I'm commandeering this thread for a hot minute,
in the name of the Melon Vikings
Kidding! We're not doing that here. We're here to talk about the algebra of Minecraft, the thing you either love or hate.
Terraforming.
For the past few weeks people have been like,
Hey, Toons, nice floating house. GEE THANKS IT'S FLOATING FOR A REASON MMKK. And it is, and that reason is: This is where I wanted to put it. So that's what I did. Because I can. Because this is Minecraft, and I can turn the terrain into whatever my fabulously chilly heart desires.
This picture looks weird. The house looks Gigantic and the hill behind it looks dwarfed. And that's ok. Because we're painting a canvas here, and this is just the first few strokes.
Oh Yikes, it looks worse from the other side. Big yikes. But that's ok. You know why? Because it's Minecraft, and the blocks do what you tell them to, not the other way around. Let's get painting.
Boom. More paint. I've piled snow on the left side of the house. My thought process here is that when the wind is blowing, with the house wedged up tightly against the hill, this is where the snow would gather. The platform? Stone. It's cold here (I'm revamping the Frozen Tundra biome) so no dirt. Away with the dirt. Dirt's a warm block, we don't want dirt. The platform? No specifications. No measuring, no numbers, no counting. Just placing blocks, stepping back, and having a look.
So how's the other side look?
FIX IT!
Wabam. Again, no counting, just placing blocks. We're painting with blocks here. Think in strokes, not straight lines drawn with a ruler. It's a hill, in a rough environment, it doesn't need to be perfect, and neither do you. This side drops into a dried up riverbed, so it was a bit steep, but I've simply run it into the other side, cutting through the river, because this is my canvas and I can do whatever I want. (We'll come back to the river later.)
Terrain palette. We don't want just a stone platform. Sure, it's better than a floating house, but it's
boring. It's a Frozen Tundra. There's snow. Make snow drifts. In a desert? Sand drifts. Swamp? Mud. Use rocks, use wood, use leaves, use kelp, use hay, use ice. USE EVERYTHING!! Clutter it up, make it messy, paint over your build (Be brave! You can do it!) So that's just a few blocks, still kind of boring. What else can I do?
MOAR SNOW! AND FIRE! Working with snow allows me to use the snow layers. They'll melt close to light, but I don't give two doinks about safety. A few burning braziers, a wonky cobble step, and a bunch of snow layers have transformed this from a floaty house to something that looks lived in (It isn't, it's stone cold empty. But it sure looks pretty.)
So, that frozen, dried up river...?
Blocked off and painted over it. With nowhere to go, maybe the water sloshed up and froze. Whatever your read on it, a boring, narrow, grassy cut in the landscape has been repainted to fit into my build. Because it's mine, and I can put the blocks wherever the heck I want to.
@Rosleen 's terraforming class was fantastic, and the techniques were all ones I applied here. I wanted to post this an alternative example, a demonstration with some different blocks, to convey a different scene and temperature. Also as encouragement not to let the terrain dictate where and what you build. Our first instinct is to flatten, but don't be afraid to go in the opposite direction and just build in the air. Create your own terrain.
Paint it.
Our outcast, floaty house now fits snugly into the Frozen Tundra. From drab to fab.
If you want a closer look, feel free to visit me in NW. Preferably when I'm not there.
