Glasswork and Hired Help

 Today I made a good deal of progress on the Masterwork, mostly in those four-way arches that will eventually line both sides of the cathedral interior. Notice that some of my dirt scaffolding is still in place. I removed as much of the redundant/unnecessary scaffolding as I could, but some of it I forsee myself needing again in the future, so I left it there.

I also finished up a bunch of framework for the windows, and with Squid's help, got them all even ("three singles and a double!") Then I gave her a bunch of glass and she filled in all the windows I had framed up for me.

I am excited to see what it looks like when the details on the outside - the flying buttresses and such - are finished as well. I hope they will dress up the outside, because right now those walls are a bit too smooth. I will have to post pictures of those archways on the interior once I get them all finished. Also notice that doorway smack in the middle of the wall. That, in all likelihood, will not be in the final version, but with the walls up, I needed something to let me in and out between my storage chests and the construction easily. Why I couldn't just put the chests in the middle of the cathedral I don't know.

In honor of all my talk of flying buttresses, I give you the only movie reference I know of related to classical architecture.

The Loot Dropper

Those of you with the constitution to handle it, and especially those of you who need to work on your Angmarim slayer deed in Angmar (no? durr), will find this little tidbit to be particularly tasty.

In north-eastern Angmar, near Gath Forthnir, is the little nasty village of Bail Catharnakh. In the nook of one of the buildings, interspersed between angmarim, duvardain and gorthorog, you can find this charming little fellow - a Cargul.
As a level 50 mob (elite I believe) with 10k health, he's a bit of a hassle for lowbies, but if you're at level cap, you can get some decent loot off of him. He and his buddies all have a relatively quick respawn rate, and his friends go down without too much of a fight, the two archers and the one melee npc. The Cargul can throw out some fears, disarms, and silences, but other than that he's not too bad. Within thirty minutes of farming him, I had gathered, among various old level 50 weapons/armor/pocket pieces/jewelry, these prizes:

And also a "Tome of the Snake" cosmetic pet for my Loremaster - the only one I was missing :) I still have lots of characters who need the angmarim slayer deed, so while I'm working on it I'll be sure to catch this guy a few more times and see what else I come across.

The Yule Fest

I know this is late, the Yule Fest is over. But I found these in my screenie file, and didn't want to just delete them. Instead of your normal Yulefestery, this year Turbine gave us a whole new area with Frostbluff. It had several activites, like an eating contest, a very fun little theater instance, and a snowball fight. There were others, I just can't remember them at this point in time. Oh, and one of the cool things about this festival is it was the first time in the game you are asked to make a moral decision based on what you have learned through the story. Once you have made your choice, that's it. No going back. Also, this is the last time I will mention that moral dilemma. It was a bit traumatic to make. Not that anyone cares, and several people thought that the new Frostbluff area this year wasn't that great, but I thought it was pretty cool, so I will share a few screenies I took with you, the theoretical reader (because we all know you don't exist. I'm writing to the vast emptiness of the internet here, and there is no one out there).

 Here we have a view of the snowball fight, and me and Squid's lovely blue outfits. Also a view of some poor sucker who bought that $25 horse.

As a Loremaster, Thyrra has lots of animal friends, but not all of them are .... 'pets.' Edinburgh the fox, for instance, never listens to anything Thyrra says and will get up on the table and eat pie, regardless of her protests. Or, lack of protests, in this shot. I guess she's resigned herself to fate.

Here is Squid on her Hobbit Pan, who is sitting on her pony.... and isn't she just the cutest hobbit you will ever see? Squee! I want to hold it!

 I found out how to get onto the roof of one of the houses, and Indy had some fun dancing around on the chimney for a few minutes until someone shot fireworks at her.

And finally, a shot of Indy and Squid at sunset in Frostbluff, on our new Glittering Yule Steeds, this year's addition to the festival horses.

Now just to wait and see what they do new for Springfest this year.

Discrepancies

Only after I started raising the walls a bit in my cathedral did I notice something when going back and forth between my reference photos and what I was actually building - my building was not tall enough. To truly capture the grand majesty of a cathedral, I need this thing to touch the sky, literally, as I will probably go all the way to the top of the map. So, after some more tedious math and some re-working, I managed to get at least one side to the correct height, so far anyways.

I don't know if you can really tell from this screenie, but notice that the right side has openings that sit significantly higher than the openings on the left side. The right side is correct, height wise anyways. I still need to work on the windows a bit. But it's coming along, and I have height now, yay! Oh, and that other side needs fixing. Maybe Notch will have invented colored glass by the time I get ready to put the windows in.

More work tomorrow, maybe, if the ice-storm doesn't kill me.

The Masterwork

I love Minecraft. I've been playing for a few months now on a friend's multiplayer server, and I've enjoyed building my little creations. And I mean little seriously. Even my greatest work so far, my Elfstone Castle, is nothing compared to what I have just undertaken. I have taken a very basic floorplan of the Metz Cathedral and am working on building it in Minecraft. It will be rough. It will probably be ugly. Especially as I have no capabilities for stained glass and the Metz is known for its windows :(

I'm not sure if you can see the sheer size of this undertaking from this screenshot or not, but this is the basic groundwork for the structure. I will continue to post updates as I add bits and pieces, and maybe I will get it finished and make it beautiful.

The hardest part so far has been that I've had trouble counting out the grid appropriately and my measurements have been off. I finally think I got them right. You'd think, after almost 26 years, that I could learn to count in multiples of ten.