Cirdanoth

This only explains unburnable wood in 'Elven' and 'Tree-grown' scenario's. Wooden beams in human structures have no claim on this, unless said beams are specifically shaped as trees, which are 'alive', with leaves etc.. It would also require an Elf with knowledge of said resins to shape those tree-beams, I believe.

All my yes, and chin-hair. :3

Fyodor being way too busy with the local dealings of Kralta doesn't check the Wanted posters for notes, nor has his ever so temporary Crow-Guard search them for such. He hopes that whomever finds the boy and staff, brings them before him, in the Krelmstad, as the poster requests. With some luck, some helpful strelt might come and make appear, and tell that the poster's request has been met by someone.. Or they might show their evil side, and respond in stead of the Prince, in an attempt to take them from the actual finder and claim the grand reward. Only the Creator knows...

Fyodor would look at the posters, and wonder why it says Ruskan Jolly, when it's clearly about the Jolly Ruskan Inn.

Fyodor receives the letter, as he is working himself in a sweat with his masons and carpenters in the slowly rising port of Flotsam... "Mmm.. Da, sounds good. All ruin is good for nowday, is make grab of stone for make of farm-closure. I will make write in return soon.. I first need see this port finished."

Your minions have done a great job, the Ruskan mine entrance looks brilliant! We're soon gonna build a small port-outpost near it, and hope to start shipments of rock and ores all over Anthos. (hey, 100th post. :D)

Nice. :3 It's kewl the Rosemoor was filmed, it just.. Isn't finished yet. TTwTT

Due to a weird bug in the time-space continuum, none of this seems to have happened. We have retied the loose-ends. This man is once again a fugitive in this dimension.

Mud (and bushes) (A collection of all the different blocks which can be applicable for 'mud') In today’s World, mud is likely not as common as it was in the middle ages, back when roads were simply flatter trails of soil, with the uncommon rock or patches of gravel sticking out. Yet, if we were to look around closely, even now, mud is quite plentiful. On the bottom of ponds, shallow moats, the common puddle after some rainfall, around wells, streams, rivers, marshes and oceans, and many more places… Mud is extremely common. Wet soil. There are several blocks which can be used together or alone to resemble this material, and a few ways of making it work. I will detail my preferred one in this first ‘build’. A list of materials which are like mud, personal preference, top to bottom: -Soulsand (Prime material. It's pretty hard to do mud without soulsand.) -Tilled dirt (Will not look like mud without soulsand) -Dirt -Hardened clay (dry mud) -Clay -Brown wool (/carpets: Add a layer of height to the mud.) The other blocks visible, like Mycelium, sand, gravel, cobble, grass... Are just here to showcase that mud can go well with them. (Mycelium looks rotten, sand appears by beaches and lakes or in deserts quite commonly alongside mud, gravel and cobble just tend to be everywhere, so does grass.) For a simple and small mudpool, all you need to do is dig yourself a one block deep hole to start with. You make it as wide and irregular-shaped as you'd like your 'mudpool' to be, and line most of the edge and bottom with soulsand. Dependant on the size of your mudpool, you'll want either a broad rim of soulsand, or a thin one. Fill the current 'pool' up with water, nice and evenly. If you were short on soulsand, till dirt directly around the soulsand. Important to note, is that tilled dirt, appears 'shorter' than other blocks. It creates depth, and that's why it's useful to put between other 'mud'. To get an 'uneven' surface. After this step, some 'nature' can be brought in. Planting lil' amounts of wheat between the tilled dirt, will give it the appearance of small reeds. Bonemealing the surroundings to get grass and flowers generally helps. The last step, is some finishing touches. Gravel, cobble slabs as rocks, and 'bushes' (just small collections of leaves, honestly). The pictures: http://imgur.com/a/PgLfS#0 Bushes These exist in a very great amount of forms, shapes, colours, and one can put few 'rules' on the construction of them... They are oddly shaped masses of leaves, flowers and/or berries. But, to give you all some inspiration for your own and just some ideas as to what you can do with them.. (Yes, you can build a bush in the shape of a unicorn, if you so desire and feel inclined.) We have four types of leaves.. And so, it'd be easy to think we could only build four types of bushes. But, messy medieval, wouldn't be messy medieval, if it didn't experiment about. Bushes with different colours of wool become berry or flower bushes.. Pine leaves with roses everywhere? That's a rose-bush, best you watch out for them thorns. Leaves set on fences, or in cauldrons? Best take care, those are someone's fancy chamberplants. I personally don't enjoy putting leaves on fences, all that much.. I prefer hanging and leaning leaves, from my builds, from cliffs or mountains. But, you got to figure out your own way of doing bushes. They can be big, small, filled with red polka dots for 'berries'.. Hell, why not a bush that grows gold, or knowledge/books? The possibilities are endless and only limited by your own imagination. Humidity A small showcase with Fyodor This is pretty wet... This is much dry... This is too dry! Plants make die! Roads To include misty trails, abandonned paths, common roads, townstreets and 'Highways' In general I am not a fan of ‘straight roads’. It makes the world seem too orderly. After all, it doesn’t take a rocket-scientist to see that the natural state of the world is ‘chaotic’. Human kind, however, attempts to tame this ‘wildness’. Roads were an important step towards achieving such. The first known ‘straight roads’, were build by the Romans. But, they had plenty of resources and men to perform what was thought impossible, at the time. In the middle ages, these resources weren’t available, and roads which had been there, deteriorated. Travel became a tad more adventurous again… Many roads had bumps, either from natural circumstances, or because of use. Potholes were common. In the mountains, rocks fell on roads plenty, in forests, trees. And they didn’t have jeeps to come and move those bastards. Anyhow, onto the actual roads… Trails The smallest form of road. A trail is generally just a piece of wilderness, which has been travelled a couple of times, and thus, is bare of plants. Because leaving empty spots in grass won’t do, and deserts are known for being devoid of plantlife, it is best to leave something else to be followed. Dots of gravel work well, anywhere there is grass, and dirt works well, where there is sand. Both will show up on MC maps, which is a ‘plus’. Of course, you can put gravel in the desert, but it won’t be visible on such maps. If a trail happens to be often walked, or belongs to someone, sits in their garden, or the like, it might be nice to use logs to dot it, rather than gravel. Paths Excellent example of a path by ShiftNative. These are easier to follow, rather than dots of the material, larger lines tend to be visible, and every now’n then you might actually meet someone. They are however not broad enough to allow carts to roll over, and tend to be a bit overgrown, in certain places. Paths are often ‘main roads’ around deserted areas of wilderness. They might also be present between a cluster of farmlands, for farmers to get to their individual plots. Think a maximum of 3 blocks wide. A small path up to a desert castle. Roads The most common form. These are wide enough to allow travel with cart, and tend to have more rock in between the gravel. You’ll commonly find taverns and wayshrines, as well as farms and small villages along roads. The occasional broken down cart can also be present. They tend to connect paths and trails to Highways. It is this form I’ll also explain how to build, as the others are either ‘weaker’ or ‘stronger’ versions of this. Guide with pics: http://imgur.com/a/YoPfS#0 Start off with digging the general ‘line’ you want your road to follow. A good width is 3-5 blocks. The length, is as long as you want your road to be. Don’t forget that a road will evade large landmarks, like rocks, hills, mountains, lakes, marshes or homes. No, you will not build a road through someone’s living room… Actually, that might be fun. Once the main gravel line is laid-out, you can dig out areas in the gravel where there is enough width to allow for dirt. Specifically, where it will stay dirt. A few dots of gravel can be tossed around to create the illusion that people sometimes walk along the side of the road. Then, you can add bits of cobble into the road’s surface, where you want to break up the gravel some more. Once that is done, it’s time for general detailing. Cobble slabs for rocks, leaves as bushes, and bonemeal plenty! Add details like road-signs, wayshrines and other such usefulness. Highways Nation's Crossing, the heart of the Anthos Highway. The biggest, widest, grandest form of road. A Highway generally allows two carts to ride side by side, and sometimes, there's even enough space for a third in between. Think a minimum of 6 to 7 blocks wide, a maximum of double that and you got a decent Highway. These can have a lot of rock and even brick in the middle, but should still have gravel along the sides. While I know many enjoy building their roads with slabs, I advice against this, as any gravel surface needs to be either 'sunk in', or will 'stick out'. Though, the Anthos Highway is unmistakably worthy of its name. Even though I'd like it to use a few more different blocks in its texture, at times. My own lil' stretch of Highway. Townstreets A map, showing off part of the streets of Kralta, visible in yellow. These are the roads you find, crawling through towns and cities. Rather than being a single line in a specific direction.. They're a web, to reach everywhere within the town. They're build a tad differently... It's not so that you build the roads first, and then the buildings follow. The homes are build, and as people walk more and more between them, 'streets' are formed. So, it's generally a matter of filling up the blank bits of town, where people often walk by. Considering its a town, some 'waste' tends to get lost on the street. Along the edges, plants crawl up to the walls of craggy townhouses and the atmosphere might be a tad grim, and busy. The humble market-square. (I'll continue on about special roads and the cohesive build in the next post, as this one has gotten full.)

Messy Medieval: A long-winded, sporadic guide Otherwise known as ‘The Book of Rob’ (Skip the following few paragraphs if you wanna get to the actual building.) Introduction and Gratitude: MessyMedieval is… Both simple and complex. It attempts to use every block/item, and each to its best ability, in a sensible environment, themed around ‘medieval fantasy’. It was developed centered around roleplay and meant to create the most immersive experience, which would not rely on texturepacks but the right mix of materials, depth and function. While it would be easy to claim all the glory as the one whom ‘discovered’ MessyMedieval, many techniques were discovered well before ‘Messy Medieval’ became a term, by many different people. Some served as inspiration, while others aided in the further development of the style. Some were teached by myself, and teached me in turn. Experimenting and daring to do something different from the rest has brought MessyMedieval to what it is today. A unique experience. My thanks to: TheCrackerJack: For his undying support, even when I was lazy or didn’t feel like building, and all the opportunities he’s given me to advance my building skills. I can’t thank him enough. Korthos: For being a critical and great student of the style, and master of his own. Many times, his builds have amazed me, and made me see new ways of making my structures better. He is both rival and friend, and surely my equal in many ways. Beggin_Bill: For being a great student, and all the townhouses he’s build. If not for him, MessyMedieval wouldn’t be as rich a style, of many faces and possibilities. Mr_S4Mz/TheNorthernBrit: For having patience with a fool, in the early days of MessyMedieval. Laserbeam3: For being a great student, and all the good times. Cjmate8: For all the minas and great rp. Without him, I’d be a pauper and not have all the blocks I’d like. Stykernag: For being a respectable leader, whom led me to the discovery of ‘MessyMedieval’. Cakeski: For being a good ‘bad example’. Project Targa: For being a grand, entertaining challenge. Civrp: For being the craddle of MessyMedieval. Cast Carrion: For living with MessyMedieval. The World: My sincerest gratitude. ... Before we begin... This guide will not make you a great builder. It simply cannot. It can only show off a number of tools for you to practice and come to terms with. There are a lot of ways to use the things provided in Minecraft, and get similar effects, for better or for worse. My personal advice, is to go with what feels right to you, and not settle for less. Be picky. You're the one holding the brush. Enjoy the challenge... Figure out new ways, maybe 'better' ways... At the end of the day, it needs to be fun to build, and it's allowed to be a fun build. Got a crazy quirky chimney design..? Toss it on there! Figured out how to make your Wizard's tower loop on itself? Heck yes! Had an odd dream about an ocean of books? Be my guest. I have just a few 'requests'... They are as follows: 1. Build in default. 2. Don't expect to finish something quickly, unless it's very small. 3. Make up a story as you build. 4. Don't give up early. 5. Try and enjoy. 6. Seriously, build in default. 7. Practice makes (near) perfect. (These requests are liable to change... I can't come up with the perfect list right from the start. I mean... I don't know if I might prefer a manatee, over you enjoying yourself in another month.) The Real Deal So, we're gonna get started. In principle.. All builds start simple and small. The more we spend time on them, the more layers we can bring into the build. One could compare it to polishing a fine blade... We use smaller'n smaller whetstones, finer and finer technique, to "awaken" something out of the 'metal'. Some builds have a rougher finish than others, but sometimes, this fits the atmosphere of the build. Similarly a medieval longsword should never be sharpened like a Japanese 'shinken', for the blade'd dull and possibly break after seeing a fraction of use in European combat. Different builds ask for different techniques, different ways of using the knowledge we already have. An important piece of knowledge, and something many tend to forget... Is that there's 'two sides', and a number of 'forces' which work on 'em. The sides are the 'artificial'/'man-made' and the 'natural'. While the 'natural' can often exist without the man-made... The man-made cannot exist without the 'natural'. The main forces, are time, temperature, humidity.. But 'nature' or 'man' can also be a force which changes the landscape drastically... We are going to keep it simple, for now, and not look at those forces just yet. We'll start with 'bushes' and 'mud'. Two things which I've found horribly lacking in Anthos, and 'Minecraft'. Then we'll talk about 'roads' and combine the three together into something cohesive. (See the next post.)

To be honest.. A 'wall' isn't necessary for most villages and small towns either. And only cities tend to have large 'stone walls'. Smaller places could just make use of hedges or fences.

Eh.. Forts build into mountainsides or underground? Maybe dwarves, and if build right... But, a human has no bussiness building a fort underground.

In principle.. Without regioning, people can set up a bandit camp without everyone knowing about it. People can live in a secluded lil' corner of the world, if they so please. New villages can pop up, with their own local leader, whom can swear fealthy to a greater leader if they happen to pass by and subjugate the village. However.. Builds need to be of better quality. Need to show fantasy. Need to be more than MC-practical. Please, do your best and keep improving. ^-^

Guards wearing red tabards and black Crows wander amongst the towns of Ruska.. They pin large posters on the boards adorning the squares and taverns. Upon the hastily drafted parchments, two things are sketched... One, a young elven boy, estimated around the age of thirteen, the other, an odd looking staff, which on closer inspection'd proof of Orcish design, the letters 'Soar' set in magegold upon it. The strelts, bountyhunters and other less savoury people gather around, to read what this pamphlet has to say... "WANTED" However, one of the posters in Kralta says... "--A----E--" In the last week of the month of the First Harvest, Prince Fyodor, Third of Name, in the line of House Carrion ('...Oh? The clubfoot?') was violently attacked while performing work upon the Pilgrim's Road. The Elvish boy, sketched above, was set on first making small talk with the Prince, before attempting to strike him in the head with a rock from behind. The Prince, known for being a thick-headed man, pleaded the boy not to do so again, and return to the ways of Godanistan. (Who's 'Godanistan?' 'It is Raev word for 'Creator..') However, the boy mistook the Prince's Mercy for weakness ('I'm pretty sure it's the clubfoot...'), and continued his assault. He drew his blade on our Prince, and heavily injured Streltsy whom came to his aid. ('Bastard!' 'Not make hurt of good streltsy!') The Prince, whom only made use of his trusted cane, held off the attacks of this brigand, until both of them could no longer make adequate movement. In wisdom, His Majesty the Prince made decide to let the boy walk off with his cane...('Ya mean, 'cause he wus sca'ed t' die...') However the foul Brigand not even had sufficient manners to bring him a branch of a nearby tree, so he could walk home. He forced the Prince to crawl from the Rosemoor Farmlands to Kralta, where he was found sitting by the gate, battered and bloody, but somehow laughing. ("Me'hinks tha' hit on his head didnay do 'im 'ny goo'..") Now, a good reward will be paid, to any whom can bring this boy before the Masters of the Krelmstad. His Majesty, Prince Fyodor, expressly desires the boy to be brought before him alive, and, preferably, in possession of his walking cane. ('Da, is odd he does not desire lil' rascal dead.') The bounty on each... One thousand, two hundred (1200) Minas, to the man that brings the boy, alive, and the cane with him. (My, that's quite an amount..) For the boy, alive, will be paid 500 minas. For the cane, alone, 500 minas. For the boy, dead, no reward. Thus is sealed by House Carrion, Monarchy of Ruska.

-Another note hangs beside it..- In the Kingdom of Ruska, land is being chartered expressly for the purpose of farms. The location is Kaedrin, around Rosemoor. You may find one by the name of Fyodor to talk to, in regard of these. With good greet, and in hope of safe travels House Carrion ((Account name is Cirdanoth, but you can find me in IC hollering around that place quite commonly.))

((I have yet to see a 'beautiful' soulstone pillar, to be honest.. Everyone seems to go for roofed designs/small square shrines.)) Fyodor feels an odd tingling in his back as he walks through the Krelmstad... He shrugs a bit, and then carefully makes his way down the long stairs, mumbling silent curses.

Nice video, very informative. It's good to hear about what's going on behind the scenes. Shame that the new tree-plugin wasn't mentioned and start of Oren reforms, but there isn't too much to report there. Yeah, overal good job, and I'm sure this'll help people with staying updated with the server.

To be honest... I don't believe the failure lays with the current map. Prebuild capitals might be the true problem. People most easily settle in at, and are always told rp stays around those places. And while, by pulling all the rp in one place, you keep a strong semblance of 'activity', you're also creating new problems, because of all the rp mingling through each other in chat, and people not being able to follow a conversation without scrolling back.. It also causes for an absence of distinct styles and 'cultures'. Raevir culture would never come into existance in a centralized city. A single conflict could easily turn into a city-wide fight, by random people joining in. No. I do not believe the solution lays with centralization. I believe it lays in 'specialization'. The developping of a more true character to each region, and having a 'reason' to be in those places. Not that each city should have exactly the same things to offer, in a somewhat different background that doesn't entirely matter.

Long live Sporadic for this. Huge trees are friggin huge and a pain to cut down. TTwTT