Friday, 5 February 2016

Hoenn Version 1.1

Hello loyal followers.
Hoenn Version 1.1 is here. Updated between the release of Sinnoh and now it incorporates the advancements made in my building techniques in Sinnoh for some added refinement.  With that also comes in locations that were not present in the original Hoenn release.

List of changes, major and minor include:

  • Raised the terrain to 40 blocks above sea level. 
    • This was a real bottleneck for building underground as the original release had a maximum of 13 blocks from sea level to bedrock. 
  • Added biomes.
    • This really brings the different areas of Hoenn to life. 
  • Added items.
    • Just the above ground items in the form of Creeper Heads. 
  • Added Team Magma Hideout.
    • A crucial aspect of Pokemon Ruby Version was skipped because I had no time to build it and it was affected by the 13 block sea to bedrock bottleneck.
  • Converted most gyms to 2:1 scale.
    • In the original release all but two gyms were 1:1 scale which made it out of place in a 2:1 overworld. Now six gyms are 2:1 scale. The 1:1 scale gyms can be found at Petalburg City and Mauville City. 
  • Lowered Dewford City Gym. 
    • Dewford City gym was build underground below Dewford town. But it was not low enough causing it to be visible at the bottom of the channel that runs beside Dewford City Gym. 
  • Made Sootopolis City Gym more like the Gameboy Game. 
    • Another location affected by the sea to bedrock bottleneck. The interior is very tall and would not have fit in the original. It has been updated to the multi-level ice platform layout as seen in the Gameboy Game. 
  • Made leaf borders less obvious. 
    • Trimming back leaf borders that prevent the player from wandering out of bounds so that the blend in more naturally with the vegetation. 
  • Added Craters to Meteor Falls. 
    • An Omega Ruby/Alpha Sapphire inspired modification to build meteor craters into the routes path. 
  • Improved landscape around Dewford City. 
    • Replaced all vegetation with naturally growing trees. 
  • Changed dirt rocks on ocean routes to Coarse Dirt. 
    • Prevents grass growth on ocean routes. 
  • Removed Excess saplings.
    • Removed saplings from un-grown trees throughout the region. 
  • Improved the Cave of Origin. 
    • Now includes all the chambers in brilliant 2:1 scale. 

And now a montage of before and after screenshots

Terrain Smoothing. Basically just rounding off angular edges of every sandbar and grass area in the region. 
Before. 

After.


This continued on grass areas as well.
Before.

After.

 Mossdeep City.
Before

After,

The holes in the ocean routes. On the left half are the original holes and on the right are the new holes.

Dewford town with its new trees.

Dewford City Gym. It was a rather boring representation of the gym. Narrow hallways and nothing to interact with.
Before



And after. With wider hallways and more space.

There are now light switches to illuminate different sections of the gym just like the Gameboy game.

Lights off

Lights on.

And the gym leader area. Now with a ceiling that doesn't leak.

Rustboro City Gym.
Before.

After.

Sootopolis City Gym. By far the biggest and best update in the region.
Before.

And, would you believe it, after.
Yes, those are the ice platforms and there is also the lower level that you would fall into in the Gameboy Version.

The lower Level.

Ice platforms.

Looking back from the Gym Leader area.

Team Magma Hideout. This is another big addition to the region.

The waterside down into the main entrance.

The first room.

The lower level. All the room are connected with those frustrating portals as seen in the Gameboy game. Don't worry, they are just as annoying here as they are in the Gameboy game.

The 'Portals'/

Inside a 'portal'.



The infamous warp room.

Maxie's room.

The lower level submarine chamber.

Meteor Falls now has craters.

Craters everywhere.

The lowest level of the Cave of Origin.

RENDER TIME!!

Full map

Route 124, Sootopolis City and Mossdeep City.

Route 119 and Weather Centre.



You can view this project on Planet Minecraft. 

Yes, ok, Here is the download link. 

Enjoy it while you can. 




Thursday, 26 March 2015

Minecraft Hoenn 100% Complete

It's done. It's here. For the last 10 months someone in Australia has been building the legendary Hoenn Region in Minecraft. And what a journey it's been.

On the 22nd of June 2014 the first blog post on http://minecrafthoenn.blogspot.com.au was posted. Anyone who has been following this project since the beginning will remember that post covered Littleroot Town and Route 101. Back then absolutely no mods or external world editors were being used as my idea was to create the world at a leisurely pace. But that was a repetitive and boring process and almost made me consider cancelling the project. Everything up until and including Slateport City was produced entirely 'by hand'. After that I gave up on one of my rules and started using an external world editor. Effectively 65% of this project was done with an external world editor.

Since the 22nd of June this project has evolved into the biggest non-academic project I've done. I'm very happy with it and surprised that I finished. I've tried to make a Pokemon Region in Minecraft before like many people have and just gave up after the first hour because it became too complicated. But by taking the time to plan out structures and doing some small scale experiments before building the project for real has really payed off.

An experiment before construction began was the scale. I've seen a few projects that state '100% accurate 1:1 scale' and '1:1 scale replica'. When I saw this I thought 'Well, if buildings are usually 4 blocks long then the interiors will be 2 blocks wide'. Before the construction of this project I made a mock up Littleroot Town. One at 1:1 scale and the other at 2:1 scale. When they were both finished I realised something. 1:1 scale looks quite small and cramped. Plus not much detail can be added to the world. Sure it would be faster to make but the compromise is to have a small and generally unsatisfying world to play in. 2:1 scale takes longer to make but the rewards are superb. Larger buildings with real interiors and proper details bring the world to life. Plus if there is an area that too big to fit properly in any given area you can get away with building some things in 1:1 scale if necessary. If you ever want to make a Pokemon Region in Minecraft do it in 2:1 scale. It may take longer but the results are worth it.

We've come a long way.
Below is 200+ screenshots from every location in Hoenn. And at the end is the download link.

Littleroot Town


Route 101



Oldale Town


Route 102



Petalburg City




Route 104





Petalburg Woods



Rustboro City





Route 105

Route 106 and Dewford Town


Granite Cave


Route 107, 108 and Abandoned Ship



Route 109



Slateport City



Route 110






Route 103





Mauville City



Route 117




Verdanturf Town



Route 116



Rusturf Tunnel

 




Route 111











Route 112




Fiery Pass





Mt Chimney




Jagged Pass



Lavaridge Town



Route 113






Fallarbor Town


Route 114

Fossil Maniac's house





Route 115





Meteor Falls



Route 118




Route 119















Fortree City



Route 120







Route 121 and Safari Zone






Mt. Pyre







Route 123





Lilycove City





Route 124


Mossdeep City









Route 125

Shoal Cave



Route 127




Route 126


Sootopolis City


Cave of Origin


Route 129

Battle Tower


Route 130, 131 and Sky Pillar



Pacifidlog Town



Routes 132, 133 and 134




Sealed Chamber


New Mauville





Route 129 and Ever Grande City



Victory Road



So there we are. 10 months of hard work and what you've just seen is what's resulted.

Progress


DOWNLOAD LINK
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b0ypdl3brjyrb4d/Hoenn%20Final.zip?dl=0


Thankyou for staying tuned and reading up. It was and still is very much appreciated. 

PS: Check this project out on Planet Minecraft.

If you would like to use this map in a server please send me a message with your intentions and server details.

If you have any tips for improvement please don't hesitate to share. It would be greatly appreciated. Next: Party time.
100% Complete.