Minecraft - Build the Things!

I've made some progress on my new Minecraft build, I thought I'd share a few tidbits and images showing current progress.

First a look at the depths, where I've done my most significant mining. As you can see I've built a fair little network of tunnels down there. I ran into a fairly sizable lake of lava, which has slowed progress north-east, but I have a plan there.

The Mines of Mor... Mark

The lava is actually a bit above the mine level, so I'll need to start a new dig a bit higher on the central shaft and come at it from above. Once I have a tunnel leading to it I'll start clearing the lake, block at a time, and storing the lava in a more secure way (i.e. one that doesn't set me on fire when I accidentally dig into it). I'll eventually need the lava to make obsidian for a Nether Portal and various decorative items. I think the top of the giant tower I'm building should have some obsidian features.

Speaking of the giant tower, work is progressing there. I've managed to avoid falling off the top so far, but I figure it's only a matter of time before I take a 200 meter dive. I've completed a mid-level way-station and am currently extending the walls of the main tower. I started building out the roof at the top, but it started raining while I was working on that, and climbing around in the middle of a thunderstorm isn't my idea of fun.

The Tower

The giant tower is consuming most of my time and resources. A 200 meter tower, with an average of 120 blocks per level is 240,000 blocks to dig out and place. Approximately 50% of those are either smooth stone or glass, meaning a lot of furnace time and fuel cutting too. I'm almost half-done the central tower though, so... progress!

Let's see, oh yes, the tree farms are all done now. I had to take a fairly long hike to find a jungle for the final wood type, but all four chambers are now producing wood, though I don't have full plantings of all types yet. I'm still short a few pine and mahogany saplings. It shouldn't take long to round those out now.

My current non-tower project is setting up the animal farm. I've had to dig a shaft to bring grass down from the turf farm, so I'm holding off a bit on building until I have grass started. I think I'm going to go for a single giant chamber for the ranch, maybe with a few trees and a small wooden structure within it. Hey even Morlocks like trees. Once I have the ranch built out I'll have to go lure some animals down from the surface. It's a long hike, but mostly downhill, so I can use some well-placed water buckets to move things along. Luckily I've seen most animal types near my base of operations.

While digging out the shaft for the ranch I happened upon an underground lake, which I've converted to a fish pond. It's not much to look at, but who can argue with sushi?

Looking back at my original post for this let's play, I still have a fair bit of work ahead of me. I still need to build cactus, sugar cane, melon, pumpkin, vine and mushroom farms. There's the park to develop, the monster trap to design, and the lava/water fall atrium structure to think about. Once the super-tower is done I'll have more resources available to start working on some of the other surface projects on the list.

The Tree Farm

I suppose I should mention Definitecraft, the texture pack I'm using. So far I'm very pleased with how things look in this build. Definitecraft is a nice match for the more modern-themed build I'm going for. My only nitpicks would be that some of the blocks are a little dark, and gravel is a bit boring -- I would have liked something with a bit more texture, perhaps the random square pattern used in the pine tree or something similar. Those complaints are minor though, and I'll continue to use the texture pack for now.