Dungeons and Colonies Chapter 2

I continued the next day to prepare for her arrival.  A majestic ship with a few supplies from the homeland, and a cargo hold full of people ready to start a new life with me.  I set up a little platform out in the bay, and awaited the ship to weigh anchor in the deeper parts away from the bay and cliffs of Dover.  Finally, I saw her, sailing into view.  She is the magnificent "Gullwing".  Her name having nothing to do with a sudden obsession with a Mercedes Benz super expensive 200,000 dollar sports car the night before.  The ship is rather well made when it comes to ship designs I've seen in Minecraft.  Usually things are a bit too large so that they can accommodate detail, but I call oversized things in Minecraft "pixel art" instead of in game, usable things.  The Gullwing is an in game usable thing that looks beautiful. 

After a few hours, my first citizens show up.  They are, at first, beleaguered and shabby from the voyage from the mainland.  Eventually though they say hell and pick out their citizen chests where I have given them supplies and certificates pertaining to the success of the colony.  In no time I find my builder, a man from back home that is learned in the ways of engineering and carpentry.  The first thing he starts on is the Town Hall.  The gathering and governing property of the new colony, the Town Hall takes many resources and must be completed first.

I have yet to name my colony.  I have thought of naming it after the Cliffs I had lived in while preparing for their arrival, but I am not completely happy with it.  I like to name my places after something descriptive around it.  While I was pondering this, I realized that the cliff beside the bay, the dominating and interestingly shaped cliff looked like the horse head of a chess set!

So now I need to think of an Equestrian based name for my colony.  Meanwhile, my builder is hard at work.  After consulting me on their locations, the first 8 citizens now have their homes.  I gather resources and decorate the colony, trying to make it feel more like a town.  While he is building things, I am creating walkways, paths, and lighting for our citizens to use.

With roads, farms, and a lumberjack operation in the works, the colony looks to be getting off to a great start.

S.

A Re-Imagining; The Skypp Network

Hello,

I still get a couple of thousand new hits here a year it seems.  I do not really see why because aside from nostalgia, this Let's Play is pretty horrible.  It is almost too boring for me to even re-read, so for anyone that seems to get sucked into it, I'm sorry it was not better.

Anyways, I am redoing all of my blogging and setting up a unified look and a renewed dedication to typing.  This means that Skyppcraft is going to become my "Now Playing" Journal.  I still typically play Minecraft, so if you came here for Minecraft, it is still here.  I have a new series called "Dungeons and Colonies" that will follow the format of the previous "Bay" and "River" set; meaning that it will be a text and picture journal.  If you are new here, you should be able to search labels for "Dungeons and Colonies" when the posts start showing up.

My other Blogs include "Gaming with Skypp", which is an opinion and editorializing blog about video game based news.  Also I have "Skypp's Table" which is based on my table top gaming habits and maybe a bit of news.  I typically play and comment on Pathfinder, Savage Worlds, and Game Mastering in general.  If you like Skyppcraft, you may find some stuff to read on those sites.

S5 E5: Better Storage

Fort Lookout started out rather simple. One large room, and then the cave front with the glass facing. I had hoped that perhaps furniture would be added soon(heh) and did not really plan any kind of creature comforts. I had one real true need at the time, safe storage and production facilities.



The back room was just a place to put a double chest, a crafting bench, and a furnace. I guess I did not even attempt anything fancy until my furnace/stove at the treehouse. I did not need much storage yet because when the Fort had been finished waaaay back when, I still had not truly mined, and certainly had not farmed.



The area I now call the Observation Deck was really only contoured to match the cave. No function to it except to make sure I could get some torches to act as a guiding beacon.



My storage system at the Tower was a bit better. I separated the storage according to the "building" it was in. The shed had tools and landscaping, the cellar had cured meats and stuff needing to be cold, the furnace area had ores. It was Sugarland where my favorite categorization was established, so Sugarland stood for my template for the Fort Lookout refurbish.



Taking further inspiration from Sugarland, I went up to the transition area between Observation Deck and the storage room. There I created a stove based on the grill I had outside at Sugarland. I added a "chimney" block above it for the heat to go. Half blocks were recently added, so I took the half blocks of wood plank and made some cabinets beside the stove, I'm rather happy about them, I felt creative.



Still on my shelving kick, I made a work bench and some overhead shelving for the space. I am now super happy about Fort Lookout. I have bunks, and officer's quarters, some furniture, extensive storage, and now a stove and crafting area to be proud of. It went from my most primitive dwelling to the one dwelling that contains all current "comforts" in Minecraft. Beds, bookshelves, paintings, carpeting, shelves, all the nice stuff.

Next up! Episode 6. I need to secure the area around Fort Lookout!

S5 E4: Problem Areas

Well since I had been away from this area for months, there were a few things I let slip. When I noticed these things I always said "I'll fix it later". Well, I guess its time for that "later" to be now. Here's a few of my fixes...



I put these up in trouble spots on my river so that I could traverse it at night in dire situations. Just some blocks of man-made cobblestone and some torches all around. It looks kind of medieval, which I guess fits with the Tower area.



I am trying to find new uses for the single stack fences that I experimented with at Sugarland. Here is one of those uses I've seen, legit lamp posts. I kind of wish I could use a smaller block, but I guess I'll have to just wait for better materials to show up.



Once I had a nice gradual cove here. It was a nice and pretty cove that I enjoyed having here. Then a creeper caught me one morning and blew up that nice scenery. "I'll fix this later", and then I had a glitch that lost me lots of glass that I needed for something. I dug up the beach because... well its not like it was pretty anymore.



FANCY! Yeah, I'm playing around with some more carpentry, finding what works, what looks good, what is function. This is fairly functional, but I do find myself just jumping down it on return trips. Oh well, it looks nice.



I'm fallen down this thing like 3 times while not paying attention. Look at the picture, you can see the ladder up to Fort Lookout just next to it. I always thought I'd explore these areas, but eh.



I'd rather feel like less an idiot, so I've boarded this one, and several other holes in the "backyard". Now its pretty safe to travel behind the Fort.

I harvested a good bit of materials during all of this. I realized that compared to Sugarland, the Fort was rather lacking in facilities.

Next time we'll fix that.

S5 E3: Classing up the joint

The bunkhouse turned out to be a bit smaller than I had thought it would take to allow for 3 bunks and 3 storage containers. This leaves us with a long, yet direct, hallway through to the observation deck. I decided that the Fort is not a socialist regime, so an Officer would have to occupy the place. Putting the officer the closest to the observation deck would make sense, whoever was on guard could get to the officer very quickly.



While clearing out the room, I quickly find that there is an error in its placement. The walls are the literal walls of the mountain, and I would not be able to "finish" the room out with wood planks like the rest of the fort. I decided that with executive privilege of having your own room, also comes the executive duty of living in a drafty, cold room because it is closest to the observation deck. But that doesn't mean the officer will be a cave man. We can do some stuff to help out.



My best comfort resources are at Sugarland, that is where I decided to make my first "homely" house after all. So I went there and I collected some wool I had acquired, and then I went and picked some roses on side of a non-landmark hill.



The officer quarters now has a nice decorative rug so that the officer isn't living on stone floors. He gets his bed, and I put a bookshelf beside it. I figure he may be doing some work or writing his reports as he lay in bed.



After exploring the area on the other side of the mountain, I decided some windows would not hurt anything as they are hard to observe from anywhere, the area outside the officer's quarters is yet another "hollow" volcano like structure in a mountain. Next, I knew that tapestries hung in castles kept the warmth in, so I arranged for a large tapestry... apparently of kung fu fighting men, to be hung beside the bed.



On the other side I fashioned a sort of desk and bookshelf in a nook for the officer to use. Another, much classier, painting would reside on the wall next to the door, and executive privilege allowed for a double chest in the room instead of a single.



I was very happy with the room. The highest quality furnishings, yet a little bit of austere compromising by the officer would keep some respect of the junior officers. Then I read the sign we had made up for the room... apparently someone can't spell. Oh well, that'll have to wait till we can procure another sign.

Next we work on some problems areas of The Bay, get it into a bit better shape for an area befitting the fort.

S5 E2: Lookout Renovations

I arrived into Fort Lookout through the back door... the only real entrance I guess. I still like that there is only one real entrance. Anyway, I see that I had NO plan for function for this place. Zero.



I have looked out into this area many times, waiting for dawn before I had a watch. I decided I needed a chair here to sit. Once it was there, I realized it had this kind of Star Trek captain's chair about it. I like that. I imagine if someone was on guard duty they would need a place to sit and watch out over the entire bay for boats and such.



There was always a wall here of natural rock that I thought would make the place look more.. natural form afar. Minecraft just does not support that kind of detail because of the glass graphic, so I decided this would be the start of the new area.



I was not sure that the area here was solid. I had heard creatures before and did not know if it was from the roof or a hidden cave somewhere around Fort Lookout. Luckily it went solidly through.



Just as I planned. Turns out that the observation deck is on the level with the back storage room. This hallway leads directly to it, connecting the observation platform.



Directly from the back room I hollowed out the area next to the chest. It too was solid, something of a surprise considering this whole Fort was built inside natural hollow cavern.



I widened it a bit and then proceeded to cover it all with wood so that it looked classy and finished. I kind of like the finished look of this former cave, so I am going to keep it where I am able.



Here's some TMI for you... I am a "HGTV Home of the Year" sweepstakes junky. Whenever they have it, I enter daily like a mad man thinking I even have a chance. Well this year's home featured a ski lodge, something I "planned" to turn into a movie theater when I won(yea right). Well I like the idea of bunk rooms in my Forts now.



Fin

Now to the next room... but you'll have to wait till next post!

Season 5 Return to the Bay! Ep: 1 Season Opener!

Season 5 Return to the Bay!

Episode 1: Season Opener



This is my exact spawn area. Sometimes I forget why I spent all this time making a river and I have to remember how far away my spawn point is from the oceans on my map. If I press myself just a little too far and I end up losing a lot of something valuable, I need a way to get back quickly. For you newer readers, it was a coincidence that my first shelter was literally right beside my spawn point. I explored the area a bit to decide if I liked the place.

I consider it a happy coincidence.



This is the kind of terrain that surrounded the Bay. This was the flattest part really, everywhere else is hollow mountains that drop into endless craters at the top, it is an incredibly hard terrain to traverse.



The few pools that I would soon connect did in fact lead to a kind of valley between the rough terrain. The river now goes through there. This was a big time consuming detour to stay to the valley, but in the end I consider it worth it for the amount of dirt it saved me from having to break through.



At the end of my river is vast oceans. I come roaring out of the river on my boat, and generally I can get to anywhere of interest(I.E. places I die) very quickly. It really expands my mining opportunities.



This is what is above my spawn point. I barely ever lived up there, and usually used my little shack of a first shelter because there was no reason to really go "upstairs" It was fun and neat and high on concept when I made Fort Lookout, but lacking in practical use.



The little shack is pitiful. There's a stove, a craft bench and a double chest. That's it. I've literally made dirt shelters for one night that was as equipped. This will not do. I need to make Fort Lookout a true central hub.

Next up is Episode 2: Make Room! Make Room!

Season Finale Season 4: Success.

Months ago, around 6 months ago, I embarked on a journey in my new world. I wanted to see the ocean. I had gotten a glimpse of it over Rose Point, but the mountains were too large and too steep to ever be practical to me. So I set forth following a series of ponds, and between several mountains, and I made it to the ocean.

On the way back to the bay I came across this site.



I thought it remarkably looked like a river bed. There was no water around, so the idea in my head was that this valley was indeed once a course of a river. This idea sparked the thought to trace my way back to The Bay and see if there was a logical course a river once flowed from it to the ocean, and I actually did find a nice course an ancient river could have traveled.

That was when I started my river. I had practical reasons for it, those reasons will be recounted at a future date, for now only one thing was left.



The area in red signifies how close I am to the upper part of the river. I am standing on the last piece of sand of the dry river bed, and about 4 blocks below the red area there is the river.



That last part worried me. I had known that the river was ocean level, but I did not know if the sand went down to ocean level. I suddenly got worried that if I dug the sand to the correct depth that there wouldn't be a river bed anymore... luckily as the screen shot demonstrates, the sand was quite deep.

Perfect.

I cleared some sand to ocean level, and then set on the final tasks.



This is the delta side of the river, the one near Sugarland. If you look at the screenshot you can see that the river is flowing toward a small earthen dam.



Now we have quarry side broken and rushing to the riverbed, the river is so close to living again it can feel it. The waters rush toward each other with only one last hurtle.



But I can't just let them meet yet. There needs to be ceremony. There needs to be opulence. This is the most important event in the history of The Bay.



That's more like it. Just like the East and West of the US was united by a golden railroad spike, a golden shovel shall burst the dams...



Oh what a long time and oh what effort it has taken to get this far. How far?

Here's a sample:



I do not have a map of the original world untouched, so I colored in the areas that had been altered in this map from around November. You can see though, the massive effort this took.

Season 5 to come! We're going back to The Bay!!! Its time to upgrade the facilities, and prepare for colonization of the oceans!!!