User blog:Fingowin/Starter Base 1: High Elven

Hello guys,

I've often been on servers where I found a lot of  simple "wood cubes" as houses. They were often build by new players who need a cheap and useful shelter. As a survival player I know this issue too but as a builder it just makes me cry. So many great servers and their player citys loose their lotr atmosphere because of these "cubes". So I started developing starter bases. They should look nicer as the cubes but should cover everything a new player needs. You'll fing everything from a crafting table, to a small kitchen garden in a faction specific building. I only use blocks from the lotr mod and vanilla minecraft, so everybody can build this. Please note that it will take longer to build such a base and that it might be difficult for some new players but I'm very sure that these starter bases will help to improve the look of many servers even if you just take this blog as a source of inspiration.

I hope you'll like these buildings! Please let me know if you find the post interessting/useful!

lg Fingowin

High Elven Pavilion
This small round building is based on the natural recoursses found in the far green lands of Lindon. If you're in a very early stage of gameplay you can replace the high elven bricks by any wood and leave the ceiling open. I will cover this later again.

As you can see it consits of two parts. A very open space and a small tower. Both elements are a very important part of the high elvish architecture. I used birch wood beams and planks for the pillars and the roof. Only the floor and the small tower are build of high elven bricks.

The pavilion is the place where you can find the crop plot. It's difficult to see but of course there is a small water source. Two barrels and some plate give easy access to food. If you need a lot of storage, you can place chests here as well.

The flower pots as well as the chandelier are just decoration and can be left out or replaced by normal torches (if you haven't got any crystals).

To make the building look better I made the crop plot one level lower and the door to the tower one level higher than the normal ground. Please try to use such small details when you build your own base! It really makes a difference!

This first level of the tower covers two elven forges, a nromal and a high elven crafting table as well as a chest for crafting materials. I tryed to decorate the forges and i think with this few blocks it's acceptable for a starter base. You can enter this room through a "double door" and a ladder on the backside of the very left block leads to the sleeping area.

The top room of the tower has place for all the private stuff of one player. A bed, a armour stand, a weapon rack and three chests provide a big storage room. The room has a somehow safe and comfortable atmosphere, so feel free to relax here after a hard day in the world of middle earth!



materials I used in the building:
- birch wood (beams, planks, stairs, slabs, fences)

- high elven brick (blocks, stairs, slabs)

- high elven faction items (banners, chandeliers, bed, armour, weapons, wooden bars)

- utility blocks (elven forge, faction crafting table, crafting table, barrekls, chests)

- decorational blocks (flower pots, flowers, plates, cake, food items, doors, fence gate, trapdoor)

- dirt (for farmland)

Variations:
'''cheaper or easier variations are marked by numbers. More difficult or expensiv variations have letters as prefixes.'''

1. You can replace all the high elven bricks with a wood type you like/have in big quantities! Often you can cut down a lot of trees very fast and you con't need to smelt them by wasting your coal. I like beech wood in elvish builds a lot.

2. Insetad of building a dome you can build the pillars two blocks higher and build a flat roof on the fifth block above the ground. Then you have a nice balcony if you fill the gabs between the pillars with fences or you just build a circle above the arches and leave the roof open. Then you have a nice elvish court.

A. To make it look better you can build the whole building one block above the ground and suround the pavilion with stairs or slabs.

B.  You can build a second ring with arches out of beams aorund the actual building. The space between the two circles provides space for some fields or a small orchard.



This is how the base looks in a longshot of Lindon.