Hakubi

Alright, city dimensions.

Each city block itself is 42x42 blocks. If y'all help out, I'd like to leave the insides of them empty - just have the outer edge of the blocks made - until I come through and decide what I want inside them.

The sidewalks are each 6 blocks wide, so a city block sidewalks = 54 total blocks. That's vital to know for building the streets - which is what y'all would be most instrumentally useful in doing. The sidewalks are laid out in half slabs, and they're positioned on top of the block layer for the street (so the sidewalks are exactly a half-step above the street).

Street dimensions = four blocks per lane, two lanes, and a stripe down the middle. The stripe is made with gold blocks, using stripes two blocks long with a gap in between that's two blocks long. Each block has 14 stripes running along the side, with 13 gaps. The stripes each end PRECISELY at the edge of the sidewalk/the beginning of the intersection. Streets themselves are made with stone.

Now back to the city blocks. The "outer edge" I was referring to is at the same level as the street - making it a half-step below the sidewalks. This allows me to lay ABOVE it the alley or building layers, depending on which I want. You can see what I'm talking about in the picture above, if you look at the far side of the block itself.

I know I'm asking a lot of people, but you know this is going to be HUGE. I WILL be rewarding anybody that helps me (one of the rewards will be that you'll be receiving your own building in the city as well, size depending on your level of help. Very minor helpers may only get half of a 1/6 block building (the ones you see on the left in the picture above), while seriously major helpers may get as much as a full city block to themselves (and if said major helper also got the "name choosing" city block, the two could be adjacent and you could do some really cool connecting between the two).

So, please lend your help. This is going to be BIG.

I think 273x273 is more than the entire diameter of my first highway loop.  And I'm not filling up the inside of that area!

Yeah, it's a TON of space, you're absolutely right there.

I've built the first building of my city - a small family diner with a house in the second floor (three bedrooms, a kitchen, and dining room. No bathroom though O_O).

I've also mostly completed the basic laying out of the second city block. Things are going OK, but building the actual buildings themselves is going to be the hard part.

OK, I'm doing some extensive underwater tunnels, and I think I have a pretty good technique.  So I figured I'd share it. 

Step 1:  Create reed beds.  This is just dirt and trenches.  On the ocean floor, generally dirt already,you'd have the choice of adding a raised bed or digging the trench.  You could have two dirt for 1 trench (TRRTRRT etc.) but in my case the tunnel size meant RTRTR was fine. 

The pumpkins are there at intervals for lighting and the rest of the row is dirt as well. 

[edit: TinyPic is dead, long live Flickr. Sorry, but my Minecraft screenshots are now tiny/blurry for some reason when embedded.  Please click the Flickr link accompanying each photo for larger version.  Original links for insanity posterity: http://oi54.tinypic.com/2z7gbkk.jpg ]

Preparing the sea floor for planting rows of reeds

Step 2:  Add the reeds, and add a row of dirt in between the bottom reeds NOT IN THE TRENCH.  If you fill in the trench the reeds become unstable and will uproot.  The objective is to fill the non-reed rows to eradicate the water but we'll see later why we are only adding one piece of dirt.   In this case I wanted 3 spaces of air above the pumpkin, so that's how tall the reeds are. 

[ http://oi52.tinypic.com/wqpm3b.jpg ]

Reeds are planted, and a row of dirt is between the reeds at reed level (water below for the reeds)

Step 3:  Add the walls and ceiling, and add sand on top of the dirt between the reeds.  You can add sand above the pumpkins too, or do it in cleanup.  Just remember that if you add sand you will no longer be able to move freely in that row anymore. 

[ http://oi52.tinypic.com/35jge9l.jpg ]

Enclosure is built, and sand replaces water above the dirt rows. The only water left is now in the trenches watering the reeds and directly above the pumpkins. 

Step 4:  Now that the tunnel section is enclosed and the water is more or less eradicated, start digging the dirt.  The sand will fall into the trench, destroying the water there as well.  The reeds will automatically pop out.  This is the reason why this technique is better IMO than just filling it entirely with sand, and of course using the reeds as an air supply isn't bad either. 

I haven't tried the "fill it with wool and then burn it" technique, but I can see why people would like that.  Wouldn't help you breathe though. 

[ http://oi56.tinypic.com/rw2r0l.jpg ]

Dig the dirt and the sand will destroy the remaining water. (Fill in the areas above the pumpkins as you go to manually destroy that water.)

P.S.  Reeds can be manually built to arbitrary heights, so this would REALLY save effort in a large space being built underwater as compared to straight sand.  But on a large scale a wool-reed combo might be most rewarding. 

P.P.S.  In large (high) spaces, it might also help to use a different water supply strategy: 
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Because you'd want to maximize reed columns vs. sand columns.  But for tunnels I don't know if it's that much better and it's not quite as mindlessly easy. 

P.P.P.S.  Heck, I just thought of an easy way to combine wool and reeds.  Just do the plan I am doing for the tunnel only instead of dirt/sand just use wool!  [edit: and one sand to kill the trench water, but you might have to put it in the middle?  I don't know if falling sand puts out fires.] For this you'd want to make sure to fill in above the pumpkins so the leftover water doesn't douse anything. 

Needless to say, if you have a better way, feel free to tell me! 

I've never, ever done significant construction underwater. On my SP world, the most I've dealt with underwater is when I get lost in a massive cave and want back out, so I start digging up and eventually break the surface... into water, and have to clean up.

Everything you're talking about is completely foreign to me.

Not to mention, all of my concentration is on my city right now.

In a sort of segue between our conversations, however, for everybody else - there is now minecart system leading all the way from the spawn point to my giant stargate. It requires a transfer at my little peninsula station, but other than that, transportation is vastly faster and more effortless to get all the way up there.

Updated map!

New full map.
Download:
Large: http://www.mediafire.com/?745x1q3soz3b6vx
Small: http://www.mediafire.com/?02qb34v1h6l3vi5

Areas that are new as of this past week are lighter. Old areas are dark.
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?zh7ntbm83oaclue

Main area, showing about 99% of the buildings.
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?3yyp4hgg5mvy9ef

Exact same region from last week's map, for comparison to show what's new.
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?d8p7wx4rqrvmbg7

Animated GIF edition.
Download: http://www.mediafire.com/?tc5eqnvgt8twk3t

wick, i just wanted to not in here the south tunnel is done, i think i ran into one of your digs at the bedrock level. if you want to use that as your station thats cool, you can also dig one down and connect it, or dig down and i can connect it if you show me where it is, or you dont even have to connect it will just be there

for others, im working my east tunnel now, i expect it to take me through next weekend to finnish, mainly because i dont get to play much during the week. once its done ill start cutting a north tunnel.

My city now has a billboard advertising it while it's in construction.