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

This week, we have another Skisland for the texture pack map I've been working on. No, don't worry; this won't be a weekly thing. I'm just short on ideas for this week. :t I might have had a new house build to show you guys, but the funny thing is that I was doing it on an online friend's private server, but things got 'complicated' with him. (It was probably kind of my fault, but notice the hyphens. The whole thing was really stupid.)

Hi... Um... Hi. Yeah, I'm on topic now. Today's skisland is a small desert-themed skisland. It's pretty simple, but I'm actually quite proud of it.

Now, here's how to get to Sliding Sands from Magnificent Meadow. Last time, I said I'd be starting new walkthroughs from the skisland before the one we're going to, instead of the cannon launch. This time, we're actually doing that, and we're starting from the Magnificent Meadow side of the bridge connecting said skisland from Lightly Forested Forest. Actually, the bridge is down the short hill and to the right. One-screen walkthrough. For the win.



Poetic blurb:
"As the sands of time slide by, the wind of the desert disturbs the dunes. It conceals the remnants of forgotten forces of change. Only those who can dig deeper can stop the sands from being secretive."

This tour is going to be really short, to be honest. It really isn't going to be much of a tour. I feel like I'm kidding myself. I just need two screens, maybe three. Four at worst.

So, here we have another contrast pool. This time, though, I have some clay on the edge. I want people to use it to see what their clay looks like underwater. I was having trouble with telling it apart from sand in my other pack, FreshCraft, since I just colorized sand. I don't want that to happen anymore.

(In front of the pond)
"Once again, we have a contrast pool. (You're doing this island before the Mushroom Island, aren't you, though.)"
(In the background, under a cactus)
"These colors remind me of a taco shop. XD"

Actually, somewhere behind me in the above screenshot, I have a little texturing trivia fact. It may be common knowledge, though.


"Fact: the default dead bush is a leafless Oak Sapling texture."
"I suppose it would've been good to mention that earlier... :s"

I actually did the dead bushes a long time ago, since I was aware of that. 

There is a more interesting fact behind the little shrine building. I seem to enjoy these weird facts for some reason. These are just facts I've heard. I don't usually read a lot of trivia; only at the bottom of wiki pages...

  "Did you know? A cactus fruit is known as a Prickly Peir."

There are other names for cactus fruits, but I can't remember them.

I feel like I've been all over the place, and I kind of have. But, the last thing I have to show you guys is the inside of this little shrine. I tried to do a wither shine thing. No, I'm not making anyone texture wither skeletons or paintings on this skisland. I just like to use the odd decoration, like the Spruce Wood door on Rocky Ridge.

  
 Well, that's all for this week. As always, your feedback is appreciated. I think I may work on this place a little more; make the shrine look slightly buried. 

Thanks for reading! I'll see you all next post. Until then!

Hello, I'm N8thanH, and welcome back to Across the Map, and the third installment to the Skisland Project!

I've been pretty busy in the past while; making new skislands and creating textures on them in Cloud 16. Thus far, I've made 3 skislands that you haven't seen, and two of those three have been completed in Cloud 16. The last two skislands I have finished have been kind of small in size, and short in the way of textures. (At least, they felt short.) So, I decided to show you two today! It shouldn't take too long.

To start things off, I will show you guys a view of the two skislands I've created; first with default, and then my beautiful Cloud 16 Pack. :3

Magnificent Meadow



Shroomy Summit



The Tour

This tour will be continuous, since these skislands are also continuous. The past few tours started from the very start: the TNT cannon landing. Last time, I said I wouldn't be doing that again, but, since none of the skislands will be branching off there anymore, I will be starting from Magnificent Meadow, or later skislands after today. Anyways, let's get on with things.

You've probably seen this screenshot here several times already. Yeah, I reusing it from the first post. (Notice the old dirt and acacia texture. I changed both a while ago.) But, this is supposed to be the first place anyone sees on the Skislands. So, I will start here once again. We don't need to spend many screenshots on this photo at all.


So, all you need to do is head next to the jungle trees. It's along the forest walk route I showed you a long time ago.

Hmm... The jungle leaves look ugly and blocky. I always try to make block surfaces look continuous when next to each other. That's a common thing in tileset creation for games. You're always on a grid, but it shouldn't look like that. ;) I wish I could have alternate textures that have a chance to appear... That would help. I'll discuss this another time.

Now, you just need to walk across across the bridge. This screenshot is current, by the way. If you remember the old images well enough, you can probably see that I changed the grass. It's now a bit noisier. I felt like I disliked the obvious stripes. You can still see them a little bit, though. The texture generally looked better with the rotating textures. It's important for textures to always look good. I figure I'll turn the texture rotating off for the rest of the screens. Most of the grass past here will be obstructed, though.



Edit: hold on. There is a rather annoying patch! It kind of  gives away where the block boundaries are! They probably aren't where you think they are, though. I'm going to edit this on the fly. Ugh... I already took the screenshots for the skisland, though. :t

Ugly texture is ugly. I think I'll just get back to where I'm supposed to be working.

So, we come to this little spot right here, with the book of textures to do, along with the poetic blurb.

"You arrive in a small meadow, to find a plateau chock full of flowers. All the little wonders are not unexpected, but still manage to pleasantly surprise those who seek it. A small, hidden place; nobody said oases only exist in deserts."


 Down in the center of the skisland, there are a bunch of (mostly) natural double-plants. I know mine are probably sort of ugly compared to some packs (Especially the Lilac. I don't know how to fix it.). I just HATE doing double-plants; they annoy me for some reason. All the sunflowers and blue orchids had to be added. They only spawn in their respective biomes.

 Toward the back of the image and a bit to the right, there is a small "clearing" with some more little thoughts, and a little test to whoever is making a pack.


"Having trouble telling your pink tulips apart from your white? I am."
"<-- This tulip is white. [pointing toward pink tulip] Tip: move this sign for next time."

This one is self-explanatory. No. I'm not writing a second sentence. Wait... 0_0

Anyways, the bridge to Shroomy Summit is right here, and this time I'm honestly not writing a second sentence.


Right across, we have a little plateau that I decorated. It looks natural enough, although I planted a bunch of the tiny mushrooms, and I think I grew the giant brown one. Even I can hardly tell. XD I just hope the lone blocks don't look too awful.

Well, now's a good enough of a time to tell you guys the poetic blurb.

"Mushroom Islands are a place that few know to exist, and even fewer can find. They are so far from any land that has been walked, mushrooms can freely scatter their spores, and as all who have seen will know, truly spread their roots."


Umm... Yeah, you can probably tell that I recolored the Mycelium. It was a really terrible sun-bleached lavender color. I think I have a screenshot with it, which I took of a generation bug.  It seems to be that ravines don't remove Mycelium blocks.

"Fact: Brown Mushrooms are more common than red ones in all biomes, except mushroom islands, where they are dominant."

Note: If you are a random person browsing the web, I'd suggest you move along to something more interesting. (I'd happily welcome you next post, which will be next week, or the one after!) This post mostly goes out to anybody who happens to actually have interest in my blog, which is probably like 2-3 people. :t

Hello, I'm N8thanH, and welcome back to Across the Map. Grab a drink, and get comfortable. If you plan on actually reading all this, which I would honestly fist-bump you for, you will be here a while.

For today's post, I feel like asking anyone who happens to be a fan of my blog about the three survival maps that I've had throughout my time playing Minecraft, mostly regarding my YouTube channel. I do want to get a Let's Play going again, and I do have ideas this time. I'm just not sure what map I want to do it on.

So, first things first: the second oldest map that I have and first to have extensively played: Stardust.

This world has almost no redstone technology whatsoever; a small minecart rail at most. Ah, the simplicity... I would spend a whole short session tending the many farms in this world.

I've had this map for literally years, but I still think that this tower, Demonsplash Tower, looks kinda cool. It looks like chocolate layer cake... Darn it, now I'm hungry for cake, the one time we don't have any. :P

If anyone has followed me for the full lifetime of this blog, then they'd remember this old world. I never accomplished a ton on it, and the tower you see in the above screenshot is the largest build I ever attempted on that world. The building phase of it lasted a couple months.

Map Status - Stardust:
Personal Accomplishments:
 -Iron work tools
 -Potions
 -A Nether Portal
 -Fully equipped Enchantment Table
 -An inefficient experience farm
 -About 20 diamonds, a stack or so of iron, and a decent amount of other ore products
 -All farm-able crops

List of Constructions:
 -Hide-y hole site with wheat farm
 -Some hut in the tundra
 -Brick Taiga Cabin
 -Small wooden tower (Stardust Tower)
 -Basic farms of all kinds in valley below Stardust Tower (Stardust Valley)
 -Boat dock
 -Large tower equipped with brewing stand, library and enchantment table, and bedrooms (Demonsplash Tower)

This map has a lot of history for me, and I'd like to play on it again. I doubt anybody would care about the place where I did all my Minecraft firsts, so I wouldn't use it on an LP unless you guys have some kind of connection. You don't need Blogger to comment! If you have been a ghost follower in the past, please show yourself to me! Just identify yourself somehow that I can tell who you are for the future!

Perhaps I can do more firsts on this map in the future, or use it as my Across the Map Map? (Heh. I said map twice.) I may show it on-camera sometime, but I won't be playing it soon. Minecraft 1.7 caused high altitudes in cold biomes to gain snow, and I prefer my hills to be green.

Feedback to give for Stardust: 
Let me know if you are interested in seeing this world in the future. I'd honestly be fascinated to hear any ideas on things that I can do on this world. I could make it my place to experiment.

But, the big problem is the snow. If anyone has ideas of how to keep my hills green, please tell me! Maybe I can figure something out with giant trees or Glowstone boulders? If there is a season mod that isn't too complicated, and that can allow me to play the map on Vanilla (Minecraft without mods), I would love for you guys to tell me more about it. I will review it in another post.

So, a long time ago, I decided to get a YouTube channel. I have a Minecraft Let's Play, but it wasn't really anything of note; I had no dynamic, and I didn't post new episodes often at all. I figure it wasn't really into it. For the LP, I began a new map, and worked on it for a while. Yeah, all my builds were kind of boring to see worked on.





Map Status - LP World:

Personal Accomplishments:
 -Enchanted full-iron work tools
 -Diamond specialty tools
 -Fully equipped Enchantment Table (as you can tell)
 -A lot of redstone (Don't feel like looking, and can't remember exactly.)
 -About 16 blocks of Gold
 -63 Diamonds
 -Around 15 blocks of Iron
 -'Farms' for all farm-able crops bar Cactus and Potatoes
 -Automated farms for wheat, carrots, pumpkins and melons
 -Developing Villager village
 -Nether portal
 -Enough wither SKELETON skulls (Why does everyone call them Wither Skulls? Those are the Wither's projectiles...)
 -Horses!

List of builds:
 -Sort of really awesome house
 -Auto-Farm tower
 -Anasazian Cliff Village
 -2 tree farms, one of them for giant trees
 -Zombie experience farm
  -Blaze experience farm [Work In Progress]
 My plan for the world... I don't really know where I was going with it, but I was going to make a jungle city as my base. I thought about making a bunch of Nether tunnels. I also had a plan for a dye factory. But, I don't really feel like I was having fun exploring the world. I ended up using ADMIST, my seed-based biome finder to locate a flower forest. That's not to say I can't figure things out...

Feedback to give for my Let's Play world:

I need to know if you guys would prefer to see the LP continue on this world, where I am already comfortably established. I still have some things to build, but I have everything I need to do so.  I will put up a poll on the side, but you can also tell me why you voted what in the comments of this post. If you feel like you'd rather not see me try to get established on a new map, please submit that answer to the poll, or tell me in the comments!

I actually have already recorded footage for the first episode on the potential second Let's Play world. I managed to be a lot more productive than my first episode on the other world. It's being done on the seed that I was demonstrating on with the custom world generator. I decided that my dynamic would be to show off a new texture pack every several episodes (I use texture packs to refer to resource packs dedicated to textures; that's all old packs could change). Currently, I'm using Jehkoba's Fantasy (Jehkoba's Fantasy on Minecraft Forums). You can see it in the screenshot below.



Map Status - LP World II:

Personal Accomplishments:
 -Partial Level 1 enchanted iron tools (Almost...)
 -Simple wheat farm
 -A few spare Diamonds
 -Enchantment Table (why I don't have too many diamonds)
 -A minor amount of other ore products (I can't remember. It has been a few weeks since I recorded that episode. It was recorded over winter break.

This world has really good potential! I've seen rare biomes unusually close to the Spawnpoint, more so than normal. (They're still pretty far away. I speak relatively...) I like the spawn area, and I also have my custom world generator making the terrain a little more interesting. Honestly, I think I may be convincing myself to move over. XD

Feedback to give for the second LP World:

Hmm... There is a white line behind this, isn't there? I can't figure out how to stop that. :s 
Well, you guys are going to have to live with it. Sorry, guys! #.BlameBlogger in the comment section! Umm... No.

Anyways, if you have no interest in the original LP world, and don't mind seeing me start again with nothing,  please tell me so, or submit that answer on the side poll. I realize watching me get materials would be kind of boring. Maybe a cool pack to look at and smoother commentary will help make it enjoyable? If you have opinions on the series (as with all that I ask from you guys), what do you enjoy most from a Minecraft LP? I'm doing my best to create a unique and entertaining experience. (Admittedly, my quality is kind of poor. YouTube is just a hobby to me.)

If you have a favorite texture pack, I'd like to hear about it, and I may use it for some episodes in my LP, since that's what I will be doing!

Well, at long last, I think that's all for today. Answer the poll to the side: would you prefer to see a fairly well-established world, or a new map that I see potential in? In any case, I will begin to show off a new resource pack, using a new one after several episodes; regardless of what map we decide to play on.

More than always, your feedback is appreciated, and thanks for taking your time to read this post. I'll see you all next post. Until then!