I've been a lurker for a long time, but saw lots of good stuff on here. What lead me to post was the BTW Design Philosophy thread (if for some unforgivable reason you haven't read it - do!) One of points raised was that you can build functional bases. Bases that have a reason to the mass of separate rooms that feel extraneous in vM.
Now, in the past I've built towns, mines, etc., with vM but of course there were only two buildings that served a function - storage room and train station.
So I thought I'd give myself a project and create a working village where each building has a purpose. I started a fresh map, with only the following mods installed - Better than Wolves, HD Textures, and OreRedistribution. So it's all "legitimate" no items hacked in, all done by hand. It'll expand as I add more structures, I've got a todo list that stretches all the way down to automated farm factory, but we'll see how motivation and real life allow that to happen.
If you have something similar feel free to share!
PICS!
I didn't think to take pics until I had got a good start into my map, so the first one is already a little built up. They'll all be overview shots, but if anyone is interested in seeing the insides let me know.
First pic 07/09
The rectangular building next to the house with the bed is my temporary wolf pen. I got lucky and spawned in a forest with lots of wolves - this after about 3 maps with almost no wolves whatsoever! The long building next to the farm is my warehouse. It's not shown, but I have a portal on a hill of to the lower left of the picture.
Got my mill house under way. It's functional, just not pretty yet. Needs a bit of water for the sorting trough and it's good to go. Also set up a cauldron so I can start tanning me some leather.
Did some repiar work on this and got a roof on it. Time to start churning stuff out
I've finished the roof on this thing, but here it is basically in operation. You may guess where I got inspiration. And yes, I did feel like a bad person as I pushed each wolf into their individual cells. Thank you, FC :)
What happens when you leave a hole in your moulding for a cement cast... It's all functional underneath, I've got a separate cauldron and crucible area, and a spot for my kiln.
A shot of the inside without the roof...
And one with! The whole village so far:
Here's the latest, the far side is pretty much complete, though only the first one has the wiring connected. The near side has all the wiring set up, just needs saws and gear connections. The long distance item conveyor is functional, but I kept having issues with torch burnout.
Here you can see farm roofed in, and a corner of the sawmill which is very much a WIP.
(also pic of whole town to date)
Mill house - DONE!
A real *ahem* home for my wolves - DONE!
Cauldron/cookhouse - DONE!
Kiln
Crucible
Automatic cobble generator?
Automatic tree farm w/ sawmill = WIP
Automatic hemp/wheat/reed farm/mushroom farm(s)