weekly building challenge

May 14, 2015October 5, 2017

GCT is done!

Note: Written before update 1.1.0 when the direction of the sunrise/set was fixed. North here is now west.

I kinda fell off the face of the earth in terms of updating various blogs and journals. Sometimes real life (and chronic illness, unfortunately) catches up with me. I want to post on Monday’s server run (it was quiet due to problems with new settings in the updated Plug PE) and take pics of the various things 576875 and Swarmhut have been building. I’ll get around to those posts at some point, but here’s the big exciting news – aside from retail spaces and the food court 576875 is building on the mezzanine, Grand Central is finished!

It’s going to be a very very VERY long time until I work with any kind of sandstone again, lol. Several weeks of a big build using nothing but and I am thoroughly sick of looking at it. Still, I’m really proud of this build, it came out awesome and even though I have a few problems with the final build (mostly aesthetic stuff)… yeah.

But enough blather. PICTURES. There are many.

So in preparation for boats, I dug some small canals around the station so that it wouldn’t entirely block off the river surrounding it on three sides. I honestly should have built one straight across on the north side. Might still.

I took lots of pictures inside the Grand Concourse. Mostly from similar angles, oops.

I sort of made Orion and then put more "stars" around him. — I sort of made Orion and then put more “stars” around him.

Grand Concourse, looking East — Looking East from the roof.

I’m not sure what to do with these rooms in the corners. Maybe additional reading/waiting space?

Think that sign needs to come down a block.

I haven’t managed to do much in terms of retail space (the real Grand Central is packed with shops), but there are at least four spaces under the grand staircases that I’ve managed to do things with.

A quick peek downstairs to see what 576875 has been up to.

Looks good so far!

Finally my favorite thing – stand on the roof of whatever I’ve built, batman style, and enjoy the view around it.

The river and flatlands to the northeast

So yeah, there you have it. And now I have a tiny chunk of home in my minecraft world. 🙂 I suppose I ought to get cracking on expanding the subway in its various directions, lol. Soon.

World: Main
Location: -1665 65 -3
Creation Mode: Creative
Build completed: Post date

May 3, 2015October 5, 2017

GCT, part 2 and some notes on last week’s open server

Note: Written before update 1.1.0 when the direction of the sunrise/set was fixed. North here is now west.

Made a fair amount of progress in the past few days on GCT. It’s starting to actually resemble its inspiration now…

…well okay, when there aren’t huge holes in the floor/wall. Also there is apparently a HUGE cave system under the south tracks. Going to have to investigate that later.

Track level is done, lit, and has a ceiling. One of the challenges of this build was how to keep the various levels lit without having a mess of torches, something that proved challenging as GCT has >6 block high ceilings. This became much easier once I realized that light passes through stairs and I could hide glowstone behind “moldings.”

Time to do the next story! I’ve since finished up the mezzanine level.

The center column of the mezzanine level.

Mezzanine staircases going both up and down.

It’s currently a big empty room bracketed by the two staircases on either side. I may put in some vendor booths and cafe tables later. The real station has a fancy food court and a branch of the NYC transit museum on this level.

I’m still working on the main level but so far it looks awesome.

The grand staircases were annoying to design and build, and I ended up trying three different things before settling on this, and then I had to build it from scratch an extra time since I had a game crash and none of the work I’d done that afternoon saved. D’oh!

Honestly I should have known the game was a little screwy – I cam up to work on one of the starcases to find that all of the stairs I’d put down had oriented themselves facing north.

I didn’t get a picture but some of the stairs I’d placed upside down in places had also turned themselves around. It was a little creepy looking I won’t lie. But then the game crashed and I had to start over, but the nice thing about having to build a thing twice is that you’ve already worked out the kinks so it goes a lot faster the second time around.

This is just the top of the staircases down to Mezzanine level.

So, yeah, it’s coming along. Maybe a little slower than I’d like, but I’d been busy this week with other stuff.

I realized earlier that I hadn’t made my post-open-server post this week, so I’ll just take this moment to thank The_Swarm_Hut, Mathguy40, 576875, and Brandonthekid-don’t-remember-your-reddit-handle-lol for coming. 5’s underwater surprise seems to be coming along, while The_Swarm_Hut built a bunch of neat stuff by spawn. I’ll probably make a separate post about this tomorrow, but I’ma need folks to start ranging a bit away from spawn for building stuff – the area by Spawn House is filling up quite a bit. 🙂 But yeah, it was a good open server night, and being able to play with friendly company was nice after a long and unfortunately crappy day beforehand. I will be running tomorrow night at 6, hope to see folks there.

April 12, 2015October 5, 2017

At the Circus!

All right, Crazy Busy-making Stuff is over with for a moment, so time to catch up on posts about my MCPE builds!

I finished the circus a hair too late for the Reddit WBC it was created for, but it still came out cool and I’m pretty happy with it. It gave me something to do with the dead flat mountain space on the main subway line between the Crystal Palace and the Castle. I’d briefly considered starting a giant train station build there but I think that’s ultimately going to go north of the castle.

Anyway. Pictures!

Carving stairways and roads through mountains is kind of a pain, but at least the views are nice from up here?

It’s always a little tricky designing spaces for villagers to stand in (lunch counters, ticket booths, any sort of service type place) and not have them wander off. you end up getting rather good at overhangs.

That's one way to make a tightrope. Or should I say tightfence? — That’s one way to make a tightrope. Or should I say tightfence?

See Mr. Hmm's performing dogs! In ring #3 - Hmmph's Wild exotic mooshrooms. — See Mr. Hmm’s performing dogs! In ring #3 – Hmmph’s Wild exotic mooshrooms!

Farmer Hmp's Rainbow Sheep! Here for one day only! — Farmer Hmp’s Rainbow Sheep! Here for one day only!

...is that a sheep on the tightrope!? — …is that a sheep on the tightrope!?

Which of course means I now have to create a Pachysandra Island somewhere and fill it with purple sheep…

I apparently have a thing for flower shops. Be nice when you can actially buy things with emeralds…

No idea what's going on here, but maybe we should move along. — No idea what’s going on here, but maybe we should move along.

Wait - a Freak Show? Ooo. — Wait – a Freak Show? Ooo.

Quick, the ticket guy isn't looking... *sneaka sneaka* — Quick, the ticket guy isn’t looking… *sneaka sneaka*

Don’t do this in real life, kids.

Behold, the terrifying and explosive Creepers!

Observe the horror inducing Skeletons and Zombies!

Tremble at the sight of the Zombie Pigmen! Straight from The Nether!

Marvel at the Mildly Annoying Silverfish!

And that’s the end of it. I might put more tents in at some point and there was a cave system underneath that I hadn’t had a chance to map out yet, and the grounds are overrun with loose sheep with colors not found in nature and chickens.

World: Main
Location: -745 78 -34
Creation Mode: Creative
Build completed: post date