I made a thing...

Discussion in 'Share Your EMC Creations' started by Coorisnar, Oct 1, 2016.

  1. ...and I want to show it off.

    For those of you who don't know me IG, I'm a builder, rather than a hunter. EMC is a great place to unleash my creative side, which I don't get much of a chance to do as a RL pro techy. I've only been playing MC for about 3 months longer than I've been on EMC.

    But I think I'm getting the hang of it, and I want to show one of em off now...

    Here goes...

    So, about 6 months back, I was adventuring, taking a break from building n just exploring. Out in my little row boat and I saw something in the water...and got some interesting IG messages coming up. So, I jumped over the side to investigate...



    Never seen one of these, nor even read about em, but I learned pretty quick to watch out for the ugly fish. Thankfully, I didn't get magiked that time round. I went back to base and regeared to go investigate some more. That time I died, a few times. I realized this was not going to work unless I knew what I was dealing with, so MinecraftWiki I went.

    An ocean temple...hmm...fancy, and looks pretty cool, but what's it good for, other than killing dumb newbs like myself. Fast forward to Youtube (amazing resource for learning what, where, and how to do with stuff in MC). So, ocean temples are good for making fish farms. I'd remembered the one that I got introduced to on SMP8, and was starting to understand the value of what I'd found.

    Creative juices started whirling in the brain. I contacted a couple of other players IG and in PM to get some ideas - fbuilder5 was one, and gave me some real good tips, despite the fact he'd never built one before.

    After a couple more weeks of Youtube and Google searching, I finally had a game plan and a rough idea of what I wanted. Let the sweat begin!!!

    First step was to get rid of the Elder Guardians, and that took a couple of days worth of trial and error. I can't say how many times I died, but I learned. My final approach was to come in from underneath, tunneling through the seabed to establish a mini sortie point directly under the temple. With me I brought a bed, soulbound gear, a maxed out diamond sword, a bunch of buckets, and a cow. Using milk and some extended water breathing potions, I finally got the elders killed after a few hours. First hurdle done!!!

    Next, as I'd read, was to drain the inside. Not easy to suck an ocean out of a building. I started by simply placing dirt...but this quickly proved to be extremely slow. So...sponges, and dirt, to section off the areas.

    Round about this time, I brought along a friend - one allygirl5. I'd found another temple, after I'd found this one, but easier to access and showed it to her a couple weeks before this time. She drowned on me (not surprising, she'd also drowned in my hottub - water and her just didn't get along). But, she was getting her adventure legs, so I showed her this one that I planned to empty out. She died, but no more than I did - and in the process we explored and emptied the entire building of water. She was great!!! Definitely got over her first adventure jitters.

    To those of you who've never been inside an ocean temple, they are a confusing connection of a bunch of small rooms. It was very confusing working our way through it. I finally started taking pictures after we'd cleared the water and the interior walls (unfortunately I didn't think to get any of allygirl5 - to my regret now - as she was a HUGE help and deserved the recognition), but this is what it looked like emptied of rooms and water..



    So, building is empty, now for the rest of the ocean around it. For those of you that've done this, you know the amount of work involved...and sand. I'd researched the needs, but I really had no idea of the quantity of sand I'd need. I do believe I cleared an entire biome in the waste. Which was fine...needed the glass later anyway.

    Now, I made a mistake in my planning. I figured, being as I was going to need 4 layers of water in the final design, I'd leave those levels now...and just work around em. Dumb...really dumb...took a week of idiotic work before I realized just how dumb, and decided to just eliminate all the water, and replace it later when I was ready.

    I don't have any pics of the emptying of the ocean, or the ridiculous effort it took to get there. I had allygirl5 back a few times to help me out with this, as well as another friend Omegian04. They weren't there everyday, but I'm thankful for their help, I have no idea how much longer it would have taken without them.

    Ocean cleared. Torches everywhere for mob control, and I started leveling out my build area, and expanding it to what I figured I'd need for the final build. Discovered round about this time that slimes spawn under any light condition, and I had 3 slime chunks that I'd just opened up.

    So, the plan changed. I'd build a mini slime farm, under the whole fish farm, and collect even more loot!!!

    Again, dumb...for not realizing what it was I had set myself up for. To top that off, in expanding my build area, I came across a zombie spawner, and 3 cave spider spawners within the range of my build. Go big, or go home!!! - and town to me was kinda boring at that point in my gaming. So, I expanded my plans.

    I started developing the fish farm, complete with decorations (ideas for which I stole from someone else), and this is a bit of the progression of that...



    First renditions...not bad...but needs something...?


    Much better. Wasn't 100% satisfied with it - the fact they weren't centered right, but that was an easy fix...just a little more time.

    From this point, the fish farm component progressed quite nicely. Creative juices flowing, I had no fear of tearing bits down n rebuilding them till I got em right. allygirl5 and Omegian04 came by with encouraging words a number of times, but as an aspiring artist, I wasn't accepting any help...rather selfish...but I did appreciate the encouragement, and just kept motoring on.


    Turned out OK. Fish are falling - that was the whole idea right? At first, I thought the design might be too busy...but it's grown on me.

    Originally I'd toyed with the idea of making this a public farm. At this point though, I didn't want to take the chance of griefers, so I kept it quiet except for a select few players and tourists.

    Underneath, I built rail collection. Took a while, in cramped spaces, to get the layout right - and the redstone. In hindsight, I should have left the floor for after the rails.

    I now had a functioning fish farm...but nowhere near done.
    Fexu, khixan, ShelLuser and 20 others like this.
  2. Part II

    As I said...nowhere near done.

    Moving on to underneath. As I said, while building the fish farm, I found 3 slime chunks inside my build area. I built up all 3 with 4 levels...the most I could squeeze in under the fish farm. Took a long while to figure out the mob transport, and I'm still not 100% happy with it. Final result was 1x1 slimes, available for auto-kill or manual for XP and more loot.

    Next, the zombie grinder. This was much easier as I'd built a few of these already. Added into the design a filter for babies and chicken riders, and...well it works ok. Again, not 100% happy with it, but it's functional.

    I've now got loot from 3 different farms pouring into my collection system. Time for a base room to put it all in. I'd noticed that there was a decent sized area that touched the spawn range for all three farms, and decided my base room would go there. With all the loot coming in various collection routes, it took a while to get it sorted out and centralized...lots of packed ice and hoppers.

    The result...almost made me weep...

    I give you...The Velvet Room

    So named, because every time I rode the rail into this room - and I did that alot, just for the experience of feeling it - it felt like I was wrapped in a velvet cocoon under the ocean. Loot comes in through a sorter. The extreme right and left show where the manual areas are for zombies and slimes. The center pillar was pretty cool...had a glass item elevator in it, so you could see all the loot rising through it to the sorter area....course 1.9 broke that. Still looks good though. Even with the look of the room, part of what made this feel so good was knowing what all was behind the walls, ceiling, and floors. There's a massive amount of infrastructure feeding this room.

    On a roll now, feeling pretty good about building and creative skills, and I just kept pushing on. Next up...cave spider grinder. Now I hate these things...seriously hate em. The noise they make is irritating, they're poisonous, they jump, and they climb walls. All of which makes em a pain to deal with and work around. So my first step was a switch - flick it, and it turns on lights around all 3 spawners. Now I can work in peace and build at my own pace.

    Though the lights made it easier...by far the hardest part was water transport to the kill zone. As I said, spiders climb - it took me better than a week to work out a way where most of the spiders would end up in the kill zone. Royal pain I tell ya. Got that done, and being as the rest of the build out here was spruced up - I had to do the same with this one.

    Balcony is the kill zone. There's 3 squares there that if you stand there, you'll be in spawn range for all three grinders. The most satisfying part of this...the noise 20-30 spiders make squealing as they get crushed...THAT sound, I love it. Lower area is loot and XP collection - the balls don't always pop up to the balcony. Need 1 more cave spider head to round out the collection - and if you stand back about 20 blocks...this whole thing looks like a massive queen spider...pretty sweet.

    During all this, Omegian04 and allygirl5 came by fairly frequently to see the updates. They both gave plenty of encouragement, and offered to help alot...but being as I wasn't sure where this was all going, I wanted to do it by myself. Selfish maybe...and I hope neither of em took offense to my refusals to their offers. Gave tours to a few other players as well...overall response was 'WOW!' or variations thereof...I was happy :D
    Fexu, khixan, ShelLuser and 9 others like this.
  3. Part III

    About this time, I had a colossal problem. Loot...and stuff, or debris might be a better word. I decided that while I thought about next steps, it was time to haul it back to res. I'm a bit of a hoarder, so everything went back - round about 30 DCs, I'd say half of it stone, but ALOT of real value loot too. Riding the rails back n forth to res, I realized that if this was going to continue to be a profitable build, I'd need some storage onsite - so a new project idea took root.

    Treasure of this sort - well it deserves respect...
    It deserves - The Undersea Vault

    Center is somewhere near 20 blocks high I think. Spider grinder is off pic to the left, chests can be seen on the right wall, and off pic to the right. Furnaces here, as well as an enchantment room - just cause, why not. Got dizzy plenty of times spinning around looking at the ceiling. To the discerning eye, you'll notice that the walls n ceiling have weird jogs n corners to em, despite the even vaulted look to it. The reason for this is it's surrounded by the slime farms, the spider grinders, the velvet room, and the fish farm above. The only open space is beyond the enchanting table....the rest had to be built conforming with immovable areas. It was a tight fit and got torn down and rebuilt in pretty much every section till it looked right. End result - if I hadn't told ya - you wouldn't know that around pretty much the entire room is functioning machines filling the chests up.

    This was a different type of build compared to all my previous ones. Playing with circles and vaults was alot of fun. I expect to use this alot more in future builds.

    Over all look, this room bespokes treasure, under the sea - a fitting representation I think. Quite pleased with myself...

    ...and a little burnt out. At this point, I stopped building out here for a couple months. Went to town, made some new friends, worked on my res ideas a little - got some sunshine. Still had ideas for expansion, but they needed to percolate. I gave tours to a few more players with similar results. This is now a pretty special area for me. It's an incredible build from what I hear...pretty much all done by me. This is proof to me that creativity is back in my life - goal accomplished :cool:
    Fexu, ShelLuser, Patr1cV and 9 others like this.
  4. Part IV

    ...and then came Anti-Grief...
    I gotta say 'Mountain sized kudos!' to the dev team on that. That feature guarantees that I'll be on EMC for a very long time. I'd always worried about griefers on my builds - all of em...not just this one. Immense amounts of time and energy to build em up, I didn't want some puke destroying em just for fun - so I kept em pretty quiet. I've given most of my friends the tour by this time, and a few others that I figured I could trust. Only griefs I really got were to the nether link rail system. I got lucky I think.

    Anti-Grief changed all that. It didn't take long for me to realize that I could safely show more people my builds, and bask in their praise - ego needs feeding too right :rolleyes:

    So, I came back out, closed off a number of areas, so only friends could get in - knowing I could trust them. While doing that, I started toying with the idea of a public announcement. My only concern was players coming in an wanting to build here...I ain't done yet...so no you can't build here. But unfortunately, this area doesn't meet the requirements for an Empire.

    But, then I heard...and I think I knew this already, but still surprised me....
    SMP5 doesn't have a publicly available easy to access fish farm...not like SMP8 anyway. If there is one...no one I've talked to knows about it.

    Needless to say, my build list grew. I set aside the expansions ideas, and started adding in features that would make it better for public use. First was some forests. Wood is always good to have, especially in the middle of the ocean - also the most efficient way to get fuel to cook all your fish. Then I went to the nether link and spruced up the access to the portal here. Lined the route with sea lanterns to make it easy to follow, cause it was rather confusing. Plans are in the works to WOW that run up some...after after.

    allygirl5 again gave me encouragement on this, and was out helping with the additions. Zelda2786, who'd taken up residence in the castle at One Tree nearby was out helping a bunch as well. We enjoyed ourselves immensely as we added some minor utilities to the area. Unfortunately, Omegian04 hasn't been seen for months now - sad. Few more people out for tours with the same awestruck looks on their faces. I think the best reaction so far was from JohnDeere89 - thanks mate...ego is fattening up quite nicely now :cool:

    And finally...the ultimate reason for this ridiculously long tale...

    SMP5 I give you a fish farm - free for anyone to use - not available for building!!

    Overland access is rough...there is a public rail system that comes up all the way from /wild s spawn to east of the fish farm...but it's still a long trek from there - bring a boat as well as a rail cart and head to -775 , 14185. Travel time...upwards of 15 mins. :eek:

    For those looking for an easier, faster...and safer route - follow these directions:
    • Head to /wild s and head south off the spawn platform
    • Bottom of the stairs, to your right is a portal - go through it. Still inside protected area
    • In the nether you'll find yourself in my nether terminal. Lots of things off this terminal - not all of em mine by any means - feel free to explore at your leisure. If it's the fish farm you're wanting - turn west and start following the sea lantern path
    • You'll do a rail ride, a walk down a tunnel and some stairs, and then down another tunnel at the bottom of the stairs to the portal.
    • It's impossible to miss, and hard to get lost if you're following the sea lanterns.
    • Travel time...about 4 mins
    • Once through the portal, you're on the surface, the fish farm is underneath you. The layout is pretty open on the surface, but there are some areas that are still under construction
    • Look for the ladders down...there's two of em at surface level
    Due to slimes spawning in all light conditions, and mobs spawning in trees...the area is only about 90% safe. Come armed and armored, but you may not need it. Currently, collection for public is the manual method - run around and collect your loot. I haven't decided if I'll be opening up the velvet room and the vault to public yet - but I'll give tours to anyone who asks. Plans in the works for public storage, furnaces, and all the rest of the utilities you'd expect or need at a public farm. I'll post updates as they get done.

    So...SMP5, you now have a fish farm. Use it, enjoy it, respect it.

    Thanks all for reading - hope you enjoyed. Coors out.

    UPDATE:
    1. As per request, a storage area has been added for players to lock up their loot in chests...see further in thread for details.
    Fexu, ShelLuser, God_Of_Gods and 10 others like this.
  5. Wow that's nice. Reminds me of Sushi Drop on smp8.

    You did this all by yourself? Wow, I'm more of an explorer. I do dabble in building but haven't done anything like this....

    I really like it, congrats.
    khixan and cowland123 like this.
  6. Got the general idea from there. Seemed to be common with fish farm builds I found in my research.
    I had a fully story typed up...but EMC limits it to 100k chars...and I lost the rest in transition.
    Look for further installments of the story as I re-write it...and a public opening, of sorts.
    MajorHaze likes this.
  7. Whoa that's awesome, man! (better than smp8's PWU :p)
    A_Chespin_511 likes this.
  8. good job :)
  9. WOW! I can see the results of your hard work! It's a beautiful thing you built & let the public use, lets hope everyone respects that. :D It's enormous... I love the afk pool mostly, just sit & relax. I've never met anyone with such creative juices, I'm impressed.... literally at awesomeness stuck. Great work Coors!!
    A_Chespin_511 likes this.
  10. Looks amazing in the pictures can't wait to visit.
  11. Your generosity is only surpassed by your aesthetic talent. Thanks Coorisnar!
    A_Chespin_511 likes this.
  12. This is the sort of farm that I aspire to make: functional, efficient, and most of all, beautiful. I must admit, seeing the velvet room killed me a bit inside knowing that it was not mine.
  13. I'm in the process of making a guardian farm myself, this has definitely inspired me. Nice job!
    A_Chespin_511 likes this.
  14. Good Job Coorisnar! The pictures look great, didn't know you took so many! Good job. You worked so hard on this so glad it turned out good.
    A_Chespin_511 likes this.
  15. Wanna thank you all for the fabulous responses. I do enjoy seeing what my brain can come up with for building, and apparently there's plenty that appreciate it...which makes it even better. I've had a few people come by for tours so far, figure by the responses here that there will be more. Hit me with a PM IG and I'll show you around.

    Thanks to all!
    Coors out
  16. Nice build, I really love seeing other players' builds. :)
  17. All I can say is... this place is EPIC!
  18. UPDATE
    I promised amazing, and hope it meets that mark. Took a few pics during construction process - still find myself too much 'in the zone' when I'm building to remember though.

    Initial design

    Little more progress on design

    Some utilities added in. Design is good...now for the entrance and the WOW. ;)

    The entrance. Was looking for subtle, that wouldn't detract from the overall look of the farm too much. It fits that, and is still obvious enough without tacky signs.

    And...the (mostly) finished product...


    The ceiling actually punches through the sea floor to be visible from the observation level of the fish farm. The view from the ocean, above the dome is pretty cool.

    There's still some work to do on interior design...and of course, in building this, I came up with a few more additions that I'll be adding later - but, the storage room is ready for use. There is a supply of chests and signs inside, visibly labelled and easy to find beside the entrance. Due to the anti-grief, I can't set the signs and chests up for you, cause you won't be able to lock em. So help yourself to a chest and a sign, and lock up your loot. Please only one chest per player. Also, there are no traps or trapped chests, so just pick an empty spot. As it fills up, you'll need to bring your own materials for chests and trapped chests, and signs - forests are at surface level if you need wood. There's plenty to get folks started though.

    So, stop by, enjoy the build, grab some loot, and lock up a chest. And keep checking this thread - more treats and features to come over time.

    Coors out.
    khixan, Zelda2786 and ShelLuser like this.
  19. Pretty cool what you've done here. Definitely something to be proud of.