The chicken or the egg?

[Sam Vimes]

So, when you build a housing for something mechanical (say an automated wheat farm,) which comes first, the outer structure or the inner workings?

[Mud]

I would think it'd be obvious that the inner workings will determine the size and shape of the enclosing structure.

[Stormweaver]

Build the building roughly first, build the automation, tidy up.

Once you're used to things it's quite easy to guesstimate the size of a build and then leave room for maintenance. Helps keep everything look nice too.

[Mud]

You can also build the bulk of the "guts" of your systems underground.

[CycloneSP]

You can do it both ways actually. If you are trying to figure out how the machine is actually put together, it's best to build that first, as in most cases, there will be extraneous blocks and the design will usually be a tad excessive, especially if it's your first time building such a structure.

However, for those that have experience with certain designs, they may prefer to challenge themselves and see if they can't build the desired construct within the confines of a particular size. I know I've challenged myself to see if I could fit certain machines in 5x5 floor plans and it was a quite enjoyable experience.

[Xeo]

I generally spend a really long time building some housing and then attempt to squeeze the mechanisms inside. When that absolutely doesn't work ill rip holes in the building and create an "extension." I feel like half the fun of automation is making it elegant and really cool. By constraining myself to a limited area I can really control that.

[DaveYanakov]

I make attractive buildings, then add the workings. If I need more space I just dig down.

[myrkana]

I like to build the bulk of my mechanics underground :) like all the gear boxes possible beneath the building and then building a nice looking place above it xD

[SterlingRed]

My method is a lot of chaos. I have problems doing both. I often start with just machines, no real housing other than cobblestone as a sort of early game workshop. Then I set up a 'permanent' building with larger automation builds, i build the aesthetic building first. Then i fill it in with technical builds, and always run out of space and have to rip out walls or move walls or combine floors.

After that, I get tired of rebuilding structures, so my next buildings usually I just build the technical first. But by this point I've lit the entire area and don't have much need for physical walled protection, so I often don't even bother with finishing an exterior structure and move onto my other projects.

And I tend to go back and forth between the two. Thus my stuff is always half finished in one way or another. I kinda like it that way though, my world always looks like its in a state of activity and growth.

[The Phoenixian]

In my experience, if you can work out the aesthetics first, it's probably the better idea.*

In the end, as long as it's good enough, you're not exactly going to be working with the internals much after you've finished so it's easier to take pride in you work if you built it specifically to look good than if you were able to get it as fast/efficient as possible.


*and if you can't it's worth the time build enough of the machine on a test site to know how it works and completely rebuild in a good building.

[Kazuya Mishima]

I don't build housing at all. All my automated devices are underground. I have colonized 2 ravines, one of them has a mob trap and a chicken, feather, hemp poo system. I did have to penetrate through a lot of solid rock to make a slime trap but slime chunks don't always provide the convenience of generating in open spaces within a ravine, still you have to build those underground anyway i think. The slime trap manages to be right on edge of a ravine though.

I'm really trying my hardest to disturb the terrain as little as possible but somethings just demand it like routing water effectively, exploring for small caves.

Most of my caves are illuminated so putting a wall around stuff isn't necessary. I'm preparing for Flowerchild's RTH.

[TheGatesofLogic]

Am I the only one who designs the internal workings to look good and doesn't cover them in boring buildings?
Gear boxes and axles, if designed in an elegantly efficient manner, tend to look awesome out in the open IMHO, a few added details can really help out the look and to me they turn out much cooler than your typical "waterlift-inside-tower" build. The key to this though, is proportions

[DaveYanakov]

I also build the workings to be attractive when possible but I still protect them from the elements. Having a complex factory mechanism eat itself due to a random lightning bolt simply is not on.

[odranoel]

i always build all the machinery first and then once its complete and operational i make it into a proper building. but i tend to do it that way because i prefer makeing large bulky contraptions rather then super compact ones. so when i have tried making the building first and then the machine inside, i almost always end up losing more time in tearing down and rebuilding walls then if i had done it the other way around.

i just get more satisfaction haveing a large machine in a 15 x 15 area then say the same machine compressed into a 5x5 area. even if i get the same overall results, the larger one just feels more epic and gives me more of a sence of satisfaction. but thats just me. i guess it really depends on your play style. but i feel large machines are more athetically pleasing then smaller ones as they just feel more....machine!

[FlowerChild]

i just get more satisfaction haveing a large machine in a 15 x 15 area then say the same machine compressed into a 5x5 area. even if i get the same overall results, the larger one just feels more epic and gives me more of a sence of satisfaction. but thats just me. i guess it really depends on your play style. but i feel large machines are more athetically pleasing then smaller ones as they just feel more....machine!

I'm the same way. The large physical presence of a build adds to the satisfaction I gain from having completed it, whether that be an aesthetic build, or a practical one.

[Pucc]

Am I the only one who designs the internal workings to look good and doesn't cover them in boring buildings?
Gear boxes and axles, if designed in an elegantly efficient manner, tend to look awesome out in the open IMHO, a few added details can really help out the look and to me they turn out much cooler than your typical "waterlift-inside-tower" build. The key to this though, is proportions

I built my wind mill like this kind of a bare bones build a few logs and fences to look like it isn't defying physics it looks simple but elegant which I'm proud of. I'm interested in if people build structures to a given theme or try to relate it thematically to its use? For example I'm currently in the process of designing a mob spawner in the shape of a giant spider, its completely mad but in my mind it looks amazing.

[DaveYanakov]

Part of the fun is building a structure much larger than you expect you will need and then filling the extra space with spinny bits and big clunky cool stuff