is nice.
Some of the beautiful terrain at the top of the elevator:
During the setup process I tried gauging where the elevator would be and where I would need to dig out. You only need a 4x4 hole for this. I miscalculated pretty miserably.
I suppose gravel does serve a purpose after all: filling up dumb holes.
Another project I underwent was trying to extend the grass paths to get up to the balcony. I also extended the bridge, which almost reaches the stone brick road.
Honestly, I don't care very much for this. I may very well tear this down and try to restore it to what it originally looked like, or something like that.
I had my share of deaths while making the elevator. A couple were simply falling into a hole, while once I forgot I removed a temporary water drop.
Next thing I want to do is conquer the dungeon near my base. I stumbled upon it while doing some walking above ground. I won't spoil what kind of dungeon it is just yet. After doing some looking and tracing, I've come up with the path I will take from my base to the dungeon. I intend on doing this on at least easy mode.
The paragraph about the planks and redstone reminded me of something. The stone brick road will eventually have plenty of wiring hiding behind it. I'd like to come up with a sort of building code for myself. It has two rules:
- Redstone wire, torches, and repeaters always go on wooden planks.
- The part of something that is visible from the path must be mostly stone brick. The behind the scenes wiring and structure can be of any material, except the planks used for wiring. Each project should have a different block to separate it from the others around it. So if, say, I had a Slime farm, I would make it out of cobblestone. The mushroom farm next to it would be made of, perhaps sandstone. It's just to make things easier to distinguish.
