The idea I got was to regulate the water led in from the river to the cistern/tank underneath the building by building a form of sluice.
It is perhaps one of the simplest Minecraft red-stone builds possible, a lever leading to a sticky piston pushing and pulling a block in and out of the water channel from underneath.
If you are completely new to redstone and want to see the details of how to connect the lever and the piston, watch the video included in the spoiler below. I try to make things entertaining by sharing some of my life story and I also show more details of the Acacian Ascendancy, Flower Valley and surrounding area. Feel free to leave any questions here or on the video, especially if you are completely new to Minecraft, there might be things you are not familiar with which I take for granted.
Here are screenshots of the water channel outside the Ascendancy with the sluice open and closed:
As I mention in the video I thought about moving the circuitry indoors to the cavern. Since there is no filling water mechanics in vanilla Minecraft (yet), there is no automated sensor, but it would make sense to have the lever there for anyone spotting the tank being overfilled.
For the next update, I plan a tutorial for how to build a small overgrown jungle-home!
Then I will likely do some more on Acacian Ascendancy, unless anyone would like to throw me some other cool ideas! Even if it might not suit the style of this world and the somewhat tough constraints of a peaceful vegan Minecraft survival, I might be able to adapt it in some creative way!
Phew. I've done a lot of rewriting and reorganization of the OP. Hopefully all these improvements will make this build journal and world more appealing. Here's a summary of what's been done in the various sections, of which a few are new, along with my comments/motivations:
Introduction
Moved the original Flower Valley poem here and instead added a proper header image on top of the post
Rewrote background and purpose
Much shorter. I like it this way
Locations and Lore
Gives a short introduction of each location with some highlights, followed with the lore within spoilers as a story-mode walkthrough of (most of) the builds, introducing the current 25-26 characters of the world
Flower Valley
Desert Village
Acacian Ascendancy
This was the largest part of the work. And the most fun! I feel like there is a good sense of direction now.
Downloads
Download link followed by info about how to find the main area.
Also moved info about where to find the best equipment and tools along with the details on those
Added a link to the first world-specific player skin.
I think this looks pretty neat.
Journal entries
Clarified the link-list description and put all the post links in a spoiler. Added the latest entries.
I don't think it merits being outside spoilers, especially since many posts are so short. And the lists is growing very large.
Journal screenshot FAQ
Added to give links to resources used for the thread outside of vanilla Minecraft.
Short enough i think
b³O as a peaceful and vegan Minecraft world
Clarifies which and when special rules have been introduced into the world.
This was kind of written in the introduction, mingled with purpose etc. I think it is better close to the end. Also needed to clarify the rules for the world for myself.
Past, present, future
Kept at the bottom I think this makes sense and will help me stay more organized
Alright, creating player over 20 player skins should be a lot of fun! I love pixel art so much =D Now, which one to start with?
Hope you enjoy the addition of the lore and look forward to future updates!
I went back and read through the lore. I am always a huge proponent of having a lot of background to a build. Even it isn't obvious in the build itself, having the lore there guides what you build later and makes it all feel connected.
The depth you went into in this backstory is very nice! I enjoyed it and all the additions you have made to it! I am sorry that you've been uninspired recently, hopefully things will get better!!
I went back and read through the lore. I am always a huge proponent of having a lot of background to a build. Even it isn't obvious in the build itself, having the lore there guides what you build later and makes it all feel connected.
The depth you went into in this backstory is very nice! I enjoyed it and all the additions you have made to it! I am sorry that you've been uninspired recently, hopefully things will get better!!
Thanks a lot Crossfirekira for your kind supporting words, and for reading the lore. Great to see you are still around!
I agree that the background is really helpful!
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
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Overgrown jungle home
This is an idea I built first in creative after being inspired by TheWesson mentioning the brilliant use cocoa beans decoratively as lanterns.
I had to try it, started experimenting in a creative world and had soon built a house aroun it.
To fit it the house into Flower Valley I decided that the character Azu (featured in the short story 'Remedy Rush' I recently added to the opening post in this thread) will be changed a bit.
She has until recently resided in the western wing of the hobbit inspired home together with Vin, but will now live in this jungle home.
She will no longer have the role of a herbalist and 'just' be a cartographer and explorer.
Instead a new character, yet to be named will be both a herbalist and an interior decorator. I think there is definitely room for such a person, and the two trades fit nicely together.
To begin I selected the most suitable site, which was where the custom jungle trees are north of the forester's cabin, southeast of the wizard's hous and west of the animalist's hut (the zebra and lion have moved north to the savanna).
Then I assembled the materials into the orange backpack and a chest.
Proceeded to dig out the site. Submerging the build makes it easier to cover over.
When building in Flower Valley, I wanted to try my hands at recording a tutorial video at the same time. Hence the hole I dug above was actually the wrong size, the correct was 7x7 followed by 5x5 in the middle and I had to fill it and re-record my video clip at this point.
And then I was so distracted by talking, starting and stopping the recording that completely forgot about taking screenshots during the process.
Thus, we'll have to do with a tour the final build pointing out more of the little details (that's where the love is!). And eventually a somewhat messy tutorial video will posted after I have edited and rendered it.
So to start with, here is Flower Valley's latest little home. We are standing on the path towards the east looking north.
We walk to the entrance and take a look inside.
Already we see the cocoa beans as lanterns around the center pillar. The lighting inside comes from glow stone hidden above the trapdoors making out the ceiling. Here is a closer look at this core feature
I varied the height of the trap doors and open a few intentionally to add a more airy atmosphere and interest.
Inside I'd say it's pretty cosy. There is a seating area to the left, a kitchen to the right and a sleeping area in the back.
Shifting our attention to the left, we see the only windows, covered with single fence posts, and have a glimpse of an opening underneath the table, which is for extra ventilation.
From outside the vent looks like this. There is probably an even better terminology for this. I have included it since I think submerged builds are extra likely to suffer from dampness and humidity. Writing this I realize, I completely forgot about what will happen when it rains. What kind of irresponsible builder am I? Though Azu would probably enjoy the house as a swimming pool, the house will rot pretty fast without some proper type of drain.
To the right, the kitchen has iron blocks as a cupboards and benches, with a wooden pressure plate as a cutting board, a birch trap door as a food tray and a detector rail as the stove.
I used the best 1x1 painting I could find to symbolize a bowl perhaps prepped fruits and veggies like the melon and pumpkin stored next to it.
The kitchen oven leads to a chimney, looking like this from the outside:
Next we walk around the central pillar inside to the back, or northen wall. I really like this area. There is a cauldron as a wash basin with the green banner as a towel next to it. Some pots on the shelves and a painting, maybe of the desert village to the east
There is also another ground ventilation vent below ground level.
Let's finish with some more views outside
From standing north of the wizard's house, looking southeast, with the forester's cabin and animalist's hut in the background.
The house as it lies with the Life Tree in the background
And finally from up in the tree, looking down at the house while standing on the diamond/obsidian branch.
I browsed around my screenshot folders a bit and found these two I took while building the first version of the house in a temporary creative world.
The first one is nice to see what a contrast there is between single material floors and walls and the style I enjoy:
The second one showing the completed interior still have differences from the survival build:
I spot at least four:
I used a trip wire hook as some sort of kitchen utensil, perhaps a knife or a pan hanging on the wall.
The table has a table cloth
There is a cake on the shelf
The melon is on the floor instead of the pumpkin
Can you see anything else?
Hope you enjoyed this update, the first in this style from me for a long time. I feel like I'm at home again.
Still, I don't want to move in with Azu, Vin has told me she snores. And I would eat the cocoa lanterns.
Hey buddy, Rakkinishu here (I know right, my account got deleted and so did my posts, feelsbad). Took a long hiatus off Minecraft, about a year in fact, and was surprised to stumble upon your thread again. Just snooping the survival forums as you do haha. Glad to see you're still at it though!
Hey buddy, Rakkinishu here (I know right, my account got deleted and so did my posts, feelsbad). Took a long hiatus off Minecraft, about a year in fact, and was surprised to stumble upon your thread again. Just snooping the survival forums as you do haha. Glad to see you're still at it though!
Hey Rakkinishu, good to see you again and thanks for livening up this thread with a comment! With Batman as your avatar instead of Confucius it seems you've taken a more direct approach to teaching philosophy! Reality check with a slap in the face is like being poked with a stick by a Zen master. I got that slap at the end of last summer... Still, today I was just thinking about how to be more of a mystic again, not just in Minecraft but for life in general, without losing grip on 'normal' things. I want the best of both worlds... How to make something positive out of everything one does, to really have an impact?
The Meaning of Life, the Universe, and Everything.
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Replacing oak logs with oak wood have made the Life Tree look a bit too plain for my taste. As an experiment, I introduced spruce wood, what do you think? Any other ideas for how to make the tree more realistic and life-like?
I tend to like stripped dark oak for this sort of thing. It has very slight green undertones that give it a mossy look. Since the tree is very old and probably has been struck by lightning, dark patches would make sense.
I tend to like stripped dark oak for this sort of thing. It has very slight green undertones that give it a mossy look. Since the tree is very old and probably has been struck by lightning, dark patches would make sense.
Hm..that gives me an idea, I think I want the whole tree a bit more mossy... I'm quite depressed lately, feeling like I want to become a little rock myself overgrown by lush greenery... not sure how to do it yet though (the mossier tree, not become a rock ^^ )...
We have 1.14, so I'll be trying some new things related to it. Here I'm made the roof of the animalist's hut a bit smoother by replacing full blocks with stairs:
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1.14 Updates - Functional blocks: Barrel, composter, loom, lectern and various tables
I snuck in a little bit in the previous update, but this will be the first official post where I add things I try related to new additions in the last Minecraft update. Naturally due to the pacific nature of this world and my play-style, they will mostly be decorative, despite the title.
To start off, I craft the various tables and put them in the places I find most proper. Now if only I had a turn-table for the disco, that would be flipping!
The balcony where the larger world map is seems like a natural place for the cartographer's table.
The smithing table is also a no-brainer. I also put a grindstone here, you can see it on the wood pillar above the iron block in the back. It can serve some nice purposes, for example to get books back from enchanted books for which I have no use.
The dyer is where banners are made, so the loom finds a room here. Or actually not, because I want to place it outside and since it is raining I realize it needs a little roof to protect it a bit, which I add with acacia half slabs.
In the rain I also add a composter in the back of the farmland and a barrel to the roof on the general store, where the crafting workshop is.
Going down and indoors, the furnace in the store's kitchen gets replaced by a smoker, specialized for cooking food as it is. Of course, only veggies are allowed to enter the oven, we don't kill and eat our fluffy friends.
The final addition is my favorite, the lectern. It is now holding the Flower Valley poem, in what might be my favorite place in Flower Valley and b³O at the moment, the Poet's Corner. What's yours?
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An Unexpected Visitor, Minecraft Botany continued and something Red (but not dead)
I was having problems with lighting issues in Minecraft version 1.14, but now after almost a month without playing, I updated to 1.14.1. Would it work?
As the game loads I am really happy to see it performs much better! During the time since the last update I have played around a bit with the Tree Spirit Challenge by Lilariel in version 1.6 and got inspired to take this approach to improving the Life Tree. Since it is night time when the game loads I go to sleep in the Forester's cabin
When I step back outside in the sunshine I am surprised by a voice nearby...
I turn around and suddenly ...
there is THIS BLUE GUY standing there with a llama! What?!? I didn't build a village... or wait... I kind of did... but I thought it was only populated by me and fictional characters!
After closer inspection, its two llamas.
So I decide to talk with him. Turns out he is a wandering trader! And he got pretty things for sale!
I sprint into the Life Tree and up the stairs to the emerald branch. Corn flowers and fire coral blocks are the rarest things and the priority! Packed ice is pretty cool (no pun intended), but very expensive... for that price I'd almost expect blue ice!
Back again, Mr. Blue is still there and I buy four corn flowers. If you have read this world journal from the beginning you know that all the flowers in the valley got rearranged to a more realistic placement in the post Trees, lights, a lion and Minecraft botany.
So naturally the corn flower deserves the same treatment!
I look it up on Wikipedia (mm, those photos!). It turns out it is not the corn plant flowering, which I initially thought, but rather a flower or weed common in fields of corn in the broader sense, as grain! I think the genus part centaurea in the latin name, centaureacyanus is curious. Is there a connection with centaurs? The genus (family) consist of basket-shaped flowers. Either way the corn flowers are very beautiful and I place them around the wheat plantations in the valley.
Four flowers don't really fit the description of a weed, so I decide to go back to the trader who is still around and buy another eight. I want to buy eleven to have fifteen in total, but the trader seems to be out of flowers, so I buy another fire coral for the remaining three emeralds. I go back and plant the lovely little 'bachelor's buttons' (another name they have). As I am about to take a second screenshot, the sun sets, so I sleep in the Wizard's Hut. Maybe I should consider getting a bed of my own?
Anyhow, here is the valley with eleven corn flowers added. Not all are visible, since at least one is down by the river inlet in front of the hobbit-styled home, but I think they definitely add some life and interest to the wheat fields, which I felt were a bit too 'mono-croppy' :farming247::farming247: for the theme of the valley and world. What do you think?
A closer look down the valley
Speaking of the hobbit-styled home, that's close to where I put coral blocks, in the water around the mangrove tree. Let's just imagine the lakes and rivers around are closely connected to the sea and the water is salty enough!
Here's a view from the shore:
And a closer look:
Finally, I trot back north past the stone mason, the shop and around the forester's cabin, east uphill, then south through the pine forest and up the cobbly path to the highest hill where the trampoline is to get an overview of how Flower Valley looks at the moment.
Here is the view towards the north. Oh, and I am dressed like a carpenter. I should draw some more fitting skin!
As I look at it, I notice I forgot about the wheat fields around the Animalist's hut, they are visible in the top right of the screenshot, behind the pines and dark oak trees. Hm... I think I'll just remove them, and I will find something else more interesting to put there! (feel free to leave me any suggestion, I'd love to oblige, as long as it fits the natural/peaceful/organic/mystical mishmash!!)
Finally northwest. In these two screenshots I think you can see almost all locations in the valley, with the exception of the mines. And the caves and rooms of the Adventurer's Hub and any other interiors of course!
That's all for today, I hope you enjoyed this little update!! I'll get around to spicing up the life tree in the next update! I have also been thinking about detail and depth.. maybe some of the houses will be further modified.. There's one I'll tear down and transform.. can you guess which one?
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Life Tree densification
Today we are working on giving the Life Tree a more natural and dense look.
We can see from the trampoline how sparse the current branches are.
I head up with bed, shears, shovel, axe, oak saplings, oak leaves and dirtblocks and get going.
I place the grey bed to sleep and grow the first tree right in the face of the owl... not very considerate.
So I'll have to chop it down, which is good because we need logs to make wood blocks!
The trees are very small...
I branch and grow them on top of each other
It still looks very thin and tiny, I think these will be better at the ends of the large branches,
and then I can build custom ones closer in to the trunks
As I walk around I start to feel more an more that the proper way to grow the tree branches
is to sculpt manually.
I decide to go down and have a look at progress so far from a distance and get oak logs.
As I look for the waterfall to slide down I notice my work replacing oak logs with blocks from the
interior has blocked it!
Carefully replacing the blocking logs the water can run again.
Sliding down waterfalls, this is the way to live!
There are only eight oak logs in the cabin, so I have to go and farm some.
Half a stack will have to do as it gets dark before I have collected any more.
Heading back up to the trampoline lookout point, how is the progress so far?
The look has definitely improved!
It seems like the tree would benefit from more branches around the upper middle.
I take a break to walk outdoors and get inspiration for another post.
For the remainder I mostly build custom branches, only planting a few trees.
Looking from the trampoline again, I notice what I suspected, that the planted trees look very 'pasted in'
without trimming them. See that tree-branch just to the right of the blue crystal in the front?
Now look at this final screenshot, isn't it nicer like this?
There's still some work left at the uppermost branches, but for now, it will have to do. There are other things we want to make happen, and varying tasks is a good way to avoid exhaustion!
Now look at this final screenshot, isn't it nicer like this?
There's still some work left at the uppermost branches, but for now, it will have to do. There are other things we want to make happen, and varying tasks is a good way to avoid exhaustion!
Much nicer & fuller! Love that way of doing it by planting on top of one another, I've only really tried that at Christmas time trying to make monster spruce trees.
Like Minecraft forums or interested in my world? Try My message board, it's better moderated because I run it directly and have run Internet message boards for 21+ years! Better software and I have much more control to keep the content more up to date. Free to join, 13 years+.
Acacian Ascendancy — Episode 17 : Sluice gate
I was inspired to build redstone again from reading this survival build journal entry by Joey_San.
The idea I got was to regulate the water led in from the river to the cistern/tank underneath the building by building a form of sluice.
It is perhaps one of the simplest Minecraft red-stone builds possible, a lever leading to a sticky piston pushing and pulling a block in and out of the water channel from underneath.
If you are completely new to redstone and want to see the details of how to connect the lever and the piston, watch the video included in the spoiler below. I try to make things entertaining by sharing some of my life story and I also show more details of the Acacian Ascendancy, Flower Valley and surrounding area. Feel free to leave any questions here or on the video, especially if you are completely new to Minecraft, there might be things you are not familiar with which I take for granted.
Here are screenshots of the water channel outside the Ascendancy with the sluice open and closed:
As I mention in the video I thought about moving the circuitry indoors to the cavern. Since there is no filling water mechanics in vanilla Minecraft (yet), there is no automated sensor, but it would make sense to have the lever there for anyone spotting the tank being overfilled.
For the next update, I plan a tutorial for how to build a small overgrown jungle-home!
Then I will likely do some more on Acacian Ascendancy, unless anyone would like to throw me some other cool ideas! Even if it might not suit the style of this world and the somewhat tough constraints of a peaceful vegan Minecraft survival, I might be able to adapt it in some creative way!
PMC's Pumpkin Carving Solo Contest Entry
Huge Opening Post update • World lore!
Phew. I've done a lot of rewriting and reorganization of the OP. Hopefully all these improvements will make this build journal and world more appealing. Here's a summary of what's been done in the various sections, of which a few are new, along with my comments/motivations:
Introduction
Much shorter. I like it this way
Locations and Lore
Gives a short introduction of each location with some highlights, followed with the lore within spoilers as a story-mode walkthrough of (most of) the builds, introducing the current 25-26 characters of the world
This was the largest part of the work. And the most fun! I feel like there is a good sense of direction now.
Downloads
Download link followed by info about how to find the main area.
Also moved info about where to find the best equipment and tools along with the details on those
Added a link to the first world-specific player skin.
I think this looks pretty neat.
Journal entries
Clarified the link-list description and put all the post links in a spoiler. Added the latest entries.
I don't think it merits being outside spoilers, especially since many posts are so short. And the lists is growing very large.
Journal screenshot FAQ
Added to give links to resources used for the thread outside of vanilla Minecraft.
Short enough i think
b³O as a peaceful and vegan Minecraft world
Clarifies which and when special rules have been introduced into the world.
This was kind of written in the introduction, mingled with purpose etc. I think it is better close to the end. Also needed to clarify the rules for the world for myself.
Past, present, future
Kept at the bottom I think this makes sense and will help me stay more organized
Alright, creating player over 20 player skins should be a lot of fun! I love pixel art so much =D Now, which one to start with?
Hope you enjoy the addition of the lore and look forward to future updates!
PMC's Pumpkin Carving Solo Contest Entry
I went back and read through the lore. I am always a huge proponent of having a lot of background to a build. Even it isn't obvious in the build itself, having the lore there guides what you build later and makes it all feel connected.
The depth you went into in this backstory is very nice! I enjoyed it and all the additions you have made to it! I am sorry that you've been uninspired recently, hopefully things will get better!!
Thanks a lot Crossfirekira for your kind supporting words, and for reading the lore. Great to see you are still around!
I agree that the background is really helpful!
PMC's Pumpkin Carving Solo Contest Entry
Overgrown jungle home
This is an idea I built first in creative after being inspired by TheWesson mentioning the brilliant use cocoa beans decoratively as lanterns.
I had to try it, started experimenting in a creative world and had soon built a house aroun it.
To fit it the house into Flower Valley I decided that the character Azu (featured in the short story 'Remedy Rush' I recently added to the opening post in this thread) will be changed a bit.
She has until recently resided in the western wing of the hobbit inspired home together with Vin, but will now live in this jungle home.
She will no longer have the role of a herbalist and 'just' be a cartographer and explorer.
Instead a new character, yet to be named will be both a herbalist and an interior decorator. I think there is definitely room for such a person, and the two trades fit nicely together.
To begin I selected the most suitable site, which was where the custom jungle trees are north of the forester's cabin, southeast of the wizard's hous and west of the animalist's hut (the zebra and lion have moved north to the savanna).
Then I assembled the materials into the orange backpack and a chest.
Proceeded to dig out the site. Submerging the build makes it easier to cover over.
When building in Flower Valley, I wanted to try my hands at recording a tutorial video at the same time. Hence the hole I dug above was actually the wrong size, the correct was 7x7 followed by 5x5 in the middle and I had to fill it and re-record my video clip at this point.
And then I was so distracted by talking, starting and stopping the recording that completely forgot about taking screenshots during the process.
Thus, we'll have to do with a tour the final build pointing out more of the little details (that's where the love is!). And eventually a somewhat messy tutorial video will posted after I have edited and rendered it.
So to start with, here is Flower Valley's latest little home. We are standing on the path towards the east looking north.
We walk to the entrance and take a look inside.
Already we see the cocoa beans as lanterns around the center pillar. The lighting inside comes from glow stone hidden above the trapdoors making out the ceiling. Here is a closer look at this core feature
I varied the height of the trap doors and open a few intentionally to add a more airy atmosphere and interest.
Inside I'd say it's pretty cosy. There is a seating area to the left, a kitchen to the right and a sleeping area in the back.
Shifting our attention to the left, we see the only windows, covered with single fence posts, and have a glimpse of an opening underneath the table, which is for extra ventilation.
From outside the vent looks like this. There is probably an even better terminology for this. I have included it since I think submerged builds are extra likely to suffer from dampness and humidity. Writing this I realize, I completely forgot about what will happen when it rains. What kind of irresponsible builder am I? Though Azu would probably enjoy the house as a swimming pool, the house will rot pretty fast without some proper type of drain.
To the right, the kitchen has iron blocks as a cupboards and benches, with a wooden pressure plate as a cutting board, a birch trap door as a food tray and a detector rail as the stove.
I used the best 1x1 painting I could find to symbolize a bowl perhaps prepped fruits and veggies like the melon and pumpkin stored next to it.
The kitchen oven leads to a chimney, looking like this from the outside:
Next we walk around the central pillar inside to the back, or northen wall. I really like this area. There is a cauldron as a wash basin with the green banner as a towel next to it. Some pots on the shelves and a painting, maybe of the desert village to the east
There is also another ground ventilation vent below ground level.
Let's finish with some more views outside
From standing north of the wizard's house, looking southeast, with the forester's cabin and animalist's hut in the background.
The house as it lies with the Life Tree in the background
And finally from up in the tree, looking down at the house while standing on the diamond/obsidian branch.
I browsed around my screenshot folders a bit and found these two I took while building the first version of the house in a temporary creative world.
The first one is nice to see what a contrast there is between single material floors and walls and the style I enjoy:
The second one showing the completed interior still have differences from the survival build:
I spot at least four:
I used a trip wire hook as some sort of kitchen utensil, perhaps a knife or a pan hanging on the wall.
The table has a table cloth
There is a cake on the shelf
The melon is on the floor instead of the pumpkin
Can you see anything else?
Hope you enjoyed this update, the first in this style from me for a long time. I feel like I'm at home again.
Still, I don't want to move in with Azu, Vin has told me she snores. And I would eat the cocoa lanterns.
UPDATE: The first version of the video:
PMC's Pumpkin Carving Solo Contest Entry
New world download which includes all thirty or so Flower Valley builds (I honestly don't know how to count them) and the Acacian Ascendancy!
Here is the link:
b³O [for Minecraft version 1.13.2]
I hope you enjoy, and don't hesitate to ask me anything!
PMC's Pumpkin Carving Solo Contest Entry
Hey buddy, Rakkinishu here (I know right, my account got deleted and so did my posts, feelsbad). Took a long hiatus off Minecraft, about a year in fact, and was surprised to stumble upon your thread again. Just snooping the survival forums as you do haha. Glad to see you're still at it though!
Hey Rakkinishu, good to see you again and thanks for livening up this thread with a comment! With Batman as your avatar instead of Confucius it seems you've taken a more direct approach to teaching philosophy! Reality check with a slap in the face is like being poked with a stick by a Zen master. I got that slap at the end of last summer... Still, today I was just thinking about how to be more of a mystic again, not just in Minecraft but for life in general, without losing grip on 'normal' things. I want the best of both worlds... How to make something positive out of everything one does, to really have an impact?
PMC's Pumpkin Carving Solo Contest Entry
Replacing oak logs with oak wood have made the Life Tree look a bit too plain for my taste. As an experiment, I introduced spruce wood, what do you think? Any other ideas for how to make the tree more realistic and life-like?
PMC's Pumpkin Carving Solo Contest Entry
If you strip the spruce logs it looks really good
I tried before with stripped oak and wasn't happy, but that was because they were too bright, so I listened to your advice!
Here's a screenshot of the same location in my previous post, with the spruce logs stripped
And I think you are right, it looks promising, thanks a lot for the tip!
This reminds me, I should play around more in creative mode, just figuring out material palettes. It is a great time-saver.
PMC's Pumpkin Carving Solo Contest Entry
I tend to like stripped dark oak for this sort of thing. It has very slight green undertones that give it a mossy look. Since the tree is very old and probably has been struck by lightning, dark patches would make sense.
Hm..that gives me an idea, I think I want the whole tree a bit more mossy... I'm quite depressed lately, feeling like I want to become a little rock myself overgrown by lush greenery... not sure how to do it yet though (the mossier tree, not become a rock ^^ )...
We have 1.14, so I'll be trying some new things related to it. Here I'm made the roof of the animalist's hut a bit smoother by replacing full blocks with stairs:
PMC's Pumpkin Carving Solo Contest Entry
1.14 Updates - Functional blocks: Barrel, composter, loom, lectern and various tables
I snuck in a little bit in the previous update, but this will be the first official post where I add things I try related to new additions in the last Minecraft update. Naturally due to the pacific nature of this world and my play-style, they will mostly be decorative, despite the title.
To start off, I craft the various tables and put them in the places I find most proper. Now if only I had a turn-table for the disco, that would be flipping!
The balcony where the larger world map is seems like a natural place for the cartographer's table.
The smithing table is also a no-brainer. I also put a grindstone here, you can see it on the wood pillar above the iron block in the back. It can serve some nice purposes, for example to get books back from enchanted books for which I have no use.
The dyer is where banners are made, so the loom finds a room here. Or actually not, because I want to place it outside and since it is raining I realize it needs a little roof to protect it a bit, which I add with acacia half slabs.
In the rain I also add a composter in the back of the farmland and a barrel to the roof on the general store, where the crafting workshop is.
Going down and indoors, the furnace in the store's kitchen gets replaced by a smoker, specialized for cooking food as it is. Of course, only veggies are allowed to enter the oven, we don't kill and eat our fluffy friends.
The final addition is my favorite, the lectern. It is now holding the Flower Valley poem, in what might be my favorite place in Flower Valley and b³O at the moment, the Poet's Corner. What's yours?
PMC's Pumpkin Carving Solo Contest Entry
An Unexpected Visitor, Minecraft Botany continued and something Red (but not dead)
I was having problems with lighting issues in Minecraft version 1.14, but now after almost a month without playing, I updated to 1.14.1. Would it work?
As the game loads I am really happy to see it performs much better! During the time since the last update I have played around a bit with the Tree Spirit Challenge by Lilariel in version 1.6 and got inspired to take this approach to improving the Life Tree. Since it is night time when the game loads I go to sleep in the Forester's cabin
When I step back outside in the sunshine I am surprised by a voice nearby...
I turn around and suddenly ...
there is THIS BLUE GUY standing there with a llama! What?!? I didn't build a village... or wait... I kind of did... but I thought it was only populated by me and fictional characters!
After closer inspection, its two llamas.
So I decide to talk with him. Turns out he is a wandering trader! And he got pretty things for sale!
I sprint into the Life Tree and up the stairs to the emerald branch. Corn flowers and fire coral blocks are the rarest things and the priority! Packed ice is pretty cool (no pun intended), but very expensive... for that price I'd almost expect blue ice!
Back again, Mr. Blue is still there and I buy four corn flowers. If you have read this world journal from the beginning you know that all the flowers in the valley got rearranged to a more realistic placement in the post Trees, lights, a lion and Minecraft botany.
So naturally the corn flower deserves the same treatment!
I look it up on Wikipedia (mm, those photos!). It turns out it is not the corn plant flowering, which I initially thought, but rather a flower or weed common in fields of corn in the broader sense, as grain! I think the genus part centaurea in the latin name, centaurea cyanus is curious. Is there a connection with centaurs? The genus (family) consist of basket-shaped flowers. Either way the corn flowers are very beautiful and I place them around the wheat plantations in the valley.
Four flowers don't really fit the description of a weed, so I decide to go back to the trader who is still around and buy another eight. I want to buy eleven to have fifteen in total, but the trader seems to be out of flowers, so I buy another fire coral for the remaining three emeralds. I go back and plant the lovely little 'bachelor's buttons' (another name they have). As I am about to take a second screenshot, the sun sets, so I sleep in the Wizard's Hut. Maybe I should consider getting a bed of my own?
Anyhow, here is the valley with eleven corn flowers added. Not all are visible, since at least one is down by the river inlet in front of the hobbit-styled home, but I think they definitely add some life and interest to the wheat fields, which I felt were a bit too 'mono-croppy' :farming247::farming247: for the theme of the valley and world. What do you think?
A closer look down the valley
Speaking of the hobbit-styled home, that's close to where I put coral blocks, in the water around the mangrove tree. Let's just imagine the lakes and rivers around are closely connected to the sea and the water is salty enough!
Here's a view from the shore:
And a closer look:
Finally, I trot back north past the stone mason, the shop and around the forester's cabin, east uphill, then south through the pine forest and up the cobbly path to the highest hill where the trampoline is to get an overview of how Flower Valley looks at the moment.
Here is the view towards the north. Oh, and I am dressed like a carpenter. I should draw some more fitting skin!
As I look at it, I notice I forgot about the wheat fields around the Animalist's hut, they are visible in the top right of the screenshot, behind the pines and dark oak trees. Hm... I think I'll just remove them, and I will find something else more interesting to put there! (feel free to leave me any suggestion, I'd love to oblige, as long as it fits the natural/peaceful/organic/mystical mishmash!!)
Finally northwest. In these two screenshots I think you can see almost all locations in the valley, with the exception of the mines. And the caves and rooms of the Adventurer's Hub and any other interiors of course!
That's all for today, I hope you enjoyed this little update!! I'll get around to spicing up the life tree in the next update! I have also been thinking about detail and depth.. maybe some of the houses will be further modified.. There's one I'll tear down and transform.. can you guess which one?
PMC's Pumpkin Carving Solo Contest Entry
Life Tree densification
Today we are working on giving the Life Tree a more natural and dense look.
We can see from the trampoline how sparse the current branches are.
I head up with bed, shears, shovel, axe, oak saplings, oak leaves and dirtblocks and get going.
I place the grey bed to sleep and grow the first tree right in the face of the owl... not very considerate.
So I'll have to chop it down, which is good because we need logs to make wood blocks!
The trees are very small...
I branch and grow them on top of each other
It still looks very thin and tiny, I think these will be better at the ends of the large branches,
and then I can build custom ones closer in to the trunks
As I walk around I start to feel more an more that the proper way to grow the tree branches
is to sculpt manually.
I decide to go down and have a look at progress so far from a distance and get oak logs.
As I look for the waterfall to slide down I notice my work replacing oak logs with blocks from the
interior has blocked it!
Carefully replacing the blocking logs the water can run again.
Sliding down waterfalls, this is the way to live!
There are only eight oak logs in the cabin, so I have to go and farm some.
Half a stack will have to do as it gets dark before I have collected any more.
Heading back up to the trampoline lookout point, how is the progress so far?
The look has definitely improved!
It seems like the tree would benefit from more branches around the upper middle.
I take a break to walk outdoors and get inspiration for another post.
For the remainder I mostly build custom branches, only planting a few trees.
Looking from the trampoline again, I notice what I suspected, that the planted trees look very 'pasted in'
without trimming them. See that tree-branch just to the right of the blue crystal in the front?
Now look at this final screenshot, isn't it nicer like this?
There's still some work left at the uppermost branches, but for now, it will have to do. There are other things we want to make happen, and varying tasks is a good way to avoid exhaustion!
PMC's Pumpkin Carving Solo Contest Entry
Much nicer & fuller! Love that way of doing it by planting on top of one another, I've only really tried that at Christmas time trying to make monster spruce trees.
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