When hell freezes over!

[knolli]

Let's do the Nether Project 2.0. With Snow.

Other than water, you can place snow blocks in the nether. So let's build a village of igloos or whatever other epic stucture made of ice and snow in the center of a waste lava lake. (Of course I can't help picturing a white castle with lot's of spires) Who is with me? Having someone with creative powers in the team would help.

[Robot Monkey]

We could use the snow biome by Brikhalls to harvest snow, and possibly use snow golems to coat the island naturally as well.

[mgb519]

But it'll melt!

[Zupponn]

Don't ruin my lake.

[Robot Monkey]

we could replace the lava in the lake with ice for added effect. (would need MCedit.)

[knolli]

6. I already experimented with snowmen in the nether. They melt after seconds and leave no snow trail.
7. To get the amount of snow blocks I'm thinking of (and I like to think BIG, you know, Bastion-size, for the start) you would have to dig up snow for days. Although I usually try not to use cheats or creative, I don't see how we could avoid it this time. We would also need someone with creative if we want to add some ice blocks. And what would be an ice castle be without ice?
8. We could use McEdit to make the ocean of lave with a single island. Not to mention that we need a cave huge enough to house the building(s). But replacing all the lave with ice would destroy the effect I am thinking about. Think about it: An Ice Castle in a fiery hell is much more epic than an Ice Castle in the tundra.

Edit: Is it possible to harvest ice blocks with a Silk Touch Tool?

[SnakeMittens]

Not as of 1.2.5, but I think that ice will be harvestable in 1.3.

[knolli]

I played around in Creative and this came out. But it's still only a beginning.



I tried to merge the road to the gate with a Nether Fortress. All in all I plan to work in a similar stile and dimensions. But I still have way to go.

[Robot Monkey]

Would snow golems survive on the snow? They'd be pretty cool wandering about on the battlements.

[muffinman42]

I've made fake over-worlds in the neather before.
Big blue domes over an area of grass (used Too Many Items to get grass), looked very odd.


Ice and Snow (to my Alpha/Beta knowledge) don't melt in the nether but it might have been changed in the months i haven't played minecraft.

For making a snow biome in the neather;
I would build a massive dome of black wool/obsidian with a snow floor, build some pine trees in it, and a small shack in the middle leading to a mineshaft(lined with smooth stone and some ores blocks!) going down to a fake-portal room. in front of the portal would be a pair of plates which activate the pistons behind the portal; which open straight onto a neather fortress! using a RS timer the pistons stay open long enough to get though, then close. another pair of plates would be on the out side to get in.

[knolli]

What I am aiming at is not to hide a fake-overworld inside the nether but to welcome and embrace the contrast. The castle of the Frost Giants inside an ocean of magma. Giant icicles next to lavafalls. A frozen over Nether Fortress. Maybe I should use one of them as a basis to work on.

But ideas are always welcome.

[muffinman42]

Oooohhh... That sounds even cooler.

A few critics of the castle:
The look of the snow for walls is a bit odd, it looks too "painted white", try Ice. You'll need to hack it in or use a SilkTouch pick to get it though. (keep lava away, you can't do Dwarven feats of engineering in minecraft!).

The walls are rather flat and bland, mix in some windows or texture it. Buttresses running up the side would be cool.

The blue roof looks out of place, light blue might look better with snow.

Wooden fences instead of neather fences to better contrast the neather.

[Robot Monkey]

And some gargantuan icicles hanging off would be cool. Also, ice on the walkways so people move faster, and adds to the feel.

[knolli]

Ice wouldn't be a problem in creative mode. And I see no other way to get the necessary amounts of snow or ice.

I can try ice for walls, but I fear it will look even odder.
The walls are flat and bland because I want to immitate the stile of the nether fortress. And it has even more flat, monotone structures. It is moderated a bit because the Nether Bricks have a patterned skin while the snow texture is rather blunt.
Another approach would be to build the building from "normal" materials and add icicles, snow and snowy covers like in a snow biome. But: Is there a way to cover blocks in snow other than a Snow Golem? They don't work in the Nether, as far as I know.

To have a courtyard with snow covered pine trees like the God's Gove in Winterfell would add to the flair.

...Why nor rebuild Winterfell itself? Why havn't I thought of this sooner? In Better Than Wolves there are Blood Trees that look exactly like the white Trees from the series, including red leaves.


Edit:
I used a Nether Fortress nearby and added Icy Battlements and walls. The design is copied 1:1, only the used blocks are different.


Only one additional wall of ice. Nothing special. But you can see other segments of the Nether Fortress in the background.

Turned the simple ice wall into a corridor and added some water- and lava falls for the show.

Btw: you can't place water in the nether; not even in creative. But you can place ice and melt it with a torch.
That also means that you must not light any fire inside the icy corridors of the Frozen Fortress or it will melt all around you and turn the Magma Lake into a Obsidian Mirror.