We start at the bridge directly east of Link's house. I mimicked the same design I used for the bridge in front of the castle, just on a smaller scale and without the chiseled stone blocks. I still like how this style turned out. You'll also notice the campfire for the guy who lives under the bridge. Like I previously said, I'm trying to create as much real detail as possible. I really want a faithful recreation of the original world, but at the same time one that fits into the Minecraft space and still feels real.
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| The bridge leading to the Eastern Palace. |
The path leading to the palace is where I really started to use external tools to their potential. Because of the varying levels of ground, I would do the outside edges in-game to get the shape I want, then use mcEdit to fill in the spaces with grass/dirt. Once I had the ground formed, all the remaining detail was done in-game. I also changed the biome for this area to desert to get the yellower color.
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| Entering the area. |
I love being able to fly up into the air and look down with the game on one screen and the hi-res map on the other and compare the two. I spent a lot of time trying to get the paths on the ground, the alignment of the buildings, and everything else as correct as possible.
Finally, we made it to the entrance of the palace. Here's another area where original game vs 3D game miss. The original had a doorway going straight into the palace. That' doesn't work as the back half would be floating in mid-air over the entrance to Zora's domain. My version wound up having a long staircase leading down into the ground. When I did eventually get to the river leading to Zora's Domain, I actually realized I didn't have my level deep enough and had to move the entire thing down 2 more blocks. That's why I'm glad I utilize mcEdit!
Here is the main entrance into the palace with the 3 different paths.
Dark, mysterious, and a long ways down. Don't fall!
This is the entrance to the room that has the large balls/stones rolling down the middle. I kept hearing their sound as I was digging this out.
The "Big Chest" room as seen from the balcony above.
More details around the palace
The "hidden" ruppee room. I couldn't resist and had to throw some emeralds down for the screenshot... :)
The next two shots of are the rooms leading to the boss. The pressure plates on the floor unfortunately don't do anything.
Here is the final few rooms before the boss room. Two more doors and you'd better be quick with the bow!
And that's my version of the Eastern Palace. One of these days, I'll figure out how to mod the game and go all out and recreate everything from working doors, enemies, pots that drop items, the works! But don't hold your breath on that as I have no idea where to start. Plus, my C / Java programming is extremely rusty!
I'm going to end this post with one last screenshot that is a big overview of the entire area. It's not quite at the right angle for a game perspective, but it's close and you get the idea.
Next time, We'll head North and into the Sewers, Sanctuary and the surrounding areas.
