Looking for help with a project

[morvelaira]

Hi Guys.

If you've been around these boards for a while, you've probably heard me talk about my pie-in-the-sky BTW project - the Tower of Doom(tm).

For a long time now I've had a general idea of what I want it to be, but the more and more I attempt to make it a reality, the more I realize that I just don't have the skills to take my thoughts and daydreams and even start to turn them into something real. I don't have the artistic vision to turn my thoughts into concept, I don't have building skills to turn that concept into reality. I don't have mechanical skills to make everything work in BTW, or even an idea of how much space will be needed.

That said... does anyone want to help? Perhaps this could be some kind of brainstorming thread and we could all build it together once BTW (hopefully) goes SMP. Thoughts?

[Stormweaver]

Brainstorming thread sounds like a good plan tbh. Count me in in some fashion :)

[RaustBlackDragon]

I'll help if I can :)

[Gargantuan_Penguin]

I have been thinking about Building a tower of doom of some sort for a long time as well.

my general design would be this. have an outer wall of the material of your choice be it obsidian, stone bricks netherbrick or what have you. this would be ENORMOUS. not very tall but enormous.

directly inside the wall I would have a courtyard area maybe extending 40 meters inwards from the wall. you could keep animals some rooms with chests and maybe a sort of guard room filled with weapons in this area.

next we start on the tower itself. Whenever I build towers I always build tiered things. in the case of a tower of doom I would be building a mountain essentially. since vmc doesn't have lone mountains for the most part it would be difficult to find a place for something like this. but with some work with mining charges we could level a mountain range of all except on properly formed mountain. the "outer shell" of the mountain fortress would be all about defense. so windows with chests filled with bows an arrows. buttons that drop lava on invaders. this would take up only the outer shell.

the next shell in and down would be farms etc. big ones. automated ones. beneath that we would have mines and mobtraps.

moving up from teh farms. above that would be factories for things like pottery steel, soul urns etc. this takes up quite a lot of space, especially if we want mass production.

in again. this is where we have the heart of the fortress. chests filled with gold and diamonds and oh so delicious steel. and in the center of it all a portal to the nether.

:edit: think orthanc but bigger

[morvelaira]

See, the basics for the tower of doom I've had in my head are as follows:

A tower stretching the majority of the height limit between bedrock and top of the world. In the middle of the ocean, where there's a swirling vortex of water around it. Delicate train tracks coming up from the water to swoop around the tower (for full viewing impact) before returning to the water to arrive or depart at an underwater train station. For some reason in my mind, I've always thought of the tower itself as being hourglass shaped, but I don't know why. I also see a lush garden at the top.

In my vision as well it would be fully functional automation-wise. Containing animal farms and processing plants - monster farms - access to the nether realm - secret entrances to intricately hidden and trapped vaults in the deep below.

That's about as condensed and clear as I get my thoughts about this down. Any help fleshing this out would help.

[BinoAl]

It shall be a phallus of EPIC proportions!

[FurkeyRefills]

Yeah, I'm in.
Love to work on a group project, I usually only play single player in MC.

This is what I got when I searched "Tower of Doom" xD

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[gftweek]

See, the basics for the tower of doom I've had in my head are as follows:

A tower stretching the majority of the height limit between bedrock and top of the world. In the middle of the ocean, where there's a swirling vortex of water around it. Delicate train tracks coming up from the water to swoop around the tower (for full viewing impact) before returning to the water to arrive or depart at an underwater train station. For some reason in my mind, I've always thought of the tower itself as being hourglass shaped, but I don't know why. I also see a lush garden at the top.

In my vision as well it would be fully functional automation-wise. Containing animal farms and processing plants - monster farms - access to the nether realm - secret entrances to intricately hidden and trapped vaults in the deep below.

That's about as condensed and clear as I get my thoughts about this down. Any help fleshing this out would help.

Here's some thoughts I had on this concept:

My advice would be to try building scale models in creative mode to see how you want the exterior to look, play around with different building materials, and basic outlines, then try filling in the details later once you like the overall shape (I got some good design tips from watching dan021's medieval minecrafting build series, and of course Battosay know a good thing or two about nice design).

After that work out how you want to lay out the tower for example, rooftop garden, crops, animals, crop and animal processing machinery, steelworks, storage room, crafting area, living space/entry, transport station (not sure if underwater boat launchers still work, otherwise just train station/mineshaft storage cart dropoff zone), demonic nether portal room, underground garden, entrance to mines, bedrock.
Then you can sort out how much space is required for each floor, most floors will need to be 3-4blocks high (tree farm taller of course), with a buffer zone of 2-3 blocks between floors for machinery, gearboxes/axles, wiring etc.

[rhacer]

Are you wanting to build it completely legit?

[Catox]

I don't have the artistic vision to turn my thoughts into concept,

I'd say your description is already pretty evocative, so here is what it makes me visualize, to give you a "vision" and let you see if it sticks to your idea or if you need to add precision or corrections.

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(it's very rough)

[Stormweaver]

it should probably have a half-scale tower of doom in the nether too, with similar aims (farms, mobtrap, etc).

If we think of it as brainstorming for a community project come SMP, I think a nice town in the nether would be fitting; the surrounding areas being properly terraformed into plains and deserts ofc.

[morvelaira]

I don't have the artistic vision to turn my thoughts into concept,

I'd say your description is already pretty evocative, so here is what it makes me visualize, to give you a "vision" and let you see if it sticks to your idea or if you need to add precision or corrections.

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(it's very rough)

That... actually is on the right track. It's missing the delicate rail lines, and the ocean vortex, but yeah. That's not a bad starting place. Also - while that drawing is rough, it also already puts my art skills to shame :D

And yeah, Stormweaver! Half-scale version in the Nether... with maybe a swirly, lava vortex moat around it? :D

[Ethinolicbob]

I'm in for simple dumb labour if needed

[Katalliaan]

Morv, were you thinking of a vortex on this scale:

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Yes, it's from World of Warcraft. But it gets the point across.

With the tower being where the beam of energy comes down?

[morvelaira]

The scale of the vortex comparative to the beam of light is a little big, but not terribly so. It would probably depend a lot on how large the external diameter of the tower itself winds up being.

[Katalliaan]

Yeah, I was just using the beam as a point of reference for where the tower would be, not as a goal for the width.

[jorgebonafe]

Is it possible to make a vortex with MC water? I'm thinking if it is, it would be even harder then what I did for my base on Edolas (drying a lake)

[Zhil]

Is it possible to make a vortex with MC water? I'm thinking if it is, it would be even harder then what I did for my base on Edolas (drying a lake)

Sounds possible enough. We should try it. Making one that drains straight to the center is easy, but one that swirls might be a lot harder.

[morvelaira]

Is it possible to make a vortex with MC water? I'm thinking if it is, it would be even harder then what I did for my base on Edolas (drying a lake)

Sounds possible enough. We should try it. Making one that drains straight to the center is easy, but one that swirls might be a lot harder.

*nod nod* I would prefer one with a swirl, but I wasn't sure if it was possible either.

[Zhil]

*nod nod* I would prefer one with a swirl, but I wasn't sure if it was possible either.

It might be possible, I'll have to try it though

[MoRmEnGiL]

I think it is very hard to do a good swirl legitimately without non-water blocks being visible..

One way to do it is make it in braids. Each one of which would be cast in dirt, abusing the water's tendency to prefer going where the closest drop is, and then breaking part of the mould. This would cause water to spill down, but if the next row the vortex' diameter is a few blocks shorter, thus each "braid" sticking out from the one above it, it could work. Or it couldn't.

[Xekrom337]

or, the vortex could be an item transport system, with water separated by glass. just a thought.

[Catox]

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(it's very rough)

That... actually is on the right track. It's missing the delicate rail lines, and the ocean vortex, but yeah. That's not a bad starting place. Also - while that drawing is rough, it also already puts my art skills to shame :D

first, thanks ^^

the rail lines were meant to be represented by the blue line turning around the hourglass, but I'm not sure I got exactly what you meant there :
> Delicate train tracks coming up from the water to swoop around the tower
> (for full viewing impact) before returning to the water to arrive or depart
> at an underwater train station.
I wasn't sure where exactly those 3 underlined parts should be, so I figured they'd all be at the base of the tower.

About sizes, proportions, and swirling waters.

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If the shape of the monument should be of these kind of proportions, like roughly 2/1 Height/Width, you'd get a diameter of 100 to 128 blocs. I'd say it's pretty HUGE ^^

Then there is the vortex.
I don't see how it could be possible to have water turn around a point before going down toward the center of the hole unless having a very slow slope (and therefore a very large hole)
If the vortex has to go all the way down to bedrock, A 1/1 slope would mean 64 blocs of vortex around the tower > You'd have some 200-256 diameter disk of craziness :p

[DaveYanakov]

What if the vortex slope increased? Say up to 16 blocks out you do a 3:1 slope, then 2:1 for another 16 followed by 1:1 for the rest. It would compact the disc while compounding the visual effect.

[BrushEnthusiast]

If you've been around these boards for a while, you've probably heard me talk about my pie-in-the-sky BTW project - the Tower of Doom(tm).

I want to build an actual pie in the sky now...