Building

[Sock_Guy101]

Howdy guys, this thread is going to be about building and the various tips and tricks I use along certain guidelines I follow. I'll also Include my opinion on how things are typically done and how things should be done. This topic can be sensitive (but only to some). The group that might be offended should already be apparent by the title. But I didn't come here to offend anyone lmfao. No infact i came her to trade thoughts with like minded people in regard to building. BTW, Thread is a bit Lengthy! but take your time you might enjoy what I have to say! Please Refrain from any UNNECESSARY NEGATIVE comments that have nothing to do with the damn subject Thank You!

Here is a rundown of the topics I'll cover in regard to building:

• Age
• Time
• Setting
• How realistic a build is
• Fantasy
• Building Subjectivit

I'll start by saying Building is Very Fun. There isn't a great lot of people that possess the skill of a 'Builder' (unrelated to the hhgn builders) I use the term 'Builder' as a broad term because there is a lot that goes into having the skill of a 'Builder'. I look around any server and I see creations everywhere. What is Minecraft? Well its a block game, but what exactly brings minecraft to life? Ponder that very sentence for a couple moments. Bring minecraft to life. See building as you've guessed in minecraft to make a beautiful build you have to replicate life. I've probably up till this point told you stuff you already knew.

(Remember this next paragraph is completely my opinion)

Building in minecraft has an aspect of subjectivity to it (Meaning beauty is held in the eyes of the beholder in this case). This aspect can only be taking up to a certain point. I bet many of the HHGN builders would agree with me that me and many others know what looks like total crap and what looks amazing/realistic. But here is where things Clash! Everyone has a different perspective on how things should look. Some examples of this is Tree making and Terraforming.

In Tree making like all other builds you want to replicate real life while giving it an obvious [This is still minecraft] Look Does that make sense? I was talking to iiJam on the creative server maybe a week ago on the trees I had made on my skywars map. He suggested or told me that what he would've done ix mix the leaves on the trees. (Look below at my signature to see the picture) In this matter I will have to disagree with iiJam on this one. Yes, in certain situation the mixing of leaves is very necessary! But there is a very good reason I chose not to do this in my skywars map. See, in a snow/winter setting there are pine trees. The spruce leaves in minecraft offer a very cold effect, mixing leaves in this setting only accomplishes one thing, a tattered mixed effect that pine trees simply don't have.

Terraforming, wow this will be controversial guys. Really Apologize for this! But again I say that this is how it looks to me and quite honestly I think it should be changed but i'm open to what anyone has to say. Alright, so terraforming in minecraft is basically making really nice detailed land. And what I typically find is that what minecraft builders will tell you is Mix The terrain up put random stuff everywhere! If Its Not detailed Your doing it Wrong! <----In my opinion this is a BIG no no! There is nothing wrong in making a simplistic build, meaning make your build first Make Sense, second Don't over do the detail (That includes blocks to!) idk what was the command? I think //replace (block)(block)(block) is absolute POISON Do you know what w/e command i'm talking about? Yea its poison. Every time I've seen this command used it destroys the builds terrain. In my opinion that command make your build look like there is Too Much Going On! That is a Bad Thing! You want to add enough detail to your terrain that it looks life like but at the same time an Arcade kind-of look. Stop trying to use the //replace (block)(block)(block) command as of the dimensions of minecraft could look just like real life Its minecraft not actual life! I think theres real beauty in simplicity meaning adding enough detail to support the dimensions of minecraft but replicating real life at the same time.

I forgot who made the build above, But this build is amazing to me apart from the ground and how the street was done I'd like to say That in this setting (being a city) this gave a feeling of a Really fun parkour Do you know Why? It Gave it an arcade like feeling while replicating life. Throughout the build you are parkour-ing over things generally are in real life but suited to minecrafts dimensions. Building isn't all just trying to make it life-like. Its about suiting your build to complement minecrafts dimensions. This build also says HEY I'M SIMPLE! Trust me guys Thats a Mighty Good thing. It makes the player doing parkour have more fun. I honestly felt this was the funnest parkour I ever did simply because its simplicity arcade-like feeling it had on me.

I'll be transparent with anyone I'll tell you your build doesn't look good if that is the case. Now as far as your own building goes, the only thing I have to say with Age is it simply means you need to experience life a little more to grasp what things look like irl (Get outside more) (Go See things) (See buildings) As you age you typically know whats realistic and whats not. Realistic as in a minecraft building sense.

Fantasy, is another theme you may follow and try to achieve. Again in short of what I said earlier your goal is not to replicate life exactly...because the dimensions definitely dont add up! The only reason I mention fantasy though is in correlation to minecrafts dimensions is that you can build arcade-like/fun builds that still replicate life a little.

I mentioned Setting earlier when I stated my disagreement with iiJam on the topic of leaf mixing. All I can say for this is that you must follow a setting everything has a function and you must follow the setting so over all your build makes sense and minecraft-like (Not Too Life-like) Your setting must have function and everything has to make sense to look good.

Heres a recap of everything I said into a short To-Do/Step by Step Plan for the next time you build

First you need a plan:

1. Decide what theme your going to build
2. Make a diagram next (A structure making everything even) This could literally be applied to anything weather its a pvp map or a skywars map or even a hunger games map. You need to plan first before you build anything!
3. Build the terrain first then make buildings. Dont start on any housing until the terrain looks perfect. So taking from what I said earlier dont //replace (block)(block)(block everywhere Thats Nuts and Unrealistic in everyday shape and form Not to mention it causes server lag. Suit your terrain and buildings to the dimension of minecraft. And dont go over board on the detail. If your going to have a mixed block terrain making the patches Bigger wider more expansive. Not a block away from eachother
4. Leave the build alone for a while maybe a week. Have people come by and give their opinions on it. Fix some things. Don't be afraid to take advice, but don't needlessly agree with every advice tip your given some tips might actually be bad tips that'll make the build worse.

Alright, i Think i'm done here. These were my thoughts on building I hope you got something out of it. I might post more pictures and examples in the future if I haven't perfectly explained the message i'm trying to convey here already. So I'd love to see feedback and your thoughts

Specifically though someone argue with me about terraforming and mixing oak leaves with spruce leaves in a winter/arctic setting. Am I the only one that thinks theres way too much going on in IcyStreams (Skywars Map)(New Build Team creation). I find conflict in our differentiated building perspectives!

Thanks for Reading!
-Sock_Guy101

 

[EPICMATT88]

I can agree with some of this. Personally, all I can really say as my suggestion for everyone is to always have a vision or inspiration before you build. If you don't have a vision or inspiration your build may come out feeling dull or lifeless. Also when building your idea find the style that suits it best then pick and stick with that certain style (unless your build calls for varying ideas); no matter what the style is (modern, rustic, simplistic, traditional, etc.) Thats about all I can say; most of all though, you need to enjoy what you are doing. Without the fun factor of building; your build becomes boring and you'll be bored too XD.
I hope my "advice" helps too
-EpicMatt

 

[youngfloppa]

DUDE I LOVE YOU!!!!! i agree 100% with all you say, randomised blocks on terrain looks spammy, unrealistic and lazy. When you paint your terrain you can almost make it look like an art piece. Some randomised blocks you can get away with eg. Stone and andesite, they are the same colour and pretty much the same texture, so you can't really see the difference between the blocks. When I do terrain I use a lot of commands. I either upload a texture using sprite craft and paste it onto my terrain, for large terrain I use the angle mask in worldedit, it's a quick and easy way of painting (//gmask /0:40d) that command means that it will only replace a block between 0 degrees and 40 degrees. The last way I paint terrain which is the prettiest, though not always the most realistic is just by painting it with different types of blocks like bedrock to add different shades, instead of just snow I would use diorite and sometimes even quartz, for sand I could use birch wood or end stone, I don't use a randomised command like //replace 12,5:2,121 I would use the sphere brush and mask whatever I'm painting (when I'm making maps for the server I use a very useful plugin called gopaint). One last tip for this style is that you can blend in the blocks slightly, it's hard to explain but it's something we told Sam to do on the map blossom, he painted the terrain but it looked a bit splodgy and unnatural. Sorry I've been rambling on, I just skipped my grammar tbh.
Here are some images of some nice realistic looking terrain

(http://imgur.com/FCGHhOu)

(http://imgur.com/vpAkurc)

(http://imgur.com/LjwNI86)

(http://imgur.com/1YYMVQW)

 

[Sock_Guy101]

I can agree with some of this. Personally, all I can really say as my suggestion for everyone is to always have a vision or inspiration before you build. If you don't have a vision or inspiration your build may come out feeling dull or lifeless. Also when building your idea find the style that suits it best then pick and stick with that certain style (unless your build calls for varying ideas); no matter what the style is (modern, rustic, simplistic, traditional, etc.) Thats about all I can say; most of all though, you need to enjoy what you are doing. Without the fun factor of building; your build becomes boring and you'll be bored too XD.
I hope my "advice" helps too
-EpicMatt

I forgot to mention that in the thread, EPICMATT88 makes a great point. You have to be having fun. I cant tell you guys how much fun it was building my skywars map using w/e and tweaking it with my hand. Check it out on creative! /p v Sock_Guy101 4

 

[pofoproud]

okay i can't read it all cuz I'm wayyyy to lazy but ill try my best lol

 

[pofoproud]

i read it all and lemme tell u, ya hit the bullseye with this its so accurate i sound like a valley girl but oh well

 

[pofoproud]

First you need a plan:

1. Decide what theme your going to build
2. Make a diagram next (A structure making everything even) This could literally be applied to anything weather its a pvp map or a skywars map or even a hunger games map. You need to plan first before you build anything!
3. Build the terrain first then make buildings. Dont start on any housing until the terrain looks perfect. So taking from what I said earlier dont //replace (block)(block)(block everywhere Thats Nuts and Unrealistic in everyday shape and form Not to mention it causes server lag. Suit your terrain and buildings to the dimension of minecraft. And dont go over board on the detail. If your going to have a mixed block terrain making the patches Bigger wider more expansive. Not a block away from eachother
4. Leave the build alone for a while maybe a week. Have people come by and give their opinions on it. Fix some things. Don't be afraid to take advice, but don't needlessly agree with every advice tip your given some tips might actually be bad tips that'll make the build worse.

i honestly need to save this part u said it better than most builders on the hhg bt

 

[iiJam]

Spoiler: Texture

Firstly, good on you for making this thread!

I was talking to iiJam on the creative server maybe a week ago on the trees I had made on my skywars map. He suggested or told me that what he would've done ix mix the leaves on the trees. (Look below at my signature to see the picture) In this matter I will have to disagree with iiJam on this one. Yes, in certain situation the mixing of leaves is very necessary! But there is a very good reason I chose not to do this in my skywars map. See, in a snow/winter setting there are pine trees. The spruce leaves in minecraft offer a very cold effect, mixing leaves in this setting only accomplishes one thing, a tattered mixed effect that pine trees simply don't have.

When you were talking about using spruce leaves on your skywars map because they look cold, there are just some blocks that are all around bad on their own (lapis, bedrock, diorite, spruce leaves.) The textures are just horrible. (But see my 5'th plot if you want an example of how to use something like bedrock in a better way.
)
Spruce leaves look too repetitive if they're the only leaves used in a tree. That's your build, you do whatever you think works. Im just expressing my opinion.
I kind of get what you're getting at with trying to be realistic or whatever with the spruce leavea being the only ones looking 'cold' or whatever. But it's a game of imagination and creativity, so I honestly don't care. Birch leaves work just as fine mixed in with spruce leaves and look better.

The point I'm making about this whole texture whatever situation is that texture is something that %99 percent of builds should have (unless your going for a modern look or whatever) but things need verity or they look mediocre and bland. Just my opinion..

Spoiler: Terraforming

idk what was the command? I think //replace (block)(block)(block) is absolute POISON Do you know what w/e command i'm talking about? Yea its poison. Every time I've seen this command used it destroys the builds terrain. In my opinion that command make your build look like there is Too Much Going On! That is a Bad Thing! You want to add enough detail to your terrain that it looks life like but at the same time an Arcade kind-of look. Stop trying to use the //replace (block)(block)(block) command as of the dimensions of minecraft could look just like real life Its minecraft not actual life! I think theres real beauty in simplicity meaning adding enough detail to support the dimensions of minecraft but replicating real life at the same time.

Yeah, I agree with you on the most part here. I see soo many builds when they just select their terrain and do a replace command. Details in terraforming is just as important as details in a structure.
This is how terraforming should be done.

But I wouldn't go as far as calling //replace poison. In fact, //replacenear and //replace are the world edit commands I use most (usually when I'm too lazy to set my pos1 and pos2 ) It's one of the best world edit commands that is easy to learn and efficient. Replace is just just used wrongly - in terraforming, as you said.



Also, I totally agree with your list of how to structure your approach towards building.

 

[Trenly]

Yeah, I agree with you on the most part here. I see soo many builds when they just select their terrain and do a replace command. Details in terraforming is just as important as details in a structure.
This is how terraforming should be done.

But I wouldn't go as far as calling //replace poison. In fact, //replacenear and //replace are the world edit commands I use most (usually when I'm too lazy to set my pos1 and pos2 ) It's one of the best world edit commands that is easy to learn and efficient. Replace is just just used wrongly - in terraforming, as you said.

I agree that replace and replacenear are useful, and that a single replace command is usually quite unattractive. That doesn't mean it can't work in the right setting, but it does have to be carefully considered.

Here are some images of some nice realistic looking terrain

Yes, those are quite realistic, but you also have to consider scale. Those look great from far away, and would be great as part of a really large map. However for smaller maps or terrains, that style is not always the best. As I said to Jam, it doesn't mean it can't work in the right setting, but it does have to be carefully considered.

Just my opinions

 

[Vicke]

Specifically though someone argue with me about terraforming and mixing oak leaves with spruce leaves in a winter/arctic setting. Am I the only one that thinks theres way too much going on in IcyStreams (Skywars Map)(New Build Team creation). I find conflict in our differentiated building perspectives!

Some maps are being prioritized to look good before play well. That's something that needs to change to make a gamemode like Skywars more enjoyable.

 

[joexxx6]

We could make a book out of this.

 

[Sock_Guy101]

Spoiler: Texture

Firstly, good on you for making this thread!



When you were talking about using spruce leaves on your skywars map because they look cold, there are just some blocks that are all around bad on their own (lapis, bedrock, diorite, spruce leaves.) The textures are just horrible. (But see my 5'th plot if you want an example of how to use something like bedrock in a better way.
)
Spruce leaves look too repetitive if they're the only leaves used in a tree. That's your build, you do whatever you think works. Im just expressing my opinion.
I kind of get what you're getting at with trying to be realistic or whatever with the spruce leavea being the only ones looking 'cold' or whatever. But it's a game of imagination and creativity, so I honestly don't care. Birch leaves work just as fine mixed in with spruce leaves and look better.

The point I'm making about this whole texture whatever situation is that texture is something that %99 percent of builds should have (unless your going for a modern look or whatever) but things need verity or they look mediocre and bland. Just my opinion..

Spoiler: Terraforming

Yeah, I agree with you on the most part here. I see soo many builds when they just select their terrain and do a replace command. Details in terraforming is just as important as details in a structure.
This is how terraforming should be done.

But I wouldn't go as far as calling //replace poison. In fact, //replacenear and //replace are the world edit commands I use most (usually when I'm too lazy to set my pos1 and pos2 ) It's one of the best world edit commands that is easy to learn and efficient. Replace is just just used wrongly - in terraforming, as you said.



Also, I totally agree with your list of how to structure your approach towards building.

Remember iiJam we share different opinions only on the winter/arctic setting leaves. That is one setting out of many. So I agree with you in mixing leaves pretty much everywhere else except in this case lmfao, but its alright, the world needs variety. Neither of our opinions would necessarily wreck the build!

I'd like to repeat the message I was trying to convey in regard to //replace. I think your completely right here iiJam that its simply misused. You know a lot more about world edit than I do, I only started about 2 weeks ago. Mainly what i'm waiting for is to have someone prove me wrong when the use the command //replace(block)(block)(block), because whenever I've seen it done its been used poorly. As you are the more experienced builder i'll take your word on the rest. Also, yea I could think of some great ways I could use //replace myself btw!

 

[me32305]

Some maps are being prioritized to look good before play well. That's something that needs to change to make a gamemode like Skywars more enjoyable.

That's a good point. Who cares how it looks if it's not as fun to play has a map that doesn't look has good. I would choose the bad looking map that's fun over the good map looking map that's not has good.

 

[joexxx6]

That's a good point. Who cares how it looks if it's not as fun to play has a map that doesn't look has good. I would choose the bad looking map that's fun over the good map looking map that's not has good.

*cough* *cough* Trenly

 

[Sock_Guy101]

That's a good point. Who cares how it looks if it's not as fun to play has a map that doesn't look has good. I would choose the bad looking map that's fun over the good map looking map that's not has good.

Some maps are being prioritized to look good before play well. That's something that needs to change to make a gamemode like Skywars more enjoyable.

If you guys are interested, I could tell you a little more than what I did to my skywars map to make it not only hopefully beautiful xD but what I did with the mechanics of the build to make it more enjoyable for players to play on. If you guys didn't already know i'm big on skywars, its probably the funnest game mode apart from creative in my opinion.

But Yea pm me about the mechanics of my skywars map if your interested! Theres Science in the Build!

 

[Vicke]

If you guys are interested, I could tell you a little more than what I did to my skywars map to make it not only hopefully beautiful xD but what I did with the mechanics of the build to make it more enjoyable for players to play on. If you guys didn't already know i'm big on skywars, its probably the funnest game mode apart from creative in my opinion.

But Yea pm me about the mechanics of my skywars map if your interested! Theres Science in the Build!

Tell me. If there's something that isn't too great about your map is that the distance between the spawn islands and the middle island is too far away from each other in order to make the map fast paced.

 

[Sock_Guy101]

Tell me. If there's something that isn't too great about your map is that the distance between the spawn islands and the middle island is too far away from each other in order to make the map fast paced.

Trust me, there is plenty of chests. As a long time skywars player myself, I can definitely say that mid wont have any effect on how "fast paced" as you would like it. Remember that skywars as a game mode isn't about PvP (Sword Combat). The way maps are designed here on HHGN is for you the player to figure out the safest way to keep yourself alive while trying to kill all the other players! You may use any method you please to kill the other players and knock em off! Skywars is a Mind Game here on the HHGN, that is also what makes Skywars here on HHG so unique and fun!

I also would like to mention I am still in the process of critiquing my map. I really like criticism because it helps me improve my map. I definitely do not want to make it seem like my map is the best map out there, there is plenty wrong with my map and i'm sure many people wont like it infact. But that is expected in a diverse community. My main goal is to Try to please all. I think there is always room for improvement.

Vicke, think of the semi-circles as apart of Mid.

Hope this helped!