Wolves!

Minecraft 1.4 is out! I updated the server today and after running around for about 15 minutes, came across these two wolves. Now they are standing guard at the Hanging Gardens, ensuring the safety of those at the work site. Hooray!

P.S - we have monster spawning turned off, so for anyone who was wondering, yes, wolves spawn in SMP with monster spawning off

Hanging Gardens - Now on Planet Minecraft

I decided to list this project on Planet Minecraft and perhaps generate some exposure.  Right now the article is just a stub redirecting to this blog.

http://www.planetminecraft.com/project/hanging-gardens/

Hanging Gardens - First Tier Built

The first tier is complete(ish)!  Foundations are done but detail work remains, along with water and greenery of course.  I'm running on only half my normal RAM for a few days until I get a replacement for my dead stick so pardon the small images since Minecraft chugs at 1600x900 right now.

Overview of first tier.  Something on the order of 32 stacks of sandstone slabs make up the walkway, which equals 128 stacks of sand.  Yes, it is all hand-gathered.

Pavilion at the NE corner.  This design will be repeated in the other corners.

DixieWolf did the majority of the design for the pavilion after I got frustrated with it.  I love how it turned out:

The Gardens already look beautiful at night.  View from the SE corner:

Hanging Gardens - Moving Mountains

The Hanging Gardens project is being constructed on a real-world scale.  According to Wikipedia early Greek works described the structure as being approximately 120m on each side.  Using a scale of 1 block = 0.9m, the hanging gardens is being constructed so that its base runs 134 blocks long on each side.  The towers when complete will stand 30 blocks (27m) high.  To afford space for this enormous structure a large plane had to be leveled.  We chose the largest flattest area we could find nearby, but still an incredible amount of digging had to be done.  A whole mountain had to be removed just to make room for the base, and large portions of three others.  Even this was not big enough.  A miscalculation put us 9 blocks shy of the 134 block mark.  The area was again enlarged.  Before the project can be called complete the rest of the mountains will need to be cleared from its sides so it can stand free of obstruction.

Some wide shots of the original area before it was enlarged:

Building this foundation revealed the miscalculation:

Hanging Gardens Update

Here's a peek at the latest work on the Hanging Gardens project:



Those sections of dirt/grass on the outside border (between the outer wall and the inner walkway) will feature some trees, flowers, and probably some small rivers.

Waterfall Basilica

The facade for what I'm calling the Waterfall Basilica, which will feature cascading water as a prominent motif both inside and outside. I've done a lot with water on the server, as my other primary work has been in the Facility and BioDome, but I wanted to get away from the industrial theme I was using and approach a more stately style. The facade is the first tier of the Basilica, and I plan to add another 1 or possibly even 2 tiers, and then extend back into the mountainside. I have some grand dreams of woolen banners on the upper tiers, in addition to the flowing water that will fill basins and channels on those levels. The basin in which I'm standing in these photos will eventually be filled with water as well. This facade was the product of maybe two hours work, plus a little time to mine more materials, but I like how it's going for now.

Hanging Gardens 1

collaborators: DixieWolf, frozen_scarecrow, huhwhozat

The next big SR2 server project we've started is a replica/interpretation of The Hanging Gardens. This will involve lots of sand/sandstone, and tons of detail work. Hopefully we will be able to amass some minerals for decorative flare (some lapis lazuli pillar footers would probably look nice :D)

Here are a few shots of what we have so far:

Here you can see the basic first-block foundation. This shot gives you a good idea of the size; we had to clear several decent sized hills/mountains to get this large of a flat plain, and I'm pretty sure we're at 134x134 in dimension, for now. We may end up adding some plazas, fountains, and walkways once we have the primary structure ready.

Here is one of the four entrace stairs. We should be adding a lot more detail in the future, but it already has great character. Also in this shot is huhwhozat, who both proposed the project and laid out the plan for what you see so far

And here's the layout so far. We have the four cardinal stairway-entrances built, with several inset groups of pillars (below) to either side of the stairs. The wall is getting some height all around, and next we will probably work on some of the basic interior planning.

The pillars are a mixture of sandstone footers, sand body, and half-block capitals.

As you can see, the project is still pretty young and there is a lot left to do, but we're all pretty excited. More updates later