[CHALLENGE] (v4.3-ish 6/7/18) Refugee to Regent Kingdom Building Challenge

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What do you think of the Serf to Supreme Challenge?

  • City Construction Challenge was better!

    Votes: 9 7.0%
  • It's okay, but there's definitely room for improvement

    Votes: 35 27.1%
  • Give me my Electrics sooner!

    Votes: 14 10.9%
  • I enjoy the slow introduction of mods.

    Votes: 43 33.3%
  • I wish Element Animation would hurry up with the next episode.

    Votes: 24 18.6%
  • I love it!

    Votes: 51 39.5%

  • Total voters
    129

Monarch_of_Gold

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Jul 1, 2015
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Hey, all! It's been a while since I've stopped by and I'm starting what I guess can only be described as a new challenge.

Recently, I discovered a youtuber named Shadiversity because he's Draw With Jazza's brother. Shad is very knowledgeable about medieval castles and stuff, and Minecraft is roughly set in the middle ages (though it's a fantasy world), so..? After watching, like, 20 videos, I decided I had learned enough about how things were/maybe/maybe not done back then to try to build a semi-accurate castle in Minecraft. If this goes well I'll have an awesome castle and village to gawk at.

Did I mention I'm procrastinating sewing a cosplay idea for DragonCon?

Anyway, to the spoiler!

I ran around for a bit looking for a decent place to start. I wanted a hill overlooking a flatter area that wouldn't be too hard to shape to my needs. Once I found this place (in the middle of a forest), I started dealing with all the darn trees that were in the way. I've deforested places before (see: Stoneveil at the start and during planning (RIP)), so this isn't new to me.

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I found these two large oaks that had grown together. Man were they a pain to take down. I will note, however, that leaves drop sticks now, too, and appear to have increased the sapling drop rate. Since oaks now produce food, sticks, and wood, I can kind of see them becoming the number one farmed wood for the area. Never thought of how convenient the stick drop would be until I had it.

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Here's half of the area deforested.

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If I were doing a challenge that required wood be set off in a chest, I think I would have already met the requirement for the next 10 stages...

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All of my resources organized into a chest. I'm playing without any general restrictions, so in another area when I had access to some iron I went ahead and got it.

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While I was busy digging away, this tradesman came by to visit. I told him I didn't have any emeralds available for trade, but he insisted on standing around watching me for several days.

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The next part of this involves/d a lot of terraforming. Again, not the first time I've terraformed a place, but this is by far the largest terraforming project I've ever taken on, and I haven't built a house yet! I started going layer by layer, but that just felt too inefficient.

4RnxkGW.png



So, I chunked the area to be formed up instead. I initially planned to go down to where the large patch of poppies are (I think you can see them in the first pic) for the entire base of the castle, but later decided against that after discovering just how much stone I'd have to dig through on the back corner (where I'm currently standing).

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Progress shot after removing a section or two. I kind of just cut sections randomly, because I'd still be counting if I tried to measure it out evenly.

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Progress shots from the eastern point.

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As mentioned before, it didn't take long to realize that it would be better to have a smaller "internal" wall and then the large external wall around the whole thing. Here, I've decided that anything less than 4 blocks tall for the internal section is going to go, creating a nice, sheer cliff face to use as the backing for the wall. Historically, many castles would dig out a plateau like this, build one face of the wall, and then dig out the other side and build the other face, to make a wall that was near impossible to ram. I'm basing this choice on that and laziness. I only have to build up a little bit on the inside to make ramparts with the wall itself just being one stone face wrapping around the plateau.

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A distance shot of the internal "wall" and the last few sections I have to clear.

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All sections cleared! Just have to clean up the top of the internal plateau.

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And now the top has been cleared. I'm leaving the raw stone for now. My thought is that can be the floor for the furnace room or something.

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Looking out towards the future home of the village from on top of the internal plateau.

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A view of the entire project so far from a nearby tree.

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Now I'm going around the external plateau and digging in the same manner as the internal one to make the base for the wall that will go around it. There's this interesting little lake cave that goes around that I want to turn into a sort of feature somehow. Right now I'm envisioning an arch going over it with some glowstone and finished bricks lining it inside.

zRqi0Hv.png

//Part 1
 
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Monarch_of_Gold

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Jul 1, 2015
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Part 2:

The trench I dug around the plateau to mark where to dig out from.

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Here, my plateau forms a land bridge to another hill. I'm trying to use creepers to blow it up, but it isn't going well!

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I'm pretty sure I've made progress since that last screenshot. I'll come back and let you know and will hopefully be keeping you guys updated!

Edit: No idea what's wrong with the screenshots. They're showing up fine in edit mode. :/

Edit 2: If they're still not showing up for you, here's the link to the album.
 
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Monarch_of_Gold

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Jul 1, 2015
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... I don't know what the deal was with that first post either...

Yeah. I tried editing a few times and checked the links. Nothing worked. Oh well.

Right now I'm playing "Ooh, shiny" with this, a bit of sewing, and research and support materials for my comic. Not to mention the other 50 hobbies I have (only half joking with that number OTL).

Sent from my LML413DL using Tapatalk
 
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The Mobius Archives

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Mar 31, 2013
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Whew, okay, I'm getting late posting updates again!

Since I discovered a stone level tech I didn't have before, well I may as well use it! Adding in a Silent Gems' Armorer.


I am finding I am very short on resources this playthrough. Making bricks has started to be a necessity.


Along with the bricks comes the terracotta for the roofs.


And of course glass. I'm very happy to have spent a long time on the agricultural outlier, most of my resources are now chicken-based.

 

The Mobius Archives

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Late again! Late again! Channel your inner white rabbit

The Hamlet is growing slowly but surely. Using the resources I had, which means clay and brick, the production quarter is coming along.

With that a gate upgrade was made:


Sewers were dug and a cistern made:


Of course, we also need some drainage:


Then I got on with decorating my own room in the castle:


Before returning to build up the castle walls with a simplified design for the battlements:


My current issues are resources, especially stone. I do have significant gunpowder and sand, so I'm thinking about making a quarry to get stone using explosives.
 

The Mobius Archives

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Senseidragon

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May 26, 2013
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Gah. I thought I'd responded to this via my phone, but apparently it can't figure out whether to post here or to some cheesy nightclub in Uzbekistan.

TekTopia doesn't break vanilla villagers at all, it just replaces a number of them. The ones it doesn't replace are in all ways just the same villagers you've always had.

However, TekTopia does a pretty neat job of making the villagers behave more like villagers. And it doesn't dictate (much) what your village structures look like either.
 
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The Mobius Archives

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Gah. I thought I'd responded to this via my phone, but apparently it can't figure out whether to post here or to some cheesy nightclub in Uzbekistan.

TekTopia doesn't break vanilla villagers at all, it just replaces a number of them. The ones it doesn't replace are in all ways just the same villagers you've always had.

However, TekTopia does a pretty neat job of making the villagers behave more like villagers. And it doesn't dictate (much) what your village structures look like either.
I like that idea. I've setup a test to see if my modpack is compatible. That would make the world so much more alive!
 
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Raagruk

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Are there specifations for the buildings? Like what does the university need to count as a university, the old challenge specified
 

Monarch_of_Gold

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Jul 1, 2015
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Are there specifations for the buildings? Like what does the university need to count as a university, the old challenge specified
I would imagine it'd require multiple classrooms and lecture halls, common areas, study halls, a library, a bookstore, places to eat, and dorms. A community college might have fewer classrooms, no dorms, and only a small cafe for food instead of a dining hall, or the bookstore would sell small lunch items like bread and apples or whatever your food mod deems a "snack."

Sent from my LG Pemier Pro using Tapatalk
 
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Monarch_of_Gold

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Jul 1, 2015
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Hey guys. Just a quick update to let you know it'll be a while before I'm able to come back to Minecraft and the challenges.

I hate to say this, but my house burned down at about 2am on Christmas Day. For now we're sorting through what remains and living in a long-stay hotel, compiling lists of everything you need to have in a house while we frantically search for somewhere to go.

Thankfully, the data on my computer was physically intact, so I've instructed my father-in-law to create an image of the drive so I can go through everything personally when I have a more solid machine. Right now I'm borrowing one of my fiance's old laptops.

Here's hoping your holidays were better than mine! May the new year treat you better than last.

- Monarch

Edit: Here's an album of pictures I've taken of the house post-fire, for any that are interested. Warning: Album contains photos of what used to be my real house after a fire started on the porch and spread to the living room. It contains real pictures of damage from fire, heat, smoke, and water. Do not look at the album if you have previously suffered similar trauma or if such things are triggering to you.
 
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Senseidragon

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May 26, 2013
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Hey guys. Just a quick update to let you know it'll be a while before I'm able to come back to Minecraft and the challenges.

I hate to say this, but my house burned down at about 2am on Christmas Day. For now we're sorting through what remains and living in a long-stay hotel, compiling lists of everything you need to have in a house while we frantically search for somewhere to go.
<snip>

I'm very saddened to hear about your misfortune, but I'm glad that you appear to be otherwise safe and unharmed. I hope this new year treats you a lot better than the last one.

I'll be keeping an eye out for updates from you here.
 
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