Hey, this is a follow up to my original 'Worldbuilding in Minecraft - Part 1' post that covers some simpler stuff. This post will focus on some slightly more complex ideas and guides for worldbuilding in Minecraft (and other open ended sandbox games).
As with the first part, this is all based on my experience playing in and running an unmodded/vanilla low population IRL friends bedrock server. Most of these ideas can be used regardless of server size or game version, and may still be useful/fun in single player too :)
There are some links to illustrative photos throughout this post, our server uses Dokucraft Light texture pack.
Sections
Iconography
Establishing iconography for individual settlements or associations in your world can help them stand out and be easily identified. It is also pretty fun and simple worldbuilding.
Town Banners Each player established town in our world has it's own 'flag' with a unique colourway and motif. These are displayed around their towns, at each town entry road, and within our Grand Map Room. We have all coincidentally chosen unqiue colours and symbology for our respective towns/regions, to the point that a single standout banner pattern can usually be used to denote sub-regions and districts. As an example, our spawn town Aridnea has a purple flag with a white saltire (X shaped cross). Since then I have used the saltire atop different colours to identify regions within Aridnea's territory, and districts of the City itself. Other towns centre a white circle, a blue heart shape, a magenta T-shaped cross, and a green flower charge pattern. Most towns are identified more with the primary background colour of their flag, but the symbols used can be applied to other towns under their control. And while this hasn't happened yet, there is the ability to merge two flags if an alliance or confederation is made between towns (mixing colours and symbols if possible).
Infrastructure
As towns and settlements become more advanced across your world, adding and improving infrastructure becomes a fun worldbuilding element. This often requires collaboration with, or input from, other players to determine what is necessary and how to construct it. Infrastructure usually requires some instruction and guidance in order to properly use, and working out how to provide this concisely can be a challenge.
Signage
If something looks too complicated, people with ignore it, especially if there is a novel's worth of signage that have to read first. A typical rule I follow is a three sign maximum to explain one thing at one point. Three signs are usually able to be quickly and easily read without having to adjust your POV in Minecraft, whether horizontal or vertical.
Instructional Signage When attached to machines (like auto farmers/smelters) I break down instructions into single sign steps, and then place these steps closest to their function/input location. This should naturally direct people to find the signs 'Step 1' and so on in sequence. Some example photos I have; Auto-Composter (all signs are clearly visible from the front), and Auto Tall Crop Harvester (Steps 2 & 3 are visible from the front, which should lead you to the right side to find Step 1's sign). Instructional signage is often required to break my overall three sign rule, but I am usually able to keep only three signs visible at any point.
Directional Signage A while ago I overhauled directional signage in our spawn town. I usually stick to hanging signs to denote street names, signage related to building identification is attached to their entry points, and standalone town directional markers I give unique designs depending on where they direct to. The latter I decided to do after one friend kept getting lost trying to get back to his nearby town. Each settlement on our server has it's own flag/banner, which means they all have unique colourways associated with them. So using a specific colour of terracotta or wood to denote the flag of one town makes a striking visual marker that is easier to identify. I place these directional markers only when necessary in order to continue directing people where they want to go, by this I mean only at points where there are multiple paths to take. I also start these markers near the town square, as people are most familiar with this location (and it is right by the world spawn point). Here is a photo example of two town directional markers next to each other (outside player townhouses), and here is a quick edit of markers placed in our spawn town that should illustrate the paths they direct people to take.
Reducing Sign Use As I have mentioned a few times, I think that dozens of signs in the same place can be overwhelming to most people and an easy way to get people to ignore them altogether. Think about signage in places you have worked or lived, I often used to miss things I was supposed to know about because of a messy and poorly organized notice board setup. You get used to ignoring stuff that's been up for a long time, and this can prime you to start ignoring important messages too. For these reasons I try to keep signs as succinct as possible, and replace large sign usage with books on lecterns instead (see 'Literature' section of Part 1). The town 'gazette' I write was started as a way to move older notice board messages off signs and into a book for archiving, with the town notice board only showing the most up to date news/changes. I also stripped back sign usage in our spawn town's storage repository by placing an example block next to the barrel storing that item, see photo example here (we use Dokucraft Light texture pack, but you can probably still work out what the blocks are). I did this as heavy sign usage can contribute to lag, and at the time this town storage was located under the most built up area of our world.
Transport & Travel
I covered some basics of transport & travel in the 'Connecting Places' section of Part 1. This section will be for more advanced tips and ideas regarding the same.
Nether Transport Network We actually constructed our Nether Railway before our larger scale overworld railway. It was just generally easier and quicker, once you navigate your way to the next town's portal. You need mountains of junk blocks to seal up tunnels between portals, and it is a good idea to place slabs in any spare spaces to prevent mob spawns. We also leave supplies of gold armour pieces at each portal, because gold is pretty useless armour anyway, and it abates the piglins so they don't attack. You can also construct a blue ice boat highway in the nether, this is apparently the fastest mode of transport, but we haven't bothered to do so yet. Travelling through the nether, even in a controlled environment like the sealed railway tunnels, feels a bit otherworldly or planeswalking, or similar to a hyperspace realm from sci-fi fantasy. It can add an element of 'conquering the unknown/arcane magic' to your worldbuilding, while also being an express form of transport and cargo management. I find using it for cargo a bit cumbersome though, having to manually sort it all between portals.
Overworld Railway Network While these require more resources overall, they are fun to use and can create the need for rural settlements between larger towns. You can typically AFK ride these networks without fear of attack, and they can be easier for managing cargo. Our longest line can be ridden for about 12 minutes straight (with plans to expand it), during which you get to see most of the settled world (I'll make a video of this at some point when I sort out a peertube account). While constructing this, there arose a need for maintenance stops/waystations with simple amenities at certain stages. Some of these very rural stops that didn't service anything, apart from us constructing the rail, have become very small hamlets/villages. They give that feeling that barely labelled rural train stations have of simultaneous isolation (due to their location and lack of development) and connection (being on a rail line). One of our players stopped at one randomly some day and decided to build a 'mall', I think drawing on those odd large scale suburban outlet malls or strip malls you can find in isolated areas. I know that's not really medieval-ey, but neither are railways and we don't have strict RP rules. You can see a fake advertisement for this mall I made here, or in context at the bottom of our server website's news page. As for the look of these railways, that depends on where they are. In rural areas I will just place the rail on the ground, or place gravel first. In potentially dangerous but commonly travelled areas I will put up fencing either side so it can be used at night. Across desert I elevate them above the ground, as the husks (mummy zombies) spawn during the daytime as well. And in urban areas they usually end up as underground subways to save space.
'Central'-like Station Most real world railway lines are designed around coming to, or going from, one central major city station. This can change over time and often be split across multiple central city hub stations, but usually the original focus is on one. You probably have a major city near you, or live in one, that has a similar system. This is a good starting point for a minecraft railway network too, whether overworld or nether, and it's how our system was designed/built. We centred our 'central' or 'grand central' station at our world spawn, an area of Aridnea City known as 'Citadel'. From Citadel station, players can access our Nether Railway system, our massive inter-settlement 'Grand Overworld Railway', as well as a branch line to a nearby town and two local lines. This is a lot, so here is a link to an edited map depicting these lines running through Aridnea City. I think the idea of coming to or from a central station is quite simple to grasp, and it gives a directional guidance to complicated rail networks ('they all go back to central'). I then have clearly labelled the five platforms now present at Citadel station with their entire list of stops in each direction, and placed relevant town flags (banners) as a further visual aid.
Amenities
Some useful features to add to towns to improve day to day life. These can be altered or scaled up over time, as the town becomes more advanced.
Tunnels Digging tunnels between builds in your town is an easy way to ensure safe nighttime travel before you reach a point where you can wall off and light up the entire above ground area. The tunnels in our spawn town were one of the earliest constructions we did. It adds an element of moving beyond 'just surviving' and more towards actually adapting during the early days of a world/town. As the town grows, so can the tunnel system, and as the town gets more advanced the tunnels can be altered to meet that. They can be repurposed for cargo/transport rail (the space is already dug out), or a water canal (again for direct cargo/transport), or they can become something of an 'under-city' with player homes or shops. This makes me think of the under-city of Taris, the first planet in Knights of the Old Republic (top 5 RPG ever), or like most towns in the Elder Scrolls' Tamriel, as well as many real world instances. You can take inspiration from these, and elsewhere, as to how you style the tunnels after their usefullness has passed. In one of the other towns of our server I built a clandestine 'puffers den' underground, as consuming pufferfish provides an effect that wobbles your vision. Similar nefarious features can add some character to a town.
Workshop/Factory 'Workshop' is an older term for pre-industrialization manufacturing spaces. I tend to use it instead of the word 'Factory' as Minecraft generally seems to sit in a medieval to X-punk (redstone-punk? lmao) fantasy setting. Either way, a large warehouse space that houses machines to make life easier. These can be a central location for auto-farms, larger scale crafting, and 'refining' with numerous smelters and a lava farm. Connect this to a town/inter-settlement railway system, and/or build a dedicated wharf for sea transport. Our Workshop doubles as the world Mining Guild headquarters, and contains our town storage repository, a 'dyery' for colouring leather armour, several auto farm machines (composter, tall crop, oak log, and mud/clay/brick), and bunks for sleeping.
Library Store your books here (again, see the 'Literature' section of Part 1). I make copies of all books and gazettes in our world so that at least one is available in the 'Grand Library' of our spawn town. I also built our town's enchanting room as a section of this library, and I maintain a 'reference' section that archives all out of date books (old town guides). This creates a more immersive place to explore some of the history of our world, seeing the changes from the out of date books, and keeping up with the most recent news/changes and information.
College/University & Other Villager Hubs One of the players in our world built a 'college' just outside their town, as a place to house and train librarian villagers. They now have over two dozen librarians selling very rare enchanted books that allow you to craft highly specialised tools and gear. This is the only build of it's type in our world, so we all have to travel to their town to utilise it, which adds a bit of immersion. They keep any spare books, gained while levelling the villagers, in storage by the entrance. There may be other themed villager specific hubs that one can build like an 'Armoury/Blacksmith' (Armourers/Weaponsmiths/Toolsmiths), Farming communes (Farmers/Shepherds), or Docks (Fishermen).
Apothecary (Medical Clinic) This is another themed villager hub (for Clerics) that we have in our spawn town. It acts as a place to craft and store potions, and their required ingredients. This can be considered a medieval style medical clinic, as potions are the only form of immediate aid/relief in Minecraft. Ours is also built partially underground with access to a nether wart farm and the under-city canals.
Markets & Shops These can be places to display and store wares/gear crafted by players or purchased from villagers. It is a bit more engaging than just having crafted goods in a big storage area. We have a few player run stores in our world, but many more villager staffed shops and market stalls like butchers or fishmongers, and a 'clothes' store with various colours of dyed leather armour. I find these pretty fun to build, and it can create some fake drama when villagers raise their prices and you go looking elsewhere, lmao.
Town Storage Repository I have mentioned this a few times already, but we have a large organised storage area to dump spare blocks into, or reliably acquire them from. We also have a separate 'Plant Depository' that just holds organic matter (plants, saplings, flowers, and related). This type of setup is pretty common, ours is open to all players and located in the spawn town which kinda incentivises people to replenish the stock more.
Guilds & Associations
I touched on this concept briefly in the Iconography section, but guilds and associations can create a medium for information sharing, player interaction, and organic storytelling. I will expand on a few personal examples here.
Guilds These are historically a precursor to 'professional associations' or unions. They typically focus on one concept or 'craft' and provide guidance, information, and standardization. In our world we created three simple guilds; the Adventurer's, Mining, and Merchant's guilds. The banners created for these guilds provide an in-world visual aid that directs players to relevant nearby activities. So the Adventurer's guild flag is hung at Inns, public information hubs, and dungeon-like structures. The Mining guild flag is hung at mine entrances, and large crafting spaces (workshop, forge). And the Merchant's guild flag is hung near trading villagers, farms and our spawn town's Bank (the guild HQ). Creating a system like this can provide an avenue for new types of builds (guild halls) and the space for information sharing/guidance. In larger servers, players could act as Guildmasters, and the concept could be taken further with the creation of guild guidelines/rules or membership requirements. The Guilds page of our server's website has some further info and ideas for the taking.
Businesses We have a few 'chain' stores in our world, which have become a means for friendly/joking rivalry. One of the original three players created a cake bakery called 'Psymart', and built one in his town and the spawn town. Some time later I created a pumpkin pie bakery called 'Good Gourd' and built one in any town that had a Psymart, and more. I also put up not-so-veiled slanderous signs denouncing Psymart at most of the Good Gourds, and continue to make new branches wherever my friend builds Psymarts. I know this is all very specific to us, but you can probably work out a way to implement silly stuff like this in your world.
Inter-Settlement Associations We don't really have any of these, outside of the guilds. Some examples would be; a 'united nations'-like world diplomacy organization, or an alliance/confederation between settlements/regions. This can be inspiration for new iconography (banners) that represent these associations, or new builds across the world (headquarters, embassies).
Sports Leagues Sports are elaborated on at the end of the 'Events & Festivals' section of Part 1, and their arenas will be elaborated on in the 'Entertainment' section below. Establishing leagues and teams for these sports is another way to create harmless and friendly rivalries between players in your world. The only examples I have from my world are dedicated colour coded boat bays at our ice boat raceway, that allows players to claim a colour/boat wood type, and our Spleef league. The Spleef league is local only to our spawn town, it was created more as a testbed for the minigame itself, and consists of only two teams; Citadel and Southwatch. These are two smaller districts of the spawn town, for which I created new flags in the Aridnean style (white saltire over a colour), with Citadel being red and Southwatch being black. We allow players to pick any side to represent and mark their wins on a scoreboard. This has coincidentally led to Southwatch (a very new district) taking a dominant lead, which in a way familiarizes players with that new area of town.
Entertainment
Entertainment infrastructure is one of the more defining features of a town/world that elevates it out of the 'just surviving' phase, building something where it's only function is 'fun'. It is usually an indication of an abundance of resources, advanced construction, and the spare time that comes with these. Keep in mind the size of your server/playerbase when building these, as oversized builds will look empty and may exceed entity render distance (can't see other players/animals). I will overview some entertainment builds we have done.
Arena A more generalized space that can be refitted for different events. This can theoretically be any size or shape, but should be built with specific sports or events in mind. I built a small (because our server is small) circular colloseum style Arena in our spawn town with the original aim of having PVP/gladiatorial fights, but have since converted it for spleef. I have some future ideas to convert it again for other events, especially duing our planned olympic-style games coming up at the end of this year. Our arena has space underneath for 'locker room' style storage for competitors and beds to set spawn points at. It is also connected to three separate rail lines (coincidentally due to it's location).
Circus/Hippodrome Ancient names for a large mixed use event field, although mostly used for mounted racing (horses/camels). These can be used similarly to modern athletics stadiums, with javelin (trident throwing) and other track and field events. I have just recently built one in our spawn town, there was a large empty space with a grandstand shaped hill next to it. I plan to use it for camel racing (will be more fun as they move at a slower speed than horses), and some other sports that need a larger space, like archery. These can be made larger for more entertaining horse racing, and may encourage players to selectively breed/find the fastest horses that they can. All of this can be another contributor to friendly rivalries.
Ice Boat Race Track This can be hard to do unless you have the space. We were lucky enough to have a large glacier right near spawn. We just built a starting post with line markers made of blue ice, small seating area, and individual boat bays. This is a more 'fair' and competitive sport that relies on the skill and experience of each player, as opposed to just having the fastest horse for example.
Public Parks/Sightseeing We have built a number of public parks, and sightseeing points of interest, throughout our world. They can be a nice way to maintain natural beauty in and around towns, and can be made to memorialise people or events to add to your personal worldbuilding. As an example; my friend built a 'Memorial' in our spawn town to the first realm we had, prior to this save file, that was lost to save corruption somehow.
Gonna end this post here, and come back later with a part 3 that covers deeper world lore and external communication. Might be a bit until I can get the spare time to complete that. Hope this stuff is helpful :)