How do I top Big Cave? The Colosseum. How do I top the Colosseum? CSA. How do I top CSA?
Ringwall.
Can you guess what it is yet?
The problem
Mobs blow up bits of stuff I like, such as Pete's great Pyramid. I don't want them to do that anymore.
The solution: Ringwall
So I'm going to build a wall in a circle centred on something in the middle (St Spawncras/Arbor/Fortress of Light). Everything within the wall will be lit and safe. Everything outside will be wilderness. A fucking great big circle.
Design thoughts
Very much at the idea stage, the wall will be the Lack-Of great wall of china. I'll draw out a simple cross section that will have a battlements across the top and then a place to walk inside the wall. The wall can either be small and low - quicker to build, functional and less impressive or tall.
Small configuration
If the The upper part of the wall will be about 5 blocks high and 3 blocks deep. You'll be able to walk along the battlements at the top and inside the wall at ground level.
Large configuration
For the large wall, the idea would be to have an 12 block high wall with 5 deep. Passages in the wall would be at two levels - ground and at 4 above ground and would be 2 wide. This would make two 3x2 standard passages on top of each other. Large is probably better if we're going over the tops of hills (inevitable).
Battlements
Although the stair battlements we used on the case were cool for scale, we'll need something more for this. I think a 1 block high parapet and then block-space-block battlements. You can still see out over the parapet but step to one side for protection.
Windows?
Not sure if we should have windows facing out onto the world. Possibly only at the towers.
Over water?
Probably. Would be much better. Swimming underneath is ok.
Dealing with hills
The mantra should be that it must be possible to run without jumping along the passages in the wall. This will mean stairs for steep mountains and the wall being a bit taller than on flat ground. Hopefully we won't have to modify too many of the natural features. The wall would look much cooler with a Hadrian's wall feel to it.
Towers and gates
Towers put in strategic places can be as big or small as you like. They should have gates in them so that people wanting to get through the wall know where the gate is. Perhaps a ha ha gate system like at the Castle might be good. I think the towers should very much be up to the imagination of the builder - the really don't have to match a style. That would almost be too boring.
Secret passages
For those times when you're legging it away from the mobs and need to get away, I think there should be secret passages with mob-proof ladders that lead inside the wall.
How big?
With the centre of the circle somewhere in the middle, I imagine it would encompass Colosseum, Hellgate, North Glass Tower(?), CSA, Pyramid, Gordon's Ship, Village, Evil Mansion, Farm, Big Rob's castle (which might end up built in as part of the wall). However, not Glass Ball, Disco, Tower of Evil, Hamster, Caffeine or Disco. Does that sound ok or should we make it bigger to encompass other things we might want to build?
Collaborative!
CSA started as a collaborative - when it was possible to be collaborative. From now it's in my head mostly so I can only build upon it. Ringwall will be designed as a collaborative.
Next steps
I would like people's thoughts and ideas first. We could try building a few little test wall sections 20 blocks long to see what it's like. Then the surveying will begin. I'm pretty good at mapping out large discs now and the aim would be to dig out a massive stone trench that will become the floor for the lowest level. To get the disk correct, there will be the need to put in a series of lit and marked sandstone marker posts (that will come out after the cicle is joined). I can certainly put up a plan for the circle too, if anyone fancies helping with that.
Feedback and ideas please!
Do you like this project?
Do you think cobble is a good material or should we use the prettier sandstone? (making it a creative rather than craft affair)
Would you like to help?
If so, would you like to craft (dig it out) or create (/giveme)?
Is it big enough?
Any other cool ideas for it?
Been rather lax on the old
Been rather lax on the old crafting of mines of late. I'd be up for doing some of the donkey work to get it started (digging) if someone wants to mark it out.
Ah ha! A
Ah ha! A volunteer!
Excellent. :-)
It seems very much like my
It seems very much like my kind of project :P I'm in.
My preference would be to craft it, even if it is made of sand or obsidian, I would be more than happy to farm the materials.
I'm leaning toward crafting
I'm leaning toward crafting too because I rather like the idea of BC getting BIGGER. Then (in honour of you), we can call it Bigger Cave.
I'll get a circle plan tonight and start putting up markers to work out where the centre should be.
I love the idea of it. Not
I love the idea of it. Not been in MC for a while (mainly as the PC is mid-move).
Suggestions;
1) A circular traintrack should be built in (preferably with a view). Towers then double as stations :-)
2) Spiders can climb walls, so perhaps an overhang at the top to make it truely mob-proof.
crap cross-section, ignore actual scale, just consider the overhang
3) I personally don't like cobblestone, the texture is ugly. Sandstone is not really suitable to cope with Creepers. I would go for Obsidian (it's a real statement, but a bastard to work with if you make mistakes) or plain stone. In all honesty, if I find time to help out, I would /giveme materials.
4) Is it worth waiting until 1.7? Thats going to have stuff like Towns etc, which may change some ideas?
5) Separate to towers, have 4 Gateways (North, East, South, West). These could also act as nodes to the existing infrastructure. You could go crazy, and build a Roman Road between them (or a river).
6) I would build under water (I normally do). it's a pain in the arse, but I think it looks better.
7) I would build Big, and then you have the option of outer-walls (for example, an outer-arc encompassing Hamster/Caffeine etc).
1) Railway! Great idea!
1) Railway! Great idea! Should be bi-directional. But inside the wall perhaps? That would need the wall to be 6 wide.
2) Overhang. Check. I was thinking about that for the parapet.
Do we need the overhang on the inside of the wall? What would be saying by that? ;-)
3) Cobble doesn't look nearly so nasty since 1.7.3 came out. The texture has chilled out I think the general consensus is to craft everything. That doesn't rule out Obsidian (using water/lava mould for the walls) with the caveats you note.
Perhaps we could craft normal stone and make it out of a combination of stone and cobble? I've been planting trees like Greenpeace, so we should have plenty of burn-ability.
4) You mean 1.8 and I take your point but we don't know how long that wait will be. I want to sort of get started soon. While the idea is hot.
5) Live it, like it. Nice big castle jobbies.
6) We'll see about under water.
7) Big inner wall. Gotcha. Nice.
It's just occurred to me
It's just occurred to me that it won't take long to put the blocks down at all, even for the big configuration.
I'm not sure a huge wall
I'm not sure a huge wall will completely stop the creepers they can still pop up in any little cave or dark area inside and chew holes in things. Havign said that I like the idea obsidian would be quite hard going given the scale we would need a lot of it. Perhaps as part of the setup work out the radius and we can roughly caculate how many blocks we need to get an idea of how feasible digging it all out is. Even with farming obsidian takes 15 seconds per block with diamond picks so it's a big investment of time for a significant number of blocks.
If you set out a guidance line for where the wall is to go and mark towers and mock up sections I think people can get on with it like we did with the collesum just copy the exisiting structure all the way round. Although in this case miles instead of a small circle :D
EMW - good point about the
EMW - good point about the creepers.
I have done a preliminary survey. I think the radius is about 370 blocks, which gives a rough circumferance of 2324 blocks.
If a single section of wall is about 20 blocks, that gives us 46480 blocks. Which feels about right. If we can do four obsidian per minute, it would take 8 solid days of digging out obsidian. Even using the cast method, it would take a considerable amount of time!
Let's do it in cobble and stone, eh?
Ringwall - you can help!
Ringwall - you can help! Surveying has begun and you can help with it! There are some things to do.
1. Survey another axis.
We start by putting in the four axis: North/South/East and West. Each axis consists of a series of markers. Every 5 squares is a hole marker (or just at sea level when over water), every 10 is a stack of 2 dirt with a torch on top. Every 50 is a sandstone pillar with lights all over it and a sign that gives its position. The position is the distance North or South and the distance West or East. for example:
100N
0W
is North along the North-South axis 100 away from the spawn centre.
150S
0W
is South along the North-South axis 150 away from the spawn centre.
Only mark the batches of 50.
Try and set the markers so that you can always see the previous and next from your location. This means going over and under structures. The markers will be removed eventually, so don't worry about spoiling stuff.
I've done the North axis (toward the glass tower) and started the South (toward the farm past glass lake). Please feel free to continue the South one or start East/West! You can check my North one for an example.
2. check my working.
Although I've done the north axis, it's easy to lose count, please run along it and count as you go!
3. Please craft materials
Although it's marking out, I think it's best we craft it all in case we want to reuse later.
N,S and W axis complete! I
N,S and W axis complete! I got to about 200 on the East axis (through Colosseum) before it got too late.
I think we might need to go out to 400 because the terrain at 370 to the West (by MrE's ship) is awful. This might me the wall intersects Hamster.
Ringwall survey is complete.
Ringwall survey is complete. I recommend we go for 400 radius. Here are the survey photos.
Rough Plan
Here's a rough plan of where the ring will sit. As you can see, it appear to encompass a lot.
What that doesn't show is where those limits (N,E,S,W) look on the ground, so here you go!
North
The North Edge sits on a hill, just short of MrE's big hole in the ground. The glass tower is well within the boundary.
Looking N toward's MrE's hole/lodge.
Looking SW toward Glass Tower (CSA would be behind it).
East
The East Edge is in the middle of a nice lake. West is the edge of the Colosseum and East (seen below) is the edge of the lightstone railway, which would sit just outside the wall.
South
South is also in water and between the Golden Hamster and the Tower of Evil. A rough guess puts the Tower of Evil just inside the wall and the Golden Hamster intersecting it. Is that ok?
Looking West toward Goldern Hamster.
Looking East toward Tower of evil.
West
Lastly, west is where the problem area was at 370 blocks out because of massive map errors. 400 is now comfortably past the ship.
Looking NE, you can just make out CSA in the distance.
Looking South, you can just see the edge of Disco. It's really difficult to tell but I think the bridge of Disco might be under the wall.
I think the ring might be
I think the ring might be every so slightly larger than I've drawn in the rough sketch above. The giveaway is the southern boundary - the 400 marker is actually in the water.
This is the Ringplan. Only
This is the Ringplan. Only one quarter is shown but this should be repeated. The 400 marker is in the top left. If overlaid onto the normal map, the 400 marker would be East.
To make use of it, download it and then zoom in using your favourite paint program or use the Windows image/fax viewer.
Minecrafts - do you like the
Minecrafts - do you like the 400 radius? Shall I start laying down the circle or is it too big or too small?
Looks good it contains all
Looks good it contains all the basics :D
Just a thouht, but if you
Just a thouht, but if you shifted the centre-point a bit south, could the hamster not be within the wall? There tends to be a higher density of stuff to the south, and there seems to be a bit of leeway to the north before you hit glass tower and the airship.
It's a good thought, Pete!
It's a good thought, Pete! I'll do a dirt based test run and see how much further out we need to go.
OK, if we push another 20
OK, if we push another 20 South then we can have it clear the Golden hamster by a good few blocks.
Actually, will make it 30
Actually, will make it 30 south. Then plenty of room.
Charting out a circle in
Charting out a circle in cobble is hard. I'm just short of the North axis (from East) and I think I am a few out. Counting along to find the error is really difficult! :-(
Looks good. I agree - the
Looks good. I agree - the original placement looked to me (from the map view) like it would go past disco just about where the entry ladder is . With the movement it should be somewhere between command and AE-35, maybe just past. I have a feeling that the wall will pass through the bunker entrance/outskirts of caffeine. Unless its a direct hit shouldn't be a problem...
Byrn - I actually went
Byrn - I actually went through there last night. It was a direct hit. This is fine, though because it can be incorporated nicely into the wall. I think the ground is going to need to be dug away from round there to give caffeine some clearance.
If its the entrance I'm
If its the entrance I'm thinking of (the one with the haha) then a fair amount has been pre-dug out in the form of bunker. Its an outlying branch though, so I don't mind losing it. Will nip in for a bit - need a break from my assignment servitude...
It appears that I'm better
It appears that I'm better at marking out a huge complex disc over rugged terrain than I am at counting to 10 repeatedly. Which is good news, because redoing sections of the circle is time consuming.
We need a 'practise' wall section to play with.
How about we do some tests to the South of the castle (between castle and Goldern Hamster) as it is representative of most of the terrain?
While I'm mapping out the reference circle, would anyone like to have a play with some wall pieces? There's plenty of stone in BC, which is a short stairs-trip away.
Bah. I've completed a single
Bah. I've completed a single quarter of curve and it doesn't match up with the axis.
Fucking cock fuck cunty fuck.
Hmm, tricky. Does the
Hmm, tricky. Does the mapping stuff on the server support a direct overhead view? might be easier than trying to find the problem in game...
No, the server support can't
No, the server support can't help. I might have to start using the position tools in Essentials to tell me co-ordinates to work out where I fucked up. :-( Didn't want to do that but it has to be right.
Hmm :( Might be able to spot
Hmm :( Might be able to spot it from an isometric? bit of a pain though. I know what you mean about co-ordinates... would make a lot of things trivially easy...
Not a bad shout but the
Not a bad shout but the problem is that the terrain makes it difficult as does the weird angle. I did have a look at the ISO map and it's really hard to see where the error might be. Co-ords might be the only way to go.
Found the error by hand and
Found the error by hand and am using /GetPos to make sure I'm right. Grrrr. Most of the way around redoing the first quarter. I'll use GetPos to sense check the manual process in the future, it takes just too long to fix early problems.
I built a small section of
I built a small section of wall out by the hamster to play with designs
Yay! Hurrah for small walls!
Yay! Hurrah for small walls!
Nice. Suspect I might miss
Nice. Suspect I might miss this one - having just finished maths assignment 3 I still need to get 4 out before I go stateside... will try and pop in at some point for a quick go though :)
I'm confident that the
I'm confident that the ground markings are correct by the hamster. I'm about 20 blocks away from the North axis and it looks like I'm going to hit dead on.
I'm away for the weekend on a stag do (Sam "Samwise" Panter, who lived with Kate and used to go clubbing with us) but will defo get on towards the end of it!
Just an NB: the circle is
Just an NB: the circle is now only 15 blocks south. I couldn't count to 10 when was marking out the extension.
I hear the "accumulate to
I hear the "accumulate to 10" is a known bug in LangOS...
Accumulate to 2? Are you
Accumulate to 2? Are you saying I can only count up to 1?
Wall section looks fab! Have
Wall section looks fab! Have been playing with it a touch, added some more normal stone and replaced battlements with one-block battlements instead as they look better from a distance. Let's keep playing with this section and extend when we're happy with the design! :-)
Started the arc from West to North now, CSA is in my sights! The new process of checking with /getpos is slightly more laborious but it means I won't have to go back and redo any sections as every 50 blocks, I check my location against the plan I posted up here.
I was wondering if we should
I was wondering if we should go even higher and make the current top level a walkway around a higher level and add flying buttresses down to it but I might be going too far there :D
I was trying to figure out the door section of it at the weekend was trying various methods for raising and lowering a door with pistons but didn't come up with anything suitable. The limit of two connected pistons is a problem unless you use gravity affected blocks but not sure a sand or gravel door is in keeping
I like the bigger wall idea.
I like the bigger wall idea. I would build it and see!
Two other things spring to mind...
1. The inside wall needs to be filled in. Perhaps with natural stone? I like the arches but it won't be safe on land.
2. Keep the longitudinal complexity low (moving along the circle) because complex things are really difficult if you're fitting a curve. Vertical patterns or very simple decoration (like a chequered floor) are easy and won't look rubbish on the diagonal.
How big should big be? EMW
How big should big be? EMW is creating a giant wall section at the moment and I am a little worried it might be difficult to replicate everywhere.
On the other hand (which is where I'm swaying atm), why the fuck not?! Putting down the circle is massive effort so perhaps the wall should be too! ;-) Also, even if the wall is small(er), it will have to be warped as it goes over some of the hills as the drops are quite nasty. Also, if it is more complex, it will be harder to replicate along the wall but that should be part of the challenge.
The wall section is so big now that it won't go under caffeine and will scrape under disco. For these sections, we might need to swap to a lower wall section.
what ever we do is going to
what ever we do is going to be a massive effort even if we just do a 5 block high wall all the way around so we migth as well go the whole hog :D
We only need a back wall and
We only need a back wall and then I think people can start eeking the wall out along the circle edge. I'm certain it's correct.
I think it would be cool for people to build little medieval workshops every so often so that the creation of materials can be done nearer the build (rather than running). I think it should have a place to dump raw materials, furnaces, beds and work benches. If they are built nicely, they can be left after the wall is finished. If ad-hoc work stations are made in the wall, it would be a fair amount of effort to remove them after, which is a pity because they would be handy for other building projects.
EMW came up with a superb
EMW came up with a superb template for the wall. It needs tidying up (EMW, there is still a practise blank wall on the inner clockwise edge) and describing.
What we need from a description
Pictures of cross sections and block counts. It doesn't have to be a LEGO style build up. Don't forget that the gate house is always going to be a bit different!
Language
When EMW and I were chatting, it came obvious we needed some sort of language to talk about the wall. Here's my proposal:
NESW are the axis, North, East, South, West. Impressive and imaginative gatehouses will be built here.
Clock, Anti Direction around the circle. You can specify a stretch by giving a starting point such as N Clock or N Anti. You can use other recognisable places that sit close to the wall, such as Hamster Clock or Hamster Anti. The current section of wall is between S Clock and Hamster Anti. Avoid using large things that are far from the wall, such as CSA Anti (CSA is quite a long way from the wall).
Inner, outerInside the circle and outside the wall.
I think this will do for a start. What do you think? I think it might help brief conversations about what is being worked on or where a problem lies.
I'm putting together a guide
I'm putting together a guide right now tho while I was doing it a bloody creeper got in the wall 2nd level an blew a massive hole in it so had to fix that first
damnit another two creepers
damnit another two creepers where are they comeing from!
ok did prelimenary plan of
ok did prelimenary plan of the ground floor left out the arches and the back wall as thats really a bit complex and needs it's own plan I thing
let me know if that makes sense.
Mean time I'll work on the plans for the other floors
That is superb! How are you
That is superb! How are you going to include the windows on the inner edge?
I would guess spec inner and
I would guess spec inner and outer walls seperately then show how thye fit together
Sounds good. Progress
Sounds good.
Progress report: I'm at the north axis! Half of the circle is now laid out!
so question are we following
so question are we following the contors of the land all the way across or just at the start
I've done the former on some sections and it gets a bit odd of tje landscape gets very bumpy
level 2
level 2
Nice EMW. The aim is to
Nice EMW.
The aim is to follow the contours so that you can run along the length of the wall without jumping. I think this will mean adding more cobble down to smooth out some very steep bits but the landscape shouldn't really be buggered with.
Lvl 3
Lvl 3
EMW has gone mad! If you
EMW has gone mad! If you want any part of this wall building, you have better get onto the server sharpish!
and Level 4 heres a shot of
and Level 4
heres a shot of the wall so far
a plan of how it all fits
a plan of how it all fits together in cross section and details of the back wall
Wonderful, EMW! And more
Wonderful, EMW! And more news - this lunchtime, I am now at the East axis! Only 1/4 of the markings to go. Thanks to the admin commands, it looks like I will be hitting the target right on.
The last part of the circle sees me going through more wilderness and past Big Rob's castle to the tower of evil.
NBEMW and I have decided that too much material is required to craft it all, so we will be using the admin command /giveme to get hold of stuff. If you need admin, please let me know.
Completely unrealted to the
Completely unrealted to the wall, but I can't manage to get Minecraft working for any length of time on the new PC...it's literally the only thing that is having an issue. I get this error every 3-4 minutes
i've re-installed Java, and checked that it is fully upto date. No idea at all...
this seems to be a fix for
this seems to be a fix for that error
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW346vVLzuk&feature=related
I've aslos seen talk about java versions 32 bit or 64 bit might want to look at that
I have precisely no idea
I have precisely no idea what went on in that video...
I think he got the java
I think he got the java version of minecraft and then created a bat file to run it but passing it options to increase the memory it used ... possibly
I'll have a look tonight. I
I'll have a look tonight. I don't think it's Minecraft, I think it might be the way the Java VM has installed. I'll watch the video and if you can make yourself available at ten ish then we can do some shared desktop malarky.
I believe the problem is
I believe the problem is caused by Java putting Minecraft into a small sandbox. We need to tell java to beef up the memory. Here's how.
1. Open notepad.
2. Copy this single line into notepad:
javaw -Xmx4096m -Xms2048m -jar "C:\Users\Rob\Desktop\Minecraft.exe"3. In that single line, you can see I'm keeping the Minecraft.exe on my desktop - change this to point at wherever you saved the .exe.
4. Save the file as "Run Minecraft.bat". Make sure the 'Save as type' dropdown is set to 'All files' else stupid fucking notepad appends a .txt on the end. Save the file to the desktop.
5. Double click the bat to run Minecraft.
You should now be running with at least 2GB (Xms2048), maximum of 4GB (Xmx4096) of memory. You can check out the memory requirements in Minecraft by pressing F3.
Lemme know if that doesn't fix it.
For those following along,
For those following along, the problem (I think) was that Pete was running the x86 (32bit) Java Runtime rather than the x64 (64bit) one. You can tell which one you have installed as to where it is in the folder structure. If Java installed in "Program Files (x86)", then you installed the 32bit version. If Java installed in the "Program Files" directory, then you installed the 64bit.
Simples!
Guess what this means:
Guess what this means:
you got back where you
you got back where you started :D
Also there's a really steep bit :(
I had a thought about the
I had a thought about the steep bits: towers! If we build nice fat towers around the steep bits, the wall doesn't need to climb over, it only needs to meet the base of the tower.
Oh and, you're right! The
Oh and, you're right! The Ring is complete!
Maybe towers with beacons
Maybe towers with beacons flaming on their tops to aid navigation/ look cool
I think that with the
I think that with the towers, we should leave it up to the builder - so anything goes!
Hellloooo giant penis
Hellloooo giant penis towers.
Flattery will get you
Flattery will get you everywhere.
It's odd that we don't have a giant penis on the server yet.
Other than Pete of course
Other than Pete of course
Have made somemore progress
Have made somemore progress on the wall. Have been laying down foundations to make it easier for others to plant on top. Have also been glazing the existing wall.
Just discovered a build
Just discovered a build error! Ooops! The 2nd level is actually 8 deep rather than 7. This pushes the wall too close to the inner wall and as such the inner wall does not match up with Lvl 4. I've left it for the moment for EMW to check and will continue laying down the ground floor section.
I think that's down to the
I think that's down to the curve as I noticed it after the build of the base which is still the same number
Yeah, I agree. Perhaps put
Yeah, I agree. Perhaps put the back wall up first and then when building the middle bit, it's a case of making it fit. I don't propose removing what's been built (unless you fancy it) but instead just 'resetting' correctly on the next few lines of build - they are only one block out.
Caffeine The foundations of
Caffeine
The foundations of Ringwall are now past caffeine. As it goes under caffeine, we will have to stay at level 1 because even after some landscaping, we're rather close to the lower reaches of caffeine. I want to steer clear of caffeine so you get a nice view of it still.
Warping and simplification
Something that's worth noting is that the inside circle isn't a perfect circle. To make things simpler, the inner circle is 10 deep on whatever the axis of least change is. What this means is that when you're going from South to West, the inner side is 10 blocks north as South is the axis that changes least. It's 10 blocks north all the way around to the South-West (SW) point (midway between South and West). Then, at the SW point, it switches to being 10 blocks East. This is because the West axis changes least from this point on.
At ground level, this looks ok but might make the upper pieces look a little odd. The best thing is that the buttresses are suddenly really easy because they do not have to be perfectly radial any more - which would have been a right bastard to do. The buttressing (level 3) can run along the axis of least change. I did a quick test piece and found that looked less weird than trying to follow perfectly radial lines (which is really hard, time consuming and prone to error).
Ringwall is up to
Ringwall is up to caffeine!
I have come up with a bit of a process that allows me to enter a zen-like state and build each level really quickly. Rather than build up a section to the top and then move along the wall, I move along the wall, doing massive sections in one go. Think of it as Minecraft printing.
The reason this is good is that it's like knitting. I can move along the wall counting in a pattern such as "2 stone, 3 glass, 2 stone, 3 glass". When I get to the end of a section, I work out what the next pattern will be and do the same. "3 stone, 1 glass" etc. The number of errors has plummeted as has the number of times I've died falling off the wall! Unfortunately, you do get semi-complete pieces of wall like my first image below.
Showing the floor of level 3, running West to North (from Hamster to Caffeine). I'm standing on top of the last section EMW did before he went away.
The state of the wall as I left it last night. All that is needed are the buttresses (which is a handy marker of how far EMW got before his Canada hols.
Windows do look a little odd when going up hill but we can always fix those later. It's a lot easier to modify and tweak what is there.
This is where the wall stops before caffeine. What do you think we should do with the wall? It needs covering (glass? wood? both? perhaps as a checkerboard pattern?) as it runs under caffeine because of spider bastards.
Byrn, do you have any idea what you might like the wall to do under Caffeine?
I'm leaving the section
I'm leaving the section under caffeine to be quite low until I get some feedback!
Extended the wall under Discovery. These windows are up only as high as level 2, so I doubt we'll get a full height of wall here. I recommend we stop at level 2 under Disco.
It's worth noting at this
It's worth noting at this point that Disco and Caffeine are the only places where Ringwall comes even close to our structures. The rest of the build should be relatively simple.
The other thing I am considering is allowing the inner and outer sections of wall to be at the same height. We haven't done this so far and it looks really odd. What this will mean is flattening a 12 wide section over hills. The wall will go up and down as it travels around the circle, tho, which will look pretty cool.
What do you think?
Hello there. Looks good
Hello there.
Looks good mate, a lot of progress while I wasn't looking :D
Level 2 looks good under Disco. I don't really want the wall to get too close, and if 2 is spider/mob proof then it looks good to me :)
As for caffeine, I'd like to head in and have a look. I've got a little bit of finishing off to do on an assignment, but I should probably be in later on this week if it can wait till then?
Welcome back! It can
Welcome back! It can certainly wait, old bean. There is loads more foundation to put in, I'll keep running along.
When you do get in, please have a look at the existing wall and see if you think having inside and outside edge at the same height is a good idea.
EMW - nice work on the
EMW - nice work on the Ringwall! Where the foundations stop is where the West axis is, so we'll need some sort of gate there. The hill we're climbing is going to make things tricky when we go off the other side, so some more castle/tower structures will be needed. Then as we pass CSA, it's over water so plain sailing.
There is a problem with the
There is a problem with the edited map. It doesn't seem to generate new map chunks properly.
I've done some researching
I've done some researching and it might be because the biome that runs from W-N (Disco to MrE's house) is an ocean. The water level is 1 block different though.
It might be a known bug and
It might be a known bug and as they are not supporting older maps anymore, we need to think about what we're going to do.
What do you think?
Chests are doing interesting
Chests are doing interesting things, like being half stuck in a wall ... but still opening with their new animation :)
Unfortunately this path has not fixed my problems ... I would love to know what on earth is going on. I now know it is not something on my machine; as I had a drive crash a week ago and only got the machine running again at the week end :(
I had a wonder around away
I had a wonder around away from Snow City.
Biomes are _much_ larger. Went through a large forest biome, swam an ocean one, and eventually found a small town in what I think was a swamp. Saw a couple of weird spawn chunks (a large land mass with a vertical drop into ocean etc).
How feasible is it to take existing structures into a new map entirely?
Argggg!!! I just entered the
Argggg!!! I just entered the nether ... after about 10 secs I got kicked out the game with a "software caused connection abort" and now everytime I log in, I see the nether for a few secs, then get the same error again.
The server has finally decided to reject me :P
Well, long story short,
Well, long story short, after lots of trying to move, I eventually managed to get away from whatever was causing me to get kicked out ... phew.
Upon exiting the nther I got to enjoy a rain in big cave ... and some odd lighting effects which make just about everything go dark; it makes navigating in big cave ... interesting ... at best.
Oh yeah...I had some
Oh yeah...I had some underground raining as well...in the tunnel lobby leading to Snow City. The glass dome, however, did stop the rain...
Pete, we can move things
Pete, we can move things from one map to another. It is not difficult. If we did that, I would recommend taking everythig inside the Ringwall and dumping it in the middle of an ocean on a new map. Other structures (Black Castle, nice and easy; Snow City, not hard; Theme park, possibly hard) could then be moved too.
If you managed to find new biomes (other than ocean) then there might not be a problem. I was worried that there was a lot of water because of an error - it might just be a MASSIVE ocean on the edge of the Ringwall. As you point out, the new biomes are massive.
Big R, the Nether problems sound nasty. We might have to delete the nether to let it rebuild with 1.8. I don't want to do that, though as a fair amount of work went into the Nether structures. If that's the only thing we lose, then I would not be upset.
What do you think? Move stuff to a new map or keep going as we are?
Sounds like there are a fair
Sounds like there are a fair few issues with using our carried forward map. I'd be happy with shifting stuff to a new map if it works out easier that way. In a way, ocean is likely to give us the least problems with scenery being in the middle of structures...
I'm happy with the new map
I'm happy with the new map solution...I appreciate we may lose some of the infrastructure (long distance railways, nether portal links etc), however they are relatively easy to replace (or actually probably improve upon...many of the original lines were built with old-style boosters in mind).
I don't think the Theme Park would be too bad...potentially just drop the chunks into an ocean, and we can manually smooth the edges (and probably install a ferry ride).
I would humbly request that Black Castle and Snow City are far enough away the the main hub to be considered annoying to get to :-)
It does sound like using the
It does sound like using the old map on the new stuff is going to cause us no end of pain so perhaps starting again and copying across the good stuff is the way to go.
Damn notch and his lack of backwards compatibility :D
We need a castle at the
We need a castle at the Western extremity of Ringwall! Anyone fancy building it? I might stick something.
I'm going to lay down a load more foundation stones so that it's easy to build the upper layers. There is some ground levelling needed to do that too. We're heading for a sodding great cliff, that will need some towers/non-standard wallness. After that, it's plain sailing to North across water.
After finishing the CSA
After finishing the CSA Governance, I got my Ringwall on. The stumbling block was that we needed a castle on South edge (was North edge before Notch moved the NESW to match the map), which is the one near Discovery/MrE's ship.
(Discovery is directly over the hill in this photo)
I started by throwing up somewhere to sleep - a classic little house. Then I built a big ring (which intersected the house - happy accident). The top of the cylinder is just short of the sky ceiling (clouds are now just above ceiling height, which is kind of handy).
(Looking East as the Sun comes up. If draw distance was a little further, you'd see Disco in the background).
The ceiling was finished in sandstone at first and then I've started adding dirt to turn it into a wheat farm with trees and another little house. Having a food source at the southern edge will be handy.
Access to the 'outside ringwall' will be via a bridge to the nearby hill and perhaps a tower, a bit like the central castle. I am not sure what to do with the inside of the castle just yet. Perhaps something with water or another house. All ideas welcome - or if you fancy filling it in, be my guest! I've also left big gaps where Ringwall meets the castle. That can be filled in when Ringwall is complete on that section.
I have started extending the wall foundations past the South Castle to the West (toward CSA) but not far. I've also put up some more glass on the wall that is East of South Castle and lit the Sandstone level because mobs were spawning. I've also cut back the hill on that side because mobs could jump the glass. It needs a bit more smoothing/love.
Ringwall is now complete up
Ringwall is now complete up to Discovery (except buttressing). Am now doing the section between Disco and South Castle. It's a bit hilly so the inside wall windows are tricky.
Ringwall needs some attention on the East side of Caffeine where it suddently comes to a halt. Where it starts again, I've put in a couple of arches. Needs some more work there.
I was playing with a gate +
I was playing with a gate + portcullis piston system which someone posted on youtube
I thought about installing it at hamster but it was too large so I put it at the oposite side just to see what it looked like. The opening and closing works really well but position may need tweaking
Position looks good. Nice
Position looks good. Nice work, EMW!
had an idea for the final
had an idea for the final compass point given it's positioning I was thinking of building a dam there.
Would need to drain the valley bellow a bit for the water level disparity
Whereabouts would that be?
Whereabouts would that be? Which compass point?
North behind the colloseum
North behind the colloseum then there is a big lake beyond the great wall ring
that'd have to go ... or be lowered
EMW is pulling a blinder on
EMW is pulling a blinder on Ringwall! At this rate, it'll be finished pretty quickly!
The loon also put on a suspension bridge!
Ringwall foundations now run
Ringwall foundations now run 180 degrees!
P.S. - EMW, part of the ringwall foundations are 11 wide when they should be 10.
ONE QUARTER OF THE RINGWALL
ONE QUARTER OF THE RINGWALL IS COMPLETE!
YAY!
Now turning the roof of south castle into a farm.
EMW - have fixed the part of
EMW - have fixed the part of the Ringwall where the foundations were 11 deep.
I pop on at the end of an
I pop on at the end of an evening and wall up a bit more. It's relaxing. Mostly working on the inner glass wall at the moment. I'd like to get the half done before we start the foundations of the other side.
I balanced last weekend
I balanced last weekend between Felix (taking the lion share, natch), Minecraft and Icar. I got a chunk of work done on Icar (huzzah) and also ploughed round Ringwall's second layer. I've discovered that the best way for me to do it is to put down a load of floor blocks before building the walls. It's a pain to jump/run along the top of a narrow wall without falling off and it's easier to place blocks if you're less worried about where you feet are.
It doesn't look like a great deal on the 3D map because of the angle of projection!
I'm now experimenting with building the inner wall (one with all the glass) at the same time as the rest of it. This is because it is easier to see where you've made a cock-up. This means I'm building the wall printing-in-cross-section rather than running along the length of it. I think there's a better feeling of achievement this way too, because you end up with completed sections of wall.
Going up and down
You get much better wallage if you only go up in a 1-in-2 incline. 1-in-1 makes the wall a bit messy - not so it looks bad but just not better. When laying the foundations for the other half, we'll bear this in mind. There are a few steep bits (NW) that might need a bit of creative smoothing to get over.
Fucking animal escape
Animals can jump fences and have had a massive breakout on top of the South castle. I'm going to have to cull and out glass walls in instead of fences, which is a bit annoying. I liked the fences.
Mobs still off
Keep forgetting to put them on. I'm going to have to light the pyramid and its surroundings because fecking Endermen keep making off with the blocks. This gives it a weathered look but it's annoying. By lighting the nearby surrounding area, you can stop them from destroying your stuff because they tend to stay in an area where they spawn. My idea to light everything inside the wall is actually looking feasible!