Hello, I'm N8thanH, and welcome back to Across the Map. I apologize for being absent a few weeks at a time, but today, I have lots to show you guys! There has been lots going on around Bluesun Village, the town on our private server. So, for today, I thought I'd show you guys what's been going on.

Fire-Cat and ThunderrrCat have been doing a lot of the work around the village, and they made a new renovation shop together. It's quite a modern-looking build.




I especially love their basement workspace. The entrance is right behind the desk.


They even have stalls and a special exit for their work mules. I bred one a long time ago, and I guess Fire-Cat took an interest in using one. I could use a workshop like the one they have. I don't have a place to put my mule. But, I did make space beneath my shop.

They even managed to incorporate Granite, AKA Block Impossible.

The mule exit is just off to the side of the store.

They've also helped with a bunch of improvements to the main areas of town, such as a new plaza by the community center, a new Nether portal entrance, and a little fountain area in front of our old hotel.

I helped out a bunch with the portal and town plaza. :D




They even renovated the outhouse/Lgamerross' former slot machine. Unbelievable. 0_o


Of course, I've been doing things, too. I made a couple of boat docks next to Lgamerross' old house. It's to the far left in the above photo. I wish he'd play with us again. I don't think he plays Minecraft anymore.


I did a little modification to the redstone circuitry for these docks. They're exactly like the one I showed you during my redstone gadget post, except there is a small redstone line that locks the side of the memory cell/RS-NOR latch that's closest to the button.


Caution: REDSTONE TALK BELOW! You may skip it if you don't like redstone!
 The lock runs from the dot of redstone under the pressure plate; the one that makes the water disappear. (Note that there is a repeater in that dark space.) Because of the torch, when that redstone dot is being powered, the torch is off, and you can activate the opposite side (by pushing the button). But, that dot turns off when the memory cell is flipped by doing so and the torch turns on, and the redstone on the far right can't activate anymore. In other words, activating the right side locks the right side.

Because the line on the far right is constantly being powered, nothing on that line will get powered, including that dispenser linked to the repeater on the far right, since dispensers must go from not being powered at all to being powered. But, as soon as the dot is powered again by hitting a pressure plate, the lock is disabled., and you are free to re-power it again to fire the dispenser.

Okay. I'm done being a redstone geek, now.

So, what does this new little lock circuit do? Well, it allows you to dispense multiple boats. Sometimes, the boats go back into the hoppers, so that helps. Overall, it makes this device a lot more friendly to my crazies. They love my little circuits for a reason.


 If I ever do a tutorial, I will include the lock. I most likely will sometime. Maybe after I get my LP going again. I have footage that I recorded a few months ago. I digress...

I also made a little boardwalk on the other side of the lake, since we are now getting some residents around there. These houses were built by the Cats. (I thought they were a renovation buisness. ._. ) The one on the top is Noah's house. (He told me I could use his real name.) Mintz' is on the right in this photo.

Oops. I left my texture pack on for this one. Ah,well. Enjoy this little demo. Any opinions? I'm thinking the pack may be too bright. It looks fine to me, but my screen is kind of blue-ish.

Let's go to Noah's first. Here are some screenshots from around the house. I will caption where each one is, but I don't feel like giving a detailed tour, since this isn't a building showcase. Maybe another time. I don't really know.

A more clear (and less dark) view of the house. The Cats seem to have developed a modern house style.

Fire-Cat came up with that blanket trick a while ago. It looks cool.

The verdict was that the boys wouldn't appreciate one of their typical kitchens, so they came up with more effective work spaces.

Hallway, second floor. The staircase is just right of the kitchen.

Bedroom, first door down the hallway.

Second door down the hallway: The... office.

At the end of the hallway, there is a staircase. It leads into the attic, which is here.

Next is Mintz's house. His was actually built first. He did have a house before, but the Cats offered to build him a bigger one. There are now some stands that we're renting out to people where his old house was.



I'll give you guys some glimpses of the house, now. The whole house is only one floor except for the attic and basement, but I don't know if they count as bungalows.

This is the entrance. Truth be told, this room could just as easily be at the back of the house.

His awesome workroom, to the right of the hallway.

The bedroom. On the left of the hallway.

The basement. The staircase the end of the hallway.

Like Noah, Mintz also got a workroom in the attic. There is a ladder to get up here just across the hallway from the stairs.

 Mintz wanted me to showcase me a bit on here, so I thought I'd show off what else he's been up to with us: a drained underwater temple. We raided it a long time ago, and we've used the sponges to drain it. He said he wants to turn it into a hotel of sorts, so we've been contributing to it.

This is the grand entryway.

The front desk. A lot of this place is still empty.

The staircase to the second floor.

This is the supply closet I created. :D

This area will be the shopping area.

The central area where the gold was is still flooded.

This is the questboard. I suppose I should mention that this place is called the Adventure Hub.

All our hotel rooms are at the top. Hurray for special treatment! :D

The top exit. It can be swum out of.

 In other news, Mintz has decided to turn the treehouse club he built into a fight club.



I almost forgot to mention that ThunderrrCat had her own house redone. I'll run through it as usual. Her house is pretty interesting in terms of layout. It sort of has a cozy feel.

ThunderrrCat lives just outside of town.

The staircase is to the right of the kitchen. (Left if you're looking from the point of view from the screenshot above this one.

This is her bedroom. It's just by the railing of the staircase.

I'm not sure what this space is, to be honest.

Well, that's all that I have to show you guys today. As always, I appreciate your comments, feedback, and suggestions, and thanks for stopping by!

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

Hello! I'm N8thanH, and welcome back to Across the Map. Sorry for not posting the past few weeks! I'll have two posts coming this week, so keep an eye out this Thursday. Tuesday and Thursday are the two days I try to post; mostly since I tend to procrastinate too long to post on Tuesday, Wednesday isn't convenient, and I consider Friday too late.

Anyways, the first post this week will be a little update on what I've been up to with my texture pack, Cloud 16. I've been working on changing some of the textures that I wasn't happy with. Some of them were done when I wasn't as good at texturing, or just done hastily. I just thought I'd show you guys what I've been working on. Anyways, here's what I've been up to. I figure I'll go in the sequence of the Skislands.

So, first of all, I've changed a bunch of textures on Lightly Forested Forest; the first Skisland on my little texturing map. This is the first Skisland, and a lot of the textures on it are commonly seen as you play. In the photo below, you can see that I did new grass and fern textures, and also Coarse Dirt and Spruce Wood.

It's easier to notice in some biomes, but the grass and fern textures actually have non-grayscale pixels, so they don't change with the colors of the biome they're in.

If anyone remembers my old texture pack, FreshCraft, then you'd remember the... Distinct style I had. I tended to be rather predictable, and I always did this patchy kind of style with my wood, with a hard border. At the time I was working on the woods, I didn't really have a developed style as far as texturing went. So, now that I do have a more developed style, I've decided to go back and edit it. As opposed to having the texture being based from the foreground bark, this texture was built from the background portion.

As for the Gravel and Coarse Dirt, they were just cheap recolors of the dirt texture I had at the time. I decided to go back to them, and use a proper texture. I really don't enjoy doing the earlier textues in the game. It's the man-made blocks I enjoy doing. But, for the most part, in early worlds, these textures are all you really see.

Anyways, I also tweaked my Stone texture and the stone portion of all the ores, some were also tweaked in the appearance of the "ore patches," and I did a new and unique Gravel texture. It turned out pretty well, but my perfectionism and trained eye drove me to work on it for several hours. It's the sole reason why I didn't post last week. I still see little patterns, but I don't think it can be improved any more.

I can still distinguish block boundaries, but this texture will have to do for the time being.

The Coal Ore got a complete makeover, and the Iron Ore is now a more distinct color.

The Lapis Lazuli may need work. Ah, well. Another time.

Gravel. The most annoying texture in the game. Behold it in all its glory.

Anyways, moving along, I was pretty unhappy with how my 1.8 polished Stupid Stones turned out, so I redid those. The Diorite was the base for the other two. It was a decent texture; it wasn't drastically changed. These ones aren't necessarily up to my standard of having no visible repeating patterns, but I thought the clustered pattern looked kind of neat. I'll see if it bothers me enough. Right now, it doesn't. 

One thought I had was to fill in the space between the protruding parts of the Stupid Stones with the regular stone coloring. I just don't want to make any builds look messed up. Heh. As if anyone would use them in a build.

I'm going to move on before my impulse to fix textures kicks in. If that happens, there won't be any posts this week.

Next up, in the Magnificent Meadow, I did moderate-to-minor improvements to three of the double-tall flowers. The petals of the rose and peony got retextured, but I think they may need more contrast. Also, I slightly changed the color of the pink tulip to make it look more different from the white ones. It may not be enough, though. If I make any more changes, I'll to a follow-up next Skisland Project post.



This peony is just messed up.


Anyways, I decided to clean up the hide patterns on the cow and mooshroom textures. They felt too busy to me. Both cows have the same patterns, just different colors.


Last, I have a new little Skisland. The only reason it exists is because I forgot to implement a few blocks on the previous Skislands, and they had to be done at some point. However, I didn't feel like any of the prior Skislands needed a pond. So, here is as good as any place.

I didn't have any inspiration for the vines. Look for them in my follow-up next time.

Want to know where it is? I don't feel like doing a guided tour, so here is a bird's-eye view. It'll have to do for you guys. :t


Well, as far as my texture pack goes, this is all I've been up to. So, that's it for today. I'm going to go get outside before sunset. Keep an eye out for another post some time tomorrow! I have a simple little redstone doohickey to show you guys. Why not?

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