Part 4: Ruins of Alph and Route 32

Route 32 Magnet Train 

Ruins of Alph

Johto extends south. Route 32 is one of the longest routes in Johto and is the start of the clockwise 'loop' that takes us round and back up to Violet City. Plus the ancient Ruins of Alph make their appearance here. 

Route 32

Route 32 is quite a long route south. It joins Violet City to Union cave. Being 256 blocks long it took time to build. 

It is quite ordinary. It's made in exactly the same way as every single route since half way through the Hoenn project 2 years ago.

For some reason I like crafting routes more than building the cities.

Route 32 is so long there is a Pokemon Centre at the southern end.

Connecting Johto and Kanto (eventually) is the Magnet Train that runs from Johto's Goldenrod City to Kanto's Saffron City. Just the pillars for now.

It's getting there.

Almost done. Just need trees.

Tree time.

A new thing I will be doing is filling any gaps in terrain when they need filling. It will just save time later when the entire region needs all the gaps finished. Plus it gives you a small preview as progress goes on.

The magnet train passes underground at this point. It will eventually be figured out and will be working by the time the project is finished.

Trees.

And removing the leaf borders. Just one more thing that if done now will save time later.

Ruins of Alph

The Ruins of Alph are ancient ruins. But I'm more interested in building them that explaining their history. 

All of the Ruins of Alph area is sand.

Until I replaced it with the inside of a mushroom. Only for looks. Sand is reserved for pathways.

Underneath the Ruins is a large cave. It is an sandstone maze.

It's getting there. To get that 'ruins' look and to match the in-game look some nature was woven into the buildings. There is grass on the roof in small patches.

This took much longer to build than it looks. It took about 6 hours in total.

To add even more to that look of ruins on all of the buildings i added veins of cracked stone bricks and mossy bricks to the base of those buildings near water.

And, I think that can be considered done.

Finished Product

Route 32

Route 32 with the soon to be built Union Cave on the left with the Pokemon Centre in the middle.

Heading further north along route 32.

The Magnet Train overpass.

The ruins.

Looking ancient.

Progress so far.

Stay tuned and subscribe.
PS: Check this project out on Planet Minecraft.
http://www.planetminecraft.com/project/pokmon-johto-and-kanto-regions/

And sample the progress so far by downloading the world here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/b2z7w74gt327sa7/JohtoKantoSnap4.zip?dl=0


If you have any tips for improvement please don't hesitate to share. It would be greatly appreciated. Next: Part 5 features Union Cave, Route 33 and Azalea Town.
After That: Part 6 features Route 35 and Goldenrod City.
And After That: Part 7 features Route 34 and Ilex Forest
8% Complete.

Part 3: Violet City and Route 33

Render of Sprout Tower, Violet City. 

Our first major city. Violet City. The third city to visit in the Johto region. A few more firsts in this update to the project. The first Gym and the first use of the alternative colour Pokemon Centre and Pokemon Mart. Route 36 was also built as part of the update. It is a bushy route connecting Violet City at one end and the National Park at the other. What do you think of the render at the top of the page? I think I'll use this layout from now on.

Violet City

Violet City is the first major city the player will visit in Johto (Generation IV). Notable landmarks are the Pokemon Gym, Pokemon School and, of course, Sprout Tower. 

Violet City in the DS games has both a Pokemon Centre and a Pokemon Mart but they are a duller colour to match the historic nature of the town. And Violet City does look like what most people would imagine a 600AD Japanese major town would look like.

The bright orange roof from the Pokemon Centre has been changed to Nether bricks and the Pokemon mart has had its roof and flags changed from blue to purple.

The Pokemon gyms overground building is like nothing that's been used before in one of my projects. It is a very rounded building and anyone who has played Minecraft knows that it is quite difficult to make something look rounded.

Violet City Gym

Violet City gym is a flying type gym. 

No. This isn't the interior of the building. Well it is, but it's underground. Buildings like this will be built underground to compensate for their lack of space in the above ground building.

Too many bats. Time to light this place up.

It may look lit but in the centre of the room the light level drops to 0. There is no light in the middle of the room.

Inside I used packed ice for the walls, only because of the shade of blue it had. Plus there are columns around the room.

The flight deck (sorry) is the gyms main feature. It's just an easy puzzle.

Still! Bats everywhere.

After murdering the bats and lighting up the interior properly the gym is finished.

The staircase leading down to the floor is windowed for your viewing pleasure. Plus there is a window in the floor in the gyms above ground interior to look down into the main area.

Three down. Four to go.

Pokemon School

The Pokemon School. Almost every region has some sort of Pokemon School. It's a place where new players of Pokemon can learn more about the game within the game. 

The building takes on a style similar to that of Sprout Tower, which will be built soon.

Sprout tower is the northern most part of Violet City. It is situated across a lake.

Two arch bridges connect both sides of the pond.

Sprout Tower

A small modification was made regarding the size of the building. The building in the DS game measures 12x12 but I enlarged it to 13x13. The reason why is because the tower is built around a central column with a tall, narrow spire on the roof. This increase of 1 block in both x and y directions means that the column can be 1x1 instead of 2x2 increasing interior space and allowing the building to take on a more asymmetrical look. 

The centre colum, if I remember right is 25 blocks tall. It was a reasonable height I chose. It has been changed since.

And bam! There it is. Forgot to take screenshots during construction.

The interior is a three level design with extra high cielings. In the DS game there is a puzzle that trainers need to complete to get to the top.

The exterior at night. Taking an idea from Bell Tower, underneath each corner of the roof is a redstone lamp. They look like lanterns which is why I chose them over glowstone. Plus I use generous amounts of glowstone anyway so it gets a bit common.

The first floor. All the floors are a bit cramped but, it happens.

The second floor pre walls.

The third floor is the highest floor. I gave the rood a cathedral cross beam ceiling.

And the third floor layout.

Violet city with all its buildings. I was going to cover the houses but they are too ordinary and I couldn't be bothered to write about houses AGAIN.

The city come night.

And now the city with trees.

 Route 36

Route 36 connects in five different directions. Head north for route 37. Head east for Violet City. Head south east for the Ruins of Alph. Head south west for Route 35 and head west for the National Park. 

Another thing to mention is that the width of the route is non-standard. But that only affects me when I try to align the routes that sprawl from route 36

Forgot to take some construction screenshots but this post is getting long enough anyway. Below are the trees for the western side.

And for the rest of the route. Plus the usual detailing and grass and everything in a normal route.

Finished Product

Sprout Tower poking above the trees. Looking from Canalave City. 

Violet City.

Sprout Tower and the Pokemon School.

Sprout Tower.

Violet City western side.

Entrance to Violet City from soon to be constructed route 32.

Route 36 looking north from Ruins of Alph gate.

Narrow opening to progress through route. No rouge Sudowoodo's here.

Looking north west to the later to be constructed route 37.

Looking north east from route 35 access point.

Gate to later to be built National Park.

Progress so far. 

Stay tuned and subscribe.
PS: Check this project out on Planet Minecraft.
http://www.planetminecraft.com/project/pokmon-johto-and-kanto-regions/

And sample the progress so far by downloading the world here:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/4r9ytgfmiv8poom/JohtoKantoSnap3.zip?dl=0

If you have any tips for improvement please don't hesitate to share. It would be greatly appreciated. Next: Part 4 features Ruins of Alph and Route 32.
After That: Part 5 features Union Cave, Route 33 and Azalea Town.
And After That: Part 6 features Route 35 and Goldenrod City.
6% Complete.