Chexy Minecraft Action?

[wiweeyum]

I've been out of the modding anything business for about five or six years and have been getting quite the hankering to do something game creative again.

So in an attempt to just play around and have fun, I've been kicking around the idea of recreating/reenvisioning CQ1 in Minecraft. Mostly this is a heads up to let everyone else know that I'm doing it. But, if anyone else is interested, I wouldn't mind setting it up as a multiplayer server and getting some help.

Let me know! Otherwise, I'll start a thread and post progress updates. Oh, where should I make the WIP thread so it's categorized nicely?

EDIT: CURRENT PROGRESS!

[LAZ Trooper]

I have contemplated many times making the levels in Minecraft, and I did make a start at putting CQ textures in Minecraft, but I never got far with that.

[wiweeyum]

Textures would be cool, though I have absolutely no idea how to do that.



Figgered I'd take screens every time I work on it and keep y'all posted. This first one is of the surrounding area and the beginnings of making a flat foundation to work with. I scouted around for a while, so these hills were a cool find because they look similar to the distant mountains in Landing Zone.

My goal is to build the levels all connected to each other, with the landing zone being at the surface, and the caverns being deep under ground. I think making the arboretum up above ground like in TUCQ is cool too. We'll see what liberties will need to be taken to make sure things fit and connect.

[LAZ Trooper]

For how they would connect, check my thread about that somewhere in here. I found that they all properly line up except for one connection.

[wiweeyum]

Oh, THIS topic! Glorious resource, thank you very much... pardon me while I take a look at it and potentially do some rotations and such.

[wiweeyum]

Yesterday I spent a good five hours or so working on this. It's amazing that MC can suck you in so much... Anyway, I took plenty of screenshots, but will only post a few of the better ones.


First is where I finished the day. I started at the final hallway (E1M1 rotated 45 degrees) building it into the side of the mountain so that the Storage Facility would be underground. While currently you can see the hallways and such from above ground, I'll eventually cover the outside with a believable outer structure so that it looks like a facility from the outside. That'll happen when I'm doing another pass taking creative license.




And as comparison... this is where I started the day. Before I knew what kinds of blocks I wanted to use, I started laying out the structure in straight up gravel. I think it's the ugliest block, so it guaranteed that I'd replace it.



Here's a shot from inside with an example of the kind of artistic license I'm taking. Mostly decorative, but also functional to keep it from becoming too dark and gloomy inside. Is IS Chex Quest afterall.




And lastly, here's a revised map of E1M1 that I photoshopped up a bit to use as reference. Not only is it rotated 45 degrees, but I also rotated the main lobby to be back at its original 90 degree. I had to then fix up the hallways and such, as doing angles in MC really is kinda lame. In general, it's a little different, but the feeling should still be there. Also, if you look at the first picture I posted, and look at the hallways in the center of the level, I ended up making them at different angles and connecting them to different walls. It just feels better to play within MC.




Here are a couple other picture URLs if you're curious. Mostly they are WIP pics before I knew what colors I was using, or before I'd layed out the bricks.

• Inside the last hallway
• Early looking at the window from outside
• Early looking out the same window
• One of the landing pads still in gravel with grass.
• Tackling the daunting task of filling the floor with half bricks

[MajorSlime]

Your picture links do not work. Its just showing an error and saying access denied when you try to follow the image link. The links below work though.

[wiweeyum]

Thanks for the heads up. Hosted them on imgur now, which should work a bit better for the forums.

[LAZ Trooper]

Wow, that is probably a lot better than what I would've done. I'm surprised you're doing it in a normal terrain map instead of in open space and then putting terrain around it, which is what I would've done, although terrain is hard to make good.

[wiweeyum]

Although terrain is hard to make good.

This is exactly why I didn't go with a flat plain. Actually, today when I went to go work on this, I ended up dying and respawned back at the original starting point. Took me two hours to finally find where I was building. I moved the spawn point ot right next to here... glad that wont happen again.

Also, I started looking at some options for teleporters and elevators. I think I may have to install some mods to get everything to work right. Thus far, I've just been using creative mode to build with no extra help. I've never done MC mods, so that'll be an adventure for me.


Okay, here's what I did today. I'm a fan of sylights, and I wanted to give the lobby a grand feel to it. So, glass dome skylights and sunset make for a glorious photo.



And here's the lobby from the other angle.



And here's the skycam view of my progress. I added a 45 degrtee curve to the connecting hallway between the lobby and everything else. It just felt better to build and run around in. I'm still trying to stay as close as possible (aside from cosmetic enhancements) but all these weird angles just don't work well.

[matthias720]

WOW! That looks fantastic! Keep this up and we'll have the most epic custom MC map ever! :whale

[LAZ Trooper]

For the teleporters, when 1.4 comes out tomorrow, you can use the new command block to teleport the player, activated by pressure plate. And, I don't know if you've done this, but in places where walking over a line opens a door or something, you can use tripwires.

[MajorSlime]

And/or pressure plates. As far as elevators, you can do piston elevators. Just go look up a simple design. If you follow the pattern, they should be easy to make, even if you don't have redstone experience. That way, no mods required

[wiweeyum]

My favorite is definitely the piston elevator, and I was planning on using one for the lift ride up to the Arboretum... however, I was thinking more along the lines of the long wide elevators in E1M2. Those will be quite a bit harder. Last time I checked (admittedly a year ago) sticky pistons can't be stacked can they?

Doors are another thing entirely. I really want to do the classic doom style door, which I've made some prototypes of in the past. The problem is that they are really bulky and can only be two blocks high... crazy redstone action there. Once again though, this was a year ago, and I'd have to relearn. I guess I could always just put in iron double doors or something... but come on! At this point, I've just been leaving open door holes. Not very exciting.

As far as progress, I'm not entirely happy with todays work. I made all the hangar bays and such that come off of the landing pads, and also made the landing pad where you start the level. Without meaning to, I made the landing pad unnecessarily large and asymmetrical. <.< While it probably isn't that big of a deal, knowing myself, I'll probably end up fixing it later. The end result is that I left feeling unhappy with the work... and as an artist that is a crappy feeling to have.

Here's a screenshot of the ending progress, immediately followed by where I started today.




I made the long skinny hallway that connects the lobby to the far landing pad.



And here's the completed hallway as seen from the landing pad. I'm really not so sure I like the design choices as far as artistic flair here... ah well, it's something to think about another time.



Other hangar bays. Once again, not so sure I'm a fan of the artistic direction. >.>



Beginning construction on the beginning landing pad.



Making it unnecessarily large and unwieldy. It's hard to judge the size of something that big... ah well.



And here's the ending again from a different angle.



As far as actual construction, I only have the secret off of the first landing pad and the room to the red key. And that's it! What are your guys' thoughts thus far? Any design direction suggestions?

[Atariangamer]

Current state looks quite amazing, actually! I do know that feeling of 'doing it wrong', though...

Everything looks about as good as you could hope for without some texture editing, I reckon. And whenever ChexMaster gets back here, he could probably hook you up with some schematics for elevators and doors.