Follow My Build: Dalaran

[limoman]

Limoman here, with his second major build. This thread is to replace the current one of the same name in the Showroom section.
Dalaran is a large floating wizard city in the game, World of Warcraft. I started designing it on squared paper at the end of june. After 2 weeks of mad scribbleing and varous scale changes, i came up with a basic layout. Wizards like tall towers, and my main problem was how to include these in the city without running out of sky. The answer was to bring the floating city down to ground level and then undermine it to keep it "floating". So, i plan to dig out a Grand Canyon style hole under the city. The dimensions of Dalaran are about 150 blocks across and a further 100 blocks either side of that for the canyon.



Its location is in Tundra: http://www.minecraftaddicts.com/map/map.html?lat=0.517792&lng=0.518509&zoom=8
I started building on Saturday 16th July and after 2 weeks, i'm still at the building layout stage. To make things easier for me, i'm only using 3 types of building material: Cobble for outdoor areas, smooth slabs for indoor areas and sandstone for walls. These will mostly be replaced once i'm happy with the size and layout. I think another week will be time enough to complete the layout. The next stage will be building the "underbelly", Dalaran's sewer system. That too will be in basic form, just to give me an idea how deep to go on the Canyon, later.
It's hard to say how long the whole project will take. i'm guessing 3/4 months.
I'll update this thread once a week.

Day 1 to 9 (16th to 24th July)

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Sunday

 

[limoman]

Day 10 to 16 (25th to 31st July)

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday

Spent several days designing the sewer system, also known as the Underbelly.



Thursday



Friday and Saturday

D-Day; lots of silliness involving TNT and chickens

Sunday

 

[limoman]

Day 17 to 23 (1st to 7th August)

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The city layout is now complete. I will probably spend another day finishing the perimeter and then make a start on the layout of the sewer system. This will involve alot of "diggin" and may take a couple of weeks.

 

[limoman]

Day 24 to 37 (8th to 21st August)

Two weeks of work here. The second week was spent in a log cabin, on the side of a mountain in Snowdonia national park in Wales. Even on holiday, i managed an hour or so aday, using a laptop and a mobile internet dongle. Thats dedication for you.

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Thursday

Couldn't get a connection today due to bad weather. Well, i am on holiday. it's a good job i brought a good book with me.

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Ok, the basic layout of the city and it's sewer system are now in place. Now its time to replace all that ugly cobble with the finished buildings. I'll use screenshots from World of Warcraft and try and find materials that match the pictures. I'll do one building at a time, again starting from the centre of the city.

 

[limoman]

Day 38 to 44 (22nd to 28th August)

Here is an updated map link: http://www.minecraftaddicts.com/map/map.html?zoom=4#/-1182/64/3613/-2/mcmapNormal

At the end of another week, i have completed the first 4 buildings minus funiture. Ill add these later.

Monday



Tuesday



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Thursday

No building today. Instead Tigger invites me over to view and try and help out on a special building project that he is part of.

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Sunday

 

[limoman]

Day 45 to 51 (29th August to 4th September)

Another week of building. It's taking about an hour and a half per structure at the moment. My huge supply of sand is almost gone so i'm having to start the 'diggin' (undermining the city) early and clear the area under the city as i need the material.

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Sunday

 

[limoman]

Day 52 to 58 (5th to 11th September)

A week spent building. Things are a little slow at the moment as i'm working on 3 projects at once. My terraforming in Donar Town is almost complete and another week working on my statue of Bastet for Kking, and that will be finished too.

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Sunday

 

[limoman]

Day 59 to 65 (12th to 18th September)

This week was spent working on several projects. I've managed to finish my smaller ones, so hopefully i can devote more building time to Dalaran, next week. To date, i've completed 20 buildings, with roughly 17 more to do, not including the sewer system.

Monday



Tuesday



Wednesday

1.8 arrives, mincraft.net goes down, no building today!

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Sunday

 

[limoman]

Day 66 to 72 (19th to 25th September)

There were some complex buildings going up, this week. One in particular, took several days before i was happy with it. So, building count is now 23 and 2 of the 4 quarters are now complete.

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[limoman]

Day 73 to 79 (26th September to 2nd October)

This week i decided to add an extra building to the city (numbered 27). Origanaly, i was only going to do an exterior, but chose to do an interior at the last minute. So, several days were spent designing it. Its the building known as the Violet Hold, a large prison in Dalaran. In World of Warcraft, its a bit like Dr Who's Tardis, in that its bigger on the inside than the outside. This would be a pain to build to scale, so i've done a scaled down interior that still keeps the character of the origanal.

Monday



Tuesday



Wednesday



Thursday

No Dalaran today. Spent most of my evening Designing a Kkrazy structure for Kking. Wait and see!

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Sunday

 

[limoman]

Day 80 to 86 (3rd to 9th October)

The Violet Hold (building 27) is now complete. Buildings 28 to 31 are also complete by the weekend, meaning that the 3rd quarter is finished. There are now only 3 buildings left, to complete the upper level of Dalaran. The last of the three will be the biggest in the whole of the city; thats why ive left it till last. i reckon it will take the whole of next week to finish these three. Ive also started constructing a large cobble grid over the whole of the claim. This is to help me scale things when i come to terraforming the surrounding land outside the city. ill plan it out on paper and then scale it up a grid-square at a time. But, i'm getting ahead of myself. That stage will be near the end of the build.

Monday



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Sunday

 

[limoman]

Day 87 to 93 (10th to 16th October)

Three months have passed now. My origanal estimate to finish the whole project was 3/4 months. I'm nowhere near finishing so i'm guessing another 3 months at least. I'm in no rush. Even though the floorplan was planned out on paper, first, each building is being built from screenshots of the game rather than a scematic of somekind. Thats why its taking so long. I'd rather spend the extra time getting it right, and not rush to finish it and end up with crap. The last 3 buildings are taking longer than expected. By the end of this week i'd only finished one and nearly finished a second. The second will be finished after an hours work, i reckon. i'm running into the same old problem of running out of sandstone, which means running off into Outland to a sand quarry i've setup, every 15 minutes. At least after these last two buildings are finished, i won't need the stuff anymore.

Monday



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Friday

No building today. Instead, i spent my time collecting sand and sandstone.



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Sunday

 

[limoman]

Day 94 to 100 (17th to 23rd October)

Well, i was hopeing to finish the upper city by the end of this week. Unfortunately, because of problems at Mojang over the weekend, i havn't been able to finish the final building (34). Another hour or so is all i need to finish that before i start work on the sewer.

Monday



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Friday

A late finish at work meant no time for Minecraft today.

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Sunday

 

[limoman]

Day 101 to 107 (24th to 30th October)

A small milestone has been reached. I've finished all the buildings in the city. I still need to furnish and decorate them plus build the perimeter wall around the city, but i can do that later. Onto the next stage; the sewer system. I've begun in the main chamber by working on the huge, vaulted ceiling. It took me a while to come up with a design i was happy with. It uses smooth slabs which are a pain to place, because when you double stack them, the second slab has to be placed from above, and that can be difficult if they are going on the ceiling. But, i came up with a method of doing it even if it was a bit slow to do.

Monday



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[limoman]

Day 108 to 114 (31st October to 6th November)

It took me the whole week, but the main chamber of the sewer system is now complete. The ceiling, i started last week, took the greatest amount of time. The wooden shacks inside the chamber were easy enough, but the shallow layer of water, again, took awhile to do. Next week, i'll decide which of the 2 side chambers will be next. now that i have the ceiling design sorted, it shouldn't take as long.

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[limoman]

Day 115 to 121 (7th to 13th November)

The build has now reached the 4 month stage. The side chamber ceiling took longer than expected, this week. First it was at the wrong height, so i had to clear a large area, first. Then i hit the problem of tunneling into the cellar of one of the Inns, above. That section of the ceiling had to be redesigned, so that it hangs lower than the rest. It looks a bit odd at the moment, but once i add the main wooden building, next to it, it should blend in better. Also this week, i managed to finish the large cobble grid, suspended above my entire claim. This looks at bit ugly, but will help me plan the landscaping around the city, later.

Monday

No building today. Spent time clearing the area below the city and working on the Grid.

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Sunday

 

[limoman]

Day 122 to 128 (14th to 20th November)

Things went a little slow, this week. This was down to the fact that both Skyrim and Minecraft were released. I know Skyrim came out last week, but my copy didn't arrive untill tuesday of this week. Also, i havn't bothered looking into the 1.9 pre-releases, so the 1.0 release was a proper update for me from 1.8. So, there were a lot of new features for me to try out. As a result, i hadn't devoted the same amount of time to Dalaran as i usually do. Now that the initial excitment is over, things should be back on schedule, next week.

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[limoman]

Day 129 to 135 (21st to 27th November)

A milestone for both me and the Server, this week. I finally finish the sewer system and the Gods update the server to 1.0. New blocks, new mechanics and lots of new members. Welcome to you all. The new block types will mean updating parts of my city, but that won't be a big job and ill leave it untill i come to furnish the buildings. After finishing the sewer, i went round the perimeter of the city, finishing the "backsides" of all the buildings. After, i made a start on outer edge. This will consist of a couple blocks of grass, a few trees and flowers, and then a low wall down to the huge floating rock, that the city will finally sit on. There is no server shop at the moment, so i cant buy wool to finish one of the buildings or grass blocks for my perimeter. With the grass, i'm using the old fashioned method of growing it using a dirt landbridge from my nearest patch of green. Another job i managed to do this week was to survey my land claim and come up with a scale map, ready for my landscaping later.

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[limoman]

Day 136 to 142 (28th November to 4th December)

The first full week of 1.0. The shop is back up (hooray) and many, many new members have joined us. The server limit has even been increased from 65 to 100. The edge of the city was finished this week, and i made a start on the stone island that the city sits on. at the moment it will be cobble. Once i get the shape right i will cover it with a layer of smooth stone. Also, this week, i started tearing down the ugly cobble grid, ive got floating above my claim. It's being replaced by small cobble "X"s where the lines crossed. I've designed the terrain that will be replacing the land around my city, and i will reveal that just before i come to mark it out.

Monday



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Sunday

 

[limoman]

Day 143 to 149 (5th to 11th December)

A week spent diggin. In fact i predict there will be several weeks of digging, while i clear space for my floating stone base. It's not very intersesting to look at, a big hole, slowly getting deeper. For that reason i won't be taking dailey pictures, just 3 or 4 during the week. As well as the Hole, ive nearly finished taking down the cobble grid. A couple more days and that will be down and then i can start marking out the terrain. Next week i might ask a couple of my fellow addicts if they would like to contribute to the build in there own special way. They are people who have influenced me during my time on the server, and it would be an honour to have them build somthing as part of the city. Watch this space.