Oredds Brings New Meaning to "Sexy". The Portal Tour. Miclee's Snow Map Texture.

IMO, oredds has created the best dragon that will ever exist on Minecraft forever and ever. You can visit this epic creation by logging onto the current WoM map, typing /museum valley, and paying a visit to the builder area. You CAN'T miss it, it's that huge.

If you do miss it, I will knife you in the face. =)


The sky darkens and flames erupt! Hapless victims run screaming and on fire... the dragon has come to destroy all!


Just to give you an idea of the scale of the dragon... that breath of fire is longer than my fucking portal tour.


The scale of this dragon is utterly massive, dwarfing the mage tower on the left side of the image, and also the hilltop fort at the middle bottom of the image. What is truly amazing is that the dragon is perfectly proportionate; the wings are large enough to carry the wyrm, but not so big that it looks like a bat. The body is of the correct size, and the head is slender and threatening.


Here is a close up of the dragon's head. You can see its glittering, golden eyes and its angrily flared nostrils. Fire erupts from its mouth, engulfing other details such as teeth and tongue. But really, at this point, I'm more worried about the fire!


This view is behind the dragon's head. The jaw here is well defined, and the well-crafted neck begins just under the jaw and behind the head. The way this is done shows that oredds has a good understanding of anatomy.


The back spikes are a detail that I have often seen missing in other dragons. The curved spikes slope down the powerfully arcing neck, over the strong back, and down to the tail. Here you can see the carefully modeled curves of the dragon's back.


The side profile of the dragon is powerful indeed. The general shape of the neck and torso indicate a lazy S, perfect for an aggressive pose.


Here is the underbelly of the dragon, its raking claws and massive hind legs. You can also see the dragon casting a massive shadow over the ground!


The long, whip-like tail of the dragon snakes across the ground, and ends with a spaded tip. The spikes have been carefully designed to grow smaller and smaller as they descend upon the tail.


By looking at the shadow, you can see how easily the tail of the dragon winds along. The shadow shows how the tail whips around, but hides its complex arcs and turns.


My favorite part: the enormous wings! You can see the "skeleton" of the wings peeking through the red membrane, just suggesting its form. Not extremely obvious, and that's the way it should be... suggestive, subtle.


The wings have been painstakingly crafted in neat, long rows of blocks.


This is an examination of the opposing wing. What I like is how oredds made the wings shapely; in the upper left area of the image, you can see the muscle pouring into the wing; they're not just fleshy membranes tacked onto the dragon's back, but a complex fusion of skeleton, membrane, and muscle, suggesting the genuine anatomy of how a dragon should appear.


This image gives you a better idea of the dragon's massive size... the beast is by far the largest damned thing on the map. Upon seeing the finished product, several WoM moderators and I spent 10 minutes shitting bricks.

I feel these images do not do this utterly magnificent creation justice. If you can record a full study of this dragon, please do and post it somewhere so I can link to it =)


In lesser news: My Portal tour!

It was going to be a Portal maze, but Portal is rather linear, so it is a tour. =)


This tour is best explored without hacks because of the way I designed it.


The blue portals are water doorways, and the orange portals are lava doorways. This is the first room you start in. The concept I used in this tour is the same as the game; you walk into the blue portal and emerge from the orange portal...


... like so. =)


Unlike the game Portal by Valve, the puzzles in the tour are very simple. Below is a portal you can enter to appear...


... on the other side =).

There are more rooms, but I will leave them for you to discover. Just visit the current WoM server, type /museum valley, and it's next to oredd's dragon's fire. You can't miss it. Leave me some feedback! =)

Last but not least, Miclee designed a fitting texture complementing the new snow build map. Gone are the gritty, uniform cloth-style blocks. Miclee has redesigned the textures to appear softer, more forgiving, and in general, more fitting to the new map. You can download his texture by visiting this link:

http://www.worldofminecraft.com/node/619