Slioch Croft

Slioch Croft
Survival 4 Beagle
Slioch Croft in Feb 2021
Base
World	Survival 4 (Beagle)
Builder(s)	Donmn
Founded	August 2020
Map

Slioch Croft is the base of  Donmn on the Beagle Survival 4 world of the Dogcraft Server founded in Aug-2020

About

Slioch Croft is the homestead residence for me,  Donmn. It features a relatively low profile on the surface: a small log cabin and some simple farms but opens up underground with extensive mining, farming, storage and trading areas.  It is named after a beautiful mountain in the Scottish Highlands. Recently it came under attack by a large dragon following a rash attempt by locals to steal one of its eggs.

History

A simple start

Following a rather frantic first few days on Beagle (including my first death to a trident wielding drowned, 15 blocks out of Camp Beagle), I eventually discovered the beautiful cove that was to become Slioch Croft.  Previously unknown to the Beagle population, it was tranquil place where the bees roamed freely, the turtles and dolphins played and pirate treasure was unlooted.  The log cabin went up first (my goto Keralis design), followed by crops and a bit of mining.

Home sweet home

My needs are simple but over time the area has grown into a productive plot where the emphasis is function over beauty.  A simple 9x9 crop field built on the first day still provides all the wheat, carrots and potatoes for the croft.  Small enclosures for sheep, cows, chickens and rabbits ensure you always feel you are on a farm. A small turtle aquarium provides turtle eggs.  Chance discoveries from around Beagle and the Mall see all tree types and chorus growing around and about.  The first automated farm was a pumpkin and melon farm recently joined by wool and honey equivalents.  Underground, following some significant mining activities, a villager trading hall, iron farm, kelp farm, mob farm, storage room have been setup around a lucky slime chunk.  A cave spider spawner is the only spawner that has been discovered which has been turned into a grinder for string and wither roses.

Gallery

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  Slioch Croft in Feb 2021

The Dragon

In Dec 2020, in the midst of a COVID lockdown, I made the decision to start an Omega challenge and the Dragon project was born.  Fascinated by 3D modelling I started down the road of learning how to get a 3D model into Minecraft.  I started with a DAZ3D dragon model, then with the help of Worldedit, Binvox, Litematica, hours of browsing Reddit and YouTube, a large stone dragon loomed out of my creative world.  Unfortunately despite its size, roughly 256x256x170, the models wings were too thin to voxelise and had to be filled in by eye.  With a basic body and wings in place, I started the process of transposing it to Beagle, block by block.  I mean how hard could it be?

Oh Boy! What an undertaking.  Just it’s sheer size, the resources required and challenges provided by survival made it overwhelming at first which was then compounded by a decision to change it from a simple sculpture to trying to make it look alive…  However, following some long resource gathering and working out some techniques to build it in survival, the beast started to take shape. In Feb 2021 the main body of the Dragon was completed in Netherrack with a pair of fully textured wings.

The next steps are to fully texture the body.  A lighter belly, some claws, texturing the skin and tackling the head (teeth, eyes, fire etc).  After that, building it into the landscape with a story around it of destruction and power…  Watch this space!