I've been playing Minecraft pretty consistently since I got it. I love the true sandbox nature of the randomly generated world, and the nostalgic lego-like nature of the gameplay. Over the last couple weeks, me and a couple friends have set up a multiplayer server where we're doing a pseudo-fantasy construction thing, each of us choosing a "race". I'm playing as elves, and below you'll see some screenshots of my creations...
Woldenrise
Woldenrise, a rising forest on the side of a jutting mountain and the current capital of the elven lands.
My original elvish city, I built it in the same way as I did in the single-player game; I find one of the bigger, taller trees and stick a ladder up it's trunk. Once up four or more meters, I start laying wooden planks as a platform, trying to keep the leaves as walls. Eventually, I'll try connecting my platforms to nearby trees, preferably the taller ones. If the trees are tall enough, I put in two or three platform levels (multiple "floors") in them this way.
This mountain had three or four good groups of tall trees, but they were scattered up the side of the mountain. So I chopped down enough of the smaller trees to get wood for the platforms and then used the dropped saplings to cover the slope with trees. Occasionally, I did the tree-planeted-atop-another-tree trick to make a tall enough connection :)
The Littorals
The Littorals, the main elven harbour and the site of a rich obsidian mine. It was founded amongst naturally formed sea caves.
Those two or three caves were there when I stumbled across them in my exploring. I immediately knew I wanted to make this my harbour! I used the sea caves as my docks, and started expanding the forest on top, doing the platform bit. I discovered some nearby natural caverns that I was able to link to the above-water gap, making a nice viewing balcony once I put a fence on it. When I followed the cave down, hoping it connected to the docks at water level, I ran smack dab into a dungeon! O_O
Chateau Knochenberge
Amongst the coastline range, a series of sharp tall peaks and gutted cliffs that seem to form a series of jagged mountainous bones. Chateau Knochenberge, the foundations of some forgotten mansion, lies amoungst these peaks, it's history and owners long forgotten.
This was the first set of ruins I constructed, wanting to take a break from the forest growing and platform building of the elvish cities. Originally it was much smaller, only being a short round wall that was to be the remains of tower. After doing the dwarven ruins (below), however, I returned to make these *cooler*... added the fenceposts as exposed girders, a jutting bit of the second and third windows, and some left-over windows. In the end, it seem too fancy to remain a "tower", so it became a mountain chateau.
Firthduergar
Grensmeer, a lake that sits on the border between the dwarven holdings and the elvish empire. Firthduergar is a settlement on the elvish side of the lake, built with the walled platforms stereotypical of a guarded elvish community.
Me and another player decided this lake would be our meeting point, me and him building roads from our nearest settlements toward here. I got here first, and seeing a couple good trees, started putting together platforms. The trouble is that when I tried to plant new trees, I was lucky it the damn things were taller than two or three metres... I couldn't get any tall trees to grow no matter what I did. Worse, when I laid platforms, the leaves would keep withering to the point of leaving huge gaping holes!
In the latter case, I decided to make wooden walls and windows. They turned out pretty good, actually, so I came up with the "fortified border settlement" fiction to explain why they were different from the previous two cities. :)
Dwarven Ruins
At the northern edge of explored lands sits a sheer cliff wall decorated with tall, majestic waterfalls and lavafalls. Amongst the cliff walls, revealed by the combined power of the falls, the remains of an abandoned dwarven fortress can be found. whispered rumours say an undiscovered oubliette lies amongst the collapsed tunnels of these ruins...
This was the second set of ruins I made, wanting to play around with the numerous caves around these massive cliff walls. They are amazing, going nearly straight up, all the way to the clouds. The water falls and the lava falls are naturally forming. I started laying down some wooden floors and cobblestone walls... this is where I got the idea to use fenceposts as exposed girders in the walls.
After an initial build, I returned and expanded it into some other nearby caves and natural pits, using cobblestone to acting as eroded walls connecting them. While digging, I ran into a dungeon, complete with zombies! I left them there, connected to the dwarven ruins for some other explorer to find :P
Firthbrim
Border Canal, an artifical channel allowing water craft passage from the eastern rivers to the western. It is also where the human lands on the south meet the elven empire to the north. Firthbrim is a recent elvish settlement, built on the northen bank of the canal. Though they refer to it as a 'diplomatic' community, it shares the same fortified platforms as Firthduergar.
When another player started his building on the other landmass across the sea (or river, I suppose), I carved out a canal on the thinest bit of the one land-bridge connecting the "old continent" I was on with the "new continent" he settled. After that, I decided my canal needed a border town, like the lake town at the other end, so another fortified forest city grew... though thankfully I had less problems with growing decent sized trees here!
Chateau Fisheierplats
Chateau Fisheierplats, the remains of a riverside manor house, now all but consumed by decades of shifting shorelines. It is often the first thing new arrivals see when visiting the nearby lands.
This is the third ruin I built. I just happened to be online when a new player first spawned into the world. I took this opportunity to head straight to him, having long ago forgotten where the damn spawn-point *was*! I decided it need to be marked *somehow* for future reference, so what better way than with some crumbling walls? :)
Erste Steine Monastery
Erste Steine Monastery, hidden in a valley near a sandy lake shore, this lost chapel and it's nearby cemetery has been taken over by great oak trees.
Just completed this, as I got the idea of using gravel and the half-slabs of marble to make graves. It was a logical jump to make the next door building some sort of church, including a hint of a crumbled bell-tower. In Doku's RPG texture pack, the mossy cobblestones work fantastic as overgrown stone paths!