[SRG] Minecraft® Construction Portable Edition by Adam Cordeiro and Emily Nelson Minecraft® Construction Portable Edition Minecraft® Construction For Dummies®, Portable Edition Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030-5774, www.wiley.com Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey Published simultaneously in Canada No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted under Sections 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permissions. 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Library of Congress Control Number: 2014946672 ISBN 978-1-118-96840-6 (pbk); ISBN 978-1-118-96841-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-96842-0 (ebk) Manufactured in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Contents at a Glance Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 Chapter 1: Getting Started with Minecraft Construction ..................... 5 Chapter 2: Building in Survival Mode ................................................... 15 Chapter 3: Set ting Up Your Building Site ............................................. 27 Chapter 4: Exploring Different Types of Builds ................................... 41 Chapter 5: The Ar t of Minecraf t Design................................................ 69 Chapter 6: Managing Your Space .......................................................... 91 Chapter 7: Using Block Textures ......................................................... 103 Chapter 8: Farming ................................................................................ 121 Chapter 9: Using Advanced Building Techniques ............................. 131 Chapter 10: Implementing Gardens into Your World ....................... 145 Chapter 11: Exploring the Functions of Glass .................................... 155 Chapter 12: Implementing Redstone into Your Building .................. 169 Chapter 13: Using Lighting ................................................................... 181 Chapter 14: Ten Steps for Starting a Large-Scale Build .................... 193 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203 Table of Contents Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1 About This Book ........................................................................ 1 Foolish Assumptions ................................................................. 2 Icons Used in This Book ............................................................ 2 Conventions Used in This Book ............................................... 2 Where to Go From Here ............................................................ 3 Chapter 1: Getting Started with Minecraft Construction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5 Evaluating Your Options ........................................................... 5 Gathering Materials for Construction ..................................... 7 Arranging the inventory in Creative mode ................... 7 Obtaining a good inventory in Survival mode ........... 11 Creating Your First Building ................................................... 13 Chapter 2: Building in Survival Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15 Keeping Track of your Resources .......................................... 15 Estimating resources ..................................................... 16 Organizing your materials ............................................ 17 Getting around the Structure ................................................. 19 Using scaffolding ............................................................ 19 Using ladders to scale your structure ......................... 21 Teleporting with Ender pearls ..................................... 21 Powering up with potions ............................................. 21 Speeding up construction with beacons .................... 22 Collecting Resources ............................................................... 23 Quarrying ........................................................................ 23 Strip mining .................................................................... 24 Cave mining .................................................................... 25 Chapter 3: Set ting Up Your Building Site . . . . . . . . . . . .27 Building on Interesting Landscapes ...................................... 27 Reshaping the Landscape ....................................................... 29 Leveling mostly flat surfaces ........................................ 29 Leveling large structures .............................................. 30 Editing the Landscape with Commands................................ 31 Filling areas with the Fill command............................. 32 Copying structures with the Clone command ........... 35 Minecraft Construction For Dummies, Portable Edition viii Carving Out Land with Explosive Commands ...................... 37 Building Your Own, Natural Elements ................................... 38 Chapter 4: Exploring Different Types of Builds . . . . . . .41 Planning Buildings ................................................................... 41 Deciding what and where to build ............................... 42 Estimating your building materials ............................. 43 Starting the Build ..................................................................... 43 Building walls ................................................................. 44 Building a ceiling ............................................................ 46 Building a door ............................................................... 47 Brightening things up .................................................... 47 Adding more levels ........................................................ 49 Building a City .......................................................................... 51 Adding paths .................................................................. 53 Building bridges ............................................................. 57 Using Passageways .................................................................. 60 Hallways .......................................................................... 60 Tunnels ........................................................................... 61 Trapdoors ....................................................................... 62 Tunnel mining ................................................................ 62 Secret Rooms ............................................................................ 64 Chapter 5: The Ar t of Minecraf t Design . . . . . . . . . . . . .69 Balancing the Design ............................................................... 69 Adding Color to Your Builds .................................................. 72 Understanding how colors work together.................. 72 Crafting and mixing dyes .............................................. 73 Making cold-color materials ......................................... 75 Making warm-color materials ....................................... 78 Making neutral-color materials .................................... 81 Wireframing the Build ............................................................. 84 Customizing Floors, Roofs, and Walls ................................... 86 Adding pizazz to floors ................................................. 86 Making walls stand out ................................................. 87 Putting a lid on it............................................................ 89 Chapter 6: Managing Your Space . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .91 Getting In on the Ground Floor .............................................. 91 Getting ready to build ................................................... 91 Basic building ................................................................. 92 Unleashing Your Interior Decorator ...................................... 93 Keeping interiors light and airy ................................... 94 Using empty space effectively...................................... 94 Table of Contents ix Adding decorative flourishes ....................................... 95 Building machines for your rooms .............................. 97 Chapter 7: Using Block Textures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .103 Using Smooth Textures ......................................................... 103 Using Rough Block Textures ................................................ 105 Creating an Older-Looking Structure................................... 106 Cracked blocks ............................................................. 107 Mossy blocks ................................................................ 108 Damaged walls ............................................................. 111 Vines .............................................................................. 111 Cobwebs ....................................................................... 113 Block Textures That Work Well Together .......................... 119 Chapter 8: Farming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .121 Preparing the Land for Your Farm ....................................... 121 Reaping What You Sow ......................................................... 124 Animal Farming ...................................................................... 127 Breeding animals ......................................................... 127 Using animal as resources .......................................... 129 Chapter 9: Using Advanced Building Techniques . . . .131 Using Randomized Block Patterns ....................................... 131 Applying randomness to surfaces ............................. 132 Applying randomness to landscaping ....................... 133 Constructing Polygons for Your Structures ....................... 134 Building slanted walls ................................................. 134 Constructing polygons with slanted walls ............... 135 Building Circles and Spheres ................................................ 137 Constructing a circle ................................................... 137 Constructing a sphere ................................................. 138 Implementing Fluids into Your Build................................... 139 Understanding how fluids work ................................. 139 Building a fountain....................................................... 140 Building structures underwater ................................. 142 Chapter 10: Implementing Gardens into Your World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .145 Obtaining Plants ..................................................................... 145 Building Your First Garden ................................................... 148 Laying out your garden ............................................... 148 Arranging plants in a garden ...................................... 150 Integrating Gardens with Other Buildings .......................... 151 Constructing a border for a garden ........................... 152 Building a garden on another structure ................... 152 Minecraft Construction For Dummies, Portable Edition x Chapter 11: Exploring the Functions of Glass . . . . . . .155 Planning How to Use Glass ................................................... 155 Making Glass ........................................................................... 156 Making Windows .................................................................... 157 Using Glass as Decorative Trim ........................................... 159 Using Glass as Flooring ......................................................... 160 Bringing the heat ......................................................... 160 Going with the flow ...................................................... 163 Building Glass Ceilings .......................................................... 165 Using Stained Glass ................................................................ 165 Chapter 12: Implementing Redstone into Your Building . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .169 Understanding the Essential Concepts of Redstone ......... 169 Applying Redstone to Your Build ........................................ 174 Using redstone in lighting ........................................... 174 Assembling redstone doors ....................................... 174 Designing redstone-powered farms........................... 176 Being inventive with redstone ................................... 178 Concealing Redstone in Your Building ................................ 178 Chapter 13: Using Lighting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .181 Determining a Light Source .................................................. 181 Block light sources ...................................................... 181 Placing Lava .................................................................. 188 Using Nonblock Lighting ....................................................... 189 Making a Lamppost ................................................................ 190 Chapter 14: Ten Steps for Starting a Large-Scale Build . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .193 Sketching Out a Rough Idea of the Structure ..................... 193 Selecting Blocks ..................................................................... 194 Setting Up Your Area ............................................................. 195 Starting with a Central Room ............................................... 196 Wireframing the Rest of the Build........................................ 198 Filling in the Wireframe ......................................................... 198 Building within Your Structure ............................................ 198 Don’t Forget the Details ........................................................ 199 Finishing Up ............................................................................ 200 Tweaking Your Building Constantly .................................... 201 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .203 Introduction M inecraft is about two concepts: Destroy obstacles and create your world. When you’re not mining or adventuring, for example, you can enter the limitless world of construction, to take apart the land and reconstruct it in your own way. You can create castles, gardens, bridges, fac- tories, modern art, and many other architectural structures. Minecraft offers you so many ways to build — and so many ways to redesign your world to your liking — that it can be overwhelming to figure out how to start. This book gives you the tools that are necessary to build everything you can envision — and to discover some possi- bilities that you may not have known before. You can find out how to gather necessary materials, create proper shapes and textures, and build anything you want in either Survival mode or Creative mode. About This Book This book assumes that you have a Minecraft account and know the controls of the game. You’re relatively familiar with how to destroy, craft, and place blocks — thus, this book focuses on explaining the skills that are necessary to manipu- late blocks in interesting ways. If you’re new to Minecraft, this book can give you some ideas for getting started on your creative journey — and introduce you to the fundamental principles behind Minecraft construc- tion. If you’re already an experienced Minecrafter, though, you can use this book to gather some new perspectives on the subject or find inspiration if you feel like you’ve run out of things to build. You’ll never run out of things to build in Minecraft. Just look around for inspiration and you’ll start thinking of new ideas in no time. Minecraft Construction For Dummies, Portable Edition 2 This book is updated to Version 1.8 of Minecraft. However, even when future versions of the game are released, the fundamental nature of Minecraft construction won’t change much. Foolish Assumptions Throughout the course of this book, we assume the following things about you: ✓ You have a computer, and you know how to use it. ✓ You have a working copy of Minecraft, and you know how to move around the world. Icons Used in This Book This book contains some notable paragraphs that are marked with the following special icons: This icon marks a tip that can help you improve your building skills. This information is important to read, especially if you’re just skimming the book. If you remember the information marked by these icons, you can improve your construction process to create bigger and better structures. This icon appears rarely, but you should read it wherever it comes up. It warns you about pitfalls you should avoid when building so that you don’t mess up your hard work. Though the preceding icons indicate particularly important information, this one marks content you can easily skip, if you want. The icon refers to some of the technical details behind Minecraft construction, making it optional but interesting. Conventions Used in This Book In Minecraft Construction For Dummies, Portable Edition, we use numbered steps, bullet lists, and screen shots for your Introduction 3 reference. we also provide a few sidebars containing information that isn’t required reading but may help you understand a topic a little better. Web addresses appear in a special mono- type font that looks like this: www.dummies.com Where to Go From Here If you have done little Minecraft construction in the past, the first few chapters are just right for you. The rest of the book is more topic-oriented, focusing on various aspects of construc- tion that you may find helpful. Occasionally, For Dummies technology books are updated. If this book has technical updates, they’ll be posted at www. dummies.com/go/minecraftupdates.