Suggestions and Considerations - barrowisp/MillenaireCultures GitHub Wiki

Remember

rules are simple:

  • keep the entire thing within a cuboid which dimensions never change between upgrades
  • never ever move chests after placing them
  • make sure to have the requisite magic carpets that tell villagers where to do things, these can move
  • make sure the village has a way to obtain every single block it can place, or a way to place these for free (dirt and leaves for example are always free)
  • you can code (via easy text edit templates) the ways they craft and obtain these blocks after all the building which is the easy first step, but planning it in advance and keeping in mind while building is key
  • every building needs a sign, every townhall needs a wall of signs. Signs cant move either. that's... about it to start

One person's tips

There's three goals with making a minecraft style:

  • Making it distinct (unlike Normans in this case),
  • Making it accurate despite block building (ugh rooves), and
  • Identifying the elements to rely on to tie even disparate elements together.

Step 1: Making it not like Normans. I decided on two key elements here. The first is complete avoidance of the 45 degree roof. The second is harder, but skipping plaster and plank walls means that it won't ever be mistaken as Norman.

Step 3: The elements I found looking at lots of images of modern recreations in real life and art from back when are 1: It's all timber - stone almost never shows and there's close to no plaster. 2: Log walls are super common. I'd suggest an end form (final upgrade) with a smaller log wall custom block here maybe with textured logs half the width of a block. This is a key way to avoid plank walls as per above. 3: Steep rooves, but also shallow rooves - the main roof is usually more than 45degrees, and minor rooves are often less than 45 degrees. 4: Balconies - the Rus apparently love balconies, most house entrances appear to be up a flight of short or tall stairs to a balcony. 5: Towers! Standalone, in walls, jutting out of rooves - the Rus also love towers. That's a lot of elements, but that's okay because each building only needs to mix and match a few to feel coherent.

Step 2: Reference pictures! Why does no one aggressively look at reference pictures. You dont ever have to build 1-to-1 but having a whole window open full of images of Rus (or any culture) settlements, houses, clothing, environments, etc to steal little design elements from and try to make them work in game is crucial. Our mind's eye is imperfect, real images reveal nothing but the truth.

One person's $0.02

The mod is grounded solidly in the first half of the 11th century; inspiration in order to fit with the rest, or potentially be integrated into the main mod, has to be sourced mostly from there. Additionally, everything really should be unique. For example, If you went about making Germans, you'd need to heavily avoid the same planks -> plaster -> cobble -> stonebrick with 45 degree roofs that the Normans have trademarked. With the third mudbrick desert culture (Ghana) coming some time after the second (Seljuks) it'd be really hard to, for instance, try to make something work with Moors or Ethiopia - though not impossible - as each culture should look and feel unique. Part of this is the unique items you might obtain, and the potential mechanics the player could use alongside this. Mayans let us grow Maize, Byzantines have Silk, Indians have lots of stuff. My own Cumans will give unique horse armors and let you both milk horses and then distill that milk into booze. But don't add too much new, it's still Minecraft.