Nirosu's Slap Snap Reborn! : mrfrightful the fearless builder

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Heya there, how's it going, been a while since the last time, but that doesn't mean Slap-Snap is over yet.

This week's special guest is no other than mrfrightful! yay...

A little about mrfrightful: he joined the community at November 2011.
He's a nice builder with exterior and interior.
He can build airships and zeppelins.

What can I tell about him? well, I'd say he's a good person and a great friend, regarding his building, he's quite good, he has motivation, which is needed for big builds, how did I meet him? well, not sure, but I'm pretty sure it goes back to the days I was yet to be a VIP, about at the time of the creation of my sky city, when I searched for people to build airships. He decided to build a zeppelin, a big one, and even today I'm still quite inspired by that very first zeppelin lying in sky city, and maybe it was part of the reason I decided to become a builder at the time.

I always found him to be mysterious, when I saw the rest of his builds I was also quite amazed, and at the time, it was really a moving sight to see for the first time a builder with such skills alive and breathing in front of your eyes...

I wanted to do a Slap-Snap at mrfrightful for quite some time, but I always tend to be a bit forgetful, cause he's always helping me here and there with supplies, when you become accustomed to something, you might not notice how it really helps you.

Well enoguh stories and more pictures, but this time I ask of you to go yourself one day and ask for a tour, these pictures mostly show the outside, but frightful is also known for his inside work as well.

Attachment 529
New world, unknown.
mrfrightful's manor, a big building that cannot enter a picture, it contains quite inspirational interior along side mediocre mess, ask for a tour maybe, you might have some fun seeing nice ideas.

Attachment 530
Old Survival, Goldem.
The outside is confusing, seems like a plain sand igloo, but inside lies a quite comfortable house.

Attachment 531
Old Survival, someunknownplacewhichidon'tremember.
This picture shows a blimp and a floating island, hard to capture both in the the same picture, go find them on livemap, might be nice to see the floaty island from there :3

Attachment 532
Old Survival, justnexttotheblimp.
mrfrightful kingdom... small one, but also his first house is part of it, worth visiting it, and it has nice chambers underground, really recommended.

Attachment 533
Old Survival, Sky City ruins.
The SkySeeker, the Zeppelin of sky city, truly majestic and well interior-ed from the inside, even though it has been build before minecraft 1.0, it still have a respectful rank of interior and exterior.

That's all the pictures, but don't go yet, as we still have an interview ahead :D


1. Could you tell us about your experience in the Slap-Gaming server and community?

I joined SLaP around November 2011 because I was getting a little tired of building solo. I wanted a some company, people I could show my builds to and share ideas with.

I'd had a bad time with lag on most of the other servers I tried so I was looking specifically for a UK based server. This was the 4th one I visited. It was fast, had a new and wide open map and a pretty decent set of people, and I've been here ever since :wub:


2. How long does it usually takes you to finish a build?

Most of my own 'builds' are ramshackle and rambling and fairly open ended, I'll add a tower here or a cellar there, or see something nifty on YouTube or Reddit that I just have to have somewhere in my 'base'. I love the idea that people can start exploring my 'house' and every corner or stairway opens into new and unexpected spaces.
I always feel that there's something I could add or extend, and for that reason I probably have more 'unfinished' projects than almost anyone else.

But, if I'm working with something specific in mind like a machine, house or an airship, it can be anything from a few hours to a couple of days.

I try to work with the landscape where I can and where at all possible I move dirt around rather than dig it out, I think that helps to make things 'fit'.

Where possible, I like to hide things like machines and farms, usually that means putting them underground, but where they come to the surface I like to cover them over with buildings etc. to help them blend in.
So there might be a little vegetable patch in my garden, but that's just for show, my carrot and wheat farm is actually far underground in a cavern.

I pretty much visualise what I want (maybe drawing on 'real world' examples for inspiration) and fill in the blocks until it's there. I often build internal supporting frameworks and then fill them out, much like a real building, because I think it gives my builds more 'weight' and helps me lay out spaces in a realistic manner. Once the walls are up however, I might remove part or all of that hidden framework to make room and crawl-spaces for little touches like redstone lighting and doors.


3. What do you think a builder must have in order to improve oneself?

You need to be willing to try things, and you need to be willing to tear them down if they're not working. Patience.
Keep your eyes open for neat techniques and details and adapt them into your own builds (for example I adapted the little curlicue details around spawn on new survival to make sinuous bridges, walls, gateways and supporting structures).

4. Where did Nirosu put question number 4?

Not in these questions.

5. Could you tell us about your projects in progress?

Hmm.. Mostly I'm working on a new base/mansion. I started out a lot bigger this time as I've got 2 years worth of stockpiled materials, and somewhere that isn't a hole in the ground to hide at night. I've been focussed on the interiors just recently, working with much bigger spaces lets me experiment with newer materials like coloured clay, and I've been all over reddit and Youtube looking for ideas to help me fill the rooms with stuff.

I've also got to build another smelter to further automate my cactus farm, and I've promised to 'consult' for Nirosu's building team so that should throw a few things my way too.

... and I really should put the other engine and some fins onto my new airship...


6. Any tips you'd like to give to the fellow aspiring builders?

Just keep building, look at other people's builds, borrow, copy, steal and adapt design elements:) Try things out, you'll develop your own style and work out what your strengths are and build to them.


7. What do you think the server is lacking or needs improvement with?

I'd love to see more events where we do something completely out of the ordinary.
Back-up the regular map for a day and install the Airships plugin and let people take to the skies in their creations. Or install tekkit for a weekend and see who can make the biggest nuclear meltdown.
I know these plugins/builds are often unstable and liable to be crashtastic but it could make for a fun weekend event :P

I appreciate that there's a lot of work in setting that sort of thing up, and our admins and devs do a great job, so when they do run events people need to get into the spirit of it and take part.

I really love that we recently added the skyblock pvp, and I'd really like to see 'race for the wool' or similar PvP team games where a range of skills and abilities enter into the challenge. Even if it's just for one off or event play.


8. Anything you'd like to add?

I've had a great time playing on the SLaP server, and I'd like to say thanks to Jack and all server staff for providing a great safe, (mostly) stable (STOUUUUUUX!) server and a great creative environment, and to my fellow SLaP minecrafters for making the community what it is.

9. Anything you'd like to suggest to Slap-Snap Reborn?

Keep on Keepin' On!


10. anything you'd like to note about the experience of having a slap-snap or answering the questions?

Just thanks to Niro' for asking me to take part, and to let everyone know that I'm more than happy to answer questions (on the forum or in game) and give tours around any of my builds.:D

(Also... I'm not sure why Niro thinks I'm 'fearless' but the title was his idea and I can't think of a better one :unsure:)


That's all for this Slap-Snap Reboooooorn~! join us next time when we'll host non other than yet another mysterious guest! Wanne be in the next slap-snap reborn? Go to the menu and search for the applications thread, and remember, we need people, so make sure to try out your luck even if you aren't as good as the slap-snap guests hosted until now, and definitely do so if you do thing you are better!