The house that Doc built.

[DocHoff 113]

I hope this is cool to post here; I'm showing homes I built in a game. Once upon a time, my kids and I built this in Minecraft:

I'm trying to recreate that in Vintage Story, with a little different flavor:

I had to shrink the pic down for it to fit, but you get the general gist. I don't think things like the minimap or the game's toolbar were needed in the pic anyway. So, same basic layout, except I went with more steps for the pool, which meant my bridge needed to be longer. But my kids, lol, "you have over 40 hours on that map, and the house is only halfway done? You barely even have any glass installed! Getting slow in your old age!" I do indeed have some of the glass, it's just harder to see bc I used tinted glass in Minecraft; tinted glass requires smoky quartz in Vintage Story, which I haven't found yet. Plus, a sandstorm was starting up just as I snapped this pic. But slow? Lol, freaking kids. I'm not playing in creative mode, which means I have to make each and every one of those blocks. And this isn't Minecraft or Stardew Valley or anything else; survival is a little different. Granted, it's not one of those hardcore survival games where you have to eat fifteen pounds of food and drink five gallons of water for breakfast just to stave off starvation, but nor does a little handful of berries keep the belly happy all day. Sustainability is a bit of a task. I guess I could live off roasted termites and bushmeat jerky until I finish the house, but I'm not from an area that considers those main staples. Maybe I'm too picky or bourgeoisie (I think the kids call it booshie now?) but I'm not eating a handful of roasted bugs, man. I like to eat the critters that eat the bugs, but not the bugs themselves. There are chickens strutting around my construction site, but I'm not capturing those until I have enough food for them, which takes time. And the game has more workstations than Minecraft, so I had to build a workshop. Maybe I'm being booshie again, but I think some of those workshops would make my home stink to high heaven. I know composting doesn't exactly smell the greatest. I've only butchered a few animals in the real world; one didn't smell bad, but...let's just say I messed the other one up, which made a mess and stank. So, I don't want that in my home. I've never done any smelting in the real world, but I can't imagine that it would smell too good. And then, there's tanning. Tanning requires limewater and water with different concentrations of tannin. Weak tannin water might not smell too bad; one of my fish tanks  has a Mopani log; changing that water doesn't smell too bad. But limewater? Limewater is used to remove the hair and junk off hides; that can't smell the greatest. My brother used Nair to remove the hair on his chest so he could strut around the beach with his new girlfriend, and that stank to hell and back, so I can only imagine what soaking hides in a barrel of limewater would smell like. And then there's the stuff to make glass. And my woodworking stuff. I like the smell of fresh-cut wood, but I don't think that it could offset the smell of funk from all the other stuff, so I have a well-ventilated workshop, which took time to build. 

So, with all of the stuff that you don't see in the picture, I don't think 40 hours too much to have built what you see here. Anyway, this is my current ingame creative project. 

[pevil 83]

I love it. Building in games is one of my favourite things to do and like you when I'm in Minecraft I'm not in creative mode. There's something satisfying about finding/crafting all the exact items you need. I look forward to the next update in another 40 hours of game time!

[DocHoff 113]

 It all depends on when the game's updated. Right now, I'm playing in the preview update bc we finally get a mount; an elk. However, once the update goes stable, I gotta start the game all over again, due to mods. Might be a trivial thing, but there are some mods I can't play the game without, like the butchering mod. In the base game, ya just touch a slain animal w a knife, and you access it's inventory; getting meat, hides, fat, etc. I don't know about you, but I find that...kinda lame. So, with the butchering mod, you gotta hang the animal on a hook, then skin it, then bleed it out for a few minutes, then take it to a butchering table; I like that far better than the vanilla method. So, you get it; there are a few features that I think the game should have that it currently lacks, hence mods. I had to uninstall those for the preview version and redownload them once the version is stable, then start the game over. The wife says "that's asinine; you gotta do all of that all over again". If you love building as much as I do, ya don't "have to" build over again, you "get" to build over again. 

And this is just the beginning. I've collected hundreds of modern home pictures I want to try my hand at, such as:

I want to build a whole modern city. My kids said...something, something like "blah blah Sims 4 blah blah". There's nothing wrong with Sims 4, but I can't hunt in Sims 4, and while you can fish, you can't fillet those fish and roast them on an open fire. Sims 4 doesn't have ruins to explore, nor can you mine or pan for minerals. Plus, there were these scenes in the movie Silent Hill, where air sirens would go off and the world turned to a rusty, goopy, decayed version of itself. Sims 4 doesn't have that, but Vintage Story does; they're called Temporal Storms. So, I want to run for dear life from these monsters created by the temporal storms, right down the center of the highway. You also gotta run once night falls, as the night brings different monsters. So, yeah, it is indeed easier to build in Sims 4, but I'd miss out on all the hunting, tomb raiding, monster goodness that Vintage Story has. 

So, I should have the second part of the house done soonish. I do have ruins that are begging to be explored, though. But anyway, all of that's why Vintage story's my jam. Well, that, in addition to the fact that I can pause it. So many of my games these days, like Elden Ring, don't have a pause button. That pause feature's vital in a house like mine. My kids are out of the "Dad, come quick, Jake's bleeding all over!" phase, but we do have is "Dad, come quick, this fish is doing a thing!" That "thing" could be anywhere from "now that's cute, those two Hillstreams are buddies now" to "aww, son of a.... kids, get the nursery tank ready, we're going to have babies/eggs soon".

[Hooyaah 3,111]

These wondrous homes remind me of the architectural creations of Frank Lloyd Wright.

[DocHoff 113]

I do know a little of his work, too. I'm learning a lot of stuff lately, especially about brutalist architecture. I want to try my hand at something like Habitat 67, which was built by Moshe Safdie. I'm learning all types of stuff because of this game. I showed someone a building I want to try and recreate; they told me it looks like raw galena, so I had to look that up. Wow, I had no clue that raw metals could come in such geometric shapes; galena looks like something a Transformer would use as it's power core. What's that thing called... all-spark or something like that, I'll tell ya what, one thing I love about this day and age is...the internet. Doors which open to other doors which open to even more doors. At 45, I wouldn't call myself an old timer yet, but I clearly remember the days where learning required you pulling down either the family's dusty old encyclopedias or taking a bus all the way across town to the library. There's just like...everything on the net. Ever wonder what ancient Egyptians used for toothpaste? Bam; two clicks away. Need to put a little pizzazz in your grilled hamburger? Two more clicks. Just....everything, just waiting to be discovered.

[Hooyaah 3,111]

Indeed, and but two words are poised, for good or bad, to change everything forever.

Spoiler

artificial intelligence

[DocHoff 113]

Artificial intelligence; we were discussing this in my veterans group the other day. I fully admit to not being the most tech savvy. I have no clue how likely, how close we are to some type of Terminator robopocalypse. But the thing that has me slightly worried, in the here and now, is smart homes. There are homes that have smart...everything, from lights to appliances to doors, to disposals, to even the freaking garage door. I read that any smart home device that is capable of connecting to the internet has the potential to be hacked, So, if that's the case, and I was sitting pretty in my fancy smart home, how easy would it be to take me out, burn my family to death while we slept, use the garage door to squish me like a bug? And then, as my family is burning to death and I lay squished like a bug, the hacker(s) hack into my smart aquariums, roasting all my poor fish. Now that right there's the real salt in the open wound; I love all of those little turds. No thank you; I prefer my home to be dumb as a door knob; a door knob NOT hooked up to the internet. 

[DocHoff 113]

I got a lot of my house done:

but it kinda kills the creative flow to know that I have to start all over in a new world in a couple months. Those black swirly things are temporal portals. In the beginning, it was a lot of fun to run home before nightfall, lest these things get ya:

but after awhile, the novelty wears off, and it just gets tedious. I like man vs nature types of games, but I'm not really enjoying man vs nature in a Silent Hill/A Quiet Place type of movie. It was great fun in the beginning, but now, building and exploring are far more fun for me. I was going to build a floating city, but crops won't grow that close to sea water, so I'm gunna try to build a modern version of Nan Midol. There's a really cool hot springs type of area I really want to build at, but there's not much space for building, being that there's a giant mountain in the way. I want to see if I can build most of the house inside the mountain, without it looking too stupid.

 

[DocHoff 113]

One more. I usually get my pictures from adobe stock pics. I found this one; I guess it was built inside of Tron or something

[gogoblender 3,420]

On 10/8/2024 at 5:17 PM, DocHoff said:

One more. I usually get my pictures from adobe stock pics. I found this one; I guess it was built inside of Tron or something

lovely designs... This was something I was kinda hoping for in Sacred 2 ... but they put in so much love already... guess some has to be left out... still though... Ancarian Architecture    

what drew me into this topic today was the utterance of the word TRON...

Ayup... i see motobikes 

 

gogo
 

[DocHoff 113]

The Tron movies are among my all-time favorite. 

As far as Ancarian Architecture, I must admit to having never really looked at the buildings much so far. I only have a few thousand hours in the game so far, but my attention's for the most part drawn to the level of detail in the weapons and armor.

[gogoblender 3,420]

10 minutes ago, DocHoff said:

The Tron movies are among my all-time favorite. 

As far as Ancarian Architecture, I must admit to having never really looked at the buildings much so far. I only have a few thousand hours in the game so far, but my attention's for the most part drawn to the level of detail in the weapons and armor.

pulled this house out from this page here:

 

https://www.sacredwiki.org/index.php/Sacred_2:Renders

 

Will admit that when I first got the game I wasnt fully immersed in appreciation for artwork in the game...but a few weeks back a post came out here somewhere on the forums and I "saw" for the first time what probably put this company under... sheer love for art and soul... i mean... look at this stuff:

 

[DocHoff 113]

Yes, this game's a meticulous labor of love; it's not easy to come across a game as such these days. 

[gogoblender 3,420]

Just now, DocHoff said:

Yes, this game's a meticulous labor of love; it's not easy to come across a game as such these days. 

I was wondering about that last night as I posted ... you walk around through Sacred's world.. you can feel the intent and delightful touches of the devs everywhere... a touch of mirth, a touch of artiste a lot of time... Dont most games that come out now have just as much because it costs less to create?

I wonder sometimes whether its because of the bias I have for Sacred 2 that blemishes my view

gogo

[DocHoff 113]

On the one hand, Sacred 2 has a flavor unlike anything else I've found so far (although why would I need to, when the game still runs perfectly for me?)

On the other hand, I can recognize the bias I have. Sacred 2 was my first game, and for a long time the only game I had. There indeed is a little bias there.

[gogoblender 3,420]

On 10/4/2024 at 3:15 PM, pevil said:

I love it. Building in games is one of my favourite things to do and like you when I'm in Minecraft I'm not in creative mode. There's something satisfying about finding/crafting all the exact items you need. I look forward to the next update in another 40 hours of game time!

Is this where you're mostly playing these days , mine craft?

Hello and happy morning to you dear Pev!

gogo

[gogoblender 3,420]

21 hours ago, DocHoff said:

On the one hand, Sacred 2 has a flavor unlike anything else I've found so far (although why would I need to, when the game still runs perfectly for me?)

On the other hand, I can recognize the bias I have. Sacred 2 was my first game, and for a long time the only game I had. There indeed is a little bias there.

I'm not sure exactly what the style is of houses... for some reason the word Mediterranean comes floating to me mind... would bear investigation

 

gogo

[DocHoff 113]

The Mediterranean architecture I know looks like this:

Which is cool. But in Minecraft and Vintage Story, for me, Mediterraneans end up looking like this:

This one took quite a bit of time for me to do. And while I think I came close, I don't think I've quite captured the spirit and elegance of Mediterranean homes quite yet. 

[pevil 83]

4 hours ago, gogoblender said:

Is this where you're mostly playing these days , mine craft?

Hello and happy morning to you dear Pev!

gogo

Bonjour dear gogo! I haven't actually touched Minecraft in a long time. I'm terrible for flitting between games but I do love building in them. Currently I'm playing the Diablo IV expansion, along with some WoW and some Ultima Online (mostly house building in that). I must admit I haven't been gaming very much really, I'm in somewhat of a slump. I keep trying survival type games but get distracted after a while. Palworld, Ark, Enshrouded, Conan Exiles... all attracted me for the building you can do in them (and the breeding in Palworld and Ark).

@DocHoff I love your mediterranean build, it looks spot on to me! It's hard to capture 'elegance' when just using a bunch of blocks. Sometimes it's fun to get a bunch of reference pics together and use them to inspire you like that, sometimes I love to just start building and see what happens.

[gogoblender 3,420]

1 minute ago, pevil said:

Bonjour dear gogo! I haven't actually touched Minecraft in a long time. I'm terrible for flitting between games but I do love building in them. Currently I'm playing the Diablo IV expansion, along with some WoW and some Ultima Online (mostly house building in that). I must admit I haven't been gaming very much really, I'm in somewhat of a slump. I keep trying survival type games but get distracted after a while. Palworld, Ark, Enshrouded, Conan Exiles... all attracted me for the building you can do in them (and the breeding in Palworld and Ark).

@DocHoff I love your mediterranean build, it looks spot on to me! It's hard to capture 'elegance' when just using a bunch of blocks. Sometimes it's fun to get a bunch of reference pics together and use them to inspire you like that, sometimes I love to just start building and see what happens.

diablo 4 ...whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...seriously? Pevil I have the game, maybe next week we can play online.. I kind of fell out of love with that game after its grayed, gloomy graphics got to me ...but if a friend is playing all of a sudden everything is different!

@DocHoff  timeless elegance doc...you would never feel crowded or stuffy in a home like that... btw how long does it take you put a home together like that?

[DocHoff 113]

@pevil Thank you. It is indeed hard with just blocks. When you see a nice picture of a nice home, there's a lot of factors that some of us don't think about. Camera angle, shading, and color palette are some of them. You could transform a quaint little cottage into some type of haunted horrorscape with nothing more than certain angles and shading. Photography's like a total artform. 

@gogoblender If you're the type of guy who likes a quick and concise answer, I  built the Mediterranean house  in Minecraft in a day, and it would probably take me roughly a week in Vintage Story. But if you're the type of person who doesn't quite want a whole wall of text but something a little more meaty than a one sentence; it's a process. In Minecraft, I built houses for the sheer sake of building them, because there wasn't much more to Minecraft than building stuff (back when I played). In Vintage Story, you can have a whole wilderness adventure, So, I don't "just build" in Vintage Story, I build in accordance to the lifestyle of the person/people I'm picturing.  So, that stuff takes time, cuz I'm kind of a "go big or go home" type of guy

 

[DocHoff 113]

I don't have a heck of a lot else for this thread. I'm going to have to go into creative mode more often, because I discovered colored light blocks, which means I have even more lighting options now:

Which means I can make my bedroom look like how it did in the 90s, I can also build special Halloween stuff now, like those indoor black light mazes. 

[pevil 83]

15 hours ago, gogoblender said:

diablo 4 ...whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa...seriously? Pevil I have the game, maybe next week we can play online.. I kind of fell out of love with that game after its grayed, gloomy graphics got to me ...but if a friend is playing all of a sudden everything is different!

@DocHoff  timeless elegance doc...you would never feel crowded or stuffy in a home like that... btw how long does it take you put a home together like that?

I'd love to I play with my bf usually but with the expansion being out we're doing things separately for now so more than happy to join up Gogo!  Gimme a PM about it!

[gogoblender 3,420]

On 10/11/2024 at 9:57 PM, DocHoff said:

I don't have a heck of a lot else for this thread. I'm going to have to go into creative mode more often, because I discovered colored light blocks, which means I have even more lighting options now:

Which means I can make my bedroom look like how it did in the 90s, I can also build special Halloween stuff now, like those indoor black light mazes. 

oooh, you and your lucky kids!

How is Halloween shaping up for you Doc?
 

gogo

@pevil  ... thanks for PM!  

 

[DocHoff 113]

We're good, thanks, tis the season where good ole horror movies are brought back onto streaming services; favorite time of year.