Depth

Over the last three years I've gotten better at choosing block palettes for construction, as well as giving my builds some more variation in shape. There's still one thing I kind of suck at: depth. It's the latest thing I've been trying to get good at.

I have a basic understanding of depth. Back when I did a guide to making things look good, I mentioned adding curves to houses, forming alcoves and whatnot. There was also the little awning I added over the front entrance. Those are pretty basic. There are a few areas I will look into right now.

Canvas Technique

My experience indicates the key aspect of adding depth is what I call the "canvas technique." In it, you take a wall and around its perimeter, adding support beams on the top and sides.

Let's compare the one on the right with my standard build style.

The one on the left, my typical style, doesn't look half bad. But on the right I have moved the blocks out an additional unit. Granted, this required squeezing the smooth sandstone blocks in (so there's only a tiny space inside the right one) but it is rewarded from the new level of depth shown here.

I call this the canvas technique because with the log support pillars, it creates a sort of "canvas" we can then decorate. There are tons of way to do this. Foliage seems to be a popular and logical choice.

You might also use fences, fence gates, and the cobble/mossy cobble walls. After some quick experimentation, I find fence gates to be rather nice looking.

This kinda fits here. A nice technique I came across was using stairs above and below windows. I imagine this doesn't work as well if the stairs don't match the blocks making up the wall.

You can expand the support buttresses as far as you think is appropriate. Nice touches can also include stairs, fences lining them, half-slab awnings, and so on. This picture right here is probably the most depth-laden piece of work I've ever made. If you add a wooden button on each of the smooth sandstone blocks that aren't covered by a fence gate, it adds a little extra.

Roof Design

A long time ago I wanted to put together a tutorial on making roofs. It would have been as useful as me as for anyone else. Roofs are surprisingly good for adding depth. The most basic measure of adding depth is extending roofs outward. Here is what I mean. Consider the roof module on the left, and the one on the right. The right one adds depth and in my eyes, is very nice.

One on the right is a bit more festive, wouldn't you say? You can also add the extra stuff like fences and whatnot to a roof unit as well, for added depth and detail.

Put It All Together

I went ahead and tried making a house using the depth techniques I've mentioned here. It could probably benefit from having a door, but this is stuff I'm still new to.

Others' Work

A really good way to get better with depth is to mimic the works of others. There are many Minecrafters out there who seem to have a natural talent at depth. Try watching their stuff and recreating their builds yourself. Add a little variation if you can come up with one. This will give you hands-on experience in depth and detail. This in turn will give you a feel for it and you'll be able to reproduce the skill.

Thoughts on Multiplayer

I was so excited when I first got onto a multiplayer server. Finally being able to interact with others! People would see my work, and possibly contribute - or destroy! Either way, it would be fun to collaborate or restart when I was griefed or robbed.

The odd thing I've found since then is that multiplayer isn't all I thought it would be. In some ways I've really found it to be more of a hassle than anything else. It's fun to meet friends and look at others' creations first hand, but there are a few problems I have noticed along the way.

One of the biggest nuisances for me is the lack of control over the day/night cycle. I don't like building at night. This is probably because I don't generally light up areas when I settle in them. So every night when I'm playing on a server, I need to try and round up people to get in beds. And this frequently is not possible. Therefore I end up spending 10 minutes waiting for the sun to rise. It's really quite annoying.

The other is how I don't have control over what version of the game they're using. There are a set of mods that I use for my singleplayer world which don't get updated at the same time as Minecraft. Indeed, between versions 1.6.2 and 1.7 there were enormous changes to the code. So much that needed things like the Minecraft Coder Pack still has not been updated. As a result, many mods are still stuck at 1.6.4 at the latest. Since my laptop practically demands Optifine, that means my single player stuff can't go beyond 1.6. Servers are typically in the 1.7 range. That means no mods, getting lost easily, and it's a general inconvenience to me.

Plus, servers are more unreliable than personal maps. A server can go up or down at any time without your knowledge or approval. Due to damage or game updates the map might get reset, thereby deleting all of your works right out of existence. Seems kind of pointless to me to build stuff, only for it to later be destroyed like that. Luckily there are some sites and servers which provide map downloads, so you can finish your projects. But even then I don't think it's quite the same.

On the other hang, SSP offers you a lot more control. The sun goes up or down at your will. You delete it only if you so desire - or if it's utterly unplayable due to game updates. My pride and joy creations have always been on singleplayer maps.

Redstone Project, Continued

It's been a while since I mentioned the redstone network project I've been working on. Here's an update.

The most critical change has been the addition of the redstone clock system, which acts as the "heart" of the automatic portion. It's a big open controlled mess of redstone.

This morass of redstone technology tells the sugar cane farm to harvest every 10 minutes, and the wheat/potato/carrot farm to launch every 2 hours. So far everything works pretty dang well.

Underground I have expanded the item sorter and storage system. It's getting pretty long.

And the triple farm itself. I took the stuff from the redstone village I was previously working on and put it to work here. I've yet to have an issue with it.

The most active part of this whole thing is a hopper clock that fires once a minute. To some that might be annoying. I find it quite fun to let the game run in the background on low volume, and hear the pistons fire rhythmically. Eventually I want to make another one of these setups, but underground. In my main room I want to be able to hear the main piston firing, so I might place it underneath the chamber or something.

Acacia and Wool House

This is my first build of Minecraft 1.7. It uses the new acacia wood blocks. Personally I find the logs to be good, but acacia planks are iffy. I was able to use them in the flooring nonetheless. This house sort of has a "modern architecture" feel, which I'm alright with.

Modular design wasn't explicitly used with it, but you can easily make three modules out of it (entrance, bedroom, and storage). I think I lucked out and put a good amount of detail into it, yet kept a fairly simple design.

1.7.2 Changes

This has been a pretty big change for the game. It's a little head-spinning to figure it all out by experience. Here is a list of some of the bigger changes in the game.

New biomes:

• Mesa, which is made entirely of clay. Also has red sand.
• Mega taiga: 2x2 birch trees with podzol, which acts vaguely like mycelium.
• Ice plains spikes: ice plains with packed ice stalagmites.
• Savannah: flat like plains but also has acacia trees.
• Roofed forest: almost completely topped with leaves, trees and giant mushrooms are up close to each other. Has mostly dark oak wood.
• Birch forest
• Sunflower plains: like plains, but can have sunflowers.
• Forest flower: a forest with the new flower types.
• Deep ocean: really deep ocean.
• Extreme hills+: like extreme hills, with birch trees.
• Snowless taigas.
• M-variants are much more mountainous.
• Hills-variants are hilly.
• Plateau-variants are hilly but with flat tops.

Oceans are smaller (thank God!)

New blocks and items:

• Acacia and dark oak wood added. Slight texture change to all.
• Lots of new flowers! Still got dandelions. Red poppies replace roses. Added blue orchids, allium, azure bluet, tulips which have many colors, oxeye daisy, double-height sunflowers, double-height lilacs, double-height rose bushes, double-height peony. They are mainly used for dyes.
• Stained glass and pane counterparts. This is particularly awesome.
• Packed ice: lacks most features of regular ice, but you can still slide on them.
• Red sand: acts like regular sand, but you can't make sandstone from it.
• Portals can be much bigger.
• In addition to regular fish there is now salmon, which always gives a tuxedo cat, clownfish which always gives a siamese cat and is a poor food source, and pufferfish which is used in a potion of water breathing, gives you a ginger cat, and will make you sick as heck.
• Fishing has been changed a bit so now you get junk and treasure sometimes. 

There are other changes no doubt but I'm not terribly interested in them.

Latest Project

The desire to automate things in Minecraft has never really left me. In the past I tried a project called "The Ultimate City" - twice, but both times I gave up. I also tried doing a sort of ultimate village but that was also too expansive for my liking. So now I'm going for a more simple route. I'm setting everything up bare-boned. It doesn't look pretty this time but I'm not trying to do that this time. Right now I'm doing a proof-of-concept thing. Here are a few pictures of what I've done up to now:

My end goal is to make an interconnected redstone system that has as much automation as I can get in Minecraft. This system is going to contain several different parts:

1. Mob grinder: the one I have already made will do for right now. It provides drops from zombies, skeletons, and creepers.
2. Automatic item sorter: the first and fourth picture show the sorter in its early stages. I forget who I got this design from. It was a bit irritating to get set up but now I have the pattern figured out and it works well. I'm thinking that for objects that I want to put in the same chest, I'll just add hoppers where chest would go that point to the target chest.
3. Automatic smelting system: using coal and charcoal, this will smelt items I put into the system that I want to smelt. Each furnace will be devoted to a specific item, and is controlled by a switch. Right now I'm trying to think of how to implement this. I haven't done much experimentation yet. There are two ways I have in mind. First I could have a horizontal smelting system with furnaces. My current knowledge would require everything to pass through this system, which would slow item sorting down significantly. The other option is to have the furnaces connecting along the vertical hopper-chest tube. The downside to this is how it would be harder to pick what should or should not get smelted, as well as the fact I'll eventually run out of space. I think the furnace setup is where I need to do my most investigation now.
4. Automated farms: for each type of item that can be grown and harvested, I'll try to make a farm that can be automated in some fashion. Most of this will likely be done above ground for now. This is connected to the master clock.
5. Master clock: this is a trio of hopper clocks. MrVleker came up with a clever design that allows for very long hopper clocks. I modified the system slightly for two clocks. One clock pulses at 10 minute intervals, the other at 2 hour intervals. This will be used for activating various farms.
6. Potion factory: this one is going to suck, because I'm not too well acquainted with potion mechanics. I'll probably do a stripped-down version of Etho's potion lab.
7. Iron farm: a basic iron golem farm. This will come in handy as I mostly play using iron tools. My map just doesn't provide enough diamonds for much more complex stuff.
8. Gold farm: I might not do this. Gold isn't that useful for me. I don't want to mine all that obsidian.
9. Hopper transport system: this is what will move objects around from place to place. 

Here's a picture of the hopper clock I think I'll be using:

Modular Design

This is a method for designing buildings that revolves around designing smaller units called modules and them putting them together to form buildings. It is useful for people who aren't good at making large builds but can design small units better.

For example, suppose I wanted to make a couple desert buildings. Here are some modules I might use:

An entrance:

A sort of living room area:

A general purpose module:

And a roof module:

The visual design aspect of the game was handled in these parts. All that is left is to come up with good ways of putting them together. Here are two I've come up with.

And that is the basics of modular design. You can build as big or as small as you feel inclined to.

The advantages of using modular design lie in how it pushes the burden of design on smaller, more manageable sections.

• Buildings can be more quickly made by simply combining the various modules together.
• They give an appearance of physical unity, bringing together multiple builds.
• Minor variations can be added, thereby giving variety without breaking the overall style.
• It can be used to emphasize or accentuate a build that isn't modular, while still looking good.

The primary disadvantage to this method of building is that things will look alike. A lot. This can me minimized by varying the dimensions of modules, blocks used, shapes, and so on.

This is, most likely, the method I will be using from now on for my builds. In tandem with techniques for designing things, hopefully my stuff will become a lot better looking!