Ok well first of all I’ll explain the changed post title.
Originally the “Minecraft Adventures of JD” post was supposed to be purely
about what I do in Minecraft while playing singleplayer, specifically I started
a map intentionally to do that. Though unfortunately like always I started
plans for a house and it turned into this monstrosity, I even got rid of all my
old items so basically even if I did decide to continue on my quest the world
would be totally out of date being created in 2012 and all. So I’ve decided to
create a Minecraft Creations post title specifically for the Brick Mansion
which may not go on for too much longer, but just to break it up from the
regular Minecraft creations so I know where everything is and as a testament to
it if I am ever satisfied that it is fully finished.
Well yes here it is, the much awaited (well not by me)
1.8 Bountiful Update
is the biggest update yet, with a wealth of new features added to a game really
already flowing with them, and to be honest I can’t keep up. Changes for me in
my world really only mean I have to change around my Brick Mansion in some way,
so with an update like this, I was like damn, this is gonna be a lot of
changing, and change it was. But anyway, let’s first go into the changes, which
there
are a lot of...
One of the shorter 1.8 videos, still goes for 10 minutes instead of like 30 heh
One of the most prevalent changes
is that you can now change your Minecraft username, obviously they are going to
work on some sort of unique identifier to stop bad people from changing their
name and causing havoc. Also difficulty is now per world not global so you can
finally have one or the other when you’re switching worlds. There’s also new
skin customisation, I think you can wear jackets now too. There is also a new
Spectator
game mode allowing you to actually noclip around the level and look through
other players eyes. There has been a cascade of new blocks inc
Granite,
Andesite and
Diorite which generate in pockets within stone
terrain apparently slightly larger size and more in abundance then gravel.
There are new
Ocean monuments which are generated underwater in
Ocean Biomes with all new blocks inc
Prismarine,
Prismarine Bricks,
Dark
Prismarine and
Sea Lanterns, where you can find
Guardians and
Elder Guardians in the
center which apparently has 8 gold blocks.
A well made feature of the new Ocean Monuments with Gardians and Elder Guardians
World spawning is now much more
customisable which will be
fun to mess around with different settings. In addition to the new blocks I’ve
mentioned before you can also get polished, Diorite Andesite and Granite and
also
Red Sandstone. There is also a new type of dirt
called
Coarse
Dirt which is a mixture of dirt and gravel where grass does not grow, but
can be made back into normal dirt too. In ocean monuments Guardians and Elder
Guardians drop
Prismarine Crystals and
Prismarine Shards
which are used to make Sea Lanterns, and also
Wet Sponges. You can also
now make
Slime Blocks
and bounce on them like a trampoline.
A simple example of a slime block trampoline made with pistons.
And finally,
Fences,
Fence Gates,
Doors,
Slabs and
Stairs now appear different
depending on what type of wood you used to make them,
most just change colour (appropriately) but
the new doors look awesome with the dark oak door looking like something out of
a formal victorian household and the Jungle door looking very hobbity with sort
of mushroom shaped holes, the Acacia door is almost not there at all. An
interesting new addition is
Banners
which can be adorned with many different colours and patterns and man can you
do a lot of combinations, ‘decorating’ is done by adding dyes to a blank or
coloured banner, and then adding more to the current banner to decorate it more
resulting in “Over a quadrillion possible combinations” apparently. An
Armor Stand
can now be made allowing you to finally place that armor away when it’s safe
and view your beautiful skin texture.
 |
| Armor stands with various armor pieces. |
Many new Mobs are now in including
Endermites
which are sometimes spawned by Endermen teleporting away which basically act
like
silverfish
but the funny thing is Endermen hate them too.
Guardians and the boss
Elder Guardians as
I’ve mentioned before ‘guard’ the Ocean Monuments.
Rabbits are here!
(including a very scary one which you may remember from a certain Monty Python
movie) they can be killed for a variety of things including
rabbit
hide,
raw
rabbit,
cooked rabbit and
rabbit's
foot and can be guided or bred using
carrots,
golden
carrots or
dandelions
and are also used to create Potions of Leaping where you can jump super high.
There’s also a new “Depth Strider”
boot
enchantment which allows the player to move faster in water and is probably
specifically for exploring ocean monuments. There is now Iron
Trapdoors and you can colour
beacons with coloured glass.
 |
| Two Rabbits I caught while adventuring in a Mega Taiga Biome at the Bluewire Lan, unfortunately didn't have amy more carrots to make them breed. |
And that about it for the major changes, you can check out more
here. So without further ado I will now yak on about the latest
changes to my supreme Brick Mansion or rather to the lands around it...
With my magnificent house pretty much finished I spent quite
a bit of time pondering what to do with the outside, at first I thought of
gardens and whatnot but then I thought there was enough gardens inside (which
is kind of strange I know) and if this house is going to be self sufficient
it’s going to need some farms, or a farm, a big farm. Though the first thing I
had to do was extend the wall around the east side of the house, it took a bit
of trial and error but I got it done, instead of the usual cobblestone wall I
had before, I put an overhang of I cobblestone block at the top as well the
wooden plank walkway so there was essential a two space walkway instead of 1,
it looked quite good when finished especially with the stone stairs mixed with
the wood. Because of the extra weight I added some support at various intervals
of the wall which also looked pretty cool, I might take this moment to remind
everyone that this wall is meant to stop monsters getting in not people hence
the simplicity.
 |
| 4 block high wall, keeps monsters out and doesn't make the house feel like a fortress. |
Now it was time for farming, I had to look up all the things
you farm to make sure I had everything but it turned out ok, I think I got an
equal amount of melons, pumpkins, carrots and potatoes, and lots of wheat and
possibly a bit too much sugar cane but anyway. I made sure the place had enough
light for during the night by placing long rows of fences with torches on top
of them. Speaking about the design I’m a fan of having water right next to
crops in single block rows, I now know that a single block of water can hydrate
crops 4 blocks way but I like the way I’ve done it cause it’s kinda nice
looking but may change it in the future. Taking advantage of the new 1.8
changes I created a well out off the small patch of water near the crops that
goes right down to bedrock and used dark oak slabs and fence poles as decoration
as well, I also made a rope out of acacia wooden poles as it was a nice orange
colour, I also made a small rotunda with chests underneath as a sort of storage
pavillion for gathered crops for transport to the main storage centre.
 |
| The crop farm, well and storage pavillion. |
I then thought I’d need some livestock so I fenced off a few
sections of the front gardens creating pens for pigs, cows, horses and
chickens, complete with water troughs and shelter from the rain or sun. Now
that I had the area around the house planned out I had to change the location
of the iron door entrances, I also made the main entry into my “land” with a
twin double door. I also made two new staircases coming down from the pool deck
as it was obviously now safe to come down and also serve as a main entry and
exit point to the east side of the house.
 |
| Animal Farms! |
 |
| Made sure the stairs were well lit heh |
I then decided to update the inside of the house as per the
1.8 changes and the first thing I thought of doing was taking advantage of the
new Prismarine blocks for the indoor pool, this basically meant replacing the
entire wall of the pool with prismarine bricks, the floor with dark prismarine
and adding lots of sea lanterns to brighten up the pool area. I then updated
most of the flowers and plants in the house, which was quite a few I even added
some bigger flowers here and there. I updated all the doors depending on what
kind of wood they were near, the dark oak doors worked well as formal doors for
the cinema I also changed my bedroom’s personal balcony to be entirely made of
jungle wood since I can now do that. I also added some armor stands with armor to the armory lol no it was actually the forge.
 |
| Big flowers! |
 |
| Dang those dark wood doors are fancy. |
I also realised I had forgotten about the
cacti and cocoa beans so made two smalls farm around the northeast and
southeast corner and grew a huge jungle tree and covered with cocoa plants
which don’t really know if that’s how it’s supposed to work but meh their
growing. I finished off the outside with gravel paths leading everywhere
starting from the entrance to the house, and added some rows of tulips near the
entrance so I could tiptoe through them.
 |
| One of my Cacti farms, my Coca bean tree and the many gravel paths going around. |
While looking around the house I realised that my secret way
into the undercroft of the house through the pond near the entrance probably
needed a way into the house, so I dug a hole which came up through the water in
the centre pyramid of the lobby which was pretty fun. I made a secret exit from
my room which involved making a long ladder all the way down from my room through
the sauna pipe into the undercroft of the house then into a specially made
tunnel with minecart track which led to a shaft up to the surface and an exit
hidden by dirt just outside the walls. I might add another secret passageway
that goes from down in the mines all the way to the NPC village in the future.
 |
| The hidden trapdoor and the tunnel leading down to the Minecraft track |
 |
| Spot the hidden exit (it's usually covered by grass) |
One of the last things I did was make use of the new
banners, with over a quadrillion different designs I’m sure I could make
something good, though unfortunately I couldn’t think of anything unless I found
some way of putting the letters “JD” on there, so I just went with a blue
background and red upper “chevron” (it’s interesting to see the actual names of
these banner/flag designs). So in case you didn’t know that’s the Melbourne Football
Club jersey design, I’d hate to resort to football but that’s all I could think
of. SO I placed these banners everywhere it seemed appropriate inside and out
of the house. I also decided that the space to the right of the entrance need a
bit of a sprucing up so I made a flower bed thing but I may actually try to change
it to a different colour grass or maybe just no grass I dunno it just looks a bit
weird with the same grass around where it obviously doesn’t inside the house as
the floor is either wood or carpet.
 |
| Proudly Displaying my Banner both inside and outside the house. |
So the house is relatively finished, never thought I’d say
that heh, sure the outside is a bit crude and could do with some prettying up
(especially the west side) but I can decide when to do that at some other point
but for now I can bask in the knowledge that my biggest house ever is finally
finished, and what an experience it’s been, I remember first starting out in June
2012 and thinking that “this is gonna take awhile” though I have been building
it on and off. The sad part is I’m kinda alone here, but I don’t mind, and of
course I can always open it up to Lan (While at a Lan!) and invite some homies,
after having backed up of course.
 |
| Ahh bliss, nothing like a job well done, time to finally sit back and enjoy, if there wasn't so much damn maintenance to be done. |
So that’s that for this topic for now, I’ll see if I ever add
to it again but basically it will always be here as a milestone topic.
JD
A flythrough (or around really) of the outside of the house.
A flythrough of inside the house (sorry about the weather)
Look at what I have
created! *crickets*
