No Wood Boxes: A Building Guide

You seem a fairly competent builder. The restaurant looks excellent, if a bit chaotic. May I ask what the slime blocks underneath the pirate ship are for?

They simulate the appearance of water. What good's a ship if it's not on water?

The restaurant is rather messy, but that's probably because a sizable portion of it was dedicated for crafting stations. That being said, I hit the ball with the storage area.

Space wise, I think I did ok with that restaurant. The upper portion was a bit compact, but in terms of style, I like the contrast. Smooth soothing colors and furniture, with an interesting selection of artwork.
 
This playthrough I made my world so that I would have the necessary resources to build a nice house.
0_2015-02-22_00001.png
What do you think?
 
Sorry to bother you lot, but I haven't been on Terraria for ages and have completely forgotten how to make slopes. How was it you did that again? ( And by the way, I'm not a noob, I have a night's edge)
[DOUBLEPOST=1424620459][/DOUBLEPOST]Great guide too!
 
Sorry to bother you lot, but I haven't been on Terraria for ages and have completely forgotten how to make slopes. How was it you did that again? ( And by the way, I'm not a noob, I have a night's edge)
[DOUBLEPOST=1424620459][/DOUBLEPOST]Great guide too!
No problem! Hit the block with a hammer, and you can cycle between half blocks and different slopes.
 
@=(eG)= Ryan Cansler

Thise look good, but I suggest taking the pirate ship off of the gel block house, and just destroy that part.

I always liked the wavy look of gel blocks. It's why I built the ship on that.

The wavy appearance of the backwall simulates ocean waves decently enough.

Frankly, that screenshot wasn't the last version of the house. I remember making some modifications at some later point, but I don't think the ship even exists anymore.
 
Looks decent. I'm not sure if ebonstone bricks are the best choice for the side walls, though- try picking something that works vertically, like maybe living wood painted purple or violet. Otherwise, it's definitely a lot better than a lot of houses I see. (I looked at some of the Terraria streams on Twitch.tv yesterday, and everyone and their mother had a wood base embedded in a hill somewhere. Sheesh.)
 
Well, thanks for the tips, man! I am the second rank of builder on a server called Aurora Terraria, and this would give me ideas for buildings.

My most recent build (or, my best build, with some help received):
11004634_859943617381267_946284114383703415_o.jpg

10996135_859943757381253_1987391608485932283_o.jpg

10960128_859943677381261_8807490241712730167_o.jpg

10993126_859943720714590_2483070582365632397_o.jpg


So, please bear with me that I wasn't able to make it in spoilers, as I am still learning how. If anyone could tell me, that would be greatly appreciated.
 
Last edited:
Mmm... if you don't mind a heavy WIP, I'll post my livingwood supertree design I have that I've been working on on and off. Definatally good for showing off pretty organic options for a build. If I wasn't too lazy to build a tree farm for the 5 billion wood I need (Or getting distracted building my base on my group's minecraft server) I'd prob have finished it already, but oh well.

02927847713EFA0D9A67B7005DF70C84821FF3C7
82BAB4E481A1D536BB89E40C0F71FA46EFC639B0
1F415818E6239FA8881826523F8C960753E678C3
FEE7E8D0E984E872D83EE695A5D3AFC5FBA77FB9
987DC89A30A461CDD0C1EC8E8E80ADEEBDB282E8
FFB79B575F577BE6FC2049CA7B1945CCE68BAD3C
7C3CB10428CFA1936FD7441031DCABFC23FB2229

A heavy part in making it look natural is good splintering, and being able to mix foreground and background usage on the branches/canopy. The final pic is a good example of the splintering process I use to build up the branches before I place the leaves, at least on the top section of it, just remember to allow light into it, either via 1 block gaps in the background (If you want the design to follow the natural day/night cycle for lighting), or placing it yourself in the form of candles/Gem torches, if you want your hard work to even be noticed. The best backwall for the leaves is the grass backwall from the Dryad, although I also mixed in a few flower backwalls in for her room on that one branch I started out with (Note, that branch was actually me absorbing the leftovers of a natural Livingwood tree's leaves that I had harvested earlier on to use in the main tree, which set the shape of the room for me to build into) to give the impression that she was helping her part of the tree come into bloom unnaturally. I heavily recommend using cactus lighting for Livingwood designs, as the flowering look looks pretty good. If you want stairs in the "I can walk without jumping up" style, heavily mix the slopes on a diagonal. The unevenness helps it look natural, or at the very least as if you had hacked them in by hand rather than with machine precision, while you can walk up without effort if designed right.

EDIT: Also, a tip I have for building things that feel more a part of the world, build around the land, don't terraform the land around the build. Best way to make something feel like it actually belongs. Light terraforming is ok just to fill in small gaps/clear small hills (aprox 1-3 tiles), but otherwise try and use the land to your advantage.
 
Last edited:
Mmm... if you don't mind a heavy WIP, I'll post my livingwood supertree design I have that I've been working on on and off. Definatally good for showing off pretty organic options for a build. If I wasn't too lazy to build a tree farm for the 5 billion wood I need (Or getting distracted building my base on my group's minecraft server) I'd prob have finished it already, but oh well.

02927847713EFA0D9A67B7005DF70C84821FF3C7
82BAB4E481A1D536BB89E40C0F71FA46EFC639B0
1F415818E6239FA8881826523F8C960753E678C3
FEE7E8D0E984E872D83EE695A5D3AFC5FBA77FB9
987DC89A30A461CDD0C1EC8E8E80ADEEBDB282E8
FFB79B575F577BE6FC2049CA7B1945CCE68BAD3C
7C3CB10428CFA1936FD7441031DCABFC23FB2229

A heavy part in making it look natural is good splintering, and being able to mix foreground and background usage on the branches/canopy. The final pic is a good example of the splintering process I use to build up the branches before I place the leaves, at least on the top section of it, just remember to allow light into it, either via 1 block gaps in the background (If you want the design to follow the natural day/night cycle for lighting), or placing it yourself in the form of candles/Gem torches, if you want your hard work to even be noticed. The best backwall for the leaves is the grass backwall from the Dryad, although I also mixed in a few flower backwalls in for her room on that one branch I started out with (Note, that branch was actually me absorbing the leftovers of a natural Livingwood tree's leaves that I had harvested earlier on to use in the main tree, which set the shape of the room for me to build into) to give the impression that she was helping her part of the tree come into bloom unnaturally. I heavily recommend using cactus lighting for Livingwood designs, as the flowering look looks pretty good. If you want stairs in the "I can walk without jumping up" style, heavily mix the slopes on a diagonal. The unevenness helps it look natural, or at the very least as if you had hacked them in by hand rather than with machine precision, while you can walk up without effort if designed right.

EDIT: Also, a tip I have for building things that feel more a part of the world, build around the land, don't terraform the land around the build. Best way to make something feel like it actually belongs. Light terraforming is ok just to fill in small gaps/clear small hills (aprox 1-3 tiles), but otherwise try and use the land to your advantage.
That looks SWEET. I've never seen a living wood tree look this good!
Well, thanks for the tips, man! I am the second rank of builder on a server called Aurora Terraria, and this would give me ideas for buildings.

My most recent build (or, my best build, with some help received):
11004634_859943617381267_946284114383703415_o.jpg

10996135_859943757381253_1987391608485932283_o.jpg

10960128_859943677381261_8807490241712730167_o.jpg

10993126_859943720714590_2483070582365632397_o.jpg


So, please bear with me that I wasn't able to make it in spoilers, as I am still learning how. If anyone could tell me, that would be greatly appreciated.
And this is pretty cool too, pun entirely intended. Very good usage of wall and tile variety, as well as shaping; it looks really, really nice.

I have a new build I'm working on myself (it's a massive improvement on the tiny temporary wood shacks I've been building on my current run), currently situated smack-dab on top of my dungeon. Once I get more done on it I'll get some screenshots of it.
 
Two works in progress here, both currently missing some furniture variety.

One is a semi-ruined castle. I'm pretty happy with how the general idea turned out, except for some ungodly reason all NPCs are dead-set on going to the top floor. They're not normally walled in, that's just the security system activated by the red lever. Careful observers will note that pressure plates are present to toggle the top door / trapdoor, two buttons for the tower trapdoor, and a lower door-close plate. Also there's a secret magic room in the tower. ;)

I really need to add a moat of some sort, and a more fleshed-out crafting basement.

xIvaFuE.png


The second is a simple outdoor mining base, initially made as a rudimentary house for the guide. You can still see traces of the original box, but do note how much the overall reception changes when the basement is built out, not just down.

clvcma1.png
 
And this is pretty cool too, pun entirely intended. Very good usage of wall and tile variety, as well as shaping; it looks really, really nice.

It looks like a deformed tadpole on the minimap
[DOUBLEPOST=1424824522][/DOUBLEPOST]
And this is pretty cool too, pun entirely intended. Very good usage of wall and tile variety, as well as shaping; it looks really, really nice.

It looks like a deformed tadpole on the minimap :p
 
I have to say, very good effort, but it's a shame you only describe one particular thing in lacking detail, rather than making the guide a bit more expansive.
Can you make a suggestion, then? I don't have any experience in making guides, and don't know what I'm missing.
 
Back
Top Bottom