NO MORE BALLOONS!

CSA leapt forward over the Spooncon weekend. Since my last update, the chimneys are finished, as is one of the boilers and two water reservoirs. The reservoirs were a challenge because I made them striped, which isn't easy on a sphere.

Next to do is another furnace (I think I have enough cooked stone now) and two more reservoirs. After that, the scoop conveyor things, not sure what that will be like. I'm going to have little lava pipes leading to the boilers too. Not sure how many - one or two per boiler. The final underside bits will be the quarters for the humbles and maybe a little trainline that runs around the main bits of the underside.

Above the bow line isn't going to change until I've completed below. I am still scribbling town maps and working out how it might look. The very last thing to do will be the train station tower. Architecture is important so I am working on the 'look'.

The obvious problem with deciding to craft everything is that you have to craft everything.

I'm currently working on water reservoir #3 and #4 and I need a shed load of sand for sandstone. The 4:1 ratio is a killer. On the flip side, it is quite nice to get out in the MC fresh air and dig some sand. I'm using iron as stone is too slow and I have a LOT of iron. Iron is about as fast as diamond, too. The sand is being taken from the bit of island NW of CSA.

If anyone has a load of sand that needs clearing, let me know and I'll come over and dig it out for you.

What is fun about this is that I'm sort-of playing this is as a straight survival mode by not using admin commands. After a bit of random spelunking, I'd taken a lot of damage. After running, heart in mouth, back to bed, I realised I had no spare food. Balls!

The next morning, after watching groaning zombies burn to death, I had to head out to find pig - which was difficult. I found two piggies but only got one sodding bit of bacon. A sprint back home, use the furnace as a cooker and that got me up to half health - enough to cover me for falling off things damage. I checked the wiki briefly but didn't want to start a farm, had no string for a fishing rod (although fancied doing it), no sugar/wheat for cake (loads under glasslake!) so it was piggies all the way.

To maximise my digging time, I elected to dig for sand at night too. Dangerous indeed, it led to frantic running back and forth away from zombies. When I logged out to do some blogging, I had made it back to my ramshackle hut with a lone single heart and no food. That's how I start when I log back in.

I might just have to invest in a farm and some cake. I intend to make a farm up on CSA, so will prolly make a temp one, as well as a temp sugar farm.

Having these decisions and thoughts take a lot of the grind out of MC and although it will mean that CSA is finished a lot later, the journey is much more varied. It is easy in mega projects to get locked into the process of building and forgetting the fun bits too.

The problem with CSA below deck work is that you can do a lot and no-one will see! :) I've been a busy bee, throwing about an hour each night at it and it's WAY more fun than endless sodding balloons.

The coal scoop is done but I'm not keen on it. Mostly because of the resolution of MC. You get the feel for it but you wouldn't know what it was if it wasn't labelled. I've finished the dining hall and accomodation. It's pretty basic - but then it should be. I've also made the structure for the workshop but will not complete it. I think it is a good idea to leave some space under CSA for expansion as MC gets updated. The only thing that's left is a store room, which I want to be a vertical affair with lots of ladders. And boxes, loads of boxes.

After that, I'll be working on the surface, which I am really looking forward to. I will need a shed load of sand for glass and sandstone. I will not be using cobble above the deck, so all stone will need to be smelted. I'll do the big buildings first and then fill in the gaps. I have something of a map but I intend to use that as a guide only. Before I get too stuck in with buildings there, I am going to experiment over at the village - probably extending it north past the stairs of the Mansion. I also have to update the roofs of the village because they are all lighning-suceptible at the moment.

Thank you! The underside is 'complete' now. There is some more space and some more detail needed but I will wait to see what future updates bring - I can always come back to improve it!

I am now working back at the village, am going to change the roofs for lightning safe ones (sandstone is suitable pretty) and experiment with some building making. I'll also posh-up the base of the stairs to the mansion of DOOM.

I am still punching sheep for you, Byrn, but I've left the wool all over the shop! There is only about 20 at your box in CSA, so I'll collate the other caches I have littered about and move them to St Spawncras, which will be my nearest working point.

It can but rain should put it out. It's a bit annoying, tbh as most of the CSA balloons poke out from under the base.

http://www.minecraftwiki.net/wiki/Thunderstorm

I don't think Lightning Fire spreads.

I vote to keep Lightning Fire...consider it monsters for buildings. The roof of the Obsidian Fort is wood, and it seems OK at the mo.

with wood roofs you can make fireproof wood just stack two half blocks looks like normal wood but won't burn

The great hall is complete. The only change I might make is to replace some of the box-glass with panes. I am holding off on that because I may well run out of glass.

I did a small materials gathering escapade, mostly to get stone, iron ore and coal. Turning cobble into stone to then get stone bricks is a necessary evil.

The bridge
The current project is the bridge. It's going to be an oddly shaped multi-tier affair with an enclosed glass bit as well as a walk-about deck bit. I want the bridge to stand tall (but not taller than the chimney) and to curve over the front of the deck. I will be removing the staircase to the glass walkway as it's not really needed anymore.

Building the bride is a matter of build-and-look-and-build until it looks right.

Were you planning on running the arboretum on natural or artifical light? I would have thought multi-tiered would be tricky to run on natural light...

The Arboretum in progress. I used a dirt bridge over from the mainland to get grass in there. Note in the background I have started to improve the cliff face by rendering it a bit. I needed the stone for stone bricks (which take ages to make).

I don't think I've posted an image of the bridge. Here it is with the WIP arboretum.

Completed Arboretum. I went for a multiple level in the end. There is some work to do inside but the majority of it is there. Huzzah! It's a little taller than I expected but that's OK because it is one of the few really important buildings.

With sand/gravel, you can set up a sort of auto-destruct. At the bottom of the stack, have a torch, then a solid block, then on top of that a stack of sand. Remove the solid block and the sand will destroy itself.

I've started building up the obsidian blocks on CSA. No room for errors here! Another good tip I found is that if you're building like this, lay down a ring leaving a 1 block gap so that there is somewhere for the water to run. You can then place torches on that wall and keep it lit without them being washed away.