Hello, I'm N8thanH, and welcome back to Across the Map!

Sorry that it has been so long since I last did a post, but today, I'm going to show you all how to make your constructions look like they were abandoned long ago, and since forgotten. I have been working on another CTM Slab Search map with Fire_Cat2000. (Spoiler alert:) we were building an old underground garden for our first dungeon, (end of spoiler) and I thought I'd show you guys how to build old-looking constructions too.

Anyways, I digress. Let's start with a normal little house for this example. For reference, here are some screenshots of the house as it is right now. Maybe take some screenshots of your house, too, if you'd like to see how it looked when you started. Anyway, here's my house:

I decided to go for a small house for this tutorial. Lore-wise, it may have served as a temporary home for someone, and was then abandoned.


I put a little garden in the back. Lore-wise, somebody probably built it to feed theirselves while they were staying here.


Here is the interior of the house. Nothing special.




Okay! Now on to the fun part: making the house look old and abandoned!

Let's start by  replacing some of the blocks with other blocks to make the place feel weather-beaten. I went ahead and did so. Here is what I did:

I left some holes in the fence, and put some moss stone walls in them, too. I recommend adding moss stone wherever you can; in stone bricks, walls, or any other instances of cobblestone.


Oh, yes, helpful tip: you may want to use the command below to disable mob griefing, so if you punch a creeper, or if a sheep stomps on your farmland, you don't have to worry.


So, we weathered the walls, next let's trash the house.

I punched some holes in the walls, and removed some of the torches, the door, and parts of the window panes. I kinda hate to see the house in this condition. Also, it is worth noting that it wouldn't make sense to do this kinda weathering underground, since there wouldn't be any wind down there. But, I'd still recommend doing the moss stone, or replacing stone bricks with cracked or mossy ones.



Keeping up with what we are doing, keep adding the moss stone! Also weather anything that looks like it would be prone to being decayed or eroded, like the occasional bit of any stone-based blocks, or carpets.




One helpful trick for punching holes in the ceiling: try setting off a creeper blast on the roof! Just remember to enable mob griefing if you disabled it earlier. Some other things to suggest when using creepers in the snapshots, since they don't aggro at all on creative mode: they are monsters; programmed into the game to ambush and blow you up, so, set your spawn near your work area, and I strongly recommend turning on the game rule 'keep inventory'. Also repair the blocks you broke around the blast point temporarily, to ensure an even blast.

Fizzz... BOOM!


See why I said to take percautions when using survival mode? He almost killed me! I'm telling ya, I was down to half a heart!


Anyways, here is the result:


Next, it looks like the yard could use some Anti-TLC, if you know what I mean. ;)

If you had any Farmland, like I did, jump around on it! Leave a few bits of it, and replace some of the trampled farmland with sand, or all of it, if normal dirt will just grow grass. Also try planting dead shrubs in the sand, and lots of tall grass in the yard. I drained the water, too, and put sand in the bottom. If you want, you can plant dead shrubs on the sand too.


Meanwhile, up front, I put more sand in the flower beds, and spread the flowers around.

 My caption: "Hey pig! You know, if you go up there, you're gonna have to have a way to get back-" *SPLAT!* "Oops, never mind."

Okay! I think we're done! How about we do a before-and-after-style tour?

Front Exterior

   Before






   

   After


Back Garden

   Before


   After



Interior

   Before



   After


The Attic

   Before



   After



Well, that's it for today! I hope this tutorial was helpful, and as always, feedback is appreciated, and thanks for stopping by my blog!

See you all next post. Until then!